Buried Secrets (New Adult Dark Suspense Romance) by Emme Rollins Read Free Book Online Page A

muffled.
    No wonder her father had been walking around like a dead man for the past three days.
    He had seen Nick, had “identified the body.”
    What was left of it.
    “I’m sorry,” Buck murmured. She felt his hand on her shoulder, but barely. She couldn’t feel anything but the stabbing pain in her heart, like someone had twisted a butcher knife in her chest and left it there.
    “Just go!” Shane’s voice rumbled, a low growl against her ear.
    She didn’t know if Buck followed his direction and didn’t care. She was wrapped in the cocoon of Shane’s arms. He sat with her on his lap, rocking, murmuring something, but the words didn’t matter. They weren’t coming through. Her head filled with a raw, primal scream, like the rising wail of a siren, over and over. It drowned out everything else.
    It wasn’t until Julia appeared in the doorway, eyes wide, that Dusty realized the screaming wasn’t in her head. It was coming out of her, from somewhere deep in her belly, a keening wail.
    “Shane Curtis, what did you do?” Julia stood with her hands on her hips, aghast. “Go! Leave! Go home!”
    He sighed, Dusty heard him, felt his breath against her cheek. She tried to protest but the words wouldn’t come. She could barely catch her breath. There was a whispered, “I’m sorry,” before his lips brushed her cheek and he eased her into the chair. She pitched forward, arms on the table, pushing pies and casserole dishes to the edge. She buried her face, wanting to hide from everything, everyone.
    The door opened behind her and then closed softly, and still she couldn’t move. The kitchen was silent except for Dusty’s hitching breath. When she finally looked up, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, she saw Julia filling up a tray with stuffed mushrooms. Her stepmother’s mouth was small, eyes averted, but she must have sensed Dusty looking at her, because she began to speak.
    “You should get yourself together and go in and say hello now. There are a few of Nick’s friends and Suzanne is here. I’m sure they could use someone more their age to talk to.” Julia’s voice dropped a little. “I imagine we won’t be seeing much of Shane Curtis anymore, do you?”
    Get rid of a son, get rid of his friends—is that the way it works?
    “Why don't you come pass these out? I could use the help.” Julia turned to face her and frowned. “You really don't look well. Are you all right?”
    She stared at her stepmother, incredulous.
    Yeah, I’m great. We buried my brother about two hours ago, you’re having a party and passing out hors d’oevres and you want me to play hostess. I’m just fan-fucking-tastic.
    “I'm okay.” Dusty swallowed past something stuck in her throat, voice still hoarse from crying. There was no acknowledgement of her pain, none at all. “I'll be there in a minute. This dress is a little uncomfortable. I'm going to change first.”
    “Okay.” Julia picked the tray up. “Don't be too long.”
    “I won't.”
    Dusty took the Twizzlers with her and climbed the stairs, her whole body aching. She turned right when she came to the top, as she always did, in the direction of her room—and Nick's. She realized she would have to pass it and was suddenly, inexplicably afraid. She walked slowly, breathing shallow, looking neither left nor right, focusing only on the door to her room at the end of the hall.
    His door was open. Of course. He kept his door open all the time and he would have left it open when he went out that night. She sped up when she reached his door, passing quickly, almost as if she thought she would be burned by the light spilling from his room into the hallway.
    She sighed when she reached her own room, closing the door behind her, tossing the Twizzlers on her dresser. Her room was just as she had left it before the funeral, bed unmade, clothes tried on and discarded still scattered around the room. She peeled off the black dress and threw it on the floor