A Grant County Collection Read Online Free PDF Page B

finally get away.
    'Lena?' Ethan said, as if a sixth sense told him she was thinking about leaving. 'I love you so much, baby.' His voice grew even softer. 'Come see me tonight. I'll make us dinner, maybe get some wine . . .?'
    'I missed my period last month.'
    He sucked in air and her only regret was that she could not see his expression.
    'That's not funny.'
    'You think I'm joking?' she asked. 'I'm three weeks late.'
    Finally, he came up with 'Stress can do that, right?'
    'So can sperm.'
    He was quiet, his breathing the only noise on the line.
    She forced something that sounded like a laugh. 'Still love me, baby?'
    His voice was tight and controlled. 'Don't be like that.'
    'Lookit,' she said, wishing that she had never even mentioned it to him. 'Don't worry, okay? I'll take care of it.'
    'What does that mean?'
    'It means what it means, Ethan. If I'm . . .' She couldn't even say the word. 'If something's happened, I'll take care of it.'
    'You can't –'
    The phone beeped, and Lena had never been so thankful for call-waiting in her life. 'I've got to get this. I'll see you around.' She clicked the phone to the other call before Ethan could say anything else.
    'Lee?' a raspy voice said. Lena suppressed a groan, thinking she would have been better off sticking with Ethan.
    'Hey, Hank.'
    'Happy birthday, girl!'
    She smiled before she caught herself.
    'Didja get my card?'
    'Yeah,' she told her uncle. 'Thanks.'
    'You get yourself something nice?'
    'Yeah,' Lena repeated, tugging the jacket back into place. Hank's two hundred dollars could have been better spent on groceries or her car payment, but Lena had splurged for once. Today was an important day. She was a cop again.
    Her cell phone rang, and she saw from the caller ID that it was Ethan, calling on his cell phone. He was still holding on call-waiting.
    Hank said, 'You need to get that?'
    'No,' she told him, turning off the phone mid-ring and tucking it into her jacket pocket. She opened the bedroom door and walked into the hallway as Hank started his usual birthday story about how the day Lena and her twin sister, Sibyl, came to live with him was the happiest day of his life. She stopped in the bathroom, checking herself in the mirror again. She had dark circles under her eyes, but the tinted foundation she'd used helped take care of the problem. Nothing could be done about the deep purple gash on her bottom lip where she had bitten down too hard and split it.
    A picture of Sibyl was tucked into the frame of the mirror. It had been taken a month or so before she was killed, and though Lena wanted to remove the photograph, this wasn't her house. As she did almost every morning, Lena compared the picture of her twin to her own reflection in the mirror, not liking what she saw. When Sibyl died, they had appeared almost completely identical. Now Lena's cheeks were hollow and her dark hair wasn't as thick or shiny. She looked a hell of a lot older than thirty-three, but it was the hardness in her eyes more than anything else that gave her that appearance. Her skin didn't glow like it used to, but Lena was hoping to get that back. She was running every day and doing free weights at the gym with Ethan almost every night.
    Call-waiting beeped again, and Lena gritted her teeth, wishing she hadn't said anything to Ethan about her period. She had never been regular, but neither had she ever been this late. Maybe it was because she was working out so much, training to get ready for the job again. The last six weeks had been like preparing for a marathon. And then, Ethan was right about stress. She was under a lot of stress lately. She had been under a lot of stress for the last two years.
    Lena pressed her hand to her eyes. She wasn't going to think about it. Last year, a pretty good shrink had told her that sometimes denial could be a good thing. Today was definitely a good day to pull a Scarlett O'Hara. She would think about it tomorrow. Shit, maybe she wouldn't think about it until