The Sometime Sister by Katherine Nichols (e novels for free .TXT) 📗

peace descended, and the crowd grew quiet. We had been a part of something beyond ourselves, something that obliterated thoughts of where I was and why I’d come. But as the final chord faded, and the last firework split the heavens, Stella came to me, her face lit with the wonder of it.

Silent again, we returned to the hotel. In the glass elevator, I searched the night sky for a trace of color but only found a brilliant spray of stars. When we reached our floor, Justin spoke. “I was hoping we might finish going through Stella’s letters. I have a bad feeling about sending you to Ben without looking at the rest of them. If you’re okay with it, let’s read them tonight, unless you’d rather do it by yourself.”

I didn’t want to do it alone. Seeing her precise handwriting made my heart ache. After two unsuccessful swipes, my key card worked. I stepped inside and gasped. The comforter and blankets lay in a tangled pile on the floor. Blank index cards were scattered everywhere, and drawers had been tossed on the bed. My computer bag was upside down, empty except for the dangling power cord.

“You okay in there?” Justin called from the hallway. When I couldn’t find my voice, he rushed in. “Holy shit!”

We stopped and stared at the mess before he took a few tentative steps. He waved me back when I started to follow. “Don’t touch anything before we call the cops and hotel security.

I didn’t need a bunch of men in uniforms to tell me what the thieves had taken. Other than my laptop, the only things missing were our stack of notes and my sister’s letters.

Chapter 18

It was after two before the investigation wrapped up. I had been right about the stolen items. The officers were unconcerned about the letters and offered little hope of recovering my laptop. Only the hotel manager was disturbed by the break-in. He insisted his system was the best in South America, and he trusted his staff implicitly. Having seen the living conditions of the people who resided near the property, I imagined it would be easy for a person to bribe one of those employees.

After the authorities left, I sat on the freshly done bed. Justin joined me.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take the manager up on that offer to change rooms? It’s not like they’ll come back. They got what they wanted. But wouldn’t you sleep better somewhere else?”

“I am not giving Ben the satisfaction of knowing how freaked out I am.”

“You understand, your ex might not have done this, right?”

“How could anyone even know I had the letters? And why would they want them?”

“We can’t be sure who Rhett is. Whoever he is, he might not be the only one she was seeing. And I doubt she mailed them herself.”

I thought of Eva. Had she betrayed my sister to Ben? Or was she working for someone else who wished Stella harm?

“Either way, I’m not leaving this room.” Mostly because I felt as if a leaden chain was twisting around my body, squeezing the air from me.

“Then I’m staying with you,” he announced. “No argument. It’s not safe for you to be alone.”

Too drained to put up a fight, I accepted the offer. And although I hated to admit it, I was glad I wouldn’t be alone.

After brushing my teeth and washing my face, I slipped into a T-shirt and a loose-fitting pair of gym shorts. While I was in the bathroom, Justin found an extra pillow and blanket and was lying on the sofa bed looking at his phone.

“Whoever broke in was sharp enough to take our note cards, but I can have the pictures printed and blown up.”

“If hadn’t been such a baby, I would have gotten through all the letters, and we’d have a better idea why they were stolen.”

“Don’t beat yourself up. If you rushed through them, you might have missed something. And if we hadn’t read them in order, they wouldn’t have made sense.”

“But now I’ll never find out what Stella went through in her last days.” Those letters were the only remaining piece of my sister, and they were gone.

“We’re not finished, Grace. There are other ways.”

Was “other ways” code for beating the information out of Ben? Before I could decide if I wanted to know, he shut off the lights.

“Since we have to be up in a few hours, let’s try to get some rest.”

Light from the hallway outlined his body as he stood and slipped out of his shirt. The springs squeaked when he sat, and the change in his pockets jingled when he tossed his pants on the floor.

Before I wished him good night, his breathing settled into the rhythm of sleep. I’ve always marveled at how quickly men fall asleep. I lay staring at the ceiling, thinking about how much had changed. Stella’s death created a void that I hadn’t had a chance to acknowledge. In a little over a week, I catapulted from my safe world into a strange and dangerous land. Once angry and bitter, I had become burdened with a sorrow I never imagined.

And now I was sharing a room with a man I barely knew but had entrusted with my life.

Chapter 19

At 6:30, the hotel alarm jolted me from a disturbing dream about Uncle Roy. All I could recall was Stella standing behind him, her fingers to her lips. The reason for her insistence on silence seemed important but eluded me.

Justin had toothpaste-glued a note to the bathroom mirror.

 

“I don’t think I’ve ever spent the night with a woman who snores as loud as you. See you at breakfast.”

“Ha, ha,” I said, before stepping into the shower. I gave my hair the usual fluff and dry and spackled the dark circles under my eyes with extra concealer. I packed most of my things after the police left, so I made it to the lobby at 7:15. The