Before he Kills (A Mackenzie White Mystery—Book 1) by Blake Pierce

one.
But honestly, feeling exhausted and on edge, she decided on a cup of peppermint
tea instead.
    As she waited for the kettle to boil, Mackenzie
walked into the bedroom and changed clothes. She had overlooked dinner and was
suddenly faced with the fact that there was very little in the house to eat.
She hadn’t been grocery shopping in a while and she knew damn good and well
that Zack hadn’t thought to do it.
    When she had changed into gym shorts and
a T-shirt, she walked back out to the enticing whistle of the tea kettle. As
she poured the water over the bag, she heard the muted gunfire from Zack’s
game. Curious and wanting to at least broach the topic to see how he’d respond,
she was unable to keep her frustration to herself.
    “What did you do for dinner?” she asked.
    “Haven’t eaten yet,” he said, not
bothering to look away from the television. “Were you going to make something?”
    She glared at the back of his head and,
for a moment, wondered what Ellington was doing. She doubted that he played videogames like some loser locked in his childhood. She waited a moment,
letting her rage pass, and then took a step into the living room.
    “No, I’m not making anything. What have
you been doing all afternoon?”
    She could hear his sigh even over the
explosions from the game. Zack paused the game and finally turned to look at
her. “And just what in the hell is that supposed to mean?”
    “It was just a question,” she said. “I
asked what you had been doing this afternoon. If you hadn’t been playing your
little game, maybe you could have made dinner. Or at the very least picked up a
pizza or something.”
    “I’m sorry,” he said, sarcastically and
with volume. “How am I supposed to know when you’re going to get home? You
never communicate that stuff with me.”
    “Well, call and ask,” she snapped.
    “What the hell for?” Zack asked,
dropping the controller and getting to his feet. “The few times I do bother calling you at work, the call goes straight to your voicemail and you
never call me back.”
    “That’s because I’m working, Zack,” she said.
    “I work, too,” he said. “I bust my ass
at that damn factory. You have no idea how hard I work.”
    “Yes, I do,” she said. “But tell me this:
when was the last time you saw me just sitting on my ass? I come home and I’m
usually faced with your dirty clothes on the floor or dirty dishes in the sink.
And you know what, Zack? I work hard, too. I work damn hard and I have
to see shit on a day-to-day basis that would make you crumble. I don’t need to
come home to a little boy playing video games and asking what we’re having for
dinner.”
    “ Little boy? ” he asked, nearly
shouting now.
    Mackenzie hadn’t meant to go that far,
but there it was. It was a plain and simple truth she’d been holding in for
months now and now that it was out, she felt relieved.
    “That’s how it seems sometimes,” she
said.
    “You bitch.”
    Mackenzie shook her head and took a step
back. “You have three seconds to take that back,” she said.
    “Oh, go to hell,” Zack said, coming
around the couch and approaching her. She could tell he wanted to get in her
face, but he knew better than to do that. He knew that she could easily take
him in a fight; it was something that he had no problem telling her whenever he
vented about things that made him unhappy in their relationship.
    “Excuse me?” Mackenzie asked, almost
hoping that he’d get aggressive and get in her face. And as she felt that, she
felt something else with absolutely clarity: their relationship was over.
    “You heard me,” he said. “You’re not
happy, and neither am I. It’s been that way for a while, Mackenzie. And quite
frankly, I’m tired of putting up with it. I’m tired of coming second and I know I can’t compete with your work.”
    She said nothing, not wanting to say
anything else to provoke him. Maybe she’d get lucky and this argument would be
over