Deeper Than Need by Shiloh Walker Page B

to, but she had no idea what was supposed to happen. The body had only been found yesterday and so much of the day had passed in a surreal blur—the police had obtained a search warrant; they’d searched the house, her property.
    Her house. This place that was supposed to be her and Micah’s haven. A place where they could start over.
    Her home. Their home.
    There had been a body buried under the floor, from the day she moved in.
    “Longer,” she whispered.
    She had no idea how long that … person … had been buried under the floor of her house, but her gut whispered that body had been down there awhile. A very long while.
    How long had the body been there? Just waiting to be discovered?
    Stop it, Trinity.
    Part of her wanted to grab Micah and take off running. Back to New York, maybe. Or somewhere else. Somewhere different. She could do it. Her dad would give her the money.
    Rising from the bed, she moved to the window and stared out over the small town of Madison. From the window she could just barely make out Main Street, and despite the desire to leave, run hard and fast, the bigger part of her looked at the town and thought, Home.
    She thought of Noah.
    That odd little click.
    No. She couldn’t leave.
    Even aside from the fact that she felt like this was where she belonged, she’d never just run away from a single thing in her life. Even when she’d wanted to run away from the problems in New York—with Micah’s father—she hadn’t. She’d waited until it was finished, until it was done, and then she’d started over. Clean slate.
    Leaving now? That would be running and she just couldn’t do it. She’d handled all the tough shit in New York. She could handle this.
    Sighing, she brushed her hair back from her face and turned away from the window.
    The cops would finish up their job. Whether they found out who had been buried under her home or not, this wouldn’t affect her. This tragedy, however awful it was, wasn’t her tragedy.
    She could go back home. Get on with her life.
    Get on with her plan of getting her life on-track.
    But … since she couldn’t work on the house today, maybe not for a lot of days, it was time to work on the next step. Finding a job. While the money she had in the bank was definitely there to fall back on, she didn’t want to raid it any more than necessary.
    She had a small online business that she did in her spare time and it was doing okay … as in she no longer had to keep sinking her own money into it to keep it going. But okay didn’t do much in the way of buying groceries or clothes or much of anything else just yet.
    So … a job.
    *   *   *
    “There’s not exactly a surplus of jobs here in Madison,” Ali said, grimacing. “Sometimes we need delivery drivers at our place, but not often.”
    As the other woman slid into a chair across from Trinity, she asked, “What can you do?”
    “I’ve done a little bit of everything,” she said, shrugging. “Worked at a Starbucks in college. Did office work.” She licked her lips, debated saying anything, and then went ahead. “I majored in advertising in college, worked with my dad’s firm for the most part.”
    Shooting Ali another glance, Trinity smiled. “I have some decent computer skills, though. Worked as a receptionist off and on while I was going through school, for the first year or so, although I never really received formal training in that area.”
    “Well, I’m not sure how much advertising-type stuff there is around here. I doubt anybody can pay what you might be used to.” Ali winced a little and shrugged. “Sorry, I’m not trying to be rude. But I’ve seen your car. Your clothes. Your purses, which I kind of want. Really bad. Working for your dad’s firm, well, I don’t think that’s going to be quite the same as working in Madison.”
    “I’m not looking for anything like what I did in New York.” Trinity smiled even though in the back of her head she was thinking, That’s