An Inner Darkness Book 5 Bay City paranormal

smile. “Never say anything in front of Sean unless you want everyone to know about it.” Bo swayed and leaned against Sam’s shoulder. “Janine, please. You can’t take them away from me. I’m their father. They need me.” Janine stalked out onto the porch, eyes snapping. “What they need , you arrogant prick, is to be free of all the bullshit you’ve been feeding them.” She pointed behind her, 150
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An Inner Darkness
    into the empty foyer. “Adrian is terrified of sleeping in his own room. Sean runs away crying every time Adrian gets the least bit angry. Why do you think that is, huh? Because they weren’t like that until you two sick fucks put these insane ideas in their heads.”

    “There’s no need for name-calling.” Sam gave himself a mental pat on the back for managing to sound calm in spite of his rising anger.
    “Sick. Fucks,” she repeated, stabbing a finger at each of them in turn. “If you think it’s easy for me to tell my sons they can’t see their father anymore, you are sadly mistaken. I don’t want to do this. You two are forcing my hand.” Bo stared at her. Sam could practically see the wheels turning in his head, trying to find a way out of the mess they’d found themselves in. “Come to the office,” Bo said.
    “I’ll show you the vid—”
He stopped, eyes widening in realization of what he’d almost said. Sam bit his lip.
He couldn’t meet Janine’s gaze.
“The video you took here, in my house, while I was gone?” she finished for him.
    “The video you tried to keep secret from me? Yes, Adrian told me you were here, when he was begging me once again to go live with you. I don’t need to see your video to know there are no monsters in my home other than the ones you’ve planted in my children’s imaginations.” An idea struck Sam, and he went with it. “Did you talk to Lee about this? He was here. He knows that what happened was real.”
    “Yes, I’ve talked to Lee.” She spat the name like it was poisonous. “You’ll excuse me if I don’t give anything he says too much credence right now.” Her gaze met Sam’s for a moment. She looked away quickly, but not before Sam saw the hurt in her eyes. He couldn’t find it in him to feel sorry for her, but he felt a stab of guilt for having put Lee in the position of betraying Janine’s trust. Lee had been a huge help to them, and thus to Adrian, and didn’t deserve whatever hell Janine had probably put him through in the past few days.
    “Lee was only trying to help,” Bo told her. “Don’t take it out on him.” www.samhainpublishing.com 151
Ally Blue
    “Oh yeah, I’m really going to take relationship advice from a man who strung me along for years , then ran off to shack up with some slut. Serves you right that he’s fucking around behind your back, after what you did to me.” Janine’s gaze cut to Sam.
    Her eyes glittered with malice. “I caught him making out with that pretty boy in your office, right there out front where anyone could see.” It didn’t matter that Bo already knew precisely what Janine had seen, what it was and what it wasn’t. The fury which had been simmering in Sam’s chest boiled over. “Hey, if you call a hug between friends ‘making out’, what would you call it when a wife propositions her husband’s friends for sex?” He couldn’t help the smirk that spread across his face when Janine turned dead white. “Oh, but I’m sure you wouldn’t know anything about that.”
    Bo glanced from Sam to Janine and back again. His expression was blank as a mask, but the pain of Janine’s betrayal—ancient history though it might be—shone in his eyes.
    “Janine? Is this true?”
She stumbled backward through the open door and into the foyer, her gaze glued to the floor. “Get out.”
“No, Janine, wait, just—” Bo stopped, cursing, when the door slammed shut.
    Shaking off Sam’s arm, he stalked forward and rapped on the door. “Janine. Come on, it doesn’t matter anymore if you… It doesn’t matter. It took both of us to destroy our marriage. Just please come back out and let’s talk.”

    “No,” she called through the door. “Now get the fuck off my porch or I’m calling the police.”

    Sam laid a tentative hand on Bo’s shoulder. “Come on, Bo. Let’s just leave.” Bo shook him off again. “I’m not leaving.” He pounded the door with his fist.

    “Janine, goddammit. Don’t do this.”
    Sam glanced behind him,