Read Goodbye Arizona for Free Online Page B

Deb got it. He was waiting her out. Every single time they argued, she was the one to explode, the one to storm off, and the one to come back. And then they started again along the same lines, until the next gale. Her shoulders stiffened. “I think … I think we should go on with that break we agreed on in Frisco.”
    Even that didn’t bring anything more than a blink. Deb looked away and flipped her hand in the air to invite him to move. He stood his ground. “Oh no, not this time, sugar. That’s the easy way out. I have had enough.”
    She glowered. Marcus glared back, closing the distance between them as slowly as a cat moving in on its prey.
    “I’ve done your will for years, Deb. However reckless your request is, I go for it. You wanted a tattoo, so we both got one. You wanted to ‘get in shape’ so I went with you to that marathon boot camp. You wanted to elope to Vegas so we did, no matter the grief it caused to my family.”
    She refused to talk about Vegas. Vegas was a mistake. A stupid, cherished mistake. “You like running,” Deb countered.
    “No, I really don’t. But, as always, I indulged you. Every single thing I did in my life I did for you.”
    Deb crossed her arms over her chest. “Even San Francisco, I presume? You threw me out for my sake?”
    “No, that was the first selfish thing I did in a very long time.”
    She sniggered. Marcus added. “Now that I think about it, though, I wonder. Would you have stayed, and faced me in the morning?”
    Deb swallowed hard, as some truths dawned on her. In all those years, he had said yes more often than no . He argued, he grouched, he even called her names sometimes, but in the end, he went her way and he was there to cushion her falls. Anger frayed in guilty threads.
    Marcus took another step forward. “Do I avoid answering some questions when I feel the answer is going to hurt you? Yes. Do I dismiss your reckless, childish schemes before they blow up in your face? Hell, yes. I’ll protect you against yourself if I have to. Deb, look at me…” He cupped her face with both hands, cooling her cheeks with a caress. “What’s happening here is far above our heads. It’s not a tug-of-war, bicker-and-make-up-later-no-harm-no-foul game this time. People are getting hurt. I feel—I think I’m partly responsible for it. Please. Listen to me, this one time. Then we’ll talk about the future, like adults. Please.”
    She sighed. “Fine. I’m going to the spa.”
    “The bar is safer.”
    “Don’t push your luck. I’m going to the spa, and I’ll have a massage while waiting for you like an obedient trophy wife.”
    Marcus gave in with a chuckle and kissed her forehead. “That, you’re definitely not.”
    ****
    Marcus climbed the stairs two steps at a time. The exertion did little to quiet the nasty replay in his head. The accusations she’d hurled at him still stung, mostly because he was forced to rub her nose in her own dirt.
    For better or worse, he couldn’t dwell on it now. He gave it fifteen minutes—twenty tops—before Deb decided she wasn’t going to wait after all, and started piecing this particular puzzle together. She was too smart not to ask herself the right questions, and once she did… He wanted to ask his own questions before she stormed in.
    He reached the third floor and entered the corridor, slightly out of breath.
    Deb’s door was open. One glance sufficed to explain Baxter’s hesitation when the beautiful brunette had asked to see her room. The mattress, the sofas, every cushion had been ripped apart. Pieces of electronics and glass from the smashed flat screen covered the carpet. The lamps fared little better, their shades torn or broken. The rest of the furniture was either scarred by vengeful scratches or stained with some kind of ink or maybe it was dark polish. The same substance marred the wallpaper.
    Marcus saw red as he read the obscenities scribbled all around the room. “Son of a bitch!”
    The employee who