Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 120186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
“I hope nobody expects us to send flowers to the funeral.”
“Be serious for a minute.” He asks the question I know is weighing on his mind. “Did you do it?”
“I have other things going on.” I hear her humming in there. She’s happy. She’d better be after coming as hard as she did. “Better things.”
“Well, somebody wanted them eliminated. I doubt it was Lowry, so who else do we think would’ve done it?”
All I can do is remember Emma’s fury when I found those footprints. Would she? Could she? “How would I know?”
“You’re sure you didn’t do a favor for your new family?”
I don’t know what pisses me off more. The insinuation that I’ve changed teams or the balls it took to ask. “Can you do me a favor and not sound so much like a sanctimonious prick?”
“Do you know you always get defensive when you’re guilty of something?”
“Watch your mouth.”
“You should watch yours. I didn’t call to start shit with you.” All I can do is scoff at that. Am I supposed to believe it? “It’s more of a warning. If you didn’t do it, and you don’t think Emma is behind it, then there’s somebody else out there.”
It was probably Emma, of course. All it took was finding out her little girl could’ve been killed to bring out the ferocious beast inside. She had to have it in her—something attracted her to Roman in the first place.
“She’s probably behind it,” I murmur, stepping out into the hall, looking in both directions in case someone is listening nearby. It doesn’t seem that way. “That’s her business.”
“Just watch your back in case you’re wrong,” Calder warns.
“Got it. And thanks for your confidence in me. It always means so much.”
“Fuck off,” he says with a sigh before three beeps signal the end of the call.
Perfect timing, since Allie calls out, “Are you coming in, or what?”
Right. I have somebody waiting for me. Strange, even unthinkable, but I’m not in the mood anymore. Calder has me wondering. Does Emma have it in her to put a hit out?
Instead of yelling back so the housekeeper might hear, I step into the bathroom and close the door behind me. She’s shampooing her hair, tits swaying, looking like temptation personified. Why did he have to call when he did?
“That was Calder. There’s a rumor around town that a pair of men were found dead in the woods.” Pausing, I add, “Calder found out it’s the two guys from Utah. Lowry’s men.”
She spins around so fast, suds fly from the ends of her hair. “What? They were murdered?”
“It looks that way.”
She lowers her arms and stares at me through the glass for a beat or two before backing up under the water and letting it run over her hair. “Did you do it?”
The way she says it, all calm and matter-of-fact, makes me laugh. And almost proud. “Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know. Who else would have?”
It’s her casual tone. Like she expected this, or at least isn’t surprised. Either way, I bristle at the question. “Wait a minute. Let’s get this straight. My family isn’t the only one with resources.”
She opens her eyes, blinking water away. “You’re not serious. You think Mom…”
“Yeah, that’s what I think.”
“She wouldn’t do that.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“She just wouldn’t.” Allie turns off the water and opens the door, reaching for the towel hanging on the other side. “That’s just not her.”
“You can’t be that naive.” After everything that’s happened, she can’t let go of her childish ideas. “You saw the way she was on the phone the night I found the footprints out there. She was ready to rip somebody’s head off if it meant protecting you.”
“No way.” It’s not so much that she wants to defend her mom. I can understand that. It’s how disgusted she sounds at the idea. Like she’s above that kind of thing when we both know she isn’t.
She steps out of the shower, a towel wrapped around her chest, beads of water rolling down her skin. It’s the kind of thing that would make me bend her over if I was in a different mood. A better mood. Now, with my blood starting to pump faster, I hardly notice. “So you would rather it was me who did it than your mom? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Don’t put words in my mouth. I didn’t say that.”
“No, but it’s what you mean. It’s fine to keep me around like your little guard dog, looking after you. But let your mom make a phone call, and it’s the end of the world. You can’t accept it.”
“It’s just that I know she wouldn’t.”
“But I would? It would be that easy for me?”
“Get real.” She has the nerve to laugh, and the sound echoes, stabbing my eardrums. “I’m not trying to be insulting, but we both know…” Her face falls. She knows she’s said too much. Too late for that now. My blood’s already pumping faster. Hotter. The night she told me we had to end things and everything that happened after comes rushing back. All the resentment. It wasn’t gone—it never went anywhere. I only locked it away and pretended it never existed.