“You are.” He stood up and came around the bed at her. “You’re not dressed yet. If
we hurry, I can take you to your bed at the house and make love to you before the shit
hits the fan here.”
Kenton was joking, she knew that, but she reached for him. When he held her,
pulling her body to his, things seemed to flow around her but not touch her as badly
this time. Fear and love didn’t necessarily cancel each other out, but they did make
them feel less overwhelming for a moment or two.
“I’m afraid.” Kenton told her that he had her and that he was never going to let her
go, not ever. “While we’re there, maybe we can see if we can open the safe Douglas said
was there. And see what we want to do with the place.”
“All right. And Vance suggested that we have someone come out and change the
locks on the house. Grady has some of his shifter buddies going out now to make sure
that when we arrive, we’re all alone.” Emma thanked him. “They love you, you know
that, right? My brothers and my mom, they’d do anything to keep you safe.”
“I love them as well.” She laid her head on Kenton’s chest and listened to his heart
beating. Dragon, too, was there, the heat of him seeming to lull her into some kind of
comfort she’d not had before. Looking up at Kenton, she told him that she would love
him forever.
As they left the hotel, she thought of her mother. She was in some serious shit right
now, and Emma hoped she got a front row seat to it all.
~~~
Anderson wanted to look her best. Her story, why she was just showing up, the
best she’d ever heard, was ready and she was sure that no one was going to have a dry
eye in the place when she told it. By the time that she was going to tell the world where
she’d been and why, her daughter was going to be dead, along with her lover and his
entire family. Sadly, they were moving in front of the line of fire and were killed
needlessly. Even her daddy was going to be caught up in the cross-fire. All in one
smooth move, she thought.
“You look beautiful.” Anderson turned and smiled at Steward. He was going to be
dead soon too. He’d become a liability to her in that she wasn’t into sharing her wealth
with anyone. Then there was the added fact that she’d found herself another lover, one
that took his time with her first and had a dick worth having slammed up in her. Just as
soon as they entered the courthouse, Steward was going to die. His body, dead and
bleeding, would be the first of many that would be running on the news tonight.
“People are going to wonder how you have a daughter as old as Emma.”
“I have good genes.” They both laughed. “You made sure that Daddy knew about
the wedding today too, right? I bet he’s loading his guns up right now, ready to kill
them all. It’s really too bad that he won’t get to use them the way he wants. I’m hoping
that I get to see him one more time before he dies, just to tell him what a fool he’s been.”
“I made sure he knew about it, anyway. He has as many people working for him as
I do, if not a little more. Also, you should try really hard to not smile like you know
something before we get there. Remember, you’re going there to claim your inheritance
now that your evil bastard of a husband is finally dead and you no longer have to be in
hiding.” Anderson nodded. “And try not to look too terribly pleased when your
daughter is killed. It won’t play well with the press. I think you should carry a box of
tissues with you. That way if you feel the need to gloat, you can hide it with one of
them.”
“I know that. And I have a lovely hanky that I had specially made for this dress and
the one that I’m going to go to their funeral in. It’s beautiful, and I almost hate wearing
it to that sort of thing.” Anderson had it all planned out. It had taken her hours of
practicing in front of her mirror to get the right expression down. And falling too. To
faint with class was something that she thought she had perfected. “You know to say
you knew nothing about any of this, right? You didn’t say anything to anyone, did
you?”
“No. Just to Baldwin about the wedding. And I made sure that there was a paper
trail of me telling him. I know that all my files and shit drove him crazy, but a man has
to have his tracks covered in the event that things go south fast. Baldwin didn’t seem all
that excited to have not just the date but the exact time that he could go in and avenge
your death. But he has it.” She had heard that before. Her father seemed to be
distracted, Steward had told her. Anderson was sure he was just getting old and had
told him to forget it. But apparently he had not. She wanted to point it out again but he
started talking again. “I looked for your father’s will while I was there the last time.
Either he mislaid it again or he’s put it in his files. I didn’t have time to look there before
he came into the office. I thought for sure that he’d left the house, and nearly didn’t
know what to say when he asked me what I was doing.”
“We need to find that will so I can make sure that he didn’t change it. You have
been most unhelpful in that department. But he wouldn’t have changed it, I know that.
My father thinks he is going to live forever.” He’d told her that often enough when
she’d been living at home. That he’d made a pact with the devil and was never going to
leave this earth until he had every penny he could lay his hands on. “The only reason
he made a will in the first place was because I made him. I even wrote out all the things
that he was to leave me when he passed. He’d never get it right. The man was forever
forgetting to put the lid on the juice container in the refrigerator. Daddy is the most
absent-minded person I know.”
Laughing to herself, Anderson knew that every word out of her mouth just now
was a lie. Her father was the sharpest man she had ever known. He knew where things
were when she moved them without his knowledge, and would remember names of
people that he’d worked with decades ago. But he loved her. And in that, he would
never want to change his will to even think that his little girl was gone. It was what she
was counting on.
“His limo is picking him up in an hour. The ceremony begins ten minutes before he
gets there. I’m timing it so that he makes a grand entrance and a final death scene all in
one. I’m going to be standing outside the courthouse steps waiting on him too.”
Anderson tried not to be excited about the death of the two men in her life, and was
almost afraid to speak for fear of giving it away. Instead of speaking, Anderson sort of
half listened as Steward gave her a rundown of his plans.
Her passport was ready to go with her new name. There were two credit cards with
her name on them as well, and as soon as the money was deposited in her new
identity’s account, she was going to go on a shopping spree that would last a week.
After that, if she wanted to, she was going to have her new house outfitted the way she
had always dreamed of, and then she’d find her a rich old man to marry and drain him
dry as well. Maryanne Cantrell was going to be one of the wealthiest women in the
world when Anderson was finished with her. And she’d be the hit of every party
around. Maryanne was going to be making up for all the shit that Anderson hadn’t
been able to do while she’d been in hiding.
“Do you know what the holdup is on Bartholomew’s money? I thought by now
someone would have said something about it.” Steward said he was still looking for the
lawyer on that one. The one that her husband had used for other things said he’d never
been involved in that part of Bartholomew’s personal life. “Well, the sooner we get that
settled the faster we can get out of town when this is done. Emma hasn’t been told
anything either, as far as I know. I asked her about it just yesterday morning, and even
though she was only half answering me, she did say that as far as she knew the will had
not been settled yet. She said that she’d let me know when she knew something
important.”
Her daughter. Anderson had never really liked being a mother. And especially one
to Emma. She looked a great deal like Anderson, but also bore a striking resemblance to
Bartholomew. Emma was also more beautiful than Anderson had ever been or would
ever be. It was another reason she had to go.
Bart, she knew, wasn’t Bartholomew’s. She’d take that bit of information to her
grave. The man she’d been having an affair with had been a pretty good lover, but he’d
been stupid and had pissed her off. Killing him in a fit of rage had been dumb on her
part, but there were no witnesses to his demise, and Bartholomew had raised Bart as his
own. Which was good for all those around. She wondered for a moment how much he
would have gotten had he lived, and smiled at the thought of how much dear Bart had
missed out on.
“I guess I should have tried harder to find the will while he was alive. I mean, for
all we know, the safe could hold a new will that leaves you nothing.” Anderson asked
him why he’d say something like that to her today of all days. “You ever find the
combination? If you had looked harder and not been practicing your grief, we might
have a better idea what he bought the thing for. As it stands right now, you have this
enormous steel trap in your home, and for all you know, it could hold the whereabouts
of everybody you ever killed.”
Anderson didn’t say anything. She wanted to pull a gun and blow Steward’s
fucking head off, but bit her lip to keep from screaming at him. It was getting harder
and harder by the minute to be around this man. She was glad that today was going to
be the last.
She went to put on her shoes and realized that she’d not brought them. This would
simply not do, she thought.
“I don’t know why it matters,” Steward told her when she said she had the wrong
shoes. “Just wear those. They’re black. They’ll go with everything. Do you really think
that anyone is going to be looking at your feet right now?”
“I will not wear black shoes with a blue dress. What is wrong with you? Do you not
realize how much time I’ve gone into with this outfit? It says beautiful without being
too over stated. My shoes complete it. Now run to the house and get them. The blue
ones.” He stared at her, and she thought that his quick death wasn’t going to be
enough. “Well, what are you waiting for? We are running short on time for you to be
foolishly standing there.”
“They’re just shoes, Anderson. Any picture that might be taken of you at the crime
scene is going to be in black and white anyway, not one person is going to say,
‘Holy
shit, Martha. Look at the woman. She didn’t even have the decency to put on the right colored
shoes for this murder and mayhem.’
Get real. No one cares.” Nodding, she bit harder on
her lip and wondered if there was any way she’d bite through it before someone
noticed how pissed she was. “I’m not going for them. If you want them, then go get
them, but I have to be in front of the courthouse when your dad gets there. If not, who
will lead him into the building and into the aim of the gunman? You do what you need
to, but I have a job to do.”
He had a point. But she wasn’t going to wear the black shoes. Anderson had an
image in her head that the newspapers were going to have, and being dressed sloppily
wasn’t going to make it. As soon as he left her, Anderson slipped on the black shoes,
hoping no one would notice what she’d been reduced to, and went to the lobby. She
might not be able to make it home, but there were plenty of places she could shop for
shoes.
The store was busy, which pissed Anderson off. She knew that she was being
unreasonable, but she had places to go right now and this woman who was
monopolizing all the clerk’s time was only getting new shoes for church, which was still
a couple of days away. Finally, having had enough, she asked the clerk if he could find
her the shoe she wanted in her size.
“I can. Just as soon as I’m finished with Mrs. Clark here.” He grinned at the older
woman as he continued. “I’m the only one here, but I’m getting things done, don’t you
think, my dear? If you’d like to have a seat over there, I’ll be with you in a minute or
two.”
“No, I don’t want to have a seat over there. I want waited on. I’ve been here for
over ten minutes already and I have things to do.” The man looked at the clock over the
counter, then back at her. “I don’t care how long you think I’ve been here. I can tell
time, and I know for a fact that I’ve been here ten minutes. Now, do you have this shoe
in my size or not?”
Mrs. Clark, smart woman that she was, told little Ted to go ahead and wait on her.