Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
“Did you notice anyone weird? Anyone”—his grip tightened on me—“following you? Watching you guys?”
I shook my head. “No one. I didn’t notice anyone hanging around the manor or lurking in the bushes either. I have to believe I would’ve noticed if someone was. I’ve been so on edge lately. All of my senses are on high alert.”
“Same.”
“But you’re thinking what I’m thinking, aren’t you?” I lay down next to him, meeting his eyes across the silken sheets. “This wasn’t random. The person who killed Layton also killed my mother and Mrs. Prado.”
“How can that be? Layton has nothing to do with your mother,” he said. “They didn’t even speak.”
“He was upstairs when that beast went after my mother. Layton told me he was reading in the library the whole time, but we’ll never know if that’s true now. Maybe he saw something he wasn’t supposed to, and the killer silenced him.”
“Silenced him a day after some woman who attacked and tried to kill you was arrested for their crime? And hang on,” he cried. “When did you decide Mrs. Finley was innocent?”
“I knew ten minutes into our conversation.”
I told him why—explaining how she didn’t know Mrs. Prado was dead until I told her, and she wouldn’t have done a thing that would’ve taken her away from Colin.
“It makes sense,” he gave in. “But it doesn’t make sense that after getting away with two murders because someone else confessed to them, he’d kill someone else in the same way and draw the police’s attention again. Why didn’t he cut Layton’s brakes or something? Make it look like an unrelated accident— And what the fuck am I saying?” Alex bolted up, tossing his head. “I’m talking about someone I knew. A real person with a real family—not a character in a game of Clue.
“Sue, I’m sorry, but this has to stop. I know she was your mother and that you cared about Mrs. Prado, but you’ve already been attacked once.” Tender fingers stroked my neck. “The detectives have guns, training, and partners for a reason—because this is dangerous. Did you even consider for a second what you would’ve done if the person who stabbed Mr. C was standing right next to him when you opened the door!
“I can’t— I don’t even—” He hugged me, crushing me to his chest. “I wasn’t even fucking here!” he burst out, surprising me. “This could’ve been so bad, and where was I? Not where I was supposed to be—with you and our daughter.
“Promise me.” He pulled back, boring into me. “Promise me you’re done playing sleuth, because I promise you we’ll have a new security system installed around this entire place by this time tomorrow.”
“That’s good. We need one,” I said softly. “But I can’t promise I’ll stop looking for the monster who killed my mother. I can’t, Alex. Right now the cops are two for two with putting the wrong person in jail for the crime, and three for three with how many innocent people this shitbag has murdered while they’re faffing around getting everything wrong. At this rate, a unicorn will find Atlantis before they find Omma’s killer!”
The sad look he gave me made my heart shrivel that much smaller. “Baby, why is this so important to you? I know in the last few weeks of her life you two made peace, but you hated her.” The words slapped me in the face. “You despised your mother with every fiber of your being, and going by the shouting match you two had shortly before she took a turn for the worst, the feeling was mutual.
“She was one hundred percent lucid and knowing when she called you filth. A worthless slut and her greatest shame. She said she never even wanted you,” he rasped. “That your dad threatened to leave her for a woman who would give him children, so she gave in and it was the biggest mistake of her life.
“Sue.” Alex cupped my cheek, sympathy etched into his face. “I heard her say that every day she was stuck with you was a waste of her time, her money, and her life. That she wished she caved in your skull and tossed you off the cliffs! Your own mother told you to your face that she wished she violently murdered you and disposed of your body.
“And then if that wasn’t enough of a blow, she finished off by saying, ‘I may not ever again know the peace of living in a world without you in it, but I will know the satisfaction of passing on and leaving you with nothing.’” He blew a hard breath. “And that was just what she said. The stuff you screamed back at her almost made me run in and pull you apart. I thought you were going to kill each other.”