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Another tear tracks down my cheek, and I hastily wipe it away. I pull into Boston rush hour traffic, inching up the city street to head toward the Harvard Bridge that will lead me into Cambridge.
“I need you to lower the gun, Ezra. I’m driving in Boston, and that’s tricky for me on a good day. You aiming a gun at my head is making it impossible to focus on anything else.”
I hear him shift in the back seat, but with as dark as it is outside, the only times I can see him are through glimpses in the rearview mirror when the streetlights hit him just right. Still, it’s not difficult to tell that his eyes are dark and wild with chaos.
“There. But it’s not far, so don’t make me use it. Yet.”
“How did you get in the car? Hell, how did you even know I was driving it?”
“I was watching you this morning at his house, and I saw you get into this car. You never lock the car because you always keep the key in your purse. It’s a chronic problem you have. We had a fight about it once. Remember?”
Shit. He’s right. I never locked the car. I made it all too easy for him. Fucking stupid.
I shake my head. “Why are you doing this?”
“I wanted to talk to you away from him,” he says as I turn onto Mass Avenue. “I need to convince you to be reasonable with this. I fucking love you, and I know you love me. I fucked up, okay? I know I did, but we were so good together and you just… how could you just end it with me like that, Georgia?”
Christ. Is he kidding with that?
“You changed,” I voice instead of saying that I didn’t love him, and he made me feel trapped.
“I can change back. I’ll be anything you need me to be. Just be mine.”
I grip the wheel as I get onto the bridge. Even with the traffic, I’ll be back at Lenox’s place in less than fifteen minutes.
“You killed my father. You and your father paid a man to kill him. Why?”
Ezra makes a deranged noise, and I hear him shift again. “My father is a fool. He always told me I was stupid, careless, and not good enough, but now he’s the one in prison, and I’m free.”
“Ezra, tell me what you did to my father,” I demand, needing him to tell me everything. Needing all the pieces of this puzzle to finally come together.
“My father is in love with your mother. He wanted your father gone. I knew that. My father asked me to plant bugs inside your father’s office to spy on him, and I did. Except I heard your father talking to his attorney on the phone. He knew my father and your mother were having an affair. Did you know that?”
I’m not sure how to respond since that’s not public knowledge, so all I say is, “No.”
“Well, they were. Your father’s attorney told him to change the beneficiary of his assets before doing anything about it so that your mother couldn’t get them in a divorce if everything was going to you. He knew she’d never take anything that was set to go to you. You had been slipping away from me. I knew it. I could feel it. And I couldn’t let that happen.”
I shake my head, not understanding, as I change lanes. “What does that mean? What did you do?”
“I acted. I confronted your father, and I blackmailed him into adding me into the will, stating that you had to be married to me in order to inherit, and in exchange, if he kept me on and named me COO after my father was gone, then I wouldn’t say anything to my father about what your father was planning to do.”
“You had my father killed, and the will didn’t stipulate you directly. Only that I had to be married.”
“Your father double-crossed me. He found the bugs and removed them, so I never knew any of that until it was too late. Matis was supposed to kill your father while we were on our honeymoon. Unfortunately, your father was in France, and since Matis is French, he took the opportunity to use one of his local guys there, and it was done too soon.”
“You speak about this as if it’s not everything. As if something like that is forgivable.”
“You would have never found out!” he bellows, the sound practically rattling the windows. “You would have inherited the money and the shares, and we would have been married. We would have had everything, and then you went and married him! Now it’s all falling apart, and I can’t let that happen. Not again.”
“I won’t let you hurt Lenox,” I say, my voice even as I mentally devise a plan.
Lenox has been silently listening, but I can hear his harsh breathing through my ear, so I know he’s still there.
“If both of you play ball, I won’t have to. Judging by his array of cars, he has money. A lot of it. And so do you. I want it. Fifteen million dollars to an offshore account, and I won’t hurt him. But you and I are flying out of here tonight, Georgia. On your cousin’s plane.”
I laugh, and it isn’t a kind laugh either. “I’m not going anywhere with you. You’re fucking crazy. Not to mention a remorseless murderer.”
“Business is business, Georgia. I’m not different in that from anyone else out there. And you will fucking come with me, or I will kill Lenox and your cousins. Don’t think I don’t still have connections that can do that. That’s my deal to you, and since I know you couldn’t live with the guilt of having their deaths on your conscience, you’ll do it.”
