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I’d been so certain Daisy set up the camera.
When his mouth tightens, annoyed that I’ve stopped playing along, I say, “While I have no issues with an open relationship, that pairing would be hellishly awkward.”
“Maybe. Still, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t have been up for a foursome tonight if it worked out that way.”
“You are so drunk.”
I pretend to roll over, getting farther from the camera’s eye. He pulls me back under it.
Daisy did not set up the camera. Her footprints had been a few feet away because she’d been up there fixing the leak. She isn’t filming me for some unknown reason. Liam’s filming me for that most banal of reasons.
He’s taping us having sex.
It’s the obvious answer, and I hadn’t even considered it because I needed Daisy to be evil. Or, at least, I needed her to deserve the cruelty I was about to play, framing her for murder and sending her on her way, running as fast as she could.
I’d decided Daisy created the leak, which gave her an excuse to install the camera. Then, clearly, Daisy got caught installing it on my laptop, so she faked a break-in. And Daisy was obviously storing the video on my laptop to...? Well, there the motivation fell apart, but damn it, how was I supposed to know her motives? The evidence pointed to her, and that was enough.
Unless I have a creepy, controlling boyfriend who’d definitely tape us having sex. Who’d love yet another blackmail-shackle to ensnare me.
Do as I say or I release these online. Some amateur porn site. Maybe I’ll even make a few bucks.
Didn’t he just give me permission to have sex with Tom? Presumably on this bed? Under that camera lens?
It makes total sense for Liam to save the files on my laptop because it’s his laptop. He bought it for me. He set it up. He set up my whole damn network.
I can pretend to think Daisy faked the break-in, but that’s just me being paranoid. I saw a figure running. I heard the thump of the intruder smacking into her and her falling. She ran through glass, for God’s sake.
But someone created that leak in the roof.
Someone who knew I’d supposedly had a leak. Someone with enough access to the attic to set up a damned camera, likely months ago.
“Celeste?” Liam says, mouth tightening in irritation. “If you’re just going to lie there, princess, I’m going to need to get some rope and make this fun.”
“I’m looking at that crack,” I say.
He follows my eyes and visibly tenses.
“I was thinking of having Daisy fix it.”
His expression is almost comical—that moment of “Oh, shit!” when he realizes the downside of encouraging me to hire a renovator.
I continue, “But it’s not a high priority. It’s not like it’s a leak or anything.” I slant my gaze his way. “Weird thing, but when I told Daisy I had a leak, I thought it was over the bedroom here. Instead, it was over my office.”
He shrugs. “It’s an old house. I’m only shocked it didn’t float away in that storm.”
“Hmm. I was just wondering... Well, I don’t suppose a certain boyfriend might have... poked an itty-bitty hole in the roof to persuade me to take in a certain backpacking handywoman who might be willing to work for free?”
“That would be a very considerate boyfriend.”
“It would be.”
“And such a considerate boyfriend would deserve a reward, wouldn’t he?”
He takes my hand and leads me down the hall. Then he opens Daisy’s bedroom door.
“What do you say to...?” He jerks his chin at the empty bed and waggles his brows again. “Maybe Daisy will come back and join us.”
I hesitate. This is better than any setup I could have imagined. I can slip downstairs and lock the front door. Daisy will have to sleep in the lanai. Then I kill Liam in her bed. Plant the gun. Unlock the doors. Spatter a little blood on blacked-out Daisy. After I scare her off and call the police, I’ll tell them how Liam drunkenly hit on her last night. I even have a witness in Tom.
