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“How about fifteen?”
“Fifteen grand?” Her nose scrunches up and her mouth twists before she relaxes her face. “Seems kind of lowball if you ask me.”
I don’t make a counteroffer. I wait her out.
Eventually, she shakes her head. “But tell you what. I’ll think it over. First, I just have to know one thing…”
“What?”
“You didn’t tell him where I am, did you?”
“Who—Chris?”
She shrugs. “If that’s what he called himself.”
“Sounds like you’re two peas in a pod,” I say, mimicking her smile. “And yeah, of course I did. He was just so interested.”
Her face falls. “You made a huge mis
take.”
“Funny,” I say. “Those are exactly the kind I tend to make.”
I wait for her to respond and when she doesn’t, it’s my turn to shrug. “Whoopsie.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Passerby
I’ve never been a big fan of parties, despite having grown up around them. This one I don’t mind so much because it signifies things coming to an end, even though the point of it is supposed to celebrate a beginning.
Whatever the case, I’m just glad the con is almost over. I hate doing this to my family. I hate doing this to Ruth.
I didn’t want to kill Bobby Holt, even though I kind of did. He deserved it. So did that bride’s brother, even if he was a pain in the ass to kill.
But Julia has by far been the worst and the least premeditated of them all. It’s why I couldn’t do it. Not by myself. The others I did for Ashley. Because when you love someone the way I love her, you do whatever it takes to protect that person.
Those murders, I’d do those again, twice if I had to. But Julia was different. Visiting her in the hospital and holding that pillow over her face was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’m just glad Ashley was by my side, or I’m afraid I wouldn’t have gone through with it. Hell, I couldn’t even push her down the stairs hard enough to kill her. She changed my diapers. She even came to my Little League ball game once. I tried to explain this to Ashley, but she’s the smart one. She knows all about loopholes and how if you leave them open, they’re bound to be exploited.
And she was right. Julia was in the way. It’s what she did. It’s what she always did. She got too close.
Cole was the second worst, which is why I failed at killing him too. It was hard to pretend, to lie to Ashley, especially after chickening out on murdering my sister, not once but twice. What can I say? It’s not as easy as they make it look on those true crime shows.
Killing your best friend is no joke. Even if, according to Ashley, the joke’s on me, because I still have to take care of him, and now I’ve made it more likely that I’ll get caught. She says if you want something done, you should do it right the first time. I’m not so sure that’s how the saying goes, but she’s pretty, so I let her believe.
This and I don’t want to kill Cole, so I’m hoping that what they say about relationships is true. Compromise is key.
And still, all of that doesn’t even touch the worst of it. There’s my brother and what this is going to do to him. Ruth will be fine. She always is. I probably won’t have to kill her. Ashley may just do it first.
I don’t know if I blame her.
But Davis, that’s a tough one. He’s the only one to remain neutral in any of this. He’s the only one of us that’s truly innocent. Except that he was dumb enough to fall for the oldest trick in the book. He never would have agreed to sell Magnolia House without Ashley egging him on. I know what it means to fall in love with a woman like her, how it literally gives you the strength to do anything.
We met when I was out on a call. I changed out a flat for her, sent her on her way. But we kept in touch, and over the course of several months, we came up with the plan. See, the problem is, I’m kind of stuck here in this shit town. My job is here, and what I know is this: if you want to keep a woman like Ashley Parker, volunteer fire fighter pay isn’t gonna do it. And once you land a woman like that, well, going back to anything less would be a shame. A real abomination. So I feel for Davis. You don’t exactly get the cream of the crop around here. Which means I know that breaking the news to him that Ashley isn’t really into him, and that this was all a scam, is going to kill him.
Metaphorically, if not literally.
The silver lining is that by that time we’ll be long gone, Ashley and me.
