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The old lawyer that Brenda entrusted with her estate looks to be about three thousand years old. His skin has the constitution of wax paper, and he has an old friar haircut. He’s straight out of a twelfth-century Parisian town and looks like he should be carrying a scroll and shouting about the monarchy.
“This whole place is spooky. I cannot believe Brenda trusted this man. She was obviously delusional toward the end. He looks like he took part in the Inquisition.”
William looks around the dark space. “Yes, it’s a bit vampiric, isn’t it.”
“More like a creepy necromancer. I guarantee you that man is older than he looks. He probably brought himself back from the dead,” I utter as we approach the lawyer’s desk.
I shudder as I take in his plain suit and then move my eyes to the decorations: dark wallpaper, sagging bookshelves, and to my horror, a tiger rug that spans half of the floor.
“I don’t think that rug is fake,” I whisper to William. “He probably skinned it alive back when he was a caveman.”
William huffs a laugh as he sinks down into an antique leather chair. The entire thing squeaks loudly.
“Keep it together, Lexington,” he tells me with a chuckle, and I don’t even bother sitting in my own chair. I just plop right down on his lap. It’s safer this way. Two against one. I am pretty sure I could take this creep.
The lawyer startles slightly at how we chose to sit, but I ignore him. Back when he was born, in medieval times, men had to do this in hiding. It’s the twenty-first century, asshole. If you don’t like it, go back to the Renaissance.
The lawyer starts to prattle on and on, regurgitating some legal jargon that bores me to tears. I’m only half listening, just fiddling with William’s hands and smelling him. He’s delicious. He smells like peach cobbler today. I don’t know how he manages it. It’s fucking ridiculous. The day he stops smelling like dessert is the day I die.
“Half will go to Lexington Cavanaugh and the other half to William Walker,” the lawyer says.
My entire body freezes because my brain just caught up to what was said. “Excuse me?” I ask, confused. Because what the fuck is he talking about?
“Half to Lexington and half to William,” the zombified man repeats.
I shake my head. “Half of what?”
“The inheritance. The estate.”
“Well, I don’t fucking want it,” I say, feeling my eye start to twitch. Because there is no way William is going to be happy about this. That’s the whole reason he didn’t trust me in the first place. He thought I was after Brenda’s money.
“I don’t fucking want it,” I hiss, trying to stand up, but William’s arms wrap around me, tugging me back against him.
“Lexington,” he says softly, but I’m getting so worked up over this that I stop thinking clearly. My ass swivels in his lap and I turn and face him. He needs to see my fucking eyes when I say this. To understand how sincere I am about this.
“Listen to me, William. I don’t want it. I’d rather keep you instead. I was never here for the money. You have to believe me.”
“I know. Iknowthat. But you can have both. She wanted you to have half. She loved you. So you should take it. And you’ll always have me. Always. This doesn’t change anything.”
I slide my lip ring into my mouth and shake my head. I want to convince him otherwise, but he’s just as stubborn as Brenda was.
“Fine. Fine. I’ll take the fucking money. Just know that I have my ways of giving it all back without you knowing.”
William rolls his eyes and squeezes me against him.
“And,” I add, “I want you to continue to love me. Money has a way of getting between people. You have to promise me that.”
“Yes. I promise. I’ll love you no matter what,” he says and my heart skips a beat.
“We’ll see.”
William presses his face into my neck and sighs against me.
“There’s nothing to see. We can discuss the money later.” He lowers his voice so only I can hear. “Let’s just agree so we can leave. This guy is creeping me out.”
I eye the lawyer who hasn’t blinked once since we entered his office thirty minutes ago and agree.
