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I moved in front of her to slide in first, gun at the ready, but whoever had done this was long gone. Everything inside that could be broken was. There was glass everywhere, light bulbs, dishes, the old chairs had been slashed, even the Keurig was in pieces. Olivia’s carefully drawn plans littered the floor like confetti.
And then I remember Liz saying, “This house is me,” and inviting me in.
Cash hadn’t been invited, he’d invaded and destroyed her from within. Or tried to.
“I needed new windows, anyway,” Liz said, trying to be cheerful, but her voice was tight.
“We can fix it all,” I told her, holstering my gun to wrap my arms around her.
“He’s losing his mind,” she said into my chest, and I didn’t say, “I told you so” because there was no point. Cash was always going to either get his way or lash out. His coke problem wasn’t helping things any, but even sober, he was a narcissistic jerk. It was always going to come down to this.
Which is why he had to go.
I let go of her. “We can’t do anything in the dark. Let’s clean up tomorrow. We’ll get some help. Everything’s better in the sunlight.”
“I hate him,” she said.
“So do I,” I said. “But we still have beds at the Pink House and the Big Chef. Let’s go get your car and talk this out.”
She met my eyes. “I was going to have a talk with you about the future. Guess we better clear up the present first, huh?”
“We can do both,” I said, and got her out of the hellhole Cash had made of her home.
* * *
It was late when we got back to JB’s, so Liz got in her Camry and waited while I went inside JB’s to make sure everything was okay there.
The place still had people in it, but they were all quiet or laughing, no trouble that I could see, and nowhere near the crowds that had been there when we’d left around nine.
“Hell of an evening,” I said to Jill.
She smiled. “When I was a kid, before the factory closed, this is how I remember it used to be in here when my dad was behind the bar. Full of people. Happy people. Sure, some drank too much, and people had problems, but everyone was, I don’t know. Lighter? Maybe that’s through the lens of being a kid, but it really was better before the town fell on hard times. Now.” She leaned on the bar. “I think Burney is coming back.”
I wished her a good evening and went out the back and stopped.
Because while Burney might be back, Liz Danger wasn’t in my Gladiator and her car was gone.
She would have waited for me.
Something was very wrong.
CHAPTER 59
When Vince went inside to check on Jill, I got in my Camry, planning to follow him out to the Big Chef, and leaned my head against the headrest until my phone vibrated and I pulled it out. I saw a number I didn’t recognize, but I’d met some new people lately, so I hit the green button.
“Hello?”
“I’ve got Peri.”
I blinked at the sound of Cash’s voice. “What?”
“I’ve got Peri, Lizzie.”
“Cash? Is this some kind of sick joke?” But even as I asked it, my chest seized up because it was Cash’s voice, slurring his words, but with an animation under it, an excitement. He wasn’t just drunk. I’d heard him like that too many times in the past. He was high and rolling, thinking he was going to win again.
“Come to the factory. Cleve’s office. We need to talk about our future. Just you. No one else. We can work this out. We’ll be back together and everything will be good again.”
The phone went dead.
