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“No. Throw it out. Destroy it, please.”
The man’s hands make quick work of the paper and I drop the gun and ammo into my purse. I made sure to use a bigger purse today, and I manage to fit the gun and both boxes of ammo in easily, with room to spare. I unwind my scarf from my neck and shove it into the purse, making sure it covers my purchases in case Nathan peeks inside.
Don’t laugh, I tell myself sternly.Don’t laugh, even though this is an intensely fucked up situation. Buying a gun and hiding it with a scarf. Being so afraid in the company of your own family you feel you need a gun.
I hike my purse up over my shoulder. It’s such a simple pleasure, having a purse to carry around. I didn’t know if I’d feel better with the gun inside, but in another surprising turn of events, I do. The world seems more solid. I have at least one option to defend myself when the killer comes calling.
Because he will come calling. I know it, deep down in my bones. Whatever happened in that place, it isn’t over. I know we pissed him off by taking those pills, forcing his hand. The more I turn the pieces over in my mind, the clearer it is that the only reason the cops found the IP address and managed to locate us down in that hellhole is because the killer freaked when he saw we’d taken enough pills to kill ourselves.
Yeah. Whoever he is, he’s going to come back. This isn’t over. He’s going to call on me again.
Maybe he’s calling from inside the house.I know, I know. Bad joke. But with everyone I know already arrested, it’s making me think the wolves have been circling for a lot longer than I previously guessed.
I pause at the door of the shop. The tea store looked busy–but was it busy enough to buy me a few more minutes? I chew my lip, weighing the risk.
“You need something else?” the guy calls after me.
I turn on my heel, rushing back to the counter. “Yes,” I say, my words coming out in a breathless jumble. “I just realized I left my cellphone at home and I need to make a call. Would you mind if I used your phone?”
He looks unimpressed, but he slides the phone on the counter toward me. The handset is shaped like an old-school pistol, and the cradle is in the form of a leather holster. “Do you have anywhere a little more … private?” I ask as nicely as I can, peering around the guy toward the back office behind him. He steps to the left, obscuring my view of the office, and sticks his fingers in his ears. “You got three minutes,” he says. “I’m already half deaf, so you’re good to go.”
I muster up a grateful smile. “Thank you.”
I slide a business card out of my purse, picking up the heavy gun-shaped phone receiver and dialing the number I’ve scrawled on the back. Two rings and somebody picks up.
“Burton and Lancaster, how may I direct your call?”
I ask for Thomas Burton. He’s busy, until I tell the receptionist who is calling.
“I’m so sorry, Ms. Capulet. Connecting you now.”
Thomas Burton is my father’s lawyer and one of his oldest friends. I’ve had more than a few dealings with him over the years–when my mother died and he executed her will, and again when the same happened with Adeline. He counseled me legally after the incident with Tyler Capulet. More recently, he helped set up my pre-nup with Joshua, adding in things I’d never dreamed were necessary, but which I appreciated immensely after the fact.
A moment later, Thomas Burton is on the line. “Avery,” he says smoothly. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Hi, Tom,” I address him informally. I’ve known the man since birth. “I need a favor from you. I don’t care how much it costs. But I need you to make it happen now.”
Thomas chuckles, ever the unflappable legal shark. “Shoot,” he says. Ironic, since I’m standing in the middle of a gun store. I glance at the old man behind the counter. He’s staring at the front door, his fingers still in his ears. I open my mouth and ask my lawyer for something that’s probably impossible; but then, nothing is truly impossible when you’re a Capulet.
After Thomas promises me he’ll move heaven and earth to make my wishes come true–for a hefty fee, of course–I hang up and thank the guy behind the counter. He slowly takes his fingers out of his ears, wiping them on his jeans.
“You’re that girl from the news,” he says.
So fingers aren’t great blockers of sound, and he probably heard my entire conversation. Great.
“You take care of yourself,” he says, sliding two more boxes of ammo across the counter. “On the house. Just promise me you’ll shoot the fucker right between the eyes if he comes sniffing around again.”
I swallow thickly, nodding as I shove two more boxes of bullets into my bulging purse. “I will. Thank you,” I mutter, fleeing the store.
Outside I say a quick thank you to the universe for putting this gun shop in the same strip mall as the bubble tea place I used to love. I stroll back down the sidewalk. My instinct is to tip my head back and close my eyes. Soak in the sun. That’s another thing I missed down there. The sun. Simple pleasures, right? But I don’t close my eyes. Now more than ever, I need to keep my eyes wide open.
Halfway down the strip mall, Nathan comes out of the bubble tea place. We showed up in the middle of the lunch rush, another ingenious bit of planning on my part. He frowns when he sees how far down the sidewalk I’ve gone.
“Hey,” he calls. “You’re not supposed to be wandering off alone.”
“I didn’t wander off.” I let my eyes go big and excited at the prospect of the bubble tea. “It’s such a nice day. I wanted to feel the sun on my face. I didn’t even leave the sidewalk.”Don’t go too far, Avery. He’ll know something’s up.I meet up with Nathan and take the bubble tea from his hand with a bratty flourish that’s all pre-capture Capulet. “Thanks, Mom. Can you worry a little less? It’s suffocating me.”
He almost looks apologetic as he stabs his straw through the top of the cup. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Aves. Can you blame me?”
