“Jealous? Do you think this is all over jealousy?”
“I know you, Griffin.” After a short pause, he added, “Remember, I was grooming him too.”
Grooming him too?
“You better start explaining,” I barked.
I continued my pacing and kept my eyes focused on the floor.
“I was helping to get him ready for you. The two of you are the future of Evans Financial. His mother always worried about Riley getting some girl pregnant or getting into weird stuff that was in your magazines he found. She turned to me to help discipline him.”
My stomach dropped, and I stopped pacing. I looked at Lars, but all I could think about was Audrey.
“Did it start when you started to discipline him?” I managed to ask, though my thoughts went back to Audrey.
“Yes.”
“Did you kill Audrey?”
“His mother, she was just in the way all of the fucking time,” Lars began.
I shook my head as I glared at him.
“I had a feeling you had. Did you do it just as you had done with Aunt Marlowe?”
He nodded.
“It was very simple, Griffin.”
“How could you do that? That was his mother—”
“Is that a question you really need to ask me? Or perhaps, a question you never had the balls to ask your own father?”
“Fuck you!”
“Please, Griffin,” Lars calmly said. I began to pace again and stared at the floor. “You need to get a grip on your emotions and stop letting them guide you. Emotions lead to sloppiness and mistakes. Your grandfather, father, and I have all kept clean because we never let our emotions control a situation. You came marching in here fueled by emotions. You better start using that fucking head of yours, and you’ll be able to keep yourself and Riley untouchable. Otherwise, it’ll be the end of Evans Financial.”
I stopped pacing when my cell phone rang in my pocket. I pulled the cell out and frowned at the display when it showed Lars was the caller.
“Answer it, Griffin. It’s your alibi.”
I hit the button to accept the call at the same I turned to look at Lars. My eyes widened in surprise when I saw him standing behind his desk, his phone at one ear and the barrel of a gun against his temple. My mouth went dry as I stared at him. Our eyes were locked, and my heart pounded in my chest.
“I love you, Griffin,” Lars said into the phone right before he pulled the trigger.
Shaken,I woke up abruptly from the sound of the gun in my dream. I tossed back the covers and wandered to my bedroom window. I had never forgotten what Lars had done that night to prevent me from fucking up.
Leaning against the wall, I opened the blinds and gazed out beyond the lake to the woods. Water droplets lightly tapped the glass as my mind wandered off in several directions. I took a deep breath as I gazed into the pitch-dark woods between my house and where my aunt and uncle used to live.If those trees could talk.
I turned and looked at my disheveled bed. Wide awake, I wasn’t ready to climb back into bed yet. Instead, I picked up my iPad and sat on my chair beside the window. I propped my feet up as I opened the app to my Riley cam. A sense of calm came over me the second he appeared on my screen. Riley was shirtless and sleeping peacefully.
“If you only knew what I’ve done for you,” I murmured as I closed my eyes.
