“Uh, okay, sure. No problem.”
I disconnect the call and grab my purse. As I reach in to grab my keys, I remember—I don’t have a car.
“Shit.”
I call Chris, hoping he isn’t busy, so he can give me a ride. It goes straight to voicemail. I start to worry about him until I remember he told me he had court today, and he’s mentioned in the past that he turns off his phone sometimes and would call me back as soon as he got out of court if he ever missed a call from me.
I rush out to Anna’s desk. “I have a favor. Can I borrow your car? Chris dropped me off, and I have to go sign some papers for Blake’s estate. It shouldn’t take more than an hour.”
She spins her chair and grabs her purse. “Of course. I won’t be using it. Will you be back for your three o’clock?”
“Yeah, I should be. I hope this won’t take that long. But I’ll call you if anything changes.”
Smiling, she drops her keys in my palm. “Sounds good. Drive safe.”
“Thank you!” I yell out as I hurry to the front door.
It isn’t lost on me that Chris is probably going to be frustrated with me for leaving. But the way I look at it, my house is probably the safest place to go. Who would be stupid enough to go back to a house you broke into the day before?
As I’m turning into my driveway, a thought occurs to me.Why didn’t Vernon ask me about the break-in?
That seems like what most people would do when some tells them their house was broken into. Maybe he just has too much on his mind to concern himself with my problems.Or maybe he doesn’t really care about me, and the less he has to feign concern about my misfortune, the better.
After today, hopefully, that can be the last of interactions, and I won’t have to worry about whether he trulycares. I park behind his car and jog up the stairs to the door. The smell of freshly brewed coffee greets me, and I follow it to the kitchen, finding Vernon sipping a cup and staring off.
When his eyes shift to me, alarm bells go off in my head. There’s something in his gaze that terrifies me to my core.
“Lily, thank you for coming.” He sounds pleasant enough, even if his eyes don’t convey that.
I swallow down my fear, but my heart beats faster. Maybe I’m just on edge after everything. “Uh, yeah, sure. Can we hurry this along? I have to get back to work.”
His hand not holding his coffee cup raises, and he places it on the island with a thud. The sound it makes confuses me until I glance down, and every muscle in my body seizes in fear because clutched in the hand resting on the kitchen island is a gun.
My stomach twists as I hold up a hand, as if that would stop a bullet. “Vernon, what are you doing?”
He shakes his head, like I’ve disappointed him. “Lily, you just don’t get it. This is bigger than both of us.”
Sweat starts to form on my hairline. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about, Vernon.”
“Blake made some really bad choices. He stole something from someone very dangerous. And now that person wants it back. Or the money for it. And because Blake is gone, he’s now coming after me.”
My brain is working overtime to figure out what Vernon is talking about. I highly doubt Bob would do this, even if Blake did steal money from the company. “Did they break in here to look for whatever he stole?”
“Drugs, Lily. Blake stole drugs, and a lot of them. Because he was fucking desperate for money. He knew Bob would figure out soon enough that Blake was siphoning money from the firm to himself.”
Drugs? How the hell did Blake get wrapped up with a drug dealer?
He takes a step toward me, and my blood runs cold as I take a step back.
“Stop! Don’t move, Lily.”
I hold up my trembling hands. “Okay, sorry. Please, Vernon. You don’t have to kill me. I have some money that I can give you.”
“See, you know what’s funny? Killing you was supposed to solve our problems. Or so Blake claimed.”
“The life insurance policy.” It’s not a question, because I already know.
“Policies,” he explains, emphasizing that there are multiple. “With both of you dead, I get it all.”
