“What! That’s not true! That can’t be true!” Reynard shouted, throwing himself away from Alex. “How could—! How could that happen!”
It looked like Alex said something in response, but Reynard was already running—taking off for the house.
That’s when I looked away. I didn’t want to see his reaction when he ran into the gurney. How could I face his grief when I couldn’t face my own?
Thankfully, Alex returned quickly and we were soon rumbling down the dirt road—leaving the nightmare behind.
“Do you want to talk?” he asked softly.
I rested my head against the cool glass, eyes squeezing shut. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to think. Someone walked into our home and murdered my sick and dying mother in her bed. How do I make sense of that, Alex? If you know, please, tell me.”
“I wish I could, Sue, I truly do. None of this makes sense to me either. Any more than I can understand why someone would want to harm Mrs. Prado,” he said. “After you left the ballroom, Courtney was telling us thatthere was another young woman who worked in town who was murdered. For fuck’s sake, are we dealing with a serial killer or something?”
My head was shaking before he finished. “Including Omma, all the victims were different ages, races, and from different backgrounds. According to the absurd amount of crime shows and books I’ve consumed, serial killers don’t work like that. Their victims almost always have something in common.
“No,” I said directly, “they don’t think Mrs. Prado or Omma were murdered by a serial killer, and they don’t think their deaths were random either. They’re looking at us, Alex.”
“What!” he cried, jerking the wheel and almost crashing into a tree. “Us? Who us?”
“Everyone who lived with Omma. Both murders happened in or in front of our home. Both women were connected to us. So why would they look anywhere else?”
He goggled at me. I didn’t actually know Alex for as long as he thought I did, but I was one hundred percent sure no one had ever seen that dumbfounded look on his face.
“But—but that’s insane,” he blared. “If we didn’t want you to rehire Mrs. Prado, we just would’vesaidso. There wasn’t any need to murder the woman! And as for your mom, if we wanted her dead, all we had to do was wait a week!” Alex said that, then immediately winced. “Sorry. I didn’t mean for that... to come out that way.”
“No, it’s okay.” I turned away, facing the window. “I pretty much said the same thing to Balogun, Kaplan, and Davis. There’s nothing about killing a woman who was already dying that makes sense.”
“But the officers I spoke to didn’t give any hint that they suspected me, Rhodes, Micah, or you.”
“That’s called a false sense of security, pretty boy. They lured you right into it.”
A deep sigh gusted out of him. “If we really are their main suspects, that means we won’t be able to shake the cops until they find the real killer—and seeing as they’re apparently dumbasses—that’ll be awhile. That’ll make it harder to keep all this from Lily. My heart broke the first time I told her about the cancer, and that Omma wasn’t going to be with us for long. Nowwe have to explain why a horde of cops are crawling all over the manor for the second time. No one should have to tell a six-year-old that someone they love was murdered.”
I stilled. Not for his last sentence, but for his third. Alex saidwe. He said we would have to explain to Lily what happened to Omma. Had something really changed between us? Was he starting to trust me?
It may have seemed wrong for me to be thinking about my relationship with Alex right then, but how could I think of anything else?
My mother—the last of my family on this continent—was gone. The only one left who shared my name was Lily, and if my perpetually empty bank account got its way, I’d never get the IVF money I needed to change that.
Lily was the closest thing I had to a daughter, and of course, I couldn’t be in her life if Alex, Rhodes, and Micah didn’t want me in theirs.
Courtney was right—these four were my family, and for once, I wanted my family to hold me close... not push me away.
“What if you didn’t tell her?” I blurted. “I mean, not right away. Not today. Everyone’s been telling me about the Columbia alumni reunion. When is that?”
“It’s the weekend after next. Why?”
“Go now,” I said firmly. “Take Lily. Make it a daddy-daughter trip, and spoil the mess out of her. But get her away from all of this. We don’t know who is doing these terrible things, but we do know they have no problem strolling onto our property and murdering people. Honestly, I’d feel a lot better if Lily were miles away from this maniac.”
He groaned, brushing his hair back from those enigmatic eyes. The car rumbled off the dirt road onto smooth pavement, and turned left away from town. “Sue, I hear you, but she can’t miss two weeks of school.”
“My dude, it’s first grade, not NASA training. I think she’ll be okay.”
He cracked a smile, tossing me an amused look. “Okay, fine, if you’re really going to make me say it, then here it is—I’m not leavingyoufor two weeks. Christie and three different officers all threw up after seeing what was done to your mother. I don’t know what you saw when you went in there, but I know it would’ve been traumatic even if she had drifted away peacefully in her sleep.
“But that’s not what happened,” he said gently. “I can only imagine what’s replaying over and over in your head right now, and the last thing I’m going to do is party it up in the city when you need me more than ever.”
I blinked at him. “Since when do you care about me needing you? You don’t even like me.”
