And a thousand times better, but she didn’t think that would help her case, especially since she had Megan to thank for bringing Todd into her life. The whole thing was so twisted.
“I took you to Montana to die, and yet here you are, alive and well.” Megan’s knuckles whitened as she gripped the steering wheel. “You ruined my life, and now you have a lunch date with BrandonfuckingMarlowe.”
Lindsey hadn’t realized Megan harbored so much animosity toward her. It clearly had been building long before Lindsey started digging into Meg’s clients. “You ruined your own life by taking dirty money,” Lindsey said. “I was trying to protect you because I thought you were being taken advantage of.”
“Yeah? Well, your boyfriend killed my brother.”
Bile rose in Lindsey’s throat. Todd’s actions had been warranted, but any death still horrified her. “In self-defense. Pete killed Todd’s cousin for no reason at all. His own wife. And he did it in front of their son.Yournephew. That was straight-up murder. There’s no comparison.”
Silence.
Megan’s gun hand twitched. The muscle in her jaw tensed.
But she didn’t shoot.
“I almost forgot how fucking righteous you are.” Meg’s voice had dropped into a menacing calm. “An answer for everything, and you always have to be right, always perfect. Fuck anyone’s feelings or what they want as long as you win the argument.” She glanced over in the darkness. “If you had just listened to me when I asked you to quit digging into my customers, you could’ve avoided all of this. We’d still be happy.”
Megan’s criticism hit a little too close to home. It was something Lindsey needed to work on. Not because assholes like Cruz told her she should lighten up, but because she didn’t want to hurt the people she cared about just to prove she was “right.” She’d excelled in school, but that wasn’t a model for life.
Still, she had been correct about the illegal origins of some of Megan’s income, even if she’d been blind to her friend’s willing participation in the scheme. Investigating the shell companies after Megan asked her to stop might have made Lindsey a bad friend—even if her intentions had been good—but she couldn’t condone laundering money for murderous drug cartels and gunrunners to help pay off dirty cops. No one got the friend pass for that.
And while Lindsey would have preferred to avoid the horrifying events in Montana, she had no regrets about meeting Todd.
She just had to survive to see him again.
“I agree,” she said. “I have plenty of flaws to work on.” Lindsey scanned their surroundings for inspiration. “But I can’t undo what’s happened.”
Megan finally looked at her. “No, but you can give me money.” She breezed through another traffic light as they entered a busy commercial district with huge strip malls and a mess of roads. “Your money. Your parents’ money. Todd’s money. All of it.” In the red glow of the dashboard, her nostrils flared. “I will not go back to hustling for my dinner, and I will not go to prison. If I don’t get the money, Iwillkill you.” Her voice rose, hard and savage. “And I’ll make it my life’s mission to hunt down everyone you care about. Every family member, every friend. My life can’t get any worse, but revenge might just make me feel better.”
Lindsey stared at this woman who’d once been her friend, as they drove toward a large mall and slowed for a red light. Had she ever really known her?
A small part of Lindsey empathized with Megan’s pain. The rest of her was pissed and poised to fight. She balled her hand into a fist and waited, holding her breath.Tick. Tick. Tick.
The car came to a stop and Megan glanced left to check for cross-traffic.
Now.
Lindsey yanked the gun from Megan’s hand and punched her in the thigh, where she’d stabbed her just days ago.
Megan cried out in pain. “Fuck.”
Lindsey shoved open the passenger door and ran toward the gas station convenience store on the street corner.
“Stop!” Megan’s feet slapped the asphalt, and the car’s open-door warningdingedrelentlessly behind them.
Lindsey stumbled, but kept going, not daring to look back. Lungs on fire, she slammed open the store’s glass door. She turned to look for a deadbolt, but found only a keyhole.
Outside Megan limped closer, only ten yards away.
Lindsey called to the cashier, “Can you lock the door?”
The tough-looking, gray-haired woman behind the counter looked up, eyes wide. “Don’t shoot!”
“Oh.” Lindsey lowered the gun she’d forgotten she held. “No, I took it from her. She kidnapped me.”
The woman hesitated, reaching for a lanyard around her neck.
“Please, hurry. And if you have one of those emergency buttons—
