We both know that it isn’t that simple.
“One between the eyes and this can all be over.”
“You’d be starting a war. His family is powerful.”
“So are we. Our club has chapters all over. He won’t win.”
I don’t want blood on my hands, but I know that if left to Kevlar, he’ll put that gun to Phillip’s temple and never blink. He means it. I feel it in the way he touches me. The way he looks at me. He looks at me as if he loves me.
I could run. We could run. Vanish as though neither of us ever existed, but I won’t ask that of him. I won’t ask him to leave his club, his family, and his business behind.
“I don’t want you to go after him,” I say, my voice coming out shaky. “He’s not worth it. Let me just disappear.”
“I’m not letting you go. I just got you.”
“He won’t stop coming after me until one of us is dead.”
“Exactly. Leave it to me.”
I clamp a palm over his mouth.
“Just listen.” he nods, and I remove my hand from his mouth. “Heather needs to die so Lacey…so I can live.”
“You sure this is what you want to do?” Kevlar asks as Ashley smears some red gelatin mixture across my forehead and splatters it down the front of my dress. The one he found me in.
“It’s the only way Phillip is going to leave me alone.”
Kevlar’s throat bobs, but he doesn’t argue.
It’s early enough that no one is around. Buford blocked off this part of the beach and has everything ready on his end.
Our small group goes down to the rocky part of the shore where Kevlar found me one week ago. I lay on the wet sand, pretending I’m dead while Guts snaps the scene of the crime. Well, the scene of Heather Manning being found after a drowning accident.
As far as the rest of the world will know, I drank too much and went for a midnight swim.
Phillip will know it’s a lie, but he will get what he wants. Me legally dead and the freedom to marry Leandra. On paper, I’ll be known as Lacey Sweet.
“Oh, that’s good,” Ashley says while hovering over Guts’ shoulder.
I made Kevlar hang back at the clubhouse. There’s no way I could concentrate with him watching.
“I think we have everything we need for Buford.”
“Thank you both for helping me.”
“That’s what friends are for,” Ashley reminds me.
I smile as she helps me up. I look and feel like something out of one of the horror movies Kevlar loves to watch.
Back in my room, which I’m renting at the clubhouse with the pay I’m earning bartending for them, I get cleaned up. Kevlar wanted me to move in with him, but it’s too soon.
We need to get to know each other.
Take things slow.
I’m rediscovering who I am.
I have plans to open a bakery in the future. I’m going to call it Lacey’s Sweets.
