Page 136 of Bound in Ashes

“I…It…You..” She shook her head, then brushed her hands down her dress. Then a calmness settled over her. “Fine, Asia.”

She met my eyes and an icy shiver raced through me. “You want the truth?”

“Bridget, what did you do?”

“Oh, just a few things here, there. A couple of drops of antifreeze in Levi’s oatmeal. A few bowls here or there. Let a couple of the animals out. Nothing major,” she said with a shrug.

Levi, here’s your oatmeal.

My stomach twisted as I recalled how many times I’d heard her say that. How I laughed and told him given the circumstances even Aunt Kathleen would have forgiven him for breaking his heart-healthy diet.

“You tried to kill my uncle?”

“Why not? You would have let him. You were so blinded, so caught in his spell, you would have let him do anything. Take anything and anyone.”

“Bridget. I never let anyone hurt you. Would never let anyone hurt you.”

“You think I didn’t hurt every single day?”

“I didn’t kill Irv. Jack didn’t kill Irv.”

“Precious thing. You think that matters?” she said. “It doesn’t. I didn’t get to choose. You didn’t, either. But now we’re here, together, and you understand. Really understand,” she said.

She smiled at me. Looked like the Bridget I had known for years, the one who had first walked me from the parking garage up to the courthouse.

But that girl.

That Asia.

She was gone forever.

My hand moved without thought.

I closed my fingers around the gun and pulled it out of the holster.

TWENTY-SIX

Asia

Thank God for small favors.

The farm was quiet, and that was good.

Between the blood rushing in my ears, the heavy thud of my heart, I doubted I would be able to hear anything else.

I moved into the bathroom, happy no one stopped me.

Jack wouldn’t like that, that someone could move so freely without being detected, but that didn’t matter anymore.

I let out a mirthless laugh.

Jack was gone.

And I had a mess to clean up.

I did just that, washing my hands until the webbing of my fingers cracked.

The water was ice cold, smelled of minerals and farmland.