“Funny, she doesn’t seem like the small town type of girl,” I said before I could think better of it.
“Why would you say that?” he asked.
I thought back to the pictures of her, the way she stood in those nice dresses and killer heels. She fit into that world better than I would have ever thought. She looked like she belonged there. Then again, she looked like she belonged here. How the hell was I going to figure out who she really was?
“She mentioned that she asked for your help with picking out samples for paint.”
“Huh?” I looked up at him, lost in my own thoughts.
“Paint samples? She asked for your help?”
I nodded. “Oh, right.” And that was my in. I just needed to meet up with her, pretend to be her friend. I could get to know who she really was and then take what I knew about her from her files and compare the two. That should give me a better insight into the woman before me. Hell, maybe I could even get her to open up to me and tell me about herself. I grinned to myself, happy that I finally had a plan in place.
“He likes her,” Kat muttered. “Look at that smile on his face.”
“Well, it was only a matter of time,” Eric sighed. “He’s the only one left.”
“No, it’s not like that,” I corrected them. “I was just thinking that I should be more neighborly. I think maybe I’ll go over there tomorrow and see what she needs help with.”
“Why didn’t she ask you for help?” Kat asked Eric.
He shrugged. “I think she’s worried I already have too much on my plate. Honestly, I hate picking out paint samples. I like the clients to already know what they want, so if Andrew wants that job, he can have it.”
I finished eating my shells, ignoring the rest of the conversation. I finally had a plan in place, and if I played this right, I would get all the answers I needed.
I was nervous as hell driving out to Lorelei’s place. After reading up on her some more last night, I was a little more convinced that she really was a black widow. Her file read like a serial killer’s beginning profile. She came from a poor family, her father was an abusive drunk, and her mother died under mysterious circumstances. She was found dead in her chair one day, but an autopsy wasn’t requested. Was it possible that Lorelei had been abused and then snapped one day, killing her mother? Maybe she killed her because her mother had allowed her father to abuse her for so long, and under the pressure, she snapped like a twig.
And as for the boy that had died, he had a heart condition. I had done my own research on his heart condition. Extreme stress, that’s what the articles stated. Under what conditions would a boy at the age of eighteen suddenly be under such extreme stress that he just keeled over and died of a heart attack? He was friends with Lorelei, and they were quite close from what I could gather. Had she pushed him too far? Maybe he found out that she killed her mother. Maybe she had put him under extreme stress to induce a heart attack, therefore making his death look like an accident.
There were just too many question marks right now, but I was about to put the pieces together. I pulled down her long driveway, relieved when I saw that Eric’s work truck was parked outside, along with others from his company. That was good. I couldn’t be killed if there were witnesses, not unless she planned on killing us all off.
I parked off to the side of the driveway, leaving room for others to leave. Although, maybe that wasn’t a smart idea. Maybe I needed to make sure no one could escape and leave me here alone with a killer. I shut off the truck and got out, nervously swinging my keys around my finger. I could do this. It was part of the job. I had agreed to take this job, and to get to the heart of the issue I had to pursue all possible avenues.
I grinned to myself. Look at that? I was talking like an adult and shit. I was pretty proud of myself. That book Eric gave me really opened my mind. I was just about to walk up the steps to the house when I heard a female swearing around the side of the house. Curious, I walked around the side of the house, looking around for anyone that might be a witness for me, but there was no one.
There was an old car parked on the gravel drive next to the house, and the hood was popped on the car. I didn’t know enough about cars to know what this car was, except old.
“Goddamn, son of a bitch!”
Frowning, I walked a little closer, only to duck when something shiny and silver flew at my head. I felt the breeze as it whirred past my head, just barely missing me. If I hadn’t ducked, it would have smacked me right in the head. I could be dead right now. I glanced back at the tool that laid on the ground behind me. It was a wrench. My heart was thundering in my chest and I was sweating already. Murder attempt: 1, but I wasn’t dead yet.
Shaking off my nerves, I turned only to find Lorelei scowling at me. Shit, I hadn’t realized that standing here would piss her off. Was she going to throw another wrench at me? But then she seemed to recognize who I was and her scowl turned into a smile. Devious. I could see what she was doing. Pretending to be all pissed off, only to be happy when she saw me. She was drawing me in.
“Andrew! It’s so great to see you. I honestly wasn’t sure I would.”
I swallowed down my fear and did my best to look confident. “Yeah? Why’s that?”
“Well, you seemed nervous yesterday. I took you for one of those guys that doesn’t know how to handle women.”
I smirked at her, though I was shaking inside. “I handle women just fine on my own.”
Her eyes trailed over my body and when they slid back up to my face, she gave me a saucy smile. “I bet you do. So, what are you doing here?”
“You mentioned that you wanted some help choosing colors, so here I am.”
She smiled brightly at me, like I had just given her the sun and the moon. And it was a real smile, I mean, a real smile for a serial killer. I titled my head, taking her in, trying to see her for what she really was. She was wearing a sweatshirt and tight jeans, work boots, and her hair was pulled high on her head in a ponytail. She had grease smudges on her face and hands, but she was still a beauty. She looked nothing like those pictures though. She looked…normal. Warm eyes invited me in with a soft smile that was somehow bright and gentle all at the same time. And those damn lips, God, I couldn’t get them out of my mind last night. How could this woman be a killer? It didn’t make sense. Then I remembered the wrench that had just whizzed past my head and knocked that sweet and innocent act right out the window. If she knew how to fix a car, she could be a killer. It didn’t make any sense, but I had to keep in mind who she truly was.
“That’s really great. I hate choosing colors.”
I nodded to the car. “Not the girly type that likes to design?”
“I wish,” she sighed. “It’s just not something I’m good at.”
“And the car?”
“My dad’s.”
Ah, the drunk. So, she was fixing up her drunk father’s car, but for what purpose? I needed to do more research on serial killers. If she was a black widow, was this some kind of sick fascination with her father? She wanted to find a way to connect with the man that let her down?
“Where’s he?” I asked, as if I didn’t already know.
She looked down at the ground, kicking at the gravel. “Back home, probably drunk off his ass on a bar stool.”
The way she said it, it didn’t sound like she was resentful, only sad that he was a drunk. It pulled me in, made me want to hold her and tell her it was alright. “I’m sorry,” I said sincerely.
She shrugged. “You can’t change people, right?”
“I guess not.” Though, I had no experience with drunk parents. Mine were awesome, so I had no idea what it was like to have parents that didn’t give a shit.
“So, what’s with the car?”
“We started fixing it up together a long time ago, but…things happened and that was it. So, when I moved out here, I drove home and had the car brought out here. I thought…”
I frowned at her. “You thought what?”
“I thought that he would care, that he would try to stop me, but he was too drunk to care.” She laughed humorlessly, staring at the old car. “He asked how much I could give him for it. He really needed a drink.”
Oh, she was good. I had to hand it to her, she was pulling on my heartstrings and making me want to go to her and hold her. She really knew how to play a man.
“Sorry,” she smiled brightly. “You didn’t come all the way out here to hear my sob story.”
“It’s alright.”
“So, you were serious about helping me?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’m willing to try.”
She stared at me for a moment, like she was trying to figure out if I was real or not. She was assessing me like I was assessing her.
“That’s very sweet of you.”
I grinned, because that’s what I did. “Well, what can I say? I’m a regular charmer.”
She laughed, shaking her head slightly. “I bet you are. Come on, I’ll show you inside.”
I let her walk past me, because there was no way in hell I was going to turn my back to her. I would probably get an axe in the back. I followed her up the steps of the porch, noticing how rotted the wood was. I stepped where she stepped, not wanting to injure myself. I already had to watch myself enough as it was. When she shoved the door open, I heard the sounds of Eric’s crew working somewhere toward the back of the house.
Looking around, I wondered why she bought the place. “Wouldn’t it have been cheaper and easier to tear it down and start over?” I wondered out loud.
“Probably,” she said, following my gaze. “But I liked this old house. I didn’t want it to get thrown away just because it was damaged. Besides, the bones are still good.”
I took in the old house and wondered if that was true. Off to the left was what I assumed was a living room, though it was hard to tell with how worn down it was. I walked into it, noting the creaks in the floor. Lorelei walked up beside me and chuckled.
“I know it doesn’t look like much, but I can see how it’ll look when it’s all done. The fire will be going,” she said, pointing to the fireplace that was basically a pile of rubble. “And I want to restore the built-in bookcases…”
“And replace the floor,” I laughed.
“Well, that too. I talked to your brother about that. They basically need to be replaced all over the house.”
“And I think you need to replace your windows. It’s gonna get awfully cold in here.”
“I know,” she shivered. “I can already feel the winter weather creeping into the house. The furnace is on its last leg. I need that replaced before it gets too cold.”
“Are you sleeping here?”
She nodded. “It’s my home now.”
“Now that your husband died,” I hedged.
She looked at me sharply, her eyes narrowing. “Who told you?”
I swallowed hard. Shit, I forgot that she hadn’t told me yet. “My brother. I was asking about you. He told me your husband had recently died.”
She snorted. “So, that’s why you’re here? You think I’m the poor widow that needs help?”
“What? No. I just…I just meant that you had to find a place of your own, starting over and all.”
She eyed me for a second and then nodded with a sigh. “Well, I didn’t want to go home, so I literally pointed to the map and made a decision.”
“And your old house?”
“It’s wrapped up in paperwork right now. Besides, his kids hated me. I didn’t want to stay there.”
“His kids,” I said, trying to sound surprised. “You didn’t get custody?”
“They’re older, adults. My husband was twenty years older than me.”
“Oh.” I hoped that didn’t come out as judgmental. “Well, you can’t help who you fall in love with.”
She shrugged in response. “So, you really want to help me out?”
“Sure, why not? I mean, I can’t guarantee that everything won’t turn out beige, but what the hell?”
She smiled up at me and grabbed my arm. “Stay right here. Don’t move, okay? I’ll be right back with samples.”
I nodded and watched as she ran out of the room. Glancing around again, I just couldn’t believe that she was fixing this old place up. The place had been empty for something like ten years, but it was already falling into disrepair long before the old man died. To be fair, he did keep the place up as best he could, but repairs cost money, and a place like this would already cost a fortune. From what I knew from the brothers, their father had hit some kind of financial crisis and they had been riding it out since they were kids, just barely hanging onto the house. Their mother loved this place, so the father never could bring himself to move the family out.
I glanced at my watch, wondering what the hell was taking Lorelei so long. She had said to wait here, that she would be right back, but the longer I stood there, the more I wondered if she was ever coming back. I felt something hit my shoulder and glanced over, but didn’t see anything. I sighed and shoved my hands in my pockets. I shouldn’t have come out here. What the hell was I thinking? I wasn’t any good at design. I gave my opinion, but that was it.
Something hit my shoulder again and this time when I glanced over, I saw that it was water. Looking up, I noticed a huge water spot on the ceiling. There was a creaking noise, like the floor was giving way. The ceiling cracked and my eyes went wide. I dove for the side, just as the ceiling caved in and a giant claw foot tub fell from the floor above.
I fell hard on my side, covering my head as shit fell all around me. Something crushed my left ankle and I cried out, feeling like my bones were being crushed into little bits.
Lorelei
I raced upstairs to grab the color samples I had picked up at the hardware store, but when I ran into my temporary bedroom, I saw what I looked like in the mirror. God, it was terrible. I had grease marks all over my face and hands. I looked just terrible. I ran to the bathroom, figuring I could quickly clean up before going back downstairs. I flipped on the water in the clawfoot tub, and got the right temperature. I ran back to my room and stripped out of my clothes, tossing them in the hamper. Nobody came upstairs yet, since they were all working in the kitchen now. I grabbed some fresh clothes and ran back to the bathroom, slipping on water the minute I stepped back inside.
“Shit,” I swore as I took in the leak that had sprung from somewhere. Crawling around naked on the floor, I tried to find the source of the water, but couldn’t find it. The pipes had to be in the floor or the wall. Hell, I didn’t know how plumbing worked, especially in old houses. The closer I got to the feet of the tub, the more I could see that the floor had already rotted around it. I quickly turned off the water and then stood up, resigned that I was not going to get a shower in today. I quickly pulled on my underwear, jeans, bra, and shirt, but before I could pull on my socks and shoes, I heard a groaning sound.
I stood still, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. I stepped closer to the tub, straining to hear. The floor seemed to crack beneath my toes and I leapt back, scrambling to get to the door before the whole floor gave out beneath my feet. I grabbed the doorframe just in time to see the floor, along with the tub collapse into the floor beneath me.
Staring with wide eyes at the gaping hole, my heart hammered in my chest. Holy crap, I had almost just been sucked down with the tub, and who knows if I would have survived that. My head snapped to the side at the sound of yelling, and I quickly scrambled to my feet, racing for the stairs. My feet collected splinters from the wood along the way, but I had to see what was going on.
Running down the stairs, I stared with wide eyes as I screeched to a halt at the bottom. The tub had fallen through the ceiling almost right on top of Andrew. I hadn’t even realized that the bathroom was right above the living room. Eric was kneeling next to Andrew, shaking his shoulder. Oh God, I had killed him.
Rushing over, I knelt down on his o
ther side, staring at his prone figure. Eric was asking him if he was okay, but Andrew seemed to be in shock or something. He just kept staring at the tub until Eric slapped him across the face. I flinched back, thinking maybe that was taking things a little far.
Andrew finally snapped out of it, wincing as he moved. “Shit, my ankle.”
My eyes frantically searched his body for any other injuries, but I couldn’t see any. Eric was already down by Andrew’s feet, searching through the wreckage.
“The leg of the tub snapped off. Your foot is pinned under the tub. RJ, grab the other side of the tub.”
RJ rushed over and grabbed the tub, while two other guys, whose names I didn’t know, ran over to help. Without thinking, I grabbed Andrew’s hand and squeezed it, trying to reassure him, though it was more for me. I had already dealt with enough death. I really didn’t need to think about what might have happened unintentionally. If I had wanted to kill him today, it definitely wouldn’t have been in my own house, and it wouldn’t have been death by falling tub. They lifted the tub off his foot and Andrew scooted away, cringing in pain.
“Are you okay?” I asked, trying to put as much emotion as possible into my voice.
He looked at me warily and nodded. “Yeah, I think my ankle is crushed, but the rest of me seems to be fine.”
“Yeah, imagine what would have happened if the tub had fallen on you,” I laughed.
But he didn’t laugh along with me. Okay, strike one on the comedy front. Apparently, he was not amused by any of this. Not that I could blame him.
“I can drive you to the hospital,” I said quickly.
“No!” He stared at me with wide eyes for just a moment before shaking his head. “Uh…Eric should take me.”
I nodded, though I was confused by the fearful look in his eyes. Did he think I did this on purpose? Because I had a whole list of ways to kill someone, and none of them included dropping a tub on someone’s head.
“Okay, well, let’s get you out to the truck.”
“I can do it,” he bit out, standing with the help of his brother.
Tangled Web: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 6) Page 6
