“When do we leave?” I pant, leaning against his thigh.
“Tomorrow morning, at dawn. Before anyone can stop us.”
“What about your parents? And Mary?”
“We’ll deal with them later. First, we need to get out of this town before it sucks us back in. There’s nothing here for us now except bad memories and sympathetic looks. I don’t want their pity. I just want you.”
“You have to promise me you won’t tell them what I told you about Jack. You can’t tell anyone. Ever.”
His smile is easy and warm. “I promise.”
Studying him for a handful of seconds, I snuggle up closer, laying my head on his chest and it feels like a dream. “The life insurance settlement deposits next month. We can go anywhere we want.” I look up at him. “We can buy a food truck and make it work.”
He spreads a devilish grin. “I have money saved up for that.”
“You’ll have to teach me how to cook.”
“I can do that.”
Smiling, my eyes draw to a picture of Jack and I perched atop the mantel. Taken at the peak of Vail Mountain, we actually had a good day that day. A bright, sunny day when a different dream laid awake in my heart. One that would never come to pass. Sighing, I rise from the couch and cross the room for a closer look. I can’t see the evil hiding in Jack’s eyes for the sunglasses on his face, but I can see that shit-eating grin. Flipping the picture down so I can’t see him anymore (or so he can’t see me), I turn and look at Lincoln. An extremely comfortable silence falls between us. “There’s just one thing I have to do before we leave.”
A frown settles into his face. “And what’s that?”
Chapter Nineteen
Goodbye, Jack
Brushing leaves from Jack’s gravestone, I place a dozen red roses into the metallic vase and lean back on my knees. I shouldn’t be here and neither should he, but here we are. Together again, beneath this overcast sky that looks exactly how I feel. Clouds churn above and light rain begins to tap-dance against my jacket. I barely notice the dew seeping through the knees of my jeans. I’m too busy staring at the dates carved into Jack’s marker. Thirty-four is much too young to die, even for a monster like him.
“Hello, Jack,” I barely say, clearing my throat and raising my voice against the wind. “I’m sorry I wasn’t enough for you.” I blink a raindrop from my long lashes. “But I’m not sorry I pushed you down those stairs because now I’m free. Thanks to you, the old Sienna is dead and damn you for changing me.” Blinking another drop down my cheek, I’m not sure if it’s a raindrop or teardrop and it doesn’t really matter.
“I’m leaving Cottage Grove,” I tell my dead husband in the early morning light, grass tickling my ankles where my jeans meet my sneakers. “With Lincoln. Today.” That admission frees my chest and now I can leave this place without looking back. Now, I can continue with my life. The one I’ll be sharing with my hero. “Goodbye, Jack.”
“You aren’t going anywhere, Sienna.”
The stern voice coming from behind turns me to stone. Barely rotating my head, I fall into Minni’s angry glare. There’s a bouquet of lollipops wrapped in her gloved hands and I’ve never seen her look so mad. Her chest rises and falls beneath a long, dark coat setting off her gray eyes and hair. “You’re staying right here,” she says, dropping the bouquet to the ground to reveal a small revolver hidden in her fist. Pointing the gun at me, her lips dive into the downward lines in her face. “In that plot next to my son, where you belong. Forever.”
“Minni, please,” I beg, holding up a hand. “I can explain!”
A devious smirk settles into her lips. A glimmer shines through the clouds turning in her eyes. The hammer clicks when she pulls it back. “Don’t explain to me,” she says, tightening her jaw. “Explain to Jack!”
“Wait!” I say, using my hand to shield the bullet she fires into my face.
Chapter Twenty
Sayonara, Mi Amigas
My eyes pop open and I find Lincoln lying next to me in the spare bed. He’s staring right at me, watching me sleep.
“You okay?” he whispers, brushing wet hair from my face.
Sitting up and leaning against the padded headboard, the sheet slides down my chest, revealing my heaving breasts. I’m just as naked as he is and everything slowly comes together in my groggy mind. “I just had the weirdest dream,” I breathe, wiping my brow.
“I saw that,” he says, looking concerned. “You just screamed.”
“I did?”
“Scared the crap out of me.” His gaze narrows. “Want to talk about it?”
“Not really,” I reply, taking a swig of lukewarm water from the bottle on the nightstand and wondering if this is another dream. One I never want to wake from.
Sitting up next to me, he studies me in the gray morning light slipping through the windows. “Remember that one thing you had to do before we leave?”
I feel my cheeks blush. “Yes.”
His eyebrows go up. “Wanna do it again?”
“Take down all the pictures of Jack and I? I think I got em all.”
“No, I mean the other thing after you did that.”
He wiggles his brow at me and my eyes lower to the protrusion lifting the bedsheet in his lap. I’m still sore from last night but that doesn’t stop my hand from slithering beneath the sheet and gripping his big, warm dick. The next several minutes pass in steamy bursts of light. With the room shaking around us, we melt together before floating back down to the bed when it’s over. Cuddling, we watch the ceiling fan whirl in a blur, no words needed. I’m safe in his arms and never want it to end. He pulls me tighter against him and kisses my forehead. Sighing, I toy with his brown chest hair and imagine a lifetime of mornings waking up next to this sexy man.
After quietly collecting our breath, Lincoln kisses me again and hops into the hallway shower. I need to do the same. My body is sweaty and sticky, but my legs refuse to move. They’re wet bags of cement and my mind is already a thousand miles from this place. I stare out the window and see a life with this man that will never end. The one I was meant to live. We all make mistakes but there’s always tomorrow, and my tomorrow is today. Thank goodness, we’re leaving town in just a few short hours – or maybe even minutes. It won’t take me long to pack, just the essentials. I’ll will buy what I need along the way. The idea of being a minimalist has always appealed to me and I can’t wait to shed my heavy skin. This place is full of so much shit, mentally and physically. Hell, maybe Wendy can sell the furniture with the house. Maybe she can’t. Either way, I’ll figure something…
The doorbell explodes in my ears before melting back into an uneasy silence. Fear claws up my spine, fast and hard. I’m not expecting anyone and a bad feeling blooms in the pit of my stomach.
“Shit,” I whisper, climbing out of bed and slipping into my crumpled tights and Madonna shirt. I just want to get out of town without any surprise calls or visits and this is no way to follow up such a gorgeous, gray morning. Galloping down the same stairs Jack cracked his skull open on, I pour into the foyer and pull back the door. My eyes thin against my shock. “Mary,” I pant, unable to shut my mouth.
She looks up at me through doe eyes and I immediately know something is amiss. Minni had a heart attack. Or Tom took his life. Maybe the coroner left a traitorous note on Mary’s Prius, telling her what I did even though I gave him Jack’s Corvette. “I’m sorry about the other night,” she tells me in a soft voice, eyes dropping to her black heels. “I was just…caught off guard.”
Relief floods my system, cooling my overworked heart. “Don’t be. You have every right to be mad.”
“The only thing I want is for you and Lincoln to be happy. That’s it.”
My eyes mist over. “Thank you,” I say, placing a hand over my beating heart. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that.”
She nods, holding a pink purse by the strap in both hands before a pretty beige dress stopping just short of the knees.
Sunlight pops out from behind a passing cloud, brightening the side ponytail flowing over her left shoulder like a river of molten lava. “Oh, and I changed my mind about the Corvette; I’ll go ahead and take it.” She gives me a sheepish smile that makes me grimace. “It will keep me close to Jack.”
My poor heart cries out in pain and then takes off battering the hell out of my ribcage. “I…uh…”
“You mind if I come in for a second? I just had a vanilla skinny latte and it is running right through me.”
Glancing behind me, I search for help but no one is there. It’s just me and my disheveled reflection in the mirror again and neither of us has a fucking clue. And let’s not forget about Lincoln showering upstairs. “Actually, now’s not a good time. I have a meeting with my realtor and I’m running late.”
“I’ll be super quick,” she replies, squeezing past.
Stepping aside, I know Mary probably doesn’t even have to use the bathroom. She’s probably just being nosey because that’s Mary. My thoughts search for traction in a warm pool of mud. What can I tell her about the Corvette? What possible explanation can I provide for its absence that won’t lead back to me killing her oldest brother? There is no explanation. I’m screwed.
“The car was stolen,” I blurt, making Mary stop dead in her tracks.
Turning, she stares hard at my silhouette in the open doorway. A UPS truck stops across the street and, predictably, a nearby dog starts barking. “Sweet potato pie,” Mary murmurs, looking a lot like I did when I just answered the door. She blinks blankly at me in the silence stretching between us. “When?”
“Last night,” I explain. “I left it in the driveway and when I woke up this morning it was…gone.” I tussle my bedhead for good measure. “The cops were here about an hour ago. Said there’s a new ring moving through town.”
Her eyes tighten. “Ring?”
“Yeah, you know, like a car theft ring.”
“Oh, I haven’t heard about that.”
“Like I said, they’re new.”
She replies with a shallow nod. “Wow.”
“Hopefully, they’ll get it back,” I say, refusing to shut that front door because Mary has to leave. Lincoln is showering upstairs and if she sees him…
“That’s terrible,” Mary decides, cocking her head to one side. “Did you leave the keys in it or something?”
“No, of course not. They must’ve hotwired it.”
Pulling in a deep breath, she sets it free. “I see,” she says, sounding just like her mother. “I’ll be right back.” Shell-shocked, she heads for the bathroom around the corner. The one with a pile of cigarette butts sitting outside the window and maybe now she really does have to go to the bathroom. “That’s so odd,” I barely hear her say, just before disappearing from sight.
I listen to her shut and lock the bathroom door, wiping a sheen of perspiration from my forehead. If Mary sees Lincoln, she’ll only get pissed all over again and I have to stop him from coming downstairs. I take two steps up the dreaded staircase and a small voice rings out from behind.
“Sienna?”
My pulse jumps and I’m terrified that when I turn around, Minni will be standing there clutching a bouquet of lollipops in her gloved hands. Shoulders falling, I turn to see Minni standing in the doorway. She’s a small woman with a large presence and there’s nothing in her hands. No gloves either. But if she sees Lincoln, she’ll stop us from leaving because she has that kind of pull. I just know it! My insides shrink. We were so close to getting the hell out of here and now this? I can’t. It’s too much for one woman to bear. “Minni,” I say too loudly, dialing up a phony smile.
Minni steps inside, feeding my anxiety. “Did I catch you at a bad time, dear? Your door was wide open.”
“Oh yeah, I mean NO.” Stopping at the bottom of the steps, I lower my voice. “Mary just dropped by to see how I was doing,” I say, thumbing behind me. “She’s using the restroom.”
Minni’s gray eyes rise over my shoulder and jerk back to me. My back stiffens. “I heard you are selling the house,” she says in a calm voice belying the wrath churning in her eyes.
“Oh,” I say, caught off guard and, damn, we were so close. “Yes, maybe, I don’t know for sure yet, Minni. This place…” My eyes rise to the vaulted ceiling with its modern chandelier that takes a forty-foot ladder to change the dumb bulb. The shower turns off upstairs, tightening my stomach. “Has too many memories in it.”
“Well, that’s why I’m here. Tom and I just want to assist you in any way we can.” Minni hikes a black Coach bag up the shoulder of an ornate dress coat. “We’ve had a lot of experience selling houses in our lifetime and only want the best for you. Just because Jack is gone, doesn’t mean you aren’t part of this family.” Her eyebrows rise into her powdery forehead. “When you finish grieving and the time seems right, if you want to start seeing other people, you have our blessing. You’re young and pretty,” she says, setting a soft hand on my wrist. “This isn’t where it ends.”
My heart breaks and my eyes begin to water. I try to hide it but can’t. Fuck me silly, why does she have to be so nice? I know how hard that must’ve been for her, and now I feel even worse knowing Lincoln is naked upstairs. The toilet flushes in the downstairs bathroom, drawing Minni’s eyes. A sweet-smelling perfume wafts over me on a lazy haze. “Thank you, Minni, I really appreciate that, but I’m not feeling very well today,” I say, gesturing to the door. “Can we catch up tomorrow?”
“Oh sure, sweetie,” she says, patting my arm and easing the tension gripping my heart. “I hope you don’t have this super bug going around.”
“I hope not either.” I take her arm and walk her to the door. “Thank you so much for stopping by. It means a lot.”
“Anytime.” Heels click closer behind us and Minni tosses a glance over her shoulder. Her eyes brighten. “Oh hello, dear,” she says, turning to face her daughter.
Sighing, I stop and hang my head in defeat.
“Hey Mom,” Mary says, clutching her pink bag before her dress. “What’re you doing here?”
My chest constricts and it’s suddenly ten degrees hotter in here.
“I just stopped by to check on Sienna. Oh say, did you pay Franco before you left the house this morning? I left an envelope sitting on the counter.”
“I did.” Mary glances at me. “He said the roses will be in soon.”
“Goddamn that felt good!” Lincoln yells out, pulling our gazes to the top of the staircase. Heart racing, I watch his footsteps track across the ceiling before hiding behind a hand. When the footsteps stop, I peek through my fingers to see Lincoln standing at the top of the stairs, toweling his hair off with both hands. He hasn’t even seen us yet and I can barely look. There’s another towel wrapped around his waist and I can never face Minni or Mary ever again. This is it. The last straw. Sayonara, mi amigas. Pulling the towel from his head, Lincoln stares down at us with the color draining from his cheeks into his bare feet. “Oh crap,” he mutters, tightening the towel around his waist.
Tilting her head to one side, Minni takes a step closer. “Lincoln?”
His eyes shift to Mary and I before flitting back to Minni. “Mom?”
“What in the world are you doing here?” she asks, holding her heart to keep it from falling out. “I think I know what you’re doing here but I dare not think it, for your brother’s sake.”
“Oh no,” he smiles, carefully descending the staircase. “Sienna had a stalker problem and I just came by to make sure she was okay. We scared the guy off late last night and I don’t think he’ll be back, but I stayed just to be safe.” He stops at the bottom of the stairs, smelling of soap and shampoo. “What’re you doing here?” he asks, giving Mary a sideways glance.
Slack jawed, Minni stares up at him. “What stalker?”
Shouldering her purse, Mary folds her arms across her chest and arches an expectant eyebrow at Lincoln.
Lincoln smiles weakly, water dripping from his hair. �
�Oh, just some pervert from around the block. Found a pile of cigarette butts outside the bathroom window in the backyard and we set a trap.” He stops to swallow against the lump in his throat. “Caught him red-handed.”
“Lincoln Grant McConnel,” Minni says, taking another step closer. “I may be getting on in years but I’m not in the grave just yet. I’m on Instagram and Snapchat and think I know exactly what’s going on here.” She throws a cross look my direction, curdling my blood.
Tapping a black heel against the floor, Mary watches her big brother squirm.
Minni steps in Lincoln’s face and hits him with an icy glower that only a mother can give. One that lays down the motherfuckin law. “Is there something going on between you and Sienna?”
“Minni,” I say, attempting to diffuse the situation.
“And if so,” she continues, ignoring me altogether. “How long?”
Mary drops her arms to her side. “Mom, seriously…”
“Lincoln!”
“A week,” he replies, hanging his head and crushing my hope. Wet bangs hide the shame in his eyes and I have nowhere to run. I’m trapped. My flustered heart beats out of rhythm and I want to strangle him. Why in God’s name would he admit that? Is he insane? We were almost out of here!
“A week?” Minni’s face crumples into her neck. Taking a step back, she clears her throat. “I see.” Then she’s looking at me and I can only bury my face in my hands. Minni and Tom had to find out sooner or later but I would have preferred later. Like from a thousand miles away later. Over the phone. Maybe by raven.
“Lincoln,” I hear her say in a dull tone. “I want you to get dressed. Your father and I would like a word with you in one hour.” And just like that, she’s rushing out the front door and climbing into a convertible black Mercedes with a tan leather roll bar that matches the dimpled interior.
White Widow Page 13
