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He bit his lips and spun away, suddenly very concerned with refrigerating the leftover tuna.
I jammed the spoon in the peanut butter and set the jar on the counter, hot on his heels. “What did you do?”
“I had a problem. I handled it.” He closed the fridge. Instead of facing me, he scurried toward the servant stairs.
I chased after him. “And youtoldher?”
“Not exactly.”
When we reached the first landing, I made a grab for him. Spinning him by the arm, I shoved him against the wall and blocked his escape, making the most of the two inches I had on him. “Speaking as one of your lawyers right now, what the fuck did you do?”
His eyes rolled skyward before he caved and looked at me. “I killed Richard’s assistant and Lorelei saw me coming back into the house.”
I folded my arms over my chest, staring hard at him, waiting for the incriminating part.
“With the crowbar.” He winced. “Covered in blood.”
“Oh, for the love of Christ!” I gaped at him.
Before I lost my composure completely, it was my turn to dart away, continuing up the stairs. I needed some distance to actually think and not be distracted by his puppy eyes or his pleading.
“Bennett...”
“Do not feed me a line of bullshit right now.” I crested the stairs and peeled off for the terrace at the back of the house, trying to talk myself out of following that bitch home and solvingthislittle problem right now. I thought she was bluffing. I thought she was referring to the murders he’d beenaccusedof. I didn’t realize he’d gone and fucking killed someoneelse, someone outside of the plan, someone he didn’t tell me a goddamn thing about!
“It’s her word against mine.” His tone was imploring, a silent cry for understanding, but I wasn’t ready to give it. Maybe when I wasn’t so fucking pissed, I’d see his side of the argument.
Throwing open the double doors, I inhaled the evening air as quickly and deeply as I could. So far I hadn’t come up with a single reason why Lorelei fucking Clayton should continue to live. She was a walking liability and there was onlyoneway to definitively deal with a liability. Even if I somehow got her to sign an NDA, she could break it. She’d already been willing to throw away her career for something as illogical as love. Why should spite be any different?
“She’s not a credible witness,” Leander continued, stopping next to me at the wrought-iron railing. “If she tells the police how she knows, she’ll ruin herself professionally. If she lies about how she knows, you’ll destroy her testimony. Or Richard will.”
“Where’s the crowbar?” I whirled on him so fast he took a step back.
“Gone.”
“Gonewhere?”
“Underneath the house. No one will ever find it. I couldn’t retrieve it now even if I wanted to.”
“And the clothes from that night?”
“Burned.” He stroked the length of my forearm lightly. “I promise you. There isn’t any evidence left.”
“Oh, no? How about the body? Is that in the basement too?” I shouldn’t have been so mad, but what.the.fuck? What happened to the man who spent months planning a single event? Now all of a sudden he was whacking secretaries and eloping on a whim? He’d changed during our time apart and the jury was still out whether or not that was ultimately a good thing.
“Dismembered and scattered,” he snapped, looking wounded at the line of questioning. Not that I blamed him. I’m sure he was expecting an entirely different reaction. “Throughout a dozen hog farms, here and across the river. What wasn’t eaten was dissolved and buried.”
Alright. Thatwasa nice touch. My hackles lowered — slightly. He was as capable a killer as I was, and deep down I knew he wouldn’t leave anything to chance. “I’d feel a hell of a lot better if that bitch was dead.”
Leander softened, slipping his hands around my waist and pulling me closer. “There are people who are relying on her.”
He could have only meant the patient he befriended at Parkview, the one whose care he paid for via an anonymous trust. “You mean Martha?”
Nodding, he stretched up and pressed a kiss to the underside of my jaw. Leave it to him to want to protect a paranoid schizophrenic who stabbed her mother to death with a goddamn palette knife.
“I swear to God, my love, if I even get aninklingshe’s gone to the police, I’ll snuff her out like this,” I said with a snap.
“If she goes to the police, you’ll have to beat me to her,” he replied before his teeth grazed my throat.
