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“Leith!” There’s a strangled gulp. Wendy’s fragile voice disappears. At the sound of a struggle for oxygen, my eyes darken.
“Shite,” I mumble. I run a hand over my face. Erika’s green eyes widen while we listen as the life gets choked out of Wendy. Glass crashes. Erika’s shoulders jump.
Vehemently, I take a breath. It’s Yates. It has to be. I mutter, “I’m sofeckin’sorry.”I got her into this.
“Who?” Erika mouths.
I speak up. “Douglas, I know ye canfeckin’hear me. Sick bastard—”
A notification chimes. FaceTime. Unknown like it had when I first encountered Yates. A niggling feeling churns in the pit of my stomach. Wendy’s as good as deid now, so I accept the call.
On the screen, Yates is in darkness again, but no purposeful setup like when I had murdered Phelps.
The outline of a potted palm tree rustles behind him. He wheezes through his nose while talking, “All I wanted to do was make a friend in you, Mr. MacKenzie. Your lack of appreciation disgusts me. Now that we know I’m a one-man show, I’d like to bring something to your attention since you refuse to listen.”
He moves, and the automatic lights in the driveway ofmyhome come into view. Those are the expensive palm trees I purchased for curb appeal and privacy.
My rage ebbs. Paralytic fear for my weeweanand hen grows in the pit of my stomach. Knuckling down on the former and not the latter, I order, “Witthefeckareye doing at my house?”
“Couldn’t very well be two places at once, Mr. MacKenzie.”
“I’m gonna gut ye, rip yer spine out!” I threaten in a restrained, grave tone,
“Seeing how I couldn’t play God. I hired one of those run-of-the-mill thugs for the attorney. This was your idea. You and Wendy’s when you chatted last night and determined I had never spent money on a hired hit. Well, I’m done being frugal.”
I measure my breath, watching him walk along the path. The water fountain is in the background. The garage comes into view, then the entire length of my home as he ambles with a pained gait.
“Now, Wendy was a non-factor. But the wife. The kid. The brother you all call The American. Well, they are important to you—”
“Ye watch the next thing coming out of yer mouth, Yates, or ye’re deid ahunnertimes over. And ye should already assume that when I caught ya, I was already planning to kill ya! Now,ye’resodeid,sofeckin’deid!”
“Dead? Heh, I feel revitalized—save for my ankle.” He strolls toward the street, only to stop on the lawn of the neighbors opposite us. “I’ve spent the last ten minutes placing bombs along the perimeter of your house. I’ll say, times up. In five, four, three, two.”
Yates flips the camera. A loud explosion rings out. The FaceTime frames a fury of red and orange flames gnashing at each other. Glass and other fragments sprinkle across the fragmented stone. Hyperventilating, I stare at the phone. Erika has me in her arms.
“I’m so sorry.”
Chapter 41
Chevelle
The bottle of Chianti crashes.Legs wobbling, I stare into the kitchen window of our old house. Tears prick my eyes, collecting and threatening to rain down my cheeks. The vision fades, blurring into a prism of Leiths and Erikas.
There are suddenly a hundred tiny, fragmented images of them in my tear-streaked eyes as I stare into a window right in front of the sink. Leith bought the home before heading off to grad school. Said it would be a place where I could go, not have to worry about rent or rooming with a stranger.
He’d goaded me until I made use of his credit card to buy curtains. Do all the little things that made his houseourhome. My old lilac curtains frame the area where I once made countless meals—frames the two of them together.
Justice was right.
It never penetrated until this precise second.
I’ve built my life around Leith.
The dam breaks.
Hot tears flood my cheeks.
I built my life around a motherfucking MacKenzie. At least my mother probably had the blinders on until the last second. She never saw Dad as the bad guy. Ever since I’ve known Leith, he’s been the bad guy. Hereseta bully’s jaw, pulverized another one.He’s the fucking bully!Hell, his entire family are bad guys. His family is filled with murdering, lawless bastards.
