I don’t want to hear any more, so I grab my purse and walk out to Detective Huxley’s car.
Ellie
Thursday, September 6th
The house is dark and empty, and the echo of my heels on the hardwood floors sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack to a scary movie.
My client moved out last week and asked that I walk through a couple of times a week—either while showing it or on my own. Since the commission on the listing could potentially match a third of last year’s income, the request seemed well worth it.
When I come out of the master and into the living room, there’s a lamp on. Nelson McKinley is standing by the fireplace. Hate pumps through my blood at the sight of him. I’ve always known Nelson is a bad man—nothing like the upstanding citizen everyone in this town believes him to be—but now that I know what he did to Molly, the sight of him disgusts me.
I stop two steps into the room, not wanting to be any closer to him than I have to be. “You should call your wife and let her know you’re okay. Everyone’s looking for you.”
He tilts his head to the side and studies me. “Didn’t my son tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
He grins. “That I don’t exist anymore. My boy is blackmailing me. In exchange for him not destroying my life, all I have to do is disappear. Kind of ironic, isn’t it?”
Shit. I’d have thought Colton was smarter than that. Blackmailing Nelson McKinley can’t end well. “Why are you here?”
“I’m simply trying to oblige my son,” he says, lifting his hands. “Colton just doesn’t realize that I don’t like being told what to do. You see, I took off for a few days to think, and I’ve decided I’m going to give my son what he wants.”
I stare at him. I know this is the part where he wants me to ask questions, to contribute my piece to the conversation, but I’m not interested in playing his games.
“I’m going to disappear. I’m going to die, actually.” He laughs. “He would love that.”
I wrap my arms around myself. “Good. What are you waiting for?”
His glare feels like a sheet of ice coming at me. “It would be so easy for me to make it look like my son killed me.” He drops his gaze to my stomach. “I wonder what it’ll be like to raise the child of a murderer. Do you think the people in this town will treat your baby like any other when they know its father brutally murdered his own dad?”
“No one will believe that.”
He throws his head back and laughs. “Won’t they? From a man with Colton’s history? Seems pretty believable to me.”
“How do you know about my pregnancy?”
He smiles. “I have eyes in this city. I feel like you’re smart enough to understand that, even if my son’s not. I have so many people looking out for me. People who owe me favors.”
“And so many p
eople who know you enough to stab you in the back at the first opportunity.” I’m bluffing. I have no idea if anyone but Colton has the courage to stand up to Nelson, but if I can put even a wrinkle in his confidence, it’ll be worth it.
“Given your condition, I imagine you’d like Colton to be around for your baby, whereas I’d find it rather satisfying to frame him for my death. He has everything he needs to blackmail me, and I have everything I need to frame him.” His grin is so disgustingly genuine that I want to puke. He’s enjoying this game. “Or maybe if they took Colton away, you’d just fall back on Levi. But I know things about Levi, too. Things you wouldn’t believe. How good he is with cars. How fast he can make something disappear just because I asked him to. And Levi . . . Levi was never after the money. He just wanted the thrill. I should’ve known better than to let those boys try the straight and narrow life. It was my mistake. I assumed they’d come back.”
I take a step toward the couch. There’s a lamp there with a long neck and a heavy base. If he comes at me, I can grab it. “Why are you here? What do you want from me?”
His laugh is so loud and booming that I’m sure everyone in the neighborhood must hear it. “I want what everyone wants, Ellie. I want what your white-trash self wanted when you were working for Tate Andrews. I want money.” He shrugs. “My son’s tied my hands, and now I have no choice but to get what I need from you.”
His eyes skim down my body, and my stomach lurches. “Don’t come near me.”
“I don’t want sex.”
“You want money?” In a different situation, that might make me laugh. Nelson has more money than I’ve ever had in my life. “I don’t have any. Like you said, white trash, remember?”
“You have resources.” He steadies his gaze on my hands. “You have skills.”
I shiver hard and feel myself tremble. “I don’t do that anymore.”