They would know that I loved them.
So, with a deep breath and a strong soul, I took one last look back at the little cottage that held the things I wanted most in the world.
Before I silently—and quickly—walked out the front door before I couldn’t bring myself to do it anymore.
I could barely see where I was driving because the snow and the tears clouded my vision. I drove fast enough that I could outrun my aching desire to turn back. Rob’s car was still a cop car and I hoped that meant that I wouldn’t get pulled over. As if I wasn’t being reckless enough, I pulled out my cell phone and pulled up the Goldshire homepage. There on the website was exactly what I had been looking for, the phone numbers for the Headmaster and his wife. Texting and driving had never really been my strong suit, but then again none of this was something I had done before or really thought that I would be able to successfully pull off.
It was all just one bad decision after another right now.
“Hello Aunt Naomi,
I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m texting you in the middle of the night. I’ll be brief.
I know why you shot Michael and why you’ll keep coming after them and me until you are able to force me to be Headmistress of Lineage.
You see, I dug around and found where you were when you went “away”. I also found some other things. I found the inheritance that was left to me, and no, I’m not talking about my father’s inheritance that David squandered away. I’m talking about the OTHER one. You know the one. That’s why you’re after me. Because unless I’m Headmistress, you don’t get any of it, do you Aunt Naomi?
If you want it, I guess you’ll have to come and get me.
How did that saying go…you have to give a little to get a little?
Guess that works both ways, huh?
Oh, and if you are thinking about going after the guys I love again—don’t. Because if they die, you’ll never find it.
SORRY… SORRY…SORRY… SORRY… SORRY.”
It was exactly seven seconds after I hit send that my phone lit up with a text message. I read the first three words of it only.
“Why you little—”
And then I rolled down the window and threw the phone out into the snowdrift as I kept driving.
I didn’t really know how to get to Maine from Charlotte. I just knew that it was up. I tried not to think about anything as I drove, only to focus on the driving and to keep driving until I was too far away to turn around. But it was impossible not to think about the guys. And it was impossible not to think about what they would do when they woke up and found me gone.
I hoped that they would know that I did this for them. I couldn’t bear the thought of them thinking that I had just abandoned them. I had no phone, no way for them to contact me. And they would never in a million years think that I would have gone to Maine to find the one person alive that was in charge of my mother’s fortune. I didn’t care anything about the fortune, though. I hated money and all of the trouble and greed that it caused and all the foolish things that it made people do.
The only thing I cared about was keeping the guys safe and keeping my crazy family away from them.
Maybe someday this would all be over, and I could go back. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too late then and hopefully they wouldn’t hate me. Aunt Naomi knew where I’d be going, and I hoped that she came to chase me.
Because I’d be waiting to kill her myself.
26
“Lisette?” Michael called when he woke up and reached for her body but found nothing there. “Lisette, where are you?”
He got up and wrapped one of the giant, heavy furs around his shoulders.
Michael walked into the house and straight into the bedroom looking for Lisette. He didn’t even notice the letters on the table.
“Where’s Lisette?” he said with an edge of anxiety in his voice when he saw that she wasn’t in bed with Adam and Rob.
Michael walked over to the bathroom, but the door was open, and Lisette wasn’t there either. He grabbed a pair of pants and threw them on frantically. All three men raced out of the bedroom and into the rest of the cottage in a panic to find where she had gone.
“What happened?” Adam asked. “Wasn’t she with you by the bonfire?”
“What bonfire?” Rob asked.
“Lisette asked me to build her a bonfire, and to get her some furs. I knew she would be using them with you last night. I thought that’s where she was when I opened my eyes and saw that she wasn’t in the bed with us.”
“She was there with me,” Michael said urgently. “But when I woke up, she was gone.”
Rob was at the front door and opened it to look out. “The car is gone.”
“What?” Michael shouted. “We have to find her! How could someone have taken both Lisette and the car without us noticing?”
“How are we going to get anywhere without the car?” Adam asked hysterically.
“I can call the precinct and have them send me a car from the local Sherriff’s office,” Rob said as he grabbed for his phone.
Michael grabbed his phone too and started to call Lisette but there was no answer. He messaged her repeated panicked texts, asking her where she was and if she was okay, and then he tried calling her again.
“It has to have been Naomi,” Adam said. “We have to get back to Lineage and get her from that woman before she kills her.”
