Faithless in Death (In Death, #52)(46)



“Bitches, both of you. You think you’re so important because they made some idiotic vid about you? You’re nothing. You’ll be less than nothing when I’m finished with you.”

Deliberately, Eve hooked her thumbs in her front pockets. “Well, now I’m terrified. How about you, Peabody?”

“I just can’t stop shaking.”

“I hate you!” Gwen grabbed a used wineglass off the table, reared back with it.

“You throw that, you’re back in a cage for assaulting police officers. Record’s on, Gwen. You might want to pull yourself together.”

On a frustrated scream, Gwen threw it against the wall instead.

Eve surveyed the shards of glass, the splatter of the swallow or so of red wine that had been in the glass.

“Boy, that’ll teach us.”

“This is harassment. My new lawyer’s going to sue you for harassment.”

“Got one of those yet?”

“I’ve been too upset. I’ve lost the love of my life!”

“Oh, cut the crap. You didn’t love Merit Caine any more than you love the guy who delivers pizza.”

“You don’t know my heart.” Gwen slapped a dramatic hand against it.

“That’s not going to work. It may be good practice for your parents, but it’s not going to work with us. We’ve just come from your safe deposit box.”

Drama hit shock, shock hit outrage. “How dare you!”

“Badge, cop, warrant. We dare a lot. Getting your engagement ring appraised—and the other baubles Merit gave you? That indicates greedy calculation, not heart.”

“That’s for insurance purposes.”

“No. You have your insurance papers in your closet safe. And Merit has the appraisal, is carrying the insurance on what he gave you. Cut the crap,” Eve said again. “I bet Chad never knew you were adding up the value of his heart. Or hearts, since he gave you several.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“We should just take her in, Dallas. She’s lying to cops again. The judge is going to revoke her bail, so—”

“No!” This time Gwen slapped both hands on her heart, and meant it. “I’m not going back to that horrible place. I can’t.”

The tears looked real this time, too, as she dropped down on the sofa, covered her face with her hands. “Oh God, oh God, what am I going to do?”

“You could try telling the truth.” Eve nodded at Peabody. They each took a chair. “We might be able to help you if you do.”

“You don’t understand. You don’t understand what it’s like for me.”

“I understand you’re a gay woman whose parents condemn that orientation, and because of that, you had many millions of dollars riding on your marriage to Merit Caine.”

“They wanted me to marry another member of the order—they had candidates.”

“Names.”

She looked up again with eyes drenched, swollen and red. No more pretty crying.

“I don’t know—I swear it. As soon as my father brought it up I told him I was in love with Merit. We’d barely started seeing each other, but I had to do something. If I married someone from the order, it would never end. Merit hit all the qualifications, except that one thing—and my father believed he could recruit him, in time. That would be a coup.”

She pressed her fingers to her eyes. “So I went after Merit, and so what? I gave him everything he wanted except for sex, and I was prepared to give him that, after marriage. My mother explained sex to me as a wife’s duty. She must never, never deny her lawful husband sex. Not in the mood? Well, take a quick whiff of this, and you’ll relax and feel agreeable.”

“You’re saying your mother gave you illegals. Whore? Rabbit?”

With the heels of her hands, Gwen rubbed her red-rimmed eyes. “Whore, I think, diluted. I don’t know what with. My mother came up with the … formula or whatever it is. She promised it was perfectly safe, and she used it herself. What does it matter? He wouldn’t know the difference.”

“And once you were married, you’d get pregnant as soon as possible.”

Now those red-rimmed eyes fired with defiance. “Damn right. I’d meet the terms of the trust, get my money. I deserve that money. And after a while, there could be a divorce. Merit would never join the order, I knew that. And my father would come to dislike and distrust him, so I could divorce him. I could claim he’d been unfaithful. I had time to work all that out.”

“More money, from the terms of the prenup.”

“I’d have earned it.” Unashamed, she snapped it out. “I could move away, far enough away. I’d have to be careful, until they died I’d have to be careful. But then I’d have my life—all of it. I need money to have my life.”

Eve nodded. “Time plan: get married, have a kid, get a divorce—with him to blame. Put a little distance between yourself and your parents. But there’s still all that money—well over a billion with the houses you’d inherit. Why wait, when you could arrange another tragedy?”

“What tragedy?” When it hit, her eyes widened. “Oh my God, I wouldn’t kill my own parents! I despise them, okay? I despise them, their ridiculous rules, their ridiculous order, but my God. If I could do something like that, I’d have done it after they sent me to Realignment.”

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