Pretty Little Wife(84)
Samantha rolled her eyes. “You’re threatening me?”
“You’re the one who thinks I already killed someone. Be smart and don’t push me.” Lila slipped her hand in her pocket and took out a small tape recorder. She held it up for Samantha to see.
Samantha froze in the act of lifting the mug for another sip. “What’s that?”
“The recording of you where you talked about how much you wanted Aaron to pay for leaving you the way he did.” Because she wasn’t a novice. Lila had known what a wild card the teen victim of her husband might be and had taken precautions.
Samantha slowly lowered the mug to the table. “You recorded me?”
“Call it insurance. It’s one copy of many.” Lila put the recorder back in her pocket. “Have you studied the concept of mutually assured destruction in your history classes? Simply put, it’s the idea that if one of us goes down, we both go down.”
Samantha’s mouth opened and closed twice before she said anything. “You’re a bitch.”
Lila signaled for the waitress to bring the check. “A bitch with evidence that points directly at you. Remember that before you run off to talk with anyone about me or what you think I’ve done.”
“Mutually assured destruction,” Samantha said in a faint voice.
“I will make sure you’re seen as a hero, and you will keep quiet.” Lila tried to conjure up an expression that passed for a smile. “That’s the only deal you’re going to get.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
“REALLY? YOU MET AT A DINER?”
Lila had a feeling Tobias would find out about her little trip in his car and tried to launch an offensive strike by telling him. “She called, and meeting privately seemed like it would raise more questions.”
“How about not meeting at all? Or telling me so I could tell you not to meet?”
“She’s a victim.”
Tobias balanced on the bar stool, somehow managing to look at home teetering while wearing expensive dress shoes. “Is that the point here?”
Kind of, yeah.
She sighed at him. “Lawyers are the worst.”
“Yes, we are, and you will listen.”
It was a fair request. She’d promised not to act as her own attorney. She knew from watching others do exactly that how it almost always ended in disaster. In crisis, people needed good advice unclouded by emotion. While she hardly viewed herself as the overwrought type, Tobias would see things she couldn’t.
“She wanted to talk. She’s confused, and the news of Karen’s murder threw her.” That wasn’t quite true, but suggesting anything else could backfire. Like it or not, she was stuck in this twisted mess with Samantha. “Seeing her seemed like the least I could do.”
“You’re being watched by the police.”
“By everyone in the state, apparently.” Stupid cell phones.
The doorbell rang. Her body had been trained to tense up at the sound. Ever since Aaron had gone missing, it went off and her insides curdled. A voice in her head shouted at her to run and keep running.
She groaned. “Now who?”
“Jared,” Tobias said as he slid off the stool.
No, no, no.
“What?” She needed more energy to walk into that battle again. His shots had been so unexpected that she was still reeling from them. The idea of another round . . . “I can’t.”
Tobias walked right past her and headed for the front door. “He wanted to talk.”
“No.”
“I’m not giving you a choice,” he said over his shoulder as he walked away from her. “You need him as an ally.”
She heard the front door open. Without looking, she knew the press was crowded in as close as possible. Neighbors had complained. She complained. All the law enforcement folks had done was push the media back to the end of the driveway and into the public street.
Jared stepped just inside the family room, wearing a navy suit with his tie loosened. A casual look for him.
“Hey.” He smiled when he saw her, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He turned to Tobias. “Do you mind if we talk alone?”
Tobias laughed as he sat back down on the bar stool. “Actually, yes. Just pretend I’m not here.”
“He’s being protective.” And she appreciated the gesture. Arguing with Jared was the last thing she wanted today—or ever.
Jared stepped up to the back of the couch but didn’t make a move to sit down. His stop put them a good six feet apart, but she could see the way he avoided straight-on eye contact. How he stared at the area rug and hardwood floor as if they were the most interesting things in the world.
She took pity on him. “Jared—”
“I know I lost my temper and took all my frustration out on you,” he said at the same time. “I said things—”
“It’s fine.” They talked over each other, verbally bumped into each other. The awkward, disjointed sentences eased some of the tension pounding through her.
“It is?” Jared asked.
Tobias openly watched them. “Really?”
She gestured for Jared to sit on the other end of the couch. Not close, but there, in comfort, so she could let him know this was as hard for her as it was for him. “I haven’t figured out how to process all of this. The idea of Aaron in that cabin . . .”