Chapter 40
REED
Seattle, Washington
Age Thirty
He opened the BMW’s trunk, placed his luggage inside, and stared at it. His entire life fit into a single suitcase. At thirty years old, it didn’t seem fitting. And after what he’d just done, it wouldn’t anymore.
Eight months. That’s how long it had taken Reed to uncover the investment account. With Donald breathing down his neck a little more every day, Reed knew he was running out of time. He should have left town already.
He hadn’t counted on the trust.
Evelyn’s inheritance sat inside the financial equivalent of Fort Knox.
Reed figured she’d be swimming in money—and in a way she was.
She received a monthly stipend of thirty thousand for living expenses.
A good amount of cash, sure, but nowhere near the retirement money Reed had counted on when infiltrating her life.
Still, the monthly distributions seemed like more than she needed by a long shot. And she didn’t buy shit.
So where was all that money going?
“I invest it,” she’d told him one day when he’d asked her off the cuff, looking at him like it was the dumbest question ever—like there was no other alternative.
“Really?” he’d said. “I didn’t know you were into the stock market. It’s a passion of mine. I invest all the time.”
“Why haven’t you disclosed this before?”
He’d shrugged. “I didn’t know you were interested.”
“What are your primary sources of information?”
“I’m a big fan of Buffet.”
She’d snorted then. “Being a fan of someone isn’t a reliable way to make an investment decision, Adrian.”
She was right, so he started leaving investment books on the kitchen table, in the bathroom, near the mail.
He slipped market analysis into their conversations.
They spent hours discussing the S he didn’t love Evelyn in a romantic sense, not in the same way she loved him, but he cared for her.
He cared for her more than he wanted to admit.
She wasn’t like the other women who’d been scattered throughout his youth like a minefield, waiting to explode.
She never manipulated his emotions or lied to get what she wanted.
She never used her station in life to her advantage like most women with money did.
Being with her was easy. That was the best word for it.
Easy. She made him—he didn’t know, happy maybe? Or at least if not that, close.
He could stay. He really could. It would be a better life than he deserved.
But Donald Nash would never allow it. He’d seen through Adrian Wallace’s mask from the start.
He was always picking at it, chipping the paint and trying to pull it free.
If Reed stayed, it would only be a matter of time before the man exposed him, and he couldn’t have that.
He had to leave. He didn’t have a choice.
So he’d take the money. But this was it—his last con.
He’d never do something like this again.
“Just go already,” he muttered to himself as he fired up the BMW and pulled up to the parking garage gate.
The passenger side door opened.
Evelyn got in.
Reed’s heart carved through his chest. She wasn’t supposed to be here.
But here she was sitting next to him, reeking of …
booze? He’d never seen her take so much as a sip of alcohol before.
It couldn’t be that. But then the scent hit him again—the sickly-sweet odor of alcohol-infused sweat—and he knew she had taken a sip.
More than a sip. A lot more. She smelled like she’d been swimming in a pool of tequila.
He gaped at her. “I thought you were—”
“Out of town? Yes, I’m quite aware. Where are you going?”
You’ll never know, Reed nearly said. He scraped his brain for a lie, hesitated for a split second, then said, “Oh, just out for a drive. I’ve been feeling a little cooped up. Figured it might be nice to see some countryside.”
Evelyn turned toward the windshield, her glasses flashing. “That sounds nice. I will come with you.”
A fist formed in Reed’s gut. “Aren’t you tired? Why don’t you go upstairs and get some rest. I’ll be back in a bit and we can grab some lunch.”
“Just drive.” It was an order, Evelyn’s voice devoid of warmth. Shit.
It’s okay, he told himself. It’s only a bump in the road.
You can figure this out. He did the math.
His flight left at four. He’d been planning to sell the BMW and arrive at the airport a few hours early to have a beer before boarding.
He still had time. He simply needed to find a way to get her out of the car first.
He drove. The buildings passed by in silence beneath a dark scoop of gray sky.
He angled south out of the city, Evelyn sitting next to him not saying a word, just staring out the windshield as motionless as a human statue.
It was how she got when she was upset about something, and it always made him want to crack her out of her shell.
“I’m glad to see you,” he said, reaching for her hand.
She pulled it away.
“What happened to the conference?” he asked.
She didn’t respond, and the smell of liquor hit him again, so sweet and thick it hung in the back of his throat like glue. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?”
Still no answer—which meant she knew something. He could feel it. But what, exactly? And how? He’d been rigorous in his planning, hadn’t slipped up at all.
But you did. Somehow you did.
Find a way to get her out of the car.
He had to. That was the only choice he had left. Get her out and then bolt.
Another urge rose then, a sudden insane need to do the opposite, to come clean with her about everything and beg for her forgiveness. A need he quickly choked down.
Goddammit, Reed, stop it already! Just get it done.
Miles passed. He drove aimlessly. They were somewhere close to Snoqualmie now, but he wasn’t sure, not through all the patches of fog that hung in the air like ghosts.
The trees were becoming steadily less visible by the minute, the traffic thinning.
In fact, he hadn’t seen another car for several miles now. Only mist.
The gears in his mind rattled and churned. He had to find a place to stop.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
Evelyn didn’t turn his way, didn’t even move.
He continued. “Why don’t we grab a bite to eat, and we can—”
“You’ve been dishonest.” The word came out in a slur: dish honest.
Every hair on Reed’s body rose. He kept his eyes on the road. “Why would you say that?”
“Do you think I’m an unintelligent person, Adrian? Do you consider me stupid?”
“What? No. Of course not.”
“Your actions lead me to believe otherwise.”
He looked at her. She sat stiff, her shoulders straight, her hair piled on top of her head in a tangled mess that made her appear like she’d just rolled out of bed. Her eyes were pink and wet.
“Livy,” Reed said, using her pet name—a tool he often employed when he needed her to soften. “You show up out of the blue when I think you’re away, and then you sit there without saying a word while I drive. And now this. Will you please tell me what’s going on? Whatever it is, we can talk it out.”
She tilted her head toward her lap, her chin clicking lower in a stilted, almost animatronic way.
“I did well in my classes growing up. Math, science, geography. It didn’t matter how hard the subject was.
There were rules to follow. Patterns. I could always figure them out, even when the other children couldn’t.
They asked me for the answers, and I helped them.
Then they mocked me. They imitated the way I spoke.
They pretended to be robots. For a significant portion of elementary school, I thought it was a compliment.
I thought they did it because they wanted to be like me.
For an intelligent person, I was quite stupid. ”
“You’re not stupid,” Reed said. “Not at all.”
“Yes, I was. In middle school, I let two girls cut my hair. They were popular. They told me a new hairstyle would help me fit in. When I let them do it, they chopped most of it off. Then they attempted to shave my head with a pair of electric clippers. I ran home in tears. I looked incredibly foolish. I wanted to die after that. I tried.”
She tried? What did that mean? His stomach lurched. “That’s … horrible.”
“Correct. It was. And it continued into high school. No matter what I did, or how kind I was to my peers, they continued to torment me. During my sophomore year, a girl stole my clothes from the locker room while I showered. A girl I’d thought was my friend.
All I had was a towel. More girls were waiting for me when I came into the hall, and one of them snatched that, too.
Then they laughed. They called me Naked Nash.
” Her tone went high and biting. “‘Here comes Naked Nash!’ ‘Watch out, everyone, Naked Nash is on the loose!’ Every day, they called me that, day after day after day, until I cried so hard my father withdrew me from school.”
She blinked and shook her head, her lower lip trembling.
“He told me it was for my protection. And perhaps it was to an extent. But his actions weren’t congruent with protection.
He rarely took me out in public. He didn’t take photos with me, or videos.
It didn’t make sense to me then, but it does now.
He didn’t want to be seen with me. He had a legacy to protect, and I was an embarrassment. ”
“He loves you,” Reed said, stunned at her interpretation. “There’s no way he—”
“Do not interrupt me, Adrian!” Evelyn’s voice cut through him like a sheet of ice. “I know he loves me. And I’m answering your question. I’m telling you what’s going on.”
A weight formed in Reed’s gut. He returned his gaze to the road.
“As I grew, I came to realize I was different. And people don’t like people who are different.
They like people who are the same as them.
It made sense to me. I understood then I was meant to be alone.
It took me some time to accept that, but I did.
And I was fine with it until you came along and changed my mind. ”
The weight in Reed’s gut swelled and expanded until it felt like his skin would rip. He tried to say something, to assure her everything was fine, to tell her he didn’t know where this was coming from, but when he opened his mouth to speak, all that came out was a slow stream of air.
Evelyn turned her expressionless face toward him, her eyes drilling straight through his skull. “You wanted to see some countryside, did you? In this weather?”
Reed’s mouth went dry. The blanket of fog surrounding them was growing thicker by the second. At this point, he had no clue where they were, only that they were rolling down some random country road with his heart beating so fast he thought it might explode.
“How long have you been planning to misappropriate my money?”
Reed was right. She knew—which meant he was in danger.
But not from her so much as from whoever she’d told.
Forget lunch. He needed to ditch her right now.
And he needed to lose the BMW as soon as possible after that.
Then he’d need to get the fuck out of town.
No way he’d risk the airport at this point—too much attention—he’d need to take a bus.
“Why would you say something like that?” he asked, eyeing the road, looking for a spot to pull over. There weren’t any, and the fog was making it increasingly difficult to see.
“My money is gone, Adrian. All of it. I know it was you. I installed cameras in the condo. I saw you packing. I saw you retrieve your phone. Give it to me. I need to turn it over to my father.” Before he could stop her, she swiped the phone from the cup holder.
Reed nearly choked. He’d dumped his burner. This was his real phone full of all of his contacts. Packed with his personal information. He’d kept it hidden from Evelyn in a small hole he’d cut into the wall near their closet and covered with a blank wall plate until now. Until today.
She couldn’t have it. It would ruin him.
He lunged for it, snapping it out of her hand before she could stuff it into her pocket.
She unbuckled her seatbelt and came at him, her features a blur of rage as she tried to take it back.
Her fingernails carved five hot trails from his forehead to his chin as they raked over his face.
Her sudden weight on his knee forced his foot into the accelerator, and he ripped the wheel left in an attempt to keep the car on the road.
He barely had time to register what was happening as she clawed for the phone, shrieking for him to, “Give it back! Give it back!”
“Evelyn, stop!” He took her by the shoulder and flung her into her seat. Blood dripped into his eyes as he went for the brakes. He saw the intersection with the stop sign—and the car beyond it—too late.