“Now, wait just a minute,” she said to Liz’s fleeing back. “I didn’t invite you in.”
“Margo? Is everything okay?”
She turned to find Claudine had stuck her head out the workroom door. That was all she needed. “Yes. Everything is okay,” she said, plastering a smile on her face. “Just a little matter I need to take care of. It won’t take long.”
“Oh,” Claudine said, looking at Margo and then Liz. “I thought you said you didn’t double book.”
“I didn’t. This is a personal matter.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Margo was glad when Claudine stuck her head back inside and closed the workroom door. She then turned a furious gaze to Liz. “I told you I had a client here, so please leave.”
“I won’t leave until you and I have a little talk.”
Margo frowned. “We have nothing to talk about. You are interrupting my time with a client,” she said, trying to keep her voice low so Claudine wouldn’t hear them.
“You think I give a damn about your client after what you did to me?”
Liz opened her jacket, and Margo saw the revolver in Liz’s hand. It was pointed at her. “Liz, what are you doing?” Margo asked, looking from the gun back up to Liz. “Are you crazy?”
Liz chuckled. “Yes, I’m crazy. Now let’s go into your kitchen. If you refuse, I will shoot you right here. Then I’ll go into your office and shoot your client, so as not to leave a witness.”
Margo didn’t say anything as she considered Liz’s threat. She’d never thought the woman was capable of falling off the deep end just because Uncle Frazier had broken off with her. Hopefully, if they talked, she could make Liz come to her senses and see what a terrible mistake she was making.
“Fine,” Margo said. “Let’s go into the kitchen and talk.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
STRIKER ROUNDED THE corner onto the main road that led into Margo’s subdivision. As he neared her house, he saw another car besides Margo’s car parked in her driveway, and the hairs on his neck stood up. The make and model matched that of Liz Tillman’s vehicle. Striker recalled Frazier mentioning it when he’d warned him about Liz blaming Margo for the breakup. It could be a client’s vehicle, but Striker decided not to take any chances and kept driving to the house next door, remembering it was up for sale. He pulled in the driveway and brought his car to a stop.
With his instincts roaring inside him that something was very wrong about this situation, Striker quickly got out of his car and circled around to the back of the house and then crossed the yard onto Margo’s property. For once he appreciated all her windows, which gave him a good view inside her home. Pressing his body against the side of her house, he also appreciated she had her blinds open. He was about to cross the patio to her sliding glass door but quickly darted back to the wall when Margo entered her kitchen with a woman he could only assume was Liz Tillman. And he could clearly see that the woman was holding a gun on Margo.
He fought back his rage as he silently moved toward the sliding glass door. He tried opening it and found it was locked. Pulling the pocketknife from his boot, he forced open the door, quietly slid it open and went inside. Quickly moving behind a huge potted plant that shielded his body, he crouched down to a position that gave him a good view of what was going on in Margo’s kitchen. He could clearly hear their voices as well.
If Liz Tillman thought she would hurt a single strand of hair on Margo’s head, the woman was sadly mistaken.
*
“HONESTLY, LIZ, IF this is because Uncle Frazier broke up with you, I had nothing to do with that.”
“Didn’t you?” Liz said, sneering. “I had plans for me and Frazier, and you ruined them.”
Margo’s cell phone suddenly rang. “Don’t you dare think about answering that,” Liz threatened.
Margo didn’t know what to do. She could tell she wouldn’t be able to reason with Liz. And whatever Margo did, she would have to be careful that Claudine, an innocent in all this, wouldn’t get hurt.
“Liz, why don’t we go somewhere else to discuss this? Away from here for more privacy.”
“This place is just fine and we have all the privacy we need for you to tell me why you deliberately ruined things between me and Frazier.”
“I didn’t ruin anything,” Margo said, hoping against all odds that she would get through to her.
“Yes, you did. Now everything I worked for over the past two years means nothing. I planned it all. I saw Frazier. I set my goal to have him, but, thanks to you, it’s over. I paid someone to get rid of you just to see Frazier suffer, but the man I hired backed out.”
Margo stared at Liz, not believing her admission. “You hired someone to get rid of me?”
A haughty Liz lifted her chin. “Yes. I suggested that he turn you over to human traffickers. I even paid the bastard a down payment. He was going to get the rest when the deed was done. Now I have to take care of you myself.”
“You won’t get away with it.”
“Why not? I’ll shoot you and make it look like a robbery. Of course that means I’ll have to shoot your client, as well, and—”
“I don’t think so. Now drop your gun before I shoot you.”
Both Margo and Liz glanced at Claudine, who stood in the kitchen doorway holding a gun.
“I said drop the gun and don’t think about trying something stupid. I’m a very good shot, lady, but if you want to call my bluff, go ahead,” Claudine warned.
Liz stared at the woman and, as if deciding not to call Claudine’s bluff, she dropped her gun.
*
WHAT THE HELL! Striker had been about to crash the little party in Margo’s kitchen when he’d seen Claudine Bernard enter the scene. Where had Claudine come from?
He couldn’t help but grin. It seemed Claudine wasn’t just the it’s-all-about-me bride-to-be he’d taken her for. The woman definitely surprised him. She was the last person he’d think would tote a gun, but in this case, he was glad about it. She had disarmed Liz Tillman.
He was about to come out from behind the plant and let Claudine know he would handle things from here when Claudine’s next words stopped him cold.
*
“CLAUDINE, WE NEED to call the police,” Margo said in a rush, inching away from Liz to pull her phone from the back pocket of her jeans.
“Don’t move, Margo.”
Margo blinked at Claudine’s harsh command. “Why? We need to call the police.”
Claudine smiled. “We don’t need to do anything. In fact, this woman’s timing is perfect.”
An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of Margo’s stomach. “I don’t understand. What do you mean her timing is perfect?”
“Then let me explain things,” Claudine said while still holding the gun on both Margo and Liz. “My plan all along was to kill you, Margo, and that was after I took care of your father’s illegitimate brother, Roland Summers.”
“Illegitimate brother?” Liz asked, speaking for the first time since dropping her gun. “There’s an illegitimate brother?”
Other than flashing Liz an irritated look, Claudine ignored her question and then said to Margo, “The guy I hired to kill Summers botched up the carjacking, and Summers survived.”
Margo’s head began spinning. Claudine planned to kill her and had been responsible for Roland’s carjacking? “But why? What did we ever do to you?”
“Your father and Summers drove my father to commit suicide.”
Margo was convinced Claudine had come unhinged. “What are you talking about?”
Claudine sneered at Margo, as if Margo should already know the answer. “Summers was going to blow the whistle on his fellow officers, who were on the take. They set him up, and Summers went to prison.”
“Prison?”
“Yes, prison. Then Summers’s wife and your father were able to get him a new trial.”
“And what was wrong with that when an innocent man had been sent to prison?” Margo asked, still having a hard time following Claudine. Uncle Roland had been a cop? He’d served time? What crime did they pin on him?