*
Evie was so happy when they finally pulled into Lexi and Noah’s. She wanted to slap Jackson so bad. He had scooted up so that his head was in between theirs, talking the whole time about growing up and how much trouble Evie got into.
Noah stood at the door waiting for them. Before anyone could say anything, he spoke. “I’ll kick you out of here so fast you won’t know what hit you if this gets too much for Lexi.”
Anthony nodded. “I understand. I’d feel the same way. Thank you for allowing this.”
Evie snorted. “Oh, and like Lexi has no say in the matter. Men.”
Noah grabbed her in a headlock. “You know what we meant.”
“Yes, us poor, little, weak women. We couldn’t make a decision on our own if it wasn’t for you big, strong men.” She batted her eyes at him. After elbowing him in the gut so that he’d let her go, she said, “Now where are the womenfolk? I need more estrogen.”
Evie walked into the room and saw Lexi standing by the kitchen counter with Kat right next to her. She thought she heard her brother gasp but when she turned around he had his poker face on.
Not sure on what to do next, Evie walked over to Lexi giving her a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered in her ear.
Taking a deep breath, Lexi stepped forward. With tears in her eyes she said to Anthony, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I can’t image what you have gone through, and part of it is my fault.”
Anthony stayed where he was. “It’s really not your fault. I just hope one day you can see the man I am and not him.”
“Well, she’s not going to have to worry about that since you’ll be leaving soon and she’ll never see you again,” Kat said from the background.
Evie turned to Kat. “What makes you say that?”
“He’s got no reason to be here. He gets what he wants and leaves. Isn’t that what you do?”
Evie was surprised by the venom in Kat’s words. They’d spent time together since she was always by Lexi’s side, but she knew her to be reserved and not say much. Every once in a while, she would let loose and they were able to have some laughs.
“Kat!” Evie could tell by the sound of Lexi’s voice that she was just as shocked by what Kat had said.
Kat looked down. “Sorry. It’s just that for over a year now all I have done is studied everything about Anthony and Jeremy; looking at picture after picture, knowing what he is capable of. Watching over Lexi so that Jeremy doesn’t get another chance. So to see him,” she pointed to Anthony, “being able to just walk right in here. It makes my trigger finger twitch.”
Noah walked over to Lexi and moved her away from Kat. “Well, maybe you should leave. We can have someone else come up here while Anthony is here.”
She shook her head. “No, I can control myself.”
Evie wondered what she was really getting at. She moved over to Anthony and grabbed his hand so that he was forced to follow her to the living room. She felt a tingle between her shoulder blades but she was sure it was worse for Anthony. After sitting down, so they were facing everyone else she said, “Let’s get started.”
*
They worked long into the evening. Sam and Martha made sure that they had enough food and were taken care of. Between Noah’s and Anthony’s men they had a lot of paperwork.
Evie’s anxiety increased as the sun went down. Knowing Jeremy was close by and the curtains were open wasn’t helping. She finally had to say something and Noah pushed a button and all of the curtains came down. Feeling like she could concentrate again, they got back to it.
They created a map of the murders and a summary of each. Going over what Anthony and Evie had learned about Natalie Sutton, Anthony’s parents, and Christina Cooper.
“So Lexi, based on what Jeremy told you Tiffani was the first right?” asked Jackson.
“Yes. From what he said he loved her but she dumped him for Anthony. He couldn’t take that and killed her. He tried to set Anthony up, but he was out with a friend that night.”
“An old friend popped into town that day and called me last minute to go have a drink. He just went through a bad break-up and wanted some advice. Lucky for me, I guess.”
“Then there was Natalie, the maid, and Anthony’s parents. Boy, he was busy there for a few months. Between that and the model in Paris, Monique Diaz that makes his murders international. Not too smart there.” Evie was letting Jackson go through all of this. He was late to the game and she knew that talking it out was how he processed.
“We didn’t get a chance to go over to Paris while we were in London. After finding out my parents were murdered, I wanted to get back here as soon as possible. Besides, a friend had set us up to go to that art opening together. We’d never met before then, another spur of the moment thing.” Anthony shrugged.