Behind her gag, her mouth was dry, the damned ties holding far too fast, and she had to fight to keep her spirits from flagging.
“So, now you see, it’s your turn to play the game.”
She watched as he set his firearm on the table, directly in front of her but completely out of reach. He was toying with her. He knew she was aware of his weapon, that she was watching it.
“I like you, Andi. I’m kind of fascinated with you and I’d love to fuck you. You’d find it pleasurable. I’m good in bed. Very good. I could really get you going.”
No way in hell.
“But the most important part of this game is that I need control of the company. My company finances. Brian may have bungled his job today. Emma might not die immediately, but it’s only a matter of time. Like Greg, she has to go.”
Andi noted another fifteen minutes had passed and the ties, though giving a bit, were also cutting into her wrists.
“The beauty of it is, my darling sister has made me her beneficiary.”
Andi must’ve changed facial expressions because Carter’s eyes glinted. “News to you, isn’t it? After we learned Greg had left his shares to you, Em and I made a pact to leave ours to each other. No Ben. No one else. No one else,” he repeated, looking at her. “Who’s your beneficiary, Andi? Oh, that’s right. It’s Greg. You never changed it after his death. And since he’s gone, the shares go back to the company.
“Everything’s in place, except you talked to Detective Rafferty. You and Denton. And she’s sniffing around what happened to that suck-up junkie, Lance Patten, and probably Wendy, too.
“You don’t know about them. Wendy was my first real kill.” He glanced away to the middle distance, remembering, she guessed by the satisfied grin that curved his lips. “My old man had insisted I go to that goddamned summer camp. North Lake Junior Camp. I was determined to buy that piece of property even though Greg thought it was too much money, but I won that battle. Can’t wait to tear down every board. Dad had some stupid notion it would be good for me to go there. I had no choice back then but to play along, so I decided I’d play by my own rules. I snuck out every night by canoe.” He sighed through his nose. “Wendy was white trash. Pretty. Nice body, but white trash. I would take her out, fuck her beneath one of the willows, then sneak her back to her pathetic family on Aurora Lane. Wendy was hot for me. Too hot, as it turned out. She had the gall to keep showing up at the most inopportune times. She had no damned filter and no sense. I made her pretend we didn’t know each other, but she didn’t like it one bit. Had big romantic dreams. Fantasies. Thought I could be her white knight and save her from the poverty of her life.”
He stared at Andi and made a face to show how ridiculous Wendy’s romantic notions were.
“I had to kill her. The last time she walked across the fields to the lake, I met her at one of the other cabins that was empty that weekend. While we were doing it, really going at it, I wrapped the willow branch around her neck and just kept tightening it. Best climax I ever had. Her face all mottled and red, her hands scratching wildly at me. After that, I never looked back. But Lance ... he wanted what I wanted, except he didn’t have the imagination. He got hooked up with a cougar on Aurora Lane, a really feisty older woman, but she wouldn’t look at him after one night with me. Lance and I shared her for a while, but she wasn’t good at keeping secrets. Couldn’t keep her trap shut. I got lucky on that one, though. Somebody else took care of her, so all the talk about me and Lance dried up.”
Andi couldn’t believe the depth of his depravity. She swallowed hard and worked the ties, making slow headway. She had to keep him talking because as soon as he stopped talking about the past, he would get to the present.
And to her.
“Then Lance started getting cold feet. He knew about Wendy. He’d suspected I’d killed her and kept asking about her. Finally I told him the truth. He just stared at me, and then he tried to run away. I grabbed him and held him under. And then I buried him on the abandoned cabin next to my parents’.
“Except . . . the cabin wasn’t abandoned forever. I knew I had to put him somewhere permanently. He’d told me about finding bones in this family’s basement on Aurora Lane, some family with the hot cougar. Swore they were human. I didn’t care if they were or not. I decided to add Lance to the pile. I dug him up and carried what was left of him to their house. Broke open a basement window and tossed him in. Like I said, the game always has surprises.”
He suddenly grabbed her by the chin. “So now, Andi, I have another game. One more in my repertoire, and this time guess who gets to play?”
She didn’t have to.
“That’s right. Finally it’s your turn.”