Tangled Web: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 6)

was not the foot I drove with, so I got in my truck and drove out to her house. It was always a relief to see that other people were at the house. It made me feel safer, like I wasn’t risking life and limb to come here. I walked up the steps to her house, avoiding the really bad boards, and knocked on her front door. I was still nervous as hell, but the minute she opened the door, I was practically knocked on my ass by her beauty. This was how she got men. She had this everyday woman look to her. It drew men in and then she sucked the life out of them. The one thing I didn’t understand was why she didn’t go for Barty. He was a good looking guy. He was younger, so at least she would have a good life with him. But then I had to remind myself that the endgame involved her getting everything, and Barty had already told me that he wouldn’t have received everything she had.

“Hey,” she said brightly. “You’re back. I thought I might never see you again.”

“Here I am,” I said jauntily, wanting to smack myself for sounding like an idiot.

“Well, come in. You must be freezing. The temperature’s dropping like crazy.”

I rubbed my hands together as I stepped inside. “Isn’t the furnace working?”

“It’s temperamental. Eric ordered another one, and it’s supposed to be put in soon. But come look at this,” she said excitedly, dragging me into the living room.

I glanced up, sure that I was going to see a tub fall from the ceiling again. Instead, the ceiling was completely repaired, aside from the final paint job. And the tub was no longer in the living room, so they must have prioritized getting that fixed.

She stopped and stared up at me happily. “Okay, what am I looking at?”

“My fireplace!”

I looked at it and sure enough, it was all fixed. Eric must have brought out extra men to help get this place in shape.

“Wow, it looks great.”

“I know. Eric wanted to do this himself, but since he was in the middle of the kitchen, he pulled in some more guys to hurry things along. He’s worried about getting the heat up and running before winter hits.”

“Yeah, it’s coming in faster this year.”

“I know. So, he fixed this up so that I had some heat if the furnace doesn’t come on time. Not to mention that all the ducts in the house need to be cleaned out. He said they were really clogged, which is partly why the furnace is working overtime.”

I glanced over at the couch and noticed the folded blankets and pillow sitting there. I walked over and picked up an afghan out of a basket. “What’s this?”

“Oh, it’s just a little something I’m making.”

My head spun to hers in shock. “You’re making this?”

Her cheeks flushed red and she nodded. “My mom taught me. And it’s so cold, I thought I would make my first blanket for the house.”

I nodded, looking down at the blanket. What kind of serial killer made blankets? That was weird, right? But maybe she wasn’t actually making it. It could all be part of her ploy to appear wholesome and good. She probably didn’t even know how to make the damn blanket.

“Show me,” I said, a little too firmly.

“What?”

“I mean, I want to see how it’s done.”

She looked at me funny, but took the blanket from me and got herself situated on the couch. I watched with rapt attention as she wrapped the yarn around her finger and picked up the hook. Then she started crocheting. I knew enough about it from my mom to know that she was actually doing it. My eyes were wide as I sat there staring at her. She was actually fucking doing it. Fixing cars one day and crocheting the next. Who the hell was this woman? Did serial killers crochet? I doubted their weapon of choice would be a crochet hook. It wasn’t exactly deadly.

“So, how big is it going to be?”

“Well, this is just the one side. Once I’m done with this, I’ll turn it over and crochet a decorative pattern on the backside. It should end up being about the size of a king bed.”

“Wow. That’s impressive.”

She smirked. “And in the meantime, it keeps me warm on cold days.”

I cleared my throat, unsure of what to say about this now. I couldn’t figure out this damn woman. She was nothing like the profile that Barty gave me. I really needed to go back and do some more research on her. I had just been going off the file he had given me and then comparing it to what I could find online about her, which wasn’t a whole lot. I also needed to start digging into Barty. If he was after the money, he had just as much reason to pin something on her.

Lorelei

I had to be careful around Andrew. He was suspicious of me, though I had no idea why. I hadn’t given him any reason not to trust me, aside from the tub almost falling on his head. But this was more than that. He was curious in an obvious way, and he still seemed like he was terrified of me. I caught him watching me like he was waiting for me to do something, and that wasn’t good.

I was going to have to seduce him. I needed him on my side if this whole thing went to court. I knew Bartholomew hadn’t gotten what he wanted yet. He needed reasonable doubt that there was foul play in order for the body to be exhumed. And I couldn’t give anyone any reason to doubt me further.

“So, are you ready to help me with samples?” I asked, pulling out my color palette I had picked up from the hardware store. I figured the best way to play this was to pretend to be really stupid when it came