“Alright,” he said, after about five minutes of trying to calm himself. “So, she actually said she killed three people. Not that she was responsible for their deaths or she killed them in a car accident or something.”
“No, she said, I already killed three people. And then she said, how the hell am I supposed to convince them I’m innocent?”
He nodded. “Which means someone suspects her of killing another person.”
“That’s what I was hired to look into.”
“How the hell did you get out of there without losing your shit?”
I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “That didn’t go very smoothly. I sent Robert an S.O.S., but she answered the phone and it was all downhill from there.”
“She knows that you wanted out of there?” he asked incredulously.
“Well, I smoothed it over. I told her that I was just getting scared and I needed some time.”
“And she bought that?”
“Well, we’ve been moving pretty fast. I mean, I’ve spent a lot of time with her lately, so…”
He stared at me for a minute, and I started to get uncomfortable. Then he laughed and shook his head. “You’re in love with her.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“You are.”
I grimaced, not wanting to admit it. He sighed and pulled out his phone.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m calling Robert. We need to know how to handle this.”
“It’s simple. I just go to the police.”
He looked up at me from his phone and gave me a blank look. “You’re going to go to Jack and tell him that the woman you love and have been sleeping with is a murderer.”
“Yeah.”
He nodded once. “And then Jack is going to haul you in for questioning in relation to those murders because he has a vendetta against our family right now.”
“He wouldn’t—“
“You know he would.”
“But I didn’t even know her when these murders occurred.”
“It doesn’t matter. He’ll hold you on conspiracy to commit a future murder or…aiding and abetting a murderer! We need Robert here, and we need to figure this thing out.”
I sagged in my chair, my whole body going limp. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I knew it all along. I knew she was a murderer and I should have trusted my instincts. Now I had put my whole family in danger and I had to figure out how to get us out of this before it got us all killed.
“What the hell is so urgent?” Robert asked as he walked through the door. “I finally got Anna to talk about the wedding and you called and fucked it all up for me.”
“We have a situation,” Eric said, nodding to me.
Robert turned to me, lips pressed together in a tight line. He pulled out a chair and sat down. “Alright, what the hell did you do?”
“Just hear him out,” Eric jumped to my defense, always playing devil’s advocate.
“Well, you know Lorelei…”
Robert shook his head. “Yes, we’ve met.”
“Right. Well, anyway, funny story,” I chuckled. “It turns out that Lorelei isn’t exactly who she said she is.”
He shook his head in confusion. “Okay, then who is she?”
“So, funny thing is—“
“Yeah, you keep saying it’s funny, but I have a feeling it’s not so funny.”
My brows furrowed and I nodded as I considered this. “Right, well, so it’s not funny. See, she’s actually from West Virginia. Did you know that?” He just stared at me. “Yeah, you don’t care about that. Anyway, so it turns out that this guy she knew died…and she killed him.”
“Self-defense?”
I shook my head slowly.
“So, she needs an attorney?”
“Oh, she definitely needs an attorney, but not just for that, and not by you.”
He sighed heavily. “You know, I really hate riddles.”
“Right, right. So, anyway, it turns out that her mother also died suspiciously, and then her fiancé also,” I added slowly.
“Didn’t her husband just die?”
I scratched behind my ear uncomfortably and nodded. “Yeah, that would be true also.”
“So, let me get this straight…her husband just died, but now you’re finding out that all these other people died too…”
“Not exactly,” I said slowly.
“So, what exactly did happen?”
I looked to Eric for help. “He’s been sleeping with a murderer for months, knowing that it was possible that she was a murderer.”
“What?” Robert exploded. “You slept with a woman knowing that she was a murderer?”
“Not a confirmed murderer,” I corrected. “I was doing a job. I wasn’t sure.”
“So you slept with her?” he asked incredulously.
“Hey, it seemed like a good way to get information at the time. I needed to be sure.”
“And now you are?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I heard her the other night admit it.”
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“Honestly? I was thinking she was pretty hot.” At his glare, I rushed on. “But I was super careful the whole time. I mean, if you knew how many times I stayed awake just to make sure I wasn’t killed in my sleep,” I laughed, but it fell flat with my brothers. “So, what do I do now?”
Robert’s face crinkled in thought for a minute. “Who was the job for?”
“The step-son. I met him just around the time that Eric started working on her house.”
“So, he came to you with information?”
“He told me his suspicions. He thinks that Lorelei killed his father for the trust.”
“He could just be saying that. Who gets the trust if Lorelei doesn’t?”
“It would go to the family, but it would be broken up differently. He left me the terms of the trust. Her husband wasn’t willing to leave everything to his children.”
“Yeah, but better they get something than nothing,” Robert said, thinking it over.
“I thought so at first too. I mean, I checked into Arlen, the husband, and went through his business contacts. The guy was ruthless. Not to mention that he handed me a pretty compelling case against Lorelei.”
“Alright, so walk me through the other murders.”
“Well, the mom died when Lorelei was thirteen. Just died in her sleep. They didn’t have an autopsy or anything. So, I casually asked Lorelei about
