“Darling, you know better than that. You don’t think UncleRichard doubled the size of our business by telling the truth? Honestly, you’reso naïve. It’s adorable.” She smiled and her teeth were so straight and whitethat they almost looked fake. “You’ll be perfect. I’ll have a car sent for youat 7.”
Perfect for what? “I won’t be home.”
“Yes, I’ll be sending the car to Tanner Rhodes’ apartmentbuilding of course. That is where you’re staying, yes?”
Fuck. She knew I was staying with Tanner? “That’snot…”
“Don’t play coy. It was smart to not go back to your house. Stayingwith a friend was the safer choice given the circumstances. At least for thetime being. You won’t be staying there for long if I have my way though.”
I thought she’d meant because I was surely about to die, butthen she gave me a salacious wink and lightly bit her lower lip. No. GoodGod, no. Did she think she was going to sink her claws in me and turn me intohusband number two? Because there was literally no way that was fuckinghappening. I’d rather the hitwoman off me.
“I won’t take no for an answer.” She turned to Gigi and puther hand out. “Time to go.” The little girl ran over and slid her hand into hermother’s.
“Ugh. Gigi, your hand is bleeding.” Poppy pulled away from herdaughter in disgust. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d made a mess?”
The little girl didn’t say anything. She just blinked eventhough there was blood literally dripping down her hand.
I looked over at the shattered glass. There was blood everywhere,like Gigi had been playing with the broken shards of glass, accidentallycutting her palms this whole time. How had she not screamed? I grabbed a tissueto hand to her.
Poppy snatched it from me and pressed it against one of Gigi’sbloody palms. “We’ll need to get that looked at. There goes my whole day. Followme. And don’t touch anything. Especially my dress.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“See you tomorrow night, Matthew,” Poppy said over hershoulder, avoiding her daughter like the plague. Gigi looked down at her shoesas she hurried after her mother.
Yikes. That kid was going to grow up and be a realmonster at this rate. Breaking things on purpose and not even caring when shegot a cut? Scarlett screamed bloody murder whenever she got boo-boos, as shecalled them. I’d never seen a child not cry when they got even a little hurt.
Mary walked in. “Miss Cannavaro said to set up a dinner forthe two of you tomorrow night?”
“Yeah, just ignore her. There’s no dinner.”
“She seemed rather adamant. Oh my, what in the world happenedin here?” Mary had spotted the bloody mess.
“It was just an accident. Could you call someone to clean thatup?”
“Um, yes, right away.” She walked over to the door, but thenstopped and turned around. “It’s none of my business, Matthew. But that woman?”She shook her head. “No one’s ever spoken to me the way she does. I just thoughtyou should know before your date.”
I stared at Mary. I hadn’t noticed that her eyes were alittle glossed over like she was about to cry. “What did she say to you?”
“It wasn’t what she said. It’s how she said it. Like Iwas…nothing.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Mary. But you don’t need toworry, I won’t be having dinner with her. And about whatever she said or how shesaid it? Ignore her. She’s the one that’s nothing.”
Mary smiled and nodded. “Okay. Let me know if you needanything else.” She quietly closed the door behind her.
I walked over to the window and looked out at the view of thecity. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to have dinner with Poppy. But thatdepended on a few things. I needed to get those prototypes from Penny. And Ineeded to be able to corner the hitwoman and get a confession out of her. Allwithout getting killed.
If I couldn’t do all that? I sighed. I’d have to go to dinnerwith Poppy. The thought of sitting with her through a whole meal made me feelqueasy. But I wouldn’t have a choice. I couldn’t risk my friends’ safety by notgoing to dinner. Poppy having a child meant nothing and I knew it. She was justplaying a game. If I crossed her, she wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Scarlett orsomeone else. Or me. I had no idea what she really wanted. That was the wholeproblem.
I saw her and Gigi exiting the building onto the sidewalkbelow. They hurried over to a town car. She made the driver lift up Gigi andput her into the car. Probably so Poppy wouldn’t get blood on her dress.
What the hell do you want from me? It had to besomething with the contracts I signed when I was 16. I didn’t know what else itcould possibly be about. There were hidden clauses in them, I knew that to betrue. But what did they say? What had I agreed to?
All I wanted was to be able to stand her up and not die as aconsequence. But I wasn’t confident in my plan. Especially because Penny stillhadn’t texted me back. I turned away from the window. I needed a backup plan.
Chapter 25
Tuesday
I climbed into my car and slammed the door closed. Thehitwoman didn’t show up at practice today, which I was grateful for. But it washard to be too happy when Penny was ghosting me. I pulled out of the Empire Highparking lot and turned in the opposite direction of Tanner’s place.
Tanner thought I was hanging out with Penny, so he wasn’texpecting me until later. I had some time to stop by my house before headingover to his place for the night. He never needed to know that I’d put myself indanger. Besides, I was pretty sure Mr. Pruitt would have already had me killedif that was his intention. He’d had plenty of opportunities. And it reallyseemed like Poppy wanted to wine and dine me before murdering me. I felt safeenough for now.
I’d been researching tiny cameras all afternoon. Sure, I couldjust use my phone to record my upcoming encounter with the hitwoman. But itwould
