The botched execution of his godfather had sent P.J. on a tailspin. It had made him question everything he believed in. It made sense that P.J. had needed to step away. But P.J. had since made his peace. And now it was time for him to come home.
It was something he intended to talk to his father and eventually Juliet about.
A lot was riding on this trip.
To Juliet’s relief, P.J. had booked them into a hotel for the week. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t wanted to stay with P.J.’s parents but…she hadn’t wanted to stay with P.J.’s parents. Meeting them would be one thing but sharing a bed in their house with their grown son was another. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like the idea to stay with his parents had even crossed P.J.’s mind.
The hotel that P.J. had made the reservations for was perfect. It was a newly built, modern building whose footprint took up a whole block in the town. The beds were soft, the sheets were one thousand thread count, and the pillows were plump with down feathers. A large indoor pool, a sauna, and a full spa completed the picture. It was just the thing to help Juliet relax, unwind, and refresh. Since the epiphany she had had about Kenny, Juliet felt lighter, happier and for the first time she had hope for the future. It was over. She had survived the worst, the very worst that life had to offer, and now she just knew that a bright future would be her reward. Juliet couldn’t help but hope that P.J. might become a part of that.
In keeping with that optimism of the day, Juliet booked herself in for a full spa treatment. Since she knew the P.J. would be occupied with business for the club all day, Juliet decided that a fresh look for a fresh outlook was in order. Besides, she wanted to make a good impression on P.J.’s family. P.J. was totally on board with the idea, and he had given her the keys to the truck for the day. Juliet was hesitant at first, but after she had taken it for a couple of turns around the hotel parking lot, she got the hang of driving the large truck and found to her surprise that she liked the idea of all that power underneath the hood.
Now armed with renewed confidence and a forty-five dollar cheesecake. Juliet headed to the McCabe home. She would be about an hour early for dinner, but Juliet didn’t think anyone would mind. She was just about to push the doorbell when she heard P.J.’s voice coming from the side of the yard.
“Hello?” Juliet called out as she stepped around to the back corner of the house.
“Oh…uh…hey babe.” P.J. stumbled over the words, obviously surprised to see her. He was sitting at the table with two men who Juliet recognized from pictures as Reno McCabe and Jules Bonny. The two men looked up at her with studied blank faces, while P.J.’s expression was one of alarm. Juliet glanced at the small stack of papers laid out on the table that P.J. was furiously gathering up in his hands. She assumed that she had stumbled on some sort of club business.
“My last appointment was cancelled, so I came a little early.” Juliet smiled shyly at the two men who were looking at her with…suspicion? Maybe she should have stuck to the scheduled time. This cool, appraising look was certainly not the welcome she had expected to receive from Reno’s family. When P.J. stood awkwardly silent, she decided to introduce herself. “I’m Juliet. It’s nice to meet you.”
She approached them with hand held out in greeting. But when a sudden small gust of wind lifted one of the pages up from the table and landed at her feet, Juliet’s instinct was to reach down and grab it.
Juliet drew her hand back as if it had been burned. The bakery box felt from lifeless fingers and smashed on the ground. Because there laying at her feet, was a three year old, front page picture of Lucy Brewster. The headline was one that Juliet had seen over and over again. It read… Wife of Killer, Victim or Accomplice?
Juliet stumbled and almost lost her footing, when P.J. reached for her she put her hand up warding him off. He said something to her, but Juliet could not hear him over the sound of her own heart breaking. It was a clean jagged noise, like the crackling of ice. Juliet was afraid that when it stopped, she would fall straight through and drown.
And then things got worse.
Because there, lying in the middle of the table was Juliet’s wallet. The one that P.J. had told her had disappeared in the mud months ago. Lying next to it, in the dim shadows of the late afternoon sun, laid out for all to see, were all of the monsters in all of Juliet’s closets.
“Juliet?” P.J. called out to her as she ran past him to grab the wallet off the table.
She didn’t answer. She couldn’t do anything but try and grasp how this had happened. How could he have done this? Juliet felt the blood drain from her face, and her hands curve into tight fists.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Reno McCabe begin to rise from the table. Juliet turned and ran from him, from all of them. She ran as fast as she could to the truck but before she could get the keys
