Storm Demon by Gregory Lamberson

Author:Gregory Lamberson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781605427492
Published: 2013-08-19T21:00:00+00:00

18

Tears rolled down Laurel’s cheeks, but her voice did not waver. “I’ve waited so long to tell someone all that.”

The sirens outside had stopped.

Jake gazed at Laurel. “It’s not like I never asked.”

“Knowledge is a dangerous thing. The more you knew about me, the greater the chances of Lilian discovering where I’d holed up. I knew the first thing she would do was cast a search spell for me; the thoughts of anyone who saw me and knew who I was would trigger her psychic alarm.”

A helicopter hummed outside.

A TV news crew, Jake thought. “You stole one hundred million dollars.” He disbelieved his words as he spoke them.

“Most of it went to good causes, even if you discount what I kept for myself. Thanks to me, Lilian was hailed as a world-class philanthropist. It was the best public relations she ever bought.”

“The most expensive, too. If I’ve learned one thing about the wealthy, they don’t take kindly to other people helping themselves to what belongs to them.”

“I only depleted the secret account I knew about. I’m sure she has more that Harla didn’t know about.”

“You could have skimmed a million, and she might not have even noticed it was missing.”

“She would have known, and she would have been just as angry. Powerful people don’t like to be outwitted.”

“So you made a public show out of it.”

“She still would have killed my parents. It’s a miracle she didn’t kill Harla. I can just imagine what she did to her.”

“You could have gone into hiding in Costa Rica or Tahiti or Belize . . .”

“The search spell would have been global. There’s nowhere I would have been safe. I made the best play I could, which was to hide as close to her as possible.”

“You can’t just buy a building on eBay, even if you have the money.”

“I used surrogates, of course. Middlemen. Money talks, and I knew the odds of a man recognizing a missing romance novelist—even if I hadn’t changed my appearance—were slim.”

“Does Jackie know any of this?”

“No. As far as he’s concerned, Eden, Inc., views me as a favored tenant. He believes I have a medical condition that makes me sensitive to sunlight, coupled with agoraphobia. I came to rely on him, though, and we became good friends. Until you moved in he was my sole company.”

Jake sat forward in his seat. “I remember when I first checked this office space out. I saw your parlor before anything else. When the Realtor showed me the office, I knew I could never afford it, but something in the back of my head told me to make that offer to handle building security in exchange for a discount on the rent. Did you plant that idea in my head?”

“I don’t have that ability. But I felt your vibrations as soon as you entered the building. At first I panicked that Lilian had come, but I could tell your energy was positive. When the Realtor posed your counteroffer to Eden, Inc., I accepted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.