First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

Author:Ashley Elston [Elston, Ashley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Lucca Marino—Six Years Ago

I take my time driving from Hilton Head back to Raleigh, North Carolina, with the last twelve hours heavy on my mind. I shouldn’t care what Andrew Marshall thinks about me now, but I do.

I’m off the grid. Matt has called my phone a million times and texted threat after threat, but I am not fazed.

I park in front of AAA Bail Bonds midmorning on Monday, almost forty-eight hours after I left Andrew at that resort in South Carolina, even though I was instructed never to set foot back here.

Matt is not expecting me.

The last time I was here I was terrified. I had just fled the Kingstons’ house after leaving a bleeding Jenny Kingston dying on the floor and a sleeping Miles on the couch.

Today is different.

Today I walk into his office like I own it.

There are a few random people scattered around the waiting room and the same girl at the front desk. She gives me a halfhearted smile when I walk toward her, but her expression changes quickly when I bypass her desk and head down the hall.

“Wait! You need to check in first!” she yells, hot on my heels.

I twist open the door to Matt’s office, and she stops herself just before colliding with my back.

“Where the fuck have you been!” Matt yells the second he sees me, then he looks at the receptionist behind me. “Get the fuck back out front!” She makes a U-turn just as I shut his office door.

I sit in the same chair across from his desk that I did two years ago.

He looks like he hasn’t slept since Friday. Since the last time we spoke. Since the last time he could see the video feed he had set up. Right before I cut it.

“My girl looked for Andrew all fucking weekend! Even went and knocked on his door! And where did you disappear to? You pulled a fucking Houdini on this job!” His face is red and bits of spit are flying from his mouth.

I take my time answering him. “Your plan was stupid. I improved it.”

He grits his teeth and his eyes scan me at a frantic pace. “What does that mean?” he finally asks.

“Get Mr. Smith on the phone,” I say. And now he looks like he wants to murder me.

Matt comes around to the front of his desk and stands over me. He leans down, putting his hands on the arms of my chair to box me in. “You answer to me,” he says.

“No, I don’t. Not anymore.” I raise my arm and look at my watch. “You have five minutes or I walk. And you don’t want me to walk.”

I’m playing a very dangerous game, but I have to go with my gut. It never lets me down.

We stare at each other for a long, tense moment.

Something happened to me when I took over that job and made it my own. And I’m not going back to how it was before.

“Four minutes.”

He shoves off my chair so hard that I’m in danger of toppling backward.

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