Page 112 of The Woman at the Funeral

“Will you stay with me?” she asked.

“I’ll do you one better,” I said, placing her down on the toilet lid, so I could run the bath. “I’ll come in with you.”

With that, I stripped down as she wiped at the worst of the grime on her legs with a wet washcloth.

Then I helped her in and slid in behind her, pulling her against my chest.

“I know you have a million questions.”

“There’s time for that later,” I assured her as my hand drifted up and down her side.

“I’m worried I’ll forget. Things are already getting fuzzy.”

“Okay. Tell me what is the most important.”

“Matthew changed his mind.”

“What?”

“Ronny had come up with the plan. And Matthew had gone along with it. They even had a buyer. But something… I don’t know changed. Matthew didn’t want to go through with it. So he stashed the files and hid his electronics.”

That was somewhat comforting, at least.

He wasn’t a good man.

But maybe he wasn’t so evil, either.

“I think she was implying that the guy who was going to buy the information was who killed him.”

Which meant that Ronny and her family still had an enemy out there if they didn’t get the information to them.

I wasn’t sure which part would be more motivating to her: the money or their lives.

But that was shit to deal with later.

Right now, my focus was on Blair.

“It felt good,” she said, sounding sleepy.

“What did?”

“Talking back to Ronny. I’ve bitten my tongue for so many years, hearing her tear down my character when she was no saint herself. I probably shouldn’t have goaded her.”

“Hey, I bet that was healing.”

“It was.” She was quiet for a minute, letting me run a washcloth over her body, washing away any lingering traces of dirt or dried blood. “Am I allowed to ask?”

“You can ask. But I honestly don’t have anything to tell you. Yet. The Family is working on it.”

“Don’t you need to be out—”

“I’m right where I need to be.”

She turned her head in toward my neck.

“My head hurts.”

With the unknown drugs still in her system, Salvatore decided not to give her prescription painkillers. And, clearly, the over-the-counter ones weren’t quite doing their job.

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