Page 46 of Greed
“You were only a child! You knew nothing.”
“So you’re not going to help him. You’re going to murder him?”
“Maybe. At least then maybe I’d get his insurance money and something good will come out of this.”
“Do I need to remind you that if you get caught, you’ll get nothing and go to jail? And I’m not defending you. I can’t believe I’m related to you.”
Griffin cleared his throat loudly. “This conversation isn’t going anywhere. Should we continue our search?”
“Let’s just give the kidnappers what they want. Dad comes home. You don’t have to go and kill him at the exchange. I can’t believe I just said that. Calm down. Have another drink. Do you know where the safe is, mom?”
She snorted. “I didn’t know he had one. He hid it from me on purpose, that bastard. There are probably jewels and diamonds and emeralds. He knows I like emeralds.” Janet zipped up her suitcase, pulling out bits and pieces of ill-fitting artillery as she went. “Good luck to you both. I hope you choke on his safe.”
Then she heaved the suitcase up the small staircase and left the room. The suffocating sense of greed receded and Griffin could breathe unhindered again.
“Do you want me to go after her?” Griffin offered.
“No. She won’t do it. She’ll probably stop by the kitchen, have a few more glasses of wine, and then pass out before she gets anywhere near the car. She might not even know where the kidnappers set up the exchange.” Lilo huffed and put her hands on her hips, staring up at the ceiling, shaking her head and blinking wetness from her eyes. “You see what I have to deal with?”
“I do.”
“How are we related?”
“You can’t choose your family.”
Lilo’s face grew determined. “Yes I can. And she’s not part of it. God!” She screamed in frustration. “I want nothing more than to leave them all to the disaster they made for themselves. They don’t deserve help when they’ve done nothing apart from helping themselves.”
“Didn’t you say they threw you a party for your sixteenth birthday?”
She shot him a look that made him feel as though he’d betrayed her, but then her expression softened. “You’re right. Of course you’re right.”
“I’m not excusing their behavior,” he added and walked up to her.
She was a trembling mess, hands scrubbing her face, all jittery. And the worst part was that after being drenched in greed and sour wine, he just wanted to nuzzle her neck and breathe her natural feminine scent.
Lilo took a few deep breaths. “You’re so cool and calm all the time. I’m glad you’re here to remind me of what’s important.”
Cool and calm? Griffin blinked. They were not words he used to describe himself. Restrained, maybe. But with her, he didn’t need to be.
He put a hand on her shoulder, and rubbed his thumb on her neck until she looked up at him, meeting his eyes.
“You’re incredibly brave to stay so morally incorrupt with them around,” he said.
“Do you think my mother will truly go there to kill him?” Her small voice trembled.
He didn’t want to admit it, but Janet was so greedy, what else could she intend?
Lilo exhaled. “Then we have no choice. I have to beat her to it. I’ll have to find this safe and take whatever is in there before she—I can’t believe I’m saying this—before my mother goes to kill my father.”
Griffin let go of Lilo and surveyed room. The weapons weren’t the kind you purchased down a dark alley somewhere, they were the type you purchased on the Black Market and smuggled illegally into the city.
“Why does your father have so many weapons?”
“He’s homicidal like my mother?” She threw her hands in the air. “Who knows?”
He walked along the wall and touched the remaining weapons, letting his finger trail along the cold hard surfaces, letting his ability soak it all up. He learned what different kinds of metal felt like to his sense. Steel, aluminum, and other alloys he couldn’t name. He came to the corner where two wooden panels on the wall intersected. An awareness tickled his mind as he approached. More metal behind the panels. Thick sheet metal.
“Here,” he said and pulled one of the panels. It swung open like a door to reveal a metal safe embedded in the wall. “This must be what your cousin spoke about.”
