Page 77 of Deadly Avarice
I struggled, throwing my body this way and that. I would not go down like this. I had no idea why Janet was doing this, but her motive didn’t matter. All that did matter was that someone was trying to kill me.
Janet stared at Pops’s charms now littering the grass. “You’ve always got something up your sleeve, Necromancer.” Janet spat my species name, her lips twisted with disgust. “We weren’t about to make the same mistake again.”
“Help me, Susan,” a gruff voice said from behind, his warm breath ghosting across my ear. “This fucker’s strong for his size.” I threw my head back, smashing it into my captor’s nose. The resounding crunch followed by a litany of curse words was rewarding for the three seconds it took for him to retaliate by wrenching my shoulders even more.
“Fucker,” he hissed again. “I’m gonna kill you slow for making me bleed.”
“You’ll be fine, Titus.” The woman I knew as Janet Meeker, the same woman the man behind me had just called Susan, came running over while pulling a zip tie from her coat pocket. “Here, put this on his wrists.” Susan’s head turned this way and that. She’d picked the spot well. We were truly hidden from any eyes that could offer salvation.
My wrists were bound and the zip tie tightened to the point I couldn’t feel my hands. It was most likely more retribution for the headbutting… My brain finally caught up.Titus. Titus McMahon. He was supposed to be dead. I hadn’t known if he was or not, only that the bones recovered beneath his headstone weren’t his. Looked like Titus McMahon was well and truly alive and ready to take another life.
I was pushed to my knees and the hand covering my mouth disappeared, leaving me heaving for breath. “Titus McMahon,” I coughed. I looked up at the woman before me. While I couldn’tsee her eyes, her lips were twisted into an ugly sneer. “You’re the wife.”
She huffed. “I would have been the wealthy widow if it weren’t for you.” Susan stepped forward, pulled on a glove, and slapped me across the face. I’d been hit with more force before, but it still stung. Removing the glove, she tucked it back into her sweatshirt pocket. “I’ll have to burn this glove now, but it was worth it if I got to hit you.”
I wasn’t sure if she needed to burn it to get rid of evidence or my supposed necromancer cooties.
“Detective Cardoza already knows everything,” I said. “Killing me won’t stop his investigation.”
“True,” Titus McMahon said as he rounded my body, coming to stand in front of me. Given that I was on my knees, it was difficult to judge height but I imagined Titus was a formidably tall man. Probably taller than Franklin. Broader too. I’d seen photos of the man, but he’d clearly changed his hair color and grown a beard. It wasn’t the best disguise. Titus McMahon had been born with very distinctive features that weren’t easily hidden.
“Then what’s the point?” I was desperately trying to buy time. Maybe I’d get lucky and someone would come to visit a gravesite this far out.
Titus’s grin stilled my heart. The man’s eyes held no remorse, no regret, and certainly no empathy. “Call it retribution. Also, I’m not exactly sure what Thomas’s returned soul told the police. The man knows more than even he’s aware of. The more his soul is questioned, the more he’ll let slip. I can’t take that risk.”
“Wecan’t take that risk,” Susan added as she stepped beside her husband. “Do you think those insurance policies are all we have riding on Titus’s death?” Her smirk made her large sunglasses twitch. “We’re leaving the country and we are not leaving any loose ends behind.” She crouched down so she wasat eye level, her smirk never wavering. “My friend Janet was a lot of help. She was so torn up about losing her granddaddy.” Janet rolled her eyes. “And you should hear the drama going on in that family regarding the will. I have no idea what old Eugene was thinking when he drew up his last will and testament.”
While I didn’t have all the puzzle pieces, the picture started taking shape. “You impersonated Janet to get to me.” A new concern hit me. “Is Janet—”
“Oh, she’s fine. Alive and well and completely oblivious. Goodness, one would think you’d be a little more concerned about yourself than someone you’ve never even met.” Susan’s grin morphed into a full-blown smile, her too-white teeth nearly blinding in the late afternoon sun trickling through the clouds. That burst of sunshine cast shadows on the ground. With the lack of wind, those shadows remained still as the branches casting them remained motionless.
Except that wasn’t true. The shadows weren’t still; they were moving. My eyes widened. Logically, I couldn’t be seeing what I was seeing. Like snakes dancing across the dormant grass, those elongated shadows crept forward, licking at Titus’s feet while slithering up his ankles. The same was happening to Susan and neither one of them noticed.
“Get the bag,” Susan ordered. “It’s time to end this so we can hop on a plane. Belize is waiting.” She stood but didn’t step away. Her head tilted Titus’s way. “Come on, baby. Let’s finish this.”
Titus leaned forward and planted one hell of a kiss on his wife’s lips before pulling out a plastic bag.
My heart sped, thrumming with fear. There could only be one use for that plastic and it wasn’t to carry produce. Scrambling back, I fell on my ass as I began wiggling, attempting to get away.
“Get back here, you little piece of shit.” A single step left Titus looming over me. The plastic slipped over my head and cinchedaround my neck. The world blurred through the haze of the plastic covering my face, nose, and mouth. I sucked in a breath, but that only flattened the plastic against my face. Air was in short supply and diminishing by the millisecond.
Panic hit hard and fast. Momma and Pops’s faces flashed through my mind before Franklin’s loving eyes settled before me. Deep in my heart and soul, I knew this was it. While Franklin might not be physically here with me, he was the last thing I would see while on this side of the veil.
Black spots littered my vision, creeping in from the sides and tightening the narrow window of light. My body sagged and I would have fallen to the side if Titus’s hands weren’t continually tightening the bag and inadvertently holding me upright.
And then I was falling. My body tilted to the side and my shoulder hit the soft ground. The bag around my neck loosened, but that barely improved my plight. The plastic was sucked down over my mouth and nose. I wiggled, rubbing my head on the ground. I managed to get it loosened a little, but it wasn’t my actions that freed me. Just as suddenly as I fell over, the bag was torn from my head.
With the plastic gone, fresh air rushed into my lungs in great, heaving mouthfuls. Along with that breath came grunts and muffled screams. My head was dizzy, and my vision took longer to return than I would have liked. Lying on my side tilted the world at an odd axis. When I could finally see again I wasn’t at all certain my brain had fully come back on board because what I saw was insane.
Lifted off the ground, Titus’s and Susan’s bodies were wrapped in dark tendrils, constricting them like a boa. Bones popped and cracked, their screams muffled by the black shadows covering their mouths. While most of their faces were covered, their frantic, fear-filled eyes were on full display. Ishuddered at the well of pain and disbelief radiating within them. They were dying.
A final crack and Titus’s head lay at an odd angle, all life fading from his blown pupils. Less than a minute later, Susan followed her husband’s fate. The McMahons were no longer dying. They were well and truly dead.
I lay there, watching as their bodies were lowered to the ground. The shadow tentacles slipping away and disappearing into the darkness, leaving no trace that they’d ever been there.
My mind was a flurry of activity and yet I couldn’t seem to settle on a single thought. I felt like maybe I was losing my mind. My body felt too heavy. My head groggy and my eyelids carried the weight of the world. I needed to move. I needed to get help. I needed to do something. My body disagreed. Apparently, what it needed was to pass out.
Chapter
