Page 71 of Breakout
“More than that when they find you are threatening my wife’s life.”
Janis scoffs as she picks up her handbag. “Please, like the cops in this town are going to touch me. They know who I am.”
“I’m sure they will know who I am too. It seems you don’t. Maybe you should do your research. My family lawyers will have a field day with you, that’s if your own don’t first. If I were you, I would leave while you still can.” I step forward, wanting to make this woman disappear.
The trauma she is putting Peyton through right now is killing me. I want to wrap her up and protect her from this. I can’t, though.
She starts walking toward the door and calls over her shoulder, “Remember what I said, cousin, walk away now, or face an early grave like your parents.”
As soon as the door slams shut, Jeeves spins toward us.
“I am so, so sorry. I had no idea that she had a key. She shouldn’t have one. I don’t know how it happened,” Jeeves rambles. “She bypassed the security system at the gate too. Mr. Anderson was concerned about this when some items had gone missing.”
“It’s not your fault,” Peyton mumbles.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I rub her arms.
She shakes her head slowly. “No, not really. That was…”
“Insane?” I offer.
“Yeah, let’s go with that,” she huffs.
I look over at Jeeves. “How do we prevent that from happening again?”
“I’ll get the security system changed out today.” He runs his hand through his hair. “I must apologize, now that I’m thinking about it, I never changed the code to the front gate after your grandfather passed. When she had the code, she didn’t need to buzz in.”
“It’s not your fault, Jeeves. Really, I’m not mad at you,” Peyton tells him.
“Accidents happen. We just need to try and prevent them from happening again,” I add.
Jeeves offers us a weak smile. “That’s kind of you to say. I’m going to go place that order now. Let me know if you need anything else.”
I wait for him to walk out of the room before I pull Peyton into my arms. Instantly she wraps hers around my waist and buries her face into my shirt.
“Are you okay?” I ask again now that we are alone.
“She threatened to kill me. That had to have been all talk, right?”
“I fucking hope so, but I don’t think we should take any chances.”
“Do you think Jeeves really called the cops?”
“I don’t think he’s the type to lie about that.”
She pulls back slightly and rests her chin on my chest. “I don’t know. I hate the idea of her getting in trouble with the cops if she was just talking out of her ass.”
“Peyton, I think we should take her seriously.”
“Yeah, but…”
I cut her off. “No, at the very least we need to tell Mr. Piper. I’m not willing to risk your life on the chance that she was just talking shit.”
Peyton sighs. “You’re right.”
“Can you repeat that?”
She rolls her pretty hazel eyes. “You know, you could have taken her money and been done with all of this bullshit.”
