Page 223 of Under Her Skin
She walked to the front door and opened it. ‘Get. Out.Now.’
He moved as if to leave but paused when he reached her. The simmering violence in the air was making her tremble but she held his gaze. He smirkedcoldly.
‘Your choice,Jess. Live with the consequences or should I say…,’ he leaned into her and whispered, ‘…for as long as I allow you to live.’ He mimicked stabbing her and she jerked back reflexively. Jules laughed and behind him, Jess saw Theo’s security man step into the hall, his eyes fixed on Jules. She held her hand up to him as Jules smirked, and as he left, the security guy, Alan, turned toher.
‘You okay, MissWood?’
‘Call me Jess, would you? And I’m fine, Alan. Do me a favor. Don’t tell Theo about this. It really wasnothing.’
Alan looked unhappy butnodded.
She closed the door, double locked it and leaned back against it. She recalled what she’d said to Alan. It was nothing. How fucked up was her relationship with Jules that a promise to kill her was nothing? That she took it for granted now? She really had had enough this particular day. In the bathroom, she opened the cabinet above the sink and took out the small bottle of Tylenol PM. She hesitated and then swallowed two with a handful of water from the faucet and fell into an uneasysleep.
Theo leftthe office just past midnight and had just stepped into his Mercedes to drive home when his cell phone buzzed.Max.
‘Hey,buddy.’
There was silence on the end of the phone then he heard a sob. His heart leapt into his chest. Jesus. ‘Max, what is it? Are youokay?’
Max sobbed louder now. ‘I can’t believe it, I can’t believeit…’
Theo waited for his sobs to calm before telling him, ‘I’m coming over now, Max, rightnow.’
When he got to Max’s apartment, there were cop cars parked outside. He gave his name to the uniform at Max’s door and then he was in. Max fell apart when he saw him and Theo looked around for Josh. He had a bad, bad feeling aboutthis.
He grabbed his friend by the shoulders and hugged him. ‘What is it, Max? What’swrong?’
He wasn’t sure he wanted theanswer.
She pointedthe gun at Jules and he laughed. ‘Really, Jess, do you think you could kill me? Try, go on, baby girl, take your shot.’ She pulled the trigger and the bullet smashed into his forehead. Hestopped.
Then to her horror, the gaping hole sealed itself up and Jules sneered at her. ‘My turn.’ He grabbed the gun and although she struggled, he was too strong, unnaturally strong and turned it so the gun was pressed hard into herbelly.
‘It’s a shame,’he whispered, his voice intimate, ‘You really are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known. If you’d only realised you belong to me but it’s too latenow.’
He smiled, kissed her tenderly and pulled thetrigger.
It was almost dawnwhen Theo woke her from her nightmare. Groggily she looked up into his drawn face and quelled at the pain in his handsomeface.
‘What is it? What’swrong?’
Theo gazed down at her, sorrow etched deep in his eyes. ‘It’s Josh… he’s beenmurdered.’
The official storywas that Josh had been hit by a car on his way back from work. It could have so easily been an accident except that the driver had backed up over Josh’s prone body – twice. It had all been caught on CCTV but the car, a plain black RV had blacked out windows and no plates. The police had no leads but Jess had an overwhelming sense of foreboding and when finally she, Theo and Max were alone, after Josh’s cremation, Max said what they had all beenthinking.
‘Fucking Gachet didthis.’
Max looked terrible as if he’d been smoking six packs a day and drinking straight bourbon. Jess closed her eyes for a moment, trying to quell the nausea thatthreatened.
‘Idon’t understand.Why would Jules kill Josh? How would Jules even know Josh?’ Her voice was scratchy and low. Max wouldn’t look at her and she felt the heavy weight of guilt settle overher.
Theo and Max exchanged a look then Theo nodded, once, brief, stiff. Max sat down opposite Jess and took her hands. ‘We were trying to make things better… for you….I…’
‘I asked Max to look into Jules’ background,’ Theo interrupted his friend, ‘He’d hurt you, had threatened your life. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but there you have it. It was for thebest.’
Jess pulled away from Max’s hands. ‘You were investigatingme?’
‘Jules, not you. But obviously, there was some overlap. After Max talked to Camilla, we realised exactly what he’d been doing to you. We had to dosomething/?’
