Page 82 of Out to Get Her
She ignored the bait about not caring. “Be smart how?”
“Help me find his notes.”
“His notes?”
Erin caught a slight wobble of Sam’s head and the tiniest flutter of her eyelashes. Samantha was waking up. But her body remained slumped forward. Whether she was struggling to gain consciousness or pretending to still be knocked out Erin couldn’t tell.
“He wrote downeverything. What he ate every day. Where he bought every God-awful piece of crap in this place. Hell, the man even wrote the date he gotjunk mailon each envelope. You know he kept records. I need them.” He smiled, but there was no lightness in his eyes. “And you’re gonna find them for me.”
“Why would I do that?”
She already knew the answer. Her why was sitting in front of her with a gun aimed at her head.
Erin needed to keep him talking. She needed time to figure out a plan.
But Zach didn’t go for the easy why. Not the easy why for Erin, at least. He reached for his own why.
“Because I don’t want to kill you, Erin. I like you, believe it or not. And I know you hate this town as much as I do, so I’m gonna offer you a way out. For good. Help me findeverything, and I’ll cut you in on my share. Consider it an advance on the house sale. You can leave this place behind forever.”
He did know her. Better than just about anyone.
But he knew the Erin from a week ago. Years ago.
Today’s Erin?
She’d kind of grown to like this place. And she wasn’t so easily bought off. Especially not by a guy who had killed her grandfather and was now threatening someone else she loved.
Loved.
That was a problem for future Erin to figure out. Present Erin had enough to deal with.
She wasn’t about to sit by and let Zach take away someone else that she cared about. Not without a fight.
“What about her?” Erin asked. “She’s not going to just let you walk away from this.”
“Let me worry about Sam.”
“I’m not going along with any plan that involves you killing her.”
“Don’t want to kill her either. Play nice, and I won’t have to.”
“Zach, she likes you, but you know Sam has a moral compass the size of Texas.”
“I said I won’t kill her if you give me what I want. She’ll be someone else’s problem.”
Someone else. There’s thatweagain.
“Who?”
“Not information you need to find those records.” He waved the gun to the side. “Start in the kitchen. Find whatever crazy-ass hiding places he had like those books, and find his notes.” He aimed the gun back at Sam’s head. “And nothing funny, Erin. Said I don’t want to shoot her. Didn’t say I wouldn’t.”
A chill ran through her body. She might have been doubting everything she knew about Zach, but she didn’t doubt a word of what he said at that moment.
With her eyes on Samantha, Erin stood and nodded. “Okay. Let’s find those notes.”
ChapterTwenty-Seven
Samantha listened carefullyas Erin rummaged through cabinets and drawers only feet away in the tiny kitchen.
