Page 4 of A Play for Love

“Leonard, my investigator, found out the wealthy women he was married to all had one thing in common: they all died of massive heart attacks. Coincidence? I think not. I knew I was his next target, so I played along until I could get enough evidence to nail that son of a bitch. Then I made a mistake.”

“Which was?” I asked her.

“I spent the night at his place last night, and this morning, while he was in the shower, I opened the safe to take some more pictures of what he had in there. I then told him that I needed to get home because I had forgotten that I asked Stefan to come over and fix something for me.”

“Huh?” Stefan’s brows furrowed.

“It was an excuse, darling. Anyway, one of his passports fell onto the floor, and I didn’t know because I was in such a hurry to get out of there. That’s when he became suspicious and came to my house unannounced. Things escalated from there. I told him I knew everything about what he’d done and about his ex-wives. He grabbed me from behind and tried to strangle me. I fought, got out of his grip, and threw a vase at him. He grabbed me again, and I fell and hit my head on the table. I pretended that I was knocked out. That’s when he pulled his gun on me and said, ‘You made it too easy to look like a robbery, Barb.’ I kicked the gun out of his hand, and then I kicked him in the balls, just like Grace had taught me. While he was down, I grabbed the gun and shot him once in the leg. He wouldn’t stay down, so I shot him again. That’s when I called you, Simon.”

“That son-of-a-bitch.” Simon shook his head. “Why didn’t you just kill him?”

“As I told Nathan on the way here, death would have been too easy for him. He will pay for what he’s done to those other women. Grace, did you get it?”

“I did.” Grace reached into her purse and pulled out an amber color vial.”

“What the fuck is that?” Simon asked.

“After Barb called you, she called me, gave me the combination to his safe, and asked me to go there and get the vial. I suspect this is what he used to induce the fatal heart attacks of his ex-wives.” She reached inside her purse and held up the vial.

“This is why you need to stop dating these random men!” Simon shouted as he pointed at his mother. “I’m going to the hospital and killing that son of a bitch myself.”

“No, you’re not,” Grace spoke. “He’s going to prison for the rest of his life, and we’re going to ensure that happens.”

CHAPTER2

Nathan

“I’m happy you’re okay, Aunt Barb.” I walked over to where she sat and kissed her cheek. “I need to get home to my fiancée and children.”

“Thank you for everything, Nathan.” She placed her hand on my arm. “Give those beautiful children of yours a big kiss from me.”

“Will do, Aunt Barb.”

I walked out of Simon’s house and went back to mine. Sofia ran down the stairs and threw her arms around me when she heard the sliding door open.

“What the hell happened?” she asked as I hugged her tight.

“Where are the kids?”

“We’re right here,” Ella said as she walked down the stairs with Nicholas. “Where were you?” She handed me her brother.

“I was out with your uncles and cousins. Hi, little man.” I smiled as I kissed his head.

“I’m going to see Uncle Conner before I have to take a bath and get ready for bed,” Ella said as she approached the sliding door.

“He’s not home, Ella. The hospital called, and he needed to go in and do surgery.”

“Oh. Okay. Then I guess I’ll go take a bath now.” She ran up the stairs.

I handed Nicholas to Sofia, walked over to the bar, and poured us each a drink.

“You’re going to need this.” I smirked as she set our son on the floor and took the glass from me.

We sat on the couch while Nicholas played with his toys on the floor, and I told her everything that had happened.

“I can’t believe any of this.” She shook her head.

“I know. I can’t either.” I brought the glass to my lips.

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