Torch (Take It Off #1)(47)
Author: Cambria Hebert

We? Who the hell was she? Then I realized… “You’re his ex-wife, aren’t you?”

“If only I had put up with him a little bit longer, all that money would have been left to me!”

“He left you a house. I have no doubt its worth millions.”

She snorted like that was pocket change.

Then I glanced at William. “Tony left you money. Mr. Goddard told me so.”

“Over twenty years I worked for him. I covered up his indiscretions. I paid off his drug suppliers when he pissed them off. Hell, I even gave him my piss so he would pass his drug tests!”

“So you enabled him instead of getting him help,” I said, suddenly angry again. I may not have known Tony—he might have abandoned my mother when she was pregnant and refused to claim me as his daughter when I was born—but he didn’t deserve that. It was all so sad. He was surrounded by people who only used him because they thought it would get them somewhere.

No wonder he left the money to me.

“He was beyond help.” William snarled.

I shook my head regretfully. No one was beyond help.

“Let’s go,” the blonde snapped, pushing open her car door.

William did the same, opening up the back door and reaching in to grab me. Before yanking me from the car, he opened up the suit jacket he was wearing and showed me the gun hidden in his holster. “Remember, I will shoot you.”

I got out of the car, wobbling a little on my unsteady legs and trying really hard not to double over and vomit right there on the pavement. That would probably get me shot too.

Tony’s ex-wife came around the side of the car and linked her arm through one of mine like we were best girlfriends. Gag. She’d shed the black hoodie to reveal a skintight black dress to match the sky-high black heels on her feet.

William stuck close to my other side as they led us into the lobby of the hotel. Immediately, I looked around for someone I could alert, for someone I could at least mouth the words “help me” to.

Just my luck the lobby was empty and the only woman behind the front desk was on the phone, staring at a computer screen behind the desk.

They led me to an elevator and then shoved me inside once it dinged open. I hit the back of the elevator wall and bounced off, falling to my knees. Vomit forced its way up the back of my throat, but I swallowed it back down.

“Get up,” the woman said, kicking at me. The toe of her shoe bounced off my still tender wrists and I yelped.

“Geez, go easy,” William told her.

“Said the man who hit her in the head with a gun.”

He had the grace to look sheepish.

Idiot.

The elevator rolled to a stop and William reached down to pull me up by the elbow and anchor me at his side. He half-dragged me into the hall and around the corner.

Unfortunately, the hallway was empty too.

We stopped in front of a door and William knocked.

“Who is it?” Mr. Goddard called from inside the room.

“Answer him,” William growled, shoving the gun into my ribs.

“It’s Katie Parker, Mr. Goddard,” I said, hoping I sounded scared and he would call the police instead of opening the door.

Several seconds later, the door swung open to reveal Mr. Goddard who was dressed in a dark suit and tie. “Katie? I thought we were—” His words cut off when he saw I wasn’t alone.

He looked at William. Then the gun. Then he tried to slam the door in our faces, but William slammed his palm on the door and pushed it wide. Then he gave me a rough shove into the room.

Mr. Goddard reached out to steady me. “I’m so sorry,” I told him.

“Paul?” came a voice over the speaker of the telephone sitting on the table nearby. “Is something wrong?”

I forgot he was supposed to be doing a conference call this afternoon.

“Help!” I cried. “They have a gun!”

“Paul?” the voice called frantically. “Who is this?”

William charged into the room and yanked the phone cord out of the jack and threw the phone against the wall where it burst into a useless mess.

My only hope was that whomever he was talking to would have enough sense to call the police.

“The papers, Paul! Get the papers!” William said, pointing the gun at the man.

“What papers?” he asked, putting his hands up in the air.

“He wants me to refuse the money,” I explained.

Paul’s eyes widened as he just stood there and stared at the gun.

The blonde stepped between the gun and Mr. Goddard. “Get the papers, old man,” she growled.

He nodded and went across the room to his briefcase, where he shuffled through some papers and pulled out what he was looking for. “This one here is the one you would sign if you did not accept the money,” he said, glancing at me and then at William, his mouth flattening into a straight line.

William shoved me toward Mr. Goddard and the papers. “Sign them.”

“You do realize even if she signs those papers, you still won’t get that money,” Mr. Goddard said, his tone haughty and lawyer-like. If I were being questioned by him, I would totally pee my pants.

“You let me worry about getting the money,” William said, his eyes bulging in anger.

“How do you plan on getting it?” he asked him curiously. I figured he really didn’t care; he was just trying to buy us more time.

I started looking around the room, trying to find something that could potentially be used as a weapon. There wasn’t much. This hotel was clutter free and tidy. The lamps were bolted to the walls, and there weren’t heavy items like a vase sitting around. Even the TV was a flat screen that was also attached to the wall.

“I’m a lawyer,” William bragged. “I’ll tie this money up in court until I can find a loophole to make it mine.”

“And how do you think you’re going to get away with forcing her to sign those papers? For holding us at gunpoint?”

“Let’s not forget arson, kidnapping, hit and run, and attempted murder.”

“Hit and Run?” William said, looking genuinely confused.

“Shut up! Both of you!” the blonde yelled, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me to the desk. “Sign those!”

“He didn’t know you tried to run me over with a car the other day?” I asked her loudly.

“Is that true, Caroline?”

A pretty name for such an ugly person.

“What was I supposed to do, Liam? You were failing miserably. I mean, how hard could it be to kill this mouse of a girl?”