“Do you hate me?” she asked, jerking her head up. Her eyes were still shining with tears. “I’d hate me if I were you. I basically accused you of…of…”
I wrapped my arms around her and made soothing sounds as I rubbed her back. “Of course I don’t hate you, Lily. I could never hate you. I just want you to trust me. I don’t want something like this to happen again. Ever.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, chest heaving with sobs now. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, Lily. I forgive you. I’ll always forgive you. Just please, trust me the way I trust you. Do you think you can do that?”
She sniffled, hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Yes. I trust you, Jackson.”
“Good. Now let’s go to the attic so I can see this stuff for myself.”
She nodded again and accompanied me upstairs. After switching the light on in the attic, I frowned and looked over to the right, where a box had broken. “Is that it?” I asked, pointing.
“Yes. The gun fell out when the box broke.”
“Okay. Stay back. I don’t want you in any danger. God knows if the thing is loaded or not.”
I trudged over and leaned down. It was exactly as Lily said it was—there was a gun on the ground, and a file underneath which had also slipped out of the broken cardboard box. I leafed through the file to confirm what Lily saw, and it was indeed a life insurance policy for a substantial amount of money, bequeathed to me.
Strange. So fucking strange. How had I never known about this?
I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, and Lily called to me from where she was standing at the attic entrance. “What are you doing?”
“Simmons Life Insurance is a big company,” I replied. “I’ll bet they’ve got a twenty-four hour helpline I can call to chat to someone about this.” I gestured to the policy folder. “I’ll also call my PI like I said I would earlier.”
I made a quick call to the private investigator to have him start looking into my whereabouts on the day of Jenna’s murder—I knew Lily told me I didn’t have to, but I wanted to do anything I could to give her complete peace of mind—and then I logged onto an internet browser on my phone to look up the number for Simmons Life Insurance.
“They do have a twenty-four hour helpline,” I said to Lily before dialing the number. A help-desk employee answered almost immediately, and I set the call to loudspeaker so Lily could hear.
“Simmons Insurance helpline, how can I help?” the high-pitched female voice on the other end of the line said.
“Hello, I’m wondering if I can get some information about a policy that was taken out a few years ago. I was apparently the beneficiary, but I was never informed.”
“Sure, I can help with that, sir. I’ll just need some details from you.”
I gave her the information she asked for, and then I waited as she tapped away at a keyboard. “Are you still there, sir?” she asked a few minutes later.
“Yes.”
“I’m looking at the records now. That policy was never actually enacted. It seems Ms. Potter began the process of applying, and she definitely nominated you as her sole beneficiary, but there was a clerical error, and the policy didn’t go through the system properly. By the time the error was noticed on our end, Ms. Potter had passed away. And understandably, we can’t enact a life insurance policy for someone if they are already deceased.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew there had to be an explanation. “Yes, of course,” I said. “Thanks very much for your help.”
I ended the call and looked up at Lily. “See?” I said. “I didn’t know about the policy because it never actually went through properly, so when Jenna died, I wasn’t informed of it at all.”
Lily nodded. “I feel so dumb,” she murmured.
“Don’t. You were right about how there’s obviously more to the story of what happened six years ago, even if it’s not what you think it was. She never told me about it, but Jenna obviously had a reason to take out this policy, and she had a reason to buy a gun.”
“She was scared?”
I nodded. “Exactly. She must’ve worried that something was coming. Maybe she thought the gun would protect her.”
“Do you think it was my mom she was scared of?” Lily asked. The heartbroken look on her face made my guts twinge. The poor girl. She’d been through so much.
“Well, your mom wasn’t exactly stable back then,” I said softly. “It would make sense that she was scared of her after that incident when Karen attacked her in the restaurant and accused her of all sorts of bullshit.”
“Yeah. But…I know my mom was a bit crazy. I know she accused Jenna of having an affair with my dad. But is that reason enough for Jenna to start fearing for her life? I mean, sure, my mom threw a drink at her in a restaurant and yelled at her. But if that happened to me, I’d just think ‘ugh, this bitch, what the hell is wrong with her?’. I wouldn’t start fearing for my life and buy a gun, let alone take out a massive life insurance policy for my loved ones just in case. And also, if she was so scared of my mom, why would she let her in the house on the day she died without coming up here and getting her hidden gun first?”
I nodded slowly. “I suppose so. Doesn’t make much sense. So you think there was someone else Jenna was afraid of back then? Someone aside from your mother?”
“Yes.”
“I agree. Like you said, it doesn’t make sense for her to be that afraid of your mother after what happened that night in the restaurant, unless your mother made death threats to her that we never knew about. And honestly, I’d like to know. Just so you can stop thinking about it all the time and worrying. I’d like to know exactly what happened back then, and why Jenna did all this.”
I gestured to the broken box with the file and the gun, then stood back up. “I have an idea,” I went on. “There’s one person who might know if your mother did indeed make death threats to Jenna.”
“My dad?” Lily asked, already on the same train of thought.
“Yep. I think we need to go over there.”
She nodded. “Okay. But please…please don’t fight him again.”
I winked. “I’ll try, baby girl. Just for you.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lily
I trudged behind Jackson, my mind whirling from how damn stupid I felt. I couldn’t believe that it didn’t occur to me earlier that the things in the attic might’ve belonged to Jenna. That made so much more sense than the wild theory I’d concocted about Jackson being some sort of psychopathic mastermind.
God, I was lucky he put up with my crap.
“You nervous?” he asked, turning to me as we reached my dad’s front door. “About seeing him like this? With me, I mean.”
I bit my lip. “Yeah. I don’t know how he’ll react. But I think it should be all right.”
I didn’t knock. I got my old key and quietly unlocked the door, and then we walked down the hall toward the living room. I knew Dad was home; his car was in the drive, and I could hear the TV blaring.
“Dad?” I called out. I stepped into the living room with Jackson, and my father saw us and grunted.
“I’m not home right now,” he said, eyeing Jackson.
I rolled my eyes. “Very funny, Dad. Can we talk, please?”
“I’m not ready to talk about…this…just yet,” he replied, gesturing toward us.
“That’s okay, because that’s not what we’re here to talk about,” Jackson said.
Dad’s brows shot up. “What do you mean?”
“I just have some questions about Karen and Jenna, Craig.”
Dad grunted again. “What questions? Leave the past where it belongs,” he said. “Don’t need my crazy wife to be dragged up all over again after what she did,” he added in a mutter.
“Dad, do you know if Mom actually ever threatened Jenna? Like death threats?” I asked, pressing forward despite his reticence.
He gave me an incredulous look. “Lily, your mother shot h
er in the damn head. What do you think?”
“No, I mean before the day she went nuts and killed Jenna. Like, a few weeks before. Did Mom ever do anything that would make Jenna actually fear for her life?”
Dad shook his head. “Lily, you already know this. What your mother did was shocking. No one saw it coming. At all. Sure, we knew she was upset with Jenna, but no one thought she would go over there and kill her. I doubt Jenna saw it coming either.”
“That’s what I thought,” I said. “But Jenna was definitely scared of someone.”
I hesitated for a moment, and Jackson picked up my slack. “So can you think of anyone else Jenna might’ve had as an enemy?” he asked. “Did you ever see her argue with anyone else aside from your wife?”
Dad frowned. “Shit, I don’t know. She was your woman, Jackson. I only really saw her at your house. At your dinner parties and so on. I don’t know who she knew or talked to on a daily basis, let alone if she had any enemies.”
“Just try to think, Dad,” I said.
He sighed and stared into space for a second. “Come to think of it,” he replied. “There was something I saw once. Christ, this is going back years ago. Jackson, remember that assistant of yours? Used to come to barbecues in the summer sometimes.”
“Kaye?” Jackson said with a frown.
Dad waved his hand. “Yeah, her. I saw her getting into it with Jenna once. It was around….seven years ago, I’d say. I was on my way to the bathroom to take a leak, and I saw them in the kitchen. Jenna was bitching at Kaye, telling her to back off her man because it was obvious she had a crush on you, and Kaye was calling her a gold-digging whore.”
“I see,” Jackson said, his voice stiff.
“But they were just drunk,” Dad went on. “I don’t think it means anything. I don’t think Jenna would’ve feared for her life over it. Hey, what’s this all about, anyway?”
He eyed us suspiciously, and Jackson shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, Craig. I’ve just been doing some thinking about the past, that’s all.”
“Like I said earlier, the past is better left where it lies.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Jackson replied. “We’ll leave you to your TV, Craig. I’m sorry about the other week. I hope we can sort it out one day.”
Dad huffed and turned his attention back to his show, and Jackson and I quietly headed out the door and back across the field to his property.
“So…Jenna and Kaye,” I said, once we’d reached his house and entered. “What do you think about that?”
“I think it was probably just a drunk argument that they had, like your dad said,” Jackson replied.
“So we’re back to square one. We have no idea who Jenna was afraid of. Except my mom,” I said softly.
Jackson stopped by the living room and turned to me, pulling me in tight with his strong arms. “Lily, don’t do this to yourself. Yes, your mom did something terrible, as far as we know. But I think you’re right. There’s more to what happened than we know, and the more I think about it, the less it all makes sense. Like you said before, if Jenna was so damn scared of your mom, why did she let her in that day without getting her gun first?”
“Maybe Mom let herself in with a spare key and caught her by surprise. Could be as simple as that,” I said with a defeated sigh. “Look, you and everyone else were right all along, Jackson. My mom did it, and she’s still out there hiding from the cops. That’s it, end of story. I needed to accept it, and now I have.”
He shook his head. “No. Something still doesn’t add up; I just can’t quite put my finger on what it is yet. But I’m getting a weird feeling about it, and I’m going to keep looking into it.”
I let out a short, dry laugh. “So now you’re the crazy one who can’t let it go.”
“Maybe so. But fuck, I want to know exactly what happened six years ago, and I don’t think the cops investigated everything the way they should’ve. I mean, shit, how did they not find out that Jenna tried to take out that life insurance policy only three weeks before she was killed? Pretty shitty investigating, if you ask me.”
“I guess.”
“I’ll call my PI again about the gun later,” he said. “But for now, let’s just try to forget everything. We’ve had a rough night. I need to make it right, make you feel better.”
“Make me feel better?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“You know what I mean, Lily. I know you know.”
I smiled up at him. “I think I should be the one making you feel better after the crap I pulled tonight.”
He growled and squeezed me tight again. “Nonsense. Like I said months ago, you’re still only nineteen. Sometimes you’re allowed to act like a silly little girl.”
“Like a brat,” I said with a soft smile. “A brat who needs some severe punishment.”
“Oh, you got that damn right…”
He tugged off my top and bra and I lifted his shirt over his head. His hands slid under the waistband of my yoga pants, tugging them to the floor, and he stepped out of his own pants. All that was here now, standing in the living room with its dim lighting, was us. Us. When we first got together it was all fast and hard passion. Then I began to truly fall for him. Now…now it was something more. Something bigger. I’d fallen all the way now.
“I love you, Lily,” Jackson said, seemingly reading my thoughts. “I can’t lose you.”
“I love you, too,” I replied. “You won’t lose me.”
His hands rolled across my breasts, fingers circling my stiff nipples. I kept my eyes on his as I let him touch me however he wanted.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he said. “Tell me what you want, baby girl.”
I lowered my gaze, taking in the wonderful view of his hard cock. I wanted him inside me so much. “I just want you,” I replied breathlessly. “Your cock in me.”
His hands traveled lower, toward my bare pussy, and I ached for him. I knew he liked teasing me, though. I liked it, too. I didn’t mind waiting.
Wrapping his arms around me again, he pulled me up so that my legs were around his waist, and he carried me to the sofa in the living room. Gently putting me down, he spread my legs and smirked at me, dipping one finger into my slick wetness. “Already so horny,” he said. “Such a naughty little thing.”
“Only for you, daddy...”
He began to flick at my clit with his tongue, starting nice and slow as his finger hovered outside my entrance, making me squirm with desperation. I could never touch myself the same way; never make myself feel the things he made me feel. His mouth and hands were magic, and so was his cock.
I closed my eyes and moaned as he finally eased the finger inside me. Just as my body adjusted to the tight fit, he added a second finger, stretching me wide. I gasped, overwhelmed by the sensation, and he began to flick the fingers forward in a come-hither gesture, perfectly hitting the sweet spot on my front wall.
“Oh, god…”
I felt his mouth on my pussy again, lapping at my clit, and I bit my lip, trying not to scream out. His fingers went in and out, harder and faster, hitting all the right spots, and his tongue did the same, circling my clit until I was on the brink of an orgasm.
It suddenly hit me, and I cried out. My legs quivered on Jackson’s shoulders as he looked up at me, a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes.
“I need your cock, daddy,” I gasped out. “Please!”
He got up from between my legs and stared down at me, eyes glimmering with lust. “Let’s go upstairs, little girl. You’ll get what you want up there…”
He was right. I’d always get what I wanted from him. What I needed.
Always.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jackson
Bzzt. Bzzt.
I groaned and rolled over to grab my buzzing cell phone off the bedside table. Lily was snuggled up in bed next to me, her hair fanned out around her head as her chest rose and fell with soft snores.
“Hello?” I said quietly into the pho
ne as I answered, trying not to wake my little girl. She had a rough night last night, and she needed a good sleep to recover.
“Jackson, it’s Brent.”
Brent was the private investigator who’d worked on my campaign, doing opposition research, and he was the guy I reached out to yesterday to help track down information on the gun in the attic, among other things.
“You’ve got something already?” I asked, slipping out of my bedroom.
“On the firearm, yeah. All I had to do was trace the serial number you gave me. All guns have ‘em. Anyway, I can tell you where and when she bought it.”
I grabbed a pen and notepad from my home office desk and leaned down. “Shoot.”
“Gill’s Guns in Piedmont. She bought it exactly three weeks before she died—on 25th of March, 2011.”
“Thanks, Brent. That’s very helpful.”
“I’ll let you know once I’ve looked into all the other shit.”
“Thanks, man.”
I went back into my bedroom to see that Lily was still happily snoring away, so I quietly dressed and then scribbled a note for her, explaining that I’d be out for a few hours. Piedmont was an outer eastern suburb of our city, so it was only a half hour drive from here.
I was going to pay a little visit to Gill’s Guns.
I grabbed a few items and stashed them in my briefcase, and then I began the drive to Piedmont. The weather was miserable, all grey skies and drizzling rain. It seemed to suit the mood of my current activity, though. After all, it wasn’t every day I went to follow up on my dead girlfriend’s gun purchases.
The gun store was a pretty typical one—exterior design hadn’t changed since the eighties, and the interior walls were lined with every sort of firearm one could imagine. All the sorts that were legal to buy in this state, that is.
I headed to the counter to see a greying old man standing there, wiping off his glasses. “You Gill?” I asked.
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