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Chapter Twenty-Eight

T he motel room had seen better days. Hillary dropped her carry-on onto the faded bedspread.

Paisley—that was so the sixties. But then again, the cheap room was all she could afford right now.

It had a lingering smell of fried food, probably from the diner next door.

She looked around the small room. It wasn’t much, but it looked clean.

There was a bathroom with a shower one-third the size of the shower in her small apartment.

It would do. There was the double bed with the faded comforter.

God only knew what shape the sheets were in.

Ugh, not something she wanted to think about.

They weren’t the eight-hundred-count Egyptian cotton like she had in New York, but as long as they were clean, they’d do.

A single worn chair kept vigil in the corner, with a pole lamp behind it, and then there was the TV—a brand-new smart TV.

Whoever owned the motel thought they had their priorities straight.

She didn’t bother unpacking; she wouldn’t be here for more than a week. Just enough time to start Claire’s harassment. She wanted to embarrass Claire like she had been embarrassed. Wanted her to feel the pain of failure .

Her new position only allowed her to take this week off, so she needed to be smart about what she was going to do in Florida. Then she would fly down only on the weekends, although that would stretch her thin budget. Hopefully, her plan wouldn’t take more than a month.

First things first, she unpacked the computer Keith had left at the condo.

She’d taken it with her when she moved, and it was a treasure trove of information.

He’d never given her the password, but she hadn’t needed him to.

Giving him a blowjob, then nuzzling his neck while he worked, gave her easy access to his password. Stupid man.

Settling in the chair, she put in a call to a man who had done some work for Keith.

Not that Keith ever told her everything, but she knew enough to know that the man wasn’t an upstanding citizen.

Just what she needed. If he’d been surprised to hear from her, after giving him Keith’s name and how much she would pay, he was more than receptive.

She sat back in the chair and smiled. Finally, things were going to go in her favor. Claire would learn that having Keith die was the least of her problems.