Page 68 of Traitor

“You did what you had to do to protect her.”

“Yes!” Alice says, sounding pleased to hear Ford catching on. “I couldn’t let them hurt Mama, or Daddy’s memory. Jim’s been so upset since it happened I didn’t have to kill him, too.”

She’s so nonchalant discussing cold-blooded murder it makes my skin crawl.

“I wish we would have known the circumstances,” Ford says softly. “I would have convinced Peyton to drop the whole thing. You never meant to hurt her. You couldn’t help yourself.”

“I wish you would have. But you didn’t. If you had, I wouldn’t have to do this. I wanted it all to go away. For everything to go back to normal. If you two had left well enough alone, it would have gone away and it would all be fine. But you didn’t.”

Ford makes a comforting sound in his throat. “I understand now.Weunderstand. If you let us go, we’ll drop it. No one will ever have to know what really happened. It can stay between us. We’ll leave, and your life can go back to what it was.”

“Nice try, Ford, but you know I can’t do that. I can’t leave any loose ends. Jim and I will start over, once the shock of your deaths has passed. He’ll feel too guilty for cheating to leave me now. We’ll use Lola’s share from Daddy’s will to do a round of IVF, or adopt a baby, and we’ll be happy. As for you two, well, no one will miss a killer and a psycho. It’s for the best, really. Now, why don’t you climb over that fence there and join Peyton. It’ll be easier if you don’t fight it.”

“Don’t go through with this, Alice. You’ll regret it.”

“After it’s over, we’ll move on and forget. It’ll be like it never happened.” Ford grunts and I hear the scrabble of shoes against rock as they both come closer.

My bloodless fingers drop the pocketknife and I nearly cry out in desperation. The rope is taut, but I have to hope I was able to cut through enough. I have to. I’ll only get one chance and I hope I don’t screw it up.