Chapter 63

As if a celestialbeing reached out of the sky, cracked open Kayla’s skull, and used their little pinky to whisk her brain, Kayla could only conjure one word. “You?”

Elsie Hinshaw tossed a disgusted look over her shoulder at Jillian. “Some people don’t have the mettle to do what needs to be done.”

“Murder is never the answer,” Jillian said. “It’s not the Service way.”

“The Service way is like pitting a slingshot up against an armored tank.” Elsie, sweet Elsie, the woman who’d taught Kayla how to play Zelda and intervened when a pair of older girls attempted to steal her new bracelet, curled her fingers into fists, and her features contorted into anger. “No more losing ground because our tactics weren’t tough enough. We will become the tank that mows over the rock slinger.”

“What happened to you?” Kayla asked, unable to keep the strain of shock out of her voice. “You’ve become the very thing we’ve been fighting to suppress.”

“Diplomacy and fair play would take us another lifetime to accomplish all we desire. We need results now.” Elsie eyed Ash with hatred. “Or men like him will pull the world into another war and, before you know it, they’ll chase women out of the boardrooms and back into the kitchens.”

Kayla’s arm trembled with the effort to hold up her gun. “You’re wrong. Men like Asher Blackwell are honorable, compassionate, valorous, and strong. The exact type of man our leaders need at their sides.”

“Why? So they can watch for our weaknesses, then use them against us? Or sabotage us in order to take over our positions?” Elsie shook her head as if disappointed. “What happened to the young initiate who wanted women to rule the world?”

Kayla recalled the bold statement she’d made to her mom and aunties over booze and cards not long after she’d taken her oath to uphold Service’s tenets.

Watch out boys. It’s our time.

“Not rule the world,” an older, wiser Kayla clarified. “Guide it with people who’ll do the right thing even if it’s the harder option. Men just so happen to have been bloody awful at it for the past three millennia.”

“Exactly why we need to take more drastic measures now. In case you hadn’t heard, we have only a handful of years left to reverse a million greedy decisions before this world becomes uninhabitable. I’m not going to let a few doctrines that four idealistic twenty-somethings devised stop me from protecting my grandchildren’s future.”

“You killed your friend to avert the climate crisis?” Ash inserted, skepticism dripping from his words.

Kayla had never known Elsie to be a proponent for the environment, so her explanation fell flat. From a big-picture view, though, Kayla could empathize with the woman’s logic.

Over the years, she had come up against political resistance that had nothing to do with the issue and everything to do with the candidate’s reelection. Watching an important issue become a sacrifice to a politician’s campaign agenda had been disheartening and, oftentimes, infuriating.

More than once, the thought had crossed her mind to combat politicians’ machinations with a more direct, heavy-handed approach in order to accomplish a Service goal. She’d certainly skirted the line of ethical and nonethical, as with the case of the Irish artifact. But at her core, she believed in doing things the right way, the honorable way. No matter how many future headaches it produced.

“The climate crisis is just one issue of many on the cusp of imploding.” Elsie clicked them off on her fingers. “Immigration, inflation, gun violence, tribal rights, racism, partisan cooperation, veteran benefits and reacclimation, health care costs. The list is endless.”

“Bulldozing your ideology will only add fuel to extremists’ propaganda,” Kayla said. “You might achieve short-term wins, but the big important battles will always be out of your reach.”

“Enough talk.” Elsie held up both hands, flicking her forefingers in a silent come here command.

Ash whipped around, but not in time. Two additional guards appeared out of the shadows. One kicked Ash’s arm with such force that his pistol went flying. The bastard followed the explosive move with a hard barrel stab into Ash’s wounded shoulder.

A pained grunt whooshed from his throat, and he crashed to the ground. “Not. Again,” he wheezed.

The other guard stormed toward Kayla, his assault rifle anchored against his shoulder and a red dot sighted on her chest. “Drop your weapon,” he ordered.

Kayla’s heart shook inside her chest, but she refused to lower her Glock. The black-clad guard stood eight feet from her, terrifying in his size and ferocity.

“Do as you’re told, Kayla,” Elsie said in a calm voice. “Or I shall have to instruct Marco to break your mother’s fingers, one by one.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Even as the words left her mouth, Kayla realized this new Elsie would not only do it, but might even relish making an example of Jillian.

She glanced at Ash, and he nodded, as he slowly climbed to his feet. After ejecting the round in the chamber and pulling the magazine, she tossed her weapon and experienced an overwhelming sense of vulnerability.

Elsie said, “Get them inside the guesthouse and prepare them.”

“Prepare us for what?” Jillian asked.

“For the tragic fire that will consume your bodies.”

Jillian lunged for her old friend, but the large guard near her grasped her upper arm and dragged her toward the house.

“Elsie, you’re insane!” Jillian screamed. “Don’t do this.”

Ignoring her, Elsie assessed Ash. “Change of plan for this one. Forensics will flag the bullet wound.” She motioned to the man flanking Ash. “Do you have a suppressor?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Take him down the mountain and bury him in a back lot of one of my neighbors. Most of them live here part-time, so they’ve probably gone home for the week. Stay clear of the trail. I don’t want his grave discovered by a curious dog walker.”

Ash took a swing at his guard, but the contract killer had anticipated his move. He ducked to the side, then trained his red dot on Ash’s forehead.

“Stop!” Kayla yelled, throwing herself in front of Ash.

He bearhugged her and swung her around, putting himself between her and the bullet. She struggled against his hold, not realizing she was crying until his thumb brushed against her wet cheek.

“Do you trust me?” he whispered.

She continued to squirm, terror for his safety deafening her.

He cupped her cheek, stilling her. “Do you trust me?”

“Y-yes.”

“Go inside. Watch over your mom. I’ll be back. Promise.”

The guards wrenched them apart and zip-tied Ash’s hands behind his back. The awful reality of their situation sank deep into Kayla’s bones and melted her marrow. This might be the last time she saw him.

“Aunt Elsie,” she pleaded. “This isn’t you. You’re not a killer.”

The older woman smiled, and Kayla’s heart shrank to the size of a raisin.

“I am more me now than I’ve been in nearly three decades.” A line of perfect white teeth appeared, and her head tilted like a female praying mantis seconds before she chomped into her lover’s head. “Did you never wonder about Vin’s sudden change of heart?”

Confused by the shift, Kayla responded like an automaton. “He wasn’t ready for marriage yet.” Vincent Bonetti had been her first love. The only man before Ash that she imagined a future with. But once they started looking at rings, he all but disappeared.

“If that were true, why didn’t he stick around until he was ready to commit?”

Kayla stared at her aunt, prepared for another emotional apocalypse.

“You stupid, naive girl. Your precious Vin wanted the multi-six-figure CFO position. I”—her pink-painted forefinger tapped her chest—“offered him more than he wanted you.” She jabbed the finger in Kayla’s direction.

Sadness blurred her vision. Not for losing Vin. She’d washed him from her life years ago. But for losing the people she used to know, like her aunties and Mason. “Why would you interfere in my private life?”

“When you started talking about rings, I knew I had to do something. Husband, children, career—too many distractions. Service needed your lobbying firm. We didn’t need the others, so I cut them out before they bloomed.”

Kayla was going to be sick. How could she have not seen this other Elsie? Was this how wives of serial killers felt when their husbands were caught? Was Elsie a psychopath? Or was she like most people who get too much power and begin thinking they’re gods? Above the law?

She’d figure out the psychology of it later. Right now, she had a burning question in need of extinguishing. “Vicky’s husband. Was he a distraction, too?”

Elsie smiled.

Emotion roughened her voice. “And Linda. Were you the one feeding her vitriol about her mother?”

“Can’t take credit for the daughter. Sybil had fun with that one.”

“How else does Sybil play into all of this?”

“No ‘auntie’ for us anymore?”

Kayla said nothing. Simply stared at the creature who was ripping out her heart with every word she uttered.

Elsie sighed. “Sybil started out promising. On board with my plan until it became obvious that Jillian suspected us of killing Victoria.” She glanced back at the building where Jillian was imprisoned. “Losing Jill was one too many friends, I guess.”

“Why did you kill Vicky?”

“She’d lost her way.”

“Because of her working relationship with the Assembly’s male leadership?”

“Men should’ve lost their right to lead decades ago, but the majority of the voting public cannot reason for themselves.”

“Aren’t you the one who put Vin in a CFO position?”

“Temporary, my dear. I fired him a year later for embezzlement.”

“Evidence, no doubt, fabricated by you.”

“No doubt.”

Disgust and anger overrode her sadness. “Where’s Sybil?”

“Snoozing away in her mansion. She’ll be quite shocked when the drug wears off and she finds first responders swarming her property to put out a flame she set.”

Kayla took in the armed contractors. “Evan Barclay won’t let his men help you frame his mother for murder.”

Elsie laughed. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to use Evan’s men for this project?” She shook her head. “Tell me, does knowing all of this bring you comfort?”

“The only thing that will bring me comfort is shredding your plan and watching your face as you’re sentenced to a lifetime in prison.”

All humor fled the older woman’s face, and she stepped close enough for Kayla to feel the hot vapor of her breath. “I was going to be merciful to you and Jill. Now, you will feel the flames licking your skin while you roast.”