Free The Final Victim by Wendy Corsi Staub Page A

bit younger than she is, and they lived up North, so she never really knew them as well as she’d have liked to. Her father always dismissed them both as spoiled brats, but Charlotte could imagine her Uncle Xavy might have said the same about her. He never seemed to give his only niece the time of day.
    Then again, for all they had in common, he and Daddy weren’t particularly close, either. The brothers were longtime rivals in everything from sports to acquiring fancy status symbols to garner their lone parent’s meager affection.
    â€œListen, don’t let your obnoxious cousins get to you while I’m gone,” cautions the apparently clairvoyant Royce.
    â€œThey’re the only family I have left in the world now that Grandaddy’s gone,” she feels obligated to point out.
    â€œWhat about me?”
    â€œOther than you and Lianna,” she says hastily. “But you know what I meant. It’s just kind of... strange. It suddenly feels like the Remingtons are . . . I don’t know, a dying breed.”
    â€œI’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be—”
    â€œOh, I know.” She smiles up at him. “The fact that they’re my only flesh and blood in the world, besides Lianna, doesn’t make my cousins any less obnoxious.”
    Royce grins. “I just hope they’re not planning to hang around for too long after I’m back.”
    â€œI doubt that. I have a feeling that once the will is read, they’ll take their money and run.”
    â€œI wouldn’t be surprised.”
    â€œAnd what about us?” Charlotte asks her husband.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œWe’re about to inherit a life-changing amount of money, remember?”
    He shrugs. “Frankly, I like our life just the way it is. Don’t you?”
    She flashes him a grateful smile. “Absolutely. And we always said that when the time came, we’d just tuck it away and go on the same as always.”
    â€œMy thoughts exactly. I’m assuming that’s still the plan?”
    â€œThat’s still the plan,” Charlotte assures him, aware, as always, how different he is from her first husband. Royce is as cautious financially as Vincent was a flashy spendthrift.
    Both Grandaddy and Mother tried to warn her that Vincent married her for her money—they saw it from the start.
    But Charlotte, still reeling from her father’s death and her mother’s cancer diagnosis, wouldn’t listen—any more than she suspects her own daughter will listen to her.
    But what can she do about that?
    Nothing, Charlotte thinks helplessly for the second time this evening, but hold my breath and let go.

CHAPTER 3
    â€œWant me to pick you up again tomorrow night?” Kevin asks hopefully.
    Lianna pauses, her hand on the car door handle.
    â€œI don’t know,” she hedges, needing to think about what just happened between them.
    â€œWell I can, if you want me to. Or I can meet you somewhere, if you don’t want to sneak out. You can tell your parents you’re with one of your friends or something.”
    â€œYou mean my mother.”
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œYou said my parents . My father lives in Florida—he’s not the one with all the stupid rules. Royce is just my stepfather.”
    â€œYeah,” he says in a whatever tone, as if it doesn’t matter.
    But it does. It matters to her, a lot.
    â€œSo let me know, okay? I have to work at the gas station all day so I can’t answer my cell if it rings, but you can text message me if you want.”
    â€œOkay. I’ll let you know.”
    He leans over the console and kisses her one last time. She can feel stubble on his face, a tactile reminder that he’s older than she is. Much older.
    Perhaps too old, she allows herself to consider for the first time, as she closes the car door as soundlessly as possible.
    Picking her way in the headlights’ beam toward the