Burn by Sean Doolittle Read Free Book Online Page B

of your goddamned business.”
    “Listen, I'm heading over to see Caroline myself after this. Want me to tell her anything for you?”
    “You can tell her anything you want, ” Lane said. He still looked smug, but his voice had lost a bit of its pomp. “It won't change anything.”
    “Gee, Lane. You sound so sure.”
    Lane said nothing to this. But after a long, silent moment, he took his feet off the desk and sat up.
    “You want to know what I'm sure about?”
    “Do share.”
    Lane squared his shoulders and looked at Andrew as though he were finally getting the chance he'd been waiting for to get this one thing off his chest.
    “Caroline may be your cousin. But she's my wife. And you being here puts her in danger. It's that simple.” He raised his empty hands to indicate how simple it was. “She can choose to ignore that if she wants to. I'll just keep looking out for both of us.”
    Watching him, Andrew suddenly realized that for all his petty, self-obsessed ooze, Lane genuinely believed what he'd just said. Worse: He was right.
    Even worse: He knew it.
    “Having you in the same family tree is bad enough, ” Lane said. “But that doesn't mean you hug the goddamned trunk in an electrical storm.”
    “Good one.”
    “And if she thinks I'm putting that house on the market with these property values, she's got another think coming. I'll tell you that right now.”
    “Say, ” Andrew said. “What's your homeowner's policy on that place, anyway?”
    Lane looked at him. “What kind of question is that?”
    “Just curious, Lane, that's all.”
    “None of your business, ” he said. But he narrowed his eyes. “Why did you ask me that?”
    “I'm just concerned. I mean, this weather. Plus that salty air you get out there at the beach. Dries everything out, corrodes that older wiring. And that exterior electrical panel under the deck? The insurance inspector reallyshould have made you reroute that inside. Their mistake, I guess.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “I'm not talking about anything, ” Andrew said. “I'm just thinking out loud. I mean, market being what it is, I don't blame you for not wanting to sell the place.”
    “You might as well stop right there, ” Lane said. “Because I'm not listening to another word.”
    “You're the one who keeps bringing up what I used to do for a living, Lane. I'm only trying to be helpful.”
    “I'm not having this conversation.”
    “Yeah, I suppose you're right, ” Andrew said. “With Caroline's name on the title and insurance, she'd end up getting half the payout. In a settlement situation—God forbid you two should ever come to that—that'd mean you'd be out… what… half a mil or so? That hardly seems fair.”
    Lane looked at him for a long time, expressionless. By now, his color had drained; his suntan had taken on an ashy cast. “Are you threatening me?”
    “Whoa, ” Andrew said. He held up his palms. “Who's making threats?”
    “You wouldn't.” Lane straightened in his chair. He seemed to be working out a math problem in his head. “Hell, you
couldn't.”
    “Wouldn't, couldn't, let's not get into theoreticals. I just came to see what you and the police talked about. Relax, Lane. We're just a couple of dirtbags here.”
    “I want you to leave, ” Lane said quietly.
    Andrew shrugged. “It's your turf.”
    Just before Andrew reached the doors, Lane spoke one last time. It was more a mumble than an assertion.
    “I think I deserve to know what you plan to say to Caroline about this.”
    Andrew paused. Behind the enormous desk, Lane sat with a sag in his shoulders. He looked like a child with adult furniture.
    “Tell you what, ” Andrew said. “You lay off my new buddy Kyle out there, I'll spend some time thinking about it.”

7
    “ALL I'm sayin’, ” said Denny Hoyle, “is you'd be a lot happier if you weren't so negative about everything.”
    “Be a lot happier, ” Luther Vines told him, “if you quit tellin’ me how