Crash and Burn by Allison Brennan, Laura Griffin Read Free Book Online Page B

about her. Exactly what Scarlet thought about this whole situation.
    “Look, I’ll get everything back. No problem. Give me the list.”
    “And can you give him a letter for me?”
    Her big blue eyes were hopeful.
    “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Scarlet said.
    “Tell him if he reads it, just listens to me for once, I’ll never bother him again. If that’s what he wants.”
    She leaned forward. “Wendy, listen to me. You need to move on. He needs to move on. Cut ties. You have a restraining order against him. He wants one against you. Some people are like oil and water. They don’t mix.”
    “But we’re like oil and vinegar, we’re better when we’re together.”
    Scarlet blinked. This was not happening.
    “Wendy—”
    “Please, give him the letter and get my stuff.” She slid over two envelopes. One was marked Moreno & Hart Investigations and the other was marked Jimmy .
    Scarlet took them. So help her, she was going to regret this, but she picked up the envelopes. “And your list?”
    Wendy tore a sticky note off a pad. Scarlet took it. In the girl’s flowery handwriting with circles that dotted each “I” she’d written:
    Bikini (blue)
    Manolo sandals (white)
    Diamond stud earrings
    Abercrombie perfume
    Laptop + case, charger
    Blender
    “This is all?” Scarlet said. “And you’re one hundred percent certain these are your items and that Douglas has them?”
    “Yes,” she said with confidence. “That’s all. He gave me back everything else.”
    “Why’d you get a restraining order against him in the first place?”
    She bit her lip. “You’re not going to tell anyone on me, are you?”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Well, I kinda lied on the form.”
    “I don’t want to know.” Why had she even asked?
    “You see,” she began as if Scarlet hadn’t spoken, “he thought I was cheating on him, which I wasn’t, and he was yelling at me. My girlfriend Margie said the only way to make him go away was to get a restraining order. She’s an attorney with the county. And so I did, but I didn’t really want to—it was a lot easier than I thought it’d be. And she filled it all out. I just signed it. He didn’t even contest it, and I don’t understand why—”
    “Look, the legal system isn’t there for you and your ex to play psychological war games with each other.”
    “I know, I know. It was for ninety days only, and I’m not going to renew it.”
    Probably because she’d have to go in front of a judge. Lying on paper was a lot easier than lying in person.
    Scarlet looked inside the unsealed envelope. It took all her self-control for her eyes not to bulge out of her head.
    Two. Thousand. Dollars.
    It had taken her over a week to earn the two thousand Cavanaugh paid her to get proof his wife was cheating. And before that she’d been jobless for ten days.
    She picked up the envelopes and sticky note. “I’ll do it, on one condition.”
    “Anything.”
    Anything? Who said that when they didn’t know what the conditions were?
    “If your ex reads this letter and says no more, he never wants you to call, email, write, drive by, follow, rear-end, or even think about him, you don’t. You stay away from him. You take your stuff and find a new hobby. Got it?”
    She nodded, her eyes wide with sincerity. “Absolutely. I promise.”
    The problem with good liars was they were absolutely sincere when they lied. Scarlet got that squishy feeling in her gut that Wendy was lying. Or maybe that was because Scarlet just didn’t like her. It was people like Wendy and Jim that made Scarlet want to be stranded, alone, on a deserted island.
    Scarlet finished her coffee. It really was too good not to drink. Then she got out of there.
    Wendy Anderson had a screw loose. But was she dangerous? That was the million-dollar question.
     
    ~ ~ ~
     
    Mac called Scarlet while she drove to Douglas’s place. She put him on speaker. “You’re fast.”
    “Not really. I don’t have everything