Keep Calm and Kill Your Wife by Lucky Stevens Read Free Book Online Page A

probably have to prove to the insurance company that she had taken up flying lesson after she had taken out her policy. Easy enough to do, but they might not like it and could put up a fight. All in all, it would be best if he handled her passing, himself. Besides, there was something about executing his own plan that gave him some perverse delight. Like he was hatching some brilliant jewel heist. There was some strange satisfaction to it all like it somehow deemed him a self-made man versus someone who wins the lottery through pure luck.
    Summer looked out the window. She felt so happy. So free. Any anxiety she felt about the woods seemed to float to the back burner. This was her time. Hart had been right. She really did need some R and R. She thought about the words. Rest and Relaxation. They sounded so nice. For one week, I’m not going to worry about anything. Not spiders, the dark woods, wild animals, tidying up the cabin, getting pregnant, nothing. Total R and R.
    She pressed the side of her face against the passenger side window, the green sign ahead inching closer. She smiled.
    Cardsdale 280 miles.
_______________
    Brandy Hastling felt good. This was to be her first summer vacation in three years. And if things went well, she’d eventually be quitting her job as assistant manager at The Pet Expo very soon now. She thoroughly disliked the job and it was one that, in her words, she was “very much over-qualified for.” It was only too bad that she had let so much vacation time build up, because now, with her impending wealth just a few days away, it looked as if she’d never get a chance to use it.
    She would be staying one hour south of Cardsdale at a little out-of-the-way motel called the Blue Jay Inn. The accommodations, as she was well aware, would not be nearly as lovely and whimsical as its name suggested. But she didn’t much care. Good times were just around the corner.
    Initially she wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of being so close to the location of Summer’s murder, but Hart had insisted.
    “I’m the one taking all the risks here,” he had said. “And if anything goes wrong I’m going to need you near me.” She would be an hour away. Close enough to get to Hart quickly if he called her, but far enough away that nobody would be bumping into anyone accidentally.
    Brandy had stayed at the Blue Jay a few times before and it gave her some comfort that this “Mom and Pop” motel out in the middle of nowhere could at least serve as some type of alibi for her whereabouts if push came to shove.
    But as things often go, events would not work out as planned.
    It was two days into Summer and Hart’s trip when Brandy set off on her own vacation. She had worked a long day and was exhausted. As she drove up I-5, her mind was going a mile a minute. Mentally, she felt good, excited. But she was also in a bit of a frenzy as thoughts and ideas poured in. This was really happening. She and Hart would soon be free of their burdensome jobs and money troubles forever. And they would be together, just the two of them. No more sneaking around.
    She finally had to stop herself as her head felt like it would explode if she attempted to think of so much at once. Instead, she tried to concentrate on her driving and on her off-ramp—Bort Road.
    The miles passed beneath her tires in the most indistinct way. Her eyelids were getting heavy now and she was forced to slap herself a few times to stay awake. If only she could get some goddamn coffee, but she knew that was useless. There was simply nothing around. “Bort Road, Bort Road,” her lips chanted breathlessly. “B-o-r-t, Bort Road,” she said as she read the white letters on the small green sign blurring by. Shit! She had passed it. “Dammit!” she screamed. Her eyes widened as a shot of adrenaline filled her head. She clutched the steering wheel, willing it to turn around. Taking a deep breath, she strained to see the sign up ahead: Cornhinter Way 12 miles it