Jake tried to process that. “Steve wasn’t behind what happened to Sarah?”
She shook her head, wiped the tears from her face. “It was Eddie. I should’ve stopped him, but I didn’t. I’m so very sorry.”
“What happened last night at Caitlin Kingston’s house?”
“Eddie was working the birthday party yesterday at the Kingstons’ place. I guess your daughter somehow recognized him from the night of the car wreck. Steve told me she took a picture of him on her phone and told Caitlin, who shared with her father and Steve what was going on—that your daughter thought Eddie might be the same man who was involved in the hit-and-run accident. I panicked and told my mother. Eddie didn’t mean to shoot Caitlin. He was just trying to scare them. The gun accidentally went off. Then my brother freaked out and grabbed your daughter because she saw the whole thing.”
Jake’s head was spinning. “Did Steve know Eddie took my daughter?”
“No. Steve didn’t know about any of this until a few hours ago, when I finally told him the truth.”
“What did Steve do?”
“He was devastated and so angry. He said he had to go talk to his father. To make it right. Then he told me to get out of town.”
“Have you talked to Steve again?”
She shook her head. “He won’t return my phone calls.”
It dawned on Jake that Beth had no idea her own brother had executed her lover. It must’ve been his one last desperate attempt to salvage the dire situation. But it hadn’t worked. And now their own dead bodies were piled on top of the others because of it. If Steve had gone to Lars and told him the truth, could Lars have sent someone here to this barn? Jake thought about the man who had tried to shoot him in the park and had killed Brent Grisham instead. Dani had mentioned that a hit man had been hired to kill him. Could that hit man have been hired by his father-in-law?
When Jake had threatened to expose Lars’s affair during the custody battle earlier this year, the first words out of his father-in-law’s mouth were, “You’re a dead man, Jake. I’ll have you killed.” Jake had dismissed it at the time as an overly emotional response to their heated situation. But could Lars have chosen this moment to follow through with it? Did Lars see it as an opportunity to finally get rid of Jake altogether?
Jake suddenly stood. “I have to go.”
Beth looked up at him with the saddest eyes. “What do I do?”
“Call the police. Tell them the truth. It might just save your life.”
FORTY
Jake drove fast back across Austin. His emotions were swinging on a wild pendulum. On one hand, he felt a hesitant relief at the possibility that Piper might actually be in safe hands—even if those were the blood-covered hands of his crazy father-in-law. Piper being OK was all that mattered to him. On the other hand, he was mad as hell. Lars Kingston had created a toxic family culture where money, power, and pleasure—and the protection of all three—were at the center of their entire world. A dark world that had damaged his own children in so many crippling ways. As Lord Acton said, Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Steve had fallen victim to it. The dominoes that tipped over in the aftermath were devastating. Three members of the Kingston family were now dead—along with many others. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Lars had decided to take everything to the next level by bringing in his own hired gun. If it were up to his father-in-law, Jake also would be dead right now. And then Lars would finally get what he’d wanted from the moment Sarah had died—Piper.
But Jake wasn’t going to let that happen. He’d been thinking about where his father-in-law might have taken Piper, assuming she was now with him. Jake doubted Lars would simply drive her back to his estate up on the hill. The whole family was probably there, and now in even more despair because of Steve’s death. Lars would want more control over the situation. He would want time to manipulate the entire narrative around how he’d somehow gotten Piper back himself. To make sure his hands were clean with all that had happened. His father-in-law owned a secluded house on heavily wooded acres that backed up to Lake Austin.
Jake had been there only one time. Two months after Sarah had died, Lars had asked to meet with Jake privately. It was there that Lars had made his first request—or demand—that Piper come live with them instead of remaining with Jake. That conversation didn’t go well, of course. And things had gone from bad to worse from there. Jake didn’t think even Janice knew about the house. It wasn’t decorated as if she had been involved. There were no frills. The modern glass house was bare bones furniture-wise and felt more like a man cave for someone super wealthy. Jake figured that was exactly what it was. A place off the map where Lars Kingston had his private sexual trysts and affairs.