Tax Assassin Read Free Page A

Mom thinks
he’s dead. She keeps saying, ‘Your father would never do this to us
– to me. He must be dead.’ She doesn’t know he’s in witness
protection.”
    “ Doesn’t want to
know?”
    “ I honestly think she
doesn’t know . . . and . . . they
took everything she . . . we own.”
    “ The Feds?”
    “ Her dresses, jewelry,
furniture, our baby clothing . . . Anything they
could sell,” she whispered as if her words were too painful to hear
out loud. “His clothing too, but who cares? Computers. My little
sister Bella’s school computer. My older sister, Éowyn? She’s not a
DA anymore.”
    “ Your father got her the
position at the DA the same way he got you the position at the
forensics lab at Denver Police,” Seth said.
    “ I found her curled up in a
ball in her closet,” she said. “Big bad Deputy DA Éowyn Alvin, who
always had something nasty to say about everyone and everything,
especially me, was crying her eyes out. She was crying so hard she
couldn’t leave the closet. She’s lost her house and had to move
home to live with Mom, and now this . . . They took
her clothing, jewelry, computer, and . . . even her
precious Blackberry! Bella was chucked from college. No money, no
college. Her loans are part of the fraud case and . . .”
    “ And?”
    “ Everyone I grew up with,
all of our neighbors, gathered around to cheer on the Feds. Even
the Mandolyns. You know, the elderly couple who took us to the pool
in the summer?” she asked. “Our neighbors . . . they
pointed and stared and gossiped and drank. Like they knew we
were . . . bad . . . all along. My
mom thought some of these . . .
people . . . were her best friends.
She . . . It’s like she’s dead inside.”
    “ No pitch
forks?”
    “ No torches,” she said. “At
least until . . .”
    She stopped talking and looked at him. Angry
and embarrassed, she scooted away from him toward the end of the
bed.
    “ Until what?” he
asked.
    She stopped moving. She sat on the far
corner of the bed with her back to him.
    “ I used the money you gave
me to put them up in a hotel downtown.” She glanced at him. “You
see, I’m your whore and . . .”
    He slid across the bed to catch her before
she began to sob. He rocked her slightly. When she was able to
hear, he whispered: “Everything I have is yours.”
    “ We’re not
married.”
    “ Why is that?” He smiled.
    “ Because of all of
this.”
    “ Want to get married now?
We could be in Vegas in an hour. We weren’t supposed to leave for
our honeymoon until tomorrow. We could still make it.”
    She smiled at him.
    “ We have a dress, a tux.
The rings are in the safe downstairs. The flowers are still
amazing. There’s a fancy cake in the freezer. I bet I could whip up
a celebration and . . .”
    “ I want to marry you when
this crap is over,” she smirked. “I’m only planning on getting
married once. I want it to be big, fun, and memorable. I don’t plan
on changing husbands like underwear. Not like some people.”
    “ That’s low. I change my
underwear much less than that!” He clutched his chest as if she’d
stabbed him. “I divorced the crazy one. I think you’ll remember
that Bonita was killed by Saint Jude!”
    For the briefest moment, even her eyes
smiled and she looked like herself for the first time since her
father’s toxic waste had polluted every corner of her life.
    “ She doesn’t know it’s your
money,” Ava said.
    “ Who?”
    “ My mother,” she said. “I
told her it’s money I got for coming up with the treatment protocol
for the First Responder’s Toxin.”
    “ You got a hefty
payout.”
    “ That the Denver Police
Department kept,” she said. “But really, Seth, without your money,
she, my sisters . . . The Feds took the beds!
There’s no place to sleep.”
    “ They’re tearing up the
carpets tomorrow,” Seth said.
    “ Why?”
    “ Looking for documents,
audio recordings,” Seth said. “He said