The dogs' nails clicked on the tile kitchen floor as I filled up the empty bowl. "Now."

"I'm in Clearwater."

I froze. Half the food missed the bowl and fell on the floor. "You better not be with Rebecca."

I did a lot of work to split those two up. If he let her take off her shirt and talk him into staying together, he had to figure out the next break-up on his own.

Tony laughed. "No."

"Just come quick. I'll meet you there."

Tony had at least a twenty-minute drive from Clearwater, but it would take me less than ten to get to my aunt and uncle's place.

My heart raced as I grabbed my taser from the half put-together office space in the spare room. I kissed the side while checking the battery. Little sparky wouldn't let me down.

The first seeds of doubt hit me. Was I really ready to tase my aunt? Did I really think she was a drug lord? Aunt Claire made bad cookies and spent too much time on crafts. She wasn't out masterminding murder.

I set the taser on the edge of the desk. Was my brain making all this up because I was mad at her for taking my mother from me? There had to be someone else. But the clues just made perfect sense. She'd been under my nose the entire time.

At the least, I'd head to her house, ask about the needle, and prove her innocence.

Yes, that's what I'd do.

I grabbed the taser from my desk and headed out the front door. The drive took less than five minutes before I had Broadrick's truck parked in front of her house. I shut it off and watched in my rearview mirror for Tony's arrival.

My phone buzzed as I waited.

JANET DAY: We've reached an agreement on custody. Tell me when I can retrieve the dogs from WITSEC.

Nice. I'd figure this thing out with my aunt and get the dogs home again. Two problems off my place. The day was looking up.

If my aunt was already at my mother's house, we'd pop in quickly and look for any murder evidence. They kept a key hidden under a big pot on the back porch and one in my father's key cabinet.

As soon as I finalized the plan in my head, the garage door opened.

Shit.

I ducked lower in the seat, trying to stay out of view, but as my aunt rounded the back of her van, she stopped and stared at the truck.

I had two options. Pretend she was crazy, and I wasn't staking out her house... or run with it.

I waved at her with a big smile and got out of the truck. "Hey, Aunt Claire. How are you?"

She squinted at me in the early evening sun. "Vonnie? What are you doing here?"

Why did everyone ask that?

I glanced back with crossed fingers that Tony's truck turned the corner as I walked across the street toward my aunt. No luck. "Thought I'd stop by for a minute to see how you're doing."

That sounded like a plausible lie. Right?

She had a black duffle bag hung from her shoulders, and she readjusted it while meeting my gaze. What did she have in that bag? Drugs? Guns? "I'm headed to your mother's house to help her with a new quilt."

I nodded. "She seems really into quilting lately."

The bag adjusted with her new stance, and something misshaped the end. Was it the butt of a high-powered rifle?

"Yes, I think it's keeping her mind off things like her brother being in jail," she said, using both hands on the bag handle. It must have been heavy.

I stopped in the middle of her driveway, my suspicions growing. "What's in the bag?"

"Oh, this?" She glanced at it. "Fabric for the quilt we're making."

Lies!

She had that thing practically clutched to her chest. No one cared that much about fabric. I inched toward the garage using the smallest steps possible.

"Oh, wait." Aunt Claire's eyes opened wide. "I forgot. There's something in the house for you. Richard wanted me to give it to you."

"Uncle Richard had something for me?" But he was in jail. "What?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. You know how your uncle is. He wrote a letter for you."

Hmm. When did he do that? Did Claire know I visited him? Was she visiting him?

"Come on. It won't take a minute for me to grab it," she said when she noticed I wasn't running in delight toward their home. "Richard really wanted you to have it. He said it's important."

She disappeared into the house as I hit the edge of the garage. "If you're sure."

My skin tingled, and I gave one more backward glance toward the road. No sign of Tony.

Calm down, Vonnie.

This was Aunt Claire. She wouldn't hurt me.

Obviously, she'd hire someone else to do it, but she wouldn't do it herself. And not in her home. Think of the blood evidence.

Vonnie, calm down.

The woman changed my diapers as a baby. No way was Aunt Claire running a drug operation. I had this all wrong. Plus, whatever Uncle Richard wanted to give me might be good. Maybe the letter laid out the operation in Pelican Bay and gave me evidence to bring down his boss. If he cooperated in bringing down whoever forced him into selling drugs, they'd have to give him a lighter sentence. Right?

"Okay, but I won't stay long since you need to get to mom's house." And I wanted to get inside her home to search for that needle.

"Of course. I don't want to keep your mother waiting." She was right inside the door with a big smile on her face as I walked in. Yeah, Aunt Claire wouldn't hurt me. She was my aunt. This entire thing was probably one big misunderstanding.

The basement door to the right of the back door was open, and as I passed by it, Claire lunged for me. Her arms stretched out, and she rammed into my side. The movement sent me flying past the first step, and then down at least a dozen more before hitting the basement floor with a dull thud from my ass.

My back ached as I struggled to pull myself up with the stairwell railing. I let out a large breath, and my ribs screamed. Well, this was fan-fucking-tastic. What were the odds my aunt pushed me down the stairs by accident?

Not good.

"Oh, Vonnie, are you alright?" she asked and came down the stairs, shutting the door behind her. They had a finished basement, but the windows were too small to climb through. I scanned for another escape plan but came up empty.

I shook my head and used the wall to help me stand despite the ache in my spine. "It seems I had a little fall down the stairs."

"Did you break anything?" she asked, halfway down the stairwell. The fluorescent lights in the drop ceiling lit up her face with weird shadows. Or maybe I was just seeing her evil for the first time.

I rubbed my lower back. "No, I don't think so."

"That's a pity," she said, standing in the middle of the stairwell. The duffel bag she had earlier was now gone. "We're waiting for my friend and then we'll have a chat."

"Umm. I would, but Broadrick is waiting for me at home. He'll notice if I don't show up," I lied.

She came down another step, and I moved further into the basement. I wasn't getting out via that staircase anyway, so maybe I'd find some place to hide before her friend showed up. I'm positive I didn't want to meet them. Along the left side of the open space, they had stacks of plastic totes with various holidays written on the outside. A door on the far side led to their furnace and water heater. Vivi and I used to hide there during hide-and-seek when we were kids.

"I don't understand what happened," I said, staring at my aunt.

She adjusted the belt on her jeans and tucked in the front of her leopard print tank top that had untucked while she tried to kill me. "I really don't have time to get into the specifics, Vonnie. Your mother is expecting me for craft night."

I closed my eyes, but when I opened them again, nothing changed. Still locked in a basement with a murderer. She was still going to craft night? To make a quilt?

"Who will be there to console your mother about her horrible daughter if I don't show up?" she continued. "Your mother needs a lot of support right now. Her brother is in jail, her favorite daughter is moving to Texas, and they're about to find her eldest floating in the ocean. I'll have to make her a casserole."

"You're horrible." How did we not see this for so many years? Was she always bad, or did she have one of those brain-eating worms that changed your personality?

The door behind my aunt opened and a tall skinny man in his mid-twenties met her on the stairs.

"Thank you, Bowie." She accepted a black handgun from him that matched the one he had aimed at me. They kissed quickly before turning back to me with similar stances and both guns pointed at me. Like a matched pair.

"Wait. You were cheating on Uncle Richard?" Aunt Claire was the cheater? Is that what changed? Or did she kiss all her henchmen with tongue? "Why?"

My head hurt. The pain started on top of my left eyeball and shot outward in all directions.

Aunt Claire laughed, and the sound bounced off the basement walls, hitting me from multiple directions. "What Bowie and I share is special. We're bonded."

"Like wolves?" I asked. None of this made sense. Claire had been the cheater all along. And an evil-filled one.

Bowie cleared the remaining five steps and approached me. I backed up against the wall, trying to get away from him. I couldn't see anything in the area to use as a weapon, and he had a loaded gun a foot from me.

"Try to avoid her face," Aunt Claire said. "Her mother will want an open casket."

Once she finished speaking, Bowie swung out with his free hand and slugged me in the gut. My back hit the wall, another round of pain shooting up my spine.

"But you're my aunt," I stammered after air filled my lungs again.