The Relatives Read Online Free PDF Page B

don’t know. She’s always on the computer.”
    “She isn’t smart enough.”
    “I think that’s where you’re wrong. I think she’s very smart.” Gwen remembered those wide curious eyes, those clever, cutting comments. “She’s cunning.”
    “Smart enough to hack into our accounting system?”
    Gwen’s jaw dropped.
    He used his finger to shut it. “That’s it. Tomorrow they are going, never to return, and we will deal with the ramifications as we must.”
    Gwen nodded. “Yes. You’re right. This ordeal is over.”
    *   *   *
    Cecily took off her headphones, put the digital spy recorder into her bag, and slipped backward through the dining room down the hall to her room.
    “Where have you been?” Landon was in bed in his pajamas. “I thought you were injured. I thought you couldn’t walk by yourself.”
    “Don’t be stupid. I need to think. Our futures are at stake.” She sat down at the dressing table and stared at her husband.
    He looked back, his small eyes pleading. “Is there anything I can do?”
    “Go to sleep. I have to think,” she said again. But she couldn’t contain herself. “Those bastards!”
    “Who?”
    “Who do you think? Your cousins.” She tapped her nails on the dressing table. She had been going to teach Gwen how to do a manicure tomorrow, but now that was out.
    “We could leave.” Landon had been nagging about that, and tonight he had been whining worse than ever.
    “Why would we do that?” As if she didn’t know.
    “I’m tired of working for Cousin Mario.” Landon’s lip trembled.
    “Is he working you too hard, darling?” she crooned. “That’s not nice of him to take advantage of you because you’re his cousin. Maybe you should take tomorrow off. Take a mental health day. Stay here with me.”
    His eyes got round. Something about her demeanor must have frightened him. “No. No, that’s okay. We owe him for keeping us here.”
    “We don’t owe those people anything . I wouldn’t have fallen down their crummy stairs if they hadn’t been negligent.” She fought to regain control of her temper. “So you’ll go to work tomorrow?”
    “Yes!”
    She didn’t know where he was going to go. She didn’t care. But she didn’t want him hanging around, messing up her plans. “You are too good to Cousin Mario.” When she thought about Cousin Mario, how pissed he was at Landon and at the havoc Landon had created with his incompetence, she chuckled deep in her chest.
    Landon was such a lousy electrician. By the time she had decided to shut down their business, she knew more about wiring than he did. She knew more about how to earn a living, too, and she wasn’t about to let this jackpot go because Cousin Mario and Cousin Gwen had finally gotten suspicious.
    Now Cecily had to make a decision. Should she allow them to throw her out, and Landon, too? She could sue them for her injuries, take everything they had. But she was already taking them for a bundle. To mess with Gwen’s mind and make Mario’s wife incompetent in his eyes, Cecily had been playing in their business accounts. But she had also gained access to their credit cards, their bank account, all their investments. She could transfer money out their bank accounts, and tonight that was what she intended.
    But now, after hearing their conversation in the pantry … Cousin Mario had been leading her on, looking at her when he thought she wasn’t paying attention, making her think he was hot for her.
    And she had believed it. She was a vibrant woman, years younger than dried-up old Gwen, and Cecily could bring Mario’s peen to attention with one lick of her tongue.
    But now he had made fun of her. He had scorned her figure. And Gwen, that bitch Gwen, had laughed.
    Cecily was determined.
    They were going to be sorry.
    They were going to pay.
    *   *   *
    It took three days for Mario and Gwen to firm up their plans to rid themselves of their unwelcome guests.
    First Mario went to the Virtue