Page 114 of Start With A Slap

“Need a hand?” Sever said, making her gasp and spin around, palm on her pounding heart.

Sever smiled at her and picked up one of her grocery bags.

“What are you...?” She glanced at his car. “Are you following me?”

“Course not. I always shop here at...” he inspected the bag, “Whole Foods.”

His playfulness in this context only made him more sinister. “Put that down,” Ivy said measuredly, “and get away from me. I mean it. I’ll call the police.”

“The police? Wh...” He squinted, trying to read her. “You think I would hurt you?”

“Back off!”

He put her bag down in the trunk and held his hands up. “Ivy. I know that room was startling, but you...” He breathed out, nostrils flaring. “I wouldneverhurt you.”

“Oh yeah? Is that what you toldher?”

“Who?”

Heart pounding in her throat now, she accused through clenched teeth, “Roxie.”

A look of genuine confusion. “Roxie?”

She kept her eyes firmly on his, waiting to see the guilt shine through. All she got was returned suspicion.

“What’s happened, Ivy? What do you know about Roxie?”

“I know everything, Sever,” she spat, disgusted with his lies.

“Such as,” he said guardedly.

“Such as you killed her and made it look like an accident!”

Features contorting in disbelief, Sever reacted as if that was the most shocking accusation he’d ever heard. But then he seemed to piece things together — a tight, bitter grin hadSo that’s what Jason’s been up towritten all over it. “Get in the car.”

“Oh, you’re out of your mind if you think I’d even?—”

He clamped a gloved hand over her mouth and held her fast. “Get in the bloody car, right now, or I will drag you there myself.”

She thrashed against him, yelped into his glove, but he easily overtook her, wrangled her into his back seat and pulled the door shut.

Ivy fought for her life, kicking, biting, scratching. She wasnotletting this happen to her, she would kill him first?—

“Stop it, stop it, stop it,” he snarled, holding her down. “I didn’tkillanyone! She’s not dead, all right? Roxie isalive.”

Ivy stopped struggling. “What?”

“Or a close facsimile, anyway,” he said scornfully.

Thunderstruck, Ivy could only breathe, “Wh...”

Releasing her, Sever sat up, straightened his coat and pressed the intercom button. “Would you get that last bag and lock her car, please?”

“I saw her coroner’s report,” Ivy said, watching him warily. “Herdeathcertificate.”

“And yet she lives on,” he said with an inconvenienced sigh, and took his phone out of his breast pocket.

Roxie wasn’t dead? It couldn’t be. It didn’t make anysense. What kind ofDynastyshit was this? “I don’t believe you.”

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