It was a bunch of old, ugly furniture and questionable decor—just like the house she’d shared with Harold. Apparently, she couldn’t escape that fate.

She blew out a breath. If Harold had ever given any indication that he’d be willing to get rid of his mother’s things, Marina would have built a bonfire up to the heavens and lit it all up in the backyard. But he’d insisted that all the furniture was “quality” and there was no need to replace it. Marina had assumed he was just being cheap. Now she wondered if he’d been reserving that money for other things. Things that didn’t include Marina. She wondered about a lot of things as far as her marriage was concerned.

But none of that mattered now. What mattered now was collecting her payout from Harold, looking for an attorney, and calling the plumber. She pulled her cell phone out of her jeans pocket. At least she could handle the last one of those items now.

She heard the movement behind her before she saw the man step into her side view. She bolted out of the recliner and threw her phone at the man in the purple skinny jeans—which probably wasn’t the best idea—then ran for the kitchen and grabbed the first thing out of a box that she could put her hands on, which turned out to be a bottle of perfume.

The man slowly approached and Marina was certain she was about to be serial killed.

Chapter Nine

This was it. This was how Marina’s life ended. In a pair of jeans with a hole in the crotch that her thighs had caused, a T-shirt with dirt and cleaning solution on it, and no bra. She was even wearing basic white granny panties. Good God, what was the undertaker going to think?

“We need to talk,” the man said.

Marina thrust the perfume bottle in front of her, determined to go down in a fight. “Stop right there.”

The man looked a bit confused but continued to move toward her. “You don’t understand—”

“Oh, I understand!” she yelled, and sprayed him right in the face with the perfume. It wasn’t Mace but surely it would give her time to dive for her cell phone. Maybe even run out the door, because getting away seemed like a more viable option than locating a pair of silk underwear in the boxes.

She made a break to his right but unfortunately, Snooze decided that was the moment to get up and see what was going on. Her leg hit a hundred and ten pounds of immovable fur, and she pitched right into Skinny Jeans, hurtling them both onto the floor and sending the perfume crashing into the back door. Skinny Jeans screamed and she scrambled on top of him, trying to grab her cell phone. Snooze decided that it was all too much for him and took off for the bedroom.

Marina’s hand locked around her cell phone and she launched herself toward the door. But even though she could clearly see that the locks weren’t engaged, she couldn’t pull the door open.