Was she going to just let her rot in the tiny house? Die from starvation or dehydration or frostbite if she didn’t keep paying that slime ball of a fuel driver who had come and delivered propane, no questions asked, skimming money off the top so that the owners of the fuel company wouldn’t get suspicious? Julia had worked so hard for her plans to succeed, and now they were unraveling.

She should bail.

But the lure of the Cahill and Amhurst millions proved too great for her to give up now. She’d call Gus, offer him more money if she had to. And she’d find a way to deal with Phoebe. Certainly the old snoop might have to have another, more permanent accident. And though it hurt her, if she had to, Julia could kill Sophia as well, get rid of her body as she had Megan’s. There was no way anyone could connect her to Willow Valente’s death. If anyone had seen her, they would think Sophia had been the one who had followed her from James’s house to her own sorry little apartment.

So she could cover her tracks.

If she worked at it.

She’d always been a clever girl, and now she was ready to put her intelligence to the test.

“Sophia?” James’s voice startled her. She dropped the ornament, and it went tumbling, branch to branch until it shattered on the floor.

“Oh! Oh. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“You just surprised me. That’s all.”

“I think we need to talk,” he said, and she started to panic all over again. He’d expect her to know what the fight with Sophia had been about. And she didn’t. She’d have to follow his lead.

“Now?” she asked, stooping down to pick up the broken ornament. The wings had shattered, breaking off into tiny sharp shards of porcelain.

“Leave it for now.” He glanced around the shop. It was nearly quitting time, and the store was empty. “I think we can shut this down. If someone really wants something, one of the waitresses in the café can come over.” He offered her the slightest grin. “I’ll put a good word in with the boss.”

“Okay.” Julia was nervous, but she decided to follow his lead; if she let him talk, just urging him to speak his mind, she might figure out why there had been a rift, why Sophia was “giving him some space.”

“How ’bout in here?”