Passion to Die For

She’s taunting you, a voice in Ellie’s head whispered. She’s saying, “Look how easily I can get to them, and there’s only one way you can stop me.”

Only one way to Martha’s way of thinking: give her money and trust her to go away…until the money ran out and she needed more. Ellie could give her everything and still never buy her silence.

If there was just some way to get rid of her for good…

Get rid of her. The words echoed across the years, hurtful, yet another betrayal to a girl who’d already experienced too many. They slowed her steps until she was hardly moving.

Ellie didn’t have a clue how to manipulate and control people, but she knew someone who did. Part of Randolph Aiken’s duties as lawyer to his respectable and influential Old South family had involved persuading people who might prove cause for embarrassment to disappear, to keep their distance from and their silence about the family.

People like Ellie.

She didn’t know if Randolph had taken a liking to all the people he threatened on behalf of the Aikens, but his attitude toward her had always been somewhat paternal. He’d given her advice, stayed in touch with her long after she’d expected him to vanish, had helped her move to Charleston and put her life back together. It was his contacts that had gotten her her first job, his assistance that had led to her owning her own restaurant.