Too Far Gone

102

Alexa dressed slowly, thinking. Was it possible? Could good spring from evil? Casey West could do so much to help so many. There was no limit to what the interest from four billion dollars could do, no end to the possibilities. Casey could play megabenefactor for forty, maybe fifty years. And Deana could follow in her mother’s footsteps for another fifty years. A golden age of the LePointes. The idea was as attractive as silk and as intoxicating to Alexa’s mind as…heroin. It all seemed possible. As possible as a shattered child becoming as whole as Alexa had. Casey was a shattered child, too, and in that, she and Alexa had common ground. Casey had been a damaged child who had then been nurtured by corrupted and diseased people who had no regard for anyone but themselves. Alexa had been changed by unconditional love and acceptance by wonderful people, which had failed to save her sister, Antonia.

The reality was that Alexa didn’t believe for a second it was true. Casey didn’t have feelings; she imitated those she sensed and saw in others. Casey was the epitome of corruption made worse by power, and now she had more power than ever. But it would never be enough, and she would use that power to corrupt and harm. She had tempted Alexa with the manipulative insights of Satan. Even if Casey were totally sincere, knowing what she had done, could Alexa really let her go? No. The fact that Casey had done most of her damage to evil people didn’t matter.

Alexa also knew instinctively that knowing what she did about Casey’s true nature wasn’t a major ingredient in a prescription for a long life.

Alexa slipped into her blouse and Casey’s jeans, rolling up the legs. She went into the dining room of the pool house and stared out through the sliding glass doors at the increasing fury of the hurricane. Outside, the storm of the century raged; within Alexa Keen no smaller storm had calmed at last.