Jack leaned back in his chair and smiled up at him. “Why, Robert, it’s so great of you to come down. Did you bring Anna with you?”
“Why would I bring her?”
“Well, I’m sure Carter would just love to see her. You know how much he likes her, and since the two of you still aren’t married…”
Robert narrowed his eyes at Jack. “You know she’s pregnant with my kid.”
Jack’s eyes frosted over. “Congratulations on the new family. Don’t go and fuck it up this time,” he growled.
Robert sighed and lost his attitude. “Jack, we all know what you’re going through, but you can’t go locking up all my brothers just because they’re pissing you off.”
“Yeah? What are you gonna do about it? Are you gonna call Josh in here? Maybe his killer girlfriend? Maybe you can get the mafia in here to threaten me.”
“You know they’re gone.”
His eyes narrowed and he stared Robert down. “The only thing I know for sure is that your family is still in my fucking town when you should have moved on a long time ago.”
“Open the fucking doors,” Robert bit out.
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll make you,” Robert snarled.
My eyes widened at the building heat in here. “Uh…Robert—“
“Threatening a police officer?”
“You know that’s not what I was doing.”
Jack stood and walked around his desk. “That’s sure what it sounded like.”
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!”
Jack unlocked the door and grabbed Robert’s arm, tossing him into the cell behind me. The slam of the cell door reverberated through my bones. Robert glared at Jack, but he just smiled back at us.
“Look at that…two down, four to go. That’s assuming that Derek isn’t in town anymore.”
I stood ready to clap back at the asshole, but Robert pressed his hand against my chest. “Don’t bother. He wants a fight. He still has to give me a phone call.”
“Just be smart and call Eric. He’s the most level-headed.”
Thirty minutes later, the cell door was slamming again and Eric came to take a seat beside us.
“You just couldn’t keep your mouth shut,” I sighed.
Lorelei
“What do you mean the money hasn’t gone through yet?” I shouted at my lawyer, Callum, over the phone. It had already been two months, and I was still waiting for that damn money.
“The trust was set up to be transferred to you immediately, but that doesn’t account for an investigation into foul play.”
I paced the room, pissed that this was taking longer than it was supposed to. “Callum, you promised me this would go through immediately.”
“Well, given the circumstances of his death, are you really surprised that Barty is asking for an investigation?”
Sighing, I knew he was right. There was nothing he could do about this. “I’m not staying in this house for a minute longer. Can I at least sell it?”
“Not until the trust is released. The way he wrapped this up, there’s not much you can touch until it’s released.”
“Do I still have access to his accounts?”
“The checking and savings. There should be enough for you to live on until this mess gets sorted out.”
I snorted. “And how long will that take?”
Callum sighed on the other end of the line. He was one of my oldest friends, and I’d had him set up this whole thing for me. He knew what was at stake here. “Look, it’s going to take as long as it takes. The coroner ruled Arlen’s death as a heart attack, and you didn’t want an autopsy. But Barty has a lot of money, and he’s going to contest this trust with everything he’s got. His lawyers are pulling out all the stops to make sure the money isn’t transferred to you. They need evidence of foul play. If they find that, they can exhume the body. If they can prove Arlen was murdered, this thing will drag out until they find out who killed him.” He paused and then took a deep breath. “I have to know, did you do it?”
“Seriously?” I said irritatedly. “You know I wanted to kill him. Answering that would just be stupid.”
“I’ll pretend like I didn’t hear that. So, what are your plans for now?”
I looked around me, shaking my head. I couldn’t stay here any longer. “I’m finding someplace else to go. I can’t stay here.”
“Where will you go next?”
“Someplace quiet. After living for a year in this monstrosity, I’d like nothing more than some peace and quiet.”
“Let me know when you find someplace new.”
“I will. And thank you, Callum.”
“You know I want your plan to work just as much as you do. Just be careful. This inquiry could go south fast if you’re not careful. Just find someplace to lay low for a while.”
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes as I got my anger under control. “You’re right. I just have to be patient.”
“That’s my girl. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Bye,” I whispered, hanging up on my friend.
I looked around the large house, trying to decide what I would do from here. If I left, I had no doubt that Arlen’s kids would come in here and take anything of value. They were leeches like that. But staying would make me miserable. In the end, it didn’t really matter if they took what was inside the house. It would amount to maybe a few million, but the estate was worth so much more than that, and they couldn’t just up and move an entire estate. Unless they were able to get the trust turned over to them, the sale of the estate would go through me.
“Hello, step-mother,” the little shit-head, Barty, said as he walked through the double doors leading into the living room. “Deciding how you’ll spend your millions?”
I smiled sweetly at him, tilting my head for effect. “Oh, I don’t have to decide. I already have it all laid out.”
“Don’t go spending it all at once,” he smirked. “I have a little surprise in store for you.”
I picked up my tea cup and took a drink. “Oh, you mean contesting the trust based on the fact that you think your father was murdered?”
His smirk faded into anger. “I already know you murdered him.”
“Why, whatever are you talking about? I find it laughable that you think little ‘ol me could kill a man as big as your father.”
“He supposedly died of a heart attack. I wouldn’t put it past you to poison him.”
“Me?” My face dripped shock as I pressed my hand against my chest. “I’m heartbroken you think I would do something like that. Why, I loved your father.”
“You hated him, and we all knew it.”
“I’d like to see you prove it.”
He knew he couldn’t. When I was around anyone, I was always the epitome of the loving wife. Nobody would have suspected that our marriage wasn’t real, well, except for his children. They already knew what a heartless bastard Arlen was. There wasn’t a person on this earth that would love him if they really knew him.
“This isn’t over,” he said angrily as he stormed out of the room. I leaned back in my chair and sipped my tea as I stared out the window as the last of the leaves fell from the trees. Winter was quickly approaching and the gloomy weather settled in. Despite all that, it was beautiful out here. That was the only thing I would miss about this place. I found solace on the grounds of the estate over the past year, and leaving that behind would be difficult. But I would just have to find peace somewhere else. Staying here just wasn’t an option.
As I packed up the last of my stuff, I took a few moments to look at some of the more important things I still had from my childhood. My mother’s favorite shawl. She wore it everywhere she went. She was a crafter and made almost everything by hand. Of course, we were poor, so if she could get scraps of fabric or leftover yarn, she snatched it up. I lifted the shawl to my nose and remembered the last time she wore it.
My mother’s feeble frame carried the tray of food into the
living room where my father sat. He was grumpier these days, always snapping at her for something. She wasn’t strong enough to deal with his anger. We all understood it. The whole town was suffering, and he had no control over anything. We could barely afford the mortgage on our house, and the only reason I knew that was because he snapped at my mom about it all the time.
I knew they were both worried. The jobs had dried up and there was literally nothing holding the people in this town together. We were all suffering. Some traveled to other cities to find employment, but they didn’t come home often. The trips were too expensive. Instead, they sent money home to take care of their families. But dad was a proud man in a weird way. He felt that leaving his family was like giving up. So, he stayed here, waiting for work to come to him. It never would and we all knew it.
My mom sat down heavily in her chair, barely able to make it any longer from the kitchen to the living room. I helped out as much as I could, but she insisted that I should be doing my schoolwork instead of helping her out. She had big dreams for me to escape this place and make something of myself. I just didn’t see that happening. Sure, I had dreams for myself. I wanted so much out of life, but as I stood in the doorway watching my mother struggle just to do the smallest things, there was only one thing I wanted.
I went to the kitchen and made her tea, slipping the pills out of my pocket and dissolving them into the hot water. Stirring them in, my heart pounded, knowing exactly what I was doing. I smiled as I thought about what would happen.
“What are you smiling about?” my dad barked as he stared at me.
I turned to him with an innocent expression and shook my head. “Nothing. I was just bringing Mom her tea.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. I knew he wanted to say something more to me. I had seen him start to change over the past few months. No one else saw it. They all thought we were all perfectly happy, just struggling to get by. My dad was great about putting up a good front, letting everyone believe that everything was right in his life. The truth was, he was becoming more and more of a jerk with each passing day. And when my mom passed, it would only get worse. I knew this, yet I also didn’t regret what I was about to do. She was weak, but I was strong enough to do what needed to be done.
I picked up the mug and took it into my mom, smiling as I handed it down to her. She smiled sweetly at me, having no idea what I was doing to her. I was her sweet girl, as she told me all the time. I wondered if she would think that still as her heart started to give out. Would she still see me as a sweet girl? Would she still think of me as her baby girl? It didn’t really matter. I was doing what needed to be done.
She gripped my hand and pulled me closer to her so she could whisper in my ear. “It’s for the best, baby girl.”
I jerked back and looked at her in confusion. She took her first sip, closing her eyes as she swallowed her tea. When her eyes opened again, she looked resigned, like she knew what was happening, but how could that be?
“Sit with me one last time, baby.”
She scooted over slightly, allowing a little room in her chair for me. It was a tight fit, but as I sat with her and rested my head on her shoulder, it felt like I was a little kid again. She took another drink and sighed, resting her head back.
“Did I ever tell you about your eyes when you were a baby?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“I used to wake up in the middle of the night to feed you, and your eyes were so dark as a baby, I thought for sure the devil was looking at me.”
I flinched and looked over at her, my heart breaking in my chest. “You thought I was the devil?”
She smiled slightly. “It was just the light, but there was also something eerie in those moments, like I knew that you would grow up to be strong. You had fierce eyes and I knew that you would grow up to be a force to be reckoned with.”
I didn’t understand. Did she know what I was doing? How was that possible? And what did all this mean? Was she trying to tell me that she knew I would grow up to kill her one day?
She sipped her tea, and the more she drank, the more I wanted to knock it out of her hands. But this needed to be done. Slowly, her hand slackened around the cup and her eyes drifted closed. I took the cup from her and pulled the shawl closed in front of her, hoping it would bring her comfort. I leaned my head back on her shoulder and held her hand as she took her last breaths. I didn’t cry when she was gone. I just sat there, holding her hand and thinking of better times. And when my dad saw that she was gone, I knew the sadness on his face would soon turn to anger. And it would turn on me.
I clutched my mom’s shawl in my hands, pressing it to my face. It didn’t smell like her anymore, but if I closed my eyes, sometimes I felt like her scent was still there. I took a deep breath and packed it away with all the rest of my belongings. I left anything that Arlen bought me. None of that mattered. The only things that mattered to him were material possessions. The things that mattered to me were in my heart, and now in my small bag.
Looking around the room one last time, I flicked off the light and headed downstairs, ready to start my new life.
Sitting on my new front porch, five hundred miles from my previous estate, I drank my morning tea with a blanket wrapped around me. The wicker furniture that had been left here from the previous owners needed to be painted, but other than that, it was in pretty good shape. Well, after I dug the dead mouse out of the cushions. I would definitely have to get new cushions now.
I had arrived last night with every intention of getting right to work on the house, but after seeing how bad the damage was to the house, I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. There were certain things I could do, but so much that was out of my scope of knowledge.
A truck rolled down the driveway a little earlier than I had planned. I was still in my pajamas. Wasn’t the contractor supposed to be here at eight? I waved to him as he pulled up and quickly ran inside to change. The master bedroom for now was on the lower level. I skidded to a stop by my bed and quickly pulled on some leggings and a long sleeved t-shirt. With the morning chill, I needed a sweatshirt also.
As I ran back to the front of the house, I pulled my hair up in a ponytail and swung the door open. “Sorry about that,” I grinned. “I didn’t expect you so soon.”
“Sorry, I tend to be early for everything,” the man grinned. “My name is Eric Cortell.”
I shook his outstretched hand and smiled back. “Lorelei Henning. Please come in.”
“I have two more guys coming. They’ll take a deeper look at the house, and while they do that, you can show me around and tell me about any changes you want to make.”
“Perfect,” I grinned. We got started on our tour of the house, and I pointed out all the changes I wanted in the kitchen, which was basically to rip out the old and put in new. I also wanted a kitchen island that was huge. I loved to cook, so this would be a room that needed to be perfect.
“If possible, I’d like the kitchen to be completed as soon as possible, and then the living room.”
“As long as there are no structural issues, that shouldn’t be a problem. Do you have any ideas for what kind of style you want?”
“I want it to feel very country throughout the whole house. I don’t want anything too modern. And that reminds me, can you extend the porch so it wraps around the house?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem, but have you thought about the exterior?”
I nodded, sighing slightly. This job was going to take a long time. “Yeah, I know it needs to be redone.”
He scratched the back of his head slightly. “This is a big job. Are you sure you can afford all this? It’ll get expensive.”
I smiled tightly. “Yes, I’m waiting on my trust to clear, but I have enough to cover most of the costs.”
He glanced down at my finger, his eyes taking in the faint outline on my ring finger.
“My husband passed away.”
“I’m sorry.” He cleared his throat and turned
away from me, staring back at the house. “Well, I’ll talk with a designer for the kitchen and have some samples ready for our next meeting.”
“Perfect,” I grinned, looking back at the house. I saw great things ahead for me, and once this whole business with Arlen’s trust was settled, I would finally be able to settle in comfort and live out my life the way I wanted.
Andrew
I was dressed in my very finest, which was jeans and a black t-shirt. Hell, I had a suit, but there was no way I was wearing a suit to meet with this prick. I had opened my business email last night with a demand that I meet some guy today to discuss a problem he had. I always chose my clients. I never worked with anyone that felt shady, and this guy was giving me big time shady vibes from his email.
Most of my clients heard of me from word of mouth, yet this guy didn’t mention anyone. That was my first hint that I shouldn’t work with this guy. The second hint was his demanding nature. Whoever this guy was, he was from money and felt that he could command my services. He was in for a big surprise when I threw the case back in his face and refused to work with him.
Still, I was curious about who he was, and while I was pretty sure I was going to turn this down, that didn’t mean I couldn’t listen to what he had to say. I whistled to myself as I pulled on my coat and left the apartment. Strolling down the sidewalk, I pulled my coat tighter, already feeling the winter chill seeping in. The weather was turning faster this year and as I walked, I noticed small flakes of snow falling. Of course, it wouldn’t stick. It never did.
I told the client I would meet him at the diner, and if my assumptions about him were correct, he wouldn’t like the diner or the fact that it was a public setting. I looked both ways before running across the street and then opened the door to the diner. It was impossible to miss the guy. The suit alone was a dead giveaway that he wasn’t from around here. He reminded me of Robert a few years ago. I flopped down in the seat across from him and stared at him, waiting for him to say something. He looked me up and down, obviously not liking what he saw, but apparently he needed me more than he cared about appearances.
Tangled Web: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 6) Page 2