Spirited Away

by Lena Gregory

  Jay wiped a trickle of blood from the side of his mouth. “Yeah, well, I also told you we had to keep this one busy and out of our business too.”

  “And what did I tell you?” Spittle flew from Morris’s mouth as he screamed. “I told you just kill her and be done with it, but you had to play head games with her, ruin her reputation, destroy her and everyone around her before you killed her. If you hadn’t come back here bent on revenge against her and everyone else in this place who wronged you in some way, we wouldn’t be in this mess, and my yacht wouldn’t be crawling with cops. Now, how are we supposed to get out of here?”

  Jay looked down at his feet. “Yeah, well, it’s not my fault.”

  “Not your fault?” Calvin’s face turned purple. “What do you mean it’s not your fault? You were supposed to kill her, rob the mansions along the beach, move the merchandise to the yacht, and get out of here. How hard was that?”

  Jay shrugged but remained quiet.

  “But you had to bring that Wells woman back here with you, had to go along with her scheme to get revenge instead of just doing what you were told.”

  Guilt nudged Cass. Even though it had probably not been intentional, Olivia had inadvertently saved her.

  Jay got up in Calvin’s face. “What’d you want me to do? Let it all go? Let Dirk get away with screwing me? And let Emmett go on about his business after firing me without even as much as asking me if I was guilty? And what about Cass here?”

  Morris shoved him back a step. “You were supposed to do what you were told.”

  Jay grabbed Cass by the hair. “And let her get away with ruining my life, costing me a fortune, siccing the cops on me, making me run from Bay Island like some kind of a coward?”

  “If you hadn’t let Wells lead you around like some kind of lost puppy, talking you into playing games you weren’t smart enough to win, we’d already be out of here.” Morris shoved Jay back, and he released his hold on Cass. “You’d better just hope your smear campaign worked and no one listened to her if she told them where to find us.”

  “Well, she’s here alone, isn’t she? That oughta show you something.”

  Morris grunted. “Just get on with this. Get it done, and let’s get out of here.”

  Jay bristled for a moment, but then turned his attention to Cass. “Start talking. Now.”

  “You have to sit over here by me for me to read you and tell you what to do.” She had to draw him away from Stephanie and give Tank and Luke an opening. She had no doubt they were out there by now, and that had nothing to do with any sixth sense.

  Jay dragged a chair from across the room and sat it in front of her.

  Close enough for her to try to wrestle the gun from him? Probably not. Besides, she had no way to know if Morris had a gun. Just because he wasn’t waving it around didn’t mean he didn’t have one in his possession. “Could you put the gun away, please? I can’t concentrate with that thing pointed at me.”

  Jay considered her a moment, then glanced at Morris.

  He nodded from where he stood beside Stephanie.

  Jay stuffed the gun into his waistband. “Start talking.”

  She reached into her pocket.

  Jay launched himself from the chair and yanked the gun back out.

  “Whoa, sorry.” She held her hands out, palms up so he could see the fire agate and black tourmaline she’d pulled from her pocket. “They help me focus.”

  He nodded, righted the chair, and returned to his seat, the gun still held tense across his lap. “Fine. Talk.”

  “What are you doing here? What does Ellie have to do with all of this?”

  “I didn’t tell you to ask questions.”

  “I need to have some answers if I’m going to help.” She thought of trying to turn her cell phone to record, but after his reaction last time, she wasn’t about to stick her hand back into her pocket.

  “Dirk Brinkman, that rat, sold me a bunch of paintings, supposedly from his father’s estate. He wanted to unload them cheap, but they were supposed to be worth a good amount.”

  “And I told you to wait for the appraiser to get here, but no, you had to go ahead and buy them.” Morris pointed at Jay, moving a step away from Stephanie.

  “His old man was worth a fortune, so I figured it was legit.” Jay shoved a hand through his hair, leaving it sticking up straight on one side. “Anyway, I brought the paintings to Ellie and told her to unload them on some unsuspecting tourist for as much as she could get. She’s supposed to be meeting me here with the money.”

  “She should have been here already.” Calvin glanced at his watch, then moved to the front window, shifted the curtain aside, and peeked out.

  “She’ll be here. She wouldn’t dare cross me.”

  “We’ll see.”

  Jay let it go and returned his attention to Cass. “Now, how do we get out of here?”

  “I’ll make you a deal.”

  “You are in no position to make deals, sweetie.”

  “Let Stephanie go. Just leave her here, and I’ll go with you and show you the way out.”

  “Sorry, Cass, but I can’t do that. Calvin here thought it would be okay to let her take care of his books when his regular guy kicked the bucket, but she turned out to be smarter than anticipated, and she figured out a good portion of his income was illegal.”

  Cass shrugged, feigning a calm she most definitely did not feel. “What does that matter now? The police already have the yacht full of stolen merchandise, and presumably they’ll be able to connect it back to Mr. Morris. So, what does it matter if you leave Stephanie here? If it’s a hostage you’re looking for, you’ll still have me.”

  Jay studied Stephanie for a second, then turned to Morris.

  Cass held her breath. If she could get them outside with Stephanie out of the line of fire, the police might be able to take them down.

  Morris looked out the window again, then turned to Jay and nodded. “Leave her. Let’s just get out of here. By the time she comes to, we’ll be long gone.”

  Jay jumped up and pointed the gun at Cass. “Go.”

  She stood and crossed the shop, praying the police would stop them before Jay realized it was Ellie’s car outside and not hers.

  Jay yanked the door open and looked around.

  Could he sense the same fear and rage that slammed through Cass the instant the door opened?

  He shoved her from behind. “Go.”

  Apparently not.

  “Straight to the car. No tricks.”

  Calvin Morris stepped out onto the porch, then gestured Jay to move with her.

  Jay shoved her toward the stairs, and she stumbled and went down hard on her hands and knees. She rolled to the side, getting out of the way as fast as she could.

  “Freeze, police!” Footsteps pounded over the porch.

  “Don’t you move, Callahan,” Luke yelled.

  Cass pushed up onto her knees.

  Luke held his gun pointed at Jay.

  Jay glared at Cass but made no move to lower his hands, which he held high above his head.

  Chief Rawlins held Calvin Morris face-first against the side of the shop while she cuffed his hands behind his back.

  Tank ran in the front door.

  Bee’s strong arm wrapped around Cass from behind. “Come on, Cass. Move back and let the police do their jobs.”

  “I have to get to Stephanie, Bee, please.” She had to get to her, had to see for herself she was okay. “She’s hurt.”

  “All right, honey, come on.” Bee helped her to her feet and wrapped an arm around her waist, hugging her close as he guided her toward the front door. “Girl, I am going to knock some sense into you later, if Luke doesn’t beat me to it, but right now I’m just so grateful you’re okay.”

  She leaned into him. “Thanks, Bee.”

  Tank was on his knees at Stephanie’s side. Tears tracked down his cheeks as he smoothed her hair away from the cut on her head and murmured softly to her. He took her ha
nd in his and pressed it against his lips.

  A paramedic had arrived to examine her and started an IV.

  Cass knelt by her head, unable to stem the flow of tears that had built up throughout the ordeal. “It’s okay, Steph. It’s over.”

  “Are you okay, Cass?” Tank squeezed her hand.

  She nodded.

  “Are you hurt?”

  She took stock. Her knees would probably be sore for a few days, but she was otherwise unharmed. “No, I’m okay.”

  “What you did was incredibly brave, and I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am to you for saving her.”

  Her gaze shot to his. She hadn’t known what to expect from him. Anger, maybe? A lecture about how she should have waited for backup before rushing headlong into danger and putting Stephanie at risk. “Stephanie is my best friend in the world, Tank. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to save her.”

  He swallowed hard. “If you hadn’t come in, we wouldn’t have made it in time. They’d most likely have killed her when Ellie showed up.”

  Even though she suspected the same thing, the confirmation sent a chill up her spine.

  The paramedic gestured for a stretcher, and Tank lifted Stephanie onto it.

  “I’ll meet you at the hospital,” Cass said.

  Tank nodded and walked beside the stretcher toward the waiting ambulance, Stephanie’s hand still clutched tightly in his.

  Bee helped her to her feet. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and kissed her temple. “You did good, Cass. You’re amazing.”

  She leaned against him, suddenly exhausted and shaky as the adrenaline rush subsided.

  “Cass!” Luke strode across the shop toward them.

  “I’ll meet you outside,” Bee whispered.

  Luke squeezed Bee’s shoulder as he passed him, then yanked Cass into his arms and clung to her like his life depended on it. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded against his chest.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “No, I’m good.”

  He finally loosened his hold and looked down into her eyes. “What am I going to do with you, woman?”

  She laughed. “First you’re going to take me to the hospital to make sure Stephanie’s okay, and then you can take me out for that dinner you promised. Or I guess breakfast at this point. Turns out confronting a killer makes you hungry.”

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Cass tilted her face toward the sun, enjoying the warmth of the late afternoon. She’d already closed Mystical Musings and now sat with Bee in rocking chairs on the back deck, waiting for everyone to arrive for the volleyball tournament. She held her chair still so as not to rock on Beast’s tail, since he sat right beside her chair, enthusiastically gnawing a rope toy.

  The scent of barbeque filled the air, and her mouth watered. “So, you promised you’d tell me your good news, and you still haven’t.”

  The deck creaked beneath Bee’s chair as he used his foot against the railing to rock it slowly back and forth. “It’s been a busy couple of days.”

  And he’d used that to avoid answering her question. “We’re not busy now.”

  “Okay, fine.” He sighed and sat up straighter. “But you have to promise you won’t be upset with me.”

  “Why would I be upset with you?” The curiosity was killing her. So was the fact he’d either deflected or completely ignored her every time she’d asked since he’d told her he expected to have something exciting to share.

  He sipped his iced tea, contemplating the lighthouse standing watch over the island. “Aiden Hargrove reached out to me.”

  “What?” When had that happened, and why would he not have told her?

  Dark sunglasses covered Bee’s eyes, preventing her from reading anything. “During his attempt to ruin your career, Aiden called me, said he wanted to invest in a line of designer gowns.”

  “You didn’t tell me that.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Why not?” It hurt that he hadn’t trusted her enough to tell her, that he might have thought she wouldn’t support him. “I’d never have asked you to say no to a chance like that, Bee, and I wouldn’t have been upset with you for jumping at it.”

  He set his iced tea on the small table beside him. “Maybe not, but you’d have been upset that I told him no.”

  “What? Why would you say no?” He’d wanted that so badly.

  “I told him I couldn’t agree to any kind of partnership with him unless he dropped his vendetta against you.” Bee shrugged. “Considering everyone on Bay Island knows what good friends you and I are, going into business with him while he was actively trying to destroy you would have looked bad, like I maybe agreed with him or something, you know?”

  She didn’t know what to say. “Thank you, Bee.”

  “Yeah, well, don’t be too thankful. I wanted his funding badly, so once the situation was resolved I called him and asked if he’d still like to consider doing a line with me.” He stared out over the water, resting his head against the back of the chair.

  She reached over and gripped his hand.

  He squeezed her hand then smiled. “I told him what happened at the reading wasn’t your fault, pointed out that you’d actually been right about his feelings for Olivia.”

  Cass laughed. Leave it to Bee to make something good out of her mistake. “So, you got the line with him, then?”

  He nodded.

  “Congratulations, Bee, I’m really happy for you.”

  “Thank you. And that’s not all I got.” He pointed toward the beach, where a small group of people had started setting up the volleyball nets. They’d be starting soon. “I also got a promise from him to leave you alone.”

  “How in the world did you manage that?”

  “Seriously? The instant he found out you were instrumental in solving the case and that he was one of Jay’s targets, his whole attitude changed.” Bee laughed. “I’d be surprised if he’s not falling all over himself to apologize next time he sees you.”

  “Somehow, I doubt that.” Unless Bee had anything to do with it. Then, all bets were off. But finding out his name was on Jay’s hit list had to have come as a shock. Cass still couldn’t wrap her head around the lengths Jay was willing to go to in order to hurt everyone on Bay Island who’d ever wronged him.

  Ellie had told the police Jay had a grudge against Aiden because he’d asked her out after Jay had disappeared. Apparently Jay had kept better tabs on Ellie than anyone had realized. The thought sent a chill skittering up her spine.

  “In the end, I think he truly loved Olivia, and he wanted to see Jay punished for killing her. Since you played a role in that, I think he was more willing to forgive and forget.”

  That made sense. Though they couldn’t have known each other long, Aiden had obviously fallen hard for her, despite her insistence the relationship remain secret. Olivia had played on his feelings to manipulate him into attending Cass’s reading, just as Jay had appealed to Dirk’s hatred with the promise of a shot at Emmett if he showed up at the reading. Too bad Dirk’s loathing for Emmett had clouded his perception too much for him to figure out Jay was playing him.

  And once Dirk and Emmett went after each other at the reading, Jay realized his plan had come off even better than expected. Dirk had played his role, and now Jay could kill him and implicate Emmett. His and Olivia's plan, after all, was to discredit Cass by ensuring that all the victims and suspects could be connected to her in some way. Jay admitted as much to the police when they’d questioned him afterward. “Do you think Aiden and Nanette will get back together?”

  “Nah, I heard she left Bay Island the day after Olivia was killed. Who knows? Maybe she was afraid she’d be implicated in the crime.”

  Could be. She’d been rude to almost everyone before Cass’s group reading and had pretty much threatened the woman before storming out of Cass’s shop when she’d come in alone, so it made sense she’d run.

  “Besides, after Friday night’s read
ing, I’d be surprised if anyone could do anything to harm your reputation.”

  Warmth surged through her. The reading had been packed on Friday, and it had gone flawlessly. “I can’t believe how many people showed up.”

  He shot her a grin “Once the news hit the rumor mill that you helped the police solve the art theft case as well as Dirk’s murder investigation, no one dared miss it.”

  It felt good to be there with him, relaxing, enjoying the gentle breeze drifting across the bay, bringing with it the salty scent of the sea. The scent of home. This is what she remembered of summers on Bay Island. “And how did that rumor get started?”

  “A little birdie passed the info to Emma Nicholls.”

  “A little birdie, huh?”

  “Yup.” He rocked back and forth.

  Cass lay her head back and closed her eyes, content to just sit together in comfortable silence.

  “Hey, there.” Stephanie’s footsteps vibrated against the deck. She sat down in the rocking chair on Cass’s other side and crossed her ankles on the deck railing.

  “Hey.” Cass tilted her head to study her. “How are you feeling?”

  “Better.” The drugs Calvin Morris had used to knock her out had worn off, leaving her nauseated and groggy for a day or so, but her color had returned, and she had begun to look more like herself. “But Tank’s hovering is wearing thin. He hasn’t left my side since you found me.”

  “You love it, and you know it,” Bee said.

  “You’re right.” Stephanie laughed.

  “Speak of the devil.” Bee slid his sunglasses onto the top of his head.

  “What are you talking about?” Tank slid behind Stephanie and rubbed her shoulders.

  Stephanie winked at Cass.

  She laughed. Bee was right; Stephanie was loving every minute of the attention Tank was showering her with.

  “Hey, there, beautiful.” Luke kissed Cass hello, then leaned against the railing facing her.

  She smiled up at him, happy to see him so relaxed. “Have you learned anything new?”