We rang the doorbell and waited. I heard the heavy footsteps long before the glowering face of Rory Stein appeared in the crack of the open front door. “What do you want? I thought I told you that my house isn’t for sale.”
I pushed my way past Rory into the house. Something I had figured out was that Rory didn’t really know what to do with a woman who stood up to him. His grandmother was so passive and quiet that he simply assumed women were pushovers. That meant if he ran up against one who wasn’t a pushover, he had no idea how to react.
“And I told you,” I snapped at Rory. “This isn’t your house. It belongs to Stella. She’s selling it. You had better get used to the idea because we already have an offer on the table and that means you have to be out of here by the closing date. So you might as well start figuring out where you’re moving to.”
There was a flicker of something dark behind Rory’s gaze. Then he looked at Thayla and I felt my skin crawl as his expression changed to something very distinctly rude. “Hey there, baby. I ain’t seen you here before. Did you come here to visit me?”
Thayla gave the man a look of such disdain that I was surprised he didn’t shrivel up right there in the front hallway. “You’re a pig. Did you know that? A total pig. I can’t even imagine the kind of woman who might actually want to be anywhere near you. Get out of my way. I’m here to help your grandmother, not you.”
I almost choked on the laugh that wanted to come out of my throat as Thayla and I both left Rory standing there at the front door. Maybe the man would get the hint before long. Maybe not. But at least my friend and I were both here to help his grandmother.
“Stella?” I called out. “Stella, it’s Tansy! I’ve brought a friend with me. She’s going to help us rearrange a few things to get top dollar for the house.”
“I’m in the kitchen, dear!” Stella called out.
I led the way through the house to the kitchen with Thayla hot on my heels. When we walked inside, Stella was standing at the stove stirring something. Then she turned around. I nearly gasped out loud as I saw that the left side of her face was horribly bruised. It looked as though she had been punched. No doubt about it. And there was no doubt in my mind who had done it too. I just wasn’t sure what to do from here.
“Oh Stella,” I said softly. “What happened?”
“Oh this?” She half lifted her hand to her face. “It’s nothing. I was packing up some things and ran into the corner of a doorway while it was open.”
“Uh uh.” Thayla’s voice was flat. She set the box of things she had brought on the kitchen table. Then she turned and put her hands on her hips as she looked almost sternly at Stella. “I used to date this horrible young man named Brock. He was quite fond of hitting smaller things with his fists. I know what it’s like to feel like you have to come up with excuses.”
Stella removed the pan she was stirring from the stove. It looked as though there were a thick, dark, creamy sauce inside. “Chocolate sauce,” she explained. “Rory’s favorite for his ice cream.”
I frowned. “Stella, what happened?”
Thayla waited until the older woman had put the pan down before offering her hand to shake. “Thayla Landau. I help Tansy with a lot of the staging in the houses she has listed for sale. You have such a beautiful home with so many wonderful things inside. I’m sure this is going to be my pleasure. What rooms do you feel need a little sprucing up?”
Thayla was so friendly and so very complimentary and Stella could not help but smile. I was glad for my friend. She had been in a horrid relationship before I had even met her. It wasn’t all that long ago though, and I had a feeling she was the perfect person to help nudge Stella out of her complacency and fear.
Stella sighed as she began pouring the hot chocolate sauce into a container where Rory would apparently be able to simply add it to his ice cream whenever he took the notion. “I just don’t know if this sale is a good idea.”
“Stella,” I murmured. “I’m quite sure it’s a horrible idea, but you seemed convinced that this was the best choice for you. Financially.”
“It is.” Stella looked tired and so very small. I felt bad for her. I could not imagine what it might be like to have a grandson who was so obviously out of control. “I just—I’m not sure how to…”
“You were going to move to your cousin’s house in Jefferson City,” I reminded Stella. “Could you go right now?”
“Well, certainly. I suppose that I could. But how would I get Rory out of the house?” Stella looked doubtful.
Thayla’s chin was set in a stubborn thrust. “Usually the key is to do it while he’s gone. Does he work?”
“On Mondays he works a full day,” Stella admitted.
“Then it sounds like we need to get the police to help us. You go to Jefferson City,” I told her firmly. “We will take care of packing up Rory’s room and getting his things out of the house. Then we’ll have a police officer standing by when he comes back.”
Thayla was already nodding. “You have to make sure that you have the locks changed that day. And then we tell the police department that we need help watching the house to make sure he doesn’t try to break back in.”
“But he will!” Stella protested. Her eyes were wide and the poor grandmotherly woman looked exhausted and almost haunted by what she was suffering through right now.
“That’s good,” I explained to Stella. “If he breaks into the house then the police can have him spend a night or two in jail. That should go a long way toward changing his attitude.”
“But I don’t want him hurt!” Stella pressed her palms to her cheeks. She looked so frail and so old I had a feeling that it was time for her to leave or she would never make it out. The poor woman was just spent. She had given this horrible young man everything that she could and more.
“Stella, please,” I said, reaching over and taking her hand. “Monday. That gives you a day to prepare and pack a few things.”
Thayla nodded. “Help us, help you. Please? I’ve only just met you and I already know that you have worked hard your whole life for what you have. Don’t let that spoiled young man take it all from you just because he feels like the world owes him something.”
Stella lifted her hand to her mouth. “How do you know so much? This is the first time I’ve ever seen you before? How do you know what’s going on?”
“Because it’s not the first time I’ve heard this story,” Thayla said firmly. “People like your grandson and my ex-boyfriend and all of the others just like them have a sixth sense for finding people like us. People who want to help and who are willing to offer a hand up. Then they take that hand up and they use it to yank you right down to their level.”
Stella pressed her lips together. For just one moment I wasn’t sure what was happening. I thought that she might fold. She might be unable to tell her pushy grandson no. Then something changed. I saw it in her face. A determination not to give in and not to sacrifice her own financial future—what was left of it—to Rory’s selfish ways.
“All right,” Stella told us. “Monday. I’ll pack up my suitcase and I will drive myself to Jefferson City to my cousin’s place. Change the locks and call the police and pack up what’s left of Rory’s things. Then I suppose we will have to just hope for the best with the house.”
“Stella, once Rory is out of this place it will sell so fast that your head is going to spin,” I told her. “He’s been rude to the potential buyers. And why wouldn’t he be? He doesn’t want them here. He wants the house to sit on the market until you give up. Then his life doesn’t change. We can do this,” I told her. I just hoped we were all prepared for just how ugly things could get.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Valentino
I never would have made much of a cop. This whole stakeout thing was just not for me. I was bored. Out of my mind actually. Here I was outside trying to wait for the ghosts and vampires to appear in my shop and I was busy thinking about all of the stuff I could be do
ing inside. Of course, the problem was that if I was inside doing something productive the ghosts and vampires weren’t likely to show up at all.
It was starting to get frigid inside the old truck. I had opted to keep my vigil inside one of the tow trucks. I don’t even want to go into how much of a pain in the ass that had been. I had to give one of my night duty tow truck drivers a shift off, which caused him no end of complaining about the loss of money. Then I had to hope that there weren’t any calls where I’d actually have to drive out there and operate the thing. I could do it, in theory. It had just been a really long time since I’d done anything more complicated than a simple pick up on the side of the highway. If some truck rolled into a ditch and I had to figure out how to operate the boom without breaking the cables, snapping the boom itself, and potentially dumping the vehicle on its side—I would be screwed.
I sighed. It was midnight. That was the witching hour. Right? The thought made me want to laugh my ass off. Trinity Moberly, the witch of Fenton. Doubtful. I couldn’t even decide what would make her think there was anything for her in vandalizing my shop. I wasn’t her target. That was Damion. So go vandalize his shop. Oh right. He didn’t have one. He had a building with security guards and a bunch of computer geeks to help him keep out the ghosts and vampires.
This made me laugh. And that almost made me miss the lights going on in my shop. I sat up so fast that I nearly spilled my cold coffee all over the cab of the tow truck. I swung my head around to look at the old camper trailer where Beau lived. There was no change in that scene. The little exterior light was on, but the inside was dark and the thing looked peaceful and serene in the icy midnight hour.
But there was no doubting that the lights were on inside the shop. I could see them stretching long across the ice crusted back lot. They reflected off the stacks of tires and the old Buick that had been sitting out here since my dad took it on as a project before he retired.
I grabbed my phone and dialed the Fenton Police. Dispatch picked up on the first ring. “How may I direct your call?”
“This is Valentino Alvarez down at the Alvarez Engine and Transmission Shop. I’ve got an intruder in my shop. I want the police here now.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll send a car right away.” The dispatcher’s nasally tone sounded almost bored. “Sir, you should remain outside the premises until the police get there.”
“Not likely,” I told her. Then I hung up. With that chore done I was ready to go play ghostbuster. Ghosts and vampires. Ha!
I slipped out of the tow truck. I had deliberately turned the dome light off to avoid drawing any attention to myself. I didn’t want to warn the vampires and ghosts that they’d been caught. So even though my breath was practically hanging frozen in the air in front of my face and my footsteps were actually squeaking across the frozen gravel, dirt, and weeds, I crept closer and closer to the corner door of the shop.
The lights were on but I didn’t necessarily hear anything from inside the shop. It was rather odd. I couldn’t imagine how someone unfamiliar with the place could be so quiet. It would have made more sense to hear tools clanking around or the sound of someone cursing as they tripped over the variety of junk that nearly always wound up on the floor. Old car parts, new car parts, push carts, the possibilities were endless.
I inhaled the familiar odors of gear oil and automatic transmission fluid as I gently eased the door open. Anticipating this moment—even though I didn’t believe for one second that I was about to confront a ghost or a vampire—I had oiled the hinges earlier that night. The door swung in. I walked inside. And I immediately spotted exactly what I had been afraid of spotting.
“Hello, Trinity. Can I help you with something? Or are you just planning to loosen some more bolts on one of my customer’s vehicles?” I used a loud, clear tone and felt one hell of a jolt of satisfaction when the blonde bimbo stood up so quickly that her boobs nearly came tumbling out of her sweater.
“What are you doing here?” Trinity had one of my very long torque wrenches in her hand. She was swinging it just a little bit from side to side as though she weren’t exactly sure if she should drop it or not. Was she thinking about running?
“What am I doing here?” I repeated. Then I folded my arms over my chest and glared at her. “I own this place. I belong here. I think the better question is what are you doing here? Why in the hell would you be bothering stuff in my shop? What does this get you? Damion is getting married. Hell! You’re married! Why bother?”
“Your brother is an idiot,” Trinity said, obviously flustered. “He just doesn’t realize that I am the only person who can really understand him. I’m the only one who can make him happy. I’m his one true love.”
“Uh huh.” I nodded my head because arguing with crazy seemed—well—crazy. “And your husband Karl is what?”
“Just a placeholder,” Trinity told me. “But we have a plan. We do. You just don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know. You’re too stupid to understand exactly how much I love Damion and what I will do to be with him.”
Wow. Just. Wow. I didn’t have words. There just weren’t any. And fortunately, I didn’t have to come up with any because at that moment I saw the flashing red and blue lights out in front of the shop. I knew the second that Trinity saw them too. She dropped the wrench.
“You!” she shouted at me. “You called the police? Why would you do that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Breaking and entering maybe?” I glared at her. “You loosened the bolts on a transfer case sitting in back of my shop a few nights ago. Didn’t you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe?” Trinity was edging toward the exit as though she were going to try and make a break for it. “Does it matter? Why does it matter? It shouldn’t matter. I’m just trying to make your shop fail. That way you’ll have to get Damion to bail you out.”
I was floored. Perhaps this had been in the back of my mind. Maybe. But what kind of sense did it make? “Why would you do that? I’ve never been anything but nice to you! I even fixed your car and let my mechanics keep doing your oil changes after you and Damion broke up! I treated you professionally as a client. I didn’t play games because you and my brother weren’t dating anymore. Now I find out that you’re trying to ruin me? What the hell?”
The police came storming in through the door. The first officer inside already had a gun leveled at me. His partner’s uniform said POOLE. He was facing off with Trinity. Officer Poole shouted at the top of his lungs. “Hands up! Step away from the torque wrench!”
“Sir, please step out here into the open,” Officer—hmm, his uniform said PUNCH. Seriously. Punch and Poole? What a dream team. I almost wanted to laugh with the sheer absurdity of this entire situation. It just didn’t make any sense. “Sir, were you the one who made the call?”
“Yes. I am. My name is Valentino Alvarez. I’m the owner of this engine shop.” I pointed at Trinity. “That is my brother’s stalker ex-girlfriend. I don’t know why she broke into my shop, but she’s been doing it for the last several weeks.” I glared at Trinity. “And she’s been loosening parts on my customer vehicles. Surely there’s some kind of way to arrest her for attempted murder if she’s messing with people’s driveshafts.”
“Driveshafts?” Officer Poole’s jaw went slack. He glared at Trinity. “Why are you messing with people’s cars, woman? That’s just wrong.”
“She loosened the bolts on a transfer case,” I told the men. “She basically stood here and admitted it to me.” But it wasn’t enough to tattle on her, because that was exactly what I was doing. I was tattling. I wanted answers. “Why, Trinity? So I start having financial troubles. So my brother bails me out. Do you think it’s going to hurt him? Because it isn’t. Damion is a little too solvent for that to be an issue. Why are you bothering? I’ve been nothing but nice to you, woman.”
The officers were staring at us as though they were wondering if this whole thing was about to turn into a domestic dispute. Poole was pulling out
a set of cuffs. “Turn around, ma’am. I’m going to cuff you.”
“No you’re not,” Trintiy said bluntly. “I’m not going to let you put cuffs on me. Are you out of your mind?”
“Ma’am,” Poole said in a low voice. “Don’t make this harder on yourself than it already is.”
But it was a little late for that. Trinity bolted just when Poole reached for her hands. Suddenly the garage echoed with the shouts of both officers. They bounded after her, ducking in and around tool chests, stacks of tires, huge drums of clean oil, and the cars that had been stored inside the shop for the night. It was as though Trinity actually thought that she could get away.
I stood still for the split second it took me to decide that this was my shop. I wasn’t about to let this woman trash the place. Then the first wrench handle went sailing across the shop and buried itself in the windshield of a little compact car waiting for someone to finish up an emissions test in the morning.
I groaned as the wrench stuck halfway in and halfway out of the car’s front glass. The officers barked orders in alarm, but it didn’t do any good. They were chasing a mouse and they were bit, fat cats without a chance of catching her.
A stack of tires went flying. They rolled down the walkway between two vehicles, their big ridged edges scraping paint on their way by. A tool chest clattered to the ground. Everything inside seemed to wash across the floor like a tidal wave. I actually whimpered. That sound actually came out of my mouth. Trinity was ducking and dodging her way through my shop like a little imp of destruction. It had to stop.
Trying to think ahead, I took a wild stab at getting ahead of her and ran for it. Down between two cars, around the front bumper, and finally I saw Trinity’s back right in front of me. I did not even pause. I ran for it and hit her like a linebacker making the final tackle to win the entire game.
Tangled: Contemporary Romance Trilogy Page 65