“That guy.”
“Right?” Brady laughed in return.
“You wanna come to the store with me and get some groceries so I can feed my man when he gets home?” Greta asked, picking her keys and phone up off of the counter.
“And spend more time with one of my best friends who I haven't seen in, oh, I don't know, like a month?” Brady asked with a grin.
“Quit your bellyaching.” Greta shoved his shoulder as they walked out the door and she locked up the house. “When you meet the girl of your dreams, I'm planning on giving you the hardest time.”
***
Shane didn't notice Brady's car in the street when he pulled up, but he should have. It might have given him that extra second he needed to get his thoughts in order.
Instead, he was so lost in his head and everything that had happened that day that he drove home on autopilot. He pushed open the front door and was greeted with the smell of garlic, onions and peppers in the air. And a deep manly voice laughing along with Greta's lighter one.
He came down the hall and turned into the kitchen. Greta had her head back and she was laughing. It was usually one of his favorite things to see. But Brady was gazing at her with a look that most men reserved for someone more significant than their best friend's wife.
“Do you not have a house of your own, Brady?” Shane asked curtly, depositing his wallet, keys, and phone in the bowl by the microwave.
“Hey, man,” Brady gave him a chin lift. “I was just keeping your woman company until you got home. There was a guy parked across the street and it creeped her out.”
Harmony's PI, no doubt.
“Right.”
Brady's eyebrows furrowed at Shane's tone. “We used to be roommates. Sometimes we hang out.”
“Dinner's almost ready, babe, you want a beer?” Greta asked, her hand on the fridge handle.
“No.” Shane hardened his stare at Brady. “I'm gonna have a shower.”
“I better get going, Gret,” Brady spoke low, reading Shane's mood. “Call me if you need anything, yeah?”
“Okay,” Greta frowned, just now picking up on the tension in the kitchen.
“Now that her husband is home, I'm sure she'll be just fine,” Shane responded.
Brady stopped when his shoulder was even with Shane's. “It's not like that and you know it,” Brady growled under his breath.
Shane tightened his jaw but let Brady go without a response.
The front door opened, then closed. Greta watched Shane, waiting for him to say something.
“What's bothering you?” she asked softly.
So sweet. Damn, she was always so sweet to him. How was he supposed to ask her what he needed to ask her?
He moved down the hall, maintaining his silence, knowing that it wasn't getting him the answers he needed. The answers he knew she could, and would, give to him.
She followed him into the bathroom, but he didn't acknowledge her. His default dickhead mode had totally kicked in and was calling the shots.
He stripped off his clothes in the bathroom and started the shower.
“I don't want you hanging out alone with Brady anymore.” He finally faced her, meeting her questioning eyes with his hard ones.
“Excuse me?”
Great, she was going to pull out the sass.
“Just for my own piece of mind,” Shane shrugged one shoulder, his jaw ticking in agitation.
“Brady and I are friends—”
“Yeah, I've heard that before,” he cut her off sharply. “Do I have to remind you that I lost a girl I cared about a whole heck of a lot, to a guy she claimed was 'just her friend'?”
Greta's hands flew to her hips and her eyes widened.
“That's not even close to the same thing. Do not project your issues onto me. Lucy and Blake had their history and they belong together. He didn't steal her. She was never yours.”
Shane tried to ignore the sting that accompanied her words even though he had come to that conclusion months ago.
“Furthermore, Lucy's my friend. She's not that girl. She never wanted to hurt you. It sucks that it happened, but it did. And if you knew one damn thing about me, Shane, you'd know I'm not that girl either.”
Her eyes got wet and she blinked hard, pushing her emotion down.
“In fact, you're the only one here with a history of going test-driving while having a perfectly good heart waiting for you at home.” Her voice trembled slightly at the end of her sentence and Shane felt that lance through him like a hot blade.
Shit, that hurt.
“Have I ever, once, questioned where you were, or who you were with?”
“No.”
“Yeah.”
She took an unsteady breath, pain and confusion firing from her silvery blue pyrotechnic gaze.
He didn't have a response, so he stepped under the scalding water and closed the glass door. The steam rose around him and he took a deep breath, feeling the tremble in his muscles.
“I'm going to go finish dinner, and you take this moment to think about what's really bothering you. Then come and find me, and we'll talk it through.”
The door closed behind her and Shane wished his shower wall wasn't tiled so he could put a fist through it. Shane closed his eyes and stuck his face under the powerful spray.
He finished his shower, towel-dried his hair and went into their room to get dressed. He didn't feel the least bit better. He hadn't taken her advice at all, but instead focused on how much he'd hated that Brady was here when he got home.
He looked past the clothes she'd added to the closet, refused to see the tiny jewelry box that sat on the extra dresser. Seeing those things would mean having to think about the vows they'd just made a week ago. The life they were just starting out in. He wanted to stay mad for a little while longer.
If he focused on being angry at Brady, then he didn't think about all the things that Harmony had puked on him earlier that day.
He pulled on a fresh pair of jeans and a long-sleeve gray thermal.
It wasn't until he made it back into the kitchen that he acknowledged her presence again. But just barely.
He opened the fridge and grabbed his own beer, twisted off the lid, took a long pull, his eyes staring into her blue ones. They had cooled since the fight in the bathroom. Now they were full of honest concern.
Dammit.
Setting the bottle on the counter, he decided to brave the cruncher that faced him.
“What did you meet Cody Carmichael about in Squaw Valley?”
Her head jerked slightly and her eyebrows twitched fractionally. “We didn't meet... exactly.”
Greta's eyes lost focus as her gaze drifted over his shoulder. “I was supposed to tell you about that, but I completely blanked until just this moment.” Her eyes came back to him and they narrowed. “How did you know about that? Did Cody finally just call you?”
Shane couldn't do it. He couldn't blindly trust her right now. He knew that there was probably some truth to what Harmony told him, and if he let his anger guide him, he might just get to the truth of it.
He hoped, that when it was all finished, she would still be his.
“Why would she call me?” Shane asked slowly.
Greta shrugged. “She said that she thought someone was trying to mess with you and to tell you to watch your back. Then she said not to tell you that I talked to her. It was a little too 'Cloak and Dagger' for my taste.” She crossed her arms and leaned one hip against the counter. “I was planning on telling you anyway, but then during the drive over to the restaurant we both confessed our love to one another and everything else in the world became irrelevant.” She smirked.
He scowled at her. Mostly because if he looked at her smirk, he was going to lose all his conviction. They stared at one another in silence. A cloud passed over her face as she picked up on his underlying disbelief.
“Why did you say I can't hang out with Brady alone?”
Shane swallowed, wishing he
would have just kept his hotheaded mouth shut.
“He likes you,” he said instead.
Greta rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we're friends. We have been for a while.”
“No, I mean, he told me he wants to be where I am. I don't like him hanging out with you alone.”
“Geez, Shane,” she sighed heavily and tucked her chin to her chest briefly. “Which guy am I married to?”
“Me, but that's not my point—”
“And which guy am I going to bed with tonight?” She arched an eyebrow at him. His muscles flexed in response. “And which guy did I just promise to love forever and always?”
“Me.”
“Yeah.” Her mouth twitched with humor and he thanked God that she was this awesome. If she had come home with those kinds of demands on him, he would have had a shit hemorrhage.
“Tell me what's really going on,” she pressed gently.
“It's scary how well you can read me.”
She smiled at him through her dark lashes and he felt the last of the tension leave his body.
“Harmony claims that you bribed Ted Trippy, that you're in collusion with Cody somehow to overthrow my company, and that you've been using me all along. That our marriage was a ruse of sorts.”
Greta took in a breath through her mouth and lifted her chin stiffly.
“She's been having you followed and gave me surveillance pictures today of you talking to Cody in the lobby in Squaw Valley.”
Greta's mouth grew very small as she pressed her lips tightly together. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.
“I underestimated how far she would go,” she muttered to herself. She pushed off the counter in frustration and stalked across the kitchen. Then she spun back to Shane and he'd never seen such a dark look on her face. “I think I actually hate her. I mean, before she was just annoying, like a mosquito that just won't die. But this,” she shook her head in disbelief, “this is unreal.”
“Why would she make all of that up?” Shane asked cautiously.
“I bet she covered her tracks really well, too. Damn it! I've never hated anyone before. I'm not sure what to do with all of this rage.”
She suddenly left the kitchen and stomped down the hall to the office. Shane followed. When he got there she was rifling through a pile of mail on the desk. Finding what she was looking for, she ripped open an envelope and started scanning the contents, flipping it over until she found what she was looking for.
“That stupid bitch,” she hissed under her breath.
***
For whatever reason, Harmony had gotten under Shane's skin. Normally, Greta was more than willing to ignore her antics and keep to her own life.
But not this time.
This time she'd gone way too far.
“What's that?” Shane asked, nodding at the bank statement in her hand. The evidence that Harmony had concocted to get between her and Shane.
Greta studied him grimly. He had to believe her. He just had to. She had no reason to lie to him or trick him the way Harmony had insinuated. She wasn't going to fall on her knees and cry about how unfair this all looked. She had never been a fall-on-her-knees type of girl.
“It's my bank statement from last month. There's a large amount transferred to an account I don't recognize.” She handed him the page and pointed to the line in question.
“Two hundred thousand dollars!” Shane looked back to her with shock. “How do you have that much money?”
Greta chewed her bottom lip. “My grandmother set all of us kids up with a trust when were born. I've had access to it for about a year, but I've only ever deposited. I never even open the statements. I figured I'd use it when I had kids or something.”
She wrapped her arms around her middle, suddenly feeling a chill slip through her.
“I would never bribe someone to hurt you, Shane,” she said earnestly.
He studied her silently, his eyes traveling over her arms, up to her hair, down to her bare feet and back to her face. She had the distinct impression that he was finally looking at her for the first time since he got home.
“I know,” he said.
Her anxiety was only slightly abated with his words.
“She's having us watched,” Greta whispered.
“Why? What's her end game? Does she really think that I'm just gonna walk away from you?”
“Are you?” she couldn't help but ask.
Shane didn't hesitate in crossing the room and wrapping her in his arms. “Never.” He pressed his lips to the top of her head and she sagged against him. “Never,” he repeated with stern conviction.
“I have to make some calls,” he said into her hair, not letting her go. “I have to figure out what's going on and we have to come up with a plan. I can't let her tank my business. And she's not going to get away with trying to come between us.”
Greta nodded against him.
She agreed. Harmony had to be stopped.
For good.
***
Brady had just closed the windows in his car and was exiting the vehicle to go into the beach house when he felt all the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
He'd left Shane's and gone to the gym to work out some frustration. An hour later and he only felt marginally better. Maybe a shower and a quick bite to eat would help. Maybe Kip would be home. His laid back demeanor always helped to dull the edge that Brady would sometimes build up.
He glanced at his cell and saw the missed call and voicemail from Shane. He'd have to check that later, seeing as there was a more pressing concern approaching his car.
He angled out, refusing to get caught seated so that he had to look up to Harmony.
“If Lia catches you here, you're gonna get shanked,” he offered in greeting.
Harmony stopped, looked around apprehensively, and gave him a worried smile. Shit, was she really going to attempt to fool him into believing she had some kind of human genetic code hiding in her evil alien body? That she could feel something besides vain ambition?
“Brady, I'm worried about Shane and Greta.”
Brady thought of the way he'd left the two of them, the tension in the kitchen, and the voicemail still waiting for him. He didn't say any of this to Harmony.
“Why?”
“I told him some things about Greta today, and I've been worried that he might not take it well. So I drove past his house, and they were fighting in the yard.” Her voice dropped and she leaned closer. “It looked like he was leaving.”
Brady's stomach pitched and his mouth went dry. His eyes drifted to the ground. He hoped Shane wasn't screwing up the best thing that had ever happened to him. But if he was...
“I forgot that you and Greta were so... close.”
His gaze snapped back to hers and she smiled insincerely.
“What are you playing at, Harmony?” Brady's voice was cutting.
“Weren't you with Greta earlier today? You two spend a lot of time together. I always thought you guys made a more obvious couple than her and Shane.”
Brady clenched his jaw tightly.
The front door of the beach house opened and Harmony slipped past him, hurrying to her car.
She was gone before Brady could ask her anymore questions. Her presence had always been unnerving, but even more so lately.
“Did that horrible Jeffords girl leave?” Lia huffed when Brady entered the house.
“Yeah, just now. How long was she waiting?”
“Not long. She tried to corner Bo, but I yanked him into the house. I was coming to get you in a minute.”
“Calm down, killer pixie,” Brady chucked her under the chin, she hated that. “We're grown men, I think we can handle an unstable blonde every once in a while.”
Lia looked at him out of the corner of her eye before muttering, “Stupid, social- climbing troglodyte.”
Brady just grinned and put his phone to his ear to listen to Shane's voicemail.
“We have a situation. Call
me when you're someplace private.”
Brady headed up the stairs to his room, checking the other rooms along the way. Adam, Kip and Steve were playing a loud game in the room downstairs, Bo was firing up the grill on the back patio and Lia was supervising. Brady closed his door and redialed Shane.
“Are you alone?”
“Yeah, what's with the secrecy?”
Brady listened with rapt attention as Shane explained what had been going down for the past couple of months and the new developments just today. His anxiety eased as Shane spoke, realizing that Harmony had been trying to play him too.
“I'm impressed. I had no idea she had those kinds of connections. Did you talk to Cody?”
“Yeah, she's stuck in Denver right now, but will be heading this way in a day or two.”
“What's the plan?”
Shane sighed. “The plan is to let Harmony think she won. At least for now. Hopefully she'll show all her cards and we can clean this mess up quickly. There's no way she's doing this alone. I want to know who else is involved. They're not just trying to wreck my business, they're trying to hurt Greta.” He paused. “I think you know what she means to me by now.”
Indeed.
“What do you need from me?” Brady asked.
“First, I feel like I need to apologize for earlier tonight. I—”
“It's already forgotten, dude,” Brady interrupted. “I'd do the same thing if our roles were reversed.
Shane's end was quiet and then he sighed again. “You're the only one I trust to ask this of.”
“Then you better get to asking it.”
***
Shane checked into the hotel and settled in his room alone.
He hated this. Every damn second of it.
But one thing had been made clear: Harmony, and whoever was working with her, was watching. This had to look real, so they made it look real.
Which is why Shane packed a bag and pretended to storm out.
It was also why an hour after he left, Brady showed up at his house with his own bag.
It frickin' killed for Shane to think of Brady staying in his house with Greta. But he didn't want her there alone, not without knowing what they were dealing with. And he honestly didn't trust anyone else with her.
Tectonic (Double Blind Study Book 3) Page 27