Chapter 14
Toni stared at the bottle of wine on the center of Katherine’s table. “I want a drink so much right now. Or a whole afternoon to myself with a really dirty carburetor that needs rebuilding.”
Megan opened her mouth. Closed it.
Katherine said, “I can’t help with either of those things. Do you want some chocolate?”
“It has caffeine.” Toni closed her eyes and groaned. “Being pregnant is the worst.”
“Eat the chocolate,” Megan said. “I don’t think it’s that bad.”
“It’s milk chocolate,” Katherine said. “More sugar than cacao. I have more in the house. My sister-in-law sends it from London. It’s much better than American milk chocolate.”
“No alcohol. Limited coffee. No sushi. Chocolate may be my last vice,” Toni said. “Okay, let’s do it.”
Katherine left the table and went inside.
Not even a day had passed since her truly insane day of doctor’s appointment, meeting with Ruben Montenegro, confrontation with Henry, baby reveal with Henry, and spilling everything to Nico.
She’d taken the day off. She deserved it and the cars could wait.
“It’ll be fine.” Megan rubbed her back. “This is your baby. She’s gonna be a tough cookie.”
“Oh God.” She covered her face. “What if it’s a boy? I don’t think I can handle raising a Dusi male. What if the baby is like my brother and Nico and all my boy cousins?”
“Well…” Megan had no words of comfort for that because of course there were none.
Katherine must have caught the tail end of the conversation when she returned. “Genetically, the baby has a fifty percent chance of taking after Henry,” she said. “And Henry is lovely.”
Toni reached for the shiny, purple-wrapped chocolate bar Katherine was holding. “I don’t know. The obnoxious genes are strong.”
“Speaking of Henry,” Megan said. “It sounds like he took the news very well.”
“He said he’s ecstatic.” Toni bit into the chocolate. Oh, that was good. She felt her erratic emotions start to settle. “He stayed the night at my place last night. No sexy reasons, I was just about to fall over and I didn’t want to drive back to his place, get my car, and drive back to my house. I was pretty out of it.”
“So he just stayed the night?”
“Yeah.” Toni hadn’t questioned it. Was it the first time that Henry had stayed all night? Yes. But then again, it was kind of nice having another person hanging around when there was a murderer who’d killed someone within throwing distance of your house.
“And he seems okay about everything?” Katherine said. “I know you said you guys had never even talked about children.”
“Honestly, he seems really excited. Definitely surprised, somewhat worried, but he seemed to take it in stride. I mean, it’s Henry. He never overreacts to anything.”
“Except blackmail threats,” Megan said. “But that’s understandable.”
“God, Whit Fairfield was such an asshole.” Toni was nearly finished with the chocolate bar. Why was it so small? “Why are we trying to find his killer again?”
“Because we don’t want your cousin or your baby daddy to live with a cloud of suspicion over their heads for the rest of their lives?”
Toni pointed at Megan. “Okay, baby daddy is worse than boyfriend. Don’t go there.”
“Father of your love child?” Megan asked. “Significant other?”
“Sperm donor?” Katherine added. “Though obviously you went the more traditional donation route.”
Toni put her head down on the table and wondered if not leaving the house for the next seven months was an option. Would the guys cover for her at the garage? Maybe she could take extended medical leave? Suddenly the unmarried girls who went off to live with the nuns when they were pregnant made sense. At least with the nuns you only had to deal with Catholic guilt and not social interaction.
“We’re not helping,” Katherine said. “We should focus on the murder.”
“Please.” Toni lifted her head. “That’s so much easier to deal with than thinking about telling my family.”
“So now we know why Whit Fairfield was with Marissa,” Megan said. “He thought she had information that would screw with Nico.”
“I don’t get the obsession though.” Toni sat up straight. “Fairfield got better reviews and more traffic at his winery. He has more acreage. Literally the only thing Nico had that Fairfield wanted was that one piece of land by the creek.”
“It’s possible there’s something special about that land, or it could be that he really was extremely petty,” Katherine said. “He strikes me as a man who was never told no. Maybe the simple fact that your cousin told him no and wouldn’t give in was enough to put a target on Nico’s back. The sabotage and blackmail seem like big violations to us, but for Whit Fairfield, they might have seemed quite routine.”
“And now,” Megan said, “even after he’s dead, he’s messing with your cousin’s life.”
“Unfortunately,” Katherine said, “Nico and Henry are still the most logical suspects. Even though we know neither of them is guilty.”
“I feel stuck,” Toni said. “We found out why Marissa was hanging out with Fairfield and why she brought up Henry, but it didn’t really tell us anything more about who killed Fairfield.”
“No,” Katherine said. “But it does tell us something important about Fairfield.”
“What’s that?”
Megan smiled. “He was a blackmailer.” She turned to Katherine. “Right? If he was blackmailing Henry, who knows who else he was blackmailing?”
“Agreed,” Katherine said. “I’m not a detective, but I suspect blackmailers rarely have single targets. If that was how he conducted his business, he would have had more than one mark. If we find out who else he was blackmailing, we might find more people with motive.”
“How are we supposed to do that?”
Toni stared at the ocean. “I might have an idea.”
* * *
Marissa lived in a condo not far from the pier in the South Beach neighborhood of Moonstone Cove. It was a fashionable area full of shops, restaurants, salons, and tourist traps of all kinds.
It was about as opposite of North Beach, where Katherine lived, as possible.
Nico’s former wife rented the place with a chunk of money she received in spousal support from Nico and her income from real estate.
On Tuesday night following the crazy weekend that had resulted in blackmail revelations, baby revelations, and a frustrating lack of wine, Toni rang the bell with Katherine and Megan behind her.
One of the new guys had dropped a tire jack on her foot that morning. Needless to say, she wasn’t in the sunniest mood.
“Are you sure about this?” Megan asked.
“I’m having a ‘why the fuck not?’ kind of day,” Toni said. “So I’m not really thinking about it too closely.”
Marissa opened the door, wearing a fashionable set of rose-colored loungewear that complemented her perfect complexion and dark brown eyes.
“Toni?”
“Hey, Marissa.”
The corner of her mouth turned up, and she leaned against the doorjamb. “I don’t know what you want, but—”
“That’s okay.” Toni grabbed her arm, wrapped her fingers around it, and gathered a sense of calm to flood Marissa’s senses. “Why don’t you just let us in so you can relax?”
Immediately, Marissa’s eyes drooped and she blinked slowly. “Um… okay.”
“Can we come in?”
“Yeah.” She stepped aside. “Come on it. That’s fine.”
“Holy shit, this is very creepy,” Megan muttered behind her as Toni led Marissa into the entryway and past the small front room that looked like a shell shop had tastefully exploded.
She didn’t let go of Marissa’s arm, not once, as they walked to the living room with a view of bustling South Beach. Broad french doors opened to a balcony t
hat looked over the ocean, and flashing lights from the boardwalk flickered in the distance.
She was pushing calm into Marissa with more force than she’d ever tried before. Her intent was to make Marissa as amenable as possible, but she worried a little bit about making her fall asleep too.
Katherine asked quietly, “Have you ever done this before?”
“Like this? Nope.” Toni settled next to Marissa on the overstuffed cream couch and she didn’t waste time. “Tell me about you and Whit. Did you approach him? Or did he approach you?”
“He was at the club one weekend. He was so sweet.” Her smile fell. “I thought he really liked me, but he just… hated Nico.” She slumped against the couch, looking slightly drunk. “I mean… two months after we started fooling around, he tells me he has a fiancée. And she knows about us. They have an…” Marissa attempted to use air quotes and failed miserably. “…open relationship. What the fuck is that?”
Katherine said, “Generally it’s an established relationship where both members are allowed to have sexual relationships outside the typical bonds of monogamy, but it’s not considered cheating because—”
“Oh my God, I fucking know what an open relationship is.” Marissa was starting to sound more than slightly drunk. “I just think they’re… bullshit. Like, he’s a man, right? He was totally cheating on her. She probably knew and didn’t care.” The groggy woman waved a hand. “Whatever. All men are trash.”
“But you’re the one who told him about Henry,” Toni said. “Aren’t you?”
“Damn.” She laughed a little. “Have you seen him? I mean, he’s hot. He’s built like a tree. I’d climb that twice a day if you let me. But then he’s all polite and sweet. He’s like a… puppy. Like a cute little… fucking sexy puppy.”
Toni didn’t even have words.
Megan said, “I wish you could see the face you’re making right now. It’s truly a thing to behold.”
“She’s just so gross.” Toni tried to relax the expression of disgust, but it was difficult. “And she’s talking about my… Henry.”
“Watching you dance around your actual feelings for this man is going to be the highlight of my year.” Megan had that infuriating smirk again. “For real. It’s very amusing.”
“Hey, Marissa?” Toni shook her arm. The woman had been dozing off. “Who else was Whit blackmailing?”
“Uh…” She squinted. “More than Henry. He had a safe and… he kept all sorts of stuff in there. Like his accounts.” Her voice had taken on a singsong quality. “And some cash. And a couple of guns.” She stared at the french doors. “The lights are so twinkly.”
“What are you doing to her?” Katherine said.
“I’m pushing all the calm I can into her. Kind of like what I did with Justin when he tried to shoot up the gym, only not as much because I don’t want her to fall asleep.”
“Twinkle, twinkle…” Marissa blinked. “Little… stars.”
Megan kept up the train of questions. “So Whit Fairfield had a book of people he was blackmailing?”
“I think so. I saw him get it when he was going to a meeting with…” Marissa’s eyes were half-closed.
“Toni! Too much.”
“Oh?” She blinked. “Sorry, I’m getting kind of tired too. That might be rubbing off.”
“Marissa?” Katherine snapped her fingers by the woman’s ear.
She started. “What? Where am I?”
“At home. You were telling us who Whit was going to meet with his black book.”
She giggled. “Oh yeah. The secret book. He was going to meet Ruben. He always had a meeting with Ruben.” She rolled her eyes. “Maybe they had a… an open relationship too.” She giggled. “That’d be a good one. Ruben and Whit.”
“Why would that be funny?”
Marissa rolled her eyes. “Because Ruben haaated Whit. So much. But he pretended not to. And he wanted me. He told me so. Said if Whit wasn’t around, I’d be his.” She waved a hand. “Like… whatever, right? He’s not my type. I was already married to a farmer once. No, thank you. I don’t care about all your plans and… caves and stuff. What is that even?”
“She’s starting to ramble,” Katherine said. “Ask her about the book again.”
“Who else?” Megan asked. “Who else besides Ruben?”
“Not really.” Her eyes were drooping and she burped out loud. “S-sorry. I don’t feel good.”
“Are you making her throw up now?”
Toni felt her nausea rising. “I can’t help it. All my morning sickness tends to come at night.”
“Do you at least feel it less if you push it into her?”
“Kind of?”
“I do not want this woman throwing up on me,” Megan said. “We need to finish up here.”
“Who else was he blackmailing?” Katherine asked. “Who else did he have meetings with?”
“Uh… Marla Price at the Ledger. And… Ronnie, his accountant here. He was real mad. Ronnie was always real mad.” She blinked long and hard. “Oh, and Pamela at the club. They had a couple of meetings.” Marissa’s eyes got teary. “I think he was fucking her too.”
“Good Lord, this man was vile,” Megan said. “Can we wrap this up?”
Marissa was slumped on the side of the couch, holding her stomach. “I am going to puke. Oh my God, Toni, I’m going to puke.”
Toni let her arm go and felt an immediate backwash of nausea. “Okay, we need to get out of here.”
“Hey, Toni?” Marissa’s voice was plaintive. “Toni, can you tell Nico for me?”
Toni felt a little guilty for prying Marissa’s brain open. She sighed. “Sure. What’s up?”
“I miss…” She blinked. “I miss…”
“You miss Nico?”
“I miss… sex with Nico.” Marissa groaned. “He was so much better than Whit. Stronger. More stamina… I mean, he could be bossy, but—”
“Lalalalalala!” Toni stood quickly, covered her ears, and turned to the door. “Okay, it’s time to go.” She nearly ran for the door. “Brain bleach!”
Megan was cracking up. “You mean you don’t want to hear the sexual exploits of your cousin?”
“He’s like my brother!” She walked out the door and inhaled deeply as the ocean breeze wafted over her. “Okay, that’s better.”
Her stomach settled. Her mind cleared. Katherine shut the door behind them, and Megan started down the stairs.
“Well,” she said. “That was certainly illuminating.”
“And a little frightening,” Katherine added. “Please do not ever do that to me.”
“I promise,” Toni said. “I don’t really want to do that to anyone. Ever again.”
Chapter 15
Toni drove home directly from interrogating Marissa. She was exhausted, a little nauseated, and a lot hungry. The last thing she expected to see was Henry’s pickup truck in her driveway.
She pulled her Mustang into the barn and parked it next to the ancient blue truck she was fixing up in her spare time; then she walked out and past Henry’s truck, where she heard a soft whine.
Earl popped his head up from the bed.
“Hey, buddy.” She reached up and patted him. “What are you and your dad doing out here, huh?”
Your dad.
Henry was going to be a dad.
A dad of her kid.
It was still a head trip.
Toni released the tailgate on Henry’s pickup and patted the edge. “Come on, Earl. You can get down.”
Earl just lay down in the bed of the truck and sighed deeply.
“Huh.” She closed the tailgate and walked up her front steps. The front door was open, but the screen door was keeping the bugs out. “Henry?”
“Hey!”
Toni walked in the house and saw him stick his head out from the kitchen doorway as she was taking off her boots. “What are you doing in my house?” She wasn’t upset exactly. It was just out of character. Henry was usually overly polite and went
out of his way not to intrude on her territory. “And why won’t Earl get out of the truck?”
“He’s not supposed to get down unless I let him. And I wanted to make you dinner and my kitchen is pathetic. I hope you don’t mind I let myself in. I was trying to finish the pasta before you got home.”
If it was any other night she probably would mind, but Toni was too relieved that she wouldn’t have to cook. “It’s fine. Call me next time, but I am exhausted and hungry and nauseated at the same time.” She let herself collapse on the couch. Shelby immediately walked over and curled on her lap as she stretched her legs across the cushions.
“You’re nauseated and hungry at the same time?” Henry asked. “Is that normal?”
“I have no idea.” She laid her head on the back of the couch and felt her whole body start to relax as Shelby began purring under her hand. “I don’t seem to get sick in the morning, it happens more at night. And I’m trying to avoid eating anything big for lunch because I don’t want to get sleepy before the workday ends. But that means I’m hungry at night and then I eat a big meal and I get sick again. It’s a vicious cycle.”
Her eyes were still closed when she felt him sit on the end of the couch and lift her feet into his lap. “I am very sorry that women get all the pregnancy symptoms and men get none. That’s always seemed unfair to me.” Henry started rubbing her feet. “The ziti is baking and there are steaks I can grill when we’re done with the pasta.”
She forced herself not to cry. His hands felt good and he was so thoughtful and she didn’t want to cry. She was such a sap lately. The increased empathy was bad enough, and now she had hormones coursing through her body like a freaking estrogen flood.
“Thank you.” She kept her eyes closed so they wouldn’t leak. “That’s really nice of you, and you give a great foot massage.”
“I will do what I can to take the load off,” he said. “Think about letting me cook for you since I’m around here at the end of the day. I don’t mind, and you work longer hours most of the year.”
“Not right now.” She blinked and opened her eyes, watching him as he rubbed her sore feet. “I know you’re working insane hours right now.” It was crush season at the winery, which meant there were likely nights that Henry was crashing in the office. “Don’t run yourself ragged.”
Fate Actually: Moonstone Cove Book Two Page 12