Her words were cold, and for a moment I felt as if I had done something wrong. I knew it wasn’t Claire. Dylan still had to fight tooth and nail to get her to let him spoil her most of the time.
“Harmony had a pair?”
“Yes, at the party at your parent’s house.” She turned to look at me over her shoulder, my need to kiss her overriding my sense of decorum. “Claire and I noticed them, but more importantly, your mother noticed them.”
“Oh, she did. Wanna know what else the eagle eye noticed?” Dylan interrupted, a gleam in his eye. “How Audrey was mooning over Chase.”
An alert tone sounded before we could quiz Dylan, the list of customers complete, and waiting for us to review. Several minutes of silence passed, as we each scanned the names. “Damn it, not a single Harmony listed.” Lainie slapped the desk, as I started at the top of the list again.
“No,” Dylan jumped to his feet, rounding the desk, and taking large steps toward the screen. “But look who is.” Following his outstretched hand, his finger pointed at a name I had overlooked the first time. There, in black and white, was a name I hadn’t uttered in what seemed like forever. Memories of the last time I saw her flashed in my mind.
The ringing of the phone was followed by the sweet sound of Lainie’s voice filling the office, and pulling my attention back to her. We really needed to hire a receptionist. I had discussed this with Lainie, who didn’t agree. I could tell she worried the cost was something a relatively new company couldn’t support.
“Absolutely, I’ll be here all day.”
“Who was that?” I pulled her back into my chest, enjoying how good she felt so close to me. I craved the feelings she gave me, needing to be close to her as often as possible.
“A good woman will make you a better richer man.” Granddaddy had been talking to our dad at the time. “A bad one will fill you with regret, and empty your pockets.” When our Uncle Cecil was sneaking around with a lady from the wrong side of the tracks, Granddaddy had imparted those words of wisdom.
“That was Special Agent Greg Shaw. He is investigating the case against Jackie and Kennedy Fraser. He needs to ask me a few questions about what I saw while I worked at the company.”
I anticipated tears, a shaking body or even hysterics; what I got instead was a shoulder shrug, and kiss on the cheek. A few minutes later, the man from the phone call presented himself at the front entry. Lainie led him to her office, closing the door, and increasing my anxiety in the process.
“We need to run a check on Virginia.” Dylan allowed no room for my freak out, requesting my attention from the wooden door, which currently separated me from my entire world. “We need to see if there is a connection between her and Harmony.”
Virginia Greyson was probably sitting on the porch of some trailer in the Midwest, smoking a cigarette, while screaming at her twenty kids. Not one time had she come to the hearings for Cash’s trial, or did she attempt to post bail for him. Maybe she’d smartened up, and told him to fuck off.
I used every resource I had access to, but Virginia Greyson had no priors, not even a traffic ticket. She’d also disappeared the second she aged out of the system, with the exception of the designer jeans list. There was no driver’s license for her in any state, no credit cards, and no property. Harmony Wells, until Dylan offered up her last name, I didn’t even know she had one. After having hated the girl for so long, I really hadn’t taken the time to learn anything about her.
Harmony Wells, grew up in Dallas Texas. The third child of Homer and Tammy Wells, she dropped out of high school to move to New York, to become a model. There was no record of her ever having worked in the state of New York, no driver’s license, or state identification. Which would make perfect sense. As the last vital statistic was a death certificate filed in Rhode Island, after a traffic accident involving a Greyhound bus.
“Dylan, we have to show this to Chase.”
“Show him what? That we have once again gone behind his back, and dug up more dirt on the girl he loves?”
Chase had not been too keen when I confronted him about moving in with Harmony. He’d accused me of being jealous of him having a girl who was ready for that particular step. He told me to keep my jaded views about women being spawns of Satan to myself. He still wouldn’t listen, even after we showed him the video we had of his girl dancing on a pole. “Austin, you are a fucking computer genius, you could fake this shit with your eyes closed.” I wish I had, that way I could smack him upside the head and say, “gotcha”. But I didn’t fake anything, and if I didn’t figure this shit out fast, Chase was liable to do something really stupid, like get her pregnant.
“So we just sit back, knowing she’s lying through her teeth?”
Dylan shook his head, his smirk told me he had the perfect plan. I remained silent, giving him the floor to paint the perfect picture of what he had swimming through his head.
“Who is the one person, besides Harmony, Chase will listen to?”
Six months ago I would have said Granddaddy, but now, I wasn’t certain.
“Seriously, Austin, besides Lainie who can still put the fear of God into you?” His eyes were wide, expecting me to know the answer from the way his arms waved around his body, or how his eyebrows shot into his hairline.
“Oh, for fucks sake…Austin, Momma!”
“You’re a fucking idiot!” I pointed my index finger in his face, my frustration getting the better of me. “Chase stopped pissing his pants at the thought of upsetting Momma a long time ago. He’s a fucking Marine or have you forgotten?”
Dylan had never been one to back away from a challenge, “He may be a Marine, with guns duct taped to his arms, and grenades for balls. But one look from that sweet woman, and he’ll crack like a goddamn boiled egg.”
There was no real point in arguing, he could call Momma if he wanted to. However, at the end of the day, Harmony held the one thing, which brought every warm blooded male to his knees, his constant supply of pussy.
Truth is like the sun, you can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away.
~ Elvis Presley
“Weren’t you scared to death?”
“With Austin and Dylan in the next room? Hardly.” Claire called me just after I got home from work. Her conference turned out to be as dull as watching paint dry. Since she didn’t want to sit in the hotel bar drinking her boredom away, she called me instead.
“You’ve got a point,” she reasoned, chuckling under her breath. “Still, I would have been as nervous as a long tailed cat in a rocking chair store, if a federal agent flashed his badge, and wanted to have a word with me.”
While Claire had a definite point, the reality was nowhere near the colorful image. Special Agent Shaw, turned out to be one of the nicest guys I’d ever met. Joking with me at first, making a comment on how he was slightly nervous to leave the building with my two bodyguards ready to pounce.
“What kind of things did he ask you?”
“Well, mostly about my time working for Jackie, and then a little about my interaction with Kennedy. Although that wasn’t much, as I avoided him most of the time.”
Agent Shaw knew about the specifics of several projects I had with Kennedy. “He did point out an area they had a few red flags on. Mostly, the fact I had worked for the company less than a year, and I had already been placed in a management position.” I would keep the reason Agent Shaw gave me to myself, as it caused a shiver to run up my spine.
“Miss Perry we’ve interviewed Mr. Fraser, who has been all too willing to tell us everything he can in hopes his cooperation will help his case. He specifically included your name as a person he felt a certain…vendetta…against. When he was asked to elaborate, he said you had refused him, something women just don’t do.”
I had confessed everything else to Dylan and Austin, but those words would stay with me, locked inside a place I kept hidden from everyone
“So are you going to have to testify?” I could almost imag
ine Claire, sitting in the center of her hotel bed. White sheets like fluffy clouds surrounding her, and adjusting herself from a lying position to her knees. One of those fluffy pillows now in her lap.
“Actually, I didn’t have much to add, since again, I hadn’t been there long enough to really do anything.”
“Did Austin go all cave man on you once the agent left?” Since being with Dylan, Claire had developed this Cinderella attitude. She now wanted a happily ever after for everyone walking the planet. I suspected she pictured white horses and gallant men coming to save fair maidens from evil dragons and wicked stepmothers.
“Not really. He and Dylan were in a deep discussion about Chase.”
Speaking his name caused his face to flash in my mind, along with the photo of the girl’s backside. “Hey, I nearly forgot. Do you know anyone by the name of Virginia Greyson?” Dylan had pointed at her name with a look I couldn’t label. Austin looked as surprised, as if seeing an old friend at a class reunion.
“Well Greyson is the last name of Cash. Maybe it’s his mother or sister? Why do you ask?”
I explained the list I uncovered to Claire. Still disbelieving someone like Harmony would wear such an expensive brand of jeans.
“Did you get a look at this Virginia?”
“Only a photo of her when she was being released from the custody of the county. Apparently, she and the guys were in the same state home. I kind of feel bad for her, she had an overbite so large, she could eat corn through a picket fence.”
“Oh, my gosh! Lainie Faith Perry, that is so mean.” Her words were chastising, but her tone was full of mirth.
“What? It’s the truth. Hell, we should send her to Harmony and let her dentist take a whack at her.”
“We could, they might even make friends. I mean they already wear the same designer jeans.” We were both laughing like a couple of adolescent teenagers. Just as quick as the laughter started, it stopped and, like a cartoon light bulb above a character’s head, silence captured us. Reality pinning us down, pondering over the revelation we just uncovered.
“You don’t think?” Claire’s words were drawn out in a questioning phrase, her mind working hard to rationalize the scene we had just given life to.
“It’s certainly possible, right? I mean, anything is possible.” How crazy did that sound? A young girl the guys shared a home with taking on the identity of someone else?”
“But didn’t you say she had a massive overbite? That isn’t something you can cover up with makeup. Besides, I didn’t see anyone besides Cash’s attorney on his side of the courtroom. Wouldn’t you be there for your brother, if he was in trouble?” Claire had solid arguments against the possibility of Harmony and this Virginia being the same girl. Still, the edges seemed to touch, making the rate of possibility much higher.
“Speaking of siblings, my sister is officially divorced, and already moving on with her life.” Deflection was my superpower, a skill I’ve perfected over the years. Claire and I could run back and forth all night with scenario after scenario, but words and theories would prove nothing.
“Something positive I hope?” Claire had a terrible poker face which reflected in her entire body, including her voice. She’d never get away with being dishonest.
“Well, if you consider being on a date with your legal representative something positive, then yes.”
Heidi had come home all aflutter, running around the house like a kid after eating a bag of sugar. Preston had managed to hold off on his attraction to her. He’d taken her to a celebratory lunch under the pretense he did this will all of his clients. There he told Heidi she’d captured his soul the first moment he heard her voice, and how he had fallen in love with the remainder of her on their first meeting.
Before the hearing, Dean had pulled him into his office, offering him a scholarship to finish the last of his law studies, and then permanent position with his firm. Preston understood her studies will keep her here for a while, but would like to see where the relationship goes.
“And how did big sister take this news?” Claire knew me all too well. While I was happy for Heidi, I couldn’t ignore the anger I felt in reaction to her choice. I thought she needed to be alone for a while, concentrate on her education, and find out who she really is.
“But, Lainie, you’re not her mother and she is a grown adult. You can only love her, and be there for her. Besides, it could be worse.”
Just as Claire knew me, I was well acquainted with her mannerisms. She had been stalling, waiting for right opportunity to slide in a piece of news, in hopes it would fade into the background.
“Claire?” I reassured I was here for her, just as she had been for me when I needed a friend.
“Cheyenne called today, leaving a message on my voicemail. When we broke for lunch, I called her back, only Shane answered the phone.”
I’d heard the story behind how her sister and Shane had gotten together. I couldn’t help wondering if it hadn’t been Shane’s plan all along, to wait until Claire left the state, and then go after Cheyenne. It didn’t really matter though, since Claire spoke with conviction that her relationship with Shane had not been what dreams were made of.
“Cheyenne has gotten herself in trouble with the state of Kentucky. Apparently, she decided she didn’t need to inform them she’d married Shane. Choosing instead to keep cashing the monthly checks they sent her to help with the kids.”
“Is she at home, or did they arrest her?” I knew Cheyenne had several kids from different men. Claire and I had found this to be our common ground, a mother and sister with loose morals, and even looser panties.
“He said she was in jail, but they don’t have the money to bond her out or to hire an attorney. Daddy told her to call me, figuring I would send a check from my hot shot boyfriend.” Now I was the one sitting on my knees. I knew the conversation between Dylan and her dad was held away from her prying ears, and later Dylan had distracted her from asking what was exchanged.
“Daddy figured Dylan could pull a few strings, just as quickly as he could pull up a criminal arrest record.”
“What?” I slapped my hand over my mouth, embarrassed by the volume of my voice.
“Yep. Dylan had showed Daddy just how much he knew about him. He gave him five minutes to leave and take his broke ass down the road, before he had him arrested on the three outstanding warrants he had on him.”
So typical Morgan, holding all the cards, ready to use when he needed to. Scaring the piss out of people more effective, than actually placing them in the broken system.
“But Shane said to let her stay in jail. She had the use of a public defender, and if she went to prison, maybe it would wake her up.” As much as I didn’t agree with how he went from one sister to the other, I had to agree with him. Perhaps a little time to cool off, and think about her life would make things clearer for her.
“So, please, don’t mention this to the guys. I was ready to call Dean to see if he could help, but I’m respecting Shane this time. It’s time to let her see what her choices have brought her.”
While I wanted to have a respectable relationship with Austin, giving my word to my best friend was more important. Besides this didn’t impact the ties I had with Austin, or even the entire Morgan family. “Of course, it’s your story to tell.”
Claire shared some of the material they were covering in her lectures, trying to add as much animation into her story as possible, regardless of the fact I couldn’t see her.
“Imagine for a second someone telling you how to do your job. Wait, that’s a bad analogy, I’m sure Austin tries to hover over you all day.” She couldn’t have been further from the truth, if she’d stood across the ocean from it. Austin stayed in his office the majority of the time, giving his opinion only when I asked for it.
“Anyway, I had this speaker trying to explain to us the best approach for giving positive pregnancy test res—”Claire faded out, catching my attention with worry. “Oh, my God! I nearl
y forgot who else called me.” Relieved, I shook my head in slight annoyance, adding in an eye roll to round it all off.
“You remember my coworker Shayla, the girl who fawned over Dylan?” How could I ever forget the infamous Shayla? Self-proclaimed, reformed slut-bag, something I silently doubted would last as long as a summer rain. Shayla enjoyed the thrill of the hunt too much. She knew of only one way to get what she wanted, and from the stories I’d heard, she hadn’t left that life as far behind as she wanted people to believe.
“The girl with the playboy bunny necklace, right?”
“Yes!” Claire exclaimed, her voice taking on an excited tone. I wondered if she would still be excited if she knew where Shayla got that necklace from. One of her attempts to make it through the Morgan brothers. When I first went to work for Craven and Associates, I was handed Luxeum Brothers Jewelers to update their webpage. I had to stop in, see the layout, and take a few photos to get a feel for how the business ran. While I was there, Shayla came in, dressed in her standard whore apparel, saying hello to one particular girl behind the counter. As I took my photos and got a feel for the place, I overheard a conversation between the sales girl and Shayla. She didn’t even try to keep her voice down when she told the story of how she and Dylan had gotten a little rough between the sheets the night before. During the activities, Dylan had pulled too hard on her hair, snapping the chain in half. I will never forget the turn the conversation took, or the way the dark haired girl sneered as she spoke. “Imagine your luck, one brother gives it to you, while the other brother breaks it. What on earth could the third one have in store for you?” Shayla had made her thoughts on that third abundantly clear, I hadn’t thought about it until just now. “Please! Austin isn’t the type to know what to do with a woman like me.”
“She is leaving the hospital, and moving to Ireland. After the whole fiasco with Dr. O’Leary and his cheating on his new bride, Shayla felt the need to comfort him. She invited him to stay in her apartment, since he had nowhere else to go. He, apparently, repaid her kindness by giving her a baby; she is due in four months.”
Absolute Corruption: Southern Justice Trilogy Page 16