Lori glared at her dusty computer. Instead of dropping in bed for a much-needed nap, she made use of the proximity of land and higher speeds of the Internet and logged into her e-mail.
Over two hundred unread messages.
She moaned.
After skimming the names and the glimpse of the messages, she opened the one from her paralegal marked urgent.
Lori
I hate bothering you; however, the executor of Alice Petrov’s will has contacted the office saying it was urgent that we speak with them. I made the call, explained you were out of the country.
Yours,
Vivian
Lori calculated the time back home and dialed her office. A quick platitude with her secretary and the call was transferred.
“Hey, Vivi.”
“You received my e-mail.”
“What’s up?”
“The short answer?”
“Why say five words when two will do?” Her courtroom mantra.
“Alice Petrov met with her attorney one month before Fedor’s death and changed her will.”
“I’m listening.”
“That’s all I have. You have to call her lawyer and Trina needs to be at your side. I told him you’d videoconference so he can confirm Trina’s identity.”
These kinds of requests were always followed with a big punch, leaving Lori wary of what was coming. Lori wrote down his number and told her paralegal to let him know they’d be calling in the next ten minutes.
Lori knocked on the adjoining door to Trina’s room. A dead bolt and a simple door lock later and Trina opened. “Missed me already?”
“Come in.” Lori set her computer up for a video call. They needed to do this quickly or miss the window of time where reception would play a factor.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure anything is wrong. My paralegal informed me about a change in Alice’s will.”
“What kind of change?”
“I’m not sure.”
“What do I have to do with Alice’s will?”
“Let’s video call her attorney and gather the facts.”
They both glanced in the mirror, smoothed back the day’s mess in their hair.
“Whatever,” Trina said. “It doesn’t matter what I look like.”
Lori set her computer up to where both of them would be seen in the picture.
Their image stared back at them until the office picked up their call. “Mr. Crockett?”
“Yes, hello.”
“I’m Lori Cumberland, and this is Katrina Petrov.”
“Good morning.” The man staring back at them was in his early sixties with salt-and-pepper hair and a kind smile. He sat in an office decorated in dark wood and leather chairs. “Thank you for getting back to me so far away.”
“We called as soon as we could.”
“Getting away from such tragedy was a wise plan, Mrs. Petrov.” Mr. Crockett spoke to Trina.
Trina fidgeted. “It’s been a hard few months.”
Mr. Crockett’s lips pulled into a soft smile. “I’ve heard quite a bit about you. Let me start by saying I’m greatly sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you.”
“I attended Alice’s funeral. She would have been pleased that you saw to all her requests.”
“Alice was a lovely woman. I regret that I didn’t know her longer.”
Lori grasped Trina’s hand and found it cold.
“She told me the same thing.”
“Mr. Crockett, in an effort to keep this connection, the ship we are on will be pulling away from the mainland anytime, and I can’t guarantee it will last. My paralegal said it was urgent that we speak. I’m assuming since you requested Trina here, this has something to do with Alice’s estate.”
“Yes, yes . . . Alice specifically wanted her will read a month after her burial.”
“That would have been yesterday.”
“Correct. But since you’re out of the country, I had to hold off.”
“Why?”
Mr. Crockett ruffled through papers on his desk before removing his reading glasses and staring at the camera.
“As you know, Alice’s only child was Fedor. Who she cherished with all her heart.”
“They were very close. I don’t think he could have lived through her death.”
“Unfortunately you are right about that. Alice also knew that Ruslan would have done everything in his power to obtain her estate through Fedor.”
Trina nodded. “The man is evil.”
“I won’t argue that.”
Lori glanced out the balcony, noticed the shoreline moving.
“Mr. Crockett, the ship is pulling away . . .”
“Of course, Counselor. Trina . . .” He hesitated.
Trina squeezed Lori’s hand.
“Alice left her estate to you and you alone.”
Trina sat speechless.
“When exactly did this change in her will happen?” Lori asked.
“One month before Fedor took his own life.”
“Did Fedor know?” Trina asked.
“Not unless Alice told him. Which I don’t believe was her intention. We had a very lengthy conversation when she changed the will.”
“I don’t understand, Mr. Crockett. Why me?”
The screen started to sputter.
“I’ll have my secretary arrange a time for us to come in when we return to the States.”
“Of course. I wanted to let Trina know what she was coming home to,” he told them. “We are talking in excess of three hundred and fifty million dollars, depending on the price of a barrel of crude oil.”
“I’m gonna be sick.”
“Thank you, Mr. Crockett.”
Once Lori managed to redirect Trina to a shower, she called Sam.
“We have a problem.” In a few sentences, she explained the change of events.
“How is Trina?”
“Shell-shocked.” Lori glanced at the clock.
“How much money are we talking?”
“Three fifty.”
“This is going to be a big story when it breaks.”
“With lots of people seeping from the walls to try and get their share.” Large estates drew out roaches, poaching off the wealthy.
“And here I thought she’d be able to find some normal when she returned,” Sam said with a heavy sigh.
“We need our PI to look into the family, see if there are any players that are going to attack. Ruslan won’t take this sitting down.”
“And I’ll have Neil arrange security for Trina in New York.” The Alliance team was tight. Woven from family and lifelong friends. Neil and Rick worked security for Alliance and were physical roadblocks who brought their A game when it came to protecting their charges. “Outside of this, how is the trip?”
Lori instantly thought of Reed. Her smile wavered. “Avery is hooking up with a Spaniard by the name of Rogelio. Doesn’t speak a word of English.”
“Sounds like Avery.”
“Trina is starting to smile. And Shannon . . . I’m worried about her.”
“I feel responsible.”
“We both do.”
“Try and have fun. I’ll let you know if anything is leaked to the media so you know what you’re coming home to.”
Chapter Nine
Reed watched her from across the crowded deck. Lori pulled Trina aside and they put their heads together.
Trina swayed, and Lori caught her arm and guided her to a chair.
Lori looked around the two of them and ducked her head close again.
Reed swept the deck with his eyes, wondered if anyone else noticed the tension between the two women.
From his periphery, he saw someone watching them. A woman, her back was to him. But her eyes followed Trina and Lori just as closely as Reed’s. When she looked toward an upper balcony, Reed followed her gaze, saw the back of a man turning away.
Miguel?
He waited to see if
Miguel was going to take the stairs and approach Lori and Trina, only he didn’t. It was as if he was observing, just like Reed.
Just like Reed and the unknown woman.
Lori kept one eye on Trina, the other on the show.
“Is everything okay?” Avery leaned over and asked Lori.
Lori shook her head. Trina was understandably upset.
Finally Trina gave up on the show, stood without warning, and left the auditorium.
Lori followed. And right behind walked Shannon and Avery. Once they were in the bright lights of the ship, they surrounded Trina.
“I don’t want this,” she all but shouted to Lori.
“What’s going on?” Avery asked.
“Didn’t you tell them?” Trina asked.
“Of course not.” She lowered her voice. “I’m your lawyer. It’s not my news to share.”
Trina turned to Shannon and Avery. “My mother-in-law left her estate to me.”
Lori noticed someone walking by turn their way.
“What?”
“Oh my God,” Shannon exclaimed.
“Let’s go up to my room. We don’t want to discuss this here.”
Shannon put an arm around Trina as they wound their way to their suites.
Datu met them in the hall. “Good evening, ladies.”
“Hello,” Avery said.
Lori opened her door, ushered the others inside.
“Can I assist you tonight?” Datu asked.
“A bottle of red and a bottle of white. You pick,” Lori told him.
“Yes, ma’am.”
She winked and closed the door.
“She left you everything?” Shannon asked.
Trina stared at Lori. “Tell them.”
Lori tossed her purse on the desk, moved to open the balcony door. “Everything. I’ll learn the details when we get back.”
“Why would she do that?”
Avery put her hand in the air. “Okay, someone bring me up to date.”
“Alice, my mother-in-law, was from a prominent family big in oil. Her estate was always separate from her ex-husband’s.”
“That didn’t mean that Ruslan wanted it that way,” Lori said.
“Ruslan is your father-in-law?” Avery asked.
Trina nodded. “Before Fedor took the easy way out, he’d tell me that his father was working hard to get on his good side so when Alice died they could merge their money and build an empire.”
“Daddy said it that way?” Avery asked.
“No, but there was a lot of manipulation on Ruslan’s side. Fedor despised the man. Fedor felt that if he were married, not only would it help his mother pass peacefully, knowing he was taken care of, but Ruslan would ease off. And it worked. About a month after we married, Ruslan’s calls were less frequent and Fedor was more relaxed.”
“What did Alice think of her ex?” Shannon asked.
Trina stared at the ceiling. “She called him a manipulative bastard she was wise enough to fear.”
“It sounds as if you had a healthy respect for the woman,” Shannon said.
“I didn’t know her long. But we did laugh and share a few moments.”
“Do you think she guessed about your arrangement with Fedor?” Lori asked.
“I don’t know. Fedor would hold my hand when we saw her. Put on a show of a loving marriage.”
The women nodded. Each of them understood the need to pretend and pull out their best Oscar winning performances for their fake marriages.
“So how much money is this estate?” Avery asked.
She blew out a breath. “Three hundred and fifty . . . million.”
Trina grew pale and Datu arrived with the wine.
He lost the woman on the stairwell between the fourteenth and fifteenth floors. Midlength dark hair, olive skin. He hadn’t seen her face, not all of it. Unless she wore the same outfit again, he’d be hard-pressed to recognize her a second time. Was she a spy? Or did she recognize Trina?
And why was Miguel standing above them, watching so intently? How had the woman noticed Miguel? Were they working together?
A byproduct of being a private investigator was observing others around you and assuming they were PIs, too. Or had hidden agendas at the very least. If someone hired him to spy, it was safe to assume others were watching as well.
His initial investigative target had been Shannon, and Reed’s attention landed on Lori, admittedly because of their attraction. And of all four of the women, Lori had been the most skittish, hovering . . . like she was hiding something. Yeah, it could be nothing more than the lawyer in her trying to keep her clients from unwanted attention while on vacation. But Reed wasn’t buying that theory. It didn’t sit well in his head.
Ever since seeing Miguel watching, spying . . . or whatever he was doing, Reed questioned the Spanish duo’s chance meeting at the singles mixer the first night on the ship. Was that meeting as “chance” as Reed’s?
Reed sat in the small bar in the center of the suites and waited.
“There you are.” Miguel took a seat beside Reed. The Spaniard wore a full kilowatt smile. A man who never frowned couldn’t be trusted in Reed’s book.
He shook his hand. “Where is Rogelio?”
“Probably with Avery.”
No, Reed had seen the women disappear into the crush of people enjoying the show.
“He might need to save his energy, the week is young.”
Miguel patted Reed on the back and signaled the bartender. “Can I get you a drink?”
He shook his head. “Pacing myself.”
“I don’t know what that is.” Still smiling, Miguel ordered a top-shelf whiskey. “You and Lori seem to be getting along well, eh?”
“I think so.”
“The adventure of the chase,” Miguel said. “Almost as sweet as the win, don’t you think?”
“And Trina? How is that going?” Reed didn’t think the woman was available, but perhaps he was mistaken.
“The quiet beauty. I will wear her down. I always do.”
A strange need to protect the recent widow pulled at his collar. “She is guarded.”
“Most are, but we have our ways to get what we want.”
Reed suddenly felt the need for a straight shot of something. The smirk and the wink sat on the wrong side of his stomach. This man was a predator, Reed would bet his next paycheck on it. “What was it you did for a living?” Reed asked as if making conversation.
“Marketing.” He muttered something in Spanish as a woman wearing a skintight black dress sauntered by.
“Interesting. For what company?”
Miguel smiled. “Many. How do you say it . . . I work with many companies.”
“Freelance?”
“Sí . . . yes. I freelance. And you? What is it that you do?”
“Data processing.” The lie came easy.
Miguel narrowed his eyes, looked at Reed’s hands. “Those look like fingers that work, not fingers that type.”
“Things are not always as they seem.”
Miguel’s drink arrived and he toasted the air. “To the mirage, then.”
“Cheers.”
“Lori!”
She turned to find Reed fighting the flow of people leaving the ship for the day.
“Hey.” He stopped in front of her. “Sorry about last night. We had a slight female emergency.”
“Oh?” Reed looked concerned.
“Yeah, we drank too much wine and had a slumber party instead of hitting the club.”
“So everything is okay?”
“Yeah.” Well, no, but she wasn’t going to gossip or talk to anyone about Trina other than the women. “Are you headed off the ship?”
He shrugged, looking a little lost. “Are you?”
The invitation to spend the day with him hung in the air. The desire to do just that was too hard to pass up.
“We’re getting a slow start.” She was going to do her best to get Trina off the ship and keep her
mood light. The progress she’d made in the first few days was swept away with one phone call.
“I can wait if it means I can spend time with you.”
Thoughts of Trina fled, and the girlie part that had been attracted to the man in front of her made her feel playful. She reached her hand out. “Give me your phone.”
He reached into his back pocket and hesitated.
“I’m not going to steal it,” she teased.
Reed handed it over.
She placed her number into his contacts and typed in a name before handing it back to him.
After glancing down, he said, “Hot chick on ship?”
She giggled. “Send me a text so I have your number, and I’ll let you know when we’re leaving.” She turned to walk away. “Oh, have you seen Rogelio and Miguel? Avery was asking about them.”
Reed hesitated. “No, actually.”
Lori shrugged. “Probably for the best.”
An hour and a half later, Lori texted Reed and suggested he meet them on the dock.
Trina left the ship reluctantly with the promise of Shannon returning early with her if she couldn’t take it.
On the dock, Reed stood alongside Antonio. Miguel and Rogelio were nowhere to be found. Much as Lori wanted Trina distracted, she didn’t think an interest in a member of the opposite sex was the diversion she needed.
Antonio greeted all four of them with kisses on both cheeks. “How lucky are we, Reed, to escort these beautiful ladies around the city of love.”
Avery rolled her eyes. “I thought that was Paris.”
Antonio spat something in Italian before painting on a smile. “Paris has a tower . . . we have the Colosseum, where gladiators fought to the death.”
“He has a point,” Lori told her.
“What is more romantic than that?”
“More romantic than death?” Avery asked.
“She has a point,” Reed told Antonio.
They boarded the ship’s transportation to ride into the city. Lori smiled at a man dressed as a gladiator who escorted them onto the bus. Once inside she turned to Reed as he took the seat beside her. “You should get one of those outfits.”
“You like playing dress up?” he whispered.
Her cheeks warmed.
“That’s what I thought.”
Lori glanced over to see Trina hiding behind massive sunglasses while talking to Avery, and Shannon kept a cordial smile as Antonio attempted to charm her.
Fool Me Once (First Wives Series Book 1) Page 10