Keep It Simple (MMG Series Book 4)

by Hilliard, R. B.

  Sterling bowed his head for a second. When he lifted his eyes to mine, the sadness in them had me clinching the side of my desk. “I’m dying Cas. I have colon cancer and it has spread to my liver.”

  “Fuck,” I whispered.

  “I’ve been to five different specialists and they’ve all said the same thing. I am dying.”

  “How long?” I asked.

  “Six months, if that.”

  “Damn…just damn,” I said.

  He let out a dry laugh. “You’re telling me.”

  “Are you going to tell Alexandria?”

  “Eventually, I will have to.”

  “You know, you don’t have to give her everything straight out. You could put everything in trust to insure she doesn’t piss it all away on booze and pills.”

  “What makes you so sure she hasn’t changed?” he asked.

  I thought about not telling him, but decided it was better if he knew. “She lied about the marks on her neck. The person had to be standing in front of her, not behind as she claims. Bobby, Garrett and I think she’s up to something.”

  Disappointment flashed across his face, right before he closed his eyes and dropped his head back against the chair. I felt horrible for him. I was staring at a desperate man and there was no way for me to save him, except to figure out what his daughter was up to before it was too late.

  “How long are you planning on staying in town?” I asked.

  “I haven’t thought about it,” he replied.

  “Give me one week to figure out what Alexandria is up to. If I find nothing, then I will gladly step back and never say another word about it.”

  “And if you do find something?” he asked.

  “I will present it to you so you can make an informed decision.”

  He thought it over for a minute and then nodded his head in agreement. “Okay, you have one week, but I’m not willing to waste any more of my very limited time on this.”

  Alexandria was coming down the stairs with her bag as we exited the study. I told her I would be by with Bobby sometime tomorrow to follow up on any loose ends. Sterling shook my hand before they loaded into the car and drove away. I then called Bobby to explain what Sterling intended to do if we didn’t prove Alexandria was up to something in the next seven days. He told me he left Sally a voice mail about the papers, but she hadn’t called him back yet. I thought about calling Sarah, but didn’t know what to tell her. Sterling had paid the retainer fee and Alexandria was now my client, which put her off limits for discussion. I was officially screwed.

  The next day sped by. Before I knew it, the day was over and it was time to go. I’d spent most of the day immersed in several cases. When I wasn’t working, I was thinking about Sarah. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place and I couldn’t make it right until Alexandria was no longer my client. This meant I couldn’t talk to Sarah, because she would want an explanation and I wouldn’t be able to give her one without breaking client confidentiality.

  After work, Bobby followed me to Alexandria’s condo because he had a date with Bubbles after, and was going to need use of his own car.

  Sterling and Alexandria had just finished dinner and were cleaning up when we arrived. Bobby and I had Alexandria recount what happened again in its entirety and then followed up with several pointed questions. She never once changed her story. In fact, Bobby and I later agreed the only thing that gave her away was her eyes. Each time she answered a specific question, her eyes darted everywhere but the person asking it. When she took a bathroom break, Bobby pulled me aside.

  “She’s lying through her ass. I think you need to go hard on her and see if she’ll break. For all we know, someone is threatening her and she’s afraid to tell.” As much as I hated to admit it, I agreed with him. He nudged my arm. “Here she comes.”

  I dove right in. “The marks on your neck indicate the person attacked you from the front, not the back, Xan. Is there something you want to tell us?”

  Her eyes shot Sterling, who glanced up from browsing his emails to stare at us. “I’m not lying, Daddy. I swear,” she pleaded.

  Bobby jumped in, “See, if someone grabbed your neck from behind you would have more than one mark on the front of your neck. Here, let me show you. He wrapped both hands around my neck in example. You see? All my fingers are stretched across Cas’s throat. Now, if I squeeze hard enough and for long enough, they will not only cut off his airflow, but will leave marks, which will most likely form into several bruises.” Her face paled.

  “From the single digit bruises on your neck, whoever grabbed you was standing directly in front of you,” I told her.

  Her eyes shot to her dad. “I swear I’m not lying,” she repeated.

  “Which means you saw your attacker’s face,” I continued.

  “And can tell us who he is,” Bobby added.

  She looked back and forth between the two of us and I could see the cogs of her brain working ninety to nothing. Finally she gave us something.

  “I-I met a guy in rehab. Before going in, he stole some scripts from his brother, who lives here in Charlotte. His brother came to visit him once and must have seen us together.”

  “So the brother of your rehab buddy came after you here in Charlotte?” Sterling asked. His tone was skeptical. “What did he want with you, Alexandria?”

  Her eyes darted nervously from her father to me and then to Bobby. “He wanted to know where his brother was.”

  “Did you tell him?” I asked.

  “I couldn’t. I didn’t know.”

  “What’s the name of your friend in rehab?” Bobby asked.

  “Oh, uh, Dean.”

  Bobby whipped a pen and small pad of paper from his back pocket and asked, “Last name?”

  “Winnaker,” she blurted.

  She had to be fucking kidding me. Seriously? Bobby’s eyes flicked to mine for a second and then back to Alexandria, giving nothing away.

  “Dean Winnaker, spelled with one n or two?” he asked her. I had to admit, he was good. I, however, was not. I was pissed and had to bite my tongue to keep from ripping into her.

  Her eyes caught mine and she knew I was on to her. “Two, I think,” she squirmed.

  Bobby flipped his pad closed and gave her a reassuring smile. “Well, that’s a start,” he said.

  “W-w-what are you going to do?” she asked.

  “What do you think? We are going to find Dean Winnaker.” I spat the name as if it was poison on my tongue and she flinched.

  Sensing tension in the room, Sterling asked, “Am I missing something?”

  Why yes you are Sterling. Your daughter is an idiot.

  “No,” Bobby and I both said in unison.

  We were heading to the door when Alexandria’s phone rang. She swiped it a little too eagerly from the entry hall table and checked the screen. Then she quickly dismissed the caller and set it back on the table. We were explaining to Sterling how we were going to pursue Mr. Winnaker, but still caught what was happening. A few seconds later, it rang again.

  “It’s okay if you answer it, hon,” Sterling told her.

  “No, it’s okay. I can call them back later,” she said, silencing her phone again. When it rang a third time, we all paused to stare at her. With a huff of frustration, she answered it, “Hi, I have company and can’t talk right now. Can I call you back when they leave?” After a few seconds of listening, she held her hand over the phone and stood up. “Excuse me, but it appears my friend is having a fight with her boyfriend. I need to take this real quick. Be right back. We watched her high tail it out of the room. Bobby shot me a knowing look, before turning back to the conversation with Sterling. I pretended to listen, but my head was spinning.

  Alexandria was up to no damn good. Not only did she give us a bullshit story about her attack, but she followed it up with another lie. Dean Winnaker my ass.

  Alexandria used to get fucked up and watch episode after episode of Supernatural. I should know. I was the one
who turned off the television most nights. I even watched a few episodes myself. Sam and Dean Winchester were brothers and the main characters in the show. Alexandria might be good at lying about her sobriety, but she was a shit liar when it came to everything else. I shook my head in disgust.

  We were halfway out the door when she popped back in and said goodnight. I waited until we got to the cars to let it out.

  “What the fuck game is she playing at?”

  “Dean Winnaker,” Bobby chuckled. “She should have said Matthew Hooper. Now, that would have taken a minute longer to figure out.”

  “What is she doing, Bob?” I asked again.

  “I’m not sure, but I think we’re about to find out.” He nodded toward the condo and there Alexandria was, racing down the front steps. We watched her jump into her Dad’s Jaguar and haul ass out of the parking lot.

  Without a second thought, I started my truck. “Get in!” I shouted to Bobby.

  As soon as he was in, we took off after her.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Sarah

  ‡

  Sally drove us straight to the Pancake House, where we talked strategy over a pile of chocolate chip pancakes and a side of crispy bacon.

  “We need to figure out who the guy from last night is and how he is connected with Alexandria. If this is about money, it doesn’t make sense. Why is she here and not beating down her daddy’s door in Wilmington?” Sally asked.

  I contemplated how much of my conversation with Cas to share with her, and decided to stick solely with the inheritance part. “Cas is from money, Sally. When he refused to go into the family business, his father disinherited him. Recently, his father had a change of heart and allowed Cas access to his inheritance. That’s how he had the money to buy into LASH and his new place,” I explained.

  A look of hurt and disapproval appeared on Sally’s face. “You’ve been holding out on me.”

  I felt bad, but not bad enough to spill Cas’s secrets. “Cas told me this in confidence. The only reason I am sharing it with you is because I think Alexandria is after his money, not her father’s. Otherwise, she would be in Wilmington and not sitting on Cas’s sofa pretending someone tried to hurt her.”

  “Bobby said they’d been separated for months, so why now? I don’t get it.”

  I thought about it for a second and decided to give her one more piece of the puzzle. “Right after Cas filed for separation, Alexandria went into rehab for alcohol and drug addiction. She just got out. That’s why she’s here now.”

  “Do you know if he made her sign a prenup?”

  “If he did, she couldn’t get his money, right?” I had no idea how those things worked.

  “I wouldn’t think so,” Sally agreed.

  “As it is, I don’t think she can get it now. What Cas didn’t spend is tied up in stocks and bonds,” I told her.

  Sally inhaled her last bite of pancake and pushed her empty plate away. “Okay, here’s what we know. Alexandria got out of rehab and came straight to Charlotte claiming she wanted to get back together with Cas. Cas told her to get lost. Ignoring him, she rented a place in town. Then she showed up at his work dressed like a high class hooker, but he wasn’t there, so she left in a huff and drove across town to some guy’s place to rage about how Cas won’t let her in his place and how she never got money owed to her. Did I miss anything?”

  “Nope, I don’t think so.”

  “I think the mystery guy is our missing link here.”

  “Can you find out who the house belongs to?” I asked.

  “I looked it up last night. It belongs to an eighty year old lady with no living relatives. Either mystery guy is squatting or renting it from her.”

  “Maybe he offed her and she’s rotting in the basement,” I joked.

  A contemplative look appeared on her face. “That thought crossed my mind. Let’s hope that’s not it.” Suddenly I was no longer hungry. In fact, I felt downright sick. Sally looked down at her watch. “We need to get into that house.” Not with a possible dead lady in it, we don’t, I thought. “Listen, I have to do a few hours of inventory at Dragonfly. How about I drop you back by the apartment on my way? When I’m done, I’ll pick you up and we’ll do a drive by. Hopefully the guy won’t be there and we can get in and out quickly.”

  Cas would lose his mind if he knew what we were planning but Sally was right. We needed to find out who the guy was and how he and Alexandria were connected.

  Piper called right as we got in the car. She and Joss were at Max and Ellie’s and wanted me to stop by. Sally dropped me there on her way to Dragonfly. With a promise to come back and get me after inventory, I watched her pull away and a sense of dread rolled through me. I needed to stop being such a chicken shit. Cas does this stuff for a living. Surely I can handle one little breaking and entering to find crucial information, right?

  Everyone was congregated around the kitchen island when I walked in. Mac squealed when he spotted me from his lofty perch on Ellie’s shoulder. I couldn’t get over how much he’d grown. With a headful of black hair and big blue eyes, he looked more and more like my brother every day.

  “Come look!” Piper shouted. I stepped up to the counter and stared down at a sonogram picture. “Do you see it?” she squealed. Not sure what “it” was, I looked to Ellie for help.

  “Look here,” she pointed to a tiny white line in the middle of a blob and asked, “Boy or girl?”

  Since I didn’t see tiny penises poking out anywhere, I took a logical guess, “Girl?”

  Joss and Piper clapped their hands, “We’re having a girl!” Joss squealed. Mac bounced up and down in Ellie’s arms and shrieked in delight.

  I gave Joss a congratulatory hug and she told me all about her morning trip with Kurt to the doctor’s office. Eventually, we ended up in the living room talking about Max’s bruised and battered face. This, of course, led to the discussion of me and Cas and how we met without anyone knowing.

  “Soooo, in all these months you never once slept with him?” Joss asked. My eyes drifted from Jos’s incredulous expression over to Ellie, who was also staring skeptically at me. Damn. If I tell Ellie, she will tell Max and he will know I lied.

  “You don’t have to tell us, Sarah,” Ellie said.

  “Oh yes you do,” Piper challenged.

  I thought about how forthcoming they all had been with me since I’d moved back to Charlotte. I was the one with trust issues, not them. Maybe it was time I stop shutting everyone out and let them in? I drew in a sharp breath and thought about where to begin. I might as well start at the beginning. Once I started, I couldn’t stop until I told it all. That is, except for Kalen. Kalen was not mine to tell.

  “Cas never once alluded to having a wife?” Joss asked.

  “I think he tried to tell me at Piper’s wedding, but I wouldn’t let him.”

  “I knew he was a moody fucker, but never pegged him for a cheat,” Piper said. Piper’s harsh words bothered me.

  “I’m so sorry, Sarah. You must be heartbroken. I wish I had known,” Ellie said.

  “Surprisingly, I’m okay,” I told Ellie. Turning to Piper, I said, “Cas and Alexandria aren’t together. Their marriage is not like yours to Gage and never has been. Cas did the right thing by marrying Alexandria.” I didn’t want anyone to think poorly of him, especially not my friends.

  “If it looks like a duck and acts like a duck, it isn’t a chipmunk, honey,” Piper said. Ellie and Joss both busted into laughter.

  I wanted so badly to tell them about Kalen, but didn’t want to break Cas’s confidence, so I limited the story to Alexandria’s addiction issues. Piper still didn’t like the fact Cas was married, but at least I made her see Cas’s side of things a little better.

  “Max told me Cas was waiting at your place after work Thursday,” Ellie said.

  “Yes, that’s when he explained everything,” I told her.

  “So you are seeing him, even though he’s still married?” The exasperation
in Piper’s voice made me want to scream. What if I am? Could no one see this from my perspective?

  “What if I am?” I challenged.

  “Normally, I wouldn’t give a damn, but this is you we are talking about. You are like a little sister to me and I think you deserve better than this. If Cas wants you, he can have you…after he divorces her. That’s all I am saying,” Piper explained.

  I felt bad for being angry with her. She was just trying to look out for me. “Cas told me he loved me the other day. It felt so good to hear, but at the same time hurt so much, because I couldn’t say it back. I agree with you, Piper. Until he’s officially divorced, I can’t be with him. As much as I didn’t want to, I told him if he still wants me when the divorce is final, he knows where to find me.”

  “And now you are second guessing your decision?” Joss asked.

  I nodded my head at her. “I am.”

  “I would too,” Ellie agreed.

  “Same here,” Joss said.

  “Okay, maybe I would, too, but regardless, I would stand my ground. If Cas wants you, that isn’t going to change, Sarah.” Piper added.

  I knew she was right, but it didn’t mean I liked hearing it.

  Seeing my discomfort, Ellie changed the subject to Mac and how he was teething. I shot her a look of gratitude which she returned with an understanding smile. Thankfully, Kurt called Joss a few minutes later. He was stuck at Dragonfly and needed her to come and get him. Sally was still doing inventory, so I got a ride over to the bar with Joss. We were greeted by Kurt and Dillon, who were busy overseeing the men working on a new beer garden and patio out back. I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon helping Sally with inventory. It kept my mind off of Cas, as well as the fact I had just shared our private history with the girls. Around five-thirty, Sally and I finished up and headed out. We detoured by the apartment first, so Sally could change clothes and I could use the bathroom. By the time we made it back out to the car the sun was going down.