by Lena Gregory
She’d be fine as soon as she picked up Thor and went home. She took a deep breath, struggling for control, and stuffed the paper into her purse, then slung her purse over her shoulder. Before opening the front door, she peeked through the windows, scanning everything within her line of sight. As far as she could tell, the woman was gone. The thought of reporting the incident to the police briefly flickered through her mind, but she’d already been down that road. Numerous times. All it would do is hold her up. In the end, they wouldn’t look too hard. If Ms. Ainsworth carried through on her threat to return, she’d give her a warning. Then she’d call the police.
On the bright side, now that she was afraid to merely walk out the door, she wasn’t nearly as afraid of being alone in the café where there might be giant spiders. The thought slammed through her. Had that woman planted the spider? It made sense, since the woman obviously had an issue with Gia’s phobia. Though if what she’d said was true, Gia couldn’t really blame her.
That had been one of the things she’d always loved about Bradley, his need to take care of her, his willingness to accept her as she was. Tears threatened. Anything Bradley had been to her was a lie, a cold, calculated cover for his greed. Killing spiders didn’t make him any less of a dirt bag.
She shook off any kind feelings before they could take hold. Thoughts of some jilted lover letting spiders loose in the café propelled her out the door like nothing else could have. Knowing the woman had no way to get in didn’t ease her fears. She shoved the key in the lock and turned it, then paused. Maybe she’d have the locks changed anyway. Never could be too careful.
“Hey there,” said a male voice as someone laid a hand on her shoulder.
She screamed, whirled around, and slammed her back against the door.
Trevor held his hand up in a gesture of surrender, backing slowly away from her. His cheeks flamed red. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She shook her head, not yet able to speak, and held up a finger for him to wait a minute.
“Sure. Of course. I really am sorry.” He still stood with his hands up. Great. Some passerby would think she was robbing him or something. It wouldn’t take long for those rumors to spread. And when they did, she’d have a reputation as a killer and a thief.
Laughter bubbled out. She couldn’t help it. And she didn’t want to. It felt good to laugh, even at herself. And she was acting a bit foolish. At least it helped get her breathing back under control. “No. I’m sorry. I was lost in thought, and you just startled me.”
Mark poked his head around the corner. He looked back and forth between the two of them, his stare lingering on Trevor. “Is everything all right out here? I thought I heard someone scream.”
She waved it off. “It’s fine. It’s fine. Trevor just startled me.”
“I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.” He frowned. “Seems I have a habit of doing that.”
“Trevor?” Gia said.
“Yeah?”
“You can put your hands down now. Please.”
“Oh, sorry.” He grinned and shoved his hands into the pockets of his khaki shorts.
Gia introduced the two men. “Sorry for scaring both of you. I guess I’m a little jumpy with…well…”
Trevor rushed forward and patted her arm. “Oh, it’s perfectly understandable. With what happened and all, I don’t blame you. I’d be jumpy too.”
Mark shot her a wink. “Well, it was nice meeting you, Trevor. If you two are okay, I’ll get back to my unpacking.”
After Gia assured him she was fine, he shook Trevor’s hand and headed back up to the apartment. She had to admit, it was a little reassuring that he’d heard her scream and come to investigate.
“Anyway. I just stopped by to see if you would you like to, you know, go out to dinner, maybe? With me, I mean.” His adorable blush crept all the way to his hairline.
“Oh, Trevor. I can’t tonight. I’m sorry, but thank you for asking.”
“It doesn’t have to be tonight. We could go another night if you want.”
She’d almost been ready to say yes to Caleb’s dinner invitation, but something had stopped her. The hope that she and Hunt might get together? Probably not, since he’d already been sitting in the middle of her café with another woman at the time. “I’d love to go out to dinner with you one of these days, but I just got a new puppy, and I have to pick him up from day care. He’s there all day while I’m at work, so I don’t feel right leaving him alone to go out afterward. At least, not yet.”
An excuse? Maybe, but she didn’t think so. She really didn’t want to leave Thor alone. Trevor was a sweetheart. And she’d obviously been mistaken about Hunt’s interest.
“You know what? I have the perfect idea. How about tomorrow night?” He was nothing if not persistent.
“I already—”
“You don’t have to leave Thor at all. I could meet you here after work tomorrow and walk with you to pick him up. Then we could take a nice stroll through the park, maybe get something to eat at one of the food trucks. And after that, we could head back here and get ice cream. I know a place. Right down the road. Outdoor seating. Great service.” He shot her a grin. “I hear the owner’s a really nice guy too.”
“You know what?” If she was going to stay in Florida and make a new life, it was time to move on. She had to at least start making friends. Maybe not close friends. Maybe not anything more than that. But she missed having friends, people to hang out and enjoy an evening with.
His eyes widened.
“It sounds like fun. I’d love to.”
“Great. I’ll meet you around six?”
“Perfect.”
“I’ll bring Brandy too.”
“Brandy?”
“My German shepherd. She loves to walk in the park. You don’t mind, do you?”
“No, of course not. I can’t wait.”
“Awesome.” He started to back up the walkway toward the sidewalk. His foot caught on a cobblestone lining the path, and he went down hard on his backside, legs splayed.
“Oh, my.” Gia rushed toward him. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” He stood and brushed himself off. “If you spend any time with me at all, you’ll find out pretty quick…” He gestured toward the spot on the ground where he’d gone down. “That’s normal. Anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She waved before he turned around and walked away. The moment of happiness Trevor had managed to bring dwindled quickly once he left. Though she wanted nothing more than to move on and forget about the past, some things still lingered, haunting her. The only way she could truly leave the past behind was to find answers. And she had a good idea where to start.
Chapter 15
Acid churned in Gia’s stomach. Hungry or not, she needed to eat something. That being the case, she was going to have to get out of the car and go into the house if she wanted something to eat. She was sure she’d seen a box of cereal somewhere in the mess of boxes waiting to be unpacked.
She looked around the darkening yard. Then, satisfied there was no immediate danger she could see, although snakes would be easily camouflaged, so would bears, probably, and definitely spiders…
Before she could work herself up into a full-blown panic attack, she opened her purse and made sure the bear spray Hunt had given her was on top and easily reachable, then found the key to the front door and held it ready, slung the purse over her shoulder, clutched Thor’s leash, got out of the car, and bolted for the house.
Cleaning out the garage shot to the top of her ever-growing to-do list. At least then she could pull in and close the door behind her before she had to get out of the car. With Thor jumping excitedly at her feet, she jammed the key into the lock, flung the door open, then ran in, closed it just as quickly, and leaned her back against it in relief.
This was not going to work out. Either she had to get a grip on herself and get over her fears, or she had to move. Not necessarily back to New York. Maybe she’d look for something in town by the shop. A small flare of regret surfaced. Maybe she shouldn’t have rented the apartment to Mark. She could just stay there, sell the house, and look for something else. Of course, the apartment was too small for all the stuff she’d hauled down from New York, but there had to be a storage place nearby.
She sighed and pushed away from the door. No sense circling around the same discussion she’d had with herself a million times since Savannah had sent her the listing for the small house on the edge of the forest. The fact remained she couldn’t afford a house in town, or anything else, really. And if business kept up as it had today, she wouldn’t even be able to afford that.
“Come on, Thor, let’s find something to eat.” She unhooked his leash, flipped on the living room light, then skirted a pile of boxes on her way to the kitchen.
Thor dove into the pile of papers she’d been sorting through and rolled onto his back, squirming wildly, all four paws waving in the air, sending papers flying everywhere.
“No, Thor.” She picked him up and surveyed the mess. She didn’t even remember what she’d been looking at. Now she’d have to redo that pile before she could move on. It was going to be a long night.
Once she fed Thor and got him out, while barely avoiding another panic attack, she found the box of cereal she’d seen earlier and took it with her to the living room. She piled a bunch of Thor’s toys next to her and settled down to go through papers and munch dry cereal from the box.
She couldn’t shake thoughts of the woman who’d confronted her in the café earlier. She’d been so certain Bradley had left something of hers with Gia. Of course, she’d also been positive Gia had been involved in his schemes. But still.
Four boxes of boring paperwork and half a box of cereal later, she stood and stretched. Her eyes burned from reading so much. At least, she had developed a system to make things move more quickly. She put everything important into one box to sort out later. Everything else went in the garbage. Maybe she could get rid of enough to fit what was left in the apartment. How had she accumulated so much junk over the years? She probably should have taken the time to sort through it all before she’d left New York, but at the time, she’d just been desperate to escape.
She massaged her lower back for a minute and grabbed another box.
Thor lay curled in a ball on his bed beside her, snoring softly.
A surge of love shot through her. She’d never realized how much a puppy could bring to her life, but she knew she wouldn’t give him up for the world. Whatever choices she made for her future, they would include Thor.
One more box and she’d take him into her room and go to bed.
She lowered the box carefully, fished a half empty water bottle out of her purse, and settled back down. She opened the box and a musty scent wafted out. She sneezed.
Piles of neatly stacked folders, all labeled in Bradley’s precise handwriting, filled the box. She tried to remember where she’d found them, but that whole time was pretty much a blur. Still, she couldn’t recall packing them, couldn’t recall ever having seen them before. Maybe one of the boxes that had been packed away in the small storage space in the basement? That would explain the smell. And she had no idea if the police had ever searched the storage box.
The first folder held a computer printout, page after page of random numbers. At least, they seemed random to Gia. They had obviously meant something to Bradley, or he wouldn’t have kept them. She set the folder on the floor next to her. Just because it didn’t make sense to her, didn’t mean it wouldn’t to someone. At worst, she could hand it over to Hunt and let his experts figure it out.
In the next folder, she found handwritten details of the scheme he’d used to cheat his clients out of millions. It seemed to be an earlier draft of what had come out at the trial, much of which Gia didn’t understand. She knew it involved taking money from clients and investing it in bogus corporations, then somehow syphoning the money off into his own accounts, but the logistics of it all were lost on her.
She set that aside as well, keeping everything in the exact order she’d found it in. She had no clue if the order was important, but she didn’t want to screw anything up. Truthfully, she should probably take the whole box and turn it over to the police as it was, but curiosity got the better of her. This was the first possible lead she’d come across. No way was she giving it up unless she had to.
She took a sip of her water, her throat dry from going through the musty paperwork, then flipped open the next folder. The difference in this paperwork jumped out at her immediately. On these documents, the rows of numbers were preceded by names. She ran her finger down the columns of numbers, searching for anyone she recognized. Six names were on the first page, none of whom were familiar to her. On page three, she stopped her finger over the name, Miranda Ainsworth. The same Ms. Ainsworth who’d come into the café that afternoon?
Seemed too much of a coincidence for it not to be the same woman.
She tried to decipher the numbers following her name. Account numbers, maybe? Gia had no idea, but she did recognize the numbers following the dollar signs. She let out a low whistle. If Miranda Ainsworth was the woman who’d come into the café, she had several million reasons to be upset. But was she a victim or a partner? Wasn’t that the multi-million dollar question?
And what could Gia do about it? Even if these were account numbers and the accounts still existed, she had no way to know where to find them.
She scanned the remainder of the names contained in the folder. None of them were familiar, and she’d seen a list of the names of Bradley’s victims, not that she remembered all of them, but certainly one or two should have stuck in her mind.
Now what? If these people were all victims, they deserved to get their money back. Yet, if she turned the information over to the police, what guarantee was there they’d even go through it and try to reimburse the victims? Bradley had already been convicted, and now he was dead. How could she be sure they’d even pursue this? She couldn’t be.
Of course, she could turn them over to Hunt. From what she’d seen of him so far, he seemed honest. She tamped down a small niggle of guilt. This had nothing to do with Hunt. Besides, he hadn’t been honest about Sonny while he was at Gia’s house eating barbeque.
Oh, dang. She’d forgotten about the leftover barbeque. She could have eaten that instead of chowing down a box of dry, half-stale cereal. Oh, well. Next time.
Back to the problem at hand. She could turn the papers over to one of Bradley’s attorneys, though she had a feeling they were probably just as shady as he was. If they were able to get their hands on funds Bradley had left, the money would probably disappear long before it could be returned to its proper owners.
That only left one option. She used her phone to take a picture of the document with Miranda Ainsworth’s name on it. Even though a lot was lost with the cracks in her phone screen—she was going to have to get that fixed or get a new phone—you could still make out enough to get the gist of what was there.
She fished the paper Miranda had handed her out of her bag and unfolded it. Written on it was a phone number with a New York area code, probably her cell phone, and the name and address of a local hotel. If she called, she couldn’t show the woman the picture. Of course, she could text it to her, but then she’d have a copy of it, and Gia didn’t want that, at least not until she figured out what was going on.
She stuffed the note into her pocket and settled Thor in his crate in the bedroom. “I’ll be back in a little while, Thor. Be good.”
She second guessed her decision to leave him home a million times as she traveled the dark roads to Miranda’s motel. But she didn’t want to leave him alone in the car while she talked to Ms. Ainsworth. At least sh
e knew he was safe where he was.
She checked the address on the paper again, then turned into a motel parking lot filled with pot holes and littered with beer cans, wine bottles, paper, plastic bags, and who knew what else. She had a really hard time believing Ms. Ainsworth was staying in the dump that sat before her, crouched behind a wild tangle of bushes as if hiding from the world.
No way that woman strolled through this neighborhood on her four inch stilettos, draped in diamonds, without getting mugged. Or worse.
It had to be some sort of hoax. Maybe she figured Gia would show up there and get what she deserved for cheating her out of her fortune.
She checked that her doors were locked for the fifth time since entering the neighborhood and rolled past the line of doors at the back of the parking lot, checking the room numbers against the one Miranda had written down. When she found the room, she pulled in front of the door and sat. Flickering light spilled through the sheer curtains on the window.
It seemed foolish to have come this far and not go to the door. She scanned the parking lot and sidewalk. A small group of men huddled together by the entrance, too far away to reach her before she could make it back to the safety of her car. Other than that, the area seemed deserted. Most of the windows remained dark. Empty? Or had the occupants already gone to bed?
She couldn’t sit there all night. That was just asking for trouble. With another quick glance around, she hopped out of the car and hurried to the window. She peeked inside.
At first, she thought the room had been trashed. Clothing lay strewn all over, hanging from chairs, rumpled in corners, draped over a bedside lamp. An open pizza box, half full, sat on the table amid stacks of papers. Beer cans and liquor bottles overflowed from the trash can.