Whatever floated her boat. Tori knew better.
“So the old bat got wind, it hit the tabloids, and she fired me.”
“Estella wasn’t happy?”
Jessie shook her head. “No way. She called me into the office, right after her sons and daughter-in-law. She told me that I was fired.”
Tori was curious. “Did you hear what she said to her sons?” she asked.
“Yeah, that she’d cleaned up their mess by hiding it, and if they didn’t knock it off, they were going to get the media’s attention. If that happened, then there would be no more money. They said they’d keep the loose ends tied up.”
Tori shook her head.
Jesus!
The family was a mess.
“So I was booted off the property.”
“And you didn’t take your story to the media?” Nyx asked. She was finding that hard to believe.
“I didn’t have time. An attorney showed up that same day with a big fat envelope filled with money. She made me sign a paper that said I couldn’t talk about it. Once I did, the cash was mine.”
Tori wasn’t shocked.
“So you got paid for your silence, even though you knew what they were doing was drugging women to have sex.”
She shrugged. “They were drugging me. It’s my body. I can do what I want.”
Tori began thinking about Evangeline.
Had she been the woman they’d been using long before Jessie? How long had this been going on?
Could it be for years?
They needed to get to that body, and fast.
“Jessie, you’ve been a great help.”
“No problem. Now that those assholes are dead, I guess it doesn’t matter if the truth comes out.”
She thought about Lennox. “No, it matters. You signed that paper. Keep it to yourself.”
Jessie grinned. “Works for me.”
With that, the door was closed.
They hopped back into their ride and Tori thought about it. Now the motives were all coming together.
It made more sense.
She needed to dig a little deeper.
“What now?” Nyx asked, buckling her seatbelt.
“When we interviewed Calvin Foster, he was nervous. I’m talking really nervous like he was going to freak out. Lennox said the man was close with her family. I’m willing to bet that he was also playing the sex games with them. It seems like something sleazy he’d do.”
“So, we’re heading to see Calvin. At least Julian would be happy.”
Tori looked at her. “Why’s that?”
She laughed. “It’s safe. Julian likes safe.”
Tori joined in with Nyx’s amusement. “Yeah, he’s really predictable like that. I may get a prize for doing interviews and keeping it low key.”
She fist bumped Nyx.
“Go us.”
Tori dropped on her sunglasses.
Yeah, this might be a first. They finally had a case where the media wasn’t dogging their steps.
There must be a God.
Yippee.
* * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *
Calvin Foster’s
Office
Saturday Mid-Morning
Tori really hoped he’d be there.
They didn’t have a number to call to reach him, so this was going to be a long shot. She had a feeling the balding man had very little life outside trying to fix his business. He screamed workaholic, trying to get ahead.
She was willing to bet he’d be there trying to make some money.
As they headed toward the front door of his office building, she checked out the times listed on the door.
Crap.
She’d been wrong.
He didn’t work on Saturdays.
Well, she was going to have to scribble a note on the back of one of her cards and slip it into the door. When she got back to the estate, she’d call Justin.
Maybe he could find her the man’s number.
When she pulled on the outer door, it opened. She found that odd.
“Maybe he is here,” Nyx offered. “I’ve seen Julian in his office on the weekends, and he doesn’t have times listed either.”
She had a point.
It gave her hope.
“Let’s head up.”
Nyx and Tori climbed the stairs to his office, only to see the light on inside.
It appeared Nyx had been right. The man was working off the clock.
Tugging on the door with the man’s name plastered across it, it easily opened.
Nyx smiled. “See?”
While her backup partner was all smiles, Tori wasn’t as happy. Not only was she hearing the warnings from the dead all around her, she could smell it.
The memories of being a Fed and walking onto a violent crime scene flashed back. Yeah, she’d done this a few times before, and with the same outcome.
Shit!
This was going to be bad.
She grabbed Nyx’s arm before she could enter the room. “Get behind me.”
“What?”
“There’s someone dead inside.”
Nyx stared at her as if she was insane. “How do you know that?”
She shushed her and tapped her nose. “Let’s call it a skill,” she whispered. It was also the way the shadows danced around them. Tori could see them in her peripheral, and that meant the dead were stirred up.
Tori knew she should call the cops, but if Calvin was dead, she wanted to get a look at the scene. It was morbid, but she needed it for her case.
Pulling the sidearm she’d tucked under her blazer and at her back, Nyx’s eyes went huge like saucers.
“Julian will kick your ass.”
“Shhhhhh!”
Nyx did as she asked, and all the while, she was praying that Tori didn’t get hurt.
If she did, Julian would be out of control.
Tori pushed into the room. In the outer area, where they had sat earlier waiting for the man, she found nothing misplaced. It looked exactly like it had when they’d been there.
This room clearly wasn’t the issue. The smell of death was growing as she moved closer to his office door. Already, she knew what was going to be lurking there.
She assessed the situation. The lights were off in there, and her skin began crawling.
Tori knew it was going to be bad.
Her gut was screaming.
Still, she had to get a look at the scene before they called the sheriff.
Moving toward the door, she pulled her sleeve over her fingers as she gave his door a tug.
It opened with little effort.
Crap!
A part of her had been hoping it wouldn’t. Then she’d be off the hook. One of the reasons she left the FBI was the blood and gore.
It reminded her of a warzone.
One she wanted to forget.
“We should call the police,” Nyx whispered, trying to get Tori to walk away. This felt wrong.
Tori could hear Bethany in her head, and she knew there wasn’t a killer lurking.
They’d be safe.
Well…partially.
Reaching in, Tori hit the switch to flood the room in light. The click sounded so loud in the silence around them. As soon as the lighting flashed on, that’s when she saw him.
She and Nyx both got a really good look.
Calvin Foster was lying on his desk, his pants were open, his eyes were open, and so was his mouth.
Only, where his dick should be, someone had removed it and shoved it down his throat.
“Oh, my God!” Nyx said, starting to gag.
Tori couldn’t blame her.
It was pretty startling to see the man neutered and swallowing his own bloody dick.
Nyx backed away, trying to keep from throwing up. Tori on the other hand pulled out her phone and began snapping pictures. Julian and the rest of the team would need these.
There had to be something here. The killer was deviating from the family. Ri
ght? Or was the man dead because he’d been close to the circle?
This was a hot mess.
Despite it all, Tori knew why the man had his dick removed. The killer was tying up loose ends. This was going to be connected. Her gut was right.
Calvin Foster had definitely been diddling women with the Easton family.
Here was her proof.
When she took the last picture, she cautiously avoided the blood to head back to Nyx.
She was on her knees retching into a waste paper can.
Tori couldn’t blame her.
She dropped down and held the woman’s hair back so she could get all the bile from her gut. When she was done, then came the tears.
“That’s the most disgusting thing I have ever seen,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
Tori wished it was the grossest thing she’d seen in her time with the FBI, but it wasn’t even close.
She waited for Nyx to stop puking before she handed her a tissue.
“What do we do now?” Nyx asked.
Tori had only one choice.
“I have to make a call.”
“Julian?” she asked.
Tori only wished. This call was going to suck, and it was going to piss someone off. Here, in three days, they’d delivered another body to the sheriff.
The man was going to go shit nuts. Any magnanimous mood toward them earlier was going down the freaking drain, and she couldn’t blame him.
Tori dialed.
He answered.
“Hello, Sheriff Byrd?” Tori said when he answered the phone. “We have a problem.”
Nyx watched her friend and boss. The look on her face said it all.
“We have a body.”
She told him where and then hung up.
Nyx could hear the man freaking out on the other end, and Tori had been right. This was bad.
Very.
Very.
Bad.
“What’s wrong? Why was he losing his nut like that?” Nyx asked. “Other than the fact that the man in there is eating his own dick?”
“Julian and I were in here and our prints, DNA, and everything else are scattered about that office—beneath that dead man’s body.”
“You don’t think the sheriff will…?”
Yeah, that was exactly what she thought.
Two bodies in close proximity and both that they had access to during the day.
Someone had set them up.
Chapter Twenty-Three
At first, when he got the call, he was excited. When the sheriff’s number came up on his navigational system, he was in a pretty good mood.
His mother was out of jail.
They were on their way back to the Easton estate.
All was right with the world.
As he answered the call, he was hoping the man had found something…like the original police report.
Yeah, no such luck.
When Sheriff Byrd requested his presence at the police station, he didn’t get it. He sounded pissed. Julian was confused—until the man told him what his wife had stumbled upon in her investigation.
Then he nearly had a stroke. So much for a good day and the world being all sunshine-y and filled with roses.
The sheriff also said his least favorite word.
ARRESTED.
It was official.
Julian Littlemoon was going off the reservation. He was going to put his wife over his knee and spank some sense into her. What was up with the women in his life this week?
First his mother had sucker punched someone, and now his wife had been arrested.
What the hell had she been thinking?
When he got to the police station, he had Hart take the car and head back to the house. Beau had refused to go with them, so he remained with Julian.
He needed to find Nyx. Beau was worried.
Julian got that.
So was he.
On top of all of that, the last thing they needed was a media feeding frenzy of this story breaking.
As Hart pulled away, Julian prayed for calm. All he needed was one more Littlemoon behind bars, and he was going to have the mother of all strokes.
Inside, he found his wife sitting in a chair. To add to his already stirred up mood, he saw something absolutely horrifying.
Tori was handcuffed to it like a common criminal.
Beside her?
Yeah, Nyx was there too.
She looked like she’d been crying while Tori simply looked pissed off.
Immediately, the two men went to them.
“Victoria Rose Littlemoon. What the bloody freaking hell?” he hissed, crouching down before her to ensure she was indeed okay.
“Listen, I don’t have a lot of time. If he’s going to book me, he’ll take my phone. Get it out of my back pocket and keep it. There are pictures of the crime scene on it. You’re going to need to see them.”
He wanted to have a stroke.
Jesus!
His wife was a menace.
Julian absconded her phone, despite the overwhelming need to freak the hell out.
“What happened?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
She told him everything about the night before, the séance, the interview with Jessie Russo, and what she suspected was happening.
Julian went from mad to impressed. It seemed while he was away playing babysitter to his mother, his wife had blown this wide open.
Her investigating got them a motive, and that was important in solving the case.
Then she told him about Calvin Foster. “Our DNA and prints are in that office. This killer saw us go there, and he is screwing with us. He made sure we were detained. This is about slowing us down.”
He agreed.
“Where’s the sheriff?” Julian asked.
“He’s in his office.”
“Actually, he’s right here,” Silver Byrd stated from the doorway. “I was waiting for you to get here,” added the sheriff. “I was wondering if your wife was going to pick the lock and try to make a break for it.”
“Thank you for not putting her in a holding cell,” Julian stated. He had to play nice.
The handcuffs were bad enough.
But a jail cell?
The Littlemoons were breaking records this week.
“If I uncuff you, Mrs. Littlemoon, do you think you can keep your hands off my deputies?”
Julian looked at her. “What?”
“One tried to cuff me on the scene. I may have…let’s say…stopped him.”
Julian closed his eyes. “What the hell is wrong with this family?” he asked.
“Where to begin…?” Tori stated.
“It was rhetorical, slugger number two. I don’t think I need that list right now. I have enough on my plate.”
Tori laughed.
She got the joke.
“Yes, Sheriff, I’ll be good.”
He headed their way. After uncuffing both women, he pointed at the redheaded male beside Nyx Nightingale.
“Are you responsible for her?” he asked.
“Yes, I am,” Beau stated, still holding her hand.
“Great. She’s being released to your custody, whoever you are. If she causes trouble, while I’m in the office, you both go to jail.”
Nyx’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, as Beau held her against his body.
Tori patted her leg. “It’s on me, Nyx. No worries. I’ll take the rap for this one.”
Julian shushed her. The last thing they needed was anyone taking the rap for this. If someone was dead, his wife needed to stay clear of this. Orange wasn’t her color, and it certainly wasn’t Veronica’s color either.
“Let’s go, Littlemoons,” Silver Byrd stated. “We have to have a little talk in my office.”
Oh, they were aware.
Honestly, Tori wanted to kick the man’s ass. He was damn well aware they didn’t kill Calvin. She’d tried to tell him that repeatedly too.
J
ulian gave her the look as they followed the sheriff. It was a warning.
Tori opted to keep her mouth shut—not because she was afraid of the sheriff.
Hell no!
But for Julian.
He was one sentence away from a major meltdown followed by an epic stroke. This wasn’t the time or the place.
She’d bide her time.
For now.
Meanwhile, Beau took a seat beside Nyx. He took her hand in his, and he saw his ring on her finger.
He wanted to do cartwheels.
“Baby, what happened?”
She told him as he cuddled her to his side. Beau had been arrested when he was trying to work the case where he’d met Nyx, so he knew how she was feeling.
Only it had to be a million times worse as a woman who’d been kidnapped, held hostage, and raped.
“Oh, Beau,” she whispered.
He held her. “It’s okay.”
“I don’t think I can do this.”
He stared at her. “Do what?” His heart was pounding in his chest. She’d just put her ring on. He didn’t want it to come off.
“Be an investigator. The crime scene…”
He got it.
He also relaxed.
There was no way he was going to force Nyx to do anything she wasn’t comfortable with, and this was part of that. She had to make her own choices, and he’d follow her into hell and back.
He loved her that damn much.
All she had to do was say the words.
“Baby, if you don’t want to do this, then don’t do it. You have your business. I support your choices.”
“I know.”
“Why don’t you take some time, reopen your shop, and we’ll get married and go from there?”
He touched her cheek and she stared up at him. His heart skipped in his chest as he had to ask the question that was on the tip of his tongue.
“We are getting married, right?” Beau asked.
She nodded as she cuddled into his body.
Nyx could hear Evangeline raging in her head, but she didn’t tell him about it.
Not yet.
She couldn’t tell him or anyone. For now, she needed this secret. It was important, and she didn’t know why.
Forbidden Secrets Page 35