“Sorry. I’ve been having a hard time with losing Mitch, and, as you probably noticed, it’s made me crazy. Water?”
Pierce accepted the bottle, and then ran the back of his hand over my cheek. “When you’re ready I’ll be there. I’ve waited a long time, Everly, and I’m not fucking this up.”
Shock exploded with a single bolt of electricity that zapped my brain cells. The water slipped from my fingers, landing on the floor with a thud and a bounce.
And the doorbell shattered the silence between us.
TWO
I SHOT A LOOK AT the microwave clock. Eight. In the freaking morning. And everyone I knew, except Aukele, was still on the Big Island hiking the volcanoes.
Pierce’s forehead wrinkled, his version of a shoulder shrug—only not.
A fist banged on the door. Or maybe it was a battering ram, considering the blows nearly shook the walls. “Open up Everly Gray Hunt. Parker and I aren’t going away until we’ve had our say.”
The wobble lurking in my knees hit full force, and I clutched Pierce’s arm to steady myself. “Jayne. And Parker. Why would Mitch’s sister be here?”
He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Want me to—?”
“No.” Whatever Tynan Pierce was considering would be a bad plan. “I want you to leave.” I pointed at the slider. “Whatever Jayne has to say is private. Between us.”
Pierce leaned in and kissed my cheek. Very chaste. “Later, Belisama.” He disappeared, leaving the faint memory of a slippery crackle in the room. Surely he didn’t wear those cargoes when he was chasing bad guys. They’d announce his whereabouts. Well, damn. He’d worn them for me. So I’d know he’d invaded my space. So I’d know exactly where he was. It was sweet in a Pierce sort of way. And it totally screwed with my mind.
The doorbell rang relentlessly. I cautiously made my way across the living room, stopped at the halfway point. Jayne had delivered a son several months after Mitch stepped in front of the bullet meant for me. They’d named him Mitchell Hunt Steele. What was she doing here when she should be on mommy duty?
“Everly?” Parker this time.
“Coming.” No point in putting this off. I certainly couldn’t send them away when they’d traveled from North Carolina to see me. No matter the reason. Heart jumping, I practiced smiling, and then swung the door open.
“Jayne. parker. I’m stunned. Why didn’t you let me—?”
Jayne marched in, her khaki slacks and white blouse so crisp they crackled. Her left hand was firmly wrapped around the handle of the carry-on suitcase trailing behind her. “Because you would have insisted we not leave little Mitchell to make the trip. And because…” She looked me up and down, then sighed. “We might have waited too long, Parker.”
He leaned around his wife, and kissed my cheek in the exact same spot Pierce had a minute earlier. Talk about incongruity. “How are you, Everly?” The genuine concern in his whiskey-smooth voice slipped under my protective walls.
Jayne didn’t give me time to answer. “Harrummmph.” No one could harrumph like Jayne Hunt Steele. I was in for a time of it.
She strolled into the kitchen with a definite wiggle of the post-partum baby fat that had settled on her derriere. Her gaze swung back to me. “Look at her, Parker. She’s skin clinging to bones and muscle. There’s no life in her eyes, and she’s hiding in one of Mitchell’s tattered t-shirts.”
Parker winked at me, shot the cuffs of his starched shirt, and settled into my oversized chair.
Jayne opened the refrigerator, took out two bottles of water, tossed one to Parker, and then zeroed in on me. “We’re here to do an intervention.”
My stomach settled somewhere around my wobbly knees. What the hell? “That’s what they do for alcoholics. I’m not that into drink—”
Jayne cut me off with the flat of her hand. “A grief intervention. Now, let’s sit down and discuss this rationally, as there are a few things I need to go over with you before we leave.”
They were leaving. The infamous light at the end of the tunnel clicked on and I blew out a premature sigh. It would be over soon, and there really was no force in the Universe like Jayne Hunt, so there was no point arguing with her. Mitch had been able to slide through her analyses and organizational rampages unscathed, but not me. I’d had a rocky beginning with my sister-in-law before we’d settled into a friendship, and her love for Mitch was so strong, so devoted, that she’d never completely accepted me as his wife. As friends we did well most of the time, although friendship with Jayne was a lot of work. Still, this impromptu visit had me baffled. I scooped up the bottle of water I’d dropped earlier, settled into a corner of the sofa, and tucked my legs under me. “I’m not getting it.”
“Precisely why we’re here.” She leaned over and patted my knee. It started wobbling again.
I uncapped the water, drank, and concentrated on the cool liquid bathing my throat. Anything would be better than Jayne’s voice.
“Think about the view from Mitchell’s back deck, Everly—the vast open space, the peace that pours from the hills and grassland. My brother designed that scene just like he framed all of the photographs he created. He rarely took a snapshot. It was always living art. That man, the artist, would be appalled to see you slumped here with your heart oozing grief. The only thing left alive in you is that new smattering of freckles on your nose, and that is totally unacceptable, Everly Gray Hunt.”
The world had moved into a time warp that battered me with painful memories. Jayne had been devastated at Mitch’s funeral. A complete, incoherent basket case. We’d traveled with his body from Hawaii to North Carolina and she—we—sat with the casket for the entire trip. We’d both been submerged in pain so acute it had numbed us to everything except the physical labor of moving Jayne and Parker into Mitch’s house. The one Mitch and I had lived in as husband and wife.
Unbeknownst to me, he’d given the house and land to his sister and her husband when I’d left him to move to Hawaii. Jayne was pregnant, and Parker wanted to raise their family in the country. And Mitch had hoped to save our marriage by moving across the Pacific to be with me. An act of faith, or so he’d said. I rubbed at the pain in my chest. Where was she going with this? Cracking open old wounds that were still deep enough to bleed was bad form, even for Jayne.
She chugged her water. “All right. Hydrated, so can we make some coffee? Something decadent with cream and flavorings?”
A forensic accountant, Jayne was usually focused enough to cut through glass with her tone and her words. She definitely wasn’t a woman who diluted the sharp flavor of her coffee with cream or sugar. Certainly not with any added flavorings. Prickles danced on my nape. “Coffee would be fine. I’m sure you’re probably in the throes of jet lag.” It was the best explanation I could come up with for this new side of Mitch’s sister.
Parker stood. “I’ll make it. They forgot to stock Jayne’s favorite coffee on the plane, and since Mitchell turned three months old she’s been drinking her allotted sixteen ounces every day.”
Jayne had a favorite coffee? I’m the one who stocked cinnamon in large quantities for my coffee, she’d always taken hers black. This whole situation was totally skewed, but apparently pregnancy did that to a woman. I shuddered.
Parker’s attitude told me the lack of Jayne’s favorite caffeinated drink hadn’t been a pleasant discovery, but she grinned at him. “It’ll be fixed before we board for the flight home. Eight ounces now. Eight then. It’s my God-given right as a semi-new mom.”
“Damn right it will,” Parker said, selecting a flavored Keurig cup from the basket on my kitchen counter.
Jayne wiggled into the corner of the sofa opposite me, her stare boring into me. “I want you to think back. Remember the day we met? Mitchell was missing and I was positive you had something to do with his disappearance.”
I nodded. No way could I forget that episode.
“He’d told me that something about you unsettled him. Now that we know how deeply he was invol
ved in spying on you, it makes perfect sense. He as much as admitted to me that you were very different from what he’d expected. But Everly, he didn’t stop. Didn’t tell the higher-ups to go to hell with their assumption that you were hiding secrets from the government, and that you knew all about your mother’s formula.”
The old anger blasted through me. “I haven’t been able to forgive him, Jayne. He married me while I was his job and still under surveillance. Our entire relationship was a huge lie.”
“Umm. No. That’s not exactly true.”
My hands fisted. Her jaw was right there, vulnerable. I could practically feel my fist connecting…
“Stop glaring at me. There was a sinkhole of deceit, yes. But Mitchell loved you. The travel, pretending to leave you when you needed him so he could tail you, watch your every move—he paid a high price for that.”
How dare she excuse his actions. I opened my mouth.
Parker shoved a cup of coffee into Jayne’s hands and she sipped, keeping her gaze locked on me. “Let me finish. It was wrong. He knew it was wrong, but Mitchell and I were very close. Please trust me when I tell you that he’d started looking for ways to prove your innocence. When he was in the hospital, still woozy from being drugged, he rambled on about how you weren’t guilty, but he had to stay with his assignment because it was the only way to protect you.”
My rage collapsed into a knot of grief. “I…know. It’s part of the reason I’m not…that things aren’t right with me.”
Jayne set her coffee down, manacled my wrists with her hands, and held on. “I loved my brother. Still do. You know that better than anyone…but Everly, what he did was wrong. In the beginning it was an assignment, and yes, he handled it appropriately. When he fell in love with you, the game changed, but he didn’t. Had I known, I would have kicked him in the arse. I’ve forgiven him for keeping the truth from me. Granted, I was only tangentially injured by Mitchell’s actions in this situation, but nevertheless, I want revenge for his death. You’re the woman to do that. Parker and I can’t, not with a six-month old son. Plus we lack the training necessary to do it right. I’m depending on you to avenge my brother’s death.”
I jerked my wrists free and sat back. When had I turned into a clone of a comic book super-heroine? Not that I didn’t want revenge, but only on my terms, in my own time, and in my own way. This was personal.
Parker leaned toward me. “I’m not a nice man, Everly. I pushed Jayne to do whatever was necessary to have you in place when Steele Management ran our fund-raiser séance. I don’t regret that decision, but I made it without any consideration of how it might affect your life. My memories of you were faint, and, honestly? I didn’t care about your feelings. I couldn’t see any reason not to use you to mend the breach in my company’s financial integrity. But I would not have married you without telling you the truth about myself. Even to a bastard like me, marriage is a sacred vow. Hunt fucked that up, and you have to accept—”
Jayne stopped him with her infamously imperious hand. Probably knew that telling me what I had to do was a serious mistake. Then she turned her attention back to me. “When Mitchell stepped in front of you, it was a way for him to heal. The man I watched grow up to become one of the best photographers in the world had been in a horrific battle over the lies he told you. They were eating his soul, and honestly I don’t believe he would have been able to recuperate from the loss of his self-respect. Holding onto the guilt and anger like you’re doing is disrespectful to Mitchell. Let him go, Everly. Let his death become the healing he so desperately needed.”
The walls I’d so carefully built cracked wide open. Tears flowed down my cheeks, and there wasn’t a damn tissue anywhere. I stood, covered my mouth, and stumbled to the bathroom. Some way, somehow I needed to scrape up the emotional mortar to stop my guts from leaking out the cracks in my psyche.
It took ten minutes of practically soaking my head in a sink full of cold water, but I got myself together. And as soon as I caught a full breath, I’d face Jayne and Parker, and tell them to get out of my house. My sanctuary.
I tied Mitch’s t-shirt around my waist so I didn’t look so much like a refugee, opened the bathroom door, and stepped into the bedroom.
Jayne’s carry-on was lying open on my bed.
My dresser drawers were askew, and she was haphazardly folding my clothes into the suitcase.
THREE
MY MOUTH DROPPED OPEN, AND then rage kicked in. “What the hell are you doing?”
Jayne didn’t so much as glance at me. “Packing, of course. Parker and I need to get back, and we’re bringing you with us.”
My hand dug into her shoulder, and I spun her to face me. Images flashed through my fingertips, but I shut them down before they showed up on my internal monitor. I wasn’t ever going to look at anyone that way again. My fingers were in permanent retirement. “I’m not going anywhere, and certainly not back to your house.”
Mitch’s grave was there, visible from almost every window overlooking the woods and grassland behind the house. His final resting place. I shuddered. And I was nowhere near ready for final. Not that I would ever attempt to explain that to Jayne.
My pulse pounded in the pit of my stomach. I was done with that life. Didn’t need or want the memories. Demanding things, memories. And they had a voracious appetite that feasted on my soul, one freaking, agonizing bite at a time.
Jayne sighed. “I’m sorry, but it has to be done. Honestly, I’m surprised you’ve waited this long to make the trip.”
She was making as much sense as a bobblehead doll. “What? Why?” Never let it be said that I couldn’t come up with the right questions when faced with total insanity.
“To search Mitch’s study, of course. How else are you going to find the person who hired him? Surely you realize that his boss, if not personally guilty of murdering your parents, has a great deal of information about both you and them. I know you, Everly. You’ll want to confront him and demand answers.”
My knees broke into a wobble for the gazillionth time in less than two hours. It was a record.
Pierce had been sure it was Eamon Grady who’d murdered my parents, and I thought chasing him down, exacting revenge, would be enough. But Jayne made an excellent point. Whoever hired Mitch knew things no one else did, and since I had no idea where Grady lived or how to find him—yet—it made sense to search Mitch’s study. Precise, obsessive-compulsive Jayne would, of course, think through all the details and execute her plan without bothering to let me know, assuming I’d fall right into line.
Damn, but I hated when she was right. Except… “Chad Burr is dead. I killed him.”
Jayne blew out an exaggerated sigh. “Burr was Mitch’s handler, not his boss.”
She had a point. I’d buried the horrific memory of that day so deeply that… “Okay. I get it, but I have clients today, and I’d prefer to do my own packing.” I snatched the pair of scarlet panties from her hand. Jayne touching my underwear was…wrong. Besides, she was hovering on the brink of certifiable with this stunt. “Why did you bring a suitcase?”
She smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes. “I have a stun gun and handcuffs as well.” She yanked a palm-sized bit of plastic from her pocket and held it up. I had the identical model in black. It was pretty much useless, and Adam had given me a TASER X26P Smart Weapon when I subbed for him on an overnight Maddie-sitting gig. Maddie had made sure I earned the gift, not that I’d ever used it, or even had time to practice with it.
Was that…? I blinked. “Is that Hello Kitty stenciled on your stun gun?” I hid my grin, and then reality squashed the happy thought. The idea of Jayne with any kind of stun device, the thought that she’d ever need a weapon, shut my brain down. It was almost worse than her touching my underwear.
Jayne wiggled the pink plastic stun gun in front of my face. “Yes. Parker’s idea of a…never mind.” She blushed and stuffed it in her pocket. “I was concerned that, since it had taken you this long to figure out the simpl
est course of action, you’d be difficult.
“I WANT THE PEOPLE BEHIND my brother’s death punished.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Not the gang members who shot him. Their boss is dead, and the rest of them are already logged into the justice system. My attorneys and I will see to it they don’t have a prayer of gaining freedom in their lifetimes. It’s the people behind his murder that I want caught and executed—specifically whoever Mitchell worked for.” She straightened, stretching her back with a loud crack. “Parker and I could only get away for two days, so we don’t have time to wait for you to catch up.”
Insults aside, Jayne Hunt Steele was one scary woman. “Pink really isn’t your color.”
“Like I said. Parker’s idea of a joke.” Her jaw clenched.
The woman was hell-bent on revenge. But then, so was I. “Right. I’m catching up, but I have things to take care of here. Maddie is coming over tonight for a sleepover, and I haven’t seen Annie, Sean, Adam, or Ben for over a week. I’ll need to check in and let them know what’s going on.”
Jayne waved me off. “There are excellent internet and phone connections on all the Steele Management jets. Communication issues are not a viable excuse. Nothing is.” She wrinkled her nose. “Although, it would be best if you change into something less…grungy. This is a business trip for Parker, and collecting you is simply an added benefit.”
She added an elegant sniff that made it ever-so-tempting to only pack my frayed, faded, comfort clothes. But my ego wouldn’t allow it. If I had to face my former home, and deal with the crush of emotions attached to it, I’d damn well be dressed in full feminine splendor. Or not. Definitely not. That would be playing Jayne’s game. I pointed to the bedroom door. “Out. I’ll pack a few things and change.”
“Ten minutes, Everly. We have a flight plan to follow.”
a Touch of Revenge (Romantic Mystery - book 6): The Everly Gray Adventures Page 2