My Weakness

by Alison Mello

  “As is Tim. All of our emotions are sky high, Paul, but it doesn’t mean she has the right to start accusing people of things such as rape. I mean come on, he was married to our mum for goodness sake.”

  “I know what you’re saying, Ash, but I really don’t think she’s lying. Why would she? She’s far too upset about it all for it to be fake. I believe her. I trust her.”

  Ash snorted. “No. You’re just following your dick.”

  I flickered my eyes across to Paul. A muscle in his neck twitched, his face hardened, and his body visibly stiffened.

  “You know if you carry this on, he’s going to sue you for slander?” Ash said to me, pure venom dripping from his voice.

  “What? I don’t have anything to give him.”

  “Well, then I suggest you start grovelling to him. Unless you want to lose your house.”

  I choked back a sob and sunk back in my chair. “This is exactly what he wants.”

  “Ky. Please, come on. You know I hate arguing with you. We should be supporting each other at the moment, not be at each other’s throats.”

  “Exactly my point,” I replied, sitting up and facing him. “You should believe your sister not some guy you’ve met a handful of times.”

  “And what am I supposed to do if I do believe you? I can’t do anything. I can’t change anything that’s happened.”

  I snorted at him. “Is that your defence? Seriously? You can’t do anything so you’d rather accuse me of lying? Especially after the week I’ve had?”

  He stepped closer to me and knelt down so we were at eye level.

  “That’s my point, sweetie. I think this is just everything from Scott and Molly surfacing itself in the wrong way. I think you’ve seen Tim’s friendliness as something it isn’t.”

  “Friendliness?” I said. “Friendliness? Do you call looming over a naked girl in bed friendliness? Do you call telling her to imagine it’s a fella from back home friendliness? Do you call touching her up in the night fucking friendliness?”

  I was so mad as I shouted at him, I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. I could feel the heat rushing around my face. I had little energy left after not eating for two days and one rant at Ash zapped me to zero.

  Ash fell quiet as I finished my little outburst. I definitely wasn’t upset now, I was just mad—absolutely seething, hopping mad.

  “Why didn’t you tell me that?” he asked.

  “When did you give me the chance to?”

  He fell silent for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Tell me what happened.”

  “Why should I? You’re not going to believe me anyway.”

  “Ky,” he said, reaching forwards to touch my arm. “I want to hear what you think happened. I want to know the full story.”

  “What I think happened? Are you taking the piss? I know it fucking happened.”

  “Okay, okay, just calm down,” he said, standing back up. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? When you’re ready to tell me what happened, come and get me.”

  I scowled at him, flopped back into my chair, and ignored him. I heard his retreating footsteps before he said his byes to Paul and disappeared once more.

  “You okay?” Paul asked, rubbing my legs as he resumed his position in front of me.

  I nodded.

  “You hungry?”

  I shook my head.

  “When did you last eat?”

  I said nothing, full well knowing what he was going to say.

  “Come on,” he said, pulling me up from my chair. “Dressed. Food. We need to talk.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Sat in Mama’s Diner on the outskirts of town, I glanced outside and smirked at the silver Camaro Paul had rented.

  “What?” he asked. “I wanted a Bumblebee one but they didn’t have any.”

  I giggled at him as I looked over the menu. After we’d given our orders, Paul turned the conversation quite heavy.

  “So, I did a bit of digging into our friend Tim.”

  I raised an eyebrow, unsure of what was to come next.

  “Sometimes my parents’ lifestyle has its up sides,” he said, smiling. “They have contacts. Anyway, what do you know about Tim?”

  “Not a lot,” I replied, shrugging my shoulders. “Mum met him three years ago whilst she was out here with work. She fell in love, decided to stay, and there we go. She married him two years ago.”

  “Well,” he said, lowering his voice. “Mr. Tim Masters is also known as Mr. Tim Roker, and Mr. Tim Bycraft.”

  I gasped, not quite grasping what he’d just said. How could he have three identities? Why did he need them? A feeling of dread began to unfurl inside me as endless possibilities swam through my mind.

  He took a sip of his water and cleared his throat. “Mr. Tim Bycraft is originally from New York and was under suspicion for a series of rapes that happened in and around his apartment building. He vanished before the police could formally charge him.”

  “What? Are you being serious?”

  He nodded, pulling his lips into a thin line. “Mr. Tim Roker suddenly appeared in Florida twelve years ago. He married a lady called Lisa a year later who happened to be worth a lot of money. She was found dead eighteen months later after a nasty fall down the stairs whilst Mr. Roker was out of town. Mr. Roker inherited all of her two-million-dollar fortune as she no longer spoke to her kids and had written them out of her will. Two years later, Mr. Roker remarried another wealthy widow who also ended up dead within two years from a nasty fall. She had also written her only child out of her will, leaving her six-million-pound fortune to Tim.”

  I leaned back, running my hands through my hair. How could someone get away with all of this so easily? My mind was whirling, spinning, from this massive revelation.

  “There’s more,” he said, giving me a sympathy smile. “Three years later, he married a divorced lady who ripped her plastic surgeon husband off for fifteen million dollars in the divorce courts. She died two years ago, and Mr. Tim Roker disappeared after her children and ex-husband contested her will in court. Mr. Tim Roker was awarded twenty-five per cent of her estate with the remainder being split between her three children. He then vanished before Mr. Tim Masters appeared in Texas a mere six months before your mum unfortunately met him.”

  “What? Is he some kind of black widow or something?”

  Paul smiled. “He always goes for older women, and those who are on their own or divorced. They always have kids as well. Now, the rapes back in New York were connected with a series of cash robberies as well. The police were putting a link together between the victims being raped and their bank accounts being emptied. They were getting close, and I suspect this is why he disappeared.”

  “I can’t believe this,” I said, leaning my head in my hands. “This happens in movies, not real life.”

  “Unfortunately, sweetie, the movies get their ideas from somewhere, or rather the criminals get their ideas from somewhere.”

  “So what do you think this has to do with me and my mum? Mum didn’t have any fortune to her name.”

  “That’s where you’re slightly wrong, sweetheart,” he said. He reached across the table and grabbed my hand. “The compensation she got from your father’s accident she invested in the stock market.”

  I shook my head at my mother’s stupidity. She knew nothing about finances let alone something like the stock market.

  “She pulled her shares three weeks ago and was worth nearly ten million. In sterling.”

  I balked at his words, my mouth hanging wide open. I couldn’t even formulate thoughts let alone words. Thankfully, the waitress appeared with our food.

  “There’s something else,” Paul said.

  I looked up at him, holding my breath in expectation. What else could there possibly be?

  “Your mother changed her will the day after she pulled her shares.”

  I gulped, adrenaline now pumping round me at a rate of knots. What else was he going to surp
rise me with?

  “After your row at their wedding, she had changed her will and cut both you and Ash out, leaving everything to Tim. Three weeks ago, she changed it so that Tim was left with nothing and you and Ash were left with everything—split fifty-fifty.”

  Tears sprang from the corners of my eyes. Endless possibilities of what could have made her change her mind raced around my mind.

  “She filed a report of assault against him ten days ago—after they rowed over his discovery of her changing her will.”

  I was speechless, stunned, frozen in time. I felt somehow guilty for not being able to do anything for her. Why hadn’t I just patched things up with her?

  “I think his plan of suing you for slander was to get that money.”

  I had managed to eat a handful of fries but now pushed my plate away. The information overload had me on edge, fidgety. I couldn’t settle after hearing news like that. Food was definitely the last thing I wanted when I was upset.

  “Finish your food,” Paul said, pointing at my plate. “You need your strength.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Kyra,” he said, putting his knife and fork down and reaching across the table for my hands. “Please eat. You’re no good to anyone, especially yourself, if you don’t keep your strength up. Come on, please.”

  He stabbed one of my fries and offered it to me with a beaming smile. I couldn’t help but laugh at him and gave in to his request. We ate in silence, and whilst I wouldn’t admit it to him, each mouthful of food I took actually made me feel a hundred times better. Eventually, with some fuel in my body, my brain seemed to cooperate and enabled me to ask some questions.

  “What made her change her will?” I asked. “And how did he get away with all of this?”

  “I managed to stumble across a couple of reports where women had stayed at Tim’s ranch and reported a man in their cabin at night. No charges were ever brought against him as they couldn’t be sure whether it was just a dream or if it was real. I can only assume he did to them what he had in store for you. My guess is that your mum discovered what he was up to.”

  “This is insane. I just can’t believe it.”

  “My contact who gave me all of this information has been tracking him for a number of years but has struggled to provide solid evidence to bring about any charges. It is suspected his identities are stolen from dead children but it can’t be one hundred per cent proven at the moment. In all fairness to Tim, he is exceptional at covering his tracks and creating smoke screens.”

  I briefly wondered who on earth Paul’s contact was before pushing the thought away. “So now what?”

  “Well,” he said, finishing off his fries. “We need to call his bluff and make sure that yours and Ash’s inheritance stays with you guys.”

  Finishing off my drink, I mulled over the past hour of my life and the massive turn in events. How was this even possible that this was my life right now?

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Tuesday morning came around bright and hopeful. It was Mum’s cremation tomorrow but that seemed like a million miles away from the mess I was currently wading my way through. I was nothing but determined to get a confession from Tim—I knew for a fact the women before Mum hadn’t died accidentally, and neither had she.

  Paul had yet to meet Tim and I was eager to see how he would react to Paul’s presence. I still hadn’t spoken to Ash, so he knew nothing of what Paul revealed to me in the diner.

  I slept like a baby last night, coated in Paul’s body as he hugged me and reassured me no one would be touching me during the night, not even him. I felt a million times better after a good night’s sleep, and began to realise despite his parents’ business and the lifestyle he was involved in, I didn’t care. I ached for him like the earth ached for the promise of spring after a harsh winter. I needed him in my life, I wanted him in my life. He was the part of me that had always been missing and I couldn’t ignore that anymore.

  As we drove up to the main house, my stomach began flipping over in knots at the impending day ahead.

  We walked through the wooden door and sat down at the big, solid wooden table. Ash and Ben were already eating but there was no sign of Tim.

  “Where is he?” I asked Ash.

  “Bathroom.”

  Tim emerged a minute later and did not do well to hide the shock on his face at seeing Paul next to me. Paul stood up and did a marvellous impression of a fake greeting as the pair shook hands. Tim shot me a dirty look, and I smirked at him proudly. We ate in silence before I took everyone by surprise.

  “Take me to the barn,” I said, staring at Tim.

  “What?”

  “I want to see where Mum died. Take me to the barn.”

  Paul gave me a reassuring squeeze on my leg as I caught Ben’s puzzled gaze and Ash’s suspicious look. Tim cleared his throat, faltering for words. Aware of everyone watching him, he gave in. The guys stood up to come with me but I told them to stay put. I needed to do this alone.

  I kept my distance from Tim as he led us down to the red and white painted barn. Most of the horses were out, only a handful in to stay cosy and warm.

  A concrete aisle split the barn in half, each side lined with a dozen stables. A cool silence coated the atmosphere, save for the rhythmic chewing of the horses on their hay. Just gazing around at the picturesque indoor barn had me dreaming wistful dreams. I just knew Mum would have loved this.

  We reached the very last stable on the left, a big black face with a white stripe pinging over the stable door. Bright, alert eyes stared back at me as he nodded his head with an eager gesture. He stretched towards me as far as the constraints of his door would allow.

  “This is Nelson,” Tim said.

  I suddenly felt very alone, and very vulnerable with this man who had towered over me in my bed a mere two days ago. I took a deep breath, ignoring my spiking heart rate coursing adrenaline through my body.

  I held my hand out, letting him snuffle across my palm. “Hey, boy.”

  He squealed and pinned his ears back, biting at the air next to me where Tim stood. I jumped to the side and watched, fascinated, as the impressive animal made his feelings towards Tim rather clear.

  “Is he always like this?” I asked, curious about the stallion’s behaviour.

  “He liked your mum.”

  “I thought you said he was yours.”

  “Your mum bought him for me but he didn’t take to me. He only responded to her.”

  The sourness lacing his voice was evident combined with the hatred seeping from his eyes. His jaw was clenched, his top lip almost curling back as if he’d just swallowed a bitter pill.

  Something settled uneasy with me about Nelson though. Why would he keep a horse with such high energy in?

  “Does he not go out?” I asked.

  He snorted and motioned a hand towards me. When he spoke, his words were dripping with sarcasm. “Feel free to go in there.”

  Upon moving his hand towards me, Nelson squealed again before making a move to bite Tim’s arm. With the chilling snap of Nelson’s jaw, I realised this horse was not playing, he meant it—if he got hold of Tim’s flesh, he would take a chunk without hesitation.

  “So he never went out unless Mum put him out?”

  “Yep.”

  I scowled at his cowardice and began to wonder how Nelson could have killed Mum if she was the only one he liked. It just wouldn’t happen, unless it was just a freak accident, but something told me this wasn’t the case.

  “So how did it happen?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve told you.”

  “Tell me again.”

  “We heard the horses making a racket. She came out to see what the problem was. I found her here.” He pointed to the floor in front of Nelson’s door. “She had blood on her head and he was roaming around inside, sniffing all the mares.”

  “But if he only liked her, why would he kick her?”

  “We have some mares in season.
The only thing I can think of is he was after one, your mum went to get him, and he took a fly kick at her to keep her away.”

  I frowned as something really didn’t make sense to me. For a start, if you had a stallion, you didn’t keep them near mares who were in season. Mum wasn’t that daft. For seconds, if for whatever reason, the stallion managed to get near a mare who was in season, you definitely didn’t approach him in the dark with a thunderstorm banging away outside. Again, she wasn’t that daft.

  I looked at the width of the walkway we were in. It was plenty wide enough for a person to walk around the back of a horse without being kicked. It was easily thirty feet wide, if not more.

  “Can I have a minute, please?” I asked.

  He nodded and walked off, disappearing back outside.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as he vanished. I was glad he hadn’t tried anything, although with Nelson trying to mutilate him from behind me, he wouldn’t have gotten very far anyway.

  I lifted a hand to the big stallion, watching with delight as he pricked his ears and sniffed my hand with a soft nicker. Feeling confident he didn’t want a taste of me, I took a step forwards and reached up to pat his neck. He had a big crest, and from what I could see, was well muscled too. Mum had obviously worked with him a lot, which made me think about their bond again. It just didn’t seem right that he would kick her. Stallions had been known to become protective over their female owners, and knowing how my mum was with her horses, I would bet my last penny that this was how their relationship would have been.

  I looked down for the bolt, wanting to go into his stable with him. I frowned as I noticed both the top bolt and the kick bolt had been moved. The wooden frame harboured splinters, as if it had been forced open. Regardless, I entered his stable. He stepped backwards politely and sniffed at my coat pockets.

  I stroked his neck as he busied himself smelling me, mildly wondering if he could smell Mum somewhere or had somehow connected we were related. Pushing the boundaries step by step, I ran my hands over his strong muscled back and down his tough, sturdy legs.

  I clucked to him as I asked him to pick his feet up for me. He obliged without a fuss, revealing to me that as I suspected, he was barefoot. Mum hated shoes with a passion, and from the looks of his hoof walls, he hadn’t had shoes on for months as there were no tell-tale holes for the nails. His feet were perfectly trimmed and smooth.