She had a point.
“So he called his old college buddy Art,” she said. “Art was coming to a Baylor home football game, it turned out, and Tony proposed a meeting. They had breakfast together, right in this very booth we’re sitting in. Do you know why Tony wanted to meet with him?”
“He wanted a loan,” I said.
“Aren’t you the clever one?” she mocked.
I shot her a glare, but she ignored me.
“Tony and Art had made some sort of pact back in college that if one of them ever needed help, the other would come through for him. Well, Art, he wasn’t too happy about this, and claimed they’d made the pact as college kids who didn’t know better. Tony had no way of holding him to a promise.” A grin lit up her eyes. “Tony suggested the nude photos he had of Art and some high-priced escorts might accidentally get delivered to Art’s wife if he didn’t reconsider. Now, Art had just gotten control of his daddy’s company, and he wasn’t willing to go through a costly divorce, so he agreed to loan Tony two hundred thousand for his not-so-legal business. You see, banks tend not to give loans for illegal enterprises. Tony said he’d repay Art a year later with interest. They were to meet the very next year at this diner and Tony would hand Art a check. Only the next year, Tony had made so much money that Art said he didn’t want to cash out. Art wanted to be a silent partner in Tony’s new business. No hard feelings about the implied blackmail thing.”
“Money talks,” I said.
Kate stabbed a piece of her pancakes and pointed the tip of her fork at me. “And don’t you forget it.” She popped the food into her mouth, then said with her mouth partially full, “So every year the company has their board meeting right here in this booth.” She winked. “Tony was always a superstitious kind of guy.”
The way she said it made it sound like she knew this personally.
“Tony Roberts and Arthur Manchester formed the Hardshaw Group,” I said, trying to keep the awe out of my voice. As far as I could tell, Kate had found out what no one else had.
“Ding, ding, ding,” she said with a grin. “But the wealthy always want to get wealthier. A rich friend of Art’s heard his pal was in on some uber secret investment deal, and decided he wanted in. Bad. Art introduced him to Tony, and the next thing you know, there were three board members. Care to guess who partner number three is?”
She wouldn’t have asked like that if the information would mean nothing to me. I thought about Kate knowing Carly’s real name and Skeeter’s insistence that Carly’s father had ties to Hardshaw. “Carly’s father.”
“See?” she teased. “You’re a natural with all this sleuthing stuff.”
I could have told her she’d done all the work and I’d taken an educated guess, but I saw no reason to boost her already inflated ego.
“So the three of them—Tony, Art, and Randall Blakely—also a Baylor alum—continued to meet here every year for their board meeting, timing it with a Baylor home football game—but the business grew so fast they needed to meet more frequently. Soon they also had meetings timed to coincide with one or two basketball games and sometimes a baseball game. They’d all been enthusiastic Baylor sports fans, so no one ever put it together and only the three of them knew…until Tony died eight years ago, and his son Carson Roberts took his place on the board.” Kate leaned closer and lowered her voice. “You see, they agreed early on their spots would be inheritable. The position needs to be filled by a legal child or a son- or daughter-in-law upon the partner’s death or their assets are forfeited to the others. Art has his son all primed and ready to take over when the time comes, but Randall… He’s had some issues.”
My chest tightened. “Carly.”
Kate’s eyes lit up. “Caroline Elizabeth Blakely. Randall’s only heir…unless she marries, in which case her husband can fill her shoes. Only if she’s dead, of course, but that’s not necessarily a problem.”
I sucked in a breath. Carly had told us she’d overheard her father and fiancé talking about an agreement they’d formed—a prime position in Blakely Oil in exchange for marrying Carly. Was there more to it? Had her own father planned to kill her off?
Could this be what she’d almost told Jed and me the other night?
I reached out my hand. “I need my phone. Now. I have to tell Jed.”
She squinted at me in confusion. “You really like that girl, don’t you?”
That made my heart jolt. Kate was like a toddler who would rather destroy a toy than share it. I needed to distract her. “Rose said Skeeter Malcolm was worried about her livin’ with Carly. Does he know everything?”
Kate laughed. “No. Carson, Art, and Randall make damn sure no one knows everything.”
“Then how do you know?”
She gave me a haughty look. “Because I fucked Carson. I fucked him for years, two to be exact, and learned all kinds of things about his little side hustle. Believe it or not, this is his side hustle. He’s running his father’s venture capital firm. Or rather the grownups are running it and he lets them. He’s much more intrigued by the finer things in life. And so was I, so it worked.”
Which was how the waitress knew her. “You’ve been here with Carson.”
“You are a smart girl.”
“But the waitress called you Andrea.”
“That’s because Carson knows me as Andrea Penske.”
“Surely he would have done some kind of background check on you.”
She shrugged. “He did. To some extent. I approached him, telling him I was J.R. Simmons’ former lover, and offered to give him anything he needed to take our father down.”
I scrunched my face in disgust. “You told him you slept with your father?”
“Carson didn’t know he was our father, and as you previously guessed, the sleeping together part wasn’t a lie.”
Pain shot through my chest. “Kate, I was out of line when I said that.”
“Were you?” she asked with narrowed eyes. “Because it seems to me you were going for the kill, and you can’t waver when you’re going for the kill, Neely Kate. Don’t ever forget that.”
I nodded, because she was right, and I suspected she knew from real-world experience. Literally. “When you left the farm after…” After she’d viciously strangled Stella, castrated Branson, then had her henchman kill him. I took a breath. “You told me you’d been investigating them. Not sleepin’ with one of the leaders.”
“Maybe I was still investigatin’,” she said with a sly grin.
“You still misled me.”
She winked. “Even so, I didn’t outright lie.”
Just another reminder of how she liked to twist words and tell half-truths. “Is Carly in trouble?” I asked. “Does Hardshaw know where she is?”
Kate turned serious. “No. But I find it interesting Skeeter Malcolm not only knows who she is but is worried about her living with Rose Petal.”
“Do you think he knows about the Hardshaw board?” I asked. “I know he’s working for them.”
“That started under my tenure as Carson’s girlfriend. He’d been sending out feelers to small counties in Oklahoma and Arkansas, wanting to expand, and I put a bug in his ear that Skeeter Malcolm was as ambitious as they came. Malcolm wanted to take down Daniel Crocker and J.R. too. Carson could use that bad blood to his advantage, so I encouraged him to build a partnership.”
“To take down our father.”
“If you want to destroy someone powerful, make their enemy your friend.”
I studied her for a moment. “If the board and their business is such a secret, then how do you know so much about it? I mean, sleeping with a guy will only get you so far.”
A wicked grin played on her lips. “You underestimate my skills in the art of persuasion.”
I could only guess what she meant. Lord knew I didn’t want the details. “Surely Carson figured out you were lying about who you were. You were all over the news when our father died and you were arrested.”
�
��Carson’s blind when he wants to be. Daddy dearest’s downfall was big news in Arkansas, but other than the satisfaction of having one less competitor, it was a blip on Carson’s radar. J.R. Simmons was only medium fry to him. He’s dealing with South American drug lords.”
“What about what happened in Henryetta a couple of months ago?” I asked. “Surely that caught Carson’s attention, especially since Chad Manchester was involved.”
“I have it under control.” She gave me a condescending look, but something flickered in her eyes, suggesting she wasn’t as confident as she appeared. “Besides, Carson knows Andrea as a blonde.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder.
“Andrea never dressed in black, and her makeup was more Texas than goth. Besides, I wasn’t living with him at that point—I told him I needed to go home to help my poor ailing mother—and he bought it. Of course, it helped that he’d met my mother many times before, an older woman who is quite accomplished in Austin community theatre.”
I stared at her in disbelief. “How much effort did you put into this persona?” The credit card she’d given me had a completely different name.
“When you commit to something, sister mine, you need to go all in.” She dug her wallet out of her purse and began to slip cards out of the slots and set them on the table in a neat row. Driver’s license. Visa. American Express. A health insurance card. All in the name of Andrea Penske. A blonde Kate, nearly unrecognizable due to her sunny smile, beamed up at me from Andrea’s license.
“Where did you get all of this?” I asked in awe.
“Please…” She laughed as she started to slip the cards back into her wallet. “Another life lesson for you, courtesy of your big sis.”
“You did all of this for…what? Revenge? Why?”
Her eyes turned cold as the ice in her glass. “Our father killed the only man I’ve ever loved. He stole the only child I’ll ever want—a baby that would have been half of my Nick. I told him I would take him down for what he did and he had the nerve to laugh at me.” Her upper lip curled into a snarl that was pure danger. “He underestimated me and that was a fatal mistake.”
I took a second to absorb everything she had told me, staring at her in utter disbelief, but I couldn’t help my awe at her persistence and attention to detail. She was just so skilled at reading people.
A slow smile spread across her face. She’d obviously picked up on my feelings despite my best attempts to hide them. “That’s why I changed my mind about you. You’re more like me than you want to admit.”
I decided to ignore her observation. “So you left Little Rock and sought out Carson? How did you even know about him?”
She pushed out a breath. “Nick.”
I cocked my head. “How did Nick know?”
Her gaze burned into mine. “That’s not important.”
I could have pressed the issue, but I saw no point. Nick’s role didn’t really matter at this point.
“So you went to Dallas and, what, got Carson to take you on as his girlfriend? And once you had that locked down, you convinced him to approach Skeeter?”
“You make it sound like getting him to take me to his bed was hard,” she said with a scoff.
I rolled my eyes. “Okay. Skeeter comes on board with the prescription drugs and then what?”
“Then we sent him after that flash drive of Daniel Crocker’s. We didn’t know Rose Petal had it, or we would have sent Malcolm after her.”
My heart leapt into my throat. Would Skeeter have hurt Rose to get it? He hadn’t known her yet.
“But then the police got it,” she continued, “and it was out of our hands. Literally. And Joe was undercover, taking down Crocker’s empire from the inside. It was all too perfect.”
What was my sister capable of? “Did you set up Joe to take out Crocker so Skeeter could move in?”
She laughed. “No. That was purely divine providence. How ironic that Joe was helping pave the way for our father’s downfall.”
“So you were using Skeeter,” I said.
She laughed. “James Malcolm’s no fool. He knew we had a purpose for him, and he willingly accepted our help in exchange for the position he coveted.”
I couldn’t believe Skeeter had been thick as thieves with them for so long without ever saying a word to Jed. Had he already intended to kick Jed out? Or had he known things would eventually go south?
“You keep sayin’ ‘we,’” I said.
Her eyes lit up. “I was behind every bit of that operation. After Crocker’s arrest, we pushed Malcolm hard to make a move on Crocker’s empire, saying we’d support him in any way we could if it came to a war. I knew my father would go after him—with their bad blood and all, it was inevitable—and figured we could use Malcolm to finally nail the son-of-a-bitch. But Malcolm’s right-hand man”—she winked—“was urging him to hold off, to bide his time and wait, which royally pissed me off. Carson always went along with me, but he insisted that patience wasn’t a bad move in this situation. He insisted I’d still get my revenge, only I’d have to wait a little bit longer than I’d hoped. I agreed to wait, but I began working on my own plan. Just in case Carson wussed out.”
“You started diggin’ into my past,” I said in a dull voice.
“I’d known about you for a while, but last fall I went to Ardmore and did my own investigation. My investigators found your mother and I took a trip out to West Virginia to have a little chat.” She curled her upper lip. “Nasty piece of work, that woman. The best thing she ever did for you was leave you at your grandmother’s house.”
This wasn’t the first time Kate had uttered that sentiment, but it was the first time she’d sounded genuine while saying it.
“But you were behind Ronnie comin’ back to Fenton County. You must’ve been.”
Her eyes twinkled with mischief.
She wasn’t going to admit it, but it was clear as day she’d had something to do with it. “Where did Carson think you were through all of this?”
“I was only gone for short stretches, so my story about my mother’s illness held up well. It was harder once I became more entrenched in Henryetta.”
“And after you were sent to the psych ward.”
She laughed. “Not as hard as you’d think.”
“You’ve been with him the last two months?” I asked.
A smug look lit up her eyes. “A good portion of it. We really do have great chemistry.”
“Where do I fit into all of this, Kate? What about the money?”
“It’s not time to tell you about the money yet.”
That didn’t surprise me. It wouldn’t fit her flair for drama to give away too much too soon. “So we came all of this way to sit in the booth where it all started?”
She cut off another piece of pancake and stuffed it into her mouth, a grin spreading across her face. “They really are the best pancakes in Texas.”
Chapter 17
I still had a million and one questions, but my sister refused to answer a single one. The waitress came back with the check. “Andrea, how’s your mother?”
“Doin’ so much better,” Kate said in her Texas sorority girl accent. “Thank you so much for askin’.”
“Carson was in here just last week and I asked him about you. Said I hadn’t seen you in a spell. He said your mother had taken a turn for the worse.”
Kate paused for a fraction of a second. I was sure Mary hadn’t noticed, but I sure as Pete did. “Did he now?” she said, flashing a smile that showed plenty of her perfect teeth. “I’d really wanted to come with him, but Momma had a doctor’s appointment.”
“I was worried you two had broken up,” Mary confided as she leaned closer. “He and the woman he was with seemed pretty cozy, but he assured me she was his cousin and I had nothin’ to worry about. I felt so relieved.”
“Cousin Betty?” Kate asked in a sugary sweet tone. “Blonde with big breasts?”
“No, brunette. Older. Maybe in her forties, but she loo
ked younger from a distance. He called her Paula.”
Kate gave her a good-natured grin. “That’s his aunt. He probably told you it was his cousin to stroke her vanity.” She took a couple of twenties from her wallet, placed them on the table, then slid out of her seat and gave the waitress a kiss on the cheek. “It was good to see you again, Mary. Tell Chet the pancakes were great as usual.”
Mary cast me a glance. “Agreed,” I said. “Best pancakes in Central Texas.”
The waitress’s eyes flew wide in horror, and I could see I’d offended her.
Kate chuckled after the older woman snatched the money off the table and walked off muttering to herself. “Mary’s an all or nothin’ gal. Either the entire state or nothing.” Her smile fell, and a dark look filled her eyes. “Come on. I have a call to make.”
As soon as we were out in the parking lot, I said, “I take it you didn’t know about Carson’s meetin’.”
“Carson doesn’t have any cousins. His parents were only children and his only living great aunt’s name is Wendy.”
“Do you know who he was meetin’?”
Her lips pursed. “Possibly.”
“Is Carson sellin’ you out?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
I was surprised she’d admitted as much, especially since she’d painted a picture of being in control. Maybe her long absence hadn’t gone over as smoothly as she’d thought.
“Where are we goin’ now?” I asked.
“Depends on how this phone call goes,” she said, gesturing toward her car. She clicked her key fob. “Get in.”
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