The next photos give me pause. Squinting at them, I notice Penelope and Rebecca sitting out on the patio of Le Château, the only restaurant in Crimson Valley the elites frequent. In the first photo, Penelope is leaning forward in her chair to speak with Rebecca who is as tense as a bow and her face is a thunderstorm of emotions. Flipping to the next, I have to blink hard as I zero in on Penelope handing Rebecca over a manila envelope that looks really thick underneath the table. In several shots after that taken in rapid succession, both women are looking around during the hand off as if they have something to hide and my suspicion only grows. Something was going on with the Finelli’s and the King’s and I doubted Gabe knew anything about it if he was as kept in the dark about the family business as I had been growing up.
I am just closing up the file and setting it on the pile beside the box on the floor when the loud obnoxious voice of Des floats through the cabin to me. “Honey! I’m home!” Desmond Williams bursts out laughing after that and I groan. I had a slight headache now from the information overload and I got off the floor just as Des is coming into the room and pausing as he takes in the scene. His eyes go from me standing by a stack of files and an empty box and then they snap to the open hidden compartment above my parents’ bed. His brows shoot up to his hairline and he whistles low. “Your parents are secret badasses, Honey. That is an ingenious idea for a hiding place.” A pang in my chest at that but let out a light laugh, one slightly too high to be anything but full of anxiety. “Also, do you want to tell me about that sketchy phone call? I am assuming because you are here this is some secret hideout your parents had for super-secret stuff?”
The smell of pizza follows Des into the room and I groan again for an entirely different reason. “Did you bring pizza?” I ask instead of answering him and he grins like a devil at me. “Of course! Honey, it’s nearly one in the afternoon. I figured you would be hungry and I am famished. Don’t avoid the question, though.” Blinking, I bend and pick up my phone off the floor and look at the time. Shit, it was nearly one in the afternoon. Where the heck had the day gone? Had I seriously been in here that long?
“I didn’t want to text you the address incase Gabriel Finelli had my phone tapped and I figured a phone call would be the safest bet as long as I kept it under thirty seconds.” I explain in a sigh and his eyebrows shoot into his hairline. “Why would Gabriel Finelli have your phone tapped and how would you know if he did?” He asks incredulously and I shrug.
“He hacked into my phone yesterday and put all the boys' numbers in. Hawk told me and I just didn’t want to risk it. If he tapped my phone, his parents could be on the receiving end and this information I just found is too valuable for them to find. It’s why I asked you to bring your digital scanner so we can back these up in case of a disaster.” I explain. “Also, when did you have time to stop and get pizza? I called you like ten minutes ago.” I go back to the pizza thing because it smells delicious but I am also curious. Des laughs. “I actually just had it delivered when you called so I wasn’t leaving it behind.” He says and since it is a very Des thing to do, I don’t question it as I laugh.
“Right, well, we can eat while we work. There are a lot of documents to go through in here.” I grumble as I bend to pick up the pile of folders. Des helps me carry everything to the kitchen where the aroma of pizza wafted towards us and my stomach growled. This was going to be a long afternoon.
It takes us a long time, but we eventually scan all the important documents and photos onto my cloud drive using Des’ digital scanner. At this point, Des has broken into my parents’ wine closet and is now on his second bottle of Antinori Tignanello which was the second cheapest wine my parents had, but it was still over the hundred dollars a bottle mark. My momma had always been a lover of good wine and I had inherited the taste as well, but I steered clear of the stuff tonight. Silas would murder me if I drunk called him again tonight and left him another voicemail like last night. Or fuck me. I wouldn’t mind if it was the latter. Maybe he could even choke me a bit and pretend he wanted to murder me?
Christ.
Shaking my head, I groan as I get up from the stool at the island and gather up the stacks of documents that have been scanned and return them to their correct files and then tuck them back into the box. “Honey, remember when we stole that bottle of wine from the wine closet in Locke Manor, the summer after we finished seventh grade, and then we snuck it into your bathroom and tried to drink it?” Des asks out of nowhere and I snort as the memory comes easy to me. My drunk gay friend is lying face down on the floor of the kitchen in front of the island because the heat floor was on and he claimed his dick was cold. He had been dumbstruck when I had told him the floor was heated when he was halfway through his first bottle of wine and he asked me why his feet were so toasty warm from standing by the island. His pants are also off, just in boxers and a dress shirt that he had been wearing when he came over earlier. I told him he wasn’t allowed to put his balls on my kitchen floor so he was kind enough to keep his black Ralph Lauren boxers on. I rolled my eyes, dramatically.
“I couldn’t do it. Whatever wine you picked out was one of my papa’s favorites and you know how bitter he likes his wines. Shit tasted like a spoiled grape juice on steroids.” I wrinkle my nose at the memory of a barely twelve-year-old me, trying to take a sip of that Gods awful wine Des had lifted from the closet and then spewing it out of my nose because I could not get that liquid out of my mouth fast enough.
“I think your dad was more amused than anything when he found out because Violet came up to call you for dinner and found us hiding in the bathroom with wine all over the floor.” Des slurred as he laughed, lifting his face off the floor to tip back the bottle of wine with one hand and take a swig. I laugh at the memory as I take the box in my hands full of files. I don’t answer him as I walk back down the hall and into my parents’ room. Hopping up onto the bed, I slide the box back in and notice another, smaller box tucked in the back and I would have missed it if I hadn’t been looking closely. Frowning, I reach in, having to step up on the wooden headboard a little to reach, and grab it out. It’s lighter than the file box and I hop off the bed and take it back into the kitchen.
I had only been gone a few minutes, max, but Des was already snoring on the floor, face down still, and I sigh. Leaving him there, I set the box on the island and opened it up. There is a single file inside, medium in thickness, and I take it out. It has ‘Locke’ printed on the tab and when I flip it open, it is full of email correspondence between both my parents email addresses and a ‘l.r.castillo’ through Gmail. There are several back and forth discussing times of events and scheduling meetings at locations outside of Crimson Valley. Why did that name in the email sound so familiar? Racking my brain, which was fuzzy from exhaustion after the long emotionally draining day I have had, I try to remember. It dawns on me after a moment and Nina and Lucas flash in my memory. Castillo… As in Lucas Castillo. It was the ‘L’ in the email, it had to be. What the fuck? Why would my parents be having secret meetings with Lucas Castillo?
Slipping my phone out of my pocket, irritation sparking inside of me, I scroll through my contacts until I find Nina’s and I hit the call button without hesitation. I was going to get to the bottom of this. It rings two times before Nina picks up, cheerful on the other end.
“Hey girl! I was wondering when you would call! What’s up?” I can hear her infectious smile on the other end of the phone and if I weren’t in such a defensive mood, I would have been polite and greeted her back the way a friend should. “Hey. Are you free to meet me at the Crimson Drip in like half an hour? I have something I need to talk to you about and it can’t really wait.” I try to keep the tension out of my voice. If Nina and her fiancé were up to something with my parents and I tipped her off that I knew, it might send her running or clamming up. I needed to confront her face to face so that I would know if she was lying or not. A pause on the other end of the line.
“Of course. I will b
e there.” She replies and because I don’t trust myself not to react badly with a reply, I hang up. Better her think I am just being shady because I am my normal paranoid self. Slipping my phone back into my pocket, I gather up the file and walk back through to the Den where I had a fire going in the hearth I had started this morning when I had gotten up and ate breakfast. It still had a small crackle of flame left and I knew it would be enough when I started to throw copies of the correspondence into the flames. The fire ate at the evidence quickly enough. If my parents had been working with the Castillo’s, it was for a good reason. This kind of evidence was dangerous to have lying around and I didn’t want to throw Lucas to the wolves until I figured out what the hell was going on with him and Nina and the Order. Normally I was a shoot first, ask questions later kind of woman but not with this. Not when my parents had risked their lives to hide this evidence.
When the last of the paperwork is destroyed a few minutes later, I sweep through the house and tidy things up. If anyone came here when Des and I left, I didn’t want anything to look out of place and lead them to the horde of evidence my momma and papa had hidden above their bed. I packed as quickly as possible, making sure I had my letters and my parents' rings, and then I carried my bags into the kitchen. Dropping them on the floor, I roughly roll Des over with the toe of my boot and he groans when his back hits the warm tile beneath him. “Fuck off, Honey. I’m sleeping.” He threw his arm over his eyes in the late afternoon early evening light still filtering into the windows in the kitchen. I snort at this.
“Sorry, Des. I have somewhere important to be. Come on. I’ll drive you home and I can pick you up tomorrow to come back for your car.” He grumbles and groans but manages to get up. It takes him several minutes to get his pants back on and his shoes. In a total of ten minutes from my call to Nina to now, I had cleaned up the house of evidence it had been used recently, packed my stuff, burned a heap of evidence, and gotten drunk Des up off my floor and are now heading off back into town. Feeling accomplished, I let my mind wonder as we head back to town, Des half leaning out the Bugatti window in case he threw up. Oh, joy. His mom was going to be thrilled when I dumped her drunk son on their doorstep and took off without saying anything.
I make it to the Crimson Drip without a second to spare. It had taken longer than I anticipated rolling Des out of my car and into his house. Thankfully, his parents hadn’t been home because he threw up all over their hostas beside the massive stone steps of their main entrance and I was sure the new door man they had was going to have an aneurysm at all the vomit all over the plants. The gardener was going to have a field day with that. Walking up to the entrance of the Crimson Drip, I spot Nina at one of the outdoor patio tables, a warm cup of coffee in her gloved hands, an emerald, green beanie, and matching suede coat over black leggings as her attire and she looks like a picture. Nina Moore was a beautiful woman and it was no wonder Lucas Castillo was smitten with her.
She glances up as I approach, my hands stuffed into a leather jacket I had thrown on over a long-sleeved red top and tight dark jeans with my favorite pair of black suede ankle boots. It was surprisingly warmer outside today for the middle of October, but it was still too chilly to be outside without a light jacket on. Thankfully, it wasn’t raining but I was sure the storms were going to start up again as it neared Thanksgiving. I notice she has a hot cup of chai in the spot across from her and a slight smile crosses my lips as I sit down.
“I hope Chai is still your favorite Crimson Drip drink? I may be a bit out of practice at this whole best friend thing.” She gives me a radiant smile and part of me can’t help the widening in my smile. Despite my suspicions, I missed Nina. I missed the times her, Des, and I used to have around town together as we grew up. Some of them even with the boys. The year we all turned thirteen had changed everything almost as if overnight. It had been like a punch to the gut losing two of my best friends in one year, but Silas and the boys had been there to pick up the pieces and I hadn’t questioned their motivations. Maybe I should have? Perhaps things would have turned out different if I had kept my distance?
“I haven’t been back here since coming back, but this is great, thanks Nina.” I pick up the steaming cup and take a small sip and it is like a bomb of flavor exploding in my mouth and a small groan of delight escapes me at the party on my taste buds. Setting the cup down, I try to collect my thoughts on how I best wanted to approach this. Glancing around, I make sure no one is in the immediate vicinity of us and Nina watches me, her expression going wary. “Listen… I don’t know how to skirt around this so I am just going to come out and ask because I still consider us friends and I hope you have enough respect for me not to lie to me about something like this.” I pause and Nina’s face morphs from confusion to grimness. I think she knows what this is going to be about. Sighing, I continue, “I was going through some of my parent’s old things and I came across some rather odd, printed copies of emails between them and a l.r.castillo. I need you to be honest with me, Nina, and tell me who Lucas Castillo really is and why he would have been corresponding with my parents on Order business?”
I sit back and watch her after I finish talking and she picks up her coffee cup and takes a sip, biting her lip after. She doesn’t reply for several long minutes. In fact, she won't even look up at me anymore. Instead, she looks down into her lap and her dark curls slide forward to block her facial expressions from me. I give her the benefit of the doubt and I remain silent, waiting her out. In chess, the queen never moves until she is ready to take. If she lied to me, I would know, and the queen would move and take. This was my life and my board, no one was going to move without my say so. Nina’s tell had always been in her expression. She wouldn’t be able to hide her lie from me if she decided to twist one.
“I don’t want you to mistrust me, Honey. It wasn’t my intention. I’ve been working on something for a while now. I know it’s asking a lot, especially after what you went through before you left here, but I need you to trust me. There is so much hanging in the balance here and if it all falls apart, I won't be able to handle it if you were caught in the crossfire again. Please, just let me do this for you, please, let me keep you safe, okay?” Nina keeps her voice low, and when she finally looks up at me, with glossy eyes and tears forming, as she speaks, the expression on her face is full of determination and something else I couldn’t quiet place. Sadness? Regret? Frowning, I consider this. Something rang true in Nina’s words. We had once had an unbreakable bond. Back before the Order ruined that for us too, we had been as close as any two friends could be. We shared everything with each other and she has never once lied to me. So why would she now? I had never had a reason not to trust her. Her expression obviously told a story of great heartache and solid determination. My gut screamed at me that I could trust her and her words just pushed me further towards that feeling. There were genuine feelings in her words.
“Alright.” I eventually said when the silence began to stretch out too long and she began to look desperate and nervous. Whatever secrets she was keeping, she really and truly believed they were secrets meant to stay as such. She looks surprised at my response and I hide my smile by bringing my chai up and taking a long sip of it. She blinks at me like an owl, clearly taken aback. I wasn’t going to lie, I was still curious to know what she and Lucas are really up to around here but as long as it’s in my favor, I really can’t complain when Nina feels the need to keep her secrets. I had some of my own and it wasn’t like I was going out of my way to tell her any of them. “Can you just promise you will be careful? The Order of Red are not people you want to mess with, as I am sure you are aware. I guess it is a good thing this is a need-to-know situation, right?” I gave her a small smile to reassure her I wasn’t playing games and she searched my face for a few moments before she smiled back.
“I promise I’ll be careful. I’ve been making plans for a long time and I assure you that I have everything under control, you just have to trust me.” Her infectious
smile back in place, we spend the next thirty minutes or so talking before she informs me she had a prior engagement with Lucas tonight. It was nearing seven in the evening now and the sky was beginning to darken but as we had talked, I had come up with a solid plan to get the Order off my back about the mole and I needed to get a hold of Hawk to call in a favor to achieve my plan.
Nina may have her own plans to help me, but I wasn’t going to just let her throw herself to the wolves if I could help it. Pulling out my phone, I pull up Hawk’s number as I am getting into my Bugatti ten minutes later and dial him as I start the engine and pull away from the curb a block down from the Crimson Drip. He picks up on the second ring.
“Well as I live and breathe, is this really Honey Rose Locke calling me?” His smart-ass drawl over the other end of the line has me almost laughing and I roll my eyes though he obviously can’t see me. “Shut up, jerk. Don’t push it. I need you to meet me at my place in like ten minutes. I’ll be home soon.” It wasn’t a request and he laughs down the line, obviously in a good mood. Fabric rustles on the other end of the line and I guessed he was putting clothes on. He would get to my place before I did. “Don’t be an ass to Sam. I will shoot him a text that you are allowed in the house.” I say and more rustling fabric before he laughs again, the sound making me smile despite myself.
“See you in ten, Rosie.” He chuckles down the line when I scowl and I am sure he has some sixth sense what that nickname did to me. He hadn’t used it since we were kids and it made my heart hurt while also filling with immense joy all at the same time. I missed Hawk, more than I was ever willing to admit and I was glad I was starting to let go of our painful past slowly. It was nice to be this lighthearted around him again. I hang up as I curve the roads that lead north out of downtown Crimson Valley and to our estates.
Whiskey & Honey: Crimes of Crimson Valley: Book One Page 19