Without saying a word, she took one of the photographs out of the folder and held it up to him. He glanced at it, wondering what it was, and then his eyes widened, and he stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her. He looked as though he was about to faint, which was how Tallie felt too.
“Nice tennis game you had last weekend,” she said softly, as his eyes met hers.
“Why did you do that?” he asked her, visibly near tears himself as she started to cry again. “You didn’t have to do that. I would have told you if you’d asked me.”
“I didn’t know until I saw this. I had to have you followed to find out. She says you’re getting married. Are you?” He didn’t answer for a long moment.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing. I never meant for it to happen. I felt sorry for her. I tried to help her. She wound up in the hospital when her husband beat her up. And then somehow I got involved … Tallie, I love you both. I love everything about our life together, and our work … but she’s a sweet girl and she needs me.” He sounded pathetic as she listened, and weak, as he made excuses for what he’d done. It was all so predictable, and so sad.
“I need you too,” she said as she cried.
He took a breath then and decided to say it all. He had been putting the groceries away and the refrigerator was still standing open as Hunt and Tallie looked at each other.
“She just found out she’s pregnant. That complicates things even more.” It was so ridiculous, like a bad soap opera, but it still didn’t explain what he’d done before with Brigitte.
“What about Brigitte? Did she need you too?” Tallie’s eyes grew hard as they bored into his, and he gave a groan.
“Oh my God. Did she tell you?”
“No. She lied too. You both did. For three years.”
“You were on location. She was helping me get organized a few months after we started, before I moved in, when I was staying here one weekend. I thought it was very nice of her to help. We drank a lot of wine one night, and don’t ask me how, but I wound up in bed with her, which was the dumbest thing I ever did. I talked to her about it the next day, and she wouldn’t let me off the hook. She blackmailed me and said that if I tried to get out of it, she would tell you. I was in love with you, and I didn’t want to lose you. For three miserable years I let her threaten me into meeting her twice a week. They were the worst three years of my life. I never loved her. I just didn’t know how to get out of it without blowing my life apart. She kept threatening me that she’d tell you if I stopped. And then Angela came along, and somehow I got out of it with Brigitte, and I called her bluff. But I fell in love with Angela, and now I love you both. I don’t blame you if you hate me, but honestly, Tallie, I love you and I don’t know what to do.” She had never seen anyone unravel as quickly as he did. But there was no excuse for what he’d done with Angela or Brigitte, even if what he said about her assistant was true. After all that she had learned that afternoon, anything was possible now. But if what he said was correct, he’d slept with Brigitte almost right from the beginning of his affair with Tallie.
“Will you give Angela up?” Tallie asked him in a strong, clear voice that surprised them both, and he stood there staring at her with a devastated expression, unable to answer.
“She wants to have our baby,” he said in a strangled voice finally.
“And what do you want? Angela or me? You can’t have us both. You’ve cheated on me for four years, Hunt, the whole time we’ve been together. I don’t know if I could ever trust you again. Probably not.” And then she surprised herself. “I might be willing to try, but you would have to swear to me to give her up.”
Tears rolled down his cheeks as he looked at Tallie, and they both knew the truth before he even answered. “I can’t,” he said softly. “I can’t do that to her. Not now.”
“And if she weren’t having the baby?”
“I don’t know. I love her and her little boy … and you. Christ, what a fucking disaster this is,” he said as he sat down hard in one of the kitchen chairs and slammed the refrigerator door. “Why did you go to a detective?” He was angry at her, but more so at himself.
“Because of the money, and the hotel bills. You told Victor you went to those hotels with me, and it was a lie. Everything was a lie,” she said, sobbing again. And all she wanted to do was turn the clock back. But she couldn’t turn it back far enough. He had cheated on her the whole time, and if what he had said about Brigitte was true, it was yet another nightmare that she had to deal with too. She had lost two of the people she loved most.
“I’m not stealing your money,” he said in a rough voice.
“I know. I believe you. But you lied about everything else. Our whole life together was a lie. You cheated on me the whole time.”
“I didn’t mean to,” he said weakly.
“But you did anyway. And now you don’t want to give this girl up. That tells me all I need to know. I’m not going to sit here, while you have an affair, and a baby, with someone else.”
“I understand,” he said in a dead voice. “What do you want me to do now?”
“If you won’t agree to stop seeing her, I want you to move out.” He nodded. What she really wanted was for him to love her and give up Angela, but she could see he wouldn’t. He was hooked. You could see in the pictures the way he looked at her. He hadn’t looked at Tallie that way in years. Or maybe ever.
“I never wanted it to be like this, and I didn’t want you to find out this way,” he said miserably.
“Then you should have told me.”
“I didn’t know how.”
“The private investigator did it for you. And I guess one picture is worth a thousand words.” She glanced at the photo of him kissing Angela and he winced.
“Tallie, I’m so sorry,” he said as he walked across the kitchen to her and tried to put his arms around her, as she pulled away from him.
“Don’t!” she said as she put a hand up to push him away. “Don’t make it worse than it is. I think a year of Angela and nearly three of Brigitte is enough, and you could have gotten out of that if you’d wanted to.”
“You don’t know what she’s really like. I didn’t want her spoiling everything for us.”
“You did anyway, and you went on sleeping with her for three years.” It was all hard to believe. And all the while she had thought she was happy at last and he was the best man in the world, while he cheated on her. “I’m not going to make the next movie with you, Hunt,” she added then, and he looked pained.
“Let’s not try to solve everything in one night.”
“There’s nothing to solve. If you’re staying with Angela, I’m done. And I’m not going to work with a man who did this to me, and who’s this dishonest.” He had proven that he had no integrity at all. He didn’t answer, he just sat looking at her with eyes full of embarrassment and despair. He had made a mess of everything, right from the beginning, and it had taken four years to come home to roost but it finally had. “I want you to move out now,” Tallie said in a choked voice. She didn’t know what else to do. She couldn’t spend another night with him, in their bedroom, in the same bed, knowing that he was in love with another woman and having a child with her, even if he said he loved her too.
“I’ll get some things,” he said quietly. “I’ll come back for the rest when you’re in Palm Springs.”
“I’ll send them to you,” she said, as he walked toward her. He tried to reach out to her again, and she took a step back. Her eyes burned holes into his, and he could feel her pain searing through him. It made him realize what he’d done. He had Angela and their baby, but he realized then that Tallie had lost everything, and she looked bereft as he walked by. He had done a terrible thing, and he knew it. Brigitte had been evil and cunning, but he had been weak. And he should never have gotten involved with Angela either. He had gone to the hospital to see her, just to be nice to her, and the next thing he knew he was in love with her and never wanted
to leave her or her son. But now it meant leaving Tallie. Whatever he did, someone was going to get hurt, or all of them. And the last thing he had wanted to do was hurt Tallie, which was why he had put it off for so long. And now it had exploded, and they’d all been blown to bits, and his life with Tallie was destroyed. But he didn’t want to stay with her either. He couldn’t leave Angela now, particularly not with their baby. He had no other choice. And he knew it as he went upstairs to pack.
He came back downstairs ten minutes later with a small bag in his hand. He had some clothes at Angela’s place anyway, and he could buy whatever he needed. He didn’t know what to say to Tallie as he stood looking at her from the doorway. Without a word, he went to put his arms around her, and she let him and broke into a wracking sob. He held her as long as he could before he made promises he knew he couldn’t keep, and then he gently let her go and walked out the door with tears running down his cheeks. He didn’t look back at her as he closed the door softly behind him, and a moment later she heard his car drive away, and she looked around her empty house sobbing. She didn’t know where to run from the pain or what to do. She just stood there crying, thinking about Hunt with Angela and their baby, and what Brigitte had done with him. She had been betrayed by them all.
Chapter 9
TALLIE CRIED HERSELF to sleep on Friday night, and she woke up on Saturday morning feeling as though she’d been on a two-week drunk. Every inch of her body ached, and her head hurt from crying. She could hardly get out of bed, and didn’t even want to. She walked downstairs to the kitchen, thinking about what the rest of her life would be like without Hunt. She worried that she had been hasty in her decision or reaction, and as she sat huddled over a cup of tea, she realized again that she’d had no other choice. He wouldn’t give up Angela and their baby, and he had cheated on her for all four years they’d been together. She would never have trusted him again. There had never been a time when he was faithful or honest with her. It was just too much to forgive. There had been no choice except for him to leave. But the emptiness she felt around her sucked the air out of her like a vacuum. Her life felt like a wasteland, and she knew that she would miss him. No matter how dishonest he had been, he had always been so sweet to her, and to Max, and she had loved living and working with him. She thought they were so happy. She didn’t have the heart to tell her daughter yet that he was gone, and when Max called her later that morning, Tallie didn’t take the call. She knew she couldn’t have talked to her without sobbing. She needed some time to absorb what had happened before she told Max. Tallie knew that she would be crushed too. She loved Hunt.
She remembered then the FBI agent that the investigator had wanted her to call. She didn’t have the heart to talk to him either, but she knew it was important to call him. They needed to know now who was stealing money from her, and Meg had given her good advice. She looked for her big canvas tote bag, and found the piece of paper with the number on it. She saw the folder on the kitchen table with the photographs of Hunt in it, with Angela and her son, and she started to cry again.
She called the number for Jim Kingston, FBI special agent, and he didn’t answer, so she left him a voicemail. All she said was her name and number and who had referred her. She didn’t explain what it was about. And then she went upstairs and got back into bed. She couldn’t think of a single reason to get up. She felt like her life was over as she sobbed into her pillow.
The baseball team of Hamilton High School was playing Fairfax High. A tall dark-haired boy was at bat. He was a sophomore, and he looked intent as he watched the pitcher and waited for the ball. The bases were loaded, and the score was three to two, Fairfax was winning, and when the batter hit the ball, he sailed it right out of the ball field, and everyone on base got home. It was the last inning, and all the Hamilton parents in the stands were on their feet and cheering. And a tall, good-looking man in a baseball cap was grinning from ear to ear as he watched. He went down on the field as fast as he could get there and threw his arms around his son. He gave him a high-five, and the boy looked embarrassed.
“You did it!” his father said excitedly.
“We would have won anyway. Their pitcher sucks,” Bobby Kingston said to his father.
“That’s not true, and you know it. You’re a hero!” his father teased him. Jim Kingston never missed a game if he could help it. His older son, Josh, was at Michigan State on a football scholarship. Sports had always been a big part of their lives, and Jim had gotten them even more focused on athletics since they lost their mother five years before. He was a widowed single father, had coached Little League for both boys, and he loved spending time with them whenever he wasn’t working. They were his whole life. That and his job at the FBI, as senior special agent. He had taken tamer assignments in recent years, since his wife died, and spent more time in the office. He had the boys to think about, although in two years, when Bobby left for college, he’d be alone again, but for the past five years, since Jeannie died of breast cancer, he had dedicated himself to them. The boys had been ten and fourteen when she died, and he had been mother and father ever since.
“Way to go, Bobby!” one of the fathers said as he walked by.
“You guys played a great game,” Jim said proudly, as Bobby came out of the locker room a few minutes later and they left the field.
“Yeah, it was pretty good.” Bobby grinned. He looked a lot like his father, with the same long, lanky, dark-haired appearance. And his brother did too, although Josh was broader and more powerful than his father or brother. Josh was the star quarterback at Michigan State. Jim was very proud of both his boys, and Jeannie had been too.
It was a relief to Jim in some ways, once Jeannie died, that he only had sons, which was easier for him to manage and relate to than if he’d had girls. But now and then he wished that he had a daughter who looked like his late wife. She had been the most beautiful woman in the world, full of fire and life, always coming up with some new idea or project to keep them busy. She had been the light of his life, and then after two years of illness, remission, chemo, radiation, relapse, and a double mastectomy, it was all over, and she was gone. He still couldn’t believe it, five years later. But thank God he had his boys. At forty-eight, he had been alone for five years, and still had no interest in dating. Some of the guys he worked with had tried to introduce him to other women, usually friends of their wives, and he just didn’t care. He knew there was no one in the world like her, and no one could measure up. Jeannie had been enough for him for one lifetime. And now he could focus on his boys. Josh came home to visit often, and he and Bobby went to see him play in all his big games. He had already been offered a contract by the NFL when he turned twenty-one, but Jim wanted him to wait and finish college, and so far Josh had agreed, although the offers he’d had to play pro football were very tempting.
Jim’s cell phone rang as they were leaving the field, and he saw an unfamiliar number appear. He didn’t answer, and figured he could call them back later, whoever it was.
He took Bobby out for a hamburger after the game, he was starving, and then he dropped him off at a friend’s. He went to buy groceries and to pick up their dry cleaning, and then he went home to read some reports he’d brought from the office to work on over the weekend. He had a full caseload at the moment. He was dealing with mail fraud, credit card fraud, wire fraud, a bank robbery, and an embezzlement. It was more than enough to keep him busy. He checked his cell phone when he sat down at his desk, and then remembered the call he hadn’t answered and listened to the message. The name sounded familiar to him, but he couldn’t remember why. And then he checked the message before it, from Meg Simpson, and she explained that she had referred a client of hers called Tallie Jones, in a possible embezzlement case, and she’d appreciate it if he’d talk to her. Meg was an old friend, and before she left the Bureau they had worked together for two years. He had always liked her, and so had his wife.
He called Tallie’s number, and it rang a few time
s before she answered. She sounded as though she’d been sleeping, which struck him as odd at five o’clock in the afternoon. He wondered if she was sick, and she seemed a little groggy. When he told her who he was, she woke up and was more alert.
“Thank you for calling me back,” she said gratefully. Her voice was young, and she seemed a little scattered to him. “My accountant recently discovered that someone has been taking quite a bit of cash from me without my knowledge. I had Meg Simpson do an initial investigation. I didn’t know if my boyfriend or assistant did it. And it looks like it might be my assistant, but I’m not sure. I don’t know why she would, and she’s worked for me for seventeen years. So maybe it’s not her. This has never come up before. It’s all very confusing at the moment. And Meg thought I should check out my accountant too.” It was hard explaining it all to him as briefly as possible, without boring him with the details … my boyfriend cheated on me … and before that he was sleeping with my assistant … and they both lied to me about the hotels they went to … and someone is stealing twenty-five thousand dollars a month. She had no idea where to start and felt lost.
“How much money is involved?” he asked with interest. She gave him the impression that she was a little anxious. Meg had always referred good cases to him, and didn’t waste his time, although he thought Tallie sounded disoriented.
“About twenty-five thousand dollars a month for the past three years, maybe longer. I don’t really know.” It was a sizable amount. “Close to a million dollars.”
“And why the FBI instead of the police?”
“Because Meg said to call you. She thought there could be bank or wire fraud involved eventually, and she thought we should check it out, that is … if you think it’s appropriate … I don’t really know. This is all very new to me. I just found out and it’s never happened to me before.”
“How did you discover it?”
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