The Maverick
Page 18
BY EARLY MORNING, Chili Witches and Hooks were blackened skeletons of one-hundred-and-twenty-year-old jagged, broken bones and heaps of smoldering ashes. Sid and Foster stood beside their little group, looking dazed and lost. Ben, who’d heard about the fire on the early news, had his arm wrapped around Sunny. Cass stood between her mom and aunt, squeezing their hands.
“I suppose it’s over,” Gloria said. “There’s nothing we can do here. Let’s go home and get some rest.”
“I agree,” Min said. “I’m exhausted. Did all our insurance papers burn?”
“No,” Sunny said. “I have them in a lockbox at my house. Cass, come home with me. I have an extra bedroom and clothes you can wear.”
Cass nodded, then turned to the owners of Hooks. She hugged Sid and Foster. “Guys, I’m so sorry about this. What can we do to help?”
“There’s nothing you can do,” Sid said.
“We’re fully covered by insurance,” Foster added, “so we can take our time about deciding our next step.”
“Does someone need to stay and talk to the authorities?” Cass asked.
“I’ll handle things,” Ben said. “All of you go on home. You look like you’re about to drop.”
Slowly they hugged and dispersed. Cass followed Sunny home and took her meager pile of belongings inside with her.
CASS STOOD IN THE SHOWER for the longest time, soaping off the soot and washing the smell from her hair. The water seemed to help. By the time she was finished, Sunny had left a nightshirt and clothes for her. There was no point in trying to sleep, Cass was too agitated. She felt like crap, and to top things off, she’d started her period. Thank God. To have been pregnant would have been the last straw.
Opting for yoga pants and a tee, she dressed and padded into the kitchen in search of coffee.
“Coffee’s dripping,” Sunny said. “I didn’t figure you could sleep.”
“Not on your life. My brain’s like a hornet’s nest. Have you ever felt like a black cloud was hovering over you and following you wherever you went?”
“Oh, yeah.” Sunny poured two mugs and added sugar and cream.
They took their coffee into the living room and curled up on the couch.
“Think Mom and Aunt Min will want to rebuild?” Cass asked.
“I don’t know. Things wouldn’t be the same.”
“Nope. Sunny, this breaks my heart. A part of history burned this morning. The town’s history, our family’s history. I already feel like a big chunk of me is missing.”
Sunny only nodded. They felt the same way. “You don’t think Griff had anything to do with the fire, do you?”
“Not really. No. I can’t imagine he would sanction such a thing. If Hank hadn’t awakened me, I could be dead. The security alarm and the smoke alarm were going off like crazy, and the noise didn’t faze me.”
Sunny shuddered. “I don’t like to think about it.”
“Me either.” She took another swallow of coffee. “Thankfully, I saved my purse, along with my checkbook and credit cards. I need everything from the skin out. I don’t own a hair drier or a toothbrush or shoes. Nothing. I can’t even recharge my phone.”
“Don’t you have a charger in your car?”
“I do, now that you’ve reminded me, but I don’t want to have to ride around to juice up my battery. I need to make a list of essentials. Help me. It’ll keep our mind off…everything.”
When the list grew to three pages, Cass stopped and they prioritized. Personal grooming items, makeup, a simple basic wardrobe, charger for her phone.
“Want to go with me?” Cass asked.
“Sure.”
Their first stop was Ulta. The second was IHOP. The third was Nordstrom’s. By the time they got to Best Buy, their tail feathers were dragging.
“Tell me this is all for today,” Sunny said.
“This is all. I promise. Let’s go home and order a pizza. I’m starved.”
When they arrived at Sunny’s they found two food bags from Cass’s favorite Italian restaurant sitting by the back door.
Griff. Cass knew immediately this was from him. Before she could stop herself, a warm feeling stole over her and she smiled. No, dammit. She wouldn’t be suckered in by shrimp Portofino. She sighed. But she wouldn’t let the pasta go to waste, either.
Ben stopped by to bring them up to date, and he shared their meal.
“From the preliminary investigation by the fire department,” he said, “it looks like the fire started in the office at Chili Witches.”
“But how?” Sunny asked.
“Not sure,” Ben said, “but the safe survived and it looks like somebody had been after it with a cutting torch.”
“You mean a thief started the fire?” Cass asked.
“Maybe. Or the damage to the safe may have been caused during the fire. As I say, this is preliminary information. We’ll know more in a few days.”
“The alarm was set,” Cass said. “I distinctly remember setting it. How could someone have gotten past it?”
Ben shrugged. “An investigator will be out to talk with you tomorrow.”
“I’m going to leave it with you two,” Cass said. “I’m going to put up all my stuff and sack out.” On her way to the guest room, she paused at the bookshelf to select a novel and tucked it under her arm.
After she’d hung up her new and much abbreviated wardrobe and stowed her shoes—one pair of pewter flats, one pair of sport shoes, one pair of beige thongs and one pair of black heels—she brushed her teeth with her new brush and changed into her new nightie. Socks and undies went in a dresser drawer. She hooked up her phone to the new charger and climbed in bed with Janet Evanovich. She’d only made it to page three when her phone rang. Maddie.
“Hey, Maddie, what’s up?”
“Cass, I have the poop on Griff Mitchell. My brother knows him, but not well. My cousin Will is a friend of his. They still play racquetball or one of those guy games. Griff was a supersmart stud at Harvard Law, and he worked for a firm in New York for a while. About five years ago he and three other buddies from undergrad days formed a consulting company. ZASM. Walter Zeagler, Peter Adair, Fisher Smith and Griffin Mitchell. They partner with developers of hotels and high-rises in a variety of capacities, particularly acquiring properties, and they’ve made scads of money doing it.
“Will said Griff had been in Texas scouting properties, but he came back into town a week or so ago madder than hell at one of the partners, and quit the firm. Packed up his desk and told them he didn’t like the way they did business and to go to hell. Will was stunned. We’re talking about thumbing his nose at megabucks.”
Cass sat straight up in bed. “He did?”
“According to my cousin, he did. And Will also got the idea he’d fallen in love with a woman in Texas because he was selling everything, and told Will not to expect him back. That woman wouldn’t happen to be you, would it?”
“How did you come to that conclusion?”
Maddie laughed. “I didn’t get where I am on my looks. Are you the one?”
“There are some problems.”
“I’d try to work them out if I were you. This Griff sounds like a keeper. Will’s very fond of him, and Will is quite discerning. Does my information help?”
“Perhaps. I’ll need some time to process what you’ve told me. Is there any way I can return the favor?”
“Sure,” Maddie said. “Invite me to the wedding.”
“Don’t pack your bags just yet.”
They chatted for a few minutes about mutual acquaintances, but Cass didn’t mention the fire or anything more about Griff.
After they said goodbye, she lay back and stared at the ceiling. Had she judged Griff too quickly and too harshly?
Maybe she had.
She picked up her phone again and listened to her messages from Griff—all twenty-seven of them.
By the time she’d heard him pour his heart out, she was in tears. She knew without a doubt that he l
oved her, and everything he’d told her was true.
She got up, dressed and packed a few items in a Nordstrom’s bag. Sunny’s bedroom door was closed, so Cass left her a note on the kitchen counter and tiptoed out.
She drove to Griff’s high-rise, went upstairs and knocked.
When he opened the door, she knew he was surprised to see her.
“Griff, let’s talk.”
THEY TALKED FOR A LONG, long time. A small voice inside her whispered that his words were true. She loved him. She trusted him. She could only follow her heart. One chapter of her life had closed; this was a new beginning.
When Griff held her and kissed her and made her spirit sing, she understood what the Senator had meant. She felt as if she’d found her soul mate and come home.
Epilogue
The evening was already in full swing when Cass and Griff arrived. Griff would have rented a ballroom at the hotel if she had agreed. She’d insisted on a less ostentatious room and a small band for dancing.
And people were dancing. The entire Outlaw bunch had turned out, and Sam was twirling Gloria around the floor, while J.J. partnered Min. What a difference a year made, Cass thought as they made their way through the crowd.
Mom and Aunt Min had decided not to rebuild Chili Witches. They’d been very philosophical about the fire and the loss of their business. Perhaps it was God’s way of ending that phase of their lives. They’d insisted the twins should follow their own dreams, not tie themselves to the café as they had. Sunny had seemed relieved by the decision, and to tell the truth, Cass was, too. They’d sold the property—not to ZASM, but to someone else.
Maybe the thieves had done them a favor. Using tapes from a surveillance camera on a nearby building, the police had caught the culprits a week after Chili Witches was destroyed. The pair, a busboy and a floor installer, had entered through Hooks, using the alarm code the busboy had stolen from his bosses. They’d sawed a hole between the men’s room in Hooks and the office in Chili Witches, determined to crack the big safe the floor installer had seen there. They’d only succeeded in setting the office afire before they fled. The camera had caught them both full face, as well as their getaway car.
Cass greeted several members of POAC as they neared the podium, as well as old friends from high school and college, and new friends she’d met more recently. Sunny was there with Ben, of course, her tummy just beginning to show a little pooch.
Griff, grinning like a possum, stepped up to the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please.” The band played an ending, and the crowd turned to the raised stage. “For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Griffin Mitchell, campaign manager for our esteemed candidate. The polls have closed. The votes have been counted, and our new city councilwoman—elected without a runoff—is Cassidy Outlaw Mitchell!”
The band struck up a lively song and everybody applauded wildly as balloons—again, Griff’s idea—fell from the ceiling. Griff whirled her around the dance floor, and Cass laughed from the pure joy of the moment and the love of her husband, family and friends. Her mother and Aunt Min had eventually fallen in love with Griff, especially after he took over the franchising of Chili Witches and made them loads of money.
Cass danced with every Outlaw there, including Wes. She even made a round of the floor with Ben, who was an excellent dancer, and Greg Gonzales, who was no slouch, either.
As they toasted with champagne, Griff held her close to his side. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”
She grinned up at him. “Not in the past half hour or so.”
“Well, I do. The day you tripped over me on the jogging trail was the luckiest day of my life. I love you, Cass. Heart and soul.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5554-2
THE MAVERICK
Copyright © 2010 by Janece O. Hudson.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
For questions and comments about the quality of this book please contact us at Customer_eCare@Harlequin.ca
® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
www.eHarlequin.com
*Texas Outlaws
*Texas Outlaws
*Texas Outlaws
*Texas Outlaws
*Texas Outlaws
*Texas Outlaws