60. Cody
Cody
Later that afternoon
“ S hit.”
I rub my jaw, well aware that Colt’s doing the same thing as we both peer into the pit.
I didn’t need this BS at any point in my week, but the day after yesterday’s fuck fest? Not only with Cole’s wedding and that weird conversation with Tee that’s still unresolved because I didn’t even have enough time to sleep, never mind return home after sneaking out of the reception dinner to deal with a trio of mercenaries?
My life’s turning into a Mission Impossible sequel and I’m already sick of it.
“Didn’t know you were breaking ground so soon,” he comments as the builders around us buzz and hover, chatter stirring like flies around a fresh pile of horse shit.
More gossip—we need to start copyrighting our lives because someone, someday, is going to write a book about it all. I can feel it in my bones.
“Figured the crew were doing a great job on the breeding stables and they were proceeding well on the dog shelter, so I asked the same company if they’d get started on my plot.”
He shoves his hands into his pockets. “You had the plans ready?”
“No.”
“Then…”
“I had them rushed.” When he coughs, I grimace. “Is this conversation really important right now?”
“Nope.”
“I just?—”
“Prepping for asking Tee the big question?” he asks slyly. “I know she forgave you because the winter front thawed, but I didn’t realize you were at this point in your relationship.”
“This has nothing to do with Tee,” I lie. “Anyway, we’re not?—”
He slaps me on the shoulder. “You can BS Callan and maybe Cole, though he’s definitely more shifty in nature, but not me. You’ve had your eye on this plot long enough to want it but not to get the plans drafted until recently.” He whistles. “Must have paid a hefty price to get that done express.”
“The body wasn’t a part of the compensation package,” I grumble, staring at the bones beneath the recently tilled earth. “Anyway, are we seriously discussing my love life while we’re staring at a skeleton?”
Here I was thinking that we were building a dog shelter so now’d be a good time to get mine underway, and it just goes to prove that I shouldn’t think. Shouldn’t try to be fucking happy. Not on this goddamn land.
They broke ground this morning—that’s how shallow the fucking grave was.
“Maybe it’s an ancient body,” Colt proffers, sounding both hopeful and hopeless, which is quite a feat.
I crack my knuckles. “You think our ancestors wore denim miniskirts?”
“That’s what that blue thing is?”
“Yup.”
“Damn. Could it be…?”
“Marcy?” I nod because I don’t have any words that’d fit this situation.
“How long do DNA tests take?”
“Weeks. Months.” I shrug. “It’s not like the shows.”
“I know that,” he grouches. “Can’t we fast-track it?”
“It’s a cold case. No one’s fast-tracking anything.” I rub my eyes. “She’s small.”
“Really…” He sighs, and that one sound encompasses exactly how fucking tragic this whole thing is. “…small.”
It makes it worse that she’s in a fetal position.
“Yeah.”
“We don’t know it’s her. Not for certain.”
“You think he murdered someone else?” I grouse.
“If we add Clay to that list, yes.”
“Ever feel like he’s the source of every ounce of misery in this family?”
“Don’t ‘feel’ it, I fucking know it.”
“Hope his DNA’s on her,” I mumble. “Tangible proof is what we need to get him locked up forever.”
“God, me too. Even when he’s fighting other charges, we get no peace from him.”
Ugh. He’s right. “We’ll never be able to throw the book at him for Uncle Clay, but maybe we can for this.”
“There’s nothing to be done for Uncle Clay?”
“On the back of Elena’s dubious testimony? We might believe her, but no one else would. Certainly none of the higher-ups. No evidence. No crime. No witnesses. It’s so long ago there’d be no evidence even if we exhumed him. Unless he poisoned him, and even that might not show up in the DNA material that’s remaining.”
Colt crosses his arms against his chest. “How the fuck am I going to tell Zee her best friend’s buried on our land?”
I grimace because at the back of my mind, I’m thinking the exact same thing.
Zee and Tee used to be best buds with Marcy. Here they are, living beside her grave, one directly related to her killer and the other… well. In time, I hope she’ll be too.
I guess it’s a good thing they were heading to Toronto today.
“Tell her the truth.”
“You sound real skeptical about how well that’ll go for me.”
“You keep it hidden, that’ll make it worse.”
“Why aren’t you taking custody of the body?” Colt asks, changing the subject. “We wouldn’t have to wait for Sergeant Idiot if you did.”
“Murder is the RCMP’s jurisdiction. Plus, it’s a body found on our property. I wouldn’t be able to get involved even if I wanted to.”
“Reilly’s about to make himself at home again, then.” He shoots me a baleful glance. “I know now isn’t the time to be speaking of PR, but finding a body on Korhonen land won’t help matters.” He groans. “And Zee was hoping today would be the last PR event she’d have to attend until Christmas. She’s not happy about having to leave Saskatchewan.”
“You got yourself a real homebody, huh?”
“I did.” He rubs his chin. “I’ll be glad when she’s more comfortable in town. I’m pretty sure she wants to go out more, but she isn’t mustering the courage to.”
“Pigeon Creek did a number on her.”
“This won’t help. Fuck. Have you told Callan?”
“Called him earlier.”
“He’s okay?”
“He’s not a kid, Colt,” I retort, but I’m being a hypocrite—I’m also worried.
“This is his home and an illegal burial site.”
“All ours—what an honor. I was going to live out here. Jesus. This is like begging for a poltergeist to haunt the house.”
“You’ll have to pick somewhere else.”
“No shit. Is it too late for Zee to cancel today’s event?”
He checks his watch. “Should be starting now.”
“Unfortunate.”
“You ever think we’re cursed?”
“After what happened yesterday, during Cole’s wedding? Yes.”
“You haven’t updated me about that yet.”
“You were hungover when I came home.”
“Finding a body has a way of sobering you up. What went down last night?”
“You know the women we scattered around the country and Europe? One of their husbands sent a trio of shitty mercenaries, who couldn’t be discreet if they tried, to infiltrate the sanctuary. God only knows where the band is. At first, I thought they were the undercover mercs, but they’re not.”
“Could they have…”
“Killed them? Maybe. I know that’s a line of inquiry Reilly’s following.” I sigh. “They used the access cards we handed out to the staff to break into the guesthouse.”
“Assholes. Though, I guess it’s proof this new security firm you’ve hired is working out. Where are they?”
“Cells. Doubt they’ll be there long. Not like we caught them in the act of anything other than a B&E.
“The RCMP and marshals have been scouring the local roads for any sign of the actual band members. If they’re hurt or were held hostage while the mercs used their access cards, we’ll have something to hold them with.” I scrub a hand over my jaw. “You know that you don’t have to keep on top of this BS Callan’s putting you through with the PR, right?”
“I do, actually,” is his mild retort. “We don’t all get to come home to play cops and robbers, Cody. Some of us have responsibilities that could devastate a billion-dollar business. Jobs are at stake here.”
I let his insult roll over me because Colt might have been born to shoulder the burden of being a Korhonen, but that doesn’t mean running a billion-dollar corporation in today’s world’s easy.
“You hate it. Zee certainly fucking does. Tee’s the only one who enjoys it because she gets to go shopping on your dime and today she’s traveling business class to Toronto to help Zee?—”
“Leave it, Cody.”
“No. Granted, there’s nothing to be done today, but how will the optics pan out if the press realizes we were exhuming Marcy’s body at the same time as she was sipping Champagne on the front row of a catwalk?” When he blanches, I dig in deep. “Just give it up, Colt. The country’s been spying on us for years without us having to do anything. Don’t invite them in. We can’t afford to borrow trouble.
“You should reschedule everything. Fuck the board of investors. If this is proof of anything, it’s that life’s too goddamn short. And the worst part of all this? We think this is Marcy. We don’t know what else our monster of a sperm donor might have done when he ruled this particular roost.
“No amount of PR is going to make up for his sins. Embrace the fact we’re going to be blogged about by true crime stans until your grandson is the one dealing with the company.”
He’s silent for so long that I’m pretty sure he’s going to ignore me, then, slowly, he grouches, “You’re right.”
Before I can celebrate the fact he listened to me for fucking once, my cell buzzes.
Despite it being on my personal cell, I half expect it to be Reilly asking for more coordinates—the dipshit’s gotten lost twice now—but it’s not.
I frown at the unknown number. “Hello?”
“Cody?”
Recognizing the faint lilt of her accent, I smile. “Hello, Nonna. Is Tee all right?”
“Hmm, my fool son-in-law might have put her in a bad mood. But over breakfast, she told her mother you’re dating.”
The words are like an instant shot of adrenaline to my heart. “What?” I wheeze. When she chuckles in my ear, low and soothing and warm, I demand, “Why are you telling me this?”
“Can’t a grandmother call her grandson-in-law to shoot the breeze?”
Not when my heart’s still beating like I’m jacked up on speed. “I guess.”
“You okay there, Cody? You don’t have emphysema too, do you?”
I choke out a laugh. “No. I don’t. But… I can’t believe she’s told her mom. What about her dad?”
“No. Look, Cody, he’s actually the reason I’m calling you today. I love my son-in-law and he’s a wonderful father, but he fixates on the mundane. Nothing mundane about Tee, as well you know.”
“No, there isn’t,” I concur with a frown.
“He offered her a job at his school. Wants her to work in the admin block while she studies for a bachelor’s in education.”
“She’d hate that.”
“Yes, she would. They had a massive argument, and I thought she was going to leave, but she didn’t.”
“Nonna, were you eavesdropping?” I half-tease.
She sniffs. “How else would I know what’s being talked about? But that’s neither here nor there. Can I ask you something, Cody?”
I turn away from the sorry state of the bones in the pit, not wanting my father’s toxicity to taint any part of this conversation.
“Ask away.”
“Do you want to clip Tee’s wings, or do you want to let her fly?”
“What do you mean?”
Wafting an arm, I turn away from Colt, who’s shifted to be in my line of sight to mouth: “Who is it?”
“I mean, she’s never going to be... the type of woman who appreciates the regular things in life,” I answer cautiously.
“No, she’s the opposite of traditional.”
“And you think I want that?”
“I think it’s taken her this long to tell her mother. I think that she wanted to keep you a secret. I don’t know why she’d want that if you?—”
Ah.
“I don’t want her to be anything other than what she is. I didn’t ask her to keep anything a secret. She wanted that.”
“Then maybe you should ask yourself why that is. If you have feelings for her.”
“Of course I do!” Gritting my teeth, I admit, “Yesterday, I half-thought she was breaking up with me?—”
“She’s head over heels for you! Honestly, kids today are idiots. God help me. If I didn’t want to stick around to see what kind of baby Mozart Tee creates, I’d be praying for pneumonia to set in! You all try the patience of a saint.
“ Of course she loves you. Of course you love her?—”
“That isn’t news to me. We shared the…” I grimace as I catch Colt’s very interested eye. “…sentiment a while back.”
“Then, what’s the issue?” She mutters something in Italian. “Tell her that I expect you both here for lunch when she’s back and that we’ll be having a family dinner sooner rather than later—no getting out of it. It’s about damn time you were introduced to the family as more than just the local marshal.”
I blink as she puts the phone down.
“Damn MacFarlane women,” I grumble, especially as the picture Tee picked for my wallpaper flashes up to tease me—her with her hands between her legs, spreading her pussy lips apart.
When Tee picked that one, I’d almost had a heart attack.
“Who was that?” Colt asks, sounding closer than before.
“Nobody.” I shove my phone into my pocket, making sure he can’t see the screen.
“Didn’t sound like nobody.”
When my work cell buzzes, this time it is Reilly. “Are you goddamn lost again?” I snarl, patience on as short a leash as Tee’s Nonna’s. “Look, wait where you are. Send me your location and I’ll bring you over here. Goddammit, I have to do everything around this fucking place.”
Storming over to my truck, I tuck my cell onto the dash and head off.
But as annoying as Reilly’s incompetence is, as sad as the discovery of the body is, my mind’s fixated on one problem:
Tee MacFarlane.
And as of five seconds ago, I still don’t have a solution.