Chapter 32
“Ugh, oatmeal. Really?” Ralen asked as he looked at what Cash was spooning out into bowls.
“Oatmeal is good for you,” Cash told him.
“Says who? The oatmeal people?” Ralen asked. “Because you absolutely cannot believe them.”
“Who are the oatmeal people? Is that some new band?” Monroe asked as she skipped up to them.
It amazed Cash how easily she could bounce back.
But as she grew closer, he saw how much makeup she had on her face.
Was she always dressed up like this, or was she hiding something? And her smile seemed a bit forced.
Maybe she wasn’t bouncing back as well as he’d initially thought.
“No, it’s not a good breakfast,” Ralen told her. “It’s the worst breakfast in the world.”
“It’s hardly the worst breakfast in the world. I’m sure there are far worse breakfasts,” Cash said. Although he had to admit that the oatmeal wasn’t looking all that appetizing right now. It might need a ton of sugar, and maybe some cream.
But that wouldn’t really make it that healthy, would it?
Might be the only way that anyone ate it, though.
“What would be a worse breakfast then?” Ralen asked. “Haggis? They don’t eat haggis for breakfast, right?”
“I’ve never tried haggis, but surely it can’t be that bad,” Monroe said.
Cash turned to stare at her. “Really? Not that bad?”
He didn’t think it sounded that good.
“What about Rocky Mountain oysters?” Cash said. “They’ve got to be worse than oatmeal.”
“Hmm. I guess that’s true,” Ralen replied.
“And kidneys,” Cash added. “Bacon and kidneys fried on toast. There’s no way that oatmeal tastes worse than that.”
“All right, all right.” Ralen held up his hands. “I’ll eat that glop you’ve cooked. Although what is wrong with hashbrowns, fried eggs, and ham? Nothing. Nothing is wrong with that.”
“Not very healthy, though, is it?” Cash said.
“Since when do you care about being healthy?” Ralen asked.
Since he took charge of Addie’s health.
“Well, I’ve decided I’d like to live for another fifty years. Instead of dying of a heart attack when I’m forty-five.”
Probably a bit of an exaggeration . . .
“If it’s a choice between eating oatmeal and living longer, or not eating oatmeal and dying sooner, I know which one I’d choose,” Ralen said.
Cash rolled his eyes at him.
“Oatmeal will be good for Addie’s throat,” Monroe said, giving him a knowing look.
“Right. Yeah, of course,” Ralen said, running his hand over his face. “I didn’t think of that. Sorry.”
“What’s going on?” Dotty asked, joining them.
“Cash made us oatmeal for breakfast,” Monroe said. “Wasn’t that kind?”
“It is. Thanks, Cash.” Dotty sent him a smile.
Cash had to hide his surprise. He wasn’t sure he’d seen her smile since meeting her.
Over her shoulder, he spotted Butch sitting at the table, glaring at him.
That man really needed to learn how to loosen up a bit, maybe even smile once in a while. But he guessed that personality transplants were hard to come by.
“Nothing much,” he replied. “Just milk and oatmeal and a bit of salt, that’s it.”
“What are you gonna put on top of it?” Ralen asked as Dotty moved to the table where she’d set up her laptop.
Hmm. He hadn’t really thought that far ahead. “I don’t know.”
“There’s only one topping for oatmeal,” Ralen said as he searched through the cupboards. When he returned he had a bag of brown sugar. “This is mine. The rest of you can find something else to put on your oatmeal.”
“I don’t need anything on mine,” Monroe said, frowning at Ralen. “I’m happy with it just the way it is. But I might take mine to my room, if that’s okay?”
Cash was starting to have some suspicions about Monroe and her eating and he didn’t like what he was coming up with.
“Eat out here,” Ralen said with a firm look at Monroe.
“I’d rather not,” she replied with a big smile that didn’t seem to reach her eyes.
“Stay out here,” Butch said. “We need to talk about a few things. Ink is going to call at ten.”
It was nice of Butch to tell the rest of them. Cash shot a look at Ralen, who just shrugged. Seemed he hadn’t known that either.
“All right. I’ll just heat mine up afterwards. Thanks, Cash.” Monroe moved over to sit next to Dotty at the table.
Dotty was working on her laptop, a small frown on her face.
Cash carried over several bowls. One he placed in front of Dotty. The other two were for Addie and himself.
“There’s one up on the counter for you too,” he said to Butch. No way was he carrying it over for the grumpy bastard.
Ralen sat with his bowl and bag of sugar.
“Can I have some of that?” Dotty asked.
“I don’t know. I was going to use it all on my bowl.”
“You’re going to use the whole bag?” Dotty asked.
“Yeah, but I suppose I can share.”
Ralen put way too much brown sugar on his oatmeal, took a mouthful, and added some more. Everyone stared at him in shock.
“He’s got a sweet tooth,” Cash told them.
A bedroom door opened, and Addie walked out wearing an oversized hoodie and a pair of tights. Thankfully, Ink kept the safe house stocked with spare clothes, toiletries, and plenty of food, so they all had something to wear this morning.
Although he might head over to their place and get some more stuff later.
And go to LittleLand to get her that hoodie with the squishy bits in the cuffs.
He noticed that the bruise on her face was turning dark purple. Ouch.
“Come here, Addie.” Cash pulled out the chair next to him. “I made you some breakfast.”
She walked over slowly and slid into the seat.
“Here,” Butch said, frowning down at his own bowl which he’d grabbed. “You’ll need this.” He passed her the bag of brown sugar, which was considerably lighter than it had been before.
“Everyone’s a critic,” Cash said as he dipped his spoon into the oatmeal and took some. Gross.
Addie spooned some in.
“Thanks,” she said to Butch.
“No talking,” Cash reminded her.
She nodded and they all ate quietly. Cash added some sugar to his, ignoring the look Ralen gave him.
Butch’s phone went off, and he opened the laptop that had been sitting in front of him. He turned it so they could all see, before standing and moving behind Dotty.
Brody and Ink appeared on the laptop screen.
“Morning, everyone. Sleep okay?” Ink asked.
There were several shrugs and tired sighs.
“That good, huh? I don’t blame you. I have some news, though.
The police talked to hotel security and they weren’t willing to just hand over their video footage.
So they are asking a judge for a warrant.
Hopefully, they will be able to pinpoint who trashed your hotel room and left that message.
Brody has been looking into Vextar. He can’t find anything about him, which indicates that it’s a false name.
I’ve got some of my guys asking around about him, but everyone has been clamming up as soon as they hear his name, which is a big red flag. ”
“He’s a bit of a ghost, to be honest,” Brody said. “But if we get a good image of his face, we might be able to do some facial recognition. Monroe worked with Greer to create an image, but she didn’t think it really looked that much like him.”
“Jackson took a photo of it,” Ink said. “I still think the cops must have heard of him or they wouldn’t have questioned Monroe so much at the police station.”
“I just don’t understand one thing,” Monroe said. “If this was Vextar and he left that message in the hotel room, why come after us at the airport as we were leaving?”
“It has to be those photos that you put up,” Brody said. “I’ve been studying them, but so far I can’t figure out what it is about them that would have him sending men after you. Other than the fact that you can see a part of his face. However, it’s not enough for facial recognition.”
“Who is this guy that he’s able to send people after Monroe? Do you think he belongs to some gang?” Dotty asked.
There was silence as everyone took that in.
Monroe groaned and buried her face in her hands. “Trust me to marry some gang leader.”
“How did they know we were at the airport, though?” Dotty asked.
“I think I know that,” Monroe said, raising her hand and looking guilty. “I was having a look through my messages just before, and you know how my phone dropped out of my hand yesterday? In the airport parking garage when I nearly walked out in front of that car?”
“Yes,” Cash replied. “Why?”
“Well, I happened to notice that a message I’d been writing actually got sent through to Vextar.
I’ve sent him lots of messages, and he hasn’t replied to any of them.
When you ring him, his phone just goes voicemail.
It’s not like I ever thought he was even reading them.
But I had written one that I didn’t intend to send. ”
“What did it say?” Ralen asked.
“I hope you’re happy. We’re going home now. I never want to see you again.”
“Oh, shit,” Dotty said.
“So that’s how he guessed you were at the airport,” Ralen said, running his hand over his face.
“Yes, I’m really sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Ink told her. “Better that they came after you here rather than back home where you wouldn’t have us.”
Cash noticed that Addie had put her spoon down. She’d barely touched her oatmeal. Her hand was rubbing her tummy. Was she feeling ill because of everything that they were talking about, or was it her period?
“Eat your breakfast, Stowaway,” he whispered.
That wasn’t too bad, right? He hadn’t called her little girl or baby.
Big improvement.
She gazed up at him and shook her head.
“Your tummy feels sick?” he whispered. “Is it because of everything going on, or is it your period?”
A flush of red filled her face, and she nodded. What did that mean? Oh, did it mean both?
Poor baby. He moved his hand to her back, running it up and down, but he felt her startle, and quickly moved his hand away.
“Sorry,” he muttered, sitting back in his chair. He hadn’t meant to make her uncomfortable. She hadn’t seemed to mind his touch before.
Maybe he’d messed that up too.
She kept her gaze down, her shoulders hunched. Fuck, he was messing everything up. He had no right to touch her without permission, no right to boss her around, no right to tell her that he owned her.
What was wrong with him?
Maybe living and working for Dante all those years had kind of rubbed off on him. Shit. That reminded him that he should try calling Ortega again. That bastard just wouldn’t answer the phone.
“I’ve taken down the photos though,” Monroe said.
“Like you told me to. And I made my social media accounts all private, even though I’ve got heaps of followers on some of them.
We’ve stopped searching for him. I’ll go home and get a quiet divorce.
So do we really need to stay here? My sisters need to get home. ”
“Monroe is correct,” Dotty said. “Can we go home?”
Cash immediately wanted to say no, and he saw that both Ralen and Butch were frowning and shaking their heads.
Ink better not tell them that they could go home now.
“I think you should stay a bit longer,” Ink said.
“We should hopefully see the footage from the hotel security soon. Brody is looking into those photos to see if there’s any reason why Vextar wouldn’t want them up on the internet.
I’ve still got some friends of mine looking into him, and we can tap into some other contacts we have. ”
Other contacts? Who was he talking about? Well, it didn’t really matter to Cash, as long as the girls stayed put and under their protection.
“Give it at least another twenty-four hours,” Ink suggested. “That’s not going to make a huge difference, right? Not if it keeps you safer.”
Dotty nodded with a sigh. “Yeah, all right. We can stay a bit longer. I’ve talked to the partners in the law firm I work for, and they think it’s safer for me to stay here a bit longer anyway.”
“I’ve moved my shifts around,” Monroe said. “So I’ve got a few more days before I have to go back.”
Cash wondered what Addie did for a job. Did she work? There was a lot he didn’t know about her.
“That’s another thing,” Ink said. “You met him at work, right?”
“Yeah, I work as a cocktail server for one of the big casinos in Las Vegas,” Monroe replied.
“So if he wanted to find you, he’d go to your work. Does he know where you live?”
“I don’t think so. No, we went back and got a hotel room at the casino.”
“So that casino could have some footage of him,” Ink said. “Although I don’t know how long they’d keep it for.”
“Not that long, I’d say,” Brody said. “And it would be nearly impossible to get it from them without a warrant.”
“So until he’s found or we’ve eliminated him as being a threat, then you may not be able to go back to work,” Ink said to Monroe.
“Oh, no. I have to go to work.”
Addie reached over and took Monroe’s hand in hers. Monroe took a deep sigh and let it out slowly.
“I just feel like such an idiot.” Getting up, Monroe walked away from the table.
Ink sighed. “She’s not an idiot. Something about this guy isn’t right. We can’t find anyone who will talk about him, but they definitely know who he is. You’d think somebody would talk.”
“I got someone to collect your luggage in Las Vegas. They’re storing it somewhere safe,” Ink said to Dotty and Addie. “If there’s anything you need, let one of the guys know, and we can get it to you.”
“Thank you,” Addie croaked.
Cash stiffened, but didn’t say anything.
It wasn’t his place.