Chapter 27
27
“Huh.”
“What?” Kai asked after he swallowed his eggs.
“My phone’s showing I have a message from the Down Home Diner.”
“That’s weird. Aren’t you going to listen to it?”
“I try not to let electronics interrupt meals.” I set my phone back down on the kitchen peninsula where we were eating, me on the kitchen side, and Kai across from me.
Kai laughed. “I’d say looking at your phone and seeing that you have a message, proves that you’re already failing at your goal.”
I wanted to stick my tongue out at him, but God only knew where that would lead us. Time to deflect.
“What time do you think Beau will get here?”
“Don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine.”
I spooned up more of my yogurt. Kai’s phone rang.
“Does your rule apply to me?”
I shrugged. “It never applied to Sue when we lived together, so it shouldn’t apply to you.”
He grinned and answered his phone.
When it wasn’t Beau I stopped listening, instead I finished up my yogurt and took Kai’s and my dishes into the kitchen and rinsed them off. I’d put them in the dishwasher, after I unloaded the clean dishes.
“Hey, that was Simon. He’s worried.”
“Why?”
“He put an alert out on Senator Thompson. Turns out that he flew into McGhee Tyson Airport.”
“So?”
“Sweetheart, that’s the airport you fly into if you want to get to Jasper Creek.”
“Oh. I didn’t know that. I drove.” I leaned on the kitchen counter. “That doesn’t make any sense. What would a West Virginia state senator be doing out this way?”
“Simon and I figure it has to have something to do with you.”
My gut clenched. “Do you think he wants to kill me?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew I was wrong, so I held up my hand. “Wait. Wait. I know. I’m wrong. He doesn’t want to kill me. He wants my phone and all copies of the video.”
Kai nodded.
“But why come to me directly? Why not send another goon?”
“That’s what has Simon and I stumped. Neither of us think he would want to get his hands dirty.”
“Hmmm. When did he arrive?”
Kai came around the peninsula into the kitchen. “Just now.”
“How long does it take him to get here from there?”
He pulled me into his arms. “An hour. But you don’t have anything to worry about. He won’t get to you.”
I rested my cheek against his chest. “I know.” I placed a kiss on his cotton-covered chest. “Trust me. I know.”
“This will work,” I told the three men standing in front of me.
“I don’t like it. We don’t know what he’s capable of,” Kai said for the umpteenth time.
“You’re the one who told me, he told the guy in jail that he was pissed that the truck driver tried to kill me.” I turned to Roan. “Isn’t that what he said?”
Roan nodded. He was grinning. He thought I had a good plan. It was Simon and Kai I still had to convince.
“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t plan to hurt you,” Kai pointed out.
“Have you seen a picture of the man?” I scoffed. He was teeny-tiny.
“Marlowe, that doesn’t matter. If someone is mad, and they’ve planned ahead, they can hurt you,” Simon pointed out.
“What can he possibly do to me while the three of you are in hiding in the house, waiting to pounce if he makes one wrong move?”
“Marlowe—” Kai started.
“Look, you two,” Roan said. “If the three of us can’t protect her, I’d say we’re a piss-poor security agency. Especially since we have a fifteen-minute head start, surveillance equipment, and it’s three to one-half.”
I giggled. He was right about the one-half.
“I still say he could talk to me instead,” Kai grumped.
“For the love of God,” I burst out. “This is a good plan, and it will spike his wheels once and for all. Just get all your little spy shit, plant it around the living room, and let me confront the weasel. I want this over with.”
Kai stepped up to me and put his arms around me. “Okay, we’ll get our spy shit, and place it all around. You go get him, Tiger.”
I grinned.
“We’re going to need popcorn, you know that, don’t you?” Roan said over my receiver.
“What in the hell are you talking about? Marlowe could get hurt, and you’re making it sound like we’re going to see a show.” The man was getting on my nerves.
“Marlowe’s like my Lisa,” he responded. Roan was on the east side of the house, at the window that was slightly open to the living room. He had a gun trained on the center of the room.
“And my Trenda,” Simon chimed in over my receiver. Simon was in the back bedroom.
“What does that even mean?” I grumbled into my mic. I was in the kitchen pantry. I had a gun trained on the center of the living room as well.
“It means your woman has smarts and guts. She’ll do fine,” Simon explained.
“I don’t want her to have to do fine. I want this mess to be over with, so she can just sit in her porch swing, drink iced tea, and get ready for the school year.”
“Don’t we all,” Roan sighed. “Life doesn’t always work out that way, that’s why they’ve given us women who have balls and brains.”
The doorbell rang. Marlowe took her time getting up off the couch and going to the door. She looked through the peephole and asked who it was.
“Can any of you hear what he’s saying?” I asked the men.
“Negative,” they both said in unison. That was a problem. I hoped for the sake of the plan, we could hear them once he was inside.
Marlowe opened the door and swung her arm wide for the small man to come in. “What can I get you, Mr. Thompson? Would you like a glass of water? A soda? Lemonade? Some iced tea?”
“Iced tea would be lovely, Ms. Jones. Thank you.”
“Simon, are you getting this?” I asked Simon.
“Yep. I’m just waiting for her signal.”
“You have a lovely home. It’s a shame you had to leave your home in West Virginia.”
Marlowe walked by me to get to the fridge. I watched as she pulled out the pitcher and then poured the asshole a glass of tea.
“Would you like sugar?”
“Four teaspoons, please.”
Marlowe didn’t add any. Then she brought out the tea to the dining room table and motioned for the senator to sit down. Just like we’d all discussed.
“Thank you,” Teddy said, as he took a sip and grimaced.
“What is your daughter planning on doing to make up the time she missed?” Marlowe asked as she twirled her hair.
“We already got her caught up with a private tutor. You don’t have to worry your pretty little head about that. She told me you were a very conscientious teacher. I’m sure it must bother you to think that as you rightfully press your suit against Principal Sykes, you might also be spotlighting a child’s innocent prank and opening her up to ridicule.”
I heard Roan stifle a laugh. God, this tool was unbelievable. I’d seen the video and his daughter was a little snake.
“Your daughter was filming a girl being beaten. The girl was being repeatedly kicked, over and over again. Your daughter did nothing to stop it. She stood there, filming the whole incident, giggling the entire time.”
“You must be mistaken.” He sat up straighter in his chair. “My daughter is a good girl. She would never bully another girl.”
“She continued to laugh as this girl was pulled down the school hallway by her hair. What do you think about that?”
“I’d say you’re lying,” the man sputtered.
Marlowe pulled out her cell phone and slammed it down on the table. “Here, let’s see the footage, and then you tell me who’s lying. Your daughter, or me.”
Sounds of a young woman giggling filled the room. You could also hear the faint sound of someone saying, ‘Please stop.’
“Do you know who’s giggling? Your daughter.”
“You can’t prove that,” the senator said.
Marlowe picked up her phone and fiddled with it.
“Here’s the good part. Let’s listen to your daughter, Cindy. The girl who filmed this. Shall we?”
“No way. This is my phone and I’m not giving it to anyone. Just wait ‘til I put this up on the internet. I’ll get so many likes.”
“Give this to me, now.”
“You don’t have the right to take it from me. I’ll tell my parents. You’ll lose your job.”
“Give that back to me, that’s my property.”
“That’s not your daughter’s finest moment.”
The senator slapped his hand down on the table, hard.
That must have hurt.
“I want your phone and all copies of that video.” The senator was beyond pissed. “Now.”
“You’re not going to get it.”
I could hear the satisfied smile in Marlowe’s voice.
“One hundred thousand dollars for your phone and I watch you delete all your back-ups. Right now. I have the money in cash, in my rental outside.”
“Do you know that the girl they were kicking, the girl who they dropped on her head, ended up needing to stay in the hospital for five days? I’m not taking your stinking money. It would make me happy to see your daughter and the other two girl brought up on assault charges.”
He leaned over the table and shouted in her face. “One hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
“If you carry that much money around with you on your trips, I say we make it a cool quarter of a million dollars. Don’t you think that’s worth it to you, so that all your constituents don’t find out that not only is your sweet little baby girl a terrible bully, but also so they find out that you hired someone to kill me?”
“You’ll never be able to prove it,” he stammered.
“I might not be able to prove that you hired someone to drive me over a cliff, but the guy you hired to kidnap me is in jail and he’s talking.”
“In your dreams, lady. I’ve paid him off. The lawyer I hired for him is the best. Even if he doesn’t get him off, it’ll be a light sentence. I’m paying this guy to keep his mouth shut, and he wants the cash.”
I watched Marlowe lean back in her chair and cross her arms. She had a shit-eating grin on her face. “There’s one last thing, senator.”
“What? You want more than a quarter of a million? I didn’t bring more than that. And I’m not going to pay you more than that.”
Marlowe twirled her hair, signaling us again, and I stepped out of the pantry. “No, the last thing is, smile, you’re on a livestream.”
“What are you talking about?”
He looked around and saw me. Then he turned again and watched Simon walk into the living area from down the hall. Roan was climbing in from the side window.
“Did you get everything, boys?” Marlowe asked. She sounded exuberant.
“We got it taped, and it went live to his website, and all his social media and to YouTube. He’s already getting likes and comments. I bet this is going to be his most popular post.” Simon smiled grimly.
“How exciting,” Marlowe said as she threw her fist in the air.