Chapter 65
Chapter Sixty-Five
Renthrow
The adrenaline coursing through me makes me jittery. I tap my Hello Kitty pen on the bench so hard that it snaps.
I reach for the other pen in between Gunner’s notebook, but he snaps the book closed and sends me a warning look.
Chance hands me one of his fidget spinners instead. “Use this, or none of our pens will survive the day.”
“Do you have it yet?” I give the toy a flick, and it goes spinning. It helps a bit but not enough to stop the nerves jangling in my stomach.
“My lawyers are working on it.”
“That doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.”
Chance narrows his eyes.
I should probably tread carefully, but I blurt, “Weren’t they working on getting the ladies their building back? It’s been weeks, and Cordelia is still fixing cars in an outdoor garage.”
“Paperwork takes time,” Chance defends.
I scowl. “Or maybe you have really sucky lawyers.”
“Fine,” Chance says sarcastically. “Next time I ask my attorneys to find some guy’s address by ‘any means necessary,’ I’ll be sure to let them know your opinion.”
I run my hands over my prickly cheek. “I thought you said you knew him. Can’t you ask your parents for his address? I’m sure they have it.”
“I didn’t say I knew him. I said he looked familiar.” Chance shakes his head. “Now that I think about it, Cordelia looked familiar too. I think I met her and that guy at one of Mom’s charity galas.”
“That explains why she ducked out of sight when you first met,” Gunner muses. “She thought you’d recognize her.”
“It wasn’t Cordelia at those galas,” I growl.
“Right. Right. It was her twin.” Chance blows out a slow breath. “It’s kind of crazy how they both have the same face.”
“But they’re not the same person,” I insist.
“Yeah, we got that, Renthrow,” Gunner says with a roll of his eyes.
The guys think I’m off my rocker, but I don’t care. Even I find it uncanny how alike Cordelia and her twin sister look. It’s no wonder the two were often compared.
But I don’t want to fall into that trap.
Cordelia is her own, beautiful, amazing person. Just because she’s more reserved than her twin doesn’t make her any less important. If I have to scream it from the rooftops, I’m going to keep reminding myself and others that she and Gwendolyn are different people.
Gunner throws a leg over the bench and sits down. “What are you going to do when you get the address?”
“Tell him to stay away from Cordelia.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Chance arches a brow.
I shrug. “Then I’ll take other measures.”
If he’s as creepy as those captions are hinting at, I’ll enjoy punching him in the face.
“Got it.” Chance swings his laptop around and shows us an email that just came in from the law office. “I got his address.”
Gunner and I both crowd the laptop to see.
Disappointment spins through me like a tornado.
Gunner frowns. “You’ll need to catch a flight. Probably two.”
“If I head out now…” The words trail.
Gordie is attending Vinnie’s birthday party today.
Mom agreed to pick her up from school and take her there in my place.
With my daughter occupied at her best friend’s party for at least four hours, I could maybe catch a flight out, but there’s no way I’d make it back in time to tuck Gordie into bed.
“Maybe you could call him and tell him to back off?” Chance suggests.
Gunner swipes to another window on the laptop and points at Ray’s picture. “That doesn’t look like the face of a guy who’d back off with a call.”
It’s true. Despite his sweater vests and Oxfords, there’s something a little unhinged in Ray’s eyes.
A locker door slams shut behind us, and we all jump when we notice the new guy, Campbell, peering at Chance’s laptop.
“Who’s that?”
“None of your business,” I bark.
The new guy throws both hands high. “Not trying to get into your business but…I think I just saw him.”
I shoot to my feet so hard that Campbell jumps back. Grabbing his shoulders, I growl, “Where?”
“At The Tipsy Tuna. It was during lunch today. He was asking why that garage… What was it called again? It was named after a color…”
“The Pink Garage?” I gulp.
“Yeah, that one.” Campbell snaps his fingers. “He asked why the building was empty and where the mechanics were now.”
Chance and Gunner stiffen behind me.
I brace my hands behind my head, my stomach dropping right out of my body.
Gwendolyn’s husband is here.
In Lucky Falls.
It would be great if he were here to catch up with Sasha and Cordelia. They are family after all. But I can’t get over those twisted captions.
I’ll never forget, and I won’t let them forget either.
I fumble for my cell phone. “I’ll call Cordelia.”
The line rings and rings.
She’s not picking up.
Panicked, I try Sasha.
My desperation fills the entire room, and Gunner and Chance start scrambling around and making calls too.
Campbell draws closer to us. “What’s going on? What did that guy do?”
I don’t know the new guy well enough to tell him anything. And even if I did, what would I say?
The woman I love has a twin who died in childbirth, and I believe her late twin’s husband has been harassing her.
How do I know that? I saw some subtle threats on social media, which means he’s probably said even worse things to her in person, and now, he’s in town, and I have no idea where either of them are.
The phone connects.
“Sasha!” I pace away from Campbell.
“Viking, what a lovely surprise. Are you calling to check on Gordie?”
“Gordie?” I stop abruptly.
“Yes, we have Gordie here with us.”
“Ma’am,” someone says in the background, “which one of these shoes would you like me to box up?”
“Just a second, Viking.” There’s a rustle of fabric, and then Sasha says casually, “I’ll take everything from this wall to the next.”
“Everything, ma’am?”
“Did I stutter, darling? Yes, everything. She can’t decide on one, so she’ll have them all.”
“Mom, you can’t do that. Gordie’s closet can’t fit all these shoes,” Cordelia says in the background.
Hearing her voice makes my entire body relax. She’s okay. She’s safe.
And hopefully, she hasn’t met Ray yet.
“Fine. We’ll do half the wall,” Sasha argues.
“Three shoes, Mom. Don’t overdo it,” Cordelia berates her.
I try to interrupt. “Sasha—”
“You’re no fun,” the older woman grumbles low enough that her daughter can’t hear. In a sweeter tone that I’m assuming is being directed at the clerk, Sasha coos, “We’ll take only three pairs. Hmf. Sorry about that. What were you saying?”
“Why do you have Gordie?”
“Your mother asked us to take Gordie shopping for the party in… Oh. We only have a short while, and we still haven’t gotten to the hair salon. We need to get a move on. What exactly did you need?”
“By any chance, did you invite Gwendolyn’s husband here to Lucky Falls?”
There’s a sharp beat of silence, and when Sasha responds, her voice is dark, “Why would I do that?”
My jaw tightens. Great. This guy is in my turf uninvited, coming after my woman. He’s just begging for a beatdown.
“Is he here? Right now?” Sasha demands.
“One of my teammates saw him in town.” I glance at Campbell.
“That sorry scum! I told him to never show his face around us again.”
“I’ll handle him, and I’ll make sure he gets nowhere near Cordelia.”
“Please do, Viking. I…well…it’s a family secret, but I suppose you and Gordie are family now.” Lowering her voice so I can barely understand her, Sasha admits, “Ray made a big show at the funeral, crying and wailing over my daughter. But it turns out, he was cheating on her while she was pregnant.”
I snarl. That alone makes me hate him even more. “When did you find out he was cheating?”
“It was after Cordelia suddenly packed up and left without explanation. I went to Ray, wanting to check on him and ask if he knew why Delia suddenly quit and disappeared. I found his mistress making a mess of his things.” Sasha scoffs.
“I confronted him about it and asked if Gwen knew. He didn’t answer me upfront.
Instead, he made very strange remarks about Cordelia.
He was practically blaming her for Gwen having complications during birth.
I told him to never contact either one of us again. ”
Sasha’s explanation confirms my hunch. Delia left her high position at the company and hid in our small town far away from her old life. I strongly believe Ray’s somehow linked to Cordelia’s guilty feelings about her sister.
And I bet she doesn’t know that he cheated on Gwendolyn either.
The distaste I feel for the man multiplies to the point that I tremble with rage.
If I didn’t know Ray was in town, I would have flown over to deal with him, and I would have asked Gordie to forgive me for breaking my promise after the fact.
But Ray was stupid enough to come to me.
And I’m going to let him pay for it.
I hang up from the call with Sasha just as Chance’s footsteps thud toward me. “April says she’s not at the garage.”
“I know.” I slip my phone into my pocket. “She’s with her mom and Gordie. Far away from Ray. She doesn’t know he’s here.” I grab my Hello Kitty gym bag and stalk past Campbell and Gunner. “And I’m going to make sure it stays that way.”
“Where are you going? Are you going after him now?” Chance yells, jogging after me.
“Yeah.”
“Then let me come with you,” Chance offers.
“Me too,” Gunner says.
“I’ll tag along,” Campbell offers.
I blink at him. “Why would you?”
“I heard pieces of your phone call. It sounds like this guy is a real piece of work.” Campbell crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m not a fan of cheaters.”
Seems like there’s a story behind that.
I stare at the new guy and then dip my chin. “Let’s go take out the trash.”