3. Chapter Three
Chapter Three
Once I was done giving Yukiko and Marcie several rounds of goodnight kisses, I made my way back downstairs.
The house was as quiet as if Jessamyn had never disturbed us; if not for Mona sitting next to my coffee table, I could have almost managed to convince myself the whole incident was some crazy dream.
I hadn’t expected either to be. “Jessamyn’s paranoid,” I said. “She’s let all that Mafia stuff about Victoria Ruocchio go right to her head.”
“She is paranoid,” Mona agreed. “But that doesn’t mean they’re not after her.”
Fair enough.
Mona took one more sip and set her thermos to the side. When she did, I noticed something I hadn’t before. Her hands were shaking.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
Mona met my eye. “No,” she said. “I am very much not okay, Jack.”
I waited.
“An intruder arrived at the Avery Residence tonight,” she said, her tone taking on that clipped register she’d used at Ramsey Engineering to read the after-action report on some corporate blunder.
“The fact that it wasn’t someone who meant your family physical harm is immaterial—what isn’t is that someone got into the house.
” She paused. “If it had been someone with a bone to pick against you, or Mrs. Avery, I could have been walking into something far worse than awkward situation with a sorority president.”
“You know there are three Mrs. Avery’s, right?” I asked. It was off-topic, but something about this had been irking me for a while. “I know Kiki doesn’t like the way you talk about her like she’s my only wife. That’s not what this is. Those other two girls aren’t concubines—”
“I know that!”
I paused. I don’t think I’d ever heard Mona’s voice do that before.
She took a long moment, setting her thermos to the side. Some people would have tried to ease the tension with a joke, but Mona didn’t. She crossed one leg over the other, gripping it to keep her hand steady as she gathered her thoughts.
“Jack,” she said finally,” I am well-aware that you have three wives. I work for all three of them.”
“Mona—”
“And I tend to address Mrs. Avery—Yukiko—by that name more often than the other two. That is by design. It’s not because of hierarchy, or because I secretly believe she is the only woman who is really your spouse. It’s her job description.”
I waited.
“She is the legal Mrs. Jackson Avery. That is a fact recorded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, not by me. It means her name is the one at the top of all of your company’s legal filings.
It means she is the first person stepping into the line of fire to be interviewed live about this life the four of you have built, because she’s the woman our PR strategy has to revolve around.
She is the only person I can deploy in certain rooms and in certain markets without instantly inviting a half-dozen questions about polygamy law. ”
Her fingers drummed her knee through the fabric of her pajama bottoms.
“Samantha and Marcella are your wives, Jack. I have never thought otherwise. I say what I say because I’ve been treating this situation like one of Ramsey Engineering’s old scandals since it started.
But it is not. And perhaps I should remember that I’m not just an employee at arm’s length these days.
I’m part of your crew.” She lifted her head at last, meeting my gaze.
“If I’ve ever made any of them feel less than, I sincerely apologize.
Tell them. Or tell me when, and I’ll make the apology myself. ”
It was rare for Mona Isringhausen to make a speech like that. Rarer still for it to come out of her mouth at three in the morning on my living room couch, in pajama pants and an expensive coat.
“It’s fine,” I said. “Really.”
“Alright.”
I waited a beat. “I only noticed that your hands are shaking,” I said, keeping it conversational. “Is there anything you want to talk about?”
Mona glanced down at her fingers like she’d just noticed she had them. Her lips formed a tight little line, but she didn’t flinch away from the question.
“Just that there are two pregnant women in this house. I should have insisted on more security. If that really had been someone sent by Miss Ruocchio—”
“But it wasn’t,” I told. “And we’ll be more careful next time, Mona.
We’ll take measures.” A number of potential projects filled my head, if only I had time for them.
“But we also can’t live our lives in fear.
Yukiko wanted the white picket fence—she’d cry if we had to top those things with an extra ten feet of barbed wire. ”
“She’d get over it,” Mona scoffed. “I should have already known about Miss Fawkes. I should have had more eyes on both her and Victoria—especially after the Everything’s A Cult interview.
I should have known she got burned, was looking for an off-ramp, and was likely to do something very stupid.
” She sighed. “Instead, all of this came as a surprise to me tonight. And I do not like surprises, Mr. Avery. Which is why my hands are shaking.” Her gaze met mine. “That and the caffeine.”
I nodded. “You can’t catch everything.”
She scoffed again. “You pay me to catch everything.”
“I pay you to do the best you can,” I told her. “No one is asking you to be superhuman, Mona. I wouldn’t want it, anyway. You’d run yourself ragged.”
She regarded me evenly for a moment. “You really have changed the way you think about me, haven’t you?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I have.”
The shift in the room’s energy was subtle. But unmistakable. All at once, we were no longer a boss and his employee, sitting at opposite sides of a coffee table. We’d become something else—something way older, something far more familiar.
Mona’s gaze flickered to the cushion beside hers. I took the hint and sat down on the couch, crossing my ankle over my knee with a sigh.
“What are we going to do about Jessamyn?” Mona asked. “I have opinions, of course. But I want to hear what you think. And I want to hear it before I talk to Yukiko or our legal counsel.”
“Saskia?”
“Among others.” Mona pursed her lips. “What’s your gut telling you?”
I thought it over, trying not to let the sight of Mona distract me.
“Daniel taught me something about negotiations once,” I said, my voice quiet as I remembered my verbal sparring with Jessamyn.
“He said the first move was silence. Let the other side make their offer, then stay quiet for a bit. Let them twist.”
Mona laughed. “Of course he told you that like he thought of it. I’m the one who taught him that in the first place.”
I did a double-take. Then laughed right back. “Yeah, that tracks.”
“We definitely let Miss Fawkes twist in the wind for a bit,” Mona said, meeting my gaze with something more than mere familiarity. “There is something I’m wondering, though…”
I leaned in a little closer. Shit, was this happening? Right now?
“What’s that, Mona?”
She smiled.
“Whatever it is Jessamyn told you that’s so secret you didn’t repeat it in front of your wives.”
I blinked. A noise escaped me that wasn’t quite a laugh.
“You really don’t miss a trick, do you?”
“I’m not in the habit of it,” Mona said, taking a sip of her coffee. “What’s the big, terrible thing, Jack?”
I cleared my throat.
“You’re right. Jessamyn told me something I didn’t dare repeat. I didn’t want Yukiko worrying about it when she ought to be focused on Morning Harbor right now. And Marcie…”
Mona blinked. “It has to do with Marcie?”
“No. Her father.”
Mona’s expression hardened. “Tell me.”
So I did.
“She said Victoria has something on Daniel,” I explained. “Something financial. She used the phrase ace in the hole. Said the SEC would get involved if it ever came out to the public.”
I told her the rest as best as I could, summarizing it. Mostly, I wanted to get across how badly Jessamyn was freaked out about the whole thing.
Mona listened without interrupting. When I was done, she took a long sip of her coffee, thinking.
“That’s it?” she asked.
I nodded.
A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Then I’m not worried.”
“Really?”
Mona let out another one of those little laughs.
“Jack, Daniel Ramsey spent the better part of the last five years pursuing a three-firm merger. He spent money in ways that absolutely would not have survived a forensic audit. I helped him with most of it—and helped him structure the rest. We applied a great deal of financial pressure to board members and executives. There might even have been a regulator or two in there.”
I winced. “You’re saying you bribed people.”
Details, her little wave said. “We brushed up against bribery in the way most firms in this industry brush up against it. In ways I’m certain Victoria Ruocchio has done herself.
But I handled everything. We smothered it all in paperwork and consulting fees and plausible deniability for Daniel himself.
I promise you, there’s nothing in there that would cause more than a small ripple of gossip in the industry. ”
It was exactly what I wanted to hear. “You’re sure? Jessamyn seemed pretty certain we’d be in trouble if Victoria pulled this lever, Mona. Could she have some of that paperwork?”
Mona snickered like she was a little disappointed I could think that of her.
“The originals were destroyed,” she said.
“What Victoria might have is a paper trail and a bunch of insinuations. She might even have found someone involved in the merger to embellish a few things. But that’s not an ace in the hole.
” She chuckled. “It’s more like a three of clubs. ”
I relaxed. Mona sounded so certain of herself. How could she be anything other than right?
“I’m telling you not to lose sleep over this,” Mona said, putting a hand on my knee.
“I will do some digging into this tomorrow. I’ll touch base with Daniel himself and verify the details.
If Miss Fawkes proves useful, we’ll pay her.
No stock options, no sinecure on the Avery Company org chart.
We write her a check, make her retraction public, put her on a podcast or two to move the needle. But she’s wrong about this.”
I stared at the hand on my knee. For a moment, it seemed like it might move.
Then Mona glanced at her wristwatch and sighed.
“You, on the other hand, have a wife who’s going to be put in front of a camera in four and a half hours. That’s your priority, Jack. You let me deal with the rest of it.” She smiled. “Go to bed.”
I cleared my throat, my gaze still on her. “Mona—”
“Bed,” she said, not unkindly. “I’ll be on the couch if any of you need me. Sleep. You look like hell.”
I couldn’t help but snicker. “You know that’s not true.”
“No. It’s not.” Her hand left my knee, giving my thigh a poke as it retracted. “Now go.”
I went upstairs. Behind me, Mona was already unpacking her laptop.
The master bedroom was dim, the white noise app blocking out any ambient sound. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw Samantha and Marcie curled up around each other on the far side of the bed, both in a deep enough sleep that they didn’t stir as I cut across the room and slipped into bed.
The same could not be said about Yukiko.
“Hey there,” she whispered, her eyes opening a crack as I settled next to her. “Everything okay?”
“We’re perfect,” I said, pulling her to me. We could spend a hundred years married and I’d still never get tired of the way she relaxed into my touch when I held her. “You ought to be asleep, princess.”
She laid her head on my chest, one hand on the swell of her belly. “Couldn’t. Not without you.”
“I’m here.”
She looked up at me, her eyes shining in the darkness. “Thank you for keeping us safe tonight.”
I glanced over at Samantha. The blonde had her face buried in Marcie’s shoulder, one arm around her waist. Marcie’s free hand was on top of Samantha’s head, like she’d been gently stroking her to sleep before they both passed out together.
I knew they were strong, capable, independent women. I knew that.
But seeing them like that, at a moment like this, reminded me just how much time separated me from my wives.
“I wish I could’ve done more,” I whispered, meaning it.
Yukiko didn’t respond with words. Instead, she lifted her head and kissed me, slow and quiet.
A hundred years would never make that go stale, either.
“You did everything, Jack,” she assured me. “Everything you could.”
“I let her in the house.”
“And you didn’t let Samantha get to her,” Kiki countered. “Which is the only reason she’s asleep in this bed right now instead of in a jail cell.” Her thumb traced my jaw, rubbing my stubble. “You keep us safe, husband. Sometimes you even keep us safe from ourselves. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I said, a hand going to her lower back. “Sleep now, princess.”
I didn’t need to tell her twice. Yukiko must have been fighting hard to stay awake until I showed up—it took less than a minute for her to relax even deeper into my touch, her shoulders rising and falling slowly as she slipped into a deep slumber.
I lay there with three women sleeping around me and stared at the ceiling. God, what a night, I thought. There’s no way I’m going to be able to go back to bed after that—
I was out like a light the moment I closed my eyes.