26. Down the Rabbit Hole
CHAPTER 26
Down the Rabbit Hole
Henry
“What are you going to do?” Dom asked.
My mind raced. Nikki had flushed our only plan down the toilet when she decided to take off and leave me hanging. But I couldn’t think about her right now. I had to focus on helping Mom and Lisa.
“Pull the trigger. Lisa deserves to come home.” I headed for the door.
The slow burn in my stomach hadn’t gone away, not even after the fight with Dom. I had nowhere to go, and I was out of leads. But there was an asshole downstairs who could at least tell me where to find Jonathan’s man.
Dom chuckled. “I was hoping you’d say that. I’ll take care of it first thing.” He followed me to the door. “You’re not going home.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Hey, I was an asshole earlier.”
“I told you. I deserved a beating tonight.” He shrugged. “Though now I feel like punching something. If you’re going downstairs to beat up the bartender until he tells you what he knows, I’m coming with you.”
“No. You’ve done enough.” I made to leave.
“I wasn’t asking. Beats staying here, thinking of all the things I can’t have.”
“Seems to me like you have enough.” I pointed my chin at the grand suite, with a full-size dining room, a living room decorated in light blues and golds, complete with a fireplace.
“That’s just money.” He waved a hand in dismissal and headed for the elevator.
“Is your VIP client giving you hell?” I let the door shut behind me.
“Something like that.” He pushed the call button.
“Anything I can do to help?” The elevator doors slid open, and I stepped inside.
“You have a time machine?” His jaw clenched.
“Sorry. No.” I shook my head once.
“Then, no. There’s nothing you can do.” He hit the lobby button and stood back.
“I hope this asshole has something we can use.” I blew out a breath.
So much still didn’t add up for me. The last time Dom and I were here asking about Mom, the bartender had been way too helpful, as if he’d been expecting us. He’d had answers ready for us. In the moment, I didn’t give it much thought because I was desperate for news of Mom. That much hadn’t changed, but this time around, I knew what I was getting into. This time I wasn’t here blindly asking for scraps. I knew exactly what questions to ask.
When we reached the lobby, I slipped out of the elevator and headed straight for the bar. My gaze zeroed in on the bartender as soon as I entered the bar, with Dom close behind me. The bartender glanced over his shoulder toward the storage room behind him and then to the outdoor patio area overlooking the city.
In the dim-lit room, no one noticed what was going on except the three of us. Dom took long strides toward the back room, and I rounded up on the other end. We had him blocked. The wild look in his eyes told me we were onto something. Energy surged through me in blasts as I waited for him to make a move.
He jerked into a run and headed straight for the outdoor patio. I went after him, ignoring the gasps and stunned faces of the people around us. Sidestepping a table he knocked over, I jumped the low wall and followed him down the side of the cliff. Dry small shrubs pricked my legs, and dust scratched the back of my throat as I scampered to catch up to him.
Several feet down, he hopped onto a stone path and went down a set of concrete steps that led into the parking lot below us. My feet hit the asphalt, and in three strides I gained on him. I rammed him with my body and brought him down with a heavy thud.
“Where the fuck is Scott? Does he work here? Or did you make that up before?” I rolled him onto his back and gripped his collar.
“No. He doesn’t work here. He’s a friend. He does jobs for me.” He put his hands up.
“Where is he?” I pushed my knuckles against his Adam’s apple.
“I’ll tell you.” He clutched my arm, wincing. “He’s with that lady. Francesca is her name. He works for her now.”
“What?” I glared at him.
“Oh man, he’s already singing?” Dom came up from behind me. “Tonight sucks.”
“Tell me about Francesca.” I gritted my teeth.
“That night. She was with them. The woman in the picture and another guy. When they took off, she came to me and asked me to let her know if anyone came asking for them.”
“Asked or paid?” Dom asked.
“She…she paid me.”
Cold sweat ran down my back as the full picture behind the recording fell into place. Francesca whimpering in the background. That had never been her style. Had it all been an act? Had Francesca been there when Jonathan killed my dad? Or had she been the one to give him the deadly blow?
Mom had been so scared the day I saw her in the garden. She’d been afraid of Francesca. I underestimated her. I assumed all Francesca cared about was playing the socialite.
“Did she pay you to come after me?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Before you and him came looking for Scott, she showed up at the bar. She wanted to know if anyone had come by looking for a woman. I told her I hadn’t seen anyone and gave her Scott’s number. She was pissed when she left. Later, Scott texted, and you know the rest. We were supposed to take you somewhere far away from here and make sure you didn’t ask any more questions.”
“Scott is with her now? Where?” I asked.
“Not sure. But last time I saw him, he said he had a gig some place up north. Something creek. Um.”
“Paradise Creek.” I released him.
“Yeah. That’s it.” He scrambled to his feet, his eyes darting from me to Dom and back to me. “I swear that’s all I know. Can I go?”
“I’ll keep an eye on him.” Dom met my gaze.
When I turned to face the bartender, he was already running back toward the restaurant. Dom frowned as he watched the coward take the steps up the cliff.
“Do you think your mom is back in Paradise Creek?” he asked.
“I think so.”
Francesca sent Scott after me. I thought of that asshole and his hands all over Nikki. I should’ve beaten him to a pulp when I had the chance. I should’ve known he’d run back to Jonathan and Francesca. Crooks like him, they always needed someone with a brain to pull the strings.
Nikki’s murder board flashed in my mind, the blood, Dad’s body. I paced the parking lot. Mom wasn’t on Jonathan’s side. I was sure of it. And if he still had her, he had everything he needed to get away with this again. I was the last loose end. But I wasn’t going to stick around and wait for him to send someone to finish me off.
If they returned to Paradise Creek, there was only one place where they could hide. They would never risk anyone from town seeing them do anything illegal, like keeping a woman against her will. They were back at Cavalier Manor. I was sure of it.
I faced Dom. He’d already gone over and above what a lawyer or a friend was required to do. “I need one more favor.”
“Fire away.” He braced his hands on his hips.
“Can you make sure my uncle returns every penny he stole from me? Everyone in Paradise Creek needs to know what he is. If he doesn’t rot in jail, I don’t want him to ever have the chance to go home.”
“Done.”
“If I don’t make it tonight, make sure Nikki and Lisa get everything.”
“Let me come with you.” He stepped toward me.
“No. I need to know someone will bring them justice.”
He nodded once. “You got it. But I thought Nikki left you. Does this mean you trust her after all?”
What Nikki had done cut me deep, and it hurt like all fucking hell. But what she and I had was separate from this. “ Nikki and Lisa lost everything because of my family. They deserve to have their lives back, their home.”
“You got it.” He patted my arm.
I walked back to the valet podium on the other side of the parking lot and handed him my ticket. He looked me up and down as he took the stub.
“Things got rough at the bar,” I said to him.
He gave me a nervous smile before he took off to get my truck. I had no idea what was waiting for me in Paradise Creek, but I was done running. Dad would have his vengeance tonight. And I would finally be free from the past.
I climbed in my truck and headed for the freeway. Between the lack of traffic, because of the late hour, and my foot glued to the gas pedal, I made it back to Paradise Creek in under an hour.
My stomach knotted the minute I crossed the hotel’s threshold. Memories of Nikki came rushing back, like a kick to the stomach. Taking a deep breath, I rushed upstairs to my room. Everything was exactly how I left it earlier tonight. I glared at the pieces of Nikki’s letter and broken glass scattered on the floor.
I trudged to the closet and fished out my handgun. I checked the empty barrel first and then released the cartridge to make sure it had ammo. After I replaced the magazine, I stuffed the weapon in the back of my jeans and pulled my T-shirt over it.
Maybe Nikki had been right to run away from all this again. This thing with Jonathan and Francesca wasn’t her fight. Nikki had come back to clear her sister’s name, and she’d done exactly that. In a few days’ time, Lisa would be out of jail. Nikki had no reason to stay and risk her life. Certainly not for me. The tightening in my chest let up a bit, and I took a lungful of air. For the first time since I read her letter, I was glad she was gone, safe, and away from this fucked-up version of the life we should’ve had.
I descended the stairs. My heart pumped so hard I had to swallow several times to keep my lunch down. Not the fucking time to lose my shit. I left the hotel without a second glance and climbed down the manhole in the middle of Main Street. The minute my feet touched the concrete at the bottom of the steps, I took off running toward Cavalier Manor.