Chapter Eleven #4
money. Unfortunately, his current girlfriend disagreed and didn’t mind taking
the whole argument public.”
“Yes. I’ve done a deep dive into Jason Hart and Lola Smith,”
Ruby admitted. “Here’s what I will say. According to their socials, if they
broke up Lola isn’t showing it. His socials claim he’s single and ready to
mingle. Vomit. Hers are all about her perfect boyfriend. She did do a teary
post about sacrificing for the ones you love. I guess she meant potentially
being a side piece while her boy goes and grabs a prize.”
“Olivia is not a prize to be won.”
Ruby’s voice softened. “Of course she’s not, but in that
town Olivia is a bit of a controversial figure. Not for everyone, but I’m not
surprised there are men who see her as nothing more than a walking bank
account. I could absolutely see Lola slashing some tires, but I worry that
she’s not smart enough to know how to deal with the cameras.”
He snorted. “She’s not. She’s impulsive. She doesn’t think
things through at all. Honestly, if Lola did it then she would have flipped off
the camera or left a note. She would have been proud of defending her man.”
“That’s the impression I got. But I wonder if there aren’t
more players in this game than we imagined.”
His gut tightened because he was pretty sure Ruby was right.
“Well, I didn’t realize we were playing a game, so I would agree.”
“What has Olivia told you about a woman named Jessica
Fellows?” Ruby asked.
They tried to avoid talking about Olivia’s exes. She didn’t
like it. “Very little. She mentioned when Scott left there was a woman
involved. I suspect her name was Jessica since Gigi spits when she hears the
name.”
Ruby chuckled. “Good for Gigi. I like that girl. Yes,
Jessica Fellows started out working in Willow Fork and transferred to the
Dallas office. She was a receptionist when she met Scott. Over the course of
the next two years, he made sure she got promoted to office manager.”
“This was before I joined the company,” Garrett explained.
“I never met either of them, but the office manager at the time complained a
lot about whoever came before her. Apparently it wasn’t organized.”
“Jessica wasn’t into her job. She was looking to marry a
wealthy man and thought being in Jack Barnes’s world would give her entry into
Julian Lodge’s.”
“How do… Who asked you to look into her?”
“Sam Fleetwood,” Ruby said. “It was years ago. He suspected
there was something wrong. He was right, but before he could go to his daughter
with the information, Scott announced he had a new job and he took Jessica and
disappeared.”
“Do you know how he lost his job?”
Ruby was quiet for a moment. “Uhm, the company he worked for
was purchased and his position was no longer necessary. He was only there for a
year.”
“It was an agricultural firm?” A bit of suspicion played
through his head.
“Yes,” Ruby replied.
He could put some pieces together. “Who bought the company?
Because I negotiated the purchase of a firm not too long ago. I even asked
Lucas why we were buying it because it’s nothing we need. He said it was all
for family. Does Olivia know her dad bought her ex-boyfriend’s company so he
could fire him?”
“I doubt it,” Ruby said cheerfully. “She doesn’t work that
side. Josh helps with acquisitions, so he would have cheered his dad on. Also,
she wouldn’t have asked. When Scott left, I’m sure she knew where he went to,
but after he was gone she shut him out. She almost never spoke about him. She
spent that summer working from Bliss.”
She’d gone to her best friend. “I’m glad she had someone.
And I’m glad Jack and Sam tried to take care of that fucker. Good for them. But
I don’t see what this has to do with Jessica.”
“Well, they got engaged, but it apparently went bad. He’s a
serial cheater. They didn’t actually break up until he lost his job. He dumped
her after she forgave him for cheating. I think she’s obsessed with him. I
wouldn’t put it past her to follow him.”
“Follow him. Like on socials?”
“Like stalking,” Ruby corrected. “So I did a check on her
current whereabouts, and I do happen to know that she arrived at DFW airport
five days ago. She’s not at any hotel in the Metroplex. I should know. I
checked. By the way, did I mention I charge by the hour?”
Like he was worried about that. He planned to charge the
company since it absolutely was a company problem. “Keep going.”
“She still has family in Willow Fork. Her parents are gone
but she has two brothers, both of whom have records. Now Jessica might slash
some tires, but her record is clean. I don’t know. I have a feeling this is a
woman who will lose her shit over a man,” Ruby announced like it was the most
pathetic thing she’d ever heard. “She did get into a bar fight over an ex while
she was in college but no charges were filed.”
Olivia was sexy in a bar fight. She didn’t hold back. She’d
defended her men’s right to be free from sexual harassment caused by slightly
drunk, overly bedazzled, small-town girls. “There’s a third potential
explanation.”
“It was Scott or that high school ex, and they would have
done it to scare her,” Ruby posited. “Scott was right there according to what
Olivia told me.”
“He was waiting for the plane. It would have been easy to
slash the tires and then wait to offer her a ride. And hey, let’s get some
dinner on the way back. I’ve missed you.”
“Except he didn’t count on you.”
“Olivia wouldn’t have bought it.” He was sure of that. Even
if they hadn’t been there the result would have been the same. “Not for a
second. She would have been in that weird ride share long before she would have
considered getting in his car. She would have walked first.”
“But he doesn’t know that,” Ruby pointed out. “I’m sure in
his head, she would have needed him. Look, I’ve met Scott many times. He’s an
arrogant bastard who has always managed to fail up. It’s like that with some
men. They can be incompetent as hell, but they use the women around them to
prop themselves up. Olivia did it for a long time. She thought he just needed
more experience. Or he was stressed. He was excellent at talking her into
things that weren’t good for her. He was basically a con artist, though not in
a traditional sense.”
“Well, he was going after her money,” Garrett pointed out.
“Not really. That’s the funny thing. He was using her to get
to his next job. I actually don’t think he would have married her. I think he
was deeply intimidated by how competent she was at her job. Scott is the kind
of man who needs everyone to look up to him. He won’t be with a woman who
potentially outshines him, and he knew pretty quickly that he wouldn’t get past
her parents when it came time to get serious.”
“Then why would he come back?” Garrett asked.
“Because that’s what assholes who figure out the world is
not actually their oyster do. When they find out the oyster is poisoned and
will kill them, they jog right back to the person who made them feel the
safest. He’s decided the world is too much for him and he wants the easy life,
and Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood represents that life. He thinks he can slide right
back in because that’s what other women have taught him.”
“Why would he start a fire?” He had to complete this puzzle.
He had the worst feeling that Olivia might be in actual danger.
“I don’t know that he did,” Ruby admitted. “I followed up on
his alibi and it’s solid. He was seen coming into the motel at two in the morning.
Security doesn’t show him leaving again until eight a.m. Someone took out the
security cameras at the office but not the motel. I don’t see how he could have
left without a camera catching him. I’ll be honest, it feels like a somewhat
professional job, but one where they didn’t want to cover it up as an
accident.”
“Why?” He couldn’t see the point.
“A couple of reasons I can think of. One we talked about
before—to scare her. To send the little woman running into big strong man arms
because she can’t handle all this stress.”
Garrett rolled his eyes. “Yeah, she handled it fine. Two?”
“To set her up. To make it look like she did it for
insurance or some other reason. Three is the easiest explanation in the world.
Money, or covering up something. Arson is often the blanket used to cover up
something else. The question is what.”
He thought about Gladen. “Would Gladen be dumb enough to
think she wouldn’t back up the evidence she had against him?”
“Gladen is desperate,” Ruby said.
That was when he saw a man and a woman slowly making their
way to the parking lot.
“He can be desperate, but that doesn’t make evidence go
away.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be a lawyer?”
“I specialize in contracts. I’m not an expert in criminals,”
he admitted. Except he did know a bit about it. “He’s trying to bring in
reasonable doubt. He can claim she made up the evidence because she was a
scorned woman. It’s thin.”
The woman seemed drunk. She had an arm slung around her
partner’s shoulders as she stumbled along in the shadows of the bar. The man
seemed to try to pick her up, but she pushed at him.
Someone had too much to drink. He was happy Olivia didn’t
see the need to go too far. When he left she was on her second margarita of the
night, and that seemed to be her limit.
Because she wanted to play.
“But it’s something, and I think that he’s looking for
anything to save him at this point,” Ruby continued.
He watched as the man tried to get the woman to comply, but
she kept attempting to move away from him.
Then she turned slightly, and he saw her face.
Olivia.
“Ruby, I have to call you back.” He took off, running toward
her.