Chapter 26
A few minutes later, Janie got a call, and she smiled, put it on speaker, and said, "Yes! You must have the greatest boss in the world, Brendan. When can you be here?"
"It will take three hours to get there. I'm already on my way."
She smiled again. "I can't wait to see you. Love you, babe."
"Love you too."
When they finished the call, Sascha said, "How high would the odds be for Red to ask for time off to see his girlfriend, and then within minutes Janie gets a call saying he got time off from his boss to see her?"
"Yeah. I was thinking the same."
"Red?" Janie asked.
"One of my bodyguards." He was wondering how they missed that he had been bitten by fire ants if he was one and the same person.
Then again, Red stayed out of the limelight.
And even if one of his staff had seen red welts on him, they wouldn't have normally told Gregory about it, not when they didn't know that the guy who had broken into Sascha's apartment had been bitten by fire ants.
He might have covered his face with makeup if he had any bite marks there. And he always wore long-sleeved shirts after the incident, until they went to South Padre Island, when the bite marks would have faded or been gone.
Red. He couldn't believe it could be him. He was always serious, like a bodyguard would be on the job. But he realized he never really made friends with the other bodyguards. He was more aloof, barely even pairing up with anyone like the other guys had done.
"We're going to the mall to get out of your hair for a bit.
You can tell us when he gets here, and we'll visit with him, if that's all right with you?
" Gregory asked. He knew that if he had been going to see his ex-girlfriend, whom he loved and wanted to make up to, he would want some time alone with her.
"Yeah, sure. I'll straighten the place up a bit. I was just doing laundry and washing the dishes when you arrived."
"All right. Thanks for helping us with this."
"I want it cleared up so you know he's not behind anything criminal." Then she smiled. "Besides, I wouldn't have called him, and now we might actually be getting back together again."
Sascha and Gregory gave Janie a hug. "We'll see you in a while," Sascha said.
"What about the fortune telling?" Janie asked.
"Oh, we can do that. Do you want to do it now? Or after Brendan gets here?" Sascha asked.
"Now, if that's okay with you. Do you need any special props?"
"No, just me. We can sit at a table, and I'll hold your hands." She didn't need to do that, but sometimes she really wanted to do a little showmanship.
"Okay. Do you want something to drink?"
"Water would be good," Gregory said.
"Same for me," Sascha said.
Janie pulled clean glasses from the dishwasher, filled them with ice and water, and set them on the table.
They all sat down at the dining room table.
"Okay." Sascha reached out her hands.
Janie set her hands on Sascha. Her hands were so cold, and Sascha squeezed them, then smiled. "I see a wedding in your future."
Gregory frowned at Sascha. She understood his concern. If Red was Brendan, then he could be facing some charges. And that meant he could end up in prison, and there wouldn't be a wedding.
But it could mean she ended up with someone else. Sascha didn't know, but she saw the happy bride-to-be dressing in her bridal gown, getting ready to walk down the aisle.
"Ohmigod." Tears filled Janie's eyes. "When?"
"By next year."
"Will he ask to marry me today?"
"That, I don't know." Or if it was even Brendan.
"Is there anything else?"
"I, uhm, see a baby girl in your future."
"Baby girl? Oh, wow."
"Yeah. That's all I see. The baby will be born next year on Christmas Day."
Janie gave her a hug.
"Okay, we're going to get out of here and just call us when you want us to return," Gregory said. He gave her his phone number and email so she could text, email, or call him, whichever worked out best.
"Certainly." Janie sounded like she was on top of the moon.
Then Gregory escorted Sascha out to the car, and they drove off to the closest mall. "She truly gets married?"
"Yeah. I was glad she didn't ask who she married. I was afraid if Brendan is Red, he would be in jail, and she wouldn't be marrying him."
"Yeah, I had the same thought. And the baby?"
"Oh, for sure, on the baby. It was hers. She was nursing her. Otherwise, it might have been someone else's baby that she was holding."
"At least the baby sounds like good news, and she wants one," Gregory said.
Sascha sighed. "I don't know if this will work out if that is Red though. I heard you thinking about all the times he was out of pocket when emails were being sent. And he wasn't working for you when he made the first two attempts to kill you. You didn't hire him until afterward."
"Yes. And when the limo was targeted, I had given him time off because he'd said he was sick the night before at the Worthington's party. So he wasn't at my party at all."
"He has stayed away from me most of the time."
"He stayed away from both of us."
"True. I wondered if it was because he was worried that I might see something about him."
"But you didn't."
"No. And we still don't know if he had anything to do with any of this."
When they arrived at the mall, Gregory took her hand and led her to a creperie that served delightful desserts in addition to meals.
But he wanted to have dessert here.
They each ordered ice cream crepes: his chocolate mint chip with chocolate dribbled over the crepe, and she got coffee ice cream with the same treatment.
They were really good, but he couldn't stop thinking of Brendan and Janie.
"Do you think she'll 'forget' to call us because she's busy with him?"
"Yeah. I mean, if it were you and me, I would just stay with you, make love to you, make everything up to you," Gregory said.
"But she's still somewhat concerned about the criminal issue."
"I suspect that might go out the window when he arrives."
"Especially since she thinks she's marrying him."
Gregory got a call from Maria then. "Hi, Mr. Landry? Red said he was calling you and taking time off from work. I just wanted to make sure he did because he took off as soon as he ended a call. I just didn't know if he had called you."
"Yeah, we're all good. We have enough bodyguards that he didn't need to be there."
Maria didn't say anything, and he knew she was thinking he should have taken one with him. But what if he had taken Red and he turned out to be their attempted murderer?
"Anything else?"
"Omar was afraid to call you, but since I called you, he wants to know if you need him to join you."
Gregory said, "No, we're good. Just have them watch the place."
"All right. Thanks, sir."
"We'll be home tonight," he said.
"All right."
Then they ended the call.
“Maria was worried about us,” Gregory said.
“She is so sweet.”
After wandering through the mall for an hour, Gregory took her to a couple of museums. One featured all kinds of sculptures. The other, paintings.
“I don’t think you’re dull at all,” Sascha said, taking his arm and walking with him.
“She just wanted to be with Brendan, and anyone she went out with would have seemed dull to her.”
Sascha laughed. “I agree.” Then she glanced at her watch. “We never ate lunch. Do you want to return to the creperie restaurant for dinner?”
“Yeah, sounds good. By the time the three hours that it will take Brendan to drive down here, we’ll have an hour to have dinner and then be ready if Janie calls us.”
They drove to the restaurant and were seated, then ordered chicken Florentine crepes with mushrooms, cheese, and chicken and a Ratatouille crepe of eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, and garlic finished with goat cheese.
They were both eating their dinner, glancing at their watches, checking text messages and emails, nothing from home or from Brendan’s girlfriend.
They finished their dinner. “We could get a hotel room and wait there in case she notifies us later,” Gregory said. But then he got a text message from Janie.
Janie texted: He’s here.
Gregory called her. “We’re on our way.”
“He’s wearing a beard and his hair is red.”
Red. “Can you take a picture of him and send it to me?”
She took a photo of Red locking his truck, then heading for her apartment.
“It’s Red.” Gregory showed Sascha the photo of him.
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, I am too. Let’s go.” He paid for their meals, and then they headed out to the car.
When they finally reached Janie’s apartment, Gregory saw Red’s black pickup, which confirmed Red was here.
Gregory knocked on the door, and Red answered it. His face fell. “What, why, what are you doing here?”
He looked totally puzzled.
“They came to see me earlier,” Janie said. “Invite them in.”
“This is a damn setup.”
Gregory pushed his way in and shut the door. “Why don’t you take a seat?” He took hold of Sascha’s hand and brought her to the couch while Janie and Red sat on another.
“I guess I’m losing my job.” Red sounded disappointed.
Gregory couldn’t figure him out. “Why did you try to kill me?”
Red ran his hands through his hair. He didn’t say anything for a while, like he was trying to come up with a good reason, but he couldn’t offer one.
Gregory raised his brows. “Let me set you straight right here. Number one, you are not the Landrys’ son. It was proven by DNA. If you want to have us retested against my parents’ DNA, I’m willing to do so.”
Red looked surprised.
“Number two. I didn’t get everything handed to me. I didn’t run the furniture shops, own them, none of that.”
“You’re not a furniture salesman?” Janie asked, sounding surprised.
“You could call me that. Eventually, I did own several furniture stores. But that’s not how I made my money.”
Red was listening, maybe even believing him a little.
“I found a mansion that had been foreclosed on; taxes hadn’t been paid; the estate itself was dilapidated, falling apart.
It needed so much work. But I had saved up from odd jobs, and I promised the handymen I would pay them when I finished remodeling the place and sold it.
It was scary to not know if I could do it and then pay everyone back.
Mom and Dad told me I was on my own when I turned eighteen.
That they had made their own fortune and that I needed to make my own or end up selling furniture in one of the stores. ”
“You were able to sell the mansion?” Red asked. “Or is that the one you live in?”
“I sold it and paid off all the people who had helped me rebuild it. And I paid all the money for the building supplies.”
“And you made money?”
“Hell, yeah. I made $650,000 dollars, invested some of it, and bought my next house to flip. Rose would do all the interior decorating to stage the houses, using furniture from our stores. Before long, I had made a million dollars—on my own, not based on my parents’ wealth.
So if you had been raised by my parents, you wouldn’t have been given all that wealth. ”
“What about your sister?” Red asked.
“I pay her for her interior decorating, and she works on other homes now too. She’s made a lot of money from that and could afford her own home, but while she’s single, she prefers living with either me or with our parents.”
Red rubbed his bearded chin in thought.
“Okay, so number three. I understand that you have been estranged from your parents, and probably your sister, because they have treated you as not being their true son, and I’m really sorry about that. It’s not right. You deserved to be loved and cared for just like anybody does.”
Red looked like he was going to say something, glanced at Sascha as if she might be able to read his thoughts, and shook his head.
What was that all about?