CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
It wasn’t exactly the way JJ and Tish had hoped to spend their first day as an engaged couple, but they both agreed it had to be looked into. And Bill agreed to ride along just in case they found more than they were looking for.
Bill sat in the backseat although, when they first arrived at JJ’s Bentley, he opened the front passenger door and was about to get in. Tish didn’t mind it. Let the two men talk about the ex-wife whom she knew nothing about was how she saw it, and she moved to get on the backseat.
But JJ put a halt to that. “LaTisha sits up front,” he said to his longtime associate without mincing words. And although Bill was unaccustomed to taking a backseat to anyone, he knew he was no match for love. He held the door open for Tish, and he stood aside as she sat up front.
“You think she knows why he did it?” he asked JJ after they all got in, buckled up, and JJ drove them away from the courthouse.
“Why else would he have followed us there?” JJ responded. “I have no other connection to him outside of her, and my wife has no connection to either one of them.”
Tish smiled when he referred to her as his wife. Bill smiled too. “Accept through you,” he said. “And not yet,” he added.
JJ glanced at him through the rearview mirror. “Not yet what?”
“Your wife. You called her your wife. She’s not your wife yet. Unless I missed something from the time you introduced her to the press as your fiancée.”
JJ smiled and glanced at Tish. “Innocent mistake,” he said. But then he realized what else Bill had said. “What do you mean through me?”
“Maybe she heard about your relationship with your lady even before your proposal, and she wanted to get back at you by telling her nephew to snuff her out.”
The idea of it still angered JJ. The nerve of these people! “I don’t know what the motivation is, but I’m going to put a stop to it right here and right now. This has got to stop!”
Tish nodded, her face frustrated too. “I agree,” she said.
Then they drove the rest of the way in silence, with JJ reaching out and holding Tish’s hand. They refused to let this ruin their day.
After about half an hour of driving, they drove onto a tree-lined street in Ponte Vedra Beach with big, beautiful homes that backed up to the water like JJ’s. Then they pulled into the driveway of one of those houses, got out, and went up to the huge double doors.
JJ rang the bell. Then he opened his suitcoat and placed his hands in his pockets. But even Tish could see his uneasiness. This was the woman that broke his heart. And now she might have tried to do his new lady love harm too. She had no idea what had to be going through his head.
When there was no response, JJ rang the bell again and knocked loudly.
“What do you want?”
They all turned toward a leafy garden in the front yard, which was where that voice came from. They began walking in that direction.
When JJ saw Candiace seated on that bench pruning some flowers, he placed his hand around Tish’s waist and along with Bill stood in front of her.
A good-looking blonde who appeared to be in her mid-forties, she didn’t bother to look up. “You heard me,” she said. “What do you want?”
“Michael’s dead.”
They all could see her pruning suddenly stop, as if the news had taken her by surprise, but then she rallied and continued to prune. “What does that have to do with me?”
JJ’s patience was gone. He snatched those flowers out of her hand and threw them to the ground. Then he stood right in front of her. “Cut your crap, Candiace. I’m not here for it and you know that. I want to know why you sent Mike to Alabama to try and kill my fiancée.”
She looked at Tish when he said fiancée, as if she was surprised by that bit of news too. Then she looked back at JJ. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bullshit! You do know. Now tell me why did you hire that thug nephew of yours to try to harm my lady?”
“You think too highly of yourself. I don’t give a damn about you or your lady. And never did!” she added, as if she still could put salt in that wound.
But that wound was long since healed.
Bill took over the questioning. “Did you or did you not know that Michael was going to try to harm Miss Payton?”
Candiace didn’t answer that question.
“You knew,” JJ said, answering for her. “Did you hire him. That’s the question.”
She finally looked JJ dead in the eyes. He used to think she was something special. Now all he saw was darkness. “None of your damn business,” she said.
JJ was about to grab her and force her to her feet. He still couldn’t stand that whore. But before he could even touch her, she suddenly cried out as is she was stricken with pain. And then, just as quickly, she slumped down, baffling all of them.
“What’s wrong with her?” Bill asked.
“Still playing games I see,” JJ said to her. “If you think that bullshit still works,” he added as he angrily lifted her face up by the chin. But when he saw that she was bleeding from the side of her head, he realized in that instant what had happened.
“She’s bleeding.” Tish saw it too.
“Bleeding?” Bill asked, moving to get a better view.
But JJ began looking around, and then he began running toward the street on the side of her house. By the time he got to the end of the yard, he could see a car speeding down that side street, away from her house, and then turning a corner.
“What is it?” Tish said nervously. Did she have a sudden brain hemorrhage or something? “What happened to her?”
“Gunshot wound,” Bill said, holding her head and examining the wound. Then he started looking around too. “Probably used a silencer,” he added, as he pulled out his phone to call 911.
JJ hurried back over to the threesome, looked at his lifeless ex-wife again, and continued to look around as he pulled Tish against his body. It was the freakiest shit he’d ever seen.