Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
MOVING PARTS
LOLA
The Kitty-Corner Cafe smells divine, and I decide within approximately four seconds of walking through the door that it’s my new favorite place. The fire is roaring, and the light coming in from the windows makes everything brighter.
Juju brightens when she sees us. “Good morning. You heading out of town?”
“Yeah, we’re going to the airport from here,” Tully says.
Uncle Hal comes out of the kitchen singing “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and comes to get a hug when he spots us.
“I’m happy I got to see you again before you leave,” Juju says.
“Sounds like we’ll be back next week for a wedding,” Tully teases. “How are you even here right now? Don’t you have a wedding to plan?”
“This is gonna be the chillest wedding you’ve ever seen,” she says quietly, making sure no one around is listening. “With the exception of the menu.” She laughs and adds, “The food will be…” and does a chef’s kiss.
“I take it you’re not inviting the whole town?” Tully whispers.
“No. That’s what makes it so chill.” She grins. “Just our families.”
“It’ll be good to see Jackson and Dove,” he says.
“My brother and his new wife,” Juju tells me.
“Have you gotten to know her much yet?” Tully asks.
“I’ve haven’t seen her much more than you.
” She lifts her shoulder and makes a face.
“They went to her family’s for Thanksgiving…
but they’ll be at the wedding. So far, I like what I see.
Whirlwind wedding,” she adds. “But it must run in the family, since I’m about to have one of my own. ” Her head falls back with her laugh.
We get a basket of fresh pastries and the best coffee I’ve ever had, and we sit in the front window.
“Is it always this peaceful around here?” I ask.
“The tourists make it a little busier, but yeah, even with more people around, it’s peaceful.”
“I love it here.”
“Could you ever see yourself in a place like this?” Tully asks.
He asks it casually, looking out at the water when he says it and not at me. But then he turns, his eyes meeting mine, and they’re so hopeful, my heart turns over.
I am a composed woman who is absolutely not gripping her coffee mug harder than necessary.
“Well…” I try to sound nonchalant. “Yes.” I gesture vaguely at the water, the town, the gold morning light doing its thing over the harbor. “Look at it.”
“It gets cold.”
“I’m aware. It’s cold out there right now.”
“This is nothing.”
I laugh. Because only a Minnesotan could say that fifteen degrees is nothing.
“I could manage,” I say. “Maybe travel somewhere warm a couple of times in the winter. Yeah, I could see myself here. But are we only talking about the weather?” I’m smiling, and when I glance at him again out of the corner of my eye, he is too.
He leans in, his fingers threading through mine.
“What about your shop?” he asks, his voice low.
“Is there a tattoo shop in town?”
His brows lift. “No. There’s not.”
I turn to face him fully, and he does the same.
“Then maybe I open one.”
His lips lift even more, his eyes crinkling at the sides. He’s so gorgeous it hurts.
“Yeah?” he says.
“Two shops,” I say, and the excitement carries into my voice now. “One here, one in New York. Juni’s ready to carry more, but I’d hire another artist too…” I stop when he doesn’t say anything. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I can’t believe I might finally be getting what I’ve wanted for so long.”
“What’s that?” I whisper.
He leans in, his hand clasping my cheek. “A life with you.”
“Oh, you’d be here too?” I tease.
He growls and then laughs, pulling back to study me. “It’s good to see it coming back.”
“What?”
“Your sassy mouth.”
We walk out of the cafe, and Tully has bent down to tie his shoe when something white rushes past me.
I look up and see a rooster circling back and charging at me.
“Ahhh!” I yelp and start running when it’s obvious he isn’t slowing down.
“Ra-ra-ra-raoooooo!” the bird yells.
My knees lift higher, my feet going faster. I’m being chased in the snow by a freaking bird. How is this happening?
“Ahhh!” I yell when he gets closer.
“Ralph!” Tully yells. “Ralph, HALT!”
I hear commotion behind me, but I’m scared to look.
“It’s okay, Lola. I’ve got him.”
I turn and see Tully holding the rooster. And the rooster has the nerve to look at me smugly, like he’s exactly where he wants to be.
“Are you kidding me right now?” I say, panting. I bend over to catch my breath and point. “You’re holding that bastard?”
Tully laughs. “He is a little jackass,” he says while petting said jackass.
I glare at both of them. “What did you call him?”
“Ralph.”
“Ralph,” I mimic, making an ugly face, which just makes Tully laugh harder.
“Okay, I’m going to put him in the coop, so he doesn’t chase you, and so you don’t murder him.”
“I would’ve been friends if he’d been nice,” I mumble as he walks Ralph to the coop.
Tully can’t keep a straight face as he walks back. “Yep, the sass is definitely back.”
I poke him in the side and then slide my freezing-cold hands up his shirt, warming them on his nice, toasty abs.
“Ahhh,” he yelps.
I grin.
And then I’m being chased by him in the snow.
It’s so hard to say goodbye to Tully, but it helps knowing I’ll be seeing him in eight days.
As I’m sitting at my gate, my phone buzzes, and I look down and get that cold rush of dread. Four missed calls, no voicemails. And then the texts start dinging one after the other.
555-323-4688
We need to talk.
555-323-4688
You seem to have forgotten the deal we made.
555-323-4688
Maybe you thought I was letting it slide since nothing’s been done since I saw you at the charity event, but I assure you, I was only winding up.
A picture comes through of Tully and me walking through the airport the night before last.
555-323-4688
Lola, Lola, Lola. I didn’t want to play ugly, but you’re really giving me no choice.
My hands start shaking, and I look around the airport. I don’t expect him to come walking toward me or anything, but I’m freaking out. How did he get this number?
And then someone sits next to me, and I jump out of my skin.
“Relax, it’s me.” Wade has a ball cap pulled low. I see his mustache and slowly exhale.
“I didn’t know you were here.”
“I wasn’t. You had Windhaven’s security when you were in Windy Harbor, and now I’m here to see you home safely.”
“Thank you. I’m glad you’re here. Daniel’s been calling and just sent a bunch of texts.”
His jaw tightens. “Let’s see it.”
I hand him my phone, and he looks them over before handing it back.
“He’s getting sloppy. This is good. I’ll be driving you home too. I have some things to tell you.”
“I have to wait until the ride home?” I ask incredulously.
“I think that would be for the best, yes.”
There’s a DM from Patrick when I land. I groan, but I open it.
You’ve blocked me now? Really, Lola?
I guess it all makes sense. I saw you’re with Tully FUCKING Whitman now. You were such a waste of my fucking time. You’d seriously be with that motherfucker over me?
I didn’t block him. I got a new phone with a new number. But I don’t bother to correct him. Instead, I unfriend and block him on all my social media accounts.
I’m antsy by the time we get in the car.
“Okay, spill,” I say, waving my hand at Wade to hurry him along.
He chuckles. “Okay.” He pauses, and I look at him to see if he’s purposely trying to torture me or what.
He changes lanes and lowers his rearview mirror the tiniest bit before continuing.
“I did a sweep of your apartment while you were in Minnesota. Tully asked me to go through the place before you came back.”
“Yeah, he told me you were going to do that.”
“I found something in your kitchen and bedroom. Two recording devices.”
“What?”
“I was hoping to catch Tully at his gate to tell him in person as well, but I’d just missed him,” he says, like he hasn’t just made my mind explode. “We can call him when we get to your place. I think it’s best that you don’t stay there tonight. Do you have somewhere you can go?”
“Uh, yeah. I think so.”
“Good. Pack what you need, take your time. I’ll go through it again when we get inside, make sure there aren’t any new ones.”
He goes through my apartment when we get there, and it’s clean. He shows me where he found the others.
“That’s so creepy.”
“Agreed.”
My phone buzzes, and it’s an email from the building management of my shop. I only turn notifications on when I’m out of town. My lease is being adjusted again. An almost fifty percent increase. Honestly, it took him longer than I thought it would.
I curse, and when Wade looks over, I hand him my phone.
He reads it and nods. “I flagged that email this morning. This was next on my list to tell you. But I think it’s a good thing. He’s scrambling. This is what we want. But I still don’t like it.”
He points to the chair in my kitchen. “Might want to take a seat. You look pale.”
I sit down. I feel pale.
“The scope of what Daniel has been doing is larger than we initially understood. We have documentation now of at least five clients, including two former NHL players and Tully, where contract earnings were skimmed. You’re not the only person he’s blackmailing either.
He uses the property management arm of Crestline to control people the same way he’s controlled you.
Rent increases, denied loans, and debt arrangements he holds over families.
And not just his clients. I don’t know the connections fully yet, but we’ve identified at least eight people—I’m sure there are more. It goes back further than we thought.”
“This is so crazy,” I say. I lean my elbow on the table and prop my head on my hand. I feel exhausted all of a sudden. “Daniel tried calling Tully multiple times over the past few days, and Tully never answered. That probably added to his panic.”
Wade nods. “Makes sense.”
“We should tell Tully…after his game, though.”
“You sure?”
I’m nodding as a call comes through. I sigh. “It’s Tully. He’ll worry if I don’t answer. I hate this,” I groan.
“He’ll want to know what’s going on,” Wade says.
I answer the call. “Hey. You land okay?”
“Yes, I made it.”
“Are you at the arena yet? I don’t even know what time it is.”
“Yeah, I’m here. You look upset. What’s going on? Tell me. Hey, Wade.”
Wade dips his head.
I tell him about the calls and texts. The rent email. And Wade fills him in on the rest. I save the recording devices for last.
He stands up and starts pacing. “That fucking son of a bitch. I need to be there.”
“I’ll be fine. Wade’s here, and I’m going to stay somewhere else tonight.”
“Come here.”
“I-I can’t make it to Chicago while you’re still there.”
“Come to Dallas tomorrow. I’ll send you the ticket tonight, you can meet me there tomorrow, and we’ll figure this out.”
“I don’t know…the shop. What if we see Daniel?”
“If they’re upset about their appointments, we can rent out a tattoo shop and fly them to get their piece done.”
I laugh. “Spoken like a man who has too much money.”
He grins but sobers quickly. “I love you. This is scary, Lola. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize your career, but this man took five years from us. He’s not going to take it well when I fire his ass, and I want to make sure you’re completely protected when I do so.”
“When are you firing him?”
“As soon as Wade has enough to put him away for good. Are we close, Wade?”
“We’ve got some good stuff, but I’m afraid he’d be able to get out of all of this. We need more.”
“That’s what I was afraid you’d say.”
There’s a racket behind Tully, and he winces.
“I hate being so far away from you right now,” he says. “If you’re not able to get away, I’ll come to you.”
“You can’t miss your games.” I shake my head.
He lifts his shoulder. “I’ll do whatever I have to. Watch her like a hawk, Wade.”
“I will,” Wade says.
“I’ll call you when the game is over.” He puts his fingers to his lips and places them on the screen. “Love you.”
“I love you,” I say softly.
I look at my schedule and decide to try something. I call the first client.
“Hey, Megan. It’s Lola Donavan.”
“Lola! Hey! How are you?”
“Well, things have gotten a little crazy on my end. I’m having a…family emergency…and need to go out of town. I have a crazy proposal. Would you have time for me to do your piece tonight?”
“Uh…like when?”
“Half hour, hour?”
“Oh!” She laughs. “Um, yeah. I could do that.”
“Really? That would help me so much. Thank you!”
Wade levels me with a look. “I guess that means I’m going to be up late, huh?”
I grin. “If all works out how I’m hoping, yes.”
I make five more calls and have three appointments tonight and three tomorrow, starting at eight in the morning.
“I’ll make you some coffee at the shop,” I tell Wade.
It’s late before Tully calls, and he’s surprised to see me at work. I have one more client to go, and it’ll be a quick one.
“You look good,” he says, grinning.
“You do too,” I say, smiling wide. “Great game. I was working, but Wade was watching the game, so I heard some in the background.”
“What are you doing at work so late?”
“I moved six of my appointments to tonight and tomorrow morning, and then looked at your schedule to see what’s next. After Colorado, you’ll have home games leading up to the wedding, which is perfect. Camden and Juju knew what they were doing.”
“You all know more about my schedule than I do.” He laughs.
“I bet you can’t guess where one of my clients was traveling from,” I sing.
“No, I can’t, but I like it when you sing,” he sings back.
“Minnesota.” My eyes go wide. “Can you believe it?”
“I believe that you’ve had some caffeine.”
I point at him. “You are not wrong. So…in Minnesota, I’m going to see if my client will meet me at Rebel Mark.
I still keep in touch with Ken, and he’d be thrilled if I came in.
I think my client was gonna be in New York visiting family, so if I can catch him before he goes…
there are a lot of moving parts that have to work out, but maybe! ” I run out of breath and fan my face.
Tully’s looking at me with a mix of amusement and concern. He laughs when he’s sure I’ve stopped talking.
“Great,” he says finally. “So I can get you a ticket for tomorrow?”
“As long as it’s after two in the afternoon, I can do it.”
“I can’t wait,” he says.
This time I kiss my fingers and press them to the screen. “Neither can I. Love you.”
“I love you, Trouble.”