Chapter 26
twenty-six
AMANTHA
“I’ve never met a bigger prick.” Kate’s spandex-covered behind rose into the air as her head dropped to her yoga mat. “Please let me call my assassin friend. I’m begging you.”
“To kill Brandon? Or Val?” My upside-down face felt like it had begun to purple. I swung upright, trying my best to follow the yoga instructor’s flow. My white tank threatened to split in two if my arms stretched any farther.
The outdoor yoga session in the city park was filled with at least twenty other participants, their mats evenly spaced along the grass. Kate’s phone rang, earning dirty looks from our neighbors.
“Ugh. It’s my mom.... Uh, hello?” Her nose wrinkled as she listened, like the conversation itself smelled bad. “For the last time, I’m not letting you set me up again!” She glared down at her yoga mat. “Because I’m an independent woman who doesn’t need some Ivy League clone?”
Kate’s mom must have kept arguing, because Kate pressed the mute button and held the phone away from her.
“Stupid Kentucky debutante upbringing. Do this, marry that…” She sucked in a breath and unmuted her phone. “Listen, I’m at yoga right now. Can we not talk about this later?” When the call ended after a few moments, Kate shoved her phone into her bag and resumed the yoga flow.
Obviously choosing not to address the conversation, Kate swung one leg into the air as her head hovered millimeters from her mat—a perfect mirror of our yoga instructor.
“Maybe my assassin friend has a BOGO sale? Buy one kill, get one free? Or would that be a BOKO?” She righted herself and looked at me with a hopeful expression.
I laughed. “That’s a firm no. No one is getting murdered.”
“You’re no fun.” Her two heavy braids swung across her sports bra as she shook her head. “I just don’t get Val. Brandon, I understand, unfortunately. Playboy through and through with not an honest thought in that pretty head of his. See? Now he’s the type to hit it and quit it.”
The class lowered into child’s pose, so I plopped down and attempted to fold myself in half. After a moment, I said, “Let me be clear, no one...uh…hit anything.”
“You’re telling me that after almost two years of not being with a guy, you and Val didn’t—”
“No.” I was glad that my flaming face was hidden against my mat. “I’m a mom, Kate. He hadn’t even met Anthony yet.”
“Oh.” Kate’s incredulity softened. “That makes sense. Sorry, I didn’t realize... I guess I’m much more…”
I turned my head toward her, pressing the side of my grin to the mat. “What?” I goaded. “You’re more…?”
She smiled, coughed a sheepish laugh, and said, “More... free spirited, I guess.”
I laughed. “No judgment. I’m all for supporting free spirited women.”
“Thanks?” She chuckled. “Anyways. Even I could see that Val was crazy about you. How do you flip a switch like that overnight? And why would Val hire someone so fast? And Brandon of all people? Like, come on.”
Val had interviewed for months, refusing to hire everyone he met. I still didn’t know why—I had never thought to ask him about it. Brandon himself said he’d interviewed weeks ago, but Val needed him to start the exact morning after he ended things with me?
Kate said, “Brandon let it slip that Val told him to tell everyone that they need to come to Brandon if they need anything. Not Val.”
“So it sounds like you and Brandon did find some time to catch up then?”
“I digress.”
I quietly absorbed the information. Val didn’t want to talk, clearly. But barricading himself behind someone else? The knife in my chest twisted. What on earth could I have done that warranted this distance between us?
“I think Val’s hiding something,” Kate announced.
“What do you mean?” Ignoring the rest of the participants, I plopped my rump down, snatched my water bottle, and shot copious amounts of cold water down my throat.
Kate sank onto her yoga mat and crossed her legs beneath her. “Come on, Amantha. No one ghosts someone without a good reason. Besides Brandon, that is.”
A sickening suspicion leeched into my thoughts. Could Val be hiding something? Ryan had had a change of heart too. A big one.
I immediately refuted the thought. Val took relationships seriously. He wouldn’t cheat.
However, I couldn’t shake the sensation that I had missed something—like a warning alarm resurfacing after I pressed snooze too many times.
Our whirlwind romance had ended almost as fast as it began. It wasn’t the first time I had crash-fallen for someone. After all, how quickly could a person truly know another? Had I really known Val? What could he be hiding?
In an instant, I knew.
I fought it, willing myself to think of something else. Anything else. Flashes of memories assaulted me, jigsaw pieces of scattered kisses and conversations. I willed myself to stop.
He wouldn’t do that to me.
Val had stopped me from talking to the press.
That was for the safety of our jobs.
Told me to keep the forgery quiet.
He was protecting me.
Val’s keycard had full access.
Val was helping me investigate.
Were the keycard logs really that unreadable?
But Val was my “Watson.”
He had written the condition report on the forgery. He had visited the storage room. He knew how to unlock the coded doors. He had been the first to open its crate.
The grassy park tilted, the hazy edges of my vision swirling. Bile rose in my throat. I was going to be sick.
But, Kendra knew about the painting too.
Was Val covering for her? Why would he do that?
Did Val give up on the investigation once I got too close?
Give up on me?
Although I fought with all my might, the next question slammed into me with the vehemence of a battering ram.
Is Val Kendra’s accomplice?
Istumbled down the grass-lined sidewalk. Kate felt sorry for my sudden bout of nausea, wishing me well as I left the class early. My yoga mat bounced mindlessly against my shoulder blades, the velocity of my thoughts increasing with each step.
I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t believe it. The man I knew Val to be didn’t fit the mold of someone who would deceive.
But then again, neither had Ryan.
That two-faced liar.
“Man, do I know how to pick em.”
Ryan. Val. Just two sides of the same coin. How much of our relationship had been a lie?
It had been quick. Too quick. It took Ryan over ten years to betray me. Val had achieved that in less than a month.
My ponytail shook back and forth in disgust.
What a ride it must have been for Val. How cunning he must have felt, concealing his crimes and winning the girl. What a thrill it must have given him, to lie with his lips pressed to mine. My skin crawled at the thought.
Did Kendra know about our mock investigation? Surely Val would have told her by now. Had she been keeping tabs this whole time? I pictured them laughing in her office, plotting how to extort information and send me on wild goose chases. Did Kendra tell Val to cut me off?
Or had he decided that on his own?
Sunlight dappled the leaves overhead. Birds chirped, concealed within green branches. Children’s laughter carried on the breeze as a dog walker passed by.
What a lovely day he ruined.
No, what a lovely day to ruin him.
Miraculously, my pining for him dissipated like smoky tendrils. The weak thumps in my chest became stronger, and my chin lifted a fraction of an inch. Anger pulsed through me, stitching together every shattered piece Val had left in his wake.
I was now the only person that knew about the forgery who wasn’t trying to hide it. It was all up to me now. Felix Andreas deserved justice. I deserved justice. The laughable breadcrumbs Val and Kendra had scattered would make for an excellent start.
My heartbreak nurse had been replaced by a bounty hunter.
A seething, door-busting, throw-you-in-jail-within-twenty-four-hours type of hunter.
Liam Neeson was me, and I was Liam Neeson.
Starting tomorrow, I was going to Nancy Drew this case wide open.