Chapter 14
14
L ukas Wayne. With everything going on, Conrad’s brain had set aside the suspicion about their trainer and his dirty dealings. Conrad should probably have a conversation with Kade about Lukas. His brother might have more information about the deals and how that might have led to Harrison Guidry’s murder. Another thought crossed Conrad’s mind. Harrison had been as big of a jerk as Beaumont. The lawyer had a bad reputation. Digging into his personal life would be another path that could lead to answers and more suspects. Conrad might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, having been seen in an argument with the family’s attorney moments before his death. Another thought struck now that Conrad was going down that trail. Had Harrison Guidry burned a lover? Did he have other children that he hadn’t claimed?
The easy answer was usually the right one. The saying was normally true. However, in this case, the easy answer pointed to Conrad being guilty.
“I’ll heat up a plate for you,” Conrad said as he walked toward the fridge. “What sounds good? There are sour cream chicken enchilada leftovers unless someone snatched them. There’ll be vegetable soup. I can make a sandwich to go with it.”
“Soup and a sandwich sound like heaven,” Nikki said with a slow sigh. “What can I do to help?”
“Stay right where you are,” he said. “It’ll take two seconds to heat up the soup. Sandwiches take another couple of minutes. Is ham okay?”
“I love ham,” she said. “How can I assist?”
“You’ll just be in the way,” he said, realizing how that sounded and wrinkled his nose. “What I meant to say is that I like taking care of you.”
“Oh.”
He wasn’t really sure what to make of the sound that came out of her mouth when she said that word or if oh qualified as a real word and not just a sound.
Had he gone too far?
A couple of minutes later, as promised, he set down plates with sandwiches and then bowls with soup.
“This looks like heaven,” Nikki said as she picked up a spoon and dug into the soup first. “And it smells even better.”
There was something a little too satisfying about taking care of her. As disjointed as his family had been with everyone bolting out of dodge the second they could, he never doubted any one of his brothers or his sister would have his back if push came to shove. Would he be too stubborn to ask for help? That was another subject altogether. But if he reached out, they would be there for him.
Who did Nikki have?
An argument boomed down the hallway, male voices. Conrad hadn’t realized anyone else was inside the house, but he recognized the voices right away as belonging to Beau and Kade.
“Excuse me while I check on what’s going on in the office up front,” Conrad said to Nikki.
“Should I go with you?” she asked, setting down her spoon.
“No,” he said as he stood up. “Stay here and finish eating. This shouldn’t take longer than a couple of minutes.”
“Okay.” She agreed to stay even though it looked like she wanted more than anything to go with him. She needed to eat. It was his fault she’d gotten banged up. Feeding her was the least he could do.
Conrad set his own spoon down and made a beeline down the hallway toward Beaumont’s old office where the argument was going on full blast.
Beau was in Kade’s face, pointing a finger in his chest. “How am I the bad guy here?”
“Because we stopped all sales going through from Lukas in order to investigate why he’s making deals not approved by us,” Kade retorted. Red-faced, he kept a tight grip on his emotions based on the tension radiating from him and the fact his fists were clenched at his sides. “You violated our agreement.”
“Hold on a minute,” Conrad said, surprising them.
The interruption caused Beau to take a step back. He’d been playing the innocent victim around Conrad, which had made him be more sympathetic, but the bolder side of Beau was in charge now. Conrad didn’t like this side to his half-brother and no longer saw the need to jump to the man’s defense.
“What the hell’s going on in here?” Conrad asked.
Kade’s fists relaxed. Beau rolled his shoulders like he was trying to break some of the tension in his body.
“Beau decided to okay a deal behind my back,” Kade said.
“I thought we agreed all siblings would be involved in decision-making while we divvied up responsibilities,” Conrad said to Beau. It was more accusation than statement.
“We did,” Beau said, taking a much calmer demeanor. He put his hands in the air in the surrender position.
“Tell him about Harrison being involved in the transaction,” Kade goaded.
“It’s true, this was a deal Lukas, myself, and Harrison were cooking up,” Beau said.
Kade shot a warning look. “Keep going.”
“Harrison tried to back out last minute because he decided it wasn’t ethical since he was still representing the entire family’s interest,” Beau said.
“Meaning, both you and Lukas had a reason to kill my father, so the deal would go through,” Nikki said as she entered the room.
“When you say it like that, it does sound damning,” Beau agreed. Again, he raised his hands. “But I wouldn’t set Conrad up.”
“Doesn’t mean you didn’t by accident,” Nikki continued.
Kade’s gaze bounced from Nikki to Beau to Conrad. “I like her.”
“Does the sheriff know about this behind-the-back deal?” Nikki asked. She would make one helluva litigator. Seemed a shame that she was thinking about leaving law school. Then again, Conrad could see her doing a whole lotta good as a victim’s rights advocate. A traumatized person wouldn’t find a better person to fight for them than Nikki Guidry.
“There’s no reason for him to know,” Beau said.
Nikki issued a grunt. She turned her attention to Kade. “Do you happen to have a phone on you?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Kade said before fishing in his pocket to retrieve his cell. He handed it over with a smile. “The sheriff’s number is pre-programmed if you go into my contacts.”
“Thank you,” Nikki said, taking the offering and making the call.
“Hold on,” Beau said. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves here.”
Nikki didn’t stop. Instead, she tapped the screen and then put the call on speaker.
“Let’s talk this through first,” Beau said.
The call rolled into voicemail.
“Sheriff, this is Nikki Guidry, and I have information in the Conrad Sturgess case that is of utmost importance. Please stop by the Sturgess ranch for an interview with me and the Sturgess siblings.” With that, she ended the call and then handed the phone back to Kade. “That should do the trick.”
“I need to make a call,” Beau said, starting for the door.
Kade sidestepped, positioning himself next to Conrad so the pair blocked the exit.
“Right now, you need to sit the hell down,” Conrad stated. “Kade, I’m gonna need to use your phone to call a family meeting.”
Beau puffed up his chest. “So that’s it? You’re siding with them now?”
“I was never taking sides, Beau. I only wanted you to have a chance, but now that I see what an asshole you are, no thanks.”
Kade was clapping by the end of Conrad’s sentence. Beau, on the other hand, decided to attempt to storm through them.
“Red rover, red rover, I dare you to…” was all Kade managed to get out before Beau reached them and tried to bust through.
“I’ll hold you down myself if you don’t cooperate,” Conrad said.
“I should’ve known you’d turn your back on me, brother .” Beau spit out that last word like he’d bitten into a sour grape.
“No brother of mine would let me rot in jail when he had information that could cast suspicion where it belonged,” Conrad said, wishing he’d seen Beau for the jerk he was straight out of the gate.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. This saying resonated as true to the situation.
The hurt and disappointment in Conrad’s eyes struck Nikki hard. Conrad was a good human. He cared about giving people a fair shake even when they came at him angry like she had in the barn the other day. Being betrayed would hurt him more than he would ever let on once he gave someone his trust.
Despite the awful, abusive childhood he’d had, Conrad still managed to give people the benefit of the doubt, to trust them when there was no evidence supporting it. Did that make him na?ve or noble? Nikki decided on noble.
“Looks like we’re going to be here for a while,” Nikki said to the trio of men in the room. “Should we take a seat or are we going to wait this out standing up?”
The second Beau shot bullets at her with his gaze, Conrad stepped in between them to take the heat. Definitely noble.
“You, sit behind the desk so we can keep an eye on you,” he said to Beau. Conrad’s tone left no room for doubt. It said, Move or I’ll move you myself.
Beau moved.
The resemblance between brothers was amazing, especially when it came to Kade and Conrad. Beau looked like Beaumont; he was his spitting image. In her opinion, though, Conrad was by far the hottest brother. Hands down.
“I wanted to surprise everyone by making a great sale,” Beau said as he took a seat, brooding like a teenager who’d had his iPhone confiscated. “Is it so wrong that I want to make my mark in my father’s world? Make the rest of the family proud?”
“It is when it undermines your relationship with your siblings, who happen to be your business partners,” Nikki stated, also leaving no room for argument. “It wouldn’t just be illegal. It would be a slight against the family you say you want to be a part of.”
“That’s not how I see the transaction,” Beau huffed.
The fact he’d been here a couple of months and decided to take matters into his own hands either made him ambitious, ignorant, or just a plain old asshole. Nikki couldn’t decide which.
“I didn’t mean any harm,” Beau said on a sharp sigh.
“I’m sure you didn’t,” Kade said with the snarkiest tone Nikki had ever heard. There was more than a hint of condemnation in his voice, too.
Kade’s cell buzzed while it was still in his hand. “The sheriff is sending Sandy to take our statements.” He tapped the screen a few times. Beau’s cell chimed a second later. “I’ll save you the time of reading the group text. I asked if our partners want to come in for a face-to-face tonight or discuss this sale via conference call.”
“Fine,” Beau stated, checking his cell anyway.
Kade walked over to a cabinet, produced a key, and unlocked the door. There was a lockbox inside that required an additional key. He produced it, then opened it.
Inside, there was a stash of cash, a handgun, and a couple of cell phones. He grabbed one of the phones, locked up the box and cabinet, and then took a seat next to Conrad. “Meant to give you this earlier.” He handed over a phone. “Number is here.” He pointed toward a piece of paper that had been taped to the back. “You’ll have to get used to a new cell number, but this should do you right until you get yours back from the law.”
Beau watched the brothers as they interacted. Was he jealous? Was he telling the truth about wanting to make a deal to prove his worth in the family? Or was he clever enough to come up with the lie on the spot? Had he cooked up the lie to cover his tracks if anyone caught him?
An even bigger question loomed. Was he a killer?
Nikki studied the man who looked so much like his father. Was that the only trait Beau had inherited?
“You’re aware that Conrad is being set up for murdering my father, correct?” she asked him.
“Yes, I am,” Beau said, and then the implication seemed to dawn on him. His eyes widened. “But this deal has nothing to do with what happened to your father.”
“How can you be so sure?” she continued, standing up so she could lean across the desk. Making herself taller than Beau was a power move she’d learned along with using other body language indicators to convey her message.
“I…uh, well…” Beau said, at a loss for words.
“Exactly,” she continued. “What if your actions are the reason Conrad is under suspicion? What if your business deal is the reason my father was murdered?”
Beau’s expression morphed to a solemn one. “Damn. I didn’t think about it in that light. Conrad has been nothing but welcoming to me when the rest of the family can’t stand the ground I walk on.” He seemed genuine. Though, she was learning how pathological liars worked and couldn’t rule Beau out as one. If you believed the lie, you could sell it. He shifted his gaze to Conrad. “I’m truly sorry if my actions have put you in a bad position. That was never my intent.”
Conrad was slow to nod. It was obvious that he was trying to figure Beau out after welcoming his half-brother into the family. “This is my life we’re talking about, Beau. I could go to prison.”
“I’ll do right by the family,” Beau promised. “Just give me another chance.”
Should he?