Chapter 18
IfI ever go missing, use the selfie with the most likes.
—Text from Hollis to Quincy
QUINCY
Thenext morning, after a bit of a sleepless night—and not because of any more sex with Hollis—the last thing I wanted to do was hear the pounding on the door at nine in the morning.
ButI did, and I hated myself for getting up to answer it.
Yetagain, Hollis had left around six-fifty in the morning to head to work, leaving me there by myself with a key and an invitation to come back after she was off work.
I’dgone back to bed, my brain immediately shutting down until the pounding started.
Igot up, slipped on my old jeans that I’d found beside the couch, and stopped to clean up the files on the coffee table that’d been the reason for my sleepless night.
I’ddone a lot of digging, studying, and calling last night that’d left me up until well past three this morning.
It’donly been as I realized it was too late for people to willingly answer the phone that I’d decided to stop.
WhenI’d gone to bed, I’d forgotten to close the files up.
Thismorning, though, I wouldn’t be letting anyone in to allow them to see the contents.
Aftereverything was cleaned up, I walked to the door, gently moved the iguana’s tail, and opened the door.
Iblinked when I saw Tay, Hollis’s brother, standing there looking expectant.
“What are you doing here?” he snapped.
Iraised a brow at him. “I think the more appropriate question would be, what are you doing here?”
Hefrowned hard. “Hollis lives here, and she’s my sister.”
“Hollis is at work, and if you knew your sister, you would know that,” I returned.
I’dasked Hollis last week about her schedule, and found out that she works every single Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and every other Wednesday.
Thisbeing Monday, there was no surprise to her schedule.
Apparently, she’d been working that for her entire career at the hospital.
“Oh,” Tay frowned. “Do you know where she works? I have to apologize.”
Hehad to apologize…
“You don’t’ even know where she works?” I asked incredulously.
“No,” he shrugged. “I was…”
Selfish? Self-centered? An asshole?
“A jerk,” he finished, going a little light on himself. “Anyway, something happened yesterday, and I felt the immediate pressing need to let her know that we were jerks, and we won’t be playing Mom’s games anymore.”
Mom’sgames?
“Your mom is the one who always instigated that?” I asked.
“She thinks it’s funny.” He shrugged. “And since Hollis never reacted how she wanted, she kept doing it. Mom stopped it with us when we got angry, but Hollis never gets angry… and we’re jerks.”
Yeah, they were.
Afteranother fifteen-minute conversation with him standing in the hallway and me blocking his way inside, I said, “I’m going to take her lunch soon. If you go outside, I’ll meet you down there. Gotta get dressed.”
“I can’t come in?” he asked.
Ishook my head. “No.”
ThenI shut the door in his face.
WhenI next emerged, he was indeed waiting outside for me.
Igestured toward my truck and said, “Get in.”
Hedid, his eyes gleaming as he took in the new interior.
“This is a nice truck, how much did it cost you?”
Iignored him, not answering him.
Itwas none of his business, and he needed to know that.
“CanI ask you a question?” Tay asked, sounding genuinely curious.
Taywas the most assholish nineteen-year-old I’d ever met.
Honestly, if he wasn’t Hollis’s brother, I wouldn’t be able to stand him.
Yet, here I was, trying to play nice.
“Sure,” I said, wanting to answer none of his questions. Absently, I pulled into the closest hamburger joint to the hospital and got out. “Come on.”
Truthfully, I’d rather he leave. I’d rather he not be here, giving the fakest of attempts to repair a relationship with Hollis that I had a feeling was just a way to continue to get his good Christmas and birthday presents.
Yet, Hollis didn’t see that.
AndI was going to hope that her family was better than that.
I’djust made my way inside when I saw my brother at the counter ordering his own food.
Hemust’ve just come from the hospital, because why else would he be here?
“Hey,” I called to him as I sidled up to his side. “Why are you ordering a hamburger so early?”
Audengrinned weakly before saying, “It’s been a long night. Just got done with a nightshift at the hospital.”
Audenpicked up the occasional security shift there when his good friend couldn’t take it.
Forgettingabout the little asshole at my side, I placed my food order with Auden’s, then said, “To go on that.”
Iwasn’t getting a burger this early in the morning, but I knew that Hollis would enjoy it. Maybe she could eat the lunch I packed as a snack.
“Hey, what about my order?” Tay asked when Auden paid.
Ipulled out a ten and handed it to Auden before saying, “I’m not paying for your food. What was your question?”
“Do girls actually like being fingered?” Tay asked, momentarily forgetting about food.
Inearly pinched the bridge of my nose as I tried, and failed, to find a good way to answer that.
Then, before I could stop myself, I said, “Well, I guess the question is, do you know the difference between summoning a genie and stuffing a chicken?”
Tayblinked.
Mybrother was now wheezing in the corner next to the drink machine. The lady behind the counter made a high-pitched gasping noise as she tried to control herself.
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Tay asked.
Audenchoked.
Thelady waiting for her food next to the drink machine managed to collect herself before saying, “Honey, he’s trying to teach you. Listen.”
“Okay,” Tay said as he followed us to the waiting area beside the drink fountain. “What does that mean?”
“It means that you’re too young to be doing this if you don’t know how to do it right. Do your research,” I said as I tried not to flick him in the forehead.
Whywas I dealing with this?
Ohyeah, because Hollis was deep under my skin.
Sothat was how I spent the next ten minutes. Auden gave lessons, and I stayed still with my hips against the wall, trying not to add in my two cents.
“There’s this inner demon inside of each man,” Auden said as he stared at Tay. “On one hand, there’s this good guy who’s saying, ‘stop licking, her legs are shaking.’ And then there’s the bad guy who says, ‘keep going. Put her in a coma.’”
Tayblinked. “Ummm…”
Igrinned.
Bythe time we got to the hospital with her food, it was to find her helping out a patient in the ER, very much busy, and unable to talk, let alone grab her food.
“Hey,” I said to the security guard who’d taken over for my brother. “When you see a gorgeous woman with brown hair, brown eyes, and about yay high,” I held my hand up. “With blue scrubs pushing one of those big X-ray machines—nametag reads ‘Hollis’—will you give her this?”
Thesecurity guard jerked his chin up before saying, “You got it, boss.”
Taywalked back out with me, glaring as he went. “What’s your problem?”
“I wanted to talk to her,” he pouted.
“She was working, Tayson,” I pointed out. “You can’t just expect her to drop everything to come listen to you apologize.”
Hemuttered something under his breath and had just gotten to my truck when he said, “My parents are divorcing.”
Iblinked. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “And they’re being investigated for tax fraud.”
Iblinked.
“Dad was stealing from the company, and they froze all of our assets,” he continued. “I…” He frowned. “I wanted to see if I could move in with her. They’re taking our house, too.”
Ididn’t know what to say.
WhatI did know was that it was pretty shitty of him to think that he could come over here, lying about wanting to apologize for his and his family’s actions, and think that she would just allow him to move in because he asked.
“I’ll talk to her,” I said as I rounded the truck. “ButI can’t make any promises.”
* * *
“Hey,” I said to my friend at the bureau. “I have a couple of questions for you.”
Myfriend, Easton, had been with the FBI for as long as I’d known him. We’d met on a case involving a murder that was connected to another case that he’d been working. From then on, we’d stayed in touch. We even saw each other once a year for a fishing trip in Montana.
“Shoot,” Easton said, sounding distracted.
“What are you doing right now?” I asked.
“Is that one of your questions?” he chuckled.
“Kind of,” I admitted. “I need you to look some shit up for me.”
“I’m at the house, but I can get on the computer, give me a few,” he said as he started moving through his house.
Icould hear him talking, likely to his wife or his children, their replies muffled.
Thenthe noise abruptly shut off, and Easton said, “Okay, I’m away from the circus. What’s up?”
Igave him all the details I had.
“Give me a second,” he said as he started to type. “Found it. Whoa.”
“What?” I asked, wincing at the surprise evident in his ‘whoa.’
“Tax fraud,” he said. “Dael and BroddieAue were in some pyramid scheme through Broddie’s investment banking firm. They froze all the parents’ accounts, took everything that was registered to the investment banking business…”
Hepretty much laid out exactly what Tayson had shared with me an hour ago, ending with, “They’re looking at twenty-five years each. The firm that BroddieAue worked with has fired him. All his 401Ks, bank accounts, cars, home, and a few other things were seized by the state of Texas pending a trial.”
Irubbed between my eyes. “What was the pyramid scheme?”
“According to about thirteen elder individuals, they conned them out of their money and wouldn’t give it back.” Easton sounded like he was reading from a report. “Looks like they’re accused of stealing upward of nineteen million dollars, funneling it through the company they were working for, and then starting their own accounts where that money went. There’s more but… you get the gist.”
Yeah, yeah I did.
“Shit,” I sighed.
“That sounded like a bad ‘shit,’” Easton murmured. “What’s up?”
“The girl I’m seeing has an awful relationship with her family,” I gave him a rundown on what I’d seen so far between them. “Then this morning, the brother came by and was all sad and shit, trying to make amends, he said. But in reality, he’s been kicked out of his house, doesn’t have anywhere to go, and wants to see if his sister will put him up.”
“I hope she doesn’t,” he admitted. “When do I get to meet her?”
Aloud bang on the other end of the line, and then a little cherubic voice said, “Daddy! Mommy says that we can go outside as soon as you’re off the phone! Can we go now?”
Eastonsighed.
“I’ll bring her to the fishing trip this summer,” I said. “You can meet her then.”
Eastonchuckled as I heard him get up from his creaky desk chair. “I’ll look forward to it. Let me know if you need anything else.”
Weboth hung up on a shriek of excitement on his end.
Irubbed my chest, wondering what this feeling was, or the way a dark wave of envy rolled over me as I thought about Easton and his family.
DidI want that?
DidI want something so permanent with Hollis?
Imust if I was willing to go to bat with her over her family, or hell, even inviting her to fish this summer.
Thatwas sacred. You only brought people who mattered.
Andscarily, Hollis was beginning to matter.
Alot.
Speakingof the things that mattered, Hollis walked in the door on that last scary thought.
Shelooked haggard, like the day had kicked her ass, chewed her up, and spit her out.
“You look rough,” I said to the woman who was quickly starting to steal my heart.
“I am rough,” she pointed out. “You’ll never guess what happened.”
“What?”
Sheripped some papers out of her bag, and then showed them to me. “I’m being sued!”