Chapter 34 #2
Delilah finally looked at me, shame and fear clouding her brown eyes.
“I know I shouldn’t have. It threw me, but I was still going to tell you about Amber-Rae until the next morning when Mom called Grandma again, saying you and Phoebe had been kissing behind the church later that night.
The way she said it, it sounded like she’d seen it.
Everything kind of ‘clicked’ in my head.
Mom was right: Phoebe was going to seduce you and take you away.
Amber-Rae wanted to help me protect our family and knew something that would make Phoebe leave. ”
It all made a terrible sick kind of sense.
I opened my mouth only to fall silent when Rowdy shook his head. There was more. I wasn’t sure I could handle more without punching something.
“Only Phoebe didn’t leave. She stayed, and Amber-Rae said that we needed more to get rid of her. She showed me a photo of you and Phoebe on her back deck one night. You were kissing her and—”
I remembered that night. It was why I’d gone around back of Phoebe’s when I’d been halfway to the door.
The first night I’d kissed her. I’d thought I’d seen someone in the shadows of the trees beside her house, heard the cracking of branches.
When I’d found Phoebe around back, I’d figured it was the fire I heard.
Even so, she became my sole focus the second I laid eyes on her.
Amber-Rae had been there the whole time…
“I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to do what Amber-Rae said, so I…”
“You what?” I prompted, trying to keep from losing my shit.
She chanced a glance up and then looked back at her pants. “I thought maybe if I could make Phoebe not want you as her contractor anymore, then everything would be okay.”
“It’s okay, D,” I tried to reassure her, a stone in my gut.
“I—I messed with your phone.” Her lip trembled.
“What do you mean? My phone is fine.”
“Not…not your new phone. Your old one,” she said, and then I knew. Delilah had brought my missing cell phone back after…
“You blocked Phoebe in my phone.” I hadn’t really believed my phone getting soaked had done that, but I hadn’t had a better explanation. “But other people were blocked in my phone?” That made no sense.
Delilah took a deep breath. “I blocked a few other people so it wouldn’t be obvious.”
Obvious? She’d almost cost me another contract. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that, but I shut my mouth at the last second. I’d deal with it later.
“When she didn’t have you stop working on her house, I figured Amber-Rae was right.
So, I snuck onto Phoebe’s porch and delivered the notes Amber-Rae wrote, thinking Phoebe would read them and go.
I didn’t know Amber-Rae had already left some for Phoebe.
Only Phoebe still didn’t leave.” Delilah looked close to crying again.
I tried to rein in my anger. This was my baby sister, and yes, she’d fucked with my woman, but there were others that had polluted her mind to do it.
“What happened next?” Wade asked, wanting to keep things moving.
“When Phoebe wouldn’t leave, Amber-Rae said we could still deliver more notes, but now that she had her hooks in you, we needed something bigger, and it would take time. She said Phoebe had some documents that, if I got them, she could make her leave once and for all.”
“What documents?” Wade grew still, and I could see it. He knew something.
“I didn’t know what they were at first. I—I took them this weekend when Jesse was at Phoebe’s, and she had to go see Aunt Helen.” Delilah looked back down, this time at my feet. “They were in her safe, but it was open. Amber-Rae said she’d overheard Phoebe setting the code, so she gave it to me.”
“How the hell did she know that?” Phoebe wasn’t reckless. There was only one person other than her who had the code, and that was Alex. I’d been there when it was delivered and they’d set it up. Alex threw me out of the house just to be sure I didn’t hear it. I hadn’t minded at all.
Delilah shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t need it anyhow. The safe was open, so I grabbed what I could and put it in my backpack while Phoebe was gone and Jesse was downstairs with Lock.”
“It was her latest manuscript, a couple of contracts, and some letters from you,” Wade supplied, looking displeased.
“I didn’t know! I swear!” Delilah pleaded with him. “I didn’t even look at them until after the baseball game. Amber-Rae was supposed to get them from me yesterday morning, but…I’d followed Phoebe when she left the restaurant to talk to you. I heard…I heard everything, and I knew I was wrong.”
“What did you hear?” Wade asked, his pen moving furiously.
“She heard Phoebe say she wanted to tell everyone about us.” I didn’t bother denying it. Rowdy clearly already knew about me and Phoebe. It would all have to come out now anyhow.
“I’ve known for months, if that helps,” Rowdy added.
It didn’t, but that was a later problem.
“Rowdy caught me sneaking around and—”
“And told her to stop listening to my crazy-assed mother.” Rowdy sounded disgusted.
“It’d taken some doing, but I knew Mom was up to something where Phoebe was concerned.
I heard her and her wicked witch of a sidekick talking about getting Winterbourne Manor back.
Something about a camera and listening.”
Wade’s head snapped up.
“I don’t know what it all meant. I had seen her talking to Delilah one day and had a bad feeling, so I hunted this one”—he jerked his head at her— “down. I found her eavesdropping in the pizzeria parking lot and thought it best to set her straight. Phoebe wasn’t here to ruin anything, and if anyone was ruining things, it was my mother.
Granted, I didn’t know about Cady-Jo until Delilah told me. ”
My mother. Again.
“Where are Phoebe’s papers now?” I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“So…”
Phoebe was right. Nothing good ever followed when someone started a sentence like that.
“Mom has them.”
Of course she does.
Getting to my feet, I knew I needed to get to Phoebe’s. She’d be losing her mind over her missing documents, and I needed to talk to her. Our plans just took a huge turn.
“Wait!” Delilah grabbed my arm. “There’s more. Amber-Rae came to the house this morning…”