Always Us (The Jade Series #8) (30 page)

“You’re saying Grandfather was in on Roth’s plan to make me president?”

“Your grandfather claimed it was his idea. He said he came up with it years ago and convinced Roth to use his power and influence to make it happen.”

“Why would Roth do that for him?”

“I don’t know. I may never know. It doesn’t matter. The point is that Roth looked like a fool when the plan fell through. And he blamed my father for that and wanted him to fix it. My father told Roth it wasn’t possible unless Roth got him promoted to the top level at the organization. That way they could used their combined power to force the other members to give you a second chance. And it worked. My father used Roth to get the promotion, and together they were able to convince—or rather bully—the other members to reinstate you, given you met certain conditions, of which you already know about.”

“But even if I was a member again, their plan for me is over. I destroyed my reputation and the members voted. Like you said, they can’t go back on their decision.”

“Roth still wanted you back, just to prove that he’s the one in charge. And to punish you for your behavior last spring.”

“Does he know it was fake?”

“Luckily, your grandfather didn’t share his theory on that, probably because he couldn’t prove it. But Roth knew about your grandfather’s plan to kill Jade and he was prepared to follow through on it.”

“How do you know someone else won’t?”

“There’s nobody left in the organization who cares about you anymore. You were being talked about the past few months because of this rumor about Roth trying to get you back. But only he and my father wanted that. As I’ve told you before, the other members are tired of dealing with you after the trouble you caused last spring.”

I hesitate, then just come out and say it. “You killed him, didn’t you?”

He looks directly at me, his eyes dark, his face serious. “Why would you ask me something like that?”
 

I feel like he’s daring me to say what I’m really thinking. But he knows I won’t, because he knows I don’t really want the answer. I don’t like the world he lives in, and I don’t want to be part of it or know what goes on there. I’ve seen more than enough already.

“I just—”

“Accidents happen, Garret. Cars crash every day. Roth shouldn’t have been speeding.” He gets up from his desk. “I need to get more coffee and then I’m going to check on Lilly.”

“She needs to talk to you about some stuff. She was asking me all these questions about death.”

“Yes, I’ll spend some time with her.” He opens his office door. “Where’s Jade?”

“She’s with Harper.” I get up and follow him into the foyer. “Oh, I wanted to ask you about Kiefer. Last night he said he wanted to talk to me about something. He wants to talk in person so he said he’s driving up to see me when we get back to California. Do you know what this is about?”

My dad turns back to face me. “Don’t talk to him.”

“I already told him I would.”

“Then call him and tell him you won’t. You need to stay out of this.”

“Stay out of what? Is this about—”

“Garret.” He grips my shoulder. “I can’t protect you forever. You need to start seeing things for what they are and taking the necessary precautions.”

My dad’s telling me this is about the organization. Kiefer wants to talk to me about it, but why?

“Okay. I’ll tell him I can’t meet with him.”
 

“Good. And make sure Jade knows that her friendship with Harper needs to end. Soon.”

“She’s not going to like that.”

“What did I just tell you?”

“That I need to take precautions. I know. I’ll tell her about Harper. When is this thing with Kiefer official?”

“January first.”

“Daddy, you’re home.” Lilly comes running down the stairs.

“Yes, honey.” He picks her up. “Let’s go in the kitchen. Daddy really needs some coffee.”

He leaves me standing there in the foyer. My conversation with him left me with more questions than answers. Did he kill Roth? He had the motive to, which makes me think he did.

My dad is all about rules. So maybe I already have the answer.

Rule number two. Protect your family above all else.

JADE

I get back to the Kensington mansion and open the door to find Garret standing in the foyer with nobody else around.

“What are you doing?” I hug him. “Waiting by the door for me?”

“Yeah.” He sounds a little out of it. He must still be tired from yesterday. “How was Harper?”

“She’s okay. I thought she’d talk about Sean the whole time but she didn’t talk about him at all. Oh, and when I picked her up at Moorhurst I ran into Jasmine. She couldn’t believe I was married. She was shocked when she found out I married you after your bad boy behavior last year.”

“Did you see anyone else while you were there?”

“No. We left as soon as I got there.” I notice Pearce’s office door is open. I peek inside. “Where’s your dad? Did you talk to him?”

“Yes, and he already knows about Carson. He’s been investigating him for months. My dad knows about Hanniford, too.”

“So what’s he doing about it?”

“He told the organization and I guess they’re dealing with it.”

“They’re not going to hurt Carson, are they?”

“He doesn’t know. It’s not up to him. Jade, this isn’t our problem so we need to stop talking about it.”

“What if Carson shows up at our place again?”

“We’ll tell him to leave and then we’ll tell my dad and he’ll take care of it.“

“I don’t like this, Garret. They’re going to—”

“Jade. It’s not our problem.” He pauses. “I have some other news. Roth is dead.”

“Roth, as in the guy who showed up before our wedding?”

“Yeah. He died in a car explosion not far from his home.”

“Someone blew up his car?”

“He was speeding and crashed into a telephone pole. It sparked a fire and the car exploded. This just happened so the news didn’t have many details yet.”

“Does your dad know?”

“Yeah, he had the TV on in his office and that’s when we found out.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I’m glad he’s gone.”

“Yeah, me, too.” Garret hugs me as he says it, and again, his hug is a little too tight.

“Garret, is something wrong?”

He pulls back. “No. Why?”

“Nothing. I just—never mind.”

I need a moment to process this. Roth and Holton are dead. The two men who were trying to control Garret, trying to take over his life, are gone. They’re really gone. I feel like we should celebrate. That’s wrong, I know. I shouldn’t celebrate people dying, but feeling safer and more secure is something to celebrate.

“Let’s go out,” I say to Garret.

“Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know. Anywhere. Go get your coat.”

Garret gets his jacket from the closet. “I know it’s early, but do you want to go out for lunch?”

“What about your dad and Lilly? Should we invite them to come with us?”

“I don’t think so. My dad wants to spend some time with her since he hasn’t been around much, so it’s probably better if we leave. We’ll see them this afternoon.” He opens the door. “You driving?”

“No.” I hand him the keys. “Driving your dad’s car makes me nervous.”

He goes over to it and opens my door. “Why does it make you nervous?”

“Because if I get in an accident, he’ll yell at me.”

Garret laughs as I get in the car. “He would never yell at you, Jade, especially about wrecking his car. He’d just fix it or buy another one.” He gets in the driver’s side and pulls out of the circular driveway. “So what did you decide about lunch? Yes? No?”

“Yes. I’m starving. Where should we go?”

“You’ll see.”

“You’re not going to tell me?”

“It’s a surprise.” He smiles. “Because I know how much you love surprises.”

He drives out of the fancy rich neighborhood his dad lives in and goes down some winding roads for about five minutes, then turns off onto another small road. I recognize the area and know exactly where we’re going.

“The Mexican place?” I ask him as I see the sign for it just a few feet ahead. It’s the place he took me to on our first official date.

“I know you’re dying to hear that guy sing again.” He pulls into the lot and parks. “And no laughing this time.”

“That’s impossible,” I say, already laughing. “You know that, right? Because I’m telling you right now, there will be laughing.”

He takes my hand as we walk to the entrance. A man with a huge sombrero opens the door. “Welcome, amigos!”

I burst out laughing. I don’t know what my problem is, but this whole place makes me laugh. For some reason, I find everything funny here.

“Jade, stop.” Garret’s laughing, too, but at me, not the sombrero guy.

“Two for lunch?” the hostess asks. At least she’s not wearing a funny hat.

She takes us to a table that’s three down from where we sat on our first date.

“Can we have that one?” Garret points to the other table.

“Sure.” She leads us to the table and hands us our menus. “Your server will be here shortly.”

There’s hardly anyone in the restaurant because it’s just after eleven and they just opened.

“I don’t see your singer,” Garret says, glancing around. “I bet he only works at night. You wouldn’t want to waste a talent like that on the lunch crowd. You need to save it for the more serious dinner patrons.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.” I peruse the menu. “He’s so good he probably got a better job, like in Vegas or something.”

“I’m getting the burrito platter.” Garret sets his menu down. “What are you getting?”

“Nachos.” I set my menu on top of his.

“Why don’t we get that as an appetizer and you can get something else?”

“Nope. I just want nachos. And I want the whole platter all for myself.”

“You’re going to eat the whole thing?” He smiles. “Have you seen how big the nacho platter is here?”

“No. But I can eat it.”

“I bet you can’t finish it.”

“I bet I can.” I lean back, folding my arms over my chest.

“So are we really betting here?”

I shrug. “We can, but I already know I’m going to win.”

“Pretty sure of yourself, huh?” He cocks his head. “What do you wanna bet?”

“Hmm. Okay, I got it. If I eat the whole platter, which I will, you owe me a massage every day for a week.”

“Jade, I’d do that anyway if you asked me to.”

“Doesn’t matter. That’s the deal. Now what’s yours?”

“If you can’t finish it, you have to wear the cheerleader costume every day for a week.”

I smile and hold my hand out. “Deal.”

We shake on it. I wouldn’t mind losing the bet. I like the cheerleader costume and I love the effect it has on Garret.

The waiter appears at our table. “Have you decided, my dos amigos?”

The way he says ‘dos amigos’ makes me laugh but I try really hard to suppress it.

“Jade, go ahead.” Garret’s smiling at me. He knows I can’t speak when I’m all giggly like this.

“What would you like, Seniorita?” The waiter grins really wide and I see that there’s a shiny gold cap on his front tooth. His dental work should not be funny, but to me it is. What is wrong with me? A laugh sneaks out but I pretend it’s a cough.

“She’ll have the nachos,” Garret says, handing him the menus. “And I’ll have the burrito platter.”

“Gracias.” He walks away.

“Is there a problem over there?” Garret takes a drink of water.

“I think they pump laughing gas into this place. I swear they do. There’s something about this place that—” I stop as the familiar voice rings out from the side of the room. He’s back. And still off tune.

“Jade, look who’s here,” Garret says.

My laughter bursts out again. There’s no stopping it now.

“He’s coming over.” Garret’s smiling. He’s loving every minute of this.

“Make him go away.” My stomach hurts I’m laughing so hard. “I’m begging you, Garret. Wave him away.”
 

Instead, he waves the guy over to us. The singer nods and smiles. When he gets to the table, I clamp my mouth shut and try to smile. About a minute later, his song ends, but he remains there, looking at us.

“I know you two.” He points at Garret and me. “You come here last year. I sing at your wedding.”

“Actually, we already got married,” Garret says. “But the wedding was in California. We didn’t think you’d want to travel that far.”

“Si.” He nods. “You have babies?”

“No,” Garret says. “No babies.”

“I sing for you. Very romantic.” He grins. “You have babies. Lots of babies.”

Garret just smiles but, of course, I’m laughing. I try to suppress it, but once the guy starts singing, I lose it. He’s so loud and so off key. I cover my mouth, pretending to cough. Garret holds my hand and gazes at me, like he did last year when this guy sang to us. The song ends just as four people are seated at the table across from ours. Thankfully, the singer goes over to them.

“He needs to come back,” Garret says. “I have to give him a tip.”

“No. Please don’t tell him to come back.”

“The guy is giving us babies, Jade. He deserves a tip for that.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” My laughter goes away as I think about the baby comment. I’ve finally come to a decision about that and I need to talk to Garret about it when we get back.

Garret squeezes my hand. “What happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“You stopped laughing and the guy’s still singing.”

“I must be getting used to it now.”

More customers arrive and the mariachi band greets them as they’re seated. The singer doesn’t come over to our table again, but he’s so loud his voice fills the entire restaurant.

Our food arrives and Garret’s right. The nacho platter is huge.

“Dig in,” he says, eyeing the platter.

Ten minutes later I’m stuffed, but half a platter of nachos remains.

“You done?” A smug smile crosses Garret’s face.

I don’t answer. I just push the platter away.
 

“Looks like I’ll be having sex with a cheerleader when I get home.”