Golden Trail (24 page)

He dropped his mouth to her ear. “We got
lots of shit to discuss, baby. What just happened, last night
–”

She cut him off. “I’m not talking about last
night.”

“You are.
We
are.”

She turned to face him and her head tipped
back. “I’m not talking about last night, Layne.”

He moved into her, pressing her back into
the counter. He took her wine from her hand and put it on the
counter. Then he put his hand on her neck.

“The air has to be cleared,” he stated
quietly.

“No, it doesn’t.”

“It does, Rocky.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“No. It. Does.
Not,
” she hissed.

He studied her then he relented. “I’ll let
that go for now but only to let you get a pain pill.”

“I don’t need a pain pill.”

“I saw you holdin’ your wrist,
sweetcheeks.”

“I know when I need a pain pill, Layne, I
don’t need you to tell me.”

“You landed hard on it,” he reminded her and
she surprised him by suddenly coming up on her toes and into his
face, her face going tight with anger.

“Yes,
Layne,
I remember,” she
snapped.

“Then take a goddamned pain pill,” he shot
back, her anger tipping his.

“God!” she exploded. “Will you leave me
alone?”

“No,” he returned. “You took all day to be
alone.”

“Go to hell, Layne!” she hissed.

He leaned further into her. “That attitude
you’re servin’ up, sweetcheeks, evidence we need to clear the
fuckin’ air.”

Her shoulders shot straight and she tossed
her hair, dislodging his hand so he put it to the counter beside
her.

Then she said, “You want the air clear,
okay. Here it is or, at least, what’s bothering me right now,
bothering me enough to serve up my
attitude,
” she bit out.
“See, last night was not good. You know it, I know it, we don’t
have to go there. But, even you knowing how
not good
it was,
you came here and got in my face. That wasn’t nice, you doing that
when I know you
know
but I can take it because I deserve it.
Then, on that couch, shit went down and you proved that you haven’t
changed in eighteen fucking years.”

He felt his neck muscles contract and he
forced his voice to a whisper when he asked, “What the fuck?”

“You had yourself a leggy brunette last
night, baby.” Her voice was an insinuation mixed with deep sarcasm.
“And as far as I know, she’s waiting back at your house and you
still
took what you could get from me on my couch.”

“Not that it’s any of your goddamned
business, Raquel, but Melody left ten minutes after you did.”

“I don’t really care, you’re right, that’s
none of my business.”

“You just threw it in my face, baby.”

She blew out some air before she said, “It’s
not my business but you should also know I don’t believe a word
that comes out of your mouth.”

“And why the fuck would you not believe
me?”

“Because,
Layne
,” she ground out,
“Jarrod replacing me so fucking quick wasn’t the first time I
experienced that, was it? Gabrielle Weil was carrying around your
son within
weeks
of me leaving our bed.”

Instantly, Layne’s back snapped straight and
he stepped a foot away from her.

Then he whispered, “What?”

“And she was wearing your ring in less than
a year.”

His neck muscles weren’t just tight, every
muscle in his frame had turned solid.

“You are shitting me.” He was still
whispering in an effort not to shout.

“No,” she returned immediately, “I’m not. So
don’t come off all wounded ego that I broke your heart and left you
to lick your wounds because we both know that’s not true. You got
over me pretty fucking quickly and moved on. You acted to Dad and
Merry and everyone like your world was rocked but it wasn’t.”

“You left me, Rocky, and after doin’ it, you
didn’t get to tell me where to put my dick.”

“You are correct. My point is, you don’t get
to throw in my face what happened when you don’t
understand
what happened and you moved on and got something better out of
it.”

He lifted a hand to curl his fingers around
the back of his neck, staring at her hard and asking, “Are you
insane?”

“Jasper has been in my school for three
years, Layne, and for a semester in my class
every day
. I’ve
been around kids for a long fucking time. I know a good kid when I
see him and I
know
you got something better out of it.
Knowing Tripp only upped it.”

Fuck him, but she wasn’t exactly wrong.

She also wasn’t right.

Before he could reply, she finished. “I’m
going to take a bath and you’re welcome to finish your game but,
you should know, I’m not coming down here again until I know you’re
gone. We’ll get through this because we have to but no more of that
shit.” She pointed to the couch. “Whoever was out there was
probably hired by Jarrod. What we did to him last night made him
angry and he is not nice when he gets angry and I’ll bet, just
about five seconds after he saw us walk in last night, he decided
to play dirtier than he’s already been playing. And, head’s up,
he’s been playing dirty even after putting her in my bed before
there was time to change the sheets. But with our current
situation, I’ll do my part, you do yours and we retreat back to
what we’ve been doing the last two weeks. That was working. But
this,” she waved her hand between them, “is as clear as the air is
going to get. You don’t like it, tough. You’re just going to have
to deal with it.”

Then she walked around him, out of the
kitchen and kept her head bent to her feet as she walked up the
stairs and landed her last. “Tuesday’s good for me for pasta bake
and Keira. I’ll be at your house at six.”

Then he lost sight of her at the top of the
stairs.

Layne kept his hand at his neck, clenching
and unclenching, trying to release the tension in the muscles there
as he stared at the top of the stairs.

Then his eyes fell to her wineglass and he
resisted the urge to throw it across the room.

Then he turned on his boot and stalked out
of her apartment, slamming the door when he went.

Proceed with Caution

The next afternoon, Layne sat at his desk
and flipped open his phone.

Using his thumb, he typed in, “Management
office, The Brendel. Number. Now.” Then he sent the text to
Rocky.

He clenched his jaw and flipped his phone
closed.

You were my first kiss, my first
everything.

Her words from last night sounded in his
head.

He was, even as pretty as she was, he was
her first kiss and her first lover. For her eighteenth birthday, he
gave her a pair of emerald-cut emerald stud earrings, her
birthstone. She’d given him her virginity.

He was her first date, her first kiss, her
first boyfriend. She had friends and she was popular at school but
she didn’t date, never got close to a boy, until him.

And she let him in immediately. Out of
respect for father, but mostly for her and because of her
inexperience, he’d played it cool the first year and he’d taken
great pains her first time. He couldn’t say he was entirely
successful. He could say he made her come before he caused her pain
so at least she knew she had something to look forward to.

And she looked forward to it. Christ, it was
like breaking a seal then what was held in exploded all over the
place.

But she’d never even kissed a guy, until
him.

He’d never thought about it, not once,
except to thank his stars and consider himself lucky.

Now, he thought, what the fuck was up with
that?

He flipped and twisted the phone around in
his fingers and stared at his desk, jaw clenched, mind filled not
just with last night but with a lot of shit, a lot of shit from the
last three weeks and a lot of shit from nearly two decades ago and
he only looked up when the security beep sounded.

His eyes went to the monitor and he saw
Merry, a white coffee cup in each hand, coming up the stairs.

Answers.

He’d called Merry half an hour ago and told
him he wanted a meet but he didn’t tell him why. But Layne was
going to get answers and he loved Merry but if his friend held out
on him, after the shit that came out of Rocky’s mouth last night,
Layne would resort to any means necessary.

He kept flipping his phone around in his
fingers as he heard the front door open and close and then he saw
Merry coming through the door to his office. He was smiling but he
got one look at Layne and his brows went up.

“I’m guessin’ you aren’t havin’ a good day,”
Merry remarked, walking straight in.

“You’d be guessin’ right,” Layne agreed.

Merry put Layne’s coffee in front of him and
sat opposite him, lifting a leg to hook his ankle on his knee.

“Well, join the club, brother. Today is
officially shit,” he declared before he sucked back some joe.

“You got problems?” Layne asked and Merry
nodded.

“But let’s get your shit outta the way
first. Why’d you call? Somethin’ up?”

“A lot of things are up. It sucks I got shot
because it delayed me hiring a receptionist. I got so much up I
can’t fuckin’ keep track of it all.”

“Break it down for me, brother.”

Layne palmed the phone and leaned back in
his chair. “Stew’s shit is tied to Carlito.”

Merry stared at Layne a second then his eyes
rolled to the ceiling. “Oh boy.”

“Damn straight,” Layne said.

Merry’s eyes rolled back to Layne. “You know
how much he’s into him for?”

“I don’t know shit. Jasper saw Carlito take
a collection
at the house.
”

Merry’s face grew dark, his ankle left his
knee and he sat forward, putting his coffee cup on Layne’s desk.
“Tell me you are fuckin’ shittin’ me.”

“I’m not.”

Merry looked toward the floor, breathing
out, “Motherfucker.”

“You know Stew? He play the dogs or is he
sittin’ a game?”

Merry looked back up. “Dogs. Before Gabby,
Stew was at the track every weekend. Since her, I’m guessin’ he’s
at the track every weekend she’s workin’.”

Layne nodded. “Right.”

“I don’t need to tell you, a collection at
the house –” Merry started.

Layne cut him off. “He’s in deep.”

“Okay then, I don’t need to tell you bein’
in deep with Carlito –”

Layne cut him off again. “Isn’t fuckin’
good.”

“That man would break his grandma’s fingers
if she borrowed a five spot to buy some cat food and didn’t pay it
back on time,” Merry concurred.

“I don’t give a fuck about Stew or how deep
he is. What I give a fuck about is that this shit is comin’ to the
house my boys live in and my ex has been workin’ her ass off to
keep nice for them and that I’ve been sending money for twelve
years to keep over their heads. I want his ass out. I wanna know
what he’s into Carlito for and why, they’re gettin’ so far behind
for so many months, this shit isn’t goin’ away. Jas says he saw
Stew hand over an envelope stuffed full. Where the fuck is he
getting that kind of cash and if he’s handin’ that shit over, why
is the pressure still on?”

“I know it’s Carlito, I got some boys I can
give calls. I’ll run this down for Colt and Sully, Mike and Sean
too. We’ll see what we can shake out,” Merry offered.

“Good,” Layne replied.

“Sorry you gotta deal with this shit,
brother but I’m afraid I gotta lay more on you,” Merry told
him.

Layne stared and didn’t say a word. He had
other things to talk to Merry about but he’d take whatever Merry
had to dish out and move to the important shit later.

So he invited, “Lay it on me.”

Merry sat back. “Well, this morning, I got
word from a friend, who has a friend who’s been hired by Jarrod to
investigate you and Rocky.”

There it was. Rocky was right.

“Not a surprise, Merry, I saw him taking
pictures into Rocky’s house when I was there last night. She called
it, knew exactly why he was there. The only problem with that shit
is he’s usin’ up money she should get in the divorce settlement
with this garbage. He’s got a girl who looks like she kissed her
teenage years good-bye about a month ago in his bed and Rocky has
been outta that house for months. Her bein’ with me isn’t gonna get
him shit.”

He watched Merry’s lips thin then he said,
“She would call it, seein’ as I phoned her during her lunch hour to
give her the head’s up and then I got her to share what she’s not
been sharin’ with anyone but Dad.”

That did not sound good. Raquel shared
everything with Merry. If she was keeping something from him, it
was something bad, as in, something that would make good ole boy
Garrett Merrick go ballistic.

“What?” Layne asked.

“Where should I start?” Merry asked
back.

“Garrett,” Layne said low.

“Okay, first, he’s moved their money.
All
of it.
”

Layne’s back straightened in his chair.
“Come again?”

“Drained their joint accounts, bank,
investment and liquidated stock portfolios. Opened up new accounts
in his name only and deposited the money there.”

That
didn’t come up in his
searches.

“When?” Layne bit off.

“Last week. She started buyin’ shit for her
apartment, he cut her off. Started there, she found out on Saturday
when she tried to buy something that he cancelled her credit cards.
She only has two but they’re also joint and he’s cancelled them
both.”

“Fucking shit,” Layne ground out.

“Unh-hunh,” Merry nodded.

“What the fuck are her attorneys doing?”

“What they can, which isn’t much since he’s
refusing to meet. You know, brother, the wheels of justice don’t
roll, they grind. Their court date isn’t for five and a half
months.”