Keep It Simple (MMG Series Book 4) (26 page)

I knew exactly who he was. He was the guy who was going to help Alexandria steal Cas’s inheritance from him. A wave of fury rolled through me.
Hadn’t she done enough?
We waited for half an hour before Sally decided the guy was staying put for the night. Then we headed for home.

On the drive back, I asked her to stop by Cas’s house.

“You going to tell him his wife is up to no good?” Sally asked.

“Wouldn’t you?”

“I would. I’d also make sure he warned her daddy.”

Not sure what her dad had to do with this, I asked. “Why does he need to warn her dad?”

Sally’s eyebrow shot to the roof of the car and I wondered what I had missed. “Uh duh, her dad is fucking loaded. Whose money did you think she was talking about?” Obviously Sally didn’t know about Cas having money. It wasn’t my place to tell her, so I played dumb and stared blankly at her. She shot me another questioning look. “What? You think we should just sit back and let her rob him blind or worse?”

My head spun in a million different directions. Cas told me Alexandria’s father was loaded, but I had forgotten.
Shit! Is she after Cas’s money, her father’s or both?
Any way you looked at it, Alexandria was up to no good. I needed to talk to Cas as quickly as possible.

“No, I definitely need to warn Cas.”

Five minutes later, we pulled onto Cas’s street, only to discover his truck gone and the front porch lights off.

“I bet he’s still on that stake out. Should we call Bobby? I bet he could track him down for us.”

I considered it for a moment before deciding against it. The last thing I wanted was Cas mad at me for involving his friends in his business. “No. I’m hungry. Let’s get food and go home. I’ll catch up with him tomorrow,” I told her.

After a run through the drive through, we went home and ate dinner in front of the television. Before going to bed, I texted Max and asked if he was feeling any better. He responded with a, “10-4.” I felt bad about his nose. This got me thinking about Cas, again.
If Max looks that bad, I wonder what Cas looks like?

After another fitful night’s sleep, I woke early and lay in bed thinking about what to say to Cas. Somehow, I didn’t think telling him Sally and I followed his ex-wife to an unknown location and eavesdropped on her conversation with a half-naked man with a beard, would go over well, but how else could I explain it? Alexandria was after his money, I was sure of it. What if she tried to hurt him? The thought made my blood boil. It also made me get a move on. Since it was early on a Saturday, Cas would be home. Sally already said I could borrow her car, so I bolted from the bed and ran for the bathroom to see how bad I looked. My hair was a bit frizzy, but I didn’t have time to tame it, so I ran my fingers through it and hoped Cas didn’t notice.

Sally was pouring herself a cup of coffee when I entered the kitchen. I paused to take in her tie dyed shirt, obscenely short pajama shorts and black and purple striped Halloween socks.

“Nice hair,” she said.

I self-consciously ran my fingers over my hair, but stopped when I noticed her smiling at me. “What?” I asked, glaring at her.

“Sheesh, you are so easy to tweak. Grab a cup of coffee and I’ll drive you over to Cas’s place.”

Relief swept through me. “You’re going with me?” I didn’t want to admit how much I dreaded facing Cas alone. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure he would believe me, but if Sally was there, he had no choice. Not only was she a witness, but she could help fill in the blanks in case I forgot or was too busy drooling over him.

“Of course I will, silly.”

Fifteen minutes later, we pulled up to Cas’s place. His truck was parked in the driveway, so I knew he was home. It took me ringing the doorbell three times, before he finally answered the door. One look at his battered and bruised face made me want to kill my stupid brother.

“What the hell happened to you?” Sally not-so-tactfully asked. The side of Cas’s face was the same purple hue as Max’s nose. He was also sporting a fat lip.

I stood there fuming.
Damn you, Max McLellan!

His eyes flared with surprise before asking, “What are you doing here?”

“Ummm, can we talk to you?” I asked.

“Now is not a good time,” he clipped. There was a cold edge to his voice I’d never heard before and it scared me.

“Tough shit. You’re going to want to hear what we have to tell you,” Sally told him.

His body tensed and his eyes flashed with something I couldn’t understand. For a second I felt as if he was trying to warn me, but then he spoke and I realized I was wrong. “Sarah said everything that needed to be said the other night.”

“Caswell, could you get me some water, please?” a woman shouted from inside the house.

“Who is that?” Sally and I both asked.

The look of guilt on Cas’s face made my stomach dip. The only person I knew to call Cas Caswell was Alexandria. Without a word, I stepped past Cas into the house and followed the sound of voices to a large airy living room. The last time I was here, I’d become intimately familiar with Cas’s bedroom, but hadn’t really seen the rest of the house. The living room walls were a cool beige color and the hardwood floors were stained dark to match the crown molding and wooden beams lining the vaulted ceiling. The room was exactly how I’d pictured it to be, both warm and inviting.

Alexandria sat curled in a large leather chair. She had a dark green blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Like sentries protecting their charge, Garret sat in a matching chair on her left and Bobby stood on her right. My heart painfully slammed against my chest as I tried to decipher what I was feeling.

Sally stepped up beside me and gave me a knowing look. Somehow, Alexandria managed to beat us to the punch.

“What the hell?” I quietly asked.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Sally mumbled under her breath.

We both turned to Cas as he entered the room behind us. Sally had both eyebrows raised in question. I was just plain confused. His eyes met mine before shifting to Sally, and I could swear he was trying to tell us something. “Alexandria was in an accident late last night,” he told us.

“What kind of accident?” Sally asked.

“Someone jumped her outside her condo and held her at gunpoint. After roughing her up he ran off with her purse.”

“They threatened to kill me, Caswell!” Alexandria exclaimed from her throne.

I studied her profile and was surprised to see bruises on her face and neck. As she shifted in her seat, I got a good look at what she was wearing and my heart stuttered in my chest.
Please tell me that is not Cas’s shirt?
I wouldn’t call Alexandria pretty, but she was attractive. I glanced down at my Converse tennis shoes and worn jeans and couldn’t help but have doubts.

“I called Caswell as soon as I could and he came and rescued me,” Alexandria drawled. Her voice was like fingernails on a chalkboard. I could feel Cas’s eyes staring holes through me, but I refused to look up at him. I was hurt, angry and so jealous I couldn’t even see straight. After everything she had done to him, how could he believe her?

“So you caught the guy?” Sally asked. I glanced up to see her glaring at Bobby and Garrett.

“Oh, heaven’s no,” Alexandria answered. “He was long gone with my purse by the time Caswell arrived.”

Sally tried again. This time she directed the question at Cas. “Have the police already taken her statement?” I dragged my eyes from Alexandria over to Cas. When I saw him glowering angrily at me, I quickly looked away. A few seconds passed and I knew he was waiting for me to look back over before answering. Well, he could just wait all night for all I cared, because I was not looking at him again.

Finally, I heard him say, “I advised…”

“I told Caswell there was no point in contacting the police,” Alexandria butted in. “I really did not get a good look at the man and, thank goodness, didn’t have anything valuable in my purse. In fact, it was just my luck I left my cell phone in my apartment.”

“I just bet it was,” Sally mocked in a perfect southern drawl. Alexandria’s eyes dangerously narrowed at Sally and my hand itched to slap her silly. Couldn’t they see they were being manipulated? “Though, you’d be surprised by how much you remember when talking to the police,” Sally continued. Her eyes shot to Garrett and Bobby. “You, of all people, know this,” she scolded. “You should get a sketch artist here as soon as possible to talk to her.”

Alexandria glowered at Sally. “What did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t,” Sally responded to Alexandria’s question. If Sally was anything, it was direct. She and Alexandria stared each other down. It reminded me of when Max and I were kids and we used to have staring contests. Whoever blinked first got thumped between the eyes. I would give anything to thump Alexandria between the eyes right about now, the snotty twat.

“We have it under control, Sally,” Garrett warned.

“Yes, Caswell already has these two handsome men working on it. Thank you for your concern, though,” Alexandria told Sally.

Sally shrugged nonchalantly. “Sure thing, just trying to uphold the law,” she warned.

The entire time Sally and Alexandria bantered back and forth, I could feel Cas’s eyes on me.
Did he know his wife was lying?
I wanted to grab him by the ear and yank him out of the room, but I couldn’t.
Sally and I seriously need to regroup
. In order to think straight, I had to get out of Cas’s house and away from that woman.

As if reading my mind, Alexandria grabbed her head and loudly groaned. Bobby bent down and asked her if she was okay and Garrett jumped from his chair to check on her. When I saw Cas’s concerned expression, I’d had enough. Without a word I turned on my heels and started for the door. Cas called after me, but I kept going. By the time I hit the front door, I was running.

“Sarah, wait!” Sally shouted. I slowed long enough for her to unlock the car.

I waited for her to get in, before releasing the scream I’d been holding in. “Ahhhhh! I can’t believe she got to him!”

“Good God Speed Racer, next time you’re about to bolt give some warning,” Sally panted.

“Did you see the look of concern on his face when she let out that award winning moan? The manipulative cow has them in the palms of her lying little hands.” Disappointment raged through me. “How can they believe a word she says?”

“Well, I saw Cas staring at you the whole time. I think you’re underestimating him and overestimating her,” Sally replied.

Ignoring her, I asked, “What do we do now?”

“We need a plan.” Sally replied.

Sally acted as if there was a simple solution. She, however, didn’t know what I knew about Alexandria, and I hated to inform her, but nothing about Alexandria Ashford was simple. In fact, it was getting more and more complicated by the bloody second.

Cas

‡

“S
arah, wait!” I
shouted after her, but she was already out the door.
Damn it! Why was she here?
I wanted so badly to pull her aside and tell her what was going down. If I did, though, it would rouse Alexandria’s suspicions.

I’d spent my entire day yesterday trying to catch a seventy-seven year old man cheating on his wife. Most days I enjoy my job. Yesterday was not one of those days. Agnes Landry was convinced her husband was a philandering jackass and, on the advice of a friend, hired LASH to prove it. I didn’t have the heart to tell the old broad that I highly doubted her husband could get it up, much less use it anymore. However, since I felt sorry for her I took the case, charged her half our usual retaining fee and spent most of a day on the hunt. It took me two hours to track him down and another four to discover he wasn’t cheating. He was gambling away their life’s savings.

Alexandria called right as I pulled into my driveway. As usual, I ignored it. I didn’t have time to listen to her bullshit. She called a second time as I was walking up the steps to my front door and a third as I hit the entry. I was irritated by the time I finally answered. At first I couldn’t understand a word she was saying. It was obvious by all the crying and screeching, she was upset. It took me threatening to hang up on her for her to calm down enough to coherently explain. Apparently, someone attacked her outside the condo she was renting and she wanted me to come over. After a shit day, the last thing I wanted was to deal with her drama, but I couldn’t just leave her alone in an unfamiliar town with no help, so I agreed to stop by. It turned out the condo was three blocks from my place, which meant it was in a relatively crime free part of town. As I pulled up in front of the address she gave me and got out of the truck, a hysterical Alexandria flew out the door and jumped me. I held her for a second and let her cry. Then I set her on her feet and took a step back.

“Let’s get one thing straight, I am here only because you have nowhere else to go, okay?” She nodded her head, yes. “Did you call the police?”

The second I mentioned the police she got all twitchy and started babbling. “I didn’t see the guy’s face. H-h-he came up behind me and tried to strangle me. Then he held a gun to my head and told me to hand him my purse. I handed it over and he hit me in the face and ran off.”