Keep It Simple (MMG Series Book 4) (30 page)

A light across the room flicked on and Sally smiled. “I am getting us out of here.” For the next ten minutes she searched for a way out, but there was none. We were trapped in a laundry room with no windows and only one door. The air vent was too small to fit through, as was the dryer vent. We were stuck. “Well fuck a duck!” Sally exclaimed, as she took a seat on the floor beside me. She inspected the bloody lump on the side of my head for a second and stated the obvious. “That looks like it hurts.” I just stared at her. I mean, what was there to say? We were trapped in the laundry room after breaking into some guy’s house.
How in the world were we going to get out of this one?
“Voila,” Sally said, pulling something from her back pocket. She held it out and said, “Read it.”

I snatched it from her hand and began reading, Curtis Filpot – 2300 Merrick Street, Charlotte North Carolina 27232. “Curtis Filpot?” I asked.

Sally’s eyes danced with amusement, and I tried not to laugh, but failed miserably. We both busted out laughing. Here we were, trapped in a laundry closet by a pissed off guy carrying a gun, laughing like loons. Pretty soon my laughter turned to tears.
Nobody knows we are gone so they won’t know to look for us. Our only way of communicating we are in trouble is sitting in the car. How did something so simple go so horribly wrong?

Sally wrapped her arm around me and the door swung open. Curtis stepped in with his gun raised. I memorized his features in case I had to describe him later. Stringy, dirty brown hair fell to his shoulders. I couldn’t tell the shape of his mouth under his full beard, but he had brown eyes. He was tall and thin, but I couldn’t tell much more from my perch on the floor.

“Who sent you here? Who are you?” he asked.

Without blinking an eye, Sally answered, “I’m Petra and this is Kayla.”

“Did Stan send you or was it Big Eddie?” he asked.

I glanced over at Sally for help, but she refused to look at me. Instead, she blurted, “We are friends of Alexandria’s. She told us to stop by tonight, but when we rang the front door, no one answered. We thought we’d try the back. She said to come on in.”

A conflicted look appeared on the guy’s face. After a few seconds of weighing what Sally said, he turned and walked out. I waited for the lock to engage, before tearing into her. “What are you doing? Why did you tell him we are friends of Alexandria’s?”

“Think about it. Would you rather he call Stan and Big Eddie or Alexandria? I’m thinking Alexandria is the better choice here,” she stated. After thinking about it, I had to agree.

A few minutes later, he reappeared. In one hand he held the gun and in the other plastic zip ties. My heart slammed in my chest as an overwhelming sense of panic took over.

“Funny, I just called Alexandria and guess what? She’s never heard of Petra or Kayla. Stand up and turn around,” he ordered.

“Why?” Sally challenged. What was she doing? I bumped her with my arm to shut her up.

He pointed the gun at her head. “Because I said so,” he replied. Thankfully this shut her up.

Once he had our arms secured behind our backs, he took us into the living room and sat us on the floor with our backs against the wall. “Looks like your lucky day, ladies. Alexandria is on her way. I don’t know about you, but I cannot wait for the big reunion. In fact, I think I’ll go pop me some popcorn.”

After he was gone, I turned to Sally, “Petra and Kayla?”

Sally shrugged. “Those are the first names that came to mind.”

“Do you happen to know a Petra or a Kayla?”

“Petra is my older sister and Kayla is my younger.” I mulled this over for a second and realized how very little I knew about Sally. “Well, it looks like we are fucked,” Sally dryly stated.

Cas

‡

“W
here in the
hell is she going?” Bobby asked.

I floored it through the yellow light and mentally cursed Alexandria for driving so fast through a residential area. “I have no clue, but wonder if Sterling is aware she left the condo?” Chances were she told him she was going to bed, then stole his keys and ran. I glanced over as Bobby pulled out his phone and punched in some numbers. “Who are you calling?”

“Bubbles is going to be pissed,” he said. Bubbles was a giant pain in the ass. Of course, I didn’t say what I was thinking out loud.

I made sure to hang back as we followed Xan across town to ensure that she wouldn’t bust us on her tail. When she whipped the Jaguar across four lanes of traffic to get to the next exit, I thought it was over. Bobby cursed up a storm as I wove in and out of cars, but I managed to get to the exit as well. We made it to the bottom of the ramp in just enough time to see her hang a right at the light a few blocks away.

“There!” Bobby shouted, “She just turned right.” I knew she was up to no good as we followed her to a seedy part of town.
What the hell are you doing, Xandria?
“She just turned down that street.” Following Bobby’s instructions, I slowed down and drove past the street she had pulled onto. “On the right hand side, middle of the street, she just pulled in to a driveway,” Bobby informed. I turned down the next street over and was slowly backtracking to the house she’d pulled into when Bobby shouted, “Stop!”

“For shit’s sake Bob!” I yelled, slamming on the brakes. I glared over at him, but he was busy staring out his window.

“Look,” he rolled down his window and sat back in his seat in order to give me a perfect view of Sally’s car.

“What the fuck?” I whispered.

“That’s what I want to know,” Bobby said.

Shifting the truck to reverse, I backed up and then pulled in behind Sally’s car and parked. “I’ll check it out,” Bobby said. A few seconds passed and I heard him curse. I rolled down my window to ask if he found anything.

“You have to see this, bro,” he replied. The tone of his voice made me tense.

Please don’t let it be Sally
, I thought, as I joined him at the car. At first I didn’t see what had him concerned, but then I spotted it in the floorboard and my chest seized.

“That’s Sarah’s purse.”

“And Sally’s phone,” he said. We both turned and stared at the house Alexandria pulled into. “Maybe they aren’t inside. Sally’s gotten better. Even you said so,” Bobby pointed out. I didn’t know who he was trying to kid. Sally was a hot head with a God complex, which is why we hesitated for such a long time before finally deciding to hire her.

“If one hair on Sarah’s head is harmed, I’ll kill her,” I warned.

Bobby nodded in agreement. “What do you want to do?”

Worry for Sarah could cripple me if I thought about the situation for too long, so I shook it off and focused on our task at hand. Sarah and Sally came to warn me about something, but stopped when they saw Alexandria in my house.

“They knew,” I said.

“Who knew?” Bobby asked.

“Sarah and Sally came to my house to tell me something about Alexandria, but when they discovered her there…”

“They took off without saying a word,” Bobby finished. He dragged his gaze from the front of the house to my face and waited for me to decide what to do.

“You call Garrett for back up and I’ll call her dad. I bet my left nut he has no clue she is gone,” I told him. We both stepped away to make our calls. Five minutes later we met back at the truck. “It turns out I was right. Alexandria told her dad she was turning in for the night and took off with his car right under his nose. He is furious and wants us to come get him, so he can rip her a new one. I promised I would call him when I had any information.”

“Garrett and Tut are on their way,” Bobby confirmed.

Twenty minutes later, Garrett and Tut drove up. After talking it over, we decided Bobby and I would go through the front, while they approached from the back. With a nod, we split up and went our separate ways. Bobby and I ran across the front yard and crouched down in front of the porch. I pulled out my gun and motioned for him to stay down before checking if I could see anything through the front window.

I waited for my eyes to adjust, but after a minute or so of not being able to make anything out, I squatted back down. “I can’t see shit,” I whispered.

“What do you want to do?” Bobby asked. Suddenly, we heard Alexandria shouting inside the house and I made a snap decision.

“We go in.”

With guns raised, we busted through the front door. Alexandria screamed and a gun went off. Bobby and I both dropped to the floor as the bullet shot over our heads and pierced the wall where we had been standing.

“Drop your weapon!” I shouted at a guy with a gun. Instead of dropping his gun, he turned and aimed it at something behind him. Slowly, he stepped to the side and revealed a wide-eyed Sarah and a pissed off Sally. They were huddled together on the floor. Both of their hands and feet were secured with plastic ties. I scanned Sarah’s body to make sure she was okay and noticed blood on her head and legs. Anger surged through me as I stood back up and trained my gun on the guy. “I said drop your gun.”

“I think it’s you who needs to drop your guns,” the guy said.

“I don’t think so,” I quietly replied. I gave Sarah a hang-in-there look and directed all of my anger at Alexandria. “What the fuck?” I asked her.

“You followed me?” she asked, her eyes wide with shock.

“No shit, really?”

“Fuck you, Cas!” she spat. Evidently my sarcasm was not lost on her.

Hate, like I’d never know seared through me. “Your dad thinks you have changed. You haven’t changed one bit. You are still the spoiled rotten, selfish brat I married.”

“Hey now,” the guy with the gun said.

“I’m selfish?” she laughed. “What about my father? He has more money than God and all he does is sit on his golden throne and hoard it!” she shouted. I wanted to tell her Sterling was dying and she was getting it all, but my gut told me not to.

“Enough!” the guy screamed. “Drop your guns, now, or I shoot.” He pointed the gun at Sarah and Sally. I could tell from the tone of his voice he was not messing around. Bobby nodded at me and we both set our guns on the floor. “Kick them over to Alex,” he said. Bobby kicked his over, but I hesitated. The moment I gave up my gun we would no longer be on equal footing. He would have the upper hand, and I had no fucking idea where this was going.

“Shoot the dark, frizzy headed one first, Curtis.” Alexandria told him.

With a growl of frustration, I kicked my gun over to her. She picked it up off the ground and gave me an evil smile.

“Was one innocent death not enough for you?” I quietly asked.

With a look of disgust, she said, “Fuck you, Caswell! For the hundredth time, I did not kill Kalen.”

“Well, he sure didn’t unlock that door and drown on his own, now did he?” I asked. Someone gasped, but I ignored it.

“You have no idea what it was like. You were always gone and I was stuck in that house alone with him,” she whined.

“The fuck you were. We got a nanny, and for what? So you could go drug and drink our money away?” I snapped.

“Alexandria, babe, enough,” Curtis told her.

Her eyes narrowed into angry little slits. “Well if Daddy had given me my inheritance, like he was supposed to, instead of holding it over my head and constantly threatening me,
we
wouldn’t have had to get a nanny because
we
wouldn’t have existed!” she shouted.

Trepidation flared deep in my gut. “What do you mean he threatened you?”

“Alex, don’t,” Curtis warned again.

Ignoring him, she said, “See, I wanted to marry Curtis, here, but Daddy wouldn’t let me. He said Curtis wasn’t good enough for me. I begged and pleaded, but he told me if I married Curtis, he would disown me. So, like the dutiful daughter, I told him I broke it off with Curtis. Then I seduced you. Daddy was so happy to see me with you. I convinced him we were dating and he told me if we married, he would give me my inheritance as a wedding present. Only, how was I supposed to get you to marry me when you clearly couldn’t stand me?” She leaned forward and whispered, “Divine providence.”

“You got pregnant,” I stated.

“I never wanted a kid. Even after he was born I didn’t want him, but he was a means to an end.”

“He was our child,” I growled.

“He was
my
child,” she hissed, “
Mine
, not yours, not ever yours, Caswell.”

For a minute I couldn’t breathe.
What does she mean, not mine?
“He was more my son than he ever was yours and you know it!” I shouted.

“See, that’s where you’re wrong. I found out I was pregnant a week after I slept with you. I knew it couldn’t be yours, but I needed it to be, so I paid someone to make it so.” She gave me a proud smile that made me want to crush her like a roach.

This got Curtis’s attention, because suddenly the gun was no longer pointed at Sarah and Sally, but at Alexandria. “What did you say?” he asked.

“You told me to do whatever it took to get the money, Curt, don’t play games now,” she warned.

His forehead crinkled in confusion. “If it wasn’t his kid, Alex, whose was it?” he quietly asked. His voice may have been calm, but the obvious tension in his body said he was anything but. Evidently Alexandria was too stupid to pick up on it, because she kept taunting him.