Swindled in Paradise (26 page)

“I’ll sneak in.”

I grabbed the back of her shirt. “No, you won’t,” I said in exasperation. “That will cast suspicion on us, and for a change, we haven’t done anything.”

“You’re no fun.”

“I’m tired of hearing that,” I said to her retreating back.

Chapter 35

It was one of those rare days that I had the house to myself, and I wasn’t going to waste a minute of the warm sunshiny day. Fab and Didier had taken a drive down the Keys for some alone time. When I returned from the beach, my bucket was filled to the brim with sand dollars; the waves washed them ashore for a few days once a year.

As I climbed the steps that led up from the beach, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I looked at the screen and smiled. “Hey you.”

“My mom’s in trouble. Can you come to The Cottages?” Liam sounded frenzied.

I leaped up the rest of the stairs, slipping through the fence into my backyard. Setting down the shells, I raced into the house, grabbed my keys off the bench in the entryway, and headed out the door. “What’s going on?”

“Striker showed up; he wants my mom to marry him. They got into a screaming fight when she told him no for, like, the third time.” He sounded out of breath, as though he’d been running. “I didn’t know who to call. It’s Kevin’s day off, and he turned off his phone.”

“Don’t hang up, I’m on my way. Stay on the phone and talk to me until I get there. Where are you?” I slammed the SUV door, started it up, and skidded to the corner, remembering to make a full stop, in case it was speed-trap day.

“I’m out by the pool.” A chair scraped across the concrete. “He can’t get in—doesn’t have the code for the gate.”

I mimicked a few of Fab’s antics, cutting around cars, but instead of a one-finger greeting, I waved, and I stopped short of tailgating. “Where’s Mac?”

“I went to the office first, then noticed her car’s not here. I gotta get back to our cottage; Striker might do something stupid.”

“That’s not a good idea. If Striker got the chance, he’d use either you or your mother to manipulate the other. Don’t hang up; I’m going to put you on hold.” I thought for a moment. “Go sit behind the tiki bar. You’ll be able to see Striker if he heads in your direction; if he does, then duck down behind it.” I didn’t wait for a response before I put him on hold.

I hit the speed dial for Mac. “Where are you?” I asked when she answered.

“I’m just headed back to the office; I’m not far. What’s up?”

“Julie’s ex is back, and I’m going to need backup. Do you have your gun on you?”

“Do cherries have pits?” Mac snorted.

“Step on it and don’t pull into the driveway. We’ll meet at the corner.” I skated through a yellow light.

“Where’s your usual backup?” Mac asked.

“Licking on her boyfriend… somewhere.”

Mac sighed. “If she needs any help with that, tell her I’m available.”

I laughed. “I’m five minutes away, don’t dawdle,” I said, then clicked over to Liam. “You okay?”

“I’m probably overreacting. Everything’s quiet. I’d like to know why Striker hasn’t left yet. Mom told him she’s not interested. She doesn’t even like him.”

“Stay by the pool; I’m just a couple of blocks away.” Having learned from the master, I took a shortcut across a vacant commercial parking lot.

“I warned Mom he was piece of … and that she shouldn’t let him in the door. Told her to creep up to the peephole and, if it’s him, ignore his knocking. She thinks he’s harmless and will get the message and go away. Not sure why she thinks that. I don’t.”

Mac and I rounded the corner at the same time from different directions. I hung a U-turn and parked in back of her pickup truck.

“Mac and I are here. Cut through to the side street and give me your keys,” I told Liam.

I met Mac in the street. “We are not going to shoot him unless he makes a move on one of us. Apparently, Julie and Striker were fighting earlier. We’ll assess what’s going on and try to defuse the situation and send him on his way. Then I’ll be calling Spoon and letting him know I have a relocation job. That way, he won’t be back.” I motioned for her to follow me.

“Your mother is lucky. Spoon is a bad boy without the criminal tendencies; in fact, a decent citizen, as far as I can tell,” Mac said. Spoon had a checkered past, but he’d overcome it and made something out of his life, and now gave back by helping others. He still had connections, but he kept his hands clean.

Liam ran across the street. “I want to come along,” he said when he handed me his keys.

“No, you will not!” My eyebrows went straight up. The thought of something happening to him had me rattled. “What happened to your eye?” It was red, with faint bruising around the corner.

“Striker elbowed me, claimed it was an accident.”

Mac retrieved her Beretta from a thigh holster and shoved it in the waistband of her skirt. “Any of your friends ask, tell them the other guy is in the hospital. You’ll get a rep for being a tough guy.” She smiled at Liam.

I winked at Liam and shook my head slightly, letting him know that was a bad idea. “You can sit in the Hummer and fiddle with the electronics. Figure out how Fab renders the GPS useless.”

“I accidently got Fab in trouble for that.” Liam frowned. “Creole came around the corner just as I asked her how she did it. They exchanged threats, and she stomped off while he was still talking. Creole said, ‘I’d like to strangle her.’ I told him that she was your best friend and you’d be angry. He thanked me for reminding him.”

I ruffled his hair. “You’re more mature than some of the adults around you. We’ll be back.” I turned to Mac. “Sneak attack—we unlock the door and surprise them.”

We cut diagonally across the street and skirted along the path through the banana trees that ended at the back of Cottage Two. From that vantage point, we had a good view of the front door and the rest of the driveway before making our final run.

“What if we’re wrong and they’re all lovey dovey?” Mac pulled off her mid-calf, full jean skirt and dumped it on a chair next to the office door as we passed. Her electric-yellow spandex shorts were quite a contrast to her white, ruffled cotton blouse.

“Then you apologize for us, and we leave.”

“Yeah, great,” Mac groaned. “How about ‘Striker, if you weren’t such an a-hole, we wouldn’t be here.’”

“Nice apology.”

Mac scoped out both sides of the cottage. She shook her head, which meant Striker wasn’t crawling out the bathroom window. He’d only get stuck, but that hadn’t stopped previous tenants from seeing it as a way to flee.

I pressed my ear to the front door. Even with the air conditioner on, I could hear a loud male voice. Looking at Mac over my shoulder, I knew that she could also hear it. I pulled my Glock, inserted the key in the lock, held up my fingers up, 1-2-3, and kicked the door open.

Julie and Striker had their backs to me. Both jumped and turned around with looks of shock, and the color drained from Julie’s cheeks.

“What the hell?” Striker yelled, taking a step forward.

I brandished my Glock. “Take another step, and I’ll shoot you. Do you want him to stay or go?” I asked Julie.

Striker grabbed a handful of her hair, dragging her to his chest and wrapping his arm around her neck. “We’re leaving together, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”

“A records check shows that you’re on probation. Looking for a trip back to prison to finish your original sentence? Maybe even get some extra time?” I asked.

Julie gasped. “I thought that was all behind you.”

“You’re standing in the way of us being a family,” Striker insisted. He clearly believed his own delusions.

“Let go of my mom!” Liam yelled from the doorway.

“Liam, go back outside,” Julie said frantically.

Liam launched himself on Striker’s back, effectively breaking his hold on Julie. She jerked away. Striker rolled to one side, heaving Liam to the floor. The thud made me flinch.

“How could you?” Julie screamed at Striker, rushing past him, only slowing to kick him in the shin, which left him hopping as she scurried to her son’s side.

Mac waved her Beretta at Striker. “Julie’s brother is a sheriff. Want me to call him?”

“Do not call anyone, especially not Kevin.” Julie helped her son to his feet.

I made eye contact with Striker and aimed my Glock at his crotch. “Mac, you see this guy on my property again, shoot him.”

Julie moved in front of Striker, making herself a human shield. “It’s over.” She patted his shoulder. “I’ve moved on, and I’m in a relationship. You need to do the same. Please don’t come back here. I don’t want any dead bodies.”

Mac opened the door, keeping him in her sights.

Striker brushed by me. “This isn’t over, bitch,” he said to the room in general, grinding his teeth.

“Get moving.” Mac stepped away from the door and kept her distance. Once he cleared the outside steps, she followed him.

I shoved my gun back in the holster at the small of my back. “Are you okay?” I hugged Liam and whispered, “What happened to staying in the SUV?”

“It was cowardly, and I wanted to help,” he said, straightening up to his almost-six feet.

He had grown up in general and looked more like a young man than a teenager. He took after his Uncle Kevin, his brown hair bleached out by the sun, but Liam was a good inch taller and better-looking.

I looked over Liam’s shoulder and asked Julie, “You okay?”

Julie had clearly been crying, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen. “Thank you.” She looked ready to burst into tears again.

I felt sympathy for her, having made a few poor man-choices in my past. But the last thing I wanted was Striker lurking around and anyone getting hurt. “Striker ignored my first warning and came back. It’s not going to happen again. I have a problem-solver for these kinds of issues—Spoon.” When I first met Spoon, he’d offered me his “problem-solving services” for anything, big or small, and he’d never let me down.

Julie said, “But—”

“Mom, it’s better for someone else to send him packing; that way, he won’t blame you.” Liam put his arm around her. I caught his eye and inclined my head towards the door. “I’m going outside,” he said abruptly, and headed out.

I cleared my throat rather than saying something inappropriate to get Julie’s attention. “This way, by the time Brad finds out, Striker will be long gone, and my brother won’t end up in jail for killing his useless ass. You know my brother’s protective when it comes to you and your son, don’t you?”

“Brad doesn’t—”

I held up my hand and struggled not to yell. “Oh yes, he does need to know.” My words still came out louder than I wanted. “Take it from someone who’s had to deliver less-than-positive news in the past. He might flip, but not as bad as he will if he hears it from someone else. You can’t hide this. This is a small town, and even smaller when it comes to gossip. If anyone saw Mac escorting him off the property with her gun drawn, that tidbit will have raced down the block already and soon to be hot news on the dock.”

“If you hadn’t barged in,” she bristled, “I could’ve handled Striker, talked sense into him, convinced him that we’d both moved on.”

How many women believed that right up until something bad happened?

“Sometimes a person needs help,” I said in exasperation. “You can ask any of us at any time. I would never say no and neither would Fab or Mother.”

Her shoulders sagged. “If I don’t leave now, I’ll be late for my booking.”

“I can take Liam to my house, and you can pick him up when you’re done with your voiceover.”

Julie hesitated. “Are you going straight home?”

What was she asking?

She noticed my questioning stare. “I just don’t want him to go on a job with you.”

“I would
never
do that.” I tried not to sound offended, but I was. “I’m only stopping at the Farmer’s Market. If you think it’s better for him to stay here by himself, then I rescind the offer.”

“I just worry and will probably do so even after he’s married with kids of his own.” She grabbed a large tote bag that was stuffed full. “I need to apologize to him before I leave and reassure him it won’t happen again.”

“Liam loves you. He called me because he was worried Striker would hurt you. If it weren’t for him, you could also be sporting a black eye. Or worse.”

“That was an accident,” she said emphatically.

“Are you sure? Liam doesn’t think so.” I couldn’t tell what the woman was thinking. She maintained a neutral expression, having gotten her emotions under control.

Julie flew out the door and across the driveway to where Liam stood. He met her in the middle, and they shared a few words. They laughed, and he picked her up and twirled her around, setting her back on her feet.

I closed up the cottage and double-checked the locks.

Mac beelined in my direction, holstering her gun. She’d retrieved her skirt and pulled it back on as she moved to join me, concealing that she carried.

“Where did Striker go?” I whispered to her.

“Loser got into a junker a few houses down; had to crank the engine several times before it kicked. Then he used Corker’s driveway to turn around, damn near hitting a parked car, and disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.” Mac craned her head and scanned the street.

“You’re the best. But don’t expect a raise,” I warned.

“In lieu of money, I’d consider us even if you’d let me shoot the next loser.”

“Who’d deal with the sheriff and the paperwork?” I asked.

“Killjoy.”

Julie continued to laugh as she climbed in to her RAV, honking and waving as she exited the driveway.

I handed Liam back his keys. “Let’s go have fun.”

“Is Granny coming over?” he asked with a smirk.

I started laughing. “I dare you to call Mother that to her face.”

Chapter 36

The non-stripping female employees at the Gentleman’s Club all wore the same costume—a black bustier with a full skirt that didn’t quite brush the bottom of their butt cheeks. Tilly had informed us that we had to purchase our own G-strings. I had to pinch myself to keep from making a retching noise as I wondered how I would withstand ten-hour shifts with floss in my crack. I compromised on a pair of lacy boy shorts that I knew would be wedged there before the night was over.