The Widow and the Will (14 page)

Chapter 23

Ford was still buried beneath the blankets on his bed when his phone chirped with an incoming text. Groaning, he snaked his arm out from under them and reached for the bedside table. His fingers found the slim, cool rectangleand he pulled it to his face
.
Need to get to Tess’s. Pick u up in 10 minutes.

“Aw, hell,” he muttered and sat straight up, flinging the bedding in all directions. His head exploded with the fiery stars of a hangover and he dropped the phone so he could put both hands on either temple. Rubbing gently, he slowly opened his eyes and was grateful to be able to see the room around him in a fairly clear fashion.

As he scooted to the end of the bed to stand, the room was filled with the harsh sounds of ringing. Flopping onto his back, he reached for the phone and clicked the answer button. “Yeah.”

“Didn’t you get my message?” Hudson’s voice boomed into Ford’s ear and he winced, barely keeping the whine of pain in his throat from coming out.

“Yeah.”

“Where are you and where the hell have you been all day?”

“Home.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, you’re not still in bed are you?” Hudson shouted. “I’ll pick you up. Be ready in ten minutes!”

The click of his brother hanging up made Ford flinch and he scowled at the black screen.
Jackass
. Shoving himself off the bed, he stood up slowly and scratched his naked chest, wondering what time he’d finally gotten home. How
had
he’d gotten home?
Must have been a cab, I was way too drunk to ride
. He shuffled across the room to the bathroom where he turned on the shower.

Ford stepped out of his shorts and into the cold needles of water raining down. He didn’t bother with the hot tap, he needed to wake up and clear his head. If there was some emergency going on, he needed all his wits to be able to focus on the situation and tune out Hudson’s lecture. God, what had he done last night? He should have just met his brother at the Goose or at the very least gone home. Instead, he’d turned to booze to drown out all of the crap in his head. And the bitch of it was, it hadn’t really worked. Once again, even in a passed-out state, his mind had produced dreams of Tess, images he didn’t dare repeat out loud or even think about.

Ford lathered his face, head and body all in one motion and then forced himself under the frigid spray to rinse, repeating the same thought over and over:
knock it off, knock it off, FOCUS
! The temperature was doing nothing to relieve his hangover or his racing mind, and he hoped he still had some Tylenol in the cabinet. When he stepped over the lip of the tub, he didn’t bother with a towel. He made a beeline for the medicine chest in search of pain relief. “Praise be,” he mumbled sarcastically as he grabbed the large bottle of extra strength capsules and shook out five. He downed them and stuck his head into the sink to grab a sip of water. As he shook his head back to help the pills down his throat, droplets of water flew all over the walls and mirror. Naked, he went in search of clean clothes.

“You ready?”

Hudson entered the apartment, using the key Ford had been forced to surrender. Baby brother worried too much and insisted he be able to check on Ford whenever he wanted. Rather than argue, he’d given the key to Hudson and this was the first time he’d ever used it.
This must be bad
.

“Almost.” Ford sifted through a pile of clothes on the floor, not finding any clean underwear. “Fuck it,” he growled as he found a not too stained pair of jeans and pulled them on. Switching to a different mound of laundry, he sniffed at a plain black t-shirt finding it not too offensive. He pulled it over his head and across his chest.

“Come on, man!”

“I’m going!” Ford snapped. He stood in the middle of the room, scanning for his boots.

“They’re right there.” Hudson glowered at him, pointing to the boots. “What time did you get home?”

“Don’t ask.” He couldn’t have answered anyway.

Ford brushed past him to where he pointed and, sure enough, his boots were lying on their sides, one by the foot and the other next to the side of the bed. He snatched them up and pulled them on without bothering to consider socks. He grabbed a leather vest from a hook on the back of the door and pulled it on. Then he ran his fingers through his hair roughly, to get it out of his eyes.

“What are you waiting for?” he asked Hudson, grabbing his smokes from the resin table that served as his eating space. He walked out the door, knowing Hudson would be close on his heels.

Ford pretended his body didn’t ache and his head didn’t pound as he clomped down the stairs toward the parking lot where Hudson’s truck waited. All at once he threw a prayer of thanks out to the universe when he recognized his motorcycle parked slightly askew in its assigned space.
Shit, I rode home
.
I was lucky
.

As he climbed into the truck, he lit a cigarette and closed the door. The window was already down and he hung his hand outside in a vain attempt to keep the smoke out of the vehicle.

“You need to quit,” Hudson scolded as he hopped in and started the engine.

“Yeah, yeah. Why don’t you fill me in, instead of lecturing?”

Hudson scowled and began to drive. “Tess called and said she found something interesting. That’s all she would say, but she insisted we both come over as soon as possible.”

Ford grimaced but said nothing. He kept silent as Hudson drove and he smoked on the ride from his place at Harper and Crocker in Mt. Clemens to Harrison Township. Tess was born and raised in the Shores, but she and Jack had opted to live in an apartment in the small city just north of their hometown. His brain was beginning to “unfuzz” and he almost smiled, remembering the word his brother had made up for their mother when she was coming off a hangover. He was a little more than ashamed for having tied one on so spectacularly that he didn’t remember coming home. Ford tried to recall everything that had happened the night before, but it was all just a blur of beer, shots and multiple bars. At least he hadn’t brought someone home this time.

“Wake up,” Hudson snapped. He was standing outside the truck, staring back at him through the open door.

“Sorry.”

Ford got out of the truck and they both half jogged to the door of Tess’s apartment. Before they could knock, it opened wide and Lilly motioned them in.

“Come on in, fellas,” she said quietly. “She was fine when I talked to her on the phone earlier, but by the time I got here, she was
pissed off
. Now she’s just… I don’t know, weird. Up and down. All over the place.”

Ford followed Hudson inside to find Tess sitting on the couch with a bottle of beer in her hand. She raised a single hand in a nervous greeting.
This can’t be good
.

“Hi guys,” she mumbled, taking a sip of beer.

“What’s going on?” Hudson’s voice was harried.

“More twists and turns,” she said with a cold smile that definitely didn’t reach her eyes. She took another long pull from the bottle. “Check it out.” She pointed to a lockbox sitting on the coffee table. Hudson walked around the table to sit beside Tess on the couch.

Ford stayed where he was just inside the door, wondering how many beers Tess might have downed before their arrival. Her eyes were on their way to a nice glassy finish, and it wouldn’t be long before her words were too slurred to understand. He walked around to her corner of the couch and stood there. He reached down stealthily and snatched the bottle out of her hand before she knew what was happening.

“Hey!” she cried.

“I think you’ve had enough for a minute,” he said softly. “At least until you’ve told us what’s going on. Yeah?” He tipped the beer to his own lips and finished what was left, setting the empty down on the coffee table.

Tess glared at him and looked around. “Lilly, get me another one!”

Lilly started to move, but Ford shook his head and she stayed still. He turned back to Tess and squatted down. “Hudson’s here now. Your sister’s here. Tell us what happened.”

Ford caught her eyes and held them with his own. He didn’t blink and he didn’t move, willing her to focus. After nearly a minute, he could almost see the fog lifting from her face. It was replaced by a look of confusion so profound; Ford felt a stab of guilt in his gut. He hated having to be the bad guy, but if Hudson was going to help her, then she needed to say it all.

Speaking slowly, Tess recounted Hudson’s earlier visit and how she found the box now resting on the coffee table. He took that moment to lift the lid.

“Holy shit!” Hudson hollered.

Ford leaned around and peered into the box. “That’s a lot of cash,” he said, whistling softly.

“Tell me about it,” Tess snapped. “I guess Jack hid it for a reason, but don’t ask me.”

“Did you count it?” Hudson reached over to thumb through one of the rubber banded packets.

“Yep. There’s a hundred grand there.”

“Show them the emails, sis.” Lilly nodded at her and Tess sighed.

“Emails?” Hudson looked from one woman to the other.

Tess pointed to the computer on the desk in the corner. “Have at it.”

Ford let his brother practically jump over the coffee table to get to the computer desk in the corner. “What about that laptop of Jack’s? Do you still have it?”

Tess looked at him and frowned. “Yeah, but I think it might be broken.”

“Let me take a look.”

“Okay.”

When she returned from the bedroom, it was obvious the unit had been damaged, but it didn’t look too bad. While Hudson had his nose glued to the screen at the desk in the corner, Ford took the laptop to the dining room table to have a peek. When he tried to lift the lid, it stuck a little and then made cracking noises as the hinges rebelled. He struck the power button, but nothing happened. “How about the power cord?”

Tess grumbled. “Duh, sorry.” She disappeared again into the bedroom and returned with the black cord. “Here you go.” Instead of going back to the couch, she sat at the table. Ford could feel her eyes on him as he plugged the laptop in.

“Here goes nothing,” he said, looking at her over the top of the machine. He hit the power button again, and with a little bit of a grinding, whirring sound, the machine booted right up. “Well, look at that. I’m not sure how long it will last though. Either the power supply is loose or the hard drive. I’m not much of an expert with laptops.”

Tess nodded but looked anxious.

“What’s the password?”

“Huh?” Tess blinked at him.

“The logon password,” Ford repeated.

“Oh, sheesh, sorry. Tess always knows.”

Ford grinned. “Say that again?”

“All one word, all lower case letters, tessalwaysknows.”

He tapped out the letters one at a time, some a little harder than others, but eventually the desktop appeared and he was able to pull up the letter from Jack. Working as quickly as he could, Ford opened a web browser and logged into his yahoo mail account. He sent a copy of the letter to himself with a copy to Hudson. When that was finished, he clicked over to see about Jack’s browser history. As the page began to load, the laptop died. Unless he took it apart piece by piece, there was no way he was going to revive the thing again.

“Well, that’s that.” He closed the lid and rested his hands on top of it.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s dead. It’ll need more skilled hands than mine to get it going again. But I got what I wanted before it turned up its toes. If you want, I can drop it off with a buddy of mine who fixes these things.”

“Sure, whatever.” She was picking at the cuticles on her fingers and biting her lower lip. Ford tried to look away, but the sight of her small, white teeth on her reddening lip was sexy as hell.
God I’m an ass
.

Forcing his head to turn, he called across to his brother, “How’s it going over there?”

“I’ll let you know,” Hudson murmured. He’d figured out how to print the emails and the little printer on the computer desk was spitting out page after page. Lilly stood in front of it, scanning them as fast as she could get her hands on them.

Now there’s a woman for my brother
. Ford admired Lilly’s concerned face and hand gripping the sheets of paper. She was more of a spitfire, and the type of girl Hudson would need to keep him in line.

Ford chuckled to himself and ushered the thought out of his head.

Tess got up and went to the kitchen. She came back with two bottles and offered him one. Knowing a little more hair of the dog would improve his headache, he gladly accepted. They remained at the table in silence, nursing their beers. Ford wished he could be anywhere else on the planet, yet knew a stack of dynamite couldn’t have blown him out of there if Tess was in distress.

After another fifteen minutes, Hudson and Lilly joined them with the stack of pages from the printer. Ford couldn’t read the expression on his brother’s face, but Lilly looked furious, like she wanted to punch someone in the face.