Trouble Me: A Rosewood Novel (36 page)

Later, while Jimmy sat with a DEA agent and a lawyer, Rob’s uncle Joe sent Rob and Scott, along with Phil Grimaldi and Tory Bryant, two other officers on the force, to pay a visit to the address Jimmy had supplied. Their luck held. With the parents God-knows-where, the kids were starting their Friday partying early. The cops busted the lot of them.

With the station populated by scared-stiff adolescents, Rob found himself comparing this bunch to the teenage Jade of years ago.

She’d been just as scared and defiant as these kids. The difference was that underneath that defiance there’d been a deep unhappiness, an unhappiness caused by the tragic loss of her parents. These kids, slouched sullenly
on the plastic chairs, exuded boredom and a gross sense of entitlement.

Rob had enough experience dealing with teen delinquency to recognize that if Jade hadn’t been so mired in misery, she probably wouldn’t have gotten into the trouble she had. This wasn’t to say she wasn’t a real spitfire, however, he thought with an inner smile. She was that and more, and he was pretty stuck on her.

If these kids were smart, they’d figure out a way to turn their lives around, as Jade had. He hoped for their sake they were.

Pleased with the afternoon’s busts, Uncle Joe told Rob to head on home. “Phil, Tory, and I will talk to the kids’ parents when they get here. A talk I hope they never forget. You did good work today.” With a pat to Rob’s shoulder, Uncle Joe rounded his desk and sank into his creaky chair.

Since Rob’s uncle was not a man prone to praise or favoritism, those words meant a lot. “Thanks.”

Scott stuck his head through the open doorway. “My shift’s ending, Uncle Joe, but if you need me to stay—”

“You’re on duty tomorrow, right?” At Scott’s nod, Joe said, “No, you go on. You’ll be back here soon enough.”

“So how about celebrating with a brew at the Horn, since today you proved once and for all that you are a master of the speed trap?” Scott asked Rob as he stepped into their uncle’s office. “The beer’s on me,” he added with a grin.

“I’d take him up on that, Rob. Offers like that come once in a blue moon from Scott.”

Scott clutched his breast. “Uncle Joe, you wound me.”

“Not funny, Scott,” Uncle Joe returned with a scowl. “Not when that punk was packing a Glock. We’re damned lucky he didn’t lose his head and start shooting. Christ. Cocaine and Glocks in Warburg. I hate it.”

“Why don’t you show those parents just what the delivery
boy who dropped off their darlings’ blow had stuck inside the waistband of his jeans? It might scare some sense into them,” Rob suggested.

“Not a bad idea. I just might do that. Well, you two go enjoy that beer. You’ve earned it. And, Rob, hug Hayley for me. You both having dinner with Megan and Jim?”

“Yeah. Hayley and Mom have been cooking. Dinner is Mom’s special meatballs and an apple cake. We’ve got more apples at home than we know what to do with.”

Uncle Joe rubbed his belly. “Meatballs, huh?”

Rob hid a grin. “You should drop by later. You know Mom always makes enough to feed an army.”

“Might do that—if my appetite isn’t soured by these outraged, whining parents.”

“You ready for that beer, Rob?”

Rob checked his watch. He didn’t want to be late for dinner at his parents’. Hayley would be eager to have him taste the meatballs she’d helped make. “Yeah, but I can only stay for one.”

“Hell, I wasn’t inviting you for two. You did good today, little brother, but not that good.”

The after-work crowd filled the Brass Horn. As she entered the bustling pub, Jade scanned the patrons standing by the bar. Relief filled her when she didn’t see a single blond-headed man there. The relief was odd, since she was still consumed with the need to discover the identity of TM. So why was she just as happy that Topher wasn’t standing there, drink in hand?

The question remained unanswered until she looked across the crowded barroom and saw him at a table next to the paneled wall. He must have been on the lookout for her. The second their eyes connected, a smug smile of satisfaction spread over his face. Half rising, he summoned her with a wave that was a tad too imperious.
There was the answer to why she’d been happy not to spot him. Now there was no way to avoid his pompous attitude for the next hour.

Threading her way past occupied tables, she was halfway to Topher’s when she abruptly realized he wasn’t alone. A woman was sitting at the table, her back to Jade. All Jade had time to note was a magenta blouse and long dark-brown hair secured in a high ponytail, and then the woman was rising and turning.

The smile pasted on Blair Hood’s face was pure poison.

“Hi, Jade. Long time no see.”

“Hello, Blair. Yeah, it’s been quite a while.” She could have added that never would have been too soon, but that would have been catty. She didn’t intend to stoop to Blair’s level.

“Hey there, Jade. Take a seat,” Topher said, and he gestured to the chair next to him and opposite Blair. “Blair and I have been catching up. You guys were in the same grade in high school, right? You two keep in touch much since graduation?”

“No, not really,” Jade said. A glance at his frat-boy grin told her he was totally clueless. He had no idea that she and Blair had been mortal enemies in high school. His satisfied expression spoke only of a male ego deeply gratified at having two good-looking females at his side. There’d have been something else there, a sly smirk, if he was aware that Blair had been the architect of Jade’s most miserable moments in high school.

And there were plenty to choose from. Blair and her friends had circulated rumors about Jade’s mom cheating on her dad; they’d amused themselves and all their Facebook friends by Photoshopping Jade’s face onto a naked porn star’s body. And though Jade had never gotten solid proof, she was pretty sure it had been Blair who placed the anonymous tip to the cops informing them of minors drinking at the Den, a call Blair would
have placed after ditching Jade at the bar and only when she herself was at a safe remove.

Jade was the first to admit that she’d been an idiot to believe, even for a millisecond, that Blair, after about twenty months of hating her, would suddenly perform an about-face and decide she wanted to be Jade’s BFF and hang with her at the Den. In her own defense, Jade had been pretty messed up, having just discovered her mom’s diary and all the ugly secrets inside those pages. Otherwise she might have recognized Blair’s offer of an olive branch as yet another of her nasty games, a setup. Blair had been so eager to get her into a place where she could get busted, she’d even given Jade a fake ID.

Jade had never been a saint, not now and not in high school. Early on in their guerrilla war, she’d retaliated against Blair by making out with Dean McCallister. A football jock and pretty cute, he’d been extremely popular. Blair had been dying to go out with him and thought the house party would be the night it became “official”; Jade made sure it didn’t happen.

The moment had not been Jade’s finest; she loathed having used Dean to get back at Blair (though at least Dean had enjoyed a serious snogging session before passing out from the shots and beer chasers he’d done).

The memory made her pause.

Blair, Dean, Topher, and her. The connections were a little too cozy. It would be too weird for words if, on top of everything else, Topher and her mother had been involved. But she wasn’t likely to find out about what he’d been up to seven years ago if Blair was with them.

Jade had ignored Topher’s suggestion that she take a seat. “I can see you and Blair are enjoying the chance to reconnect, so I’ll just head off. You and I can have that drink another day, Topher.”
Or not
, she added silently. She’d suddenly decided that Greg Hammond could deal
with ferreting out TM’s identity without any amateurish help from her.

At her offer to leave, a gleam lit Blair’s chocolate-brown eyes. It was quickly extinguished by Topher’s immediate protest.

“No—no, stay! Among other things, I want to pick your brain about Carmen. I’m seriously considering buying her. Your older sister and brother-in-law gave a pretty good sales pitch yesterday, but, well, let’s say I have a feeling you could close the deal.” He grinned. “And Blair has a dinner date at the Coach, so she can’t stay much longer. You don’t mind if we talk horses a bit, Blair?”

“Oh, no, not at all,” Blair breathed, doing a good job of acting all wide-eyed and bedazzled with him. Did Blair’s performance mean she had him in her sights? Probably. He was good-looking. He had a decent job with initials attached to it. He was rich. And he came from one of Warburg’s prominent families.

And Blair was too stupid to recognize what a bore he was. She was also too stupid to realize that, while Topher would happily sleep with her, he’d never enter a serious relationship with her, for the simple reason that Blair didn’t ride. Jade suspected that Blair was scared of horses. A blessing, as Blair was the type of person who’d blame the horse she was riding rather than herself for anything that went wrong.

Unfortunately, no matter how little Jade wanted to have a drink with Blair and Topher, she wasn’t going to pass up the chance to sell one of Rosewood’s horses. Although everyone in her family loved working with the horses—breeding, raising, and training them—selling was a crucial part of what the business was all about. She wouldn’t forgive herself if she blew off the chance to convince Topher to buy the mare. By selling Topher one
of their horses, Rosewood Farm would receive lots of great exposure.

So she sat and pasted a smile on her face. “Dinner at the Coach House. That’s nice,” she said to Blair as Topher hailed the waiter.

“Yes. I’m meeting my mother, my aunt Nonie, and Christy.”

Egad, the witches of Warburg gathered together around one table. Jade pitied the poor waiter assigned to their table.

“Oh,” she replied, absolutely unable to tack on “how nice” to complete the sentence.

“And you’re Eugene’s second-grade teacher, aren’t you? Oh, wait, Christy told me you were just the substitute. Still, how sweet.”

“I enjoy it,” she replied coolly. “And what do you do, Blair? Have you got a job?”

She gave an insouciant shrug. “I’m waiting until I find something that really appeals to me.”

“Well, if you want a job in insurance, Blair, let me know. I can introduce you to some people.”

“That’d be great, Topher.”

He nodded easily. “Happy to. Wouldn’t want you to wander off to big, bad D.C. We need to keep the beautiful girls in Warburg.”

Blair shot Jade a triumphant look. Then, as if sensing that Jade couldn’t care less about the conversation, she frowned. “I’m still adjusting to being out of college. It was kind of my whole world for four years. Did you feel that way?” she asked Topher.

“Yeah, from what I can remember of it. It was basically one long kegger.” When he laughed, Blair joined in, and Jade wished the beer she’d ordered would hurry up.

“I bet you miss school too, Jade,” Blair said.

Jade shrugged. “I guess. I’m pretty busy right now living my life—”

“—as a substitute teacher for second grade,” Blair finished for her with another laugh. “Which is, like, so ironic.”

Jade was going to ignore her, but of course Topher took the bait. “Why would that be ironic?”

“I have friends who were in the same dorm as Jade in college—Adrienne Waltham and Reese Little—so I heard quite a bit about Jade’s doings,” she told him. “She had quite the reputation. There was even talk about a certain ‘advice’ column, a very particular kind of advice column, if you know what I mean.
Definitely
not G-rated. The column was written not anonymously but under … what’s it called again? Oh, yeah, a pen name, but most everyone on campus figured out who was writing it.” Blair paused to take a sip of her drink, and when she smiled, she looked like a shark scenting blood. “So, Jade, did you put
sex columnist
on your résumé when you applied for your job at the elementary school?”

It was as if time had collapsed and she was back in the hell of high school, with Blair doing her best to destroy her.

Of course, with Blair being as dumb as she was mean, she hadn’t thought through exactly what effect her bringing up Jade’s college stint as a sexpert columnist would have. She’d hoped to embarrass Jade in front of Topher, but instead he was looking at her as if he wanted to sign up for a private tutorial on the
Kama Sutra
or maybe invite her back to his place to view his porn collection.

Once Blair realized her miscalculation, it would infuriate her, making her even more determined to try to wound Jade. God, why did some things never seem to change?

“Hey, Blair, didn’t you say you were meeting your
family at six-thirty?” Topher made a production of checking his watch. “It’s past that now.”

Like a contestant in a reality TV show who’s just been voted off, Blair barely managed a strained smile for Topher. “So should I call you? I think I might be really interested in insurance.”

He gave her a blank look—he’d obviously forgotten his offer to help her find a position the second he’d uttered it—then recovered. “Sure. Definitely. Call me.”

“Thanks,” she breathed. Leaning in, she kissed him lingeringly on the lips.

A little overdone for a goodbye kiss, Jade thought, and she bit the inside of her cheek as she watched the show, to prevent a snort of laughter from escaping. If Blair weren’t such a witch, Jade might’ve had a soft spot for her; she was so entertaining.

But now she had to deal with Topher, who was looking like he’d hit the Friday sex jackpot. She’d let him down easy by talking up Carmen for fifteen minutes, then nothing was going to stop her from blowing this joint and going home. She could nuke a frozen burrito, kick off her boots, put her feet up on her still-unblemished sofa, and zone out in front of the TV. It would be sheer zombie bliss. Or she could drop by Hawk Hill and raid Jordan and Owen’s fridge, which would be stocked with even yummier things than a burrito. And Neddy would be about ready for bed, freshly bathed, dressed in his footed pj’s and smelling of baby powder, as cute as anything on Earth.