Trevor Reese: His Protective Love

by Mallory Monroe

  But even so, when Trevor walked into her office, she managed to smile. “Hey,” she said as he approached her.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I misfiled that Smithfield memo in one of these files. I’m trying to find it. What are you up to?”

  But Trevor was disturbed by her earlier comment. “Isn’t that why I pay Bridgette handsomely?” he asked. “To do that kind of work for you?”

  “She’s got her hands full too. It’s been crazy around here.”

  “Tell me about it,” Trevor said, leaning against the front of her desk, spreading his legs out and crossing them at the ankles. “My hands are full too.”

  “Then what brings you down here to my office?” Carly asked.

  “I was in the neighborhood,” he said with a smile.

  Carly looked over her shoulder at him. With those glasses on, she looked so sexy, he thought. “I wanted to check to make sure you were okay,” he said.

  Carly smiled. “I’m fine. It’s you I should be checking on. You’re the one who spent the balance of your night in some filthy jail cell.”

  “I’m hanging in there,” Trevor said. “Just wish I had more answers.”

  “As do I,” said Carly. “But thank God for Hammer. He really came through for us last night.”

  Trevor nodded. “Yeah, he’s good for something every now and then,” he said with a smile, and Carly smiled too.

  Her intercom button sounded. “Can you press that for me, please?” she asked Trevor and Trevor leaned back and pressed the button that was on Carly’s desk.

  “Yes, Bridge, what is it?” Carly asked.

  “It’s Shayanna Davis,” Bridgette said over the intercom.

  Trevor frowned. “Who?” he asked Carly.

  “Shay,” Carly said. “Shayanna is her full name.”

  “Oh!” Trevor said.

  “Tell her I’m backed up right now, Bridge. Tell her I’ll call her back.”

  “She’s not on the phone. She’s right here. And she has her brother with her. She says they have something urgent to talk to you about.”

  Carly looked at Trevor. Why would Shay’s brother have something urgent to talk to her about? She hardly knew him. “Send them in,” she said.

  “Right away,” Bridgette said and ended the conversation.

  “Who’s her brother?” Trevor asked. “And what does he have to do with you?”

  “I met him once,” Carly said. “And he has nothing to do with me.”

  And then the door opened, and Shay and Jason Davis walked in.

  “Hey, girl,” Carly said with a smile as they entered.

  “We can’t stay,” Shay said, “but Jason has something to tell you. To tell both of you,” she added as she looked over at Trevor.

  “Tell us what?” Carly asked.

  Shay looked at her brother. Jason exhaled. “I was paid to find out if Mr. Reese was going to be at Drena Dixon’s dinner party,” he said.

  Trevor frowned. “You were paid to find it out?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “By whom?”

  “Kate Oswald. Margo Robinet’s cousin,” Jason said.

  Carly was shocked. She looked at Trevor.

  “How would you know Margo’s cousin?” Trevor asked Jason.

  “I was introduced to her.”

  “Who by?” Carly asked him.

  “That’s the part that got my goat,” Shay said. “Ralph introduced them, child.”

  “Ralph?” Then she frowned. “Ralph Cohen? Melissa’s husband?”

  Jason nodded. “Yes.”

  “But who is this Kate Oswald to Ralph Cohen?” Carly asked Jason.

  Jason glanced at his sister. “Tell her,” Shay said. “You had no problem telling me.”

  “She’s Ralph Cohen’s girlfriend,” Jason said.

  Carly was floored. She’d heard rumors about Ralph’s infidelities for a long time. “Poor Mel,” she said.

  “But why would Margo’s cousin need to know if I was going to be at some dinner party?” Trevor asked. It still made no sense to him.

  “She wouldn’t tell me why. But I came forward because I didn’t want to have anything to do with any murder. I tried to call Kate, but it was a throwaway phone, apparently, because the number’s been disconnected.”

  Carly looked at Trevor. She didn’t know what to make of it either.

  “Is that the only job you’ve done for Kate Oswald?” Trevor asked Jason.

  Jason nodded. “The only one. And it was so simple that it didn’t make sense to me. But that’s all she wanted to know.”

  “She could have gotten Ralph to ask Melissa that question,” Carly said, “if they were messing around like you claim.”

  “That’s what I said,” Shay said. “But that’s not what she did.”

  “No,” said Jason. “She paid me to find out.”

  “She paid you how much?”

  “A thousand dollars,” Jason said.

  Carly frowned. That was weird in every sense of the word.

  But Trevor was still staring at Jason. “And what else did you do for her?”

  Jason seemed confused. “What do you mean?”

  “You know what I mean. What else? Kate Oswald didn’t give you a grand to ask a question she could have told her lover to ask his wife. What else did you do for her?”

  When Jason began to tell what else, Shay looked at her brother. “There’s more?” she asked him, shocked.

  Jason nodded. “Yes.”

  “You didn’t tell me there was more, Jason!”

  “What else?” Trevor asked him.

  “She called me back and said she had one more thing for me to do.”

  “Which was?”

  “She wanted me to receive a phone call from this man. Don’t ask me who because I don’t know who. But this man was supposed to call me on this throwaway phone after he completes his small job too. Everybody she was hiring had a small job to do, I guess.”

  “What was his job?”

  “Apparently to shock somebody,” Jason said.

  “To shock somebody?” Shay asked.

  “He phoned my phone and told me that he spooked her even better than he thought he could. He said she fled, whoever she was.”

  Carly looked at Trevor. Could Jason be talking about her? Could he be talking about her interaction with Peter King at that grocery store? But if Trevor knew what he was talking about, he knew how to hide it. He continued to stare at Jason.

  “It was my job to tell him to ditch that phone and to tell him the money would appear in his bank account that same day. He said like I said it was the easiest money he ever made, and that was the end of it. That was the only thing else I had to do for her.”

  Then Carly realized something. “Trevor?” she asked.

  Trevor looked at her. “Yes, babe, what is it?”

  “There’s a connection.”

  “What kind of connection?”

  “Involving me?” Jason asked.

  But Carly ignored him and continued to look at Trevor. “He says Ralph was Kate Oswald’s lover.”

  “Right.”

  “But Melissa was at Ames Grocery Store when it happened. We had a conversation.”

  Trevor remembered it too. He stood up quickly. “Let’s go,” he said. Carly placed those files on top of the file cabinet and hurried to grab her phone and purse.

  “You’re going too,” Trevor said to Jason and Shay.

  “Going where?” Jason asked.

  But Shay, still upset with her brother for not telling her the whole story initially, didn’t care. “Wherever he says,” she said with bite.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Shay and Jason followed Trevor’s Mercedes as he sped down the highway. Carly, on the front passenger seat, was just ending a phone call.

  “Where is he?” Trevor asked.

  “His office says he’s working from home today,” Carly responded.

  “Must be nice,” he said. T
hen he shook his head. “Sorry fuck,” he added, and placed a phone call of his own.

  He phoned his security chief and ordered him to have a couple guys meet him at Ralph Cohen’s house. When he ended the call, Carly looked at him.

  “What do you make of what Jason said?” she asked him.

  “We’ll find out,” Trevor said.

  “Do you think going to find out what Ralph knows is the best way to go?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What if we’re playing right into that woman’s hands?”

  Trevor glanced at her before looking back at the road in front of them. “Explain,” he said.

  “I know these people. Ralph is a cheater, but that’s all he is. And Melissa’s a sweetheart. She wouldn’t be caught up into anything like this. But it’s like that Kate Oswald lady want to keep the focus local. She may be using Jason and Ralph, if Jason’s telling the truth, to keep us distracted. Focus on Ralph. Focus on Melissa. Focus on Jason. She may be saying, ‘focus on that shiny object over there, but not on me.’”

  Trevor nodded. “Good insight,” he said. “I’ve already reached that conclusion too.”

  “Then why are we going to confront Ralph and Mel?”

  “Because we have to. You can’t leave this shit unresolved. With Melissa, I agree with you. I can’t see her caught up in this. But Ralph may know something. If I know Kate, and I do, she won’t give away too much, but he can tell us something.”

  Carly stared at him. “You know her?” she asked.

  Trevor nodded as if he hated to admit it. “Yes.”

  “How do you know her, Trevor?”

  “She was the one who introduced me to Margo,” Trevor said.

  That surprised Carly. “You think she could have something to do with Margo’s death?”

  “Of all the names I’ve heard, she would be my guess. She’s certainly evil and jealous-hearted enough.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She hated my relationship with Margo. She felt I came in-between them. And when I cheated on Margo and we broke up, she thought it would be her chance to get back into Margo’s good graces. But Margo would still have nothing to do with her. So she definitely has reasons to hate my guts.”

  Carly stared at him. “But?”

  “But I think her hate runs deeper than that. Something else is at play here.”

  “But you don’t think Ralph is a big part of it?”

  “Kate’s a sneaky bitch. But she’s a clumsy one too. She never gets it quite right. Ralph may have that answer.”

  “What answer?”

  “The answer to where that bitch is holing up,” Trevor said. “That answer.”

  And then he pressed the gas, and Shay and Jason remained, as he told them to stay, right on his tail.

  Melissa answered the door of her big, beautiful home and let them all in. She was glad to see Carly and Shay and Jason. She was surprised to see Trevor Reese. He rarely hung out with Carly’s circle of friends.

  “How odd to see you, Trevor,” Melissa said. Then her look changed. “Something must be wrong.”

  “Is your husband here?” Trevor asked her in his blunt way.

  And his look alone made Melissa know that something definitely was wrong, and her husband was knee-deep in whatever it was. “Yes,” she said. Then she called for her husband.

  She offered them all seats, but nobody wanted to sit down. “What’s wrong?” she asked Carly. Carly was always straight with her.

  But before Carly could answer, Ralph Cohen came into the room. And, Trevor, understanding that he had to put the fear of God into Ralph or Ralph might clam up, hurried to Melissa’s husband and jacked him up by the collar.

  “What are you doing?” Melissa protested.

  “What’s the meaning of this?” Ralph protested.

  But Carly, Shay, and Jason knew what the deal was. They remained silent.

  “What’s Kate Oswald up to?” Trevor asked Ralph. “And your ass better not lie to me!”

  “What are you talking about?” Ralph asked.

  Trevor jacked him up harder. “What’s your lover up to?” he asked plainly.

  Ralph cut his eyes at Melissa. “Lover?” Melissa asked. Then she looked at her husband. “What’s going on, Ralph?”

  “She’s just a friend,” Ralph said.

  “Who’s just a friend?” Melissa asked.

  “Kate Oswald,” Trevor said. “Margo Robinet’s cousin.” Then Trevor slung Ralph onto the sofa. “Tell me all you know. And I don’t have all day!”

  Melissa went and sat on the sofa next to her husband. Carly shook her head. She believed in standing by your man, but Melissa was taking it to an extent Carly didn’t think she could handle.

  But Ralph, at least, Carly thought, appeared ready to come clean. Until he opened his mouth. “She was just a friend,” he said to Trevor.

  “What did she want from you?”

  “Nothing! I mean, she asked questions.”

  “About what?”

  “She wanted to know about some dinner party. She said her cousin was going to be there, and she wanted to attend to. To hopefully mend some fences. But she needed somebody to get info for her about the party. She said she’d pay them.”

  “Is that why you introduced her to Jason?” Trevor asked him.

  Ralph nodded. “I knew Jace was down on his luck, was in town, and could use a quick payday. I also knew he could find out about that party. She said she knew Carly was going, but she wasn’t sure if you’d be there. I figured Jason could ask Shay and Shay could ask Carly.”

  “Or you could ask Melissa and Melissa could ask Carly,” Trevor said. “Why bring in Jason?”

  Ralph realized how foolish his explanation was. “I just knew he needed some cash.”

  “Bullshit!” Trevor said. “You didn’t want your wife to know about your lover. That’s the truth. Now stop fucking around and tell me what else she wanted to know.”

  “That’s all,” Ralph said. “And she’s not my lover.” He looked at Melissa. “I swear she’s not,” he said to her, taking her hand.

  But Melissa, to her credit Carly thought, snatched her hand away.

  “What else?” Trevor asked.

  “That’s all! She wanted to know about some stupid dinner party, and that’s it. How was I to know her cousin was going to shoot somebody? How was I to know her cousin would end up dead herself and you would be involved. At least that’s what I heard. I don’t know if it’s true.”

  Trevor realized Kate used Ralph for as limited a role as Jason. “Where is she?” he asked Ralph.

  “Who?” Ralph asked.

  “Don’t fuck with me, motherfucker! Where’s Kate Oswald?”

  “She’s home. She went back to Maryland. She’s got a cabin on the lake there.”

  “How do you know that?” Melissa asked him.

  “I told you she’s a friend. She’s just a friend!”

  “Text me the address,” Trevor said to Ralph, and then let’s go.”

  Ralph and Melissa both looked at him. “Go where?”

  “I have a couple guys out front. They will be escorting you and Mel and Shay and her brother to a safe house for now.”

  Melissa frowned. “A safe house? Why?”

  “Because somebody’s tried to frame me for a murder, and has tried other shit with my family. Until I’m convinced everybody’s role is as innocent as they claim it is, you’ll be under my protection. Once I get it all cleared up, then you’ll be free to go.”

  “Why that’s kidnapping,” Ralph said.

  “I can always contact the authorities. My brother included,” Trevor added, “and they can investigate you and your connection with a murder victim’s cousin. The choice is yours.”

  Ralph stood up. “No,” he said, “contacting the authorities won’t be necessary. We’ll go to your place, instead, provided it doesn’t take all day.”

  Trevor glanced at Carly. Ralph truly had no idea who he was dealing
with.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  “What are you doing?” Carly asked as Trevor drove their car rental straight up the mile-long winding driveway that led to the cabin’s front entrance.

  “The best way to gain an entrance,” Trevor said, “is to come in peace. We’re not going to storm her front door. We’re going to knock on it. She’ll either open up and pretend she has nothing to hide, or not open up and prove that she does.”

  “And if she proves her guilt and doesn’t open that door?”

  “Then we storm it,” Trevor said. Then he glanced at Carly. “Which I hope we don’t have to do. But either way,” he said, “you’re going back to Boston and getting out of the picture after this little visit.”

  Carly frowned. “Trevor, why? I’m involved in this too. Not just you.”

  “I didn’t say you weren’t involved.”

  “Then why can’t I see it through to the end?”

  “Because it’ll no longer be a fact-finding mission,” Trevor said. “Kate is not the mastermind of shit. She can’t mastermind her own life, let alone an intimidation racket. But she’ll have answers. That’s all we can hope to get from her today.”

  He stopped the car and they began to remove their seat belts. “But after I get those answers,” he added, “it’ll become a hunting-down-dogs mission. Which is my expertise. You aren’t ever going on that kind of mission with me.”

  They got out of the car. Trevor took Carly’s hand as they headed for the entrance. Carly glanced over at him and felt a sense of sadness that he always had to do the dirty work alone. That when it got messy, he’d go it alone.

  She loved working with Trevor. That was why she turned down her Uncle Mick’s job offer and stayed, instead, at Trevor’s firm. She loved being with Trevor. And she knew he loved being with her, too, and that was one of the main reasons why he allowed her to come with him to Maryland to begin with. She squeezed his hand. When he looked his expressive eyes at her, she smiled. She could get used to this!

  Trevor smiled, too, but inwardly he felt uneasy. If Kate did want Margo killed and him framed for her murder, she certainly didn’t come up with that plan herself. That he knew. He also knew he could handle Kate. Hell, he thought, Carly could handle Kate! That was why he brought her along. But the mastermind of the scheme might not be so easily handled. That was what worried Trevor.