Gilded Craving: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 3)

by Olivia Jaymes

  "Well...I don't think so. Brad would have been livid. He wasn't an equal opportunity cheater, if you know what I mean. It was one thing for him to chase girls but he would have gone ballistic if he thought Caroline was doing the same thing. No, I don't think he knew. It would have been ugly if he did."

  It had been ugly. A young man had lost his life that night. Was Trent involved? Or Caroline?

  Mariah's gaze swept over her old friends just sitting and chatting with one another. Was one of them responsible for Brad's death? She didn't want to think about that possibility, but she couldn't shake the idea.

  What if it wasn't a stranger? What if it was someone she knew?

  12

  Ryan had made plans for the next day to meet up with the other friends in the group that he hadn't had a chance to speak with. He needed to talk to all of them about that night. Already he'd found out that Brad was cheating on Caroline with Isla. What else didn't he know?

  It wasn't that he thought that Isla had killed Brad, hitting him on the head, but if Ryan didn't know about their covert relationship there might be a hell of a lot more that he didn't know about Brad's life. Important details that might lead to solving the mystery of what happened that night.

  "Caroline was sleeping with Trent."

  Ryan and Mariah had just exited the Uber vehicle and were walking into the apartment building.

  "Hold that thought."

  He punched the elevator button and the doors dinged and then slid open. He urged Mariah inside and the doors closed.

  "Can you say that again?"

  "Caroline was sleeping with Trent. Daphne told me today. She said that Caroline told her all those years ago, and she also saw Caroline sneaking into Trent's hotel room in Hawaii. Did you know Daphne was sleeping with Theo?"

  That was two pieces of information. Neither one he was aware of.

  "No, I didn't know about Daphne and Theo but I'm not really all that surprised. They were constantly flirting with one another. I would have been more surprised if something hadn't happened, to be honest. Now let's get back to Caroline and Trent. How long was that going on?"

  "I don't know. Daphne just said that Caro was angry about Brad running around on her and being a dick so she was getting back at him by sleeping with Trent."

  It was the perfect revenge since Trent and Brad were frenemies, always competing with one another. Trent would have loved to tell Brad that he'd slept with Caroline.

  "And Brad knew?"

  Mariah shook her head. "Daphne says that he didn't."

  The doors slid open and they headed down the hall. He didn't reply until Mariah had unlocked her door and they were in her apartment.

  "I find that hard to believe. If Trent slept with Caroline, he'd want Brad to know. He'd enjoy telling the news. In fact, I'm surprised he didn't tell all of us with a PowerPoint presentation. It would have been the ultimate fuck-you-I'm-better to Brad."

  "Daphne was sure that Brad didn't know. She said that he'd be livid if he found out and I have to agree with that. Think about what you said as well. If Trent had told Brad, he would have told all of us. He didn't. So I think that Daphne may be right that no one else knew."

  It didn't make sense to Ryan, not with what he knew about the two men.

  "Are you saying that Trent had feelings for Caroline then? Because that would shock the hell out of me. He never seemed to even like her very much. He sure as hell didn't have any patience for her."

  "He didn't have patience with anyone," Mariah pointed out. "Let's face it, Trent was kind of an asshole. If he hadn't been a childhood friend of yours would you have been hanging out with him?"

  "He was always that way."

  "That's not a great excuse for being a jerk."

  "Trent isn't that bad. He'd give you the shirt off his back if you needed it."

  "And then tell everyone that he did it."

  Maybe. Probably. The fact was Trent had all sorts of issues. He'd had a fucked-up childhood, being shuttled from one neglectful parent to the other, and mostly been brought up by nannies and housekeepers. Freud would have had a field day with the guy and his need to be loved and admired.

  Mariah sat down on the couch, stretching out her legs and kicking off her high heels. He'd forgotten just how gorgeous her legs were. She used to run to keep them toned. Did she still do that? It looked like it. They were also tanned from the summer sun.

  Shit, is it hot in here?

  "Ryan," she said sharply, pulling him from his daydreams. "Did you hear me? I said, do you think that's what Trent and Brad argued about?"

  Pull it together, man. They're just legs. Attached to Mariah.

  "I don't know. I'm going to talk to Trent tomorrow. I didn't have a chance tonight."

  "He may not tell you the truth."

  "I like to think that I know when someone is lying."

  Her brow quirked up. "You have that superpower? Lucky you."

  "People have tells when they lie."

  "Can you tell if I'm lying?"

  Chuckling, Ryan nodded. "Yes, you rub your earlobe when you're telling a fib."

  "That's not true," she said with a scowl. "I don't do that. And when have I ever lied to you?"

  "I said a fib, not a lie. Remember when my sister was dating that guy from Stanford that I couldn't stand? Shit, I can't even remember his name now but he was a jerk. She went out on a date with him and you told me she was out with her friends. She didn't want me to know because she knew I'd give her a hard time about it. You covered for her."

  "Of course I did, she's my best friend."

  "And you rubbed your earlobe when you did it."

  Her expression was scandalized as her hand flew up to her ear. "So you knew I was lying?"

  "Not then, but later when I was being trained, I thought back to that. You've done it more than a few times. Like when you told me that you liked camping and the show ‘Lost’."

  "I was trying to impress you. I never thought we would actually go camping, and I didn't think you'd make such a big deal about a television show."

  "It was one of my favorites."

  "We both liked ‘The Sopranos’."

  "You liked ‘American Idol’. Admit it."

  "Millions of people liked ‘American Idol’. I won't apologize for it, Ryan. Here we go again. Even your taste in television shows has to be superior to everyone else's. Get over yourself."

  "I'm just saying that some shows and movies are better than others."

  Rolling her eyes, she walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out two water bottles, handing one to him.

  "I'm saying that I don't care what other people watch or read or sing or do. It's none of my business."

  To be perfectly honest, Ryan wasn't sure why he cared what Mariah watched or liked. Maybe because he'd found her so fascinating back then, or perhaps because he'd wanted her to like the same things he did. Her approval had been important to him when he was younger.

  "According to Carl, Brad was sleeping with Isla."

  Mariah's mouth fell open in shock. "Wait...what? Brad and Isla? How does Carl know? And how didn't you know?"

  "Brad and I weren't that close, and personally, I didn't want to hear about his sexual exploits, most of which I assumed were lies. Carl swears it's true, though, and that Brad told him."

  "I'm not sure that I believe it."

  "Why not?"

  "You said it. Brad lied about stuff. I can see him lying about Isla."

  Sitting down on the couch, Ryan re-ran Carl's words through his head one more time.

  "Carl seemed pretty convinced it was true. I didn't question it but I probably should have. I'm going to have to ask Isla."

  Mariah held up her hand in a stop motion. "Why would you ask her? What does it matter?"

  "For the same reason it matters that Caroline was sleeping with Trent."

  She was shaking her head before he'd finished answering. "No, it matters because Brad would have been jealous if he knew and that might b
e why they argued."

  "Caroline could be jealous, too."

  "She might but she knew that Brad ran around all the time. She'd never killed him over it. Past performance is the best predictor of future behavior. If she didn't kill him before, why would she do it now?"

  "Maybe Isla was the straw that broke the camel’s back? He was fishing in our friend group pond, so to speak, and she was angry."

  "Except that she was sleeping with Trent," Mariah reminded him. "So why would she be mad? She was getting her revenge. She didn't need to kill him."

  He'd been thinking about the whole situation. In fact, that was pretty much all he was doing.

  When he wasn't thinking about Mariah, that is.

  "What if it was a tragic accident? They argued. Things got heated. Maybe Brad took a swing at Caro and she was defending herself? Or he was arguing with Trent and it got physical? It doesn't have to be premeditated cold-blooded murder."

  "So you do have theories?"

  "I have theories and hardly any evidence, so they don't mean much. At this point I'm just running scenarios through my head to see if they make any sense. Let's face it, anything could have happened. Brad liked to run his mouth when he was drinking and he could have pissed off the wrong person that night."

  Mariah sat down next to Ryan. "I know that you know what you're doing with this investigation, but be honest with me. Just what are the chances of you finding out what really happened to Brad that night?"

  "The more time has passed from the crime, the harder it is to solve the mystery," Ryan explained. "Memories fade, witnesses disappear or die. Evidence goes missing or degrades. About forty percent of homicides are never solved. Cold cases have the best chance of being solved when there is evidence that can be used with more modern investigative techniques like DNA analysis."

  "That's a fancy way of saying that this is a long shot," Mariah replied softly. "You have very little evidence and no motive."

  "That we know of. Someone definitely had means and opportunity. My job is to find out all of Brad's secrets. We've already uncovered two. Maybe one of them will lead us to the truth."

  Something bad had happened to Brad that night. Ryan was determined to find out what.

  And who.

  13

  The next morning Ryan was standing in Theo Perkins' palatial office. Situated on an upper floor, it had an impressive view of downtown Chicago, which was what Ryan studied while he waited for his old friend to finish a phone call. Theo had gone into his father's law firm, a business that had been in the family for generations.

  Hanging up the phone, Theo whirled around in his leather chair and gave Ryan a huge grin.

  "Sorry about that. It never ends around here." He jumped up and headed for the office door. "How about a coffee? I could do with one. Cream and sugar?"

  Ryan hadn't yet had his first cup today as he'd been anxious to get up and get started on the investigation. He had several items on his to-do list.

  "That would be great. Cream and two sugars."

  At home he would have had it black but for some reason now that he was back in Chicago, he was drinking it with cream and sugar again.

  Theo stuck his head out of the office and asked his assistant to get them two coffees. Instead of going to sit behind his desk, he sat down on the small sofa against the wall and Ryan followed suit. It was a relief that there wasn't going to be any sort of power plays this morning, but then Theo wasn't really the type for that. He'd always been laid back and relaxed.

  "So you want to talk about that night?"

  "I'm talking to everyone that I can find that was there that night, especially as Mariah and I left the bar early."

  It sounded so natural. Mariah and I.

  Being friends with her yesterday hadn't been so bad. To be truthful, he'd enjoyed her company. As always, her intelligence and insight impressed him, plus she was easy to be around. Not restful or serene, though. No, she was too challenging for that. But easy in the sense that he always knew where he stood with her. She didn't play head games and that was a relief.

  "I'm not sure that I can be much help. That was a long time ago. These days I’m lucky if I can remember that I had for lunch the day before. I’m just so busy these days."

  Ryan could completely understand. He’d get so focused on work everything else would fade into the background.

  "Let's start at the beginning of the evening. Did Brad say or do anything different than normal? Was he acting strangely?"

  Theo shook his head. "No, it was the usual stuff. He was in the mood to cut loose after working so hard the last half of the semester to bring his grades up. His dad had been really on him about that, and Brad had to really buckle down those final weeks. When he came home from school, he'd been on a mission to have some fun so we'd been going out pretty much every single night."

  "Was he worried about anything?"

  "He wasn't worried about a thing after finals. He was in a great mood."

  There was a brief knock and then the door swung open to reveal a young woman holding a tray with two mugs and a basket of pastries.

  "Help yourself," Theo said as the assistant placed small plates and napkins on the coffee table in front of them. "There's a bakery about a block down that makes these. They're unbelievably good."

  The smell of sugar and vanilla teased Ryan's nostrils and he found himself digging into a still-warm cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting. So far Chicago had him going back to a hell of a lot of bad habits.

  Like Mariah, for instance.

  Note to self. You need to go for a long run tonight. Stay away from her.

  "So tell me more about that night. We were all doing shots and talking about Hawaii. Then Mariah and I left. What happened after that?"

  His brows pinched together, Theo didn't answer immediately. "Shit, I'm not sure. Like I said, that was a long time ago. I think I danced with your sister Liza, and then I went to play pool again. Brad and Caro were talking and drinking but then I think she must have left because Brad was talking with someone else. I'd met a girl that wanted me to teach her to play pool and ended up leaving with her right after they announced last call."

  "You didn't go home together?"

  With a sheepish grin, Theo shook his head. "What can I say? I got lucky that night."

  Ryan couldn't help but think that a best friend disappearing wasn't all that lucky. Apparently, the reality of what Theo had said dawned on the other man and the color drained from his face. He'd gone from smiling to almost crying in less than sixty seconds.

  "Shit, that didn't come out right. You know what I mean. Of course, I don't think that it was lucky that Brad died. He was my best friend. We were like brothers. I loved him. I really did. If I had known something would happen to him that night...fuck. I never would have left him. I thought he'd be okay. It wasn't the first time one of us went home alone. If he'd met someone, he would have done the same."

  When Ryan didn't respond right away, Theo hopped up from the couch and began pacing in front of his desk.

  "I know this looks bad. I mean...it's such a coincidence...but I swear that wasn't the only time that he and I went home separately. It happened more often than not because he'd either be going home with Caro or some other girl."

  From what Ryan remembered, that was true. But it was a strange coincidence.

  "Who else knew you were leaving separately? Were you at the bar when you told him? Could someone have overheard you?"

  Pausing in front of the table, Theo stroked his chin. "He was at the bar with some girl. Caro had already left. He told me she was mad and he'd make up with her in the morning. I told him I was leaving and he laughed and told me to have a good time. I don't know if anyone could have overheard us. The music was so loud in there. I guess the girl could have overheard."

  "Do you remember her name?"

  "No, he didn't mention it and she never said. In fact, I don't remember her saying anything. She was pretty, though. A redhead. P
etite. Nice figure."

  "Had you seen her before?"

  Theo perched on the edge of his desk. "Yeah, I think so. She'd been there a few nights before. She was good-looking, someone you would notice, if you know what I mean. I got the feeling that Brad was planning to go home with her."'

  Ryan made a mental note to somehow try and find out who that woman was, although the odds weren't in his favor.

  "So you left? You didn't see him again after that?"

  "When I left, he was still at the bar." Theo scraped his fingers through his short brown hair. "That was the last time I saw him alive. It's been years and I still can't believe he's gone. Every now and then I'll reach for my phone to call and tell him some good news."

  "What about other girls?" Ryan asked, already knowing part of the answer. "Brad wasn't exactly faithful to Caroline. How many others were there?"

  "A few. They didn't mean anything. Brad just wanted to be free and have a good time. He wasn't looking to settle down. Caro could never understand that. She wanted them to get married as soon as they graduated from college. Then have a kid the next year. She had it all planned out. Brad used to tell me about all of her plans. Hell, she'd even picked out the neighborhood she wanted to live in and the car she wanted to drive."

  "Why didn't he ever break up with her if she was pressuring him like that?"

  "Because he really did love her," Theo said, his expression turning to a frown. "In his way. He didn't want to hurt her, he just wanted her to back off a little bit."

  "And how did Isla fit into all of this?"

  "She was a fun distraction. Brad said she was wild in the sack. He wasn't in love with her or anything."

  "Was she in love with him?"

  Theo's brows shot up in surprise. "Fuck, no. If anything, she hated Brad. I swear they were just hate-fucking each other because they both had the same kinks."

  Do I even want to know? Not particularly, but it might be important.

  "Kinks? Anything dangerous?"

  "They both liked threesomes. And four or fivesomes. Shit, is that even a word? Anyway, they liked to make sex a party."