Love, Money, and Lies

by Olivia Saxton

  She sat up in the bed and hugged herself. She started worrying about how Bruce took the news. Did he like the watch? Would he try to look for her?

  A soft tapping rattled against the door.

  “Come in,” she said softly.

  She thought it was Bobbi, but it was Aaron. He had on a pair of black sweatpants and no shirt. His chest wasn’t overly muscular, but it was still nice. “Hey, I thought I’d check on you before I turned in. Are you comfortable?”

  “As much as I can be. It’s a little cold down here,” she said as she continued to hold herself.

  “Hold on, I got just the thing.” He disappeared into the hallway.

  Margo reached over and cut the lamp on. It didn’t give much light because the bulb was low wattage.

  Aaron came back into the room carrying a small space heater. He closed the door behind him. “This should help. I found eight of them in a maintenance closet when I was scoping out a spot to set up the big heist equipment.” He sat the heater down, plugged it in, and turned it on. A soft hum accompanied the warm air it blew. “It should warm up for you in a minute.” He walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge facing her. “You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?”

  “Is it that obvious?”

  “Well, you’re about to embark on the biggest score of your criminal career, and you look down in the dumps.”

  “We’re ready. But I’ll double check everything again and run one last test.”

  “I know you’re on top of it.”

  They were quiet for a minute.

  “You fell in love with him, didn’t you?”

  Margo turned away from him. “Don’t tell Bobbi and Anthony. They’ll think I’ve gone soft.”

  Aaron placed his hand on her back and started rubbing it. “I won’t, but it has happened to the best of us. Look at it this way. You might not have friends or love after the heist, but you’ll be rich,” he joked.

  She snorted as a crooked smile formed on her lips. “Yes, over twenty-million dollars should keep me warm for a while.”

  He chuckled. “You want me to sleep in here with you tonight?”

  Margo looked at him. “No sex.”

  “As usual,” he remarked with a smirk.

  Margo snuggled under the covers, and Aaron got into the bed next to her. They curled against each other as Aaron draped one arm around her waist.

  “Once this is over and all of us split up for good, maybe you can call him,” he mumbled in her ear. “If we get away with it, that is.”

  “We will get away with it. The other option is unacceptable,” she murmured.

  ****

  After showering, shaving, and putting on a fresh pair of clothes, Bruce headed downstairs. He was careful not to make too much noise so he wouldn’t wake little Keisha. It was five-thirty in morning.

  He stopped in the living room when he heard Lana and Alec talking.

  “Do you think Bruce will find her?”

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think he’ll stop until he does,” Alec said and then sighed. “I blame myself. I should have tried harder to stop her that night.”

  “What were you going to do? Handcuff her and wait until Bruce got back? Margo’s a grown woman with no ties. She doesn’t answer to anybody.”

  “Not until she started dating Bruce.”

  “If anyone is to blame, it’s me. When I realized that she wasn’t coming back at the coffee shop, I should have sat on her until Lacey could get you on the phone to come there.”

  Alec scoffed. “Well, like you said, she’s not a criminal. If anything, the cops would have been called on both of you for disturbance of the peace. And forgive me for not wanting my pregnant wife in a dirty Tampa downtown jail.”

  “What if he doesn’t find her?”

  “I don’t want to think about that.”

  Bruce didn’t want to either, because come to hell or high water, he was going to find her. And then he was going to find out what made her abandon her life in Tampa and him in the first place.

  “I don’t even want to think about when I thought you were dead for four years. I felt half dead myself until you had resurfaced.”

  “Oh, Alec,” she sighed.

  Bruce walked into the kitchen. Alec was holding Lana. “Hey.”

  “Morning,” Alec said.

  “I’m going to fix you guys some breakfast so you won’t be driving over two hours on an empty stomach.”

  “I appreciate that,” Bruce said. “Alec, I am grateful for your help, but you don’t have to go with me today. This is my problem.”

  “You’re not getting rid of me, Bruce. You were with me through my trials and tribulations. I am not going to abandon you when you’re going through trouble.” Alec approached him and placed his hand on his shoulder. “We’re riding this out together.”

  During breakfast, Lana told Bruce everything that might be useful. Of course, it wasn’t for the immediate future, but he stored it in his memory bank, nonetheless.

  Alec sent Blanchette a text that they were following a lead to an open case, stating that it might not pan out, but it was worth a try. Blanchette had said okay. Blanchette wasn’t a micromanager. As long as agents went by the book on a case and arrest, he didn’t care what his agents did or where they were when they did it.

  Three hours later, they were at the prison. It was fifteen minutes before visiting hours started. Twelve people were already lined up outside the gate. Alec and Bruce stayed in the truck until nine.

  They showed their identification to the guards. One of them remembered Alec from the other week and called the warden.

  They requested a private room for their visit with prisoner number 329048, Frank St. John. The warden obliged them. A guard escorted them to a room that could be used for interrogation. There were four wooden chairs and a steel table. A camera was in the room.

  Alec sat down while Bruce paced the room. After fifteen minutes, the door opened. A guard walked in with a prisoner who had light brown hair that was little long in the front. He was almost the same height as Bruce, and it looked like he spent half his time working out at the prison.

  The guard escorted Frank to the other side of the table, opposite of Alec. Frank sat down and scooted the chair up. His wrists and ankles were bound with cuffs and chains.

  “Warden said you guys could talk as long as you need,” the guard said and began walking away.

  “Thanks,” Alec said.

  Bruce approached the table and remained standing. He was sizing Frank up, and Frank knew it, because he started doing the same to Bruce. Frank smirked at him.

  No one spoke until the guard closed the door.

  “Frank St. John, Alec, and this is my partner, Bruce,” Alec introduced.

  Frank broke eye contact with Bruce and looked at Alec. “Don’t you mean Special Agent Alec Peterson and Special Agent Bruce Styles?”

  Alec was taken aback that he knew exactly who they were, but Bruce wasn’t. He had suspected that Margo told him a lot of things. That’s why he wanted to talk to Frank himself.

  “How do you know us?” Alec asked.

  “Some people I know. Some I don’t,” Frank replied nonchalantly.

  “Let’s cut the pussyfooting around,” Bruce said and pulled a chair back. He sat down next to Alec. “Margo has disappeared. Do you know where she is?”

  “She’s not under suspicion of anything,” Alec stated. “But she is missing.”

  “So, you’re looking for my wife,” Frank mused like it wasn’t a big deal.

  “Ex-wife,” Bruce corrected harshly.

  Frank chuckled. “Well, on paper we’re divorced, but she still has my name, buddy. She could have changed it at any time, and she didn’t. That says something.”

  Bruce balled his fists against his pants legs to keep from reaching over the table to shake him silly.

  “Loyal girl, peaches. I had to force her to divorce me.”

  “Peaches?” Bruce inquired with disgust
in his tone.

  “Yeah. When I first met her, I nicknamed her peaches and cream because her skin was as soft as heavy cream, and she was sweet as Georgia peaches. I shortened it to peaches over the years.”

  Bruce let out a slow breath as he leaned back in the chair.

  “Let’s stick to the matter at hand,” Alec interjected. He knew Bruce was getting angry.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “We want to know where she is,” Bruce snarled out.

  “I don’t know where she is right now.”

  “Liar,” Bruce stated.

  “She didn’t tell anyone that she was leaving. What makes you think she told him?” Alec asked.

  Bruce looked at Frank. “We know for a fact that she came here over a week and a half ago to see you.”

  “Well, I know you didn’t learn that information from her. So, you must have found that out by other means. Nevertheless, she didn’t tell me where she was going, but she did admit to me that she was leaving Tampa.”

  “Did she say why?” Alec asked.

  “No, but she seemed determined about her decision,” he answered and leaned back in the chair.

  “You know more than what you’re saying,” Bruce said. “You have to. If she told you about Alec and me, she told you what was going on. Plus, her best friend, Bobbi, is gone, too. That’s just too damn convenient.”

  “Bobbi is gone, too?” Frank said with surprise. “Well, how did you let that happen, Brucie?”

  Bruce shot out of the chair.

  “Bruce, walk it off for a minute!” Alec said as he grabbed Bruce’s wrist.

  Frank was smirking at him.

  “Bruce?” Alec inquired.

  He walked away from the table and slowly started rounding the front half of the room, but he could still hear them. Brucie was the pet name Bobbi had given him when he was dating her.

  “Margo has told you a lot,” Alec said. “How did she get so much in during an hour visit?”

  “She writes and calls once in a while too,” Frank answered.

  “I see. So that none of us are wasting our time, is there anything useful you can tell us?”

  Bruce was slowly pacing as he watched them.

  “I can tell you something that could be of interest to Special Agent Styles,” he replied.

  Alec looked over his shoulder at him.

  “Yeah? Like what?” Bruce asked as he slowly approached the table.

  “Pretty girl, that Bobbi. Too pretty. I mean, how many women out there that are almost a dead ringer for Elizabeth Taylor? Granted, Bobbi is way taller than she was, but still–” He let out a low whistle. “A fox.”

  “What does this have to do with finding Margo?” Bruce asked with impatience.

  “I didn’t say it had anything to do with finding her. I’m saying this information might be of interest to you,” Frank reiterated. “However, Margo didn’t tell you this either. Perhaps she thought it best not to.”

  “Tell me what?”

  “Bobbi was born a man,” he answered flatly.

  “What!” Alec and Bruce exclaimed.

  “You heard me. She was born Robert Bennett. I had the pleasure of meeting both – before and after surgery,” Frank bragged with a big grin.

  “You—!” Bruce reached over the table.

  Alec grabbed his arm, trying to restrain him.

  The bang of the steel door opening didn’t distract Bruce from trying to get to Frank.

  Frank smiled wickedly as the guards got control over Bruce.

  “Go to hell!” Bruce yelled at Frank as they dragged him to the door.

  Frank stood. “You should think about how you have treated women, Special Agent Styles! What goes around, comes around!”

  “Sit down!” a guard, who was trying to get Bruce out the door, ordered Frank.

  Frank kept standing, but he didn’t make a move.

  Alec intervened. “Look, just get him out of here and put him somewhere so he can calm down. I need to finish with the prisoner.”

  The guards nodded as they continued to drag Bruce by his arms.

  I knew something was strange about her pussy. That’s why I dropped her ass!

  Chapter 31

  Alec took a deep breath once the steel door closed. He looked over at Frank. The prisoner sat down like nothing had happened.

  He walked back to the table and sat and was grateful that the cameras weren’t equipped with sound. Hopefully, the warden would overlook Bruce’s unprofessional conduct. They did tell him they were conducting an unofficial investigation to see if they had to make it official.

  “You were on him as soon as he walked in,” Alec stated.

  Frank remained silent.

  “Jealous?”

  “That’s part of it. I was peaches top guy before he came along. I mean, I knew she dated other guys, but she wasn’t head over heels about them. But there’s been a change in her emotions. She still loves me, that I know, but not like she did before.”

  “Partly? I take it that the other part of you thinks Bruce deserves what he gets?”

  “Yes. Look, I know you two have been partners and best friends since college. I also know he’s the type to pump and dump a woman, leaving her dazed, confused, and hurt. Hell, you can probably spend two hours just telling me stories of the women Bruce has mangled.”

  Alec couldn’t deny it. He had warned Bruce several times that his ways could catch up to him, and it had. “I see. Now that the distraction is gone, let’s get down to business. Margo is gone. You have to be concerned. You’ve made it clear that you still care about her.”

  “I am concerned, but at the same time, I know she is safe.”

  “How do you know?”

  “She knows how to take care of herself. You don’t need to worry about her. That big buffalo doesn’t either.”

  Bruce was right. Frank knew a hell of a lot more than what he was telling them. “Is she really not coming back?”

  “She’s long gone, Alec,” he said with a hint of sadness. “But she’ll be fine. No matter what happens, peaches always has a way of landing on her feet.”

  Alec nodded slowly as his mind worked. “Thank you for your time.”

  “Any time, Special Agent Peterson.”

  Alec stood and walked to the door and knocked on it a few times.

  A guard opened it immediately.

  “I’m done. Thank you for your patience.”

  ****

  Bruce and Alec walked out of the prison after Bruce had apologized to the warden and the guards for losing his cool. They walked to the truck and got in it.

  “Alec, I didn’t mean—”

  “I know. And I understand it in a way. Luckily, the staff here is discrete and . . . helpful. The guard destroyed the evidence of us talking to Frank.”

  “You’re kidding?”

  “Nope, and I didn’t even have to ask him. He just did it and put a clean disk in. I didn’t ask him why because I didn’t want to push our luck.”

  Bruce breathed easy. “This was a wasted trip. He didn’t tell us a thing.”

  “He told me more than he thought he did,” Alec stated as he turned to look at Bruce. “If you weren’t so emotionally involved, you would have seen it too.”

  “Seen what?”

  “First thing, if we find Bobbi, I bet you twenty dollars we’ll find Margo with her. So we should be looking for both of them.”

  Bruce nodded. “I agree. What’s the second thing?”

  “Just like Bobbi, there is more than meets the eye about Margo too.”

  “Shit! Do you think she was born a man too?” Bruce exclaimed.

  “No! What I mean is that Margo had this disappearance act planned far in advance. It takes time to sell and transfer ownership of a property. I don’t care what the real estate market is like. Bobbi sold her place too, and you said there was no way she could have gone to Illinois to be with her mother because she was dead.”

  “Hell, Alec, you’re
right.”

  “Whatever is going on, Margo didn’t plan for you.”

  “What the hell is she up to?” Bruce whispered.

  Alec’s cell rang. He looked at the caller ID.

  “Is it Blanchette?”

  “No, it’s Lana,” Alec replied and answered the call. “Hey, honey.”

  Bruce ran his hand through his hair.

  “Okay, Lana, go ahead.”

  “Bruce?” she said over the cell.

  “I can hear you. What’s up?”

  “I remembered something. Did you and Alec go to that old sewing factory that you found Margo at two weeks ago?”

  “Damn, I completely forgot about that,” Alec said.

  “Me, too.” Bruce had been so frantic and distressed about Margo he forgot a clue that was right in front of their faces back in Tampa.

  “Alec, told me about it. Do you think she is still working for the guy that bought the place?”

  “Possibly. It’s worth a shot,” Bruce said.

  ****

  They drove up to the gates of the factory. It didn’t look like any cars were in the front lot. The gates rattled and whined as they opened. The No Trespassing and Private Property signs didn’t deter them.

  Alec pulled up to the front doors. “This place is huge.”

  “Well, we don’t need to search it. Just talk to whoever is running the show,” Bruce stated.

  They went up to the doors and looked through the windows.

  “Something is going on in there. I see computer boxes in the foyer,” Alec said.

  Bruce looked in. He couldn’t tell if they were empty or not. There was also a staircase that led upstairs. “Is there a buzzer?”

  They looked around. There was a buzzer.

  Bruce pressed it, but nothing sounded off. “Shit, it’s broken.” He started beating on the door.

  “Hey! This is private property!” a man yelled behind them.

  They turned around to see a guy with dark blond hair that was pretty shaggy. He had on a pair of faded jeans and a blue T-Shirt.

  “Sorry,” Alec said. “We just want to speak to the owner who bought this place – hey, I know you.”