“I kind of see your point,” Kylie said stiffly after another moment or two of thought. “But that doesn’t mean I should set aside the fact Titus Holbrook slept with a woman in his employ.”
“Are you sure?”
“What?” Kylie was horrified. “Yes, I’m sure!”
“You’ve met Caroline, right?”
Maybe that’s what actually made Kylie sure. She hated the idea that Titus’s standards were that low. But did she want him mining through her past lovers? Talk about a string of losers. Kylie felt like she had dated every loser in Branson before swearing off men altogether about a year ago. And yes, she’d slept with some, and she’d kept sleeping with them long after she knew the relationship was going nowhere because at least it was something.
“Oh God,” Kylie whispered. “You’re right.”
To his credit, Doug didn’t say I told you so. He just left her for a minute and waited. He seemed happy enough to let her sit there in her chair and process what she had just unearthed about her own fallacies. Of course, he was probably charging her by the minute. Except this was Doug. He wasn’t like that.
“Honey, I’ve got another appointment in a few minutes,” Doug said after a moment or two. “But I’ll tell you right now that I like Titus Holbrook. Does the guy have secrets? Sure. I can tell, but so do the rest of us. That’s part of being in a relationship. Getting to know someone. But Titus is an honest and fair man with a good reputation in town. No matter what this silly note says.”
Did Titus have secrets? Ha! Kylie could have turned the rest of Doug’s hair white with what she knew about Titus Holbrook. However, didn’t that make it even less likely that he was toying with her? He had handed her the most incredible ammunition. Stuff she knew bothered him because he had gone to a whole lot of trouble to avoid Hilary Allenwood and the possibility of exposure. He hadn’t told Caroline Fry that, no matter what other pillow talk had occurred. And Kylie needed to acknowledge that meant something.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Love was in the air. It positively reeked of it. Not that this affliction included Titus in any way. It had been two days since Titus had attempted to visit Kylie at the winery. He hadn’t seen her since. Not even around the neighborhood. What was worse was now Ms. Wankenfurter was giving him the cold shoulder.
At this point Titus was spending more and more time at work even though he was more than a little sick and tired of hearing about wedding plans and future wedding plans for the other lovebirds in his office. Apparently, marriage was a catching sort of disease. But he was just biding his time anyway. After Duke and Olivia’s wedding, Titus was leaving town. He wasn’t going to tell anyone. He would put together a set of instructions and just go with it. End of story. His friends and employees could either deal with it or find a new job.
“Are you okay?” Mindy set a to-go cup of Irish Crème coffee on the corner of his desk. Then she put a white paper bag beside it. The bag smelled of chocolate, banana, and walnuts. His favorite muffin no doubt. She had evidently been down to the Landing to visit Laurie this morning. “We’re getting a little worried about you, Titus.”
“I see.” Titus wasn’t entirely sure he was comfortable with this idea that they were all sitting around discussing him in a coffee shop like some project they were working on. “Well, you can assure the ladies’ circle that I’m just fine.”
“This is about that neighbor of yours.” Mindy spoke with her usual frankness, but for once Titus didn’t necessarily appreciate it. “We all know you’ve got a bit of a thing for her.”
“Mindy. Don’t.” Titus exhaled a sigh. “I don’t want any love advice, all right? I know you’re all in love and happy and you have this undeniable urge to make everyone else in love and happy too, but you should really just ignore that urge right now and move along.”
Mindy’s eyebrows went up. But instead of moving along, she laughed. Titus didn’t appreciate it at all. Not a bit. In fact, he was pretty sure he was ready to growl and snap at her like a wounded animal. Because that’s what he was.
“Oh, Titus. Don’t get that look on your face.”
“What look?” Now he felt defensive.
“The one that makes you look like a sad puppy.” Mindy sighed and moved back toward her desk. “Drink your coffee and eat your muffin and we can all pretend you’re not experiencing a broken heart.”
He was just about ready to give Mindy a real growl when the front door banged open with such force that it whacked against the wall. Mindy spun around and Titus leaped to his feet. But the visitor was only Caroline. She barged into the office with wide eyes and a frantic expression ready to start shouting at whomever happened to be around, which, unfortunately for her was only Titus and Mindy.
“You!” Caroline pointed at Mindy. “Get away from my desk.”
Caroline purposefully marched around the desk, sat down, and began clacking away at the computer. “Whatever, babe,” she said without looking up at Caroline.
“I want my job back,” Caroline told Titus frantically. She had a crazy look about her. “I’ll give you anything you want to know on Hilary Allenwood. I just want my job back.”
Titus lowered himself back to his chair and deliberately reached for his coffee in order to give himself a moment to think. What had spurred on this ridiculous and rather frantic moment? Caroline looked as though she’d just had a very bad shock. Past experience suggested it likely involved Hilary Allenwood in some way or another, which meant it wouldn’t be in Titus’s best interest to just leave it all be. Information was always welcome. Even though he was going to leave and it wouldn’t matter anymore.
“Caroline,” Titus began in a very calm voice. He sipped his coffee again and then he reached for the bag containing his muffin. “I don’t actually have any job openings available right now. Mindy does your old job and honestly, she’s so efficient that I can’t imagine wanting to replace her.”
Titus delivered this information and then waited. It wasn’t like he hadn’t said this to Caroline before. It wasn’t news. But she was acting as though it was the first time she’d heard it. Her expression was haggard and she looked like she was about to truly panic.
“Caroline,” Titus said in a low voice again. He watched her face very carefully. “Surely, you can’t have expected that to change. This is no surprise to you. I realize your situation has changed at home. Considering Hilary Allenwood will not be receiving a boatload of cash from winning a wrongful death suit against me, it seems like she’s not going to have the cash she promised to pay you. Is that the problem?”
“What do you know about it?” Caroline snapped. She lifted her right hand to her lips and began gnawing nervously at her fake nails. Maybe that’s what had happened. She had been eating the acrylic stuff they used on her nails and that was somehow causing her to have a brain meltdown. She seemed to be balancing on the edge of sanity. Her hair was a mess, her clothes disheveled, and he was pretty sure he’d never seen her in shorts and a T-shirt before. She had even started muttering to herself.
“Caroline?” Titus pressed gently.
He could see Mindy trying not to seem as though she was paying attention, but there was no doubt in Titus’s mind she was. Titus wondered what Mindy made of Caroline’s behavior.
Then Caroline seemed to conclude something. “I want to sell you some information.”
“I’m not in the habit of buying information,” Titus reminded her gently. Then he took a long slurp of coffee and narrowed his gaze at her. “But you can tell me what you know and I’ll see if I think it’s worth anything. Then we can talk money.”
Caroline gave a little shriek of outrage. “I’m not telling you squat without a promise of cash!”
“Desperate, are we?” Titus slipped his wallet from his front pants pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. He set it on the corner of his desk. “Cash money. Right here.”
Caroline looked as though she wanted to tell him off, to flounce away and pretend she didn
’t really need that twenty dollars on the desk. But in the end, it proved too much for her. She snatched up that twenty dollar bill like it was a million bucks and stuffed it deep into her shorts pocket. Then she glared at him like he was somehow responsible for her current predicament.
“Fine. Twenty now. Two thousand when I tell you about Hilary’s plan to force you to confess to her sister’s murder.”
Titus felt frozen to his chair. He held the warm coffee in his hand, but the warmth could not penetrate. For just a moment, he panicked. Did Hilary Allenwood did indeed have some strange ability to force Titus to confess to something he didn’t do?
But that wasn’t true. Titus hadn’t killed Heidi Allenwood and there was nothing that could change that. “All right. I’ll bite. What is Hilary’s grand plan? Because I’m pretty sure I already told the authorities and Ms. Overton’s attorney about Hilary’s attempts to use her position at the newspaper for blackmail.”
“Yeah? Well, she’s decided you’re not going to comply so she’s upping the ante,” Caroline shot back. “She knows you’ve got a thing for that Overton chick. Nobody knows why. She’s homely and she’s a terrible dresser. But you’ve always had debatable taste.”
Titus felt the corner of his mouth twist into a smirk as he stared at Caroline. “Yes. I do, but Kylie is a cut above anyone I’ve ever dated or otherwise. Anyway, continue. You were saying Hilary knows I have a thing for Kylie because you told her after that incident where you let yourself uninvited into my house and attempted to trade your body for money.”
Behind Caroline, Titus heard Mindy choke back what was probably either a snort of laughter or horror. Maybe both. But Titus kept his gaze on Caroline. He needed to see her reaction. The split second of fire behind her eyes told him she had taken that information straight to Hilary and she’d sold it. Probably not for much. Maybe another twenty. Gas money was evidently hard to come by in the Fry household at the moment. Daddy must still be sticking to his guns. Good for him.
“Yes. Hilary knows about your little relationship with Kylie. I told her you were pretty desperate the other night to make sure Kylie didn’t think anything had happened between you and I.” Caroline sneered at him. It was an ugly look full of jealousy and anger and Titus could not help but be glad he was no longer involved with this woman. “You were rather pathetic really. All of that groveling? You could have had me any way you wanted and yet you chose that little bitch instead.”
“Because sometimes the easy prize isn’t the best prize,” he could not resist pointing out.
Caroline pushed her next sentence through gritted teeth. “So, Hilary is planning to take your little lover hostage. That’s the information I’m willing to sell to you.”
“Hostage?” Titus felt the urge to leap from his chair and grab Caroline by the neck. He would shake her until the rest of the story came out. But that still wouldn’t get him what he wanted. So, he struggled to hang onto his temper. “What sort of hostage situation are we talking about here?”
“The old amusement park. I’m sure there are plenty of lovely places to hide someone there.” The satisfaction in Caroline’s tone was disgusting to hear. She truly didn’t care what happened to Kylie, which probably had a lot to do with jealousy. “So, you pay me two thousand dollars and I’ll tell you which attraction to look at in the park.”
“Two grand,” Titus said slowly. He pursed his lips and glared hotly at Caroline. “You must really think I’m stupid. In fact, I can’t believe you sat in a desk across the room from me all those years and didn’t learn a single thing about me. It’s mind boggling, really, that one person could be so entirely self-absorbed.”
Caroline looked suddenly wary. “What?”
“You came here because Hilary ordered you to come here.”
“That’s not true!” Caroline protested. “She doesn’t want you to know any of this. I swear.”
Titus scoffed. “Then what good would it do?”
“What?”
“I said what good would it do for her to take Kylie hostage? Or did she take her hostage several days ago and now she’s wondering why I haven’t come searching for her and frantically asking you to give me the information? Did I not quite fall into your trap like you’d hoped because I’m not as hot and heavy with your victim as you both thought?” Titus’s gut was twisting itself into knots, but he could not let Caroline know that. He hadn’t seen Kylie for days because she had been angry with him. That did not mean he didn’t care about her. But Caroline and Hilary couldn’t know that. They had to doubt his devotion.
“I—that is to say—don’t put words in my mouth!” Caroline burst out. “I came here to help you. I wanted money. But I came here to help you and you’re making it like I’m the one committing the crime!”
“I would call you an accessory,” Titus said quickly. “But more than that, I would say you’re a despicable human being. Of course you had to come here and tell me. But it’s not your own conscience that’s making you do it. Hilary needs me to know or her plan isn’t going to work. So, what am I to do? Just wander down to the police station and confess to murder and trust that Hilary will let Kylie go? I don’t even know if you guys really have Kylie! She and I aren’t exactly on terms where we check in with each other every day.”
Caroline pulled out her phone. She tapped out a few things on the touch screen and then held it up for Titus to see. He had to fight back the urge to snatch the phone away from Caroline to better see the photo of Kylie she’d taken. It was like something from the how to take a hostage guide. A picture of Kylie tied up with a gag in her mouth holding a copy of the Branson Register in front of her with yesterday’s date on it.
“Speaking of the Branson Register,” Titus murmured thoughtfully. “Did Hilary get fired yet?”
Something flickered behind Caroline’s eyes. It wasn’t anger, just something else. Fear. She began to nod very slowly. “Her boss called and said a judge told him she wasn’t to publish any more stories in his paper or in any other publication. If she did, she would be in contempt of court and would be given a huge fine to pay. Hilary was mad as hell.”
Funny, but that information was actually worth some money. Titus fought back the urge to give Caroline another twenty dollar bill out of sheer pity. That would be going around her father’s attempt to make her grow up. And Titus really agreed with Mr. Fry on that one.
Caroline stared at Titus for a moment or two. Then she bit her lip. “You did that.”
“Not exactly.” Titus didn’t want to tell Caroline—and through her inform Hilary—that Kylie and her attorney were responsible for that move. “You could say Hilary did it to herself with all of the lies she’s been printing. Someone had to put a stop to it eventually. But the winery had to open an investigation with the Branson police about that incident Hilary put in the paper and that’s probably what tipped the whole thing south.”
“I told her that was a stupid move,” Caroline muttered. “She’s crazy. You have to believe me. You need to go find that Kylie chick right away or there are some back things that are going to happen.”
“Uh huh,” Titus muttered. Then he snorted and pulled out his wallet again. He fished out another twenty. “Here. Gas money. Now get the hell out before I call the police and have you arrested for conspiracy to commit kidnapping.”
“Wait. What?”
“Oh come on, Caroline,” Titus moaned. “Sometimes you are the thickest headed princess pain in the ass I’ve ever met. You’ve been helping Hilary, whether you like it or not. When she goes down, you’ll be lucky not to wind up well fed and taken care of in jail.”
But he really didn’t have time to keep bantering back and forth with this woman. He needed to get her out of here so he could figure out how to end this ridiculous hostage situation.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Kylie was pretty sure she had accidentally fallen into a Scooby-Doo cartoon episode. Something about ghosts of the amusement park or something equally campy and ri
diculous. All that was lacking was a gaggle of teenaged sleuths and their talking Great Dane. Although, maybe Hilary Allenwood would have made a better comic book villain than one from a children’s cartoon that seemed to inevitably be wearing a mask of some sort. Or sometimes multiple masks depending on how many red herrings the show had thrown out in twenty minutes.
“What are you staring at?” Hilary rounded on Kylie and snarled the words. She had been pacing back and forth in silence for the last few hours. The tension on her face suggested she was most definitely waiting for someone who had yet to show up. “You just keep staring at me as if you’re not the one in serious shit here.”
“Serious shit.” Kylie tried to keep calm. It wasn’t necessarily easy. She felt more strung out than composed. “I’m sorry, Hilary. Not to point out the obvious, but you’re the one who walked into my office two nights ago with a gun. You took me out of there against my will and you have been keeping me here for the last several days—I assume it’s that long. It’s difficult to tell with no natural light. So, you’ll have to pardon me if I just don’t feel like I’m the one with all of the stuff to worry about.”
“Shut up.”
It was the reply Hilary seemed to give the most. She was stressed, that was obvious. But why? What was her plan? What was she waiting for? She kept checking her phone, probably waiting for a text or a call or some other indicator that something was about to happen. It was all very weird. But then, it wasn’t like Kylie had a whole lot of experience with this hostage situation thing.
Kylie sighed. She really needed to get up and move around. She had been sitting on a hard chair in this tiny room that felt a lot like a shed. Someone had brought in a few fans in what seemed like an attempt to make it not so hot, but the heat inside was reaching the point of sweltering. The gray walls were practically shimmering with heat, presumably from the sun outside. And Kylie’s white dress shirt and khaki capris had repeatedly been soaked in sweat. She only got a sip or two of water every once in a while and she hadn’t eaten anything but a power bar sometime yesterday.
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 115
