Hurricane in Paradise (Florida Keys Mystery Series Book 10)

by Deborah Brown

  Phil snorted. “You’re so full of it. She bested you, and you want to even the score.”

  “In the morning, we’re going to arrive at Famosa Motors before anyone else, wait for her bright-and-early backside to arrive, and have a chat with Ms. Everly Lynch.”

  “I need to stay in town and you know that,” I huffed.

  “No more after this, I promise.”

  “Any word on my bro from your sources?” I asked Phil.

  She frowned sympathetically. “I promise to call if I get anything.”

  “The more time that goes by, the less likely it seems that we’ll hear anything.” I laid my head on my arms.

  “We’re going to find him.” Fab yanked on the ends of my hair.

  “I hate waiting.”

  “When do you take the bar exam?” Fab asked Phil.

  “I’ve got it scheduled for next month, and I need that time for studying. Overachiever that I am, I want to pass on the first go-round.”

  “Then what? Head to the big city?” I asked. “Work for someone like Cruz? I’d offer you a recommendation, but it’s safe to say I’m his least favorite person right now. I have Grandma to thank for that.”

  “I’ve got a few ideas, and they don’t include Miami.” Phil grabbed Fab’s empty water bottle one step ahead of it going airborne and tossed it in the trash. “Maricruz blew through here on several nights, stirring up trouble and enjoying every minute of it. The second night, I asked her what Cruz would say about her behavior. Tell him, she sneered. He’ll never believe your word over mine. She flounced off and got one of the regulars at the bar to bump and grind up against her on the dance floor.”

  “Dance floor” was an overstatement. It was any empty space the customers could find to move around in without running into the pool players or getting in the way of a dart game, usually in front of the jukebox. Dancing was a rare occurrence and involved imbibing several beers ahead of time.

  * * *

  There would be hell to pay for sneaking out of my house without telling anyone. Hopefully the consensus would be that I’d gone to bed. It was hard to sit and do nothing when no one had a clue where Brad was.

  Approaching The Cottages, I parked around the corner. The last thing I wanted was to get caught up in twenty questions with Mac or anyone else. Passersby trespassed on a regular basis; surely I could sneak around unseen. Thanks to runners from the law, I knew all the unmarked exits. Shimmying around a palm tree, squeezing through a fence opening, and reaching the open beach was a ticket to a quick getaway.

  I cut down the side street; the keys in my pocket meant I didn’t have to scale the fence that ran along the pool area. I listened before shoving the gate open; all was quiet for a change. The water glistened with multi-colored floating lights.

  “What are you up to?” a male voice whispered hoarsely.

  I clapped my hand over my mouth to cover the scream that threatened to erupt. “What the devil?”

  Liam looked around me. “No backup. I’m in.” The gate that normally slammed shut was closed quietly. He hugged me. “You’re the last person I expected to find lurking around.”

  I knew I had that deer-in-the-headlights look. I wasn’t sure what to say; Julie wanted to be the one to tell him about Brad. “Since I’m the landlord, I thought an unscheduled visit would show me to be conscientious.”

  Liam put his arm around my shoulders and led me down a side path. “Brad’s not here and hasn’t been. Nothing inside his cottage has moved for days.” He answered my unspoken question with, “I have a key and check every morning.”

  We stopped in front of Brad’s door.

  “You want to go in?” He took out his key.

  I nodded and followed him inside. Liam was right; nothing had changed since I’d been here last. Going back outside, I sat in one of the deck chairs. The cool ocean air brushed my cheeks. “How did you find out?”

  “Eavesdropping, tricking info out of a drunk; probably should feel bad about that, but it was kinda fun.” He settled in the chair next to me. “The downside was that I got a bunch of really personal information that no one should ever have to hear.”

  “Your mom will flip.”

  “She doesn’t want me to worry. She thinks there is some reasonable explanation; she’s hoping Brad will walk in the door at any moment, and it will be something everyone will laugh over.” Liam didn’t look convinced that that would be the outcome. “Why are you skulking around by yourself?”

  I told him about sneaking out, not being able to stand one more minute of doing nothing, even if I was wasting time.

  “You’re going to be in so much trouble. Glad I’m not you.” Liam’s laugh rolled out into the night.

  “I’m a grown woman and can do—”

  Liam waved his hand, cutting me off. “Wrong attitude. You walk back in, all sad-faced, which won’t be hard, and you say something short and heartfelt. Make Brad proud. Just like you taught him, or so he told me… unless he wasn’t telling me the truth?” He arched his brow.

  “We were such emotional scammers. Hats off to Mother; we didn’t get away with it every time.” I didn’t want to dwell on memories. I needed to keep focus; Brad and I would be making new ones soon. “I shouldn’t be asking you this, but anything else going on around here that I haven’t heard about yet?”

  “Decorating Rocks’ cottage in police tape was a good idea. Some junky lowrider car cruised by the first night, pulled around the block, and came back for a second pass with a flashlight. Haven’t seen the car again.” Liam flashed a lopsided grin. “Don’t worry, I stayed out of sight.”

  I rose to my feet and enveloped him in a hug. “Don’t do anything to put yourself in danger.” I grasped his shoulders, giving him a slight shake. “Do you understand?”

  “Promise. If someone comes snooping around, my first call is 911.”

  “Think I’ll go back to my car via the beach.” I hugged him again, kicked off my shoes, waved, and took off down the sand.

  Following the same route that I recently took with Fab, my last stop was the apartment building under renovation. This time, I parked on the opposite side of the street and checked each floor for a stray light. We hadn’t checked the building floor by floor, but Didier assured us that the construction crew had searched every corner. He’d reminded us that the building had security and there had been no breaches.

  My luck was sure to run out soon, and I wanted to get home before my phone started blowing up with calls. I turned off the air conditioner and rolled down both windows. Warm and humid, the night air blew through, smelling of salt and sand. With no traffic, and not having to worry about blaring horns, I poked along, scanning each side of the street as I made my way home.

  I turned off my headlights before turning into the driveway. On the off-chance that no one had noticed my absence, I decided to sneak back in like a teenager. Back in the day, Brad and I had crawled out our bedroom window after Mother had gone to bed and gone off on a planned adventure with our friends, then snuck back in the same way. That was the disadvantage of having my bedroom on the second floor. I crept down the secret path, and found Fab standing at the end, arms crossed, clearly irritated.

  “Where the hell have you been?” she hissed.

  “Went for a walk on the beach.” I did walk a few feet in the sand, so that was a stretch, but close enough.

  “I don’t believe that excuse for a minute; it would be far more believable if you’d shown up with a bucket of shells.”

  “I’m going to bed.” I turned on my heel and headed back to the driveway.

  “You’re going the wrong way.”

  I paused, turning. “I’m going in the front door since it’s closer to the stairs.”

  Turning the corner, I heard a car door slam. Glancing out to the street, I waited to see if we had a late-night visitor, breathing a
sigh when no one strolled up the driveway. Reaching for the door knob, I took a deep breath and pasted a pleasant smile on my face; without a mirror to check myself out, I hoped I didn’t look deranged.

  I walked in, passing the kitchen and living room, where a few heads turned my way. “Sorry if I worried you.”

  “Fab told us you went for a walk,” Mother said. “No news.”

  One hand on the banister, I backed into something hard. “A walk, my ass,” the wall said.

  Damn, the man was so quiet, sneaking around.

  I turned and looked up into his devilish blue eyes.

  Creole’s index finger touched my cheek and trailed its way down my face to my jaw, his eyes following its movement.

  “I, uh…” His touch affected my thoughts. I no longer wanted to run and hide in my room but wanted instead to go back out the door and down to his beach house.

  “That’s exactly what I thought.” His hand on the small of my back pushed me up the stairs as he said to the others, “We’ll see you in the morning.”

  So embarrassing. My cheeks turned bright red. Facing forward, I didn’t have the nerve to even glance over my shoulder.

  Creole closed the door, turned the lock, and flipped on a sound machine that emitted ocean noises and claimed to drown out sounds. It had been a gift from Fab, who’d smirked when I pulled it out of the shopping bag. Despite my extreme embarrassment, I’d plugged in that night.

  “You know what I like about your clothes?” Creole pulled my skirt off. “A couple of yanks, and you’re naked.” He winked, and my top sailed across the room. “You can skip the walk story. When Madeline called, I tracked you on that app I installed on your phone. It squeezed my heart, knowing that you felt helpless doing nothing and ended up driving the streets.” He kissed the end of my nose. “You spent a lot longer at The Cottages than I expected. Anything I need to know?”

  I leaned my head against his chest and related what Liam had seen. I shut my eyes, pushing the tears back, which didn’t work; they spilled down my cheeks without any regard for what I wanted, which was to not cry in front of him. He held me away from him and caught my tears with his thumb, wiping them away, then kissing me lightly. After I sniffed a couple of times, a Kleenex appeared under my nose.

  He tossed the extra pillows to the floor, followed by the comforter, and pulled back the sheet. “Get in.” He pointed. When I hesitated too long, he scooped me up, put me in the bed, and covered me up. He twirled around, singing off-key, a tune that I didn’t recognize; he swiveled his hips and treated me to a striptease. He finished with a complete turn and a bow.

  I pulled the sheet up, covering my nose, and giggled.

  He slid in next to me, pulling me into his arms.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “You’re lucky Creole had to leave early, or I wouldn’t be on this ridealong to watch you try to ferret out who Everly Lynch is from the woman herself. I’d be off with him, searching for Brad. He promised to stay in touch, even if he has no news.” I warned as she weaved in and out of traffic as she sped towards South Miami: “You will not maim or kill the woman.”

  “Drama Queen!” Fab sniffed. “I want to make sure she’s not going to hurt Brick and that he knows what he’s dealing with.”

  I made a gagging noise.

  “You’d feel bad if you had to attend his funeral. The guilt.”

  “I have a long-standing rule of which you are well aware; I don’t go to the funerals of strangers and certainly not to those of people I couldn’t stand when they sucked air. Unless it’s a job for our favorite gravediggers.” I caught Fab’s glare and waved my hand in frustration. “You seem to have a short memory. Brick’s lied to us, over and over, sent us into dangerous situations with no heads up, and I’ve lost count of the times we’ve been shot at.”

  “We survived all those hiccups, and look at us.” Fab flexed her muscles. “Badass PIs.”

  I squinted at her, shaking my head. “You’re nuts.”

  Fab had her private investigator’s license; I had what could laughingly be called a backup card. I’d technically been working under Brick’s license for the necessary hours to get my own. I’d thought several times about asking when I’d be completing my servitude but figured I’d have a long wait for him to stop laughing.

  “We’re here. I’ll do the dirty work. No need for both of us to get into trouble with Brick,” Fab said, as though she had a plan.

  “If law enforcement somehow gets invited to this party, we’ll both end up in ugly orange.” I pointed to Everly’s Porsche. “We’re late.” She was parked in one of the three reserved VIP spaces. “How does a receptionist afford a 100K sports car? Unless she gets the freebie rate, like you.”

  Fab’s face tightened; she didn’t like that idea. “That would mean… I don’t want to think about it.” She slid out from behind the wheel and stalked to the side door.

  Following her, I guessed that, if Everly and her job survived this day, she’d never leave the door unlocked again.

  Fab walked in and looked up at the darkened window of Brick’s office.

  Everly stopped in mid-stride, turning. “Was Mr. Famosa expecting you? I don’t have you on the calendar.” She made a dismissive sniff and moved toward the coffee maker.

  Quick as lightening, Fab tripped her, sending her to the floor, relieved her of her gun, and kicked it across the floor.

  I stared, open-mouthed, surprised that Fab had caught Everly by surprise. After a short tussle, she even made getting her into cuffs look relatively easy. Fab retrieved the woman’s gun and shoved it inside her waistband.

  Then she nudged Everly with her foot and rolled her over. “Who the hell are you? I’ll save you a few lies. We already know Everly Lynch has only existed for a year.”

  “You’re a dead bitch,” Everly spit through her teeth.

  Fab stepped out of range. “Not if you’re dead first,” she said sweetly.

  “Brick will never let you get away with treating me like this.”

  “Banging the boss?” Fab sneered.

  I stepped forward. “You should call Brick. If he’s not available, then call Casio; no one screws with his family.” Brick’s brother was a highly decorated Miami detective; if the stories were true, he’d take her into custody and lose her in the system.

  “You two are frighteningly stupid. You shouldn’t be allowed outside without a leash.”

  I knew a couple of people who thought I needed a keeper but had never heard it said about Fab. Probably because they were afraid of her and knew she’d kick the hell out of them.

  The decision was taken out of our hands. Just then, Brick’s Escalade pulled in next to Everly’s car. He strode through the door and did a double take. He rushed to Everly, helping her to her feet. “What the hell is going on?” he yelled at me.

  I shook my head, pointing the finger at Fab.

  “Uncuff her.” He lowered his voice, but not by much.

  “I don’t think so.” Fab stiffened her stance and stood her ground. “You need to know a few facts about your employee here. Starting with who the hell is she?” she yelled, her anger rising to match his.

  Brick hooked his arm around Everly, whispering in her ear. Whatever he said, her anger hadn’t lessened, but she jerked her head in a nod. “Give me the key to the cuffs. Now!” he barked and thrust out his hand. “Or I swear I’ll take the keys off you and do it myself.”

  I moved next to Fab, nudging her, not wanting Brick to hurt her, which considering that his eyes were filled with anger, he might. My girl would never admit defeat.

  Fab and Brick engaged in a stare-down. Finally, she took the key from her back pocket and moved behind Everly, who winced when she unlocked the cuffs.

  Brick scanned the empty showroom. “We’re not having this conversation down here.” Neither Fab nor I were offered an elev
ator ride, so we took the steps.

  The door dinged on the second floor but didn’t open for the longest time. When it did, Brick stalked past us, his hand possessively on Everly. He came to a halt just inside his office. “Have a seat. Everyone behaves themselves.”

  Fab glared and headed straight to her usual seat, the ledge that overlooked the showroom. “You might change your mind once you see this.” Before sitting, she pulled a copy of the background check from the back of her jeans and tossed it on his desk.

  I sat in a chair against the wall, close to the door.

  Brick jerked the paperwork up and gave it a cursory glance. “How stupid do you think I am? I know all of this already.” He swiveled in his chair and opened the refrigerator, holding up a water bottle; only Everly nodded. “The receptionist job is a cover. Everly is my bodyguard.” He turned his attention to her. “I’m sorry you had to go through this.”

  “You’re a bastard,” I said. “Fab was worried about your worthless life. After everything she’s done, you allow this woman—” I pointed to Everly. “—to demean her. I know telling the truth never occurs to you, but you owed Fab.”

  “I’ll talk to you later.” He stood and came around his desk, crossing to Everly, who hadn’t bothered to sit and was standing in front of the open door.

  He said something to her that I couldn’t hear, even though I was closest. Then, louder: “Anyone calls, I’m not in.” She left without a word. He pointed his finger at me and then the door. “Get out. Close the door behind you.”

  I waited for the signal from Fab to stay or leave. She nodded at the door, and I left quietly, not slamming the door, which I itched to do.

  Everly waited at the top of the stairs.

  “Just remember this little scene, Ms. Lynch,” I told her. “Don’t be surprised when it happens to you. Fab and Brick have done business for a long time, and all it would have taken was one word from him to avoid this whole drama. He owed it to her, and he didn’t bother.”

  “I hope he severs his relationship with her. She’s unstable.”