The Viper

by Velvet Vaughn

  “It’s non-negotiable.” He shut the folder and scooped it off the desk.

  Cory’s mouth pinched. He swung his gaze from Kellan to her. “I thought I was your lawyer, Annabelle.”

  “Mr. Windham was my lawyer.”

  “Yes, but he hand-picked me to join the firm. He groomed me to be his successor.”

  “Now that he’s gone, I do need to find a new attorney, but that’s my choice.”

  He sat back in his chair. “I see.”

  “Please don’t take this personally,” she apologized. “But I don’t know anything about you.”

  “As I said, Mr. Windham chose me—”

  She held up a hand to stop his spiel. “I understand, Mr. Walters, and I promise I’ll take that into consideration, but it would be in my best interest to exercise due diligence before I make a choice.”

  He stood. “In that case, I guess we have nothing else to discuss.”

  She’d obviously offended him by not jumping at the opportunity to have him represent her. She didn’t really care since it was unrealistic to think she’d blindly accept him, but there went her chance to have him draw up a document for Robbie to sign. Kellan stood and helped her to her feet. When Cory made no move to show them to the door, they left on their own. She turned to thank him for his time, but he was on the phone with his back to them. She’d probably just cost him a huge commission, but that wasn’t her concern. She didn’t hire him, he just appointed himself her lawyer. She was glad they’d made the trip to meet him in person, otherwise, she might’ve signed on with him because it was the easy thing to do and he already had access to her files. She was about to be very wealthy and she needed to research the person she trusted with her legal matters.

  A woman engrossed with her phone stepped off the elevator when the doors opened. She looked up and stopped abruptly. “I’m sorry…oh, hello, Ms. St. John. How are you?”

  She smiled at the woman who helped draw up her will the last time she was here. “I’m okay, thank you. How are you, Beth?”

  The other woman’s eyes were sad. “I’ve been better. Losing Mr. Windham was a tough blow.”

  “It was,” she agreed. A thought struck. She glanced over her shoulder but Cory was nowhere in sight. “Can I ask you a legal question?”

  “Sure. Let’s go to my office.”

  Beth’s office was more of a broom closet, with barely enough room for two visitor chairs in front of a desk one-eighth the size of Cory’s monolithic one. Once they were inside, she closed the door. Annabelle introduced Kellan and the other woman blushed as she shook his hand. Annabelle didn’t blame her. He had that effect on her, too.

  Beth rounded her desk and sat before clasping her hands together. “What can I do for you?”

  “I don’t want to impose, but I was wondering if you could draw up a document for me today for my stepbrother to sign.”

  “Sure. What kind of document?”

  “My stepbrother owes a great deal of money. I want to offer to pay off his debt if he’ll agree to never contact me again or try to extort money from me in the future.”

  “I can do that for you, Annabelle, but I have to advise you that these types of papers don’t always work.”

  “I understand.” It was still worth it to try. Forty-five minutes later, they exited the offices with the freshly-printed form in hand. It wouldn’t guarantee that Robbie would leave her alone, but if he did try to hit her up for more money in the future, she’d have something to present to the authorities.

  Kellan waited until they were back inside the SUV before he spoke. “I still think it’s a bad idea to pay off your stepbrother’s debt.”

  “I agree,” Ethan concurred. “That paper won’t stop him.”

  “How else am I going to keep him from trying to kill me?” Digging through the purse she borrowed from Jade, she found the address book she’d thought to grab from her room. Most information she kept on her cell, but it was out of commission. Now she was glad that she kept a hard copy, otherwise, she’d have no clue as to Robbie’s phone number. “Can I use your cell?”

  Kellan handed it over with a sigh. “You sure you want to do this?”

  “Yes.” Before they could talk her out of it, she punched in Robbie’s number and waited. After several rings, it kicked over to voice mail. She disconnected and tried the number she had written down for Vespa. She wondered if the woman even knew how to answer a phone and then chided herself for being petty. She wasn’t that stupid. Her phone clicked over to voice mail as well. “No answer.” She wanted to get the contract signed before they left town. “Can we drive by Robbie’s business?” He wouldn’t try something in broad daylight with witnesses around. She hoped. She recited the address and Kellan entered it into the GPS. Ten minutes later, Ethan slowly cruised by the store. A metal gate barred entry and a closed sign hung on the door. “That’s odd.” According to the hours posted on the window, the shop should be open now.

  “Maybe Thompkins works fast,” Ethan said.

  “You don’t think…” No, it was too much to hope that Robbie was gone from her life for good. She knew that made her sound like a bad person hoping her stepbrother was dead, but he was depraved. Anyone that forced a living being to kill another was a murderer. It didn’t matter if it was human or canine.

  “Maybe they’re on the lam,” Kellan suggested. “Thompkins had to have told him the fees doubled. If he couldn’t pay the five million, there’s no way he could come up with ten.”

  Would Robbie run? Maybe he fled to Mexico or a country without an extradition treaty with the United States like Libya or Yemen. She almost chuckled picturing her snobby stepbrother wearing a Thobe, the loose, ankle-length garment with long sleeves popular in Arab countries.

  “I’ll call the office and have them check on any hits on their passports or if their names are listed on any passenger manifests,” Kellan said. “We should swing by his house, too.”

  Annabelle recited the address and he entered it into the GPS. Though she’d driven by the Tuscan style two-story residence in Chatsworth, she’d never been inside. Had never been invited. It was a new build in an exclusive community of million-dollar homes. It wasn’t nearly as palatial as Rob’s mansion, but it was easily five-thousand square feet with professional landscaping, offering stunning curb appeal.

  Ethan followed the instructions and soon they were turning onto the street. There was no sign of life around the house. Parked along the curb two houses down was a van with the name of a cable company stenciled on the side. A moving truck was backed up to a house at the end of the cul-de-sac. The lush, green yard around Robbie’s dwelling had been recently maintained but she’d bet her inheritance that he paid someone to mow the lawn and water the flowers. She couldn’t recall one time that he’d done any kind of physical labor growing up unless bullying younger stepsisters counted.

  Ethan braked and then backed into the driveway of a house across the street with a For Sale sign in the yard. He turned off the engine, grabbed a baseball cap and opened the door. “They don’t know me. I’ll go ring the bell and try to sell them Girl Scout cookies or something.”

  “Uh, Ethan?”

  He stuck his head in the SUV. “Yeah?”

  “You look nothing like a girl,” she pointed out.

  “Or a scout,” Kellan added.

  “I’ll have you know that my acting skills are—”

  Gunshots rang out, cutting him off. He ducked and launched back inside while Kellan dove between the seats to cover her, which was a bit awkward since she was still belted in. And darn it, he was going to rip his stitches open again.

  “The garage door is opening,” Ethan told them.

  Tires squealed and she lifted her head to peek out the side window. A black Mercedes backed out at breakneck speed and barreled into the street with no regard for traffic. Thankfully there was none. The driver laid down a strip of rubber as the car shot forward.

  “Do we follow or check the house?” Ethan as
ked.

  “The house,” Kellan decided. He levered himself off her and reached for the door. She unbuckled her belt, intending to follow when he stopped her with, “Stay here and lock the doors.”

  “But I—”

  He pinned her with a glare. “No buts. Do not leave this vehicle. Lock the doors and if we aren’t back in five minutes, drive away. Head to a police station and call my bosses.” He handed her his phone, which she reluctantly accepted. She wanted to go with them, but they were the professionals and she was not.

  “Be careful,” she shouted just before the door slammed shut. Then he and Ethan were gone, jogging across the street with their weapons held close to their bodies, their eyes scanning the area. Somehow Kellan had donned a cap without her seeing him do so. It was pulled low over his eyes, as was the one Ethan wore. Using hand signals, he went in one direction, Ethan the other, then they both disappeared from sight. She checked up and down the road to see if the gunshots brought anyone out to investigate, but there was no movement from any of the neighbors’ homes. Keeping her eyes glued to Robbie’s house, she willed Kellan to return safely. It was the longest four minutes of her life before first Ethan and then Kellan appeared, both with matching grim looks.

  “Did you find anything?” she asked when they returned.

  “Yeah, a body,” Ethan told her.

  It was too much to hope for… “Robbie?”

  Kellan shook his head.

  “Oh no, Vespa?”

  He shook it again.

  “Then who?”

  “Cable guy.”

  She started to reach for her door. “We have to help him.”

  Kellan’s words stopped her. “It’s too late, Belle. He’s dead.”

  #

  Kellan ran through scenarios in his head on the way back to Logan’s house, the most likely being that Robbie mistook the cable guy for either a burglar or a hit man. Hell, maybe the guy was a hired gun.

  Robbie had to know Thompkins doubled his debt by now. Panic plus an itchy trigger finger equaled disaster. The poor installer had been at the wrong place at the wrong time—assuming he actually worked for the TV company. He could’ve been an enforcer sent by The Viper to deliver a message. He wasn’t one of the men from Bixby’s—now Thompkins’ crew they encountered yesterday, but there could be more out there. Probably were.

  They’d called the cops to report the shooting but didn’t stick around to answer questions. A neighborhood that exclusive undoubtedly contained several security cameras that captured them on tape. They told the cops they stopped to look at a house for sale, heard the gunshots and ran to help. The film would back that up. Oh, the police would still want to talk to them, but they’d have to find them first. Good luck with that.

  Tyler had texted him that there were no Robert or Vespa Singletons listed on the manifests of any flights, buses, trains, rental agencies or other transportation options, so they hadn’t planned to run before today. He’d instructed Tyler to look for any additional properties listed to Singleton, his mother’s family, his company or his wife’s relatives.

  “Does your stepbrother have keys to the house in Aspen?”

  “He shouldn’t, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he made copies of Rob’s at some point.”

  He’d alert the Colorado police about the possibility of a man and woman wanted for questioning showing up at the house.

  “As soon as we get back to Logan’s house, I’ll call the property management company and have them change the locks,” she said, obviously following his train of thought. “I don’t think he’d try to hide out there since it’d be an obvious place to look, but he might.”

  “We’ve flagged their names, so if they try to book a flight to Hawaii or anywhere else, we’ll know. What about Robbie’s mother? Would she help him disappear?”

  “I don’t know her well, but I don’t think so. She wanted nothing to do with him when he was a teenager. Now she’s remarried to a doctor, a heart surgeon, living the life of a pampered socialite. I doubt she’d risk her reputation with the country club crowd to aid and abet her disgrace of a son.”

  He doubted it too. His phone chimed a text. He read the message from Tyler that said Singleton’s campaign manager filed a police report this morning alleging that someone cleared out the bank account set up for donations. The value was around a quarter of a million dollars. No doubt Robbie, but it wasn’t near enough to pay off his monumental debt.

  Annabelle tapped his shoulder. “Can I borrow your phone again? I want to try calling one more time.”

  He handed it to her and she punched buttons. “It’s been disconnected.” She entered another sequence and held the phone to her ear. “Vespa’s number has been disconnected, too.”

  “They’re on the run,” Ethan deduced.

  And if they were running for their lives, he wouldn’t have time to threaten Annabelle’s.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Once they returned to the house, Annabelle showered and changed out of the expensive outfit she borrowed from Jade Bradley into a t-shirt and a comfortable pair of yoga pants. She wanted to wash the clothes, but they needed to be dry-cleaned. She debated on whether to take them with her to have them cleaned or leave them in the hamper inside the dressing room.

  “Annabelle?”

  She stuck her head out of the closet. “In here.”

  Kellan walked in, took in the number of clothes and shoes and shook his head in bewilderment. He smelled of soap and a woodsy aftershave and something uniquely him and she unconsciously moved closer, wanting to run her fingers over his freshly-shaven jaw. He reached for her and—

  “Phone for you. It’s Jade.”

  She sighed. So much for mutual feelings of attraction. Wait a minute—did he say… “Did you say Jade?” she mouthed. “As in Juliet LaRue?” The woman whose closet she was presently standing inside?

  He nodded and her mouth dropped open. Jade Bradley wanted to talk to her? Was she upset Annabelle had worn the Ralph Lauren ensemble? She’d skipped over more expensive clothes, some with the staggering price tag still attached. Logan told her that she was welcome to wear anything she wanted. Was Jade mad her husband gave her free rein? She looked at Kellan, who was smiling amusedly. “What?”

  He wiggled the hand holding the phone. “Anytime,” he said, looking like he wanted to laugh. She grabbed it from him, surprised to realize her hands were shaking.

  “Hello?”

  “Annabelle! It’s so nice to speak with you.”

  Was she kidding? This woman had won an Academy Award, for gosh sake. “Um, hello Ms. LaRue…I mean Bradley.”

  “Just call me Jade. How are you holding up?”

  “I’m hanging in there, with help from Kellan and Ethan.”

  “Well, you’re in great hands. I hear we get to meet you soon.”

  “That’s the plan. I hope I won’t be intruding.”

  “Never. We’re one big, happy family here. You’ll love it.”

  She hoped so. She missed the luxury of having friends to talk to. For the past year, it’d pretty much been her and Rob, and he’d been so ill that most nights when they watched television, he’d fall asleep.

  “The reason I called is that I wanted to be sure you’re making yourself at home and using what you need, clothes, shoes, makeup...”

  “I did borrow a couple of items, thank you.”

  “Kellan said we were about the same size, so pack a suitcase with anything you want and bring them with you.”

  “That’s so generous of you, thank you.”

  “I’m happy you’re able to wear them. I don’t get out there often, so the clothes are feeling neglected.”

  Annabelle smiled. “I wore an outfit to the lawyer’s office today that needs to be dry-cleaned. Should I bring it with me?”

  “If you want to wear it again, you can, otherwise, you can leave it in the hamper.”

  They spoke for a few more minutes with Jade enthusiastically telling her again how she loo
ked forward to meeting her soon. Kellan had given her privacy to talk, so after she disconnected, she placed his phone on a dressing table and found a suitcase to pack clothes. She felt guilty, but Jade insisted. She hoped to do a little shopping once they arrived in Indiana so that she didn’t have to rely on the borrowed clothes of generous strangers.

  There was plenty of room left in the suitcase when she zipped it up. Lifting the handle, she rolled it out of the closet and grabbed Kellan’s phone. It rang and she jumped, then chided herself for being jittery. She glanced at the screen to see a picture of a man with spiky blue hair and a wide smile. The name said Tyler.

  “Hello?”

  “Zee, man, you going through a life change? Your voice sounds a few octaves too high…unless you aren’t Zee and this is the fetching Annabelle instead.” She pulled the phone from her ear and stared at it. How did he know who she was?

  “This is Annabelle.”

  “Pleased to meet you…er, speak with you, my fair lady. My name’s Tyler.”

  “Who’s Zee?”

  “My nickname for Kellan. His last name is Polizzi.”

  “Oh, I get it now. Sorry, I’m not usually so slow.”

  “No apology necesario.”

  She stepped into the hall and spotted Kellan. “Here he is now.”

  “Aw, I was enjoying talking with you. I look forward to meeting you in person, Annabelle.”

  Were all his coworkers this nice? “Me, too, Tyler.”

  She handed Kellan the phone and when she tried to roll the suitcase by him, he stopped her with a hand on the arm. “I’ve got it,” he mouthed.

  She wanted to argue. He didn’t need to be lifting anything with stitches, but he’d already turned away, her suitcase in tow. At least she hadn’t packed much, so it wasn’t too heavy.

  She headed to the kitchen to warm up several of the dishes Mrs. Hernandez prepared. She didn’t want the food to go to waste, and if they were leaving in the morning, they’d have to indulge in some serious binging.

  She found the door Jade told her about that led to a wine cellar. She descended the circular steps to the room enclosed with glass doors housing dozens of bottles of vino to keep the temperature regulated. Rob’s house featured an impressive wine cellar, too, so she was familiar with the different styles of wines and various vineyards. She selected a bottle of her favorite Cabernet Sauvignon from a Napa winery and a Pinot Gris, not knowing if the men would prefer red or white. Most likely, they’d rather have a beer.