You're Not Alone: BWWM Romance (Brothers From Money Book 17)

by Shanade White

  “I don’t know. For now, just follow them and see what you can find out.”

  Heather sighed, “If that’s what you want, I’ll do it. From what I hear, she’s staying in this hotel, in a suite so that should help, but I don’t feel very comfortable with this.”

  “I know this is distasteful, but I really need to know what I’m dealing with.”

  The next night found Heather waiting outside the theatre, unable to sit through the play again, but she needed to find out where Marshall and Simone went afterward, so like a stalker she was going to follow them. After the play, they came out the back door and got into Marshall’s car and roared off, slipping into traffic behind them, Heather followed at a discrete distance hoping that she wouldn’t be caught.

  When they stopped at a night club, she sighed, wishing that she’d told Seth no. She wasn’t a private detective, had no training in surveillance, and now she was going to have to spend her evening in a loud club. Worse yet, if Marshall caught her, anything else she did would be suspect. If it was her, she’d be mighty upset to find out that someone was following her. Luckily, they chose a booth toward the back of the club away from the loud music and most of the people.

  She managed to get a table that allowed her to watch them but one that wasn’t in their direct line of sight. After she’d ordered a drink, she focused her attention on them, but a woman sitting alone at a club is a magnet for men, and the new dress she’d worn wasn’t helping. The dress was new compliments of Seth and she had to admit that she looked good in it, but it might have been better if she’d just worn jeans and a tee-shirt.

  It surprised her that she garnered so much attention, after all she carried a few extra pounds on her tall frame, weight that she’d gained when she had Tyler and never been able to shed. She liked to call herself curvy, although some might call her fat, and apparently curvy was just what the men wanted that night. But even with all the interruptions she was able to see that whatever was going on between Marshall and Simone, he believed it was real. Simone was harder to read, at first, she thought that the woman felt the same way, but something about the way she was behaving felt off, made Heather think that she was faking it.

  By the end of the night, she was no closer to an answer than she’d been when they got to the club. Marshall seemed completely taken with Simone, who seemed to enjoy the attention, but also looked like she was holding back. If she’d been able to hear their conversation things might have been clearer, but she was too far away and her lip-reading skills needed work. It was clear to her that it was time to introduce herself to Marshall, get a closer look at both Simone and the play she’d written.

  Tomorrow she’d go to the theatre and try to get in to see Marshall. He probably wouldn’t take her being there very well, but hopefully he’d believe the story she and Seth had concocted, would believe that his brother might be considering helping him produce the play. Seth had promised to call Marshall in the morning and set the stage, but she had her doubts that he’d believe him.

  She wished she could just pack up and go home to Tyler and her normal life, but she’d promised Seth that she’d help and she never broke her promises. Tomorrow her acting skills would be tested and she hoped she was up for the test, Seth was depending on her. As she got ready for bed, she reviewed again the story they’d worked so hard on before she’d left, it was plausible if a little thin.

  “I just hope I can pull this off.” She said, after they’d gone over the story once more.

  “You’ll be fine. I won’t be able to get ahold of Marshall until afternoon, he never gets up before lunch time so take the morning off and do something relaxing. The hotel has a wonderful spa and who knows you might just run into Simone there.” Seth said, then added, “It’s on me Heather, go a little crazy for once in your life.”

  Chapter 3

  The next morning, she was up at her usual time, even the comfortable bed couldn’t break her habit of rising with the sun. After a leisurely meal in the breakfast room, a stunning glass enclosure that had clearly been added after original construction, she ended up back in her room with nothing to do. She’d already spent hours the night before wandering around the internet looking for information about both Marshall and Simone.

  She found plenty of information about Marshall and his family, but nothing about Simone, not even a Facebook or Twitter account. It made her slightly uncomfortable that the woman appeared to be a ghost, everyone had some presence on the internet, even if it was just a basic profile, but there was absolutely nothing about Simone. What she really needed was a reliable source of gossip, but she had no idea where to find someone who could tell her what she wanted to know.

  Frustrated, she closed her computer and looked at the clock, it was only ten, she had hours left to kill before Seth might be able to get in contact with Marshall and set up a meeting. Standing at the window looking out at the downtown area, she considered her options. She could do something educational — there were museums and art galleries all over the city. Anchorage had a rich history and she knew very little about the town. Then Seth’s suggestion popped into her mind, a trip to the spa sounded appealing, she’d never been to one before and Seth had said that he’d pay.

  The more she thought about it, the better the idea began to sound — she wouldn’t go crazy, maybe just have her nails done. When she got on the elevator and the doors closed, she almost pushed the open-door button feeling guilty about spending Seth’s money. But then she thought about it some more, Seth was always generous with his money, and she was doing him a favor, a paid favor but a favor none the less.

  If he hadn’t suggested it, she would have never considered going to the spa, but he had so she was going to go. She pushed the button for the lobby, suddenly excited about the prospect of being pampered a little, something she rarely allowed herself. When she walked into the spa she felt out of place, unsure what to ask for or how to behave, but the nice woman behind the counter swept her into the back as soon as she gave her name.

  “Oh, I’m so glad you decided to come in today. Mr. Montgomery called and said that you might, he said to give you the full treatment, that you’re supposed to consider it a bonus.” The woman said, handing her a cup of coffee and a sweet roll.

  “Seth called you?” Heather asked, taking the food from the woman, wondering what she thought about a married man paying her spa bill.

  “Don’t worry he explained everything…well not everything, but he said that you were here working for him on a secret project. It’s all very exciting, we don’t get much excitement around here.” The woman said, with a laugh. “I’m Marci by the way.”

  “It’s nice to meet you Marci. I have to tell you though, what I’m doing isn’t really all that exciting.” Heather said, shaking her head. “Leave it to Seth to make something bigger out of it than it really is.”

  “Well, I still think it sounds exciting, but we have a lot of work to do, so let’s get started.” Marci said, pulling Heather to her feet. “We’re going to have so much fun today.”

  “I think I’ll just get my nails done.” Heather said, as she followed Marci to the nail station.

  “Nonsense, Mr. Montgomery said the works and that’s what we’re going to do. Sit down here, we’ll start with the facial. Have you ever had one before?” Marci asked, pulling Heather’s wavy hair away from her face. “You have nice skin, we won’t need to do much and we should put some highlights in your hair. If we go a shade lighter than your regular color will compliment your dark skin.” Marci was getting excited and Heather knew that she wouldn’t take no for an answer so she gave in.

  An hour later, Heather was sitting with her feet in a wonderfully hot whirlpool of water, her face covered with some kind of mud, and cucumbers over her eyes. She was drifting on a cloud, more relaxed than she’d been in a long time, and Marci had promised her a massage next. She had no idea how much Seth was paying for this, but it was worth every penny, her guilt had long ago faded with the pamperi
ng she was receiving.

  Thinking of Seth reminded her of why she was here and the thought of the impending meeting with Marshall made butterflies erupt in her stomach. More than anything else, she wished that she knew more about Simone, had at least some idea about the woman’s past. It made it very difficult to evaluate the situation when she was this clueless.

  A loud, demanding voice interrupted her thoughts, “What do you mean I’ll have to wait ten minutes. Do you even know who I am?” The woman said, her voice rising to a high brittle pitch at the end.

  “I’m sorry, but there isn’t anything I can do, we just don’t have an open chair right now.” Marci said calmly, although Heather doubted she felt anything but calm.

  “Well, it seems to me that it should be easy enough to fix that problem.” The woman sneered, “Move someone.”

  “I’m sorry but I can’t do that. If you’ll just have a seat we’ll be with you as soon as we can.” Marci was clearly losing her patience.

  “I want to speak to your boss. What kind of place are you running here? If this was any kind of a hotel I would have been able to get someone to come to my suite.” The woman’s voice was reaching painful levels, and then Heather heard a loud bang.

  “Mam, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I own this spa and that kind of behavior isn’t going to be tolerated.” Marci’s voice was dead calm but Heather knew that she’d reached her breaking point. “Please, don’t make me call security.”

  “I’m going to the hotel manager, he’ll set you straight, to think that a paying customer would be treated like this….” The woman’s voice faded into the distance.

  When Marci came back around the corner she was smiling, “I can’t believe you’re smiling after that. You said there was never any excitement around here.” Heather said, setting the cucumbers that had been on her eyes back in the bowl next to her.

  “Wait until she gets to the hotel managers office and finds out that he’s my husband.” Marci said, then laughed. “Mark will sweet talk her until she calms down, but I promise you she’ll be going to a different spa.”

  “Who was that anyway?” Heather asked, curious.

  “Simone someone or the other, I can’t remember her last name, but I guess she’s some kind of an actor or something. Some guy put her up in the hotel, Mark wouldn’t tell me who but now I’m tempted to find out.” Marci said, then noticed Heather’s reaction. “Do you know her?”

  “No, but I’d like to find out more about her, it’s part of the reason I’m here.” Heather said, then took a risk and told Marci what she discovered so far.

  When Heather left much later that afternoon, still full from a gourmet lunch, and a little bit wiser about Simone, she went straight to her room and called Seth to give him an update. “She was so rude I wanted to go out and smack her.”

  “Well, I guess your little trip to the spa paid off. That doesn’t sound like the woman Marshall described to me at all, to hear him talk she’s a quiet little mouse who doesn’t know just how talented she really is.”

  “I think your brother is only seeing what he wants to see or our little friend is playing him. Does he know that I’m here?”

  “I told him, but I’m not sure he even heard me, he was too busy talking about Simone.” Seth said, with a sigh. “If I were you I’d watch out for her. Maybe we should move you to a different hotel.”

  “Are you crazy? Marci, the lady who owns the spa is going to introduce me to the head of housekeeping, she’s got all the good gossip. I think I might wait to see Marshall until I’ve talked to her.” Heather said, thinking that this was the most exciting thing she’d ever done, Heather Whitcomb, private detective.

  “I’ll leave the decision up to you, but watch your back.” Seth said, then hung up.

  Simone turned from the window and began to pace the room, she’d been in Anchorage for almost a month and it didn’t feel like she was any closer to her goal than when she’d gotten here. It had been fun at first, staying in the fancy hotel, the shopping spree, and the trips to the spa had kept her occupied, but now it was all getting old. What she really wanted was the big payoff that she and Marco had come here to get, but it was clear that it wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

  When they’d concocted this scheme in that dirty hotel room in Rio, she’d been so sure that it would be easy to separate Marshall Montgomery from his money. All the research she’d done on him had supported that, but apparently it was going to take more work than she’d thought. The man had been more than willing to put her up in the hotel and cover the cost, but it felt like he was dragging his feet on the play, happy for the time being to bask in the attention she gave him. It was getting more and more difficult to play the part though, meek was not her style.

  The blowup she’d had in the spa the other day had been the culmination of weeks of frustration, and she hoped that Marshall wouldn’t hear about it. If he did, the game would be up and they’d worked too hard to leave empty handed. Part of her frustration was because she and Marco had to be separated, she’d managed to sneak him into the hotel a couple of times, but it wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy her. The longer she was away from Marco, the more frustrated she was becoming.

  Marco had made it very clear from the beginning that she wasn’t going to sleep with Marshall, but she was beginning to think that it might be the only way to get him to fork over the money. He was clearly half in love with her and sex would only cement those feelings, but Marco had adamantly refused to share her with anyone, so she’d have to keep up the pretense of virginity for a while longer. The fact that Marshall even believed her story was proof of what an idiot he was, but she had to admit that her acting skills were better than she’d thought so maybe some of the credit should go to her.

  When she’d stumbled across the article about Marshall Montgomery online they’d made fun of him at first, but the more she’d read about him, the more she realized that this might just be the way to get what she wanted, what she deserved. A little research had quickly shown her that not only was the man filthy rich, but he was also obsessed with being a star and it hadn’t taken long for her to come up with a way to get her hands on some of his wealth.

  When she’d first suggested that they make Marshall the target of their next scam Marco had laughed at her, but then she’d explained what she had in mind and he’d become interested. His discovery of the old abandoned theatre had made it impossible for them to walk away from what would surely be easy money.

  “We have to do this. It was meant to be.” She’d said when Marco told her about the old theatre.

  “I just don’t know how we’re going to make it look like I own it.” Marco had said, the crease in his forehead deepening.

  “Well, start with finding out who owns it.” She said, sarcastically.

  “Okay don’t get snippy. Give me a minute, these things take time.” Marco had said, furiously typing away on his lap top.

  Thanks to his hacking skills, they’d discovered that the theatre was owned by a recluse man who had been through the Vietnam War and on his return had boarded up the theatre and moved to the outback.

  “I could just pretend to be him. He hasn’t been seen in years.” Marco suggested.

  “Right, like someone is going to believe that you’re him.”

  “Well, I could be his son.” He’d suggested.

  “That might just work.” She’d said, her dreams of South America finally beginning to look like they might come true.

  Marshall pulled into a parking spot and turned off the engine wishing that he didn’t have to go through this charade. After all, he was twenty-five and it was his money. It made him feel like a little kid to have to go to the board of trustees at the bank and beg for his own money, money that in only a few years would be his to do with as he pleased. Thanks to his father’s death a few years ago, he’d had to do this several times, but there was so much more at stake this time and he had a feeling that he was going to be laughed out
of the room when he gave them his pitch.

  No one took his acting career seriously, but Simone’s play would change all that, would finally show everyone just how talented he was. If his father had still been alive things would have been different, he wouldn’t have had to beg, his father would have just given him the money, if for no other reason than to just make him go away. He may not have given Marshall much besides money, love and affection something the man didn’t seem to understand, but he’d never hesitated to give Marshall anything else he wanted.

  Deep down Marshall knew that the lack of love and affection from his father was probably the reason that he craved the adoration of his fans. If his mother had lived things would have been different, and although he couldn’t remember much about her, he knew that she’d loved him. But she’d been gone for a long time, much of that time he’d spent in boarding school, shoved out of his home by a series of step-mothers who wanted little to do with a little boy that wasn’t theirs. The one and only woman besides his mother who had loved him had been the nanny who had come to live with them after her death, but she’d only lasted for a few years.

  Pushing thoughts of his lonely childhood from his mind, he focused on the task in front of him, convincing eight stuffy old men to give him the money to produce his first play. Of course, if they said no he had a backup plan, one he didn’t want to use, but would use if he was forced to. The bank had been more than happy to discuss a loan with him, after all his trust fund was as solid as it had ever been thanks to his brother Seth who had turned the family company around and saved it from total destruction.

  Taking out a loan to finance the play seemed like a waste of money to him, the interest rate shocking, but if he was forced to go that route he would. Simone had been patient with him so far, but he could tell that she was beginning to doubt him, she never said so but he could feel it. Just thinking about her made his stomach do flip flops, she was everything he’d ever imagined he’d want in a woman. Sweet and innocent, but very talented, she’d shown up in his life just when he was at his lowest and lifted him up.