by Lisa Boone
“No, it’s not. I don’t know who’s after me or why. All I know is that he wants to hurt me.” She pressed the corner of her tissue to her eye. “I don’t know what do.”
They turned as the back door opened and Kristen walked in. She took one look at Jamie and rushed into his arms, pushing him against the jukebox by the door. Tears streaming down her face, she pulled back and slapped him.
Jamie lifted a hand to his face in surprise as Kristen burst out into tears. “Where have you been?” she asked with a choked sob before dragging him back into her arms again.
*
“What a drama queen,” Danny said from his perch at the end of the bar.
Sarah followed his gaze toward the back of the pub. She raised her eyebrows, surprised to see Kristen holding onto to Jamie for dear life. “What did I miss?”
“Just more of Kristen’s histrionics.” Danny smiled mirthlessly, revealing a gap where a tooth had once been as he pushed his empty glass toward her. “I really admire Nathan. I would have killed her by now if she was my wife.”
Sarah scowled as she filled his glass. “Lovely,” Sarah muttered shoving the glass back towards him.
“Yeah, well, I’ve known her longer than you have, Princess. Trust me, if you had to deal with her as much as I have, you’d be ready to get rid of her too.” He took a long drink, almost emptying the glass in one gulp. He closed his bruised and blood shot eyes. “Phoebe’s almost as bad.”
The hair on the back of Sarah’s neck stood up. She looked at Danny through her lashes, wondering just how much he hated Kristen. Did he hate her enough to leave threatening Valentine’s Day cards on her pillow? And not just threatening but sick and disturbed fantasies outlining exactly how they were each going to die. Whoever left those cards was mentally unbalanced. Was Danny that sick?
Truth was, she didn’t really know the man despite seeing him almost every single work day for the last five or six months.
To her, Danny had always been one half of the Moose and Danny duo, regulars that hung around the bar and did odd jobs every so often for Nathan. While Moose was tolerable and often friendly, Danny quite simply made her skin crawl.
She disliked the way he looked at her when he thought she wasn’t watching and she absolutely loathed the cruel and hateful way he treated Jamie. Whenever Jamie was around, Danny went out of his way to insult and hurt him, and as she slowly got to know Jamie and love him, she began to hate and avoid Danny as much as possible.
Perhaps that was a mistake, she thought as she took Danny’s glass and filled it up. “I thought you and Kristen always got along,” she said trying to act as if her sudden interest was nothing but casual curiosity.
Danny returned his attention to the back of the pub. Nathan was there now, cradling his wife. He wore a disgusted look on his face as Moose spoke to him.
“Yeah, well, that’s before I got to see the real Kristen.” He leaned across the bar. Shifting his gaze over his shoulder, he dropped his voice to a whisper. “That Kristen that you see every day, the beautiful, friendly, kind, caring Kristen is an act. It’s not real.”
Sarah was about to question him further but a customer at the end of the bar motioned for her. By the time she got back to Danny, Moose was sliding into his usual spot next to him.
He clapped his hand on Danny’s shoulder. “Nathan wants us to stick close to Kristen and Phoebe.”
Danny paused, his glass part way to his lips. “Why?”
“Someone’s following them around,” the big man said. “Kristen’s convinced someone took a shot at her an hour ago.”
Sarah gasped.
Danny rolled his eyes. “A car probably backfired.”
“Yeah, well, anyway,” Moose said, “you’ve got Kristen and I’ve got Phoebe.”
“And Nathan’s got Holly.” Danny leaned over the bar, his voice set at a conspiratorial whisper. “You know that guest house near Bellemeade? Holly spends a lot of time there. So does Nathan.”
“Hey!” Moose glanced over his shoulder with a worried frown. “Stop it.”
Danny ignored him. “He’s also got an apartment across the street from here. You know, for late nights when he’s too tired to drive home,” he said with a snort. “It’s right next door to mine.” He held a finger to his lips. “It’s a secret though. Kristen doesn’t know anything about it. Holly, on the other hand, spends a lot of time there—”
Moose hit him in the arm. “Hey! Hey! Knock it off.”
“You’re spilling my drink,” Danny complained, shaking his now wet hand. “I don’t want Kristen. Much like Nathan. I don’t want Phoebe either. She’s weird. Why don’t you take them both?” Grinning, Danny motioned for Sarah to refill his glass. As she did, he said, “I hear some creep’s after you too. How about I protect you? I’m much better than Jamie.” He leered down at her body. “I’d be happy to guard your cute little body anytime. You don’t even have to pay me.”
Moose shoved his friend a bit harder. “Knock it off, would you?” He gave Sarah a concerned look. “Nathan told us what happened to you earlier. I’m glad to see you’re okay.”
Sarah smiled. “Thank you, Moose. I’m fine.” She gave Danny a look as she handed back his glass. “And Jamie can take care of me just fine,” she said sharply.
Danny returned to his drink. “Your loss. Just don’t come crying to me when he runs off on you again and leaves you alone and unprotected.”
Moose gave Danny the side-eye before turning back to Sarah. “If you need help, give me a call, and if you find out who attacked you, you let me know. I’ll take care of him.” He patted his friend on the shoulder. “Come on, Dan, Nathan wants us to take Kristen and Phoebe home.”
Danny held up his drink. “I’m busy. You take them home.”
Moose glanced at Sarah who took the hint and turned her attention to another customer. She kept her head bent as she worked, keeping part of her attention on the conversation going on a few feet away.
“What is your problem with Kristen?” the big man asked, clearly frustrated with his friend.
“She thinks she’s better than us.”
“That’s probably because she is,” Moose said, clearly trying to lighten the mood. When that didn’t work, he blew out his breath in frustration. “Kristen’s always been like that. It’s never bothered you before.”
“Yeah, well, I just now noticed it.”
“Fine,” Moose said with a sigh. “You watch over Phoebe then and I’ll take Kristen.”
“Phoebe’s not much better.” He held out his glass to Sarah who took her time filling it. “She’d rather spend her time with those stupid horses of hers than either one of us.”
“Big deal, we work for them. They don’t have to be nice to us so long as they pay us.” He slid off the stool. “Are you coming or not?”
Shaking his head, Danny held out his hand for his glass.
“Fine,” Moose said in exasperation. “You explain it to Nathan.”
“Sounds like you’re going to be in trouble,” Sarah said handing him back his glass as Moose walked back to Nathan.
“I don’t care,” he said, before taking another drink.
Sarah leaned forward dropping her voice to a whisper. “Sounds like Kristen must have done something pretty horrible for you to be this upset with her.”
Danny’s jaw clenched. “You have no idea,” he said slurring his words. “Women like her and her sister, they’re all alike. They have no loyalty.”
Sarah stiffened. “What did they do?”
He glanced over his shoulder again before motioning for her to come closer. When she leaned over far enough, he whispered. “They killed Robin.”
She looked at him in surprise. “But at the party you said that Jamie killed her. What made you decide he was innocent?”
“He’s not innocent,” he explained patiently. “He did kill her. It was a conspiracy. Kristen wanted Nathan for herself—”
“What are you talking about?”
“Nathan and R
obin were engaged at the time.”
Sarah looked at him in surprise. “Nathan was engaged to Robin? But I thought Robin was Jamie’s girl.”
“She was, but she broke up with Jamie because she realized he was a scum sucking lowlife and then she fell in love with Nathan which made Jamie and Kristen mad. See, Kristen wanted Nathan for herself, so she and Jamie got together and decided to kill Robin.”
“And Phoebe decided to go along with it, why?”
He paused for a moment, lost in thought. Suddenly, he said, “Because she wanted to be daddy’s favorite. She was always jealous of Robin. I’m telling you all three of them killed her.”
“Nonsense,” Sarah said.
“Look,” he said loudly, “I heard them—”
She shushed him as she glanced over his shoulder to the back door. He followed her gaze for a moment then turned back to her, once again lowering his voice to a whisper. “I overheard Kristen and Phoebe talking about it over Christmas, right after that Hollywood producer approached them about filming a TV show about Robin’s murder. Don’t that beat all. Sitting there wrapping Christmas presents talking about how they were responsible for their sister’s murder. Calm as can be.” He turned in his seat to glare across the pub at them. “I hate them. I hate them all.” He stared at his drink. “Robin was better than all of them put together.”
Sarah glanced back at Jamie. Kristen and Phoebe each held one of his arms in a tight grip, pulling him toward the back office. She watched as he shook his head before gently pulling his arms out of their grasp.
Sarah picked up a dishcloth and started wiping the bar. “I don’t believe it.”
“No, it’s all true.”
“They actually said that they paid or hired Jamie to kill their sister?”
“Well, no.”
“That’s what I thought,” she said, starting to turn away.
Danny grabbed her arm. “They’re responsible for her death just as much as he is,” he hissed. “He might have actually pulled the trigger but they helped him.”
“You still haven’t explained to me how they helped him. What did they actually say?”
He blew out his breath. “Apparently, Robin called them the night she died, begged them for help. She was stranded here at the pub and needed someone to pick her up and they refused to come and get her. It was the middle of the night and she was alone, but they hung up on her. Their own sister. They abandoned her.”
Sarah’s brow furrowed. “That’s not exactly a confession of guilt. Where’s your conspiracy?”
“If they had gone to pick her up, she would still be alive. They knew where she was and they sent Jamie after her.”
“Did they say that?”
He loosened his grip from her arm. “No,” he admitted reluctantly, “but if they weren’t guilty, why did they say they felt guilty.”
“Probably because of what happened to her. If my sister asked me for help and I didn’t go and something bad happened to her, I’d feel guilty too, but that wouldn’t make me a part of some sort of conspiracy to kill her.”
“They should have helped her,” he mumbled. He brought his glass up to his mouth but stopped and placed it back down on the bar. “If I had known then what they did, I swear I would’ve—” He paused for a moment as he turned his attention to the front door.
“You would’ve what?”
Cocking his head to the side, he stared at the front door with a shocked expression on his face. “Huh, well, well, what do you know? The Magician’s here.”
Sarah glanced at the door. A tall man with slicked back mousy brown hair, greying at the temples, horn rimmed glasses and wearing a dark three-piece suit stood at the door, holding a briefcase. “He doesn’t look like a magician. He looks like an accountant.”
Danny snorted suddenly as he drank. Wiping the liquid from his mouth he said, “That’s part of his act.”
Before Sarah could say anything else, Emily hurried to the bar. “Have you seen Holly?”
“Not since I got here.”
“She’s probably hiding out back again,” Emily said with a scowl as she walked away.
Sarah turned back to Danny just as he slid off his seat and wandered to an empty booth near the front.
*
Jamie stood off to the side as Nathan helped Phoebe into the silver Mercedes. She stared back at them with a frightened expression on her pretty face as Moose slid into the driver’s seat. “Don’t worry,” Nathan said, “Moose is going to stay with you.”
Kristen stood next to him, her arms crossed. “He’s not going to be enough security,” she said, anger and frustration coloring her voice. “We must hire more men, Nathan.”
Nathan’s hands tightened on the door. “We don’t need to hire anyone else. Moose can protect her until we get home.”
Kristen stiffened. “Phoebe, when you get home, get one of daddy’s guns and lock yourself inside the safe room.” She turned to glare at her husband. “It’s up to us to save our own lives. We can’t depend on any of the men around here to do it for us.”
Phoebe looked over at Jamie with tears in her eyes. “Jamie, please come home with us. You can bring Sarah with you if you want to.”
“He can’t protect all three of us,” Kristen snapped before Jamie could respond. “Besides, he’s obviously decided who’s more important to him and it’s not us.”
Jaime felt a knot grow in his stomach. He took a step forward and peered into the car. “Phoebe, please don’t worry. Moose will look after you while I find out who’s doing this and stop him.”
“That’s right,” Nathan said. “Jamie will take care of everything.” He held out his hand towards Kristen who looked at him coolly.
Kristen reached into her purse and pulled out her car keys before walking to a bright red sports car parked down the street. “Where are you going?”
“To find us some help. Don’t wait up,” she said sliding into the driver’s seat and slamming the door.”
“Kristen,” he yelled as she drove past.
“Where’s she going?” Phoebe asked.
“How should I know,” Nathan said slamming the door shut. As soon as Moose had driven off, he turned to glare at Jamie. “Why is this still happening? You should have taken care of Hogan by now.”
“Hogan’s in New York,” Jamie said in clipped tones. “He’s flying in tomorrow morning.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am sure. I spent all afternoon looking for him. Don’t worry; I plan on taking care of everything.”
Nathan sagged in relief. “Good.” He wiped a hand across his face. “That’s good, Jamie. I knew we could count on you.” He squeezed Jamie’s arm as he passed by him on his way back into the pub. “Did you say he’s coming in tomorrow morning?”
“Around nine o’clock.”
“That’s good,” Nathan said. “There’s a chamber of commerce meeting at eleven I could attend. Plenty of the town’s upstanding citizens would be there. It would be a shame if something happened to Hogan around that time.” He gave Jamie a dismissive wave before opening the door to the pub. “Just let me know when it’s over.”
Jamie scowled at Nathan’s back as he followed him into the pub. Once inside dining room, his attention turned to the bar where Sarah worked. He started to move toward her, but stopped as a soft feminine voice called out his name from behind him.
“Jamie Murphy?” Holly’s green eyes widened in surprise. “Oh my gosh, is that you?”
“Holly?” He automatically started to take a step forward to hug her but stopped unsure as to what kind of welcome he was about to receive. The last time he saw her, it was at his sentencing hearing. He remembered her sitting on the other side of the room crying. Then after it was over, screaming his name, saying that she hoped he’d die in prison. “I didn’t know you were here.”
“Just moved back actually.” She closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and patting his back like a long
lost old friend. “It’s so good to see you.”
He returned her hug, too shocked to do much else.
Holly took his hand and led him to an empty booth. “Oh, I’ve been looking forward to seeing you for such a long time. We have so much catching up to do,” she said pushing him into the booth and sliding in next to him. “I was rather disappointed that you left right after New Year’s. I was planning on talking to you that night.”
“Oh? What about?”
“What else?” A hardness entered her eyes for a moment but then left so quickly Jamie wondered if he imagined it. “Robin, of course.”
“What about her?”
She slid closer to him. “I wanted to apologize for the way I acted. I shouldn’t have acted that way to you.”
“It’s all right,” he said leaning away from her. “You were upset.”
“No, it’s not all right. I need to apologize to you.”
He narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion. “So, you’ve forgiven me?”
“No.”
“Then why are you apologizing?”
“Because there’s nothing to forgive you for. I’ve spoken to Kristen. She doesn’t believe you killed Robin. Neither does Phoebe. They both convinced me that you’re innocent. When you pled guilty, I just assumed …” She shook her head. “Well, I now understand why you pled guilty.”
“You do?”
“Your lawyer convinced you that it was for the best.” Her eyes softened. “You know I was just a kid when Robin died. I was only nineteen years old. I didn’t understand these things. I figured that since you pled guilty that must have meant you were guilty.” She turned in her seat and smiled at him seductively. “I’m an adult now. I understand that the evidence was too overwhelming and that it was better to take the prosecution’s deal than take it to trial.” She laid her hand on his forearm, leaning into him slightly, her fingertips lightly trailing along his skin. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
“It’s all right. It’s over now.” He gently moved his arm out from underneath her hand and laid it on the back of the booth before turning his attention back to the bar, his eyes searching for Sarah, only then realizing she was no longer behind the bar.
