Stilettos & Scoundrels

by Laina Turner

  Chapter 20

  Driving back home from Brian’s, I listened to my voicemail.

  Rick had called and I just hit delete without listening to what he had to say. And there were several messages from Cooper. He wasn’t happy I had taken his car, which I had left at Brian’s, and had Brian take me back to my car, and then he picked up Cooper. Brian had called me later to say that maybe I should keep away from Cooper for a while. Probably good advice.

  The last voicemail was from the vice president at McLaughlin, which was a total shock. He left a message saying David was no longer with the company and that they would like to talk to me about coming back and taking over David’s job. Well, color me surprised. I couldn’t have been more shocked if David had called me himself begging me to take my old job back. This was exactly what I had worked so hard for years toward. Finally, a chance at an executive level position at a Fortune 500 company. I went to hit redial to call him back, but I paused, not knowing why at first. Then it hit me.

  I wasn’t all that excited. I had thought working with David had been the main reason I hadn’t been happy the last few months at my job, but maybe it was more than that. The thought of not exploring other career options, if I went back to McLaughlin, made me sad. It was scary thinking about not going back to the financial security that I had there, but was going back the right choice if I didn’t love it? Didn’t I always say life was too short to work a job you don’t love? So why not take the opportunity to see what else was out there.

  Maybe I wasn’t that corporate go–getter anymore.

  I felt my stomach rumble from hunger, taking my mind off the phone call. I looked at the clock on my car radio and saw that it was almost five o’clock. Time had gotten away from me.

  I pulled into the La Casa parking lot. I had done some conniving earlier in the day and had talked both Dirt and Cooper into meeting me here. But that had taken place before I’d taken Cooper’s car, so I hoped he would still show. Neither man knew the other would also be coming. I decided to pick up some cheesy garlic fries while I was here. My parents were still in the city, and I couldn’t count on my mother’s cooking tonight. Since my diet went out the window the minute, I got into town, I thought I might as well enjoy myself.

  I turned and saw Katy and Chris in the parking lot. I had been trying to track down Katy all day and was disappointed she was with Chris. What was she thinking? Would that girl never learn? As I parked, I noticed Cooper getting out of his car and walking toward them. He gave me what had to be the dirtiest look anyone had ever given me.

  Chris and Katy were walking up to the door of the diner.

  “Chris! Wait up, man,” Cooper yelled out.

  Katy looked up, but Chris pretended to ignore him. I saw him say something sharply to Katy, and she recoiled a little. I was livid at the way Chris felt he could walk all over my friend but was even angrier with Katy for allowing it to happen.

  “Chris!” Cooper shouted again. Chris must have decided he couldn’t escape and stopped. I left my car and walked up to stand next to Cooper. Getting closer to Chris, I could see he was already on the defensive.

  “What the fuck do you want?” Chris demanded hotly. He looked ready for a fight. If he was worried we might now know about his affair with Helen, that seemed a stupid way to play it.

  “Listen, man, I need to talk to you. But maybe you’d rather not do it in front of her,” Cooper said, nodding in Katy’s direction.

  “You can ask me whatever you want right here. We don’t have any secrets,” Chris replied. I gave him a dirty look, and he at least had the decency to blush a little. Until the other night, he’d sure had secrets.

  “Fine, have it your way. What’s this about you and Helen Daniels?” Cooper said.

  “I was sleeping with her. So what? It’s over now.”

  “You didn’t feel that you should have told me about this? It doesn’t make you look good, man.”

  “Why would anyone care if I was screwing Helen? It’s not anyone’s business but ours.”

  I turned to Katy as this exchange happened. Katy looked to be on the verge of tears. This angered me, but I kept quiet.

  “Normally you would be right, but, Chris, there’s been a murder here, and the senator wasn’t some regular person. The police and the FBI are all over this, and there is a ton of interest from the media. You and Helen hiding this does not look good. That Lisa Simmons from DC is going to get wind of this at some point, and it’s going to be bad for you and bad for Helen. I’m just trying to help.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Chris said, but he wavered a little. “I don’t know why you guys are bugging me. You know I didn’t kill the senator, and neither did Helen, for that matter. She might have been sleeping around on Tom, but she’s not a killer. She is a good person.”

  At that, Katy couldn’t hold back the tears. Chris glanced at her and finally showed some remorse. I felt bad for her and couldn’t wait to talk to her later.

  “Chris, you need to tell Dirt about this. Avoiding this issue won’t make it go away. It will just make it worse.”

  “I know.” Chris looked depressed, like he was wondering how he got himself into this mess. “C’mon, Katy, I don’t feel much like eating right now.” Katy just looked at me, shrugged in an embarrassed way, and followed Chris back to his car.

  “Call me later, Katy,” I said to her back. “He knows more than he’s letting on, Cooper,” I said once they were out of earshot.

  “I know, and it worries me.”

  “What’s he doing here,” Cooper said, turning to the parking lot entrance. It was Dirt’s county–issue Tahoe. I began to get a little nervous. This had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but now I wasn’t so sure how it would work out. Dirt stepped out of the truck and walked angrily over to Cooper and me.

  “What is going on, Pres? What is he doing here?”

  After talking to Cooper at lunch and seeing how much this bothered him, I was determined to get to the bottom of things. Even though there were still so many secrets, I thought if they could set aside their differences, just for now, it might lead to something they could work out later.

  Now they were both staring at me and looking angry. It was making me a little uncomfortable. They were smart guys, so I knew they immediately figured out that I had engineered the whole thing to get them together. They looked madder at me than at each other. That was a good start, wasn’t it?

  “So where did this Hummer start following you, Pres?” Dirt asked. I had called and told him what had happened.

  “Oh no, you don’t. If either of you want any information from me, and believe me I have plenty, then I suggest you start talking to each other,” I said with as much authority as I could muster. I had gotten them together on a pretense but could blackmail with the best of them. Either they worked this out or they would get nothing from me.

  “Presley, stop the games,” Cooper said. “We need to figure out who was following you.”

  “My lips are sealed,” I said primly. “You might think this is none of my business, but I care about both of you. This...this...whatever this is needs to stop.”

  “You know what? We can talk about all this later. It’s more important we find out who is bothering Presley,” Cooper said to Dirt. Dirt nodded in agreement.

  Cooper and Dirt were smart enough to realize they needed to put their differences aside for now and work together on this to find the senator’s killer. Dirt was all but shut out from the FBI, and Cooper didn’t have any actual authority. It made them a good team, even if it was temporary.

  As we walked toward the diner, Cooper stepped close to me and said, “By the way, Pres, I’m still pissed at you for taking my car.”

  “Tell me how I can make it up to you,” I said suggestively, heart beating fast at the thought. He smiled and started to say something, but I quickly raced forward, afraid of going down that path. At least right now but it sure was tempting.

  I finally filled Dirt in about
seeing Bobby with Garrison Palazzo. They had already grilled me about the Hummer incident while we ate. At this point, I felt it was important to get all facts on the table.

  “I know that people were always trying to get the senator to take up their cause, so he could influence certain bills that were going to pass through the Senate. Maybe the Palazzo family wanted to use his influence,” Cooper said as we hashed out theories.

  “I bet Tobey knows something he’s not saying,” I offered up. I personally thought there was still something ironic about Bobby also having been into trouble in Vegas, but that had been ignored. Neither of them thought Bobby had anything to do with the senator. So I had just given up on that for now. “So, where do we go from here?” I asked.

  Cooper and Dirt just looked at me.

  “What?”

  “Pres, it’s time you left this to us. Someone threw a rock through your parents’ window. You had someone call your house and threaten you. Someone chased you earlier with a car, for God’s sakes. You need to just stay out of it.”

  “I agree with Cooper,” Dirt said. “Enough is enough. We can’t be worried about you being in danger.”

  I was fuming. “You’re not my guardians. I am a big girl, and I have helped you both. You can’t shut me out now.”

  “Yes, we can,” Cooper said. Dirt nodded in agreement.

  “That’s not acceptable. You either include me or I will call Lisa Simmons and tell her everything I know.”

  “Pres!”

  “I will, Cooper. I refuse to be left out, and if I have to resort to blackmail, I will.” Of course, I wouldn’t do that, but I hoped they would be worried enough to stop trying to push me aside on this.

  “Cooper, I think she means business.”

  “Fine! But you need to promise us you will do what we say and not go off on your own. It’s too dangerous,” Cooper said giving me a stern look.

  “Okay,” I said with my fingers crossed behind my back. I knew to stop when I was ahead.

  We left the restaurant (me full of garlic cheesy fries), with a plan. Cooper and Dirt were going to follow up with Simon and Chris, respectively, and I was going to try to talk to Helen and Katy. I was to see if I could find out anything on what Chris might be hiding. We all felt that somehow he was tied into this mess, which was hard to figure out since no one thought he was gambling.

  “Call me, Pres, after you talk to Helen,” Cooper said.

  My heart skipped a beat, partly because of the way Cooper was looking at me and...well...partly because of the way Cooper was looking at me. He was mad and sexy. It might be worth getting yelled at just to watch him. “I will.”