The Archer House (The Archer Inn Book 1)

by Kimberly Thomas

  "Jesus, Rina. This is our mother we're talking about," Holly said, at last, unable to hide just how annoyed she had gotten. "Is it really that big of a deal for you to come see her for at least a couple of days?"

  "Oh, please, Holly. Stop trying to be the martyr! You're there already."

  "What the hell is your problem? Our mother is lying in the hospital and the inn we all grew up taking care of is literally in tatters. So why are you acting like this?" Holly's anger bubbled to a boil now, and she didn't care much about antagonizing her sister anymore. If she was going to act like a brat, then Holly was going to treat her like a brat.

  "If you really must know, Dennis died six months ago. So excuse me if I'm not going to go rushing back home when you know damn well everyone in the family hated him!" Rina snapped. Her voice had risen to the point she was shouting into the phone. "So there, that's why I'm not coming back, since you just had to push the issue. So please, do us both a favor and don't bother calling me ever again!"

  The line went dead a few seconds later, and Holly stood there, mouth hanging open, trying to figure out how the call had managed to go that badly. She hadn't expected sunshine and rainbows, but she hadn't expected that, either!

  Setting the phone down on the table, Holly just stared at it. She was still in shock over her sister's sudden outburst. Not that she was upset or angry, but the fact that her husband had died months ago, and she hadn't told anyone.

  Not that Holly was much better, since she hadn't told anyone about her divorce and everything else. But at least Will was still alive! Jesus. And her two sons. Holly couldn't even imagine it. They'd been through so much. She could feel the lump in her throat threaten to choke her, and she felt a little nauseated at the thought.

  Even though coping with a divorce was tough, how was Rina coping with the death of her husband? That was almost infinitely worse, and from the sound of it, she was going through all of it alone with her boys. Sure, she had friends helping her out, but wasn't that what family was supposed to do?

  Once again, that familiar stab of guilt hit her, knocking the air from her lungs. She had messed things up again, this time with her sister. She should have reached out to Rina years ago, tried to patch things up between them. They were sisters, for crying out loud! Letting teenage rivalry get between them for so long was just insane.

  And yet, she had been so absorbed in her new life that she hadn't considered how everyone else might be doing. Now, there she was, with another ruined relationship, and this one, she had no idea how she could ever repair.

  Heck, it didn't sound like Rina would ever want to try.

  Holly still needed to call Amy, Randy's twin sister, and tell her the news. But after how the last two calls had gone, she just didn't have the heart or energy to do it. Two catastrophic phone calls in a single night was all she could handle. Anything else would just be the breaking point.

  She would have to call Amy. It wouldn't be right not to at least try to let her youngest sister know what was going on. But that could wait, she decided. It wouldn't do anyone any good for her to have a breakdown over the phone. If anything, it would just make everything worse.

  Somehow, she had to hold it together. Nelly needed her in one piece, needed her to be the strong one now. And after everything her mother had done for the family over the years, this was the least she could do in return.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Running a hand through her hair, Holly wished she had a hairbrush on her. She had done the motion so many times that morning she'd managed to get tangles in her dark brown hair. Nothing a good brushing wouldn't get out, but since her hairbrush was back at the house, she would just have to wait until later.

  Besides, unless something suddenly changed in the books in front of her, she was just going to keep repeating the habit over and over again. It was something she had started doing as a kid, and no amount of stress balls or fidget items had ever been able to cure her of it. When she got stressed, she started playing with her hair.

  And boy was she stressed.

  She was in Nelly's office at the inn, finally sitting down and going over the accounting books. The inn may not have been in its prime at the moment, but it still should've brought in more money than it was. Summer had always been busy enough to keep them afloat for the entire year. There was no reason her mother shouldn't have been able to hire people to help ease her burden.

  Except, the money didn't seem to be there. It should've been there. The inn had been solidly booked; as far as Holly could tell, the accounts should have reflected that. But they didn't. No matter how many times Holly went over page after page of numbers, they just didn't seem to be adding up to her.

  Finally, she picked up the office phone and called her cousin Roger who managed most of the inn's accounting. He answered on the second ring, and unlike the last time she had called a family member, he actually sounded pleased to hear from her.

  They made small talk at first, and Holly filled him in on everything with her mother. Roger promised to come visit her and check on her soon, which was more than anyone else had done. But then, Roger was one of her mother's closest cousins, and he had always kept an eye on things.

  "Now, since you're calling me from the office and not your cellphone, I'm guessing you didn't intend for this to be a personal call?" Roger asked.

  Holly smirked. He was so much like her mother. He knew how to be polite when needed, but he wasn't afraid to cut the crap either. And when it came to running a business's finances, that was the exact attitude he needed. "I'm going over the books for the inn's finances, but it's not adding up or making sense to me. As far as I can tell, we've been booked pretty solid for the last couple of months. Maybe not sold out like we used to be, but more than enough to get by. But it doesn't seem like the money's all there?"

  "I've been wondering that myself," Roger admitted. "I went over everything multiple times, and every penny seems to be accounted for, but the account balances aren't growing like they used to. Nelly kept assuring me everything was fine, but numbers don't lie."

  "Now I see why you called me," Holly said as she ran a hand through her hair again. Money was missing from somewhere. All the books added up, which meant something was happening to it before it got logged. If the money didn't get logged, then it wouldn't be noticed if it went missing. But how was money not getting logged? And where was it going?

  Roger and Holly went over some of the numbers together. And, like he said, everything added up--except it didn't. Not when Holly pulled up the booking information from the last couple of months. With how many rooms they had sold each night, their recorded income should've been a lot more than what was reported.

  Was Nelly's depression to blame? Holly wondered. With all the stress and fatigue, had she somehow mischarged people? Or spent the money on things and forgotten to log it all? She shared her thoughts with Roger, and he was just as stumped as she was.

  "It's not like this is Nelly's first year running the place. You know as well as I do she handled more of the back end of the inn even when your dad was still alive. Keeping the books and managing everything was always her strong suit. I can't see her making massive mistakes like this, not unless there's more going on with her than just depression and fatigue."

  Holly agreed. A couple of mistakes here and there, Holly could understand in light of the current circumstances. But this was more than just a couple of mistakes. And as far as Holly could tell, it went back more than just a few months too, though she hadn't gotten a chance to go too far back into the books.

  Holly turned the office chair, so she could stare out the window as she spoke with Roger. Even between the two of them, they couldn't quite figure out where the money had gone. It obviously hadn't been used to maintain the inn. Nor had it gone to hiring more staff.

  So, where was it?

  Holly's mind kept going around in circles, not getting her anywhere. She opened her mouth to say something to Roger, but the moment she did, that thought
slipped right out of her mind. Instead, she focused on a man walking across the property toward the pier that held their boathouse at the end of it. They used the boathouse to store all the water toys and other items for the inn when they would take out guests on water excursions.

  Leaning forward and squinting, Holly tried to make out who the man was. But, try as she might, she didn't recognize him. As far as she knew, he wasn't one of the inn's employees. And if that was the case, then who was he? And what was he doing heading out to the end of the pier toward the boathouse?

  "I'll have to call you back," Holly told her uncle. As much as she wanted to get to the bottom of the inn's finances, this was a bit more pressing. If someone thought they could sneak around in broad daylight and steal from them, they were about to get a good shock.

  Cell phone in hand, Holly headed out there. She probably should have just called the cops right from the office, but with her luck, if she had done that, it would have ended up actually being an employee she either hadn't met or hadn't recognized. Still, she kept her phone ready, just in case.

  By the time she reached the boathouse, the door was open and the man had gone inside. Either he'd had a key, was the world's fastest lock pick, or someone had forgotten to lock it. Any of those options were likely, and Holly made sure to make as little noise as possible as she slipped inside.

  It didn't take her long to find the man wandering around a bunch of boxes that were lined up along the left wall. He had a clipboard in hand. He kept glancing at the clipboard, then at the various boxes. The man looked very much like he knew what he was doing and like he belonged there, but up close, Holly still didn't recognize him.

  Finally, she stepped forward and stood just a few feet away, arms crossed in front of her chest. Doing her best to look intimidating, she glared at the man. "Can I help you with something?" she asked. Her voice was firm and demanding.

  The man jumped and whirled around to face her. His eyes were wide, darting from side to side for a moment. Then, he seemed to regain his composure a bit. He smiled broadly at her, but Holly could tell it was forced. His dark brown eyes were fixated on her, and Holly could see the panic in them.

  "You must be Holly," he said in an equally fake voice. He might've been able to fool other people, but Holly saw right through his false calm. "I can't believe this is the first time I've met you. I'm Dean. Randy's business partner?"

  Holly narrowed her eyes. She didn't think he was lying, and she vaguely remembered Randy telling her his partner's name was Dean, but with how he was acting, she wasn't quite sure what to believe.

  "We had some of the stuff for the marina delivered here. It was easier to store it at the inn until we needed it, you know? I'm guessing Randy didn't tell you?"

  Holly shook her head. He hadn't even hinted at anything like that. For all he'd let on, he had cut ties with the inn and the family. If Dad had been alive, she could've seen him asking to borrow some storage space in the boathouse. It wasn't like things were packed tight in there. It only had enough room for two boats, but it did have a lot of space for storage as well.

  But she couldn't see Randy asking their mother for that privilege. Especially not after the way he had spoken on the phone last night.

  Dean rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Somehow, I'm not surprised. He'd have probably called and let you know if he had shown up for work today. He didn't even remember I was supposed to come pick it up."

  "He didn't come to work?" Holly asked, her brow rising in surprise. He had seemed fine on the phone last night, so why wouldn't he have shown up for work today?

  "Nope. It's not the first time either. Knowing him, he's probably on another one of his wicked benders," Dean said with a shrug. "It's becoming more and more frequent these days. No idea what's gotten into him. But hey, now that you're here, maybe you can get through to him since I can't."

  Holly blinked and nodded, lost in thought. She had known for a while Randy had a bit of a drinking problem, but she'd never known it was that bad. From the way Dean spoke, Randy was frequently missing work because of his drinking. If that was true, then he had a serious problem, and someone needed to intervene.

  And yet, Holly wasn't sure she had any right to. Yes, she was the oldest. Yes, it was her job to try to look after her siblings. But it had been years since she had even attempted to be there for them. What right did she have to come and swoop in now, after all these years?

  Besides, Randy was a grown man. He wasn't the dorky little kid he had been years ago when it really had been Holly's responsibility to keep him out of trouble. If she tried to confront him about his drinking and mother him, then he was likely to just buck against her and fight any help she offered.

  But what else could she do? If his problem was that bad, she couldn't just sit by and let him run his life into the ground. Drinking wasn't going to make whatever problems he was going through any better. It was just going to make things worse.

  Especially if he kept missing work, how long could Dean run the business with an unreliable partner? How long would it be before the business either went under or Dean decided partnering with Randy just wasn't going to work anymore?

  Holly stood to the side as Dean loaded a handful of boxes onto his boat. She was so lost in thought she hadn't asked him what they had stored in the boathouse. And by the time she did think to ask, he was waving goodbye to her and was long gone.

  Confused, Holly stood out in front of the boathouse, arms crossed in front of her chest. As if she hadn't had enough on her plate to deal with, now she had a hundred other questions rushing through her mind.

  Life in the Keys used to be simple, she thought. It was Miami that had been fast-paced and complicated. So why was it, now that she had finally gone back to her childhood home, that it seemed like she was more lost here than she had ever been in Miami?

  She needed to talk to Randy. That much was obvious. There were too many questions that only he could really answer for her. But, after the fiasco of a call they'd had last night, she was hesitant to reach out to him again.

  Maybe it was better to wait a couple of days, give him some time to cool off. For all she knew, if he really had gone on a bender last night, she'd been the source of it, drudging up old memories he had been trying to keep buried.

  Besides, she had enough on her plate right at that moment, and her little brother would just have to get in line.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Holly stared at the half-empty glass of wine. Even after going back to the office and looking over the books again, she still hadn't been able to make heads or tails of any of it. The doctor had called to discharge her mother, and Holly had picked her up.

  He had given Holly a stern lecture about making sure her mother kept eating and drinking before she'd been able to leave. Her mother was awake and lucid, but it was obvious just how weak she still was. As much as Holly wanted to start questioning her about the inn's finances and Randy's use of the boathouse, she bit her tongue.

  Nelly needed to rest. Once she had recovered a bit more, they could sit down and go over everything together. Until then, Holly would just have to be patient and wait. The inn had gotten by this far; it wasn't going to suddenly implode just because Holly waited a couple of days to untangle that particular knot.

  Her phone rang, startling her enough she almost dropped her glass. Taking a deep breath, she set the glass on the table and then fished out the phone. She frowned when she saw the name on the screen. It was almost ten o'clock at night. Why in the world was Jake calling her that late?

  "Hello?" Holly answered cautiously. After how things had gone the last time she had seen Jake, she wasn't too eager to talk to him again. It was going to take a while before she truly lived down the embarrassment.

  "Hey, Holly. You got a minute?" Jake asked.

  For you, always, Holly thought, but she bit her tongue to keep those words from coming out of her mouth. "Yeah, I'm just sitting around thinking. Why? What's up?"

  Jake
let out a sigh, and Holly knew immediately this wasn't about to be a social call. "I'm on night shift tonight. And, well... There's someone here you need to come and get." He tried to be as gentle as possible, but Holly's heart rate skyrocketed almost instantly.

  He didn't need to clarify for Holly to know he was talking about her brother. It was the only person Jake would be calling her for.

  "I'll be there as quickly as I can," she said before hanging up and stuffing the phone into her pocket. She glanced at the half-empty glass of wine and then let out a sigh. Something told her she was going to need more than just that by the time the night was over.

  She stopped by her mom's room first, checking to make sure she was doing okay. Nelly was sound asleep, though, and Holly decided not to wake her. There wasn't anything she could do but worry, and there would be plenty of time for that when Holly got back.

  First, she had to go pick up her younger brother and figure out what kind of trouble he had gotten himself into this time. Knowing it had been Jake who had called gave her hope that he hadn't stepped in it too badly.

  She made the drive to the police station in record time. Not that it was far away, since the island wasn't massive. Holly was just thankful she hadn't gotten pulled over for speeding. Because wouldn't that be just like her life? Get pulled over by a cop on the way to the police station?

  When she got there, Jake was sitting at the front desk. The island's police station and police force weren't massive, but she was surprised to find him there alone. Part of her wanted to rush over and demand to see her brother; those sisterly instincts had kicked in after so many years dormant.

  Instead, she forced herself to stay calm as she walked over to the man who had once stolen her heart. "Long time no see," she said.

  Jake laughed and his eyes lit up. "You know, it's been a long time since I've seen you or your siblings and now I've had two of you in my car in the same week. I'm hoping Amy and Rina aren't planning on catching a ride anytime soon."