Brew or Die

by Caroline Fardig

  When he got to the counter, he gave me a sad smile. “Hey, I need you. I’m having a rough day.”

  A lump formed in my throat. It was hell to be torn like this. I cared about him, and it wasn’t like I could flip a switch and make my feelings go away. But I had such a thing about broken trust, I didn’t see him in the same light anymore.

  Forcing a smile, I said, “Come on, we’ll get you some lunch and talk.”

  I quickly put in an order for him and led the way to the office. Once we were inside with the door shut, he grabbed me and kissed me, hard—with much more intensity than he normally did. I kissed him back, but not without ending up feeling a little queasy. It was then that I realized I couldn’t let this go on any longer.

  Taking a step back, I said, “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  His blue eyes were anguished. “It’s just work.”

  “You sure about that?”

  He nodded.

  I knew I was playing with fire, but the anger was bubbling up inside me uncontrollably. I figured if I was going to let it out, I might as well use it to try to back him into telling me something by accident. “It’s work, huh? I’m not so sure I believe that. What happened the night you told me you were working but you actually weren’t? Were you out with someone else? Finally wore me down and got some, then decided you were tired of me?”

  What little color that was in his face drained out of it in an instant. “What are you talking about?”

  “Monday night. Where were you all night if you weren’t working?” I crossed my arms. “You certainly weren’t at home. I checked.” I hadn’t, but I knew where he was the whole time, so my story was plausible.

  Stafford eyed me warily. “You came over to check up on me instead of talking to me about it? That isn’t like you, Juliet.”

  I fired back, “It is when I think someone’s lying to me. Now answer my question.”

  Stafford resembled a deer in headlights now. “You think I’ve been cheating on you? Why…why would you think I’d do that?”

  “You’re going to play that card? I may be new to investigating, but I’m a pro at spotting a bullshitting boyfriend. And you’re eyeball deep in it, honey.”

  He set his jaw, and it seemed like he was ready to cry. “I can’t…” Trailing off, he wiped a hand down his face.

  “You can’t what? Can’t admit you’re a damn dirty cheater? I expected more from you, John.” I knew I was laying it on a little thick, but he was cracking. Any minute now.

  “Fine!” he exploded. “I’m seeing someone else. Happy now?”

  His face was red, and the tendons in his neck were strained. I broke him, but not in the way I’d hoped. Disappointed he still chose to lie to me even when I’d caught him in it, I figured there was nothing left to do.

  “Get out. We’re done.”

  Hanging his head, he said, “Juliet, I’m so sorry. About everything.”

  As I watched Stafford leave the office, I felt ill. He was in way over his head if lying about cheating on me was preferable to telling me the truth about what he was really doing. In the back of my mind, I knew that even if he’d come clean there was no chance our new relationship could have withstood his actions and deception. And while I wasn’t in love with him or anything, it still hurt to end it. Oddly enough, it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as any of the times I’d ended it with Ryder—not even close. This time there wasn’t the crippling depression and the overwhelming urge to consume every piece of chocolate within my zip code.

  I was pulled out of my thoughts by raised voices coming from the front of the house. I sighed. Did all the bad things have to happen to me on the same day? Trudging down the hall, I was hoping someone else would step in and diffuse the situation before I got there. When I saw who was fighting, my heart sank as I realized I was the only person in the world who could stop it.

  Stafford yelled, “I should have guessed you were behind this!”

  Ryder fired back, “This has nothing to do with me. You dug your own grave, pal.”

  Stafford shoved Ryder, who clenched his jaw as well as his fists. I managed to dart around several horrified customers in time to jump between the two of them before Ryder could wind up for the punch he’d been dying to land on Stafford’s face for a long time.

  “Enough!” I ordered, planting one hand on each of their chests and pushing them as far apart from each other as I could. Looking up at Stafford, I said quietly, “John, you’re out of control. Don’t do this.”

  He growled, “I knew that scene in your office wasn’t all about me. You needed me out of the way so you could run back to him.”

  “You’re wrong. I think you should leave.”

  Purposely knocking into Ryder’s shoulder as he went, Stafford walked out the door. As soon as he was gone and the action was over, the other customers got bored and went back to what they’d been doing. I turned to Ryder, who couldn’t wipe the grin from his face.

  “Was that the best way to deal with someone you’re investigating?” I hissed.

  He shrugged. “I had to keep up appearances. If I suddenly started acting differently toward him, he would have known something was up for sure.”

  I rolled my eyes and stalked back to my office. Ryder followed me and shut the door behind us.

  “I didn’t invite you in,” I said, pretty much done with all males and their testosterone for the foreseeable future.

  “When has that ever stopped me?”

  Flopping down onto the couch, I replied, “Never. Why are you back?”

  “To tell you what I found out from Vashchenko.”

  “Again, a phone call would have sufficed.”

  He sat down next to me. “And to have lunch with Gertie.”

  Pete was not going to like that, especially after catching Ryder here with me this morning. However, he usually would have come in for lunch by now, so it was possible he was still pissed at me from earlier and was staying away.

  Without bothering to knock, Rhonda opened the door and held out a plate of food. “Wasn’t this for your boyfriend who just stormed out of here? What crawled up his ass?”

  I got up to take it from her. “Thanks for delivering the food, Rhonda,” I said, shutting the door in her face.

  “You didn’t answer her question,” Ryder said, the corner of his mouth twitching. “I’m sure she was only asking because she cares.”

  Slamming the plate down on the desk, I said, “She’s asking because she likes to stick her big nose in everyone’s business around here. I’m not telling her shit.”

  “Ah, my delicate Juliet is back. Cutting Stafford loose was the best thing you ever did. You’ve been kind of boring since you started hanging out with him. Or so I’ve heard.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Who have you been talking to? Maya wouldn’t have said that about me.”

  “You’re right. I spoke with another of your so-called friends on Sunday.” His eyes sparkled. “When you were on your way home from Memphis.”

  My jaw dropped, and I couldn’t even speak for a good minute. “How do you…You talked to Stan?”

  He nodded, glee evident all over his face.

  “Why in the hell were you in touch with Stan?”

  “I wouldn’t want to bother you with the details. It’s a long story.”

  Not lifting my glare from him, I went and sat next to him on the couch, propping my feet up on the coffee table. “I’ve got all the time in the world.”

  “Well, you see, Stafford had a kind of breakdown at the station Sunday morning. He couldn’t find you anywhere, so he actually came to me of all people for help. Weird, because he’s supposed to be so spectacular at finding missing persons, right?”

  “Knock it off with the Stafford-bashing and stay on track, please.”

  “You know I can’t agree to that. Anyway, after he filled me in, I got to thinking. The tip you called in was on a member of the Leonidas family, and you did it during one of their big events. I assumed your survei
llance that day had something to do with their business, which had been in the news lately because of a young girl dying there. Cromwell mentioned he’d seen you last week when he’d been investigating her death. I put two and two together and figured out you were digging into another one of homicide’s cases because one of your employees—her fiancé—was involved yet again. Knowing you, I assumed you bumbled into something you shouldn’t and needed help. The only person you’d reach out to in that instance would be Stan Hollingsworth, because he’s shady as shit and wouldn’t narc on you to the cops. Evidently Stafford was not aware of how close you two are. So I called Stanny Boy, and he told me everything he knew, including the fact that he thinks Stafford is slowly boring you to death. Is that accurate?”

  I let out a slow breath. “That’s not just accurate—it’s freaking scary.”

  Covering my hand with his, he said, “I know you better than you know yourself sometimes.”

  His touch shot a shiver through me, so I slipped out of his grasp quickly. “If you knew where I was, then why was Stafford surprised to find me at my apartment Sunday afternoon?”

  “I might have let him sweat it for a while.”

  I slapped him across the arm. “That’s awful! He was worried about me.”

  “But you were safe. That was the important thing.”

  “You’re such an ass.”

  “Why are you investigating an OD?”

  “Everything I’m doing is completely legal. And it wasn’t an OD. Well, it was…but…I haven’t put it all together yet, but I will.”

  “I know you will. Now tell me how in the hell you managed to get yourself stranded in Memphis.”

  I did not want to admit this, because he would go ballistic. “Um…we were kind of…”

  “What?”

  I murmured, “Drugged…”

  “What? And you didn’t go to the police?”

  “If we had gone to the police and tried to press charges, everyone we’d been spying on all day would have found out our real names. That was not an option, because we caused a lot of trouble.” When he gave me a reproachful look, I added quickly, “Again, nothing illegal—we just got one person arrested and another one cut off from the family fortune, that’s all. But in regard to the drugging, there’s no harm done.”

  He sighed. “Okay, but just be careful. If you need help with the case, come to me.”

  Ryder wasn’t trying to talk me out of my investigation—in fact, he was offering his help. Again. I stared at him. “Did Stafford hit you in the head before I got out there?”

  “Like I would have let that happen. What I’m saying is, when you feel this strongly about something, you’re usually on the right track. But watch out for the Leonidas family. They could make your life miserable if you piss them off enough, which it sounds like you might have.” Completely changing the subject, he asked, “What did you say to Stafford to get him to go full Hulk? I’ve never seen rage like that out of him. Didn’t think he had it in him.”

  I didn’t know that I wanted to tell Ryder all about my breakup. He’d undoubtedly be smug about it, which I didn’t think I could handle. To buy myself some time to come up with an answer, I got up and walked over to the window. It was rainy, which mirrored my mood. As I stared at the gloom outside, my big, fiery blowup with Stafford replayed in my head. I hadn’t intended for it to go that way, but I couldn’t help how it had ended up.

  I hadn’t realized Ryder had got up from his seat. Suddenly behind me, he said quietly, “I’m sorry. I am being an ass. You don’t have to tell me anything. I know you wouldn’t have said a word to him that would have compromised the investigation, so there was no reason for me to ask you about it other than to satisfy my own morbid curiosity.”

  Turning around, I said, “Keep showing me the new and improved Ryder, and I may tell you all about it sometime.”

  He took my hand again, and this time I didn’t pull back. After looking down at me for a moment, he cleared his throat and dropped my hand. “In all the excitement, I almost forgot why I came over here. Vashchenko was fairly cooperative, especially after I threatened to take his green card, and we now have him and his family in protective custody. He has a sick kid who needs quite a bit of medical help, so a few months ago he asked Wonderlich if there was any extra work he could do to help pay the bills. Wonderlich moved him from the factory floor to delivery driver and told him he’d make it worth his while if he did his new job and asked no questions.”

  “Vashchenko obviously made enough to pay his kid’s doctor bills and buy a new car. Why would he have messed that up by stealing from Wonderlich?”

  “He didn’t. He swears up and down he never even peeked into a single one of the boxes he’s delivered, much less stole something. Not only that, he also maintains that he has no idea what he’s been delivering, aside from assuming that not every box is filled solely with Wonder-Gen manufactured products. Wonderlich told him only what he needed to know.”

  It was a lot to take in. I began pacing the floor, trying to reason it out. “That leaves us with some random person still stealing from Wonderlich. Those boxes I saw were supposed to go out Tuesday morning sometime.”

  “Vashchenko said he normally starts his route at eight A.M.”

  “The first shift at Wonder-Gen starts at six, which means any employee working there that morning would have had two hours’ worth of access to those boxes. I’ll get a list of names of people on shift that day from Gentry so we can take a look at them.”

  Ryder smiled. “Look at us figuring stuff out together.”

  “Yes, we make a good team when you actually let me play.”

  Tugging on a lock of my hair, he said, “I deserved that one.”

  Something was bothering me about Vashchenko’s disappearance. “It’s an awfully big coincidence that Vashchenko suddenly packed up his family and left town right before Wonderlich figured out he supposedly stole something and tried to go after him.”

  “He said he got an anonymous tip that he should leave town immediately.”

  “From who? Stafford? That makes no sense because you said you thought he took off after Vashchenko this morning when that credit card transaction popped up. Why would he let him get away, only to have to track him down later?”

  “Maybe Wonderlich made Stafford an offer he couldn’t refuse and then he changed his mind.”

  I shivered at the thought.

  Ryder took a step back from me. “I better not keep Gertie waiting. She’s the only date I can get these days.” With a wink, he headed out the door.

  Now that I was alone, I finally broke down and called Maya.

  When she answered, I said, “I need to unload.”

  “Business or personal?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Did all of Nashville go to shit while I’ve been away?”

  I sighed. “No, just everything I touch.” I began with getting kidnapped Saturday night and told the entirety of my sad story, ending with, “Needless to say, I just got done breaking up with Stafford.”

  “Crikey. I’ve had a tiny human spew curdled breast milk in my face and piss on my lap, but I say you win the prize for worst week—and it’s not even half over yet.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come home early?” I whined.

  She laughed. “You have Hamilton on your side now. You can’t lose.”

  “If we don’t kill each other in the meantime. We’re good now, but he still drives me crazy.”

  “See? I told you that you two would kiss and make up eventually.”

  “We made up. That’s as far as this is going,” I said.

  “After what you’ve been through, I wouldn’t blame you if you’d want to swear off men for a while.”

  I laughed, thankful that Maya had been such a good sounding board. “That would probably be the smartest thing I could do at this point.”

  “Next time, would you please call me sooner and not get to the point of mental illness befo
re you ask for a little help?”

  “Yes, boss.”

  “Good,” she said. “Now I need to go help my sister put her sweet bundle of joy to bed. There’s going to be a lot of crying involved—out of all three of us.”

  “Thanks, Maya.”

  “Keep your chin up. I’ll see you soon.”

  Chapter 25

  The more I thought about Pete’s stupid decision to invite Alexa to open mic night, the more curious I became. He wasn’t being truthful with me, and I couldn’t put my finger on the reason. I had to see what he was doing for myself. So I decided to put my undercover skills to work yet again. I wasn’t sure I could pull off hiding in plain sight in the middle of Java Jive, but I was going to give it a try.

  At five P.M., a few minutes before Pete was to show up at Java Jive, I left and headed to Maya’s office. After raiding her undercover dress-up closet and finding a dark blond wig and a hipster outfit for later, I sat down at her computer to run some background checks on the list of Tuesday morning’s employees I’d managed to get from Gentry. There were a surprising number of delinquents working there. I guessed Wonderlich had a soft spot for fellow criminals. While I was at it, I ran background on Candace Monroe, Xander and Ophelia Leonidas, and Kacey Albright for my other case, which I’d admittedly been neglecting.

  The background checks had taken a while to run, so by the time I had them finished, got changed into my borrowed clothes and accessories, and applied some makeup (trying some darker foundation than my usual since I was a blonde tonight) it was time for open mic night to start. Before leaving, I studied myself in the mirror. The hair looked real, and with the shabby chic clothes I’d fit in with the rest of the young crowd perfectly. I added a wool hat that I could pull down over my forehead and some dark-rimmed glasses to further obscure my face. Up close, I looked like me, but if I could keep a low profile in the dimly lit atmosphere we always had for open mic and stay far from people I knew, I might actually be able to get away with it.