Bootscootin' and Cozy Cash Mysteries Boxed Set (Books 1-6)

by Scott, D. D.

  “You tell me. You’re people are supposed to be handling them too, right?” Audrey asked, knowing her reply was somewhat catty, but she really didn’t care at this point.

  If her father could outsmart all their handlers as well as swindle the Devil-like people he did, who was smart enough to protect her and her family and friends?

  Audrey was well aware of the morbid fascination with everything Bernie McCall. Hell, someone had paid six thousand dollars for a lot of her father’s monogrammed slippers and shirts, and the guy didn’t even wear her father’s size. Ten pairs of his Italian, French and English, hand-cobbled shoes went for nine hundred dollars. A lot of his boxer shorts brought $650. And her parent’s 1971 Steinway grand piano sold for forty-two thousand dollars.

  All-told, after holding two auctions plus various property auctions too, the U. S. Marshals had recovered almost twenty million dollars.

  But was that an ever still, far, far cry from the estimated sixty-five billion he’d swindled in cash out of new investors he’d con to pay old ones, taking down many celebrities, charities and institutional investment houses with him.

  And here was something else worrying Audrey, if her father had managed to hide the vast fortune now sitting in a brown parcel box in her lap, what else did he have hidden? And where was it? Who knew about it? And who was in charge of disseminating it and reporting back to her father?

  Audrey knew of people, now turning up dead in their swimming pools, who were once privy to that kind of knowledge about what her father had and where.

  She wasn’t about to allow her or her family or friends to end up the same way.

  She got-up and handed the box back to Roman.

  “I’m assuming you know who to give this to. Or maybe not. I don’t really care what you do with it. Just get it out of our home,” she said, ready to once again fight the McCall dragon still breathing fire into her life.

  Roman took the box.

  Audrey swore he then hung his head in temporary defeat, momentarily unable to respond to her harsh but true words.

  “Your concerns are valid, Alexandra,” Roman said, almost so softly Audrey at first thought she must have heard him incorrectly.

  But once she saw Damian’s eyebrows pinch tight together in that ‘oh boy not a good move, Ace’ way, she knew she’d heard correctly.

  “My name is Audrey. I’d appreciate it if you’d see to it that in the future that’s what I’m called,” she said, pulling up herself and her growing body as straight as she could without doing a number on her aching back and feet.

  “So what’s next, Roman?” Zoey spoke-up in a voice way too sweet, but a tone Audrey appreciated for the good, helpful spirit in which it was meant.

  Roman stood-up, readjusted his shoulder holster and looped his thumbs through the holster’s leather straps.

  “I think, first and foremost, we need to get you and Damian out of this house. I no longer think it’s safe. At least for the short term. I need some time to figure out who our rat is, and I want you both outta here while I do that. Tonight, preferably,” Roman said, no room in his voice for discussion.

  Sitting back on the chair and leaning into them so that only Audrey, Damian and Zoey could hear him, Roman lowered his voice and said, “I’ve got a safe house of sorts. Safe because it’s personal to me. No one knows of it inside the agency. I want you to go there. Tonight. Zoey will accompany you. It’s fine. In fact, I’d prefer it if all of your extended family eventually meets up with you there too. Well…not The Mom Squad. Jesus. Not them. But Roxy and Jules. Zayne and Cody. Yeah. I’d like the extra eyes, ears and muscle they’d provide. I’ll run the rest of the operation from here, ‘til it’s safe for you to return.”

  “Wait a minute,” Damian said, evidently deciding he’d been silent long enough. “Are you forgetting Audrey’s pregnant. With twins?”

  “No. I’m not,” Roman said, standing and almost getting in Damian’s face, a move Audrey knew, at this time, was not wise.

  She’d been holding his hand for long enough to feel the fury firing through his fingers, the tension at dangerous levels.

  “I’ve got connections there, in the medical field, who will be alerted to your arrival and take care of everything you need. And I’ve already consulted with your doctor here and have your records ready for you to take with you.”

  Damian backed-off, giving Roman back his personal space. He then took his first turn pacing the room, combing his rowdy locks with his fingers, more than likely trying to focus on something else besides punching something…or someone.

  “I’ve already got a plane ready and waiting for all of you at the Nashville airport. Zoey will help you pack and prepare to leave. And I promise, I’ll personally arrange another plane and pick-up all your friends, as soon as they can join you.”

  Audrey stood-up and shook out her legs, hoping to quickly get back the feeling in them. As if pregnancy wasn’t making her numb all over, the stress of running and hiding heightened all the nerve endings in her limbs to the point they just couldn’t function properly.

  She felt as if she were trying to walk through a bad dream. Those kind where you swear you’re moving but don’t seem to be going anywhere. And definitely not distancing yourself from the bad people chasing you down.

  Zoey gently put her hands on Audrey’s arms and rubbed them.

  “No worries, Audie,” she said attempting to hustle her and Damian to begin packing, “this time what happens in Vegas won’t be staying there. Roman and I will get you home and perhaps in time for your babies to be born, but we’ve got to make your home safe for you all first.”

  Audrey shrugged away from Zoey, not that she didn’t appreciate her attempts at smoothing over the obvious.

  Audrey knew, without a doubt, their home was no longer a safe haven from her past nor from her parents.

  But being responsible for pulling Damian away from his home, his beloved land and from building their new home, hurt her deeply and was just about more than she could take.

  Feeling Damian then wrap himself around her and move her in the direction of their bedroom somehow made her feet move and the numbness take a second seat to their new plans.

  “It’s okay, Baby,” he whispered in her ear then tousled her uncombed hair. “I’m right beside you. And I’m always going to be there for you and our babies. Let’s go.”

  Audrey let her heart and soul rest on his comfort and promises, knowing she could count on him to help her be swallowed into yet another series of shadows, designed to shield her from a world waiting behind every bush to get her.

  Chapter Eleven

  Settled into the Cadillac limousine that met their private jet on the Vegas tarmac, Audrey looked out the car’s darkened windows.

  The lights of the Vegas Strip flickered past in a dizzying kaleidoscope of lightening sharp streaks and brilliant color swirls.

  She didn’t do well riding in the back of vehicles, and it appeared the pregnancy had amplified that ineptitude.

  But seeing her next new life, next new town, streaming past her did more than upset her stomach. It deeply uprooted her soul…or what was left of it, after everything she’d been through these last few months.

  She just couldn’t escape that feeling of being stuck in the life she was living. Hell, lives plural. ‘Cause she no longer lived just one.

  And the funny thing was, unlike most people who were afraid of what they didn’t know, she’d accepted there was a ton she didn’t know about her future. She’d accepted and then adjusted to that.

  What she feared beyond all fear was what she did know…the fact that her past seemed to be able to forever haunt and follow her future.

  Roman and Zoey had promised her that she and Damian, and their unborn children, would be safe here in Vegas. And they’d given them the extra protection of being willing and able to fly-in part of their extended family throughout their stay.

  Audrey was glad for that. And with these ridiculous get-ups she w
as forced to wear every time she was out of the house, she’d need Roxy’s fashion talents and Jules reassuring blend of empathy and logic to get through it.

  Unlike most pregnant couples, at least there was no having to adjust your lifestyle to make more time for family and friends. With the chance of paparazzi, and now her father’s henchman too, being ready to pounce at any given moment, she and Damian would now have even more ample together-time. Their problem was they had to change homes every whip-stitch to accomplish it.

  Their car turned into the magnificently well-lit and grander-than-grand entrance to The Bellagio.

  Well, at least Roman had the right idea for one helluva fabulous safe house, Audrey reckoned.

  “Wow,” Damian reached for her hand.

  “If you’d be so kind to put on your hat and sunglasses, Ms. McCall, I’d be glad to roll down the window enough for you to catch the view,” their driver, whose nametag read Roy, announced through the car’s speaker system. “Please do not exit the vehicle, though, until I clear you.”

  Before she could answer, Roy had opened Damian’s window.

  They were greeted by a surge of water that seemed to gush to the heavens. As far as her peripheral vision could see, water shot to the stars and back, all brilliantly choreographed to some kind of spirited but soft jazz. One of her favorite types of music mixed with her very favorite sound.

  Nothing beat the soul cooling sound of water. No matter whether it trickled from a faucet, or descended the smooth stones of a table fountain, or gushed full-throttle from these magnificent works of both science and art, Audrey’s soul rested and her body breathed easier with a water source in her midst.

  Her heart beat rushed with the sound and swell of the next set of choreographed water sprays.

  “Wow is right, Baby,” she said, moving closer to Damian’s side so she could catch more of the beautiful show while wrapped in his warm and inviting arms.

  “Take as long as you’d like,” Roy said. “I thought you might enjoy our fountain show before I drive you to your villa’s private entrance.”

  Audrey looked at Damian, whose eyebrows arched in pleasant surprise, along with the next burst of water surging from the fountain’s motors.

  They sat in silence watching the show.

  With the lavender sky signaling dawn was quickly making its rise, the water appeared to be attempting to greet it and usher in the new day.

  Audrey knew without a doubt, she’d be able to escape a bunch of her pressing fears, just by reveling a bit in this marvel each day. Yeah. She and their babies had a date with the Fountains of Bellagio for the entire time they could now call The Bellagio home. And judging by the peaceful and awe-inspired look on Damian’s face, he’d be joining them too.

  When the show ended, Roy closed the window and continued the journey to their new home.

  “Privacy is paramount within our lavish villa estates,” he said. “Your security is our top priority here. And there isn’t anything you need that we and your 24-hour butler service can’t or won’t provide.”

  “Thank you, Roy,” Damian said nodding his head then protectively placing his arm around Audrey, gently but firmly settling her into the comfort and safety of being tucked into the side of his body.

  “I doubt they can get us anything we need,” Audrey said, a small giggle unable to be held back following her suggestive tease.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Damian said. “Look at this place!”

  Audrey got a kick out of his childlike excitement as their car ambled back through lushly landscaped drives and was then allowed through several gated and guarded entrance checkpoints.

  After what seemed like several miles, although she knew it couldn’t have been that much, the driver went through yet another security gate before stopping the car in front of a densely foliaged area with a small, barely visible path cutting through gorgeous lamp-lit trees.

  Damian reached for her travel tote and handed it to her before then helping her waddle her way out of the soft leather seats of the limo.

  Audrey exited the car behind him.

  Small tremors shook her arms and legs, as if warning her, or at the very least, reminding her that she had no idea who or what was behind those bushes.

  She took a deep breath to steady her fears and re-rationalize the situation.

  They’d been whisked away on a private jet, escorted by a private security team, hand-picked by Roman and Zoey, who were in a Calvary of cars not that far behind them and in front of them.

  Who knew on that one…as security theories had changed so much. Now, it was thought to be safer for vehicles to arrive at different times rather than in huge strings of hello-we’re-here entourages.

  So, in their case, they always had teams in front a ways and then behind them too, monitoring every single car or person in between, before and after their loosely structured motorcade.

  And in addition to their vehicle details, they’d been brought to this utmost of luxurious and privacy-guaranteed, specialized locations.

  But damn, if Audrey wasn’t still horrified as to what or who could be behind those bushes.

  Here she was, pregnant with not one, but two children, who she was supposed to be able to reassure when and if they became frightened. It was her job to be their point of calm. Their rock. But she couldn’t escape her own fears, however somewhat rational they were.

  Audrey allowed Damian to cover her with the next huge shawl Roxy had made as a go-to pregnancy and paparazzi shield. It didn’t matter if it turned out to be eighty-five degrees in the daytime, Vegas-desert heat, that shawl, or one of the dozens of others she now had like it, were Audrey’s lifelines to maintaining their pregnancy’s privacy. And it sure felt good tonight in the desert evening’s, pre-dawn chill. Wearing these oversized guards against her fears felt like a cop-out, but it was really one of the few things both reasonably tolerable and comfortable in the whole ordeal.

  As Damian added extra protection, positioning his body so as he was almost swallowing hers while they moved, they hustled into the villa’s private entrance then were directed into an elevator behind yet another gate.

  Talk about Fort Knox. The only way anyone was getting into these villas was if they were working on the inside.

  ‘Course that right there, on its own merit, was probably the reason no matter what Audrey did, she just couldn’t relax into the protective custody of the government.

  That is why they were now in Vegas, right?

  As they relocated, their original team — or at least a good portion of it — remained in Nashville to discover a mole in their operation.

  Another way-too-comfortably justified fear.

  As the elevator doors slid shut, Audrey could feel the apprehension build inside her. She didn’t like closed, confined spaces. And she didn’t know this driver from Adam. Yes. He’d been hand-picked by Roman and Zoey. And his name was apparently Roy.

  But her confidence had been severely shaken twice now — first with snowmobiles and second with unexpected package deliveries.

  Suffice it to say, she was pretty sure snowmobiles wouldn’t be a problem in the desert — although, this was Vegas, which meant not much, if anything, was impossible.

  And what about mysterious packages?

  Who would be screening those if they arrived?

  Besides, with her father’s power and connections, that sure as hell really did mean anything was possible.

  She rubbed her aching back with her fingertips, relieved that Damian noticed and took over her efforts. She squeezed his hand, letting him know how much she appreciated his attentiveness then tried to relax into his touch.

  He just always got things sooo right.

  If only she could make things in their life right for him.

  So much for a suburban dream. Not that even without their mess, she and Damian would have wanted that sort of lifestyle.

  They were certainly no Ward and June Cleaver. No kids for them growing up in little Ed
ward Scissorhands’ neighborhoods. No borrowing eggs or sugar from anyone next door. Hell no. And next door, by their standards, was close enough if it was a couple miles away.

  No block parties. No progressive, pot luck dinners.

  They just wanted to be left alone.

  No longer hounded and hunted by people who couldn’t help, because of her family name and the notoriety that went with it, trying to cash-in on the cash her father had hustled for almost thirty years.

  How was she going to give their children a normal, healthy childhood, despite the pap crazy, scary-ass world they lived in?

  But talk about crazy…

  Stepping off the elevator into the foyer of their new “home” was one crazy trip into the finest of classic European design and luxury.

  “We’ve given you 8,000 square feet, three bedrooms and seven bathrooms in this exquisite villa,” Roy said, offering to take Audrey’s shawl.

  “She tends to get cold so she’ll want to keep that on,” Damian said, resting his hand over their babies’ temporary sanctuary.

  If only their little ones could see this, Audrey thought, making a mental note to take a ton of photos and put them in a scrapbook to one day show their children. Though there weren’t many parts of their pre-natal adventure Audrey would want to share with them, on account of their situation, this was one she definitely would, and she knew Damian would agree.

  Although she’d been raised surrounded by the kinds of plush, exotic luxury The Bellagio Villas offered, even this was the gold of gold standards. As far as she could see, no detail had been left out.

  Once finished enjoying the marble foyer and the splendid glass chandelier it boasted, she was immediately drawn into the vast living room with its velvety red appointments and massive fireplace.

  The fire, already built and welcoming them with its orange red warmth, cast a glow of comfort around the expansive room. Comfort, that lately, was in rather short supply.

  A full service bar took up one side of the room which Audrey knew the guys would get a kick out of while watching whatever they wanted on a huge plasma screen with its own Surround Sound home theatre set-up.