by Amy Brent
“Actually, I took it in with me. He’d cooked dinner, so I knew right from the get-go he was expecting something. I tried to see if I could catch him in the act.”
“Oh, shit. Did you sleep with him? Please tell me you did. Oh man, I wanna gossip about that cock so badly. Please tell me you slept with him.”
“You know that’s not how a professional does things,” I said.
“So, no sleeping with him, then?”
“No, I didn’t sleep with him,” I said.
Why I lied when Destiny gave me a perfectly good excuse to be honest, I didn’t know. Part of me wanted to tell her it happened. Part of me wanted to ride the lie Destiny had provided for me just so I could clear my conscience a bit. But I didn’t want to risk starting that kind of precedence. In the world of the private detective, men reigned supreme. It had taken me years to claw my way to the top of the reputation chain like I had, and sleeping with a man I was chasing would throw me all the way back down into the pit. I would lose my sterling reputation, along with any hope of being trustworthy enough in the eyes of my future clientele.
“All right, what happened?” Destiny asked.
“Water and mozzarella sticks,” the waitress said. “Are the two of you ready to order?”
“Yes,” Destiny began. “I would like the steak salad, cooked medium rare. No bleu cheese crumbles, please, but could you put extra cranberries on it?”
“Of course, we can. And for you?”
“Could I do a cup of tomato bisque soup and a side caesar salad?” I asked. “I want to keep a bit of room open for your blueberry cheesecake.”
“It’s divine,” the waitress said. “You’ll love it. I’ll go ahead and get your orders put in.”
She hurried away, leaving us alone again.
“Oh, cheesecake,” Destiny said. “I might eat a bit with you, too.”
“We can share,” I said, smiling. “My treat. All right. So, Wednesday night, he cooked. There was white wine and a candlelit dinner. I mean, he was smothering it on. So, I rolled with it.”
“He never smothered me like that,” Destiny said.
“Focus, sweetheart. I’m close to getting your money back.”
I was scaring myself with how easily these lies were coming. I had no idea if I could get Destiny’s money back to her. I had no idea if he was hiding it in his house or if he had already deposited it in the bank. Enough time had passed for someone like him to feel safe enough to deposit a chunk of cash like that, especially if he was taking it with his checks from the bar. They would assume he was receiving some awesome tips, and no one would be any wiser.
Holy shit, that had to be exactly what he was doing.
“Did you find anything when you were snooping around?” Destiny asked.
“A bit. I slipped off to the bathroom a couple of times and watched to see if he would make a move toward my purse. I couldn’t get him to move toward it, and when I checked my purse after I left, nothing was taken.”
“Maybe you should’ve fucked him and then acted like you were asleep,” Destiny spat.
“But I did get a good look around his house. If your money’s still in his house, then the only places it could be in are the kitchen or his bedroom. I didn’t really get a good look at either of those rooms.”
“You think he’s still hanging on to it?” Destiny asked.
“There’s a good chance he might’ve already deposited it in the bank,” I said. “After lunch, I’m gonna go back and check. I tracked down his bank account. I’ve been monitoring it as much as I can without throwing up any red flags, but I’m trying to be careful about checking it. If something tips off the bank, they not only notify me, but they notify him, too.”
“All right. Better to stay safe. When we nail this motherfucker to the wall, I want him to be shocked while he’s bleeding from his dick.”
I was on the verge of telling her everything. The anger and violence Destiny was speaking of was making me uncomfortable. I didn’t want to hurt Wesley. At least, not anymore. I was having an amazing time with him, and I didn’t want to compromise that. As Destiny continued to ramble on, my thoughts faded back to our night on the beach. I could feel the heat pooling between my legs as my body remembered what his felt like pressed against me. I remembered how cold the ocean water had been and how that hadn’t stopped Wesley’s desire for me. I thought about how wonderful his cock felt filling me to the brim, and a sudden heat flushed up my neck.
I hadn’t realized how I’d let my emotions run so far out of control. Thinking about the beautiful sea of Wesley’s eyes and the way he smiled at me when we talked was something I hadn’t stopped to think about until this very moment. My heart thrummed heavily in my chest as a goofy smile peeled across my cheeks, but Destiny’s voice ripped me from my trance.
“Olivia? Hello? You there?”
When I came back to reality, I was breathing heavily. My palms were sweating in my lap, and suddenly, I was that self-conscious high school girl Wesley was trying to coax out of her shell. I cleared my throat as our lunch was set in front of us. I reached for my wine glass before I began to chug.
“He’s getting to you, isn’t he?” Destiny asked.
“No,” I said a little too quickly. “I just…”
“He’s scum, and I know this is hard for you. I can’t imagine what it must be doing to you, knowing the type of man you’re having to flirt with to get what you need. I’m here for you, Olivia. We’re gonna take him down.”
That was just the thing. I didn’t know if I wanted to any longer.
“It’s not that,” I said. “I just haven’t been getting much sleep. Between the facts rolling around in my head and my software constantly going off with things, it’s been a hell of a week.”
“Your software?” Destiny asked.
“Broadening the search parameters for people who look like him means more options pop up that aren’t him. It’s lots of clicking and digging until I reach dead ends.”
“Well, good thing you charge a pretty penny for that job,” Destiny said, smirking. “And don’t worry. You’re worth it.”
I downed the rest of my wine glass as I pondered how easy it was for me to lie now. Just a week and a half ago, I was dead set against lying to any of my clients in any fashion.
But now, it was the easiest thing I’d ever done.
And I didn’t like it.
“So, what else you got?” Destiny asked.
“Well, without another trip back to his home, I won’t be able to search his kitchen or bedroom. And I have a feeling, in order to do either of those things, I’ll have to cross boundaries I’m not comfortable with.”
“Olivia, if I might be frank,” she said. “You don’t really strike me as the kind of girl who gets out much. Maybe a little romp in the sack might do you some good.”
“I’m not going to sleep with him to get what I need for this case. It’s not professional. As a woman PI, I’m held to a much higher standard than men.”
“Just saying. That would be an easy way to get into his room if you needed it.”
“But even if I can’t find the money in his home and his bank accounts don’t show anything, the information I already have on him is enough to convince your credit card companies to reimburse you for the fraud. If you want to give me their customer service numbers, I can call on your behalf later next week.”
“That would be wonderful,” she said. “For some reason, they don’t believe me when I tell them I’ve been robbed.”
“They’re just being cautious, especially with the amount of money that’s been taken. It’s money the company will have to insure and reimburse, which means they won’t see any fun payments from you on it.”
“Greedy little assholes.”
“Since when did you become so angry?” I asked.
“Since some pathetic excuse for a man thought he could wiggle between my legs and then steal my shit. I’ll enjoy seeing him rot in prison. Maybe I could pay someone to
make him their prison bitch.”
“All right, Destiny, we need to have a talk,” I said. “It’s one thing to be upset, but some of the things you’re saying are making me question your motives for this case. Yes, you’ve got every right to be angry, but now I feel the need to tell you this. Now that you know who he is and where he works, if you reach out to him in any way, it’ll compromise this case.”
“I know, I know.”
“And if you threaten him in any way, and he comes after you, I can’t protect you.”
“I hear you, I know. It’s just, one of those credit cards is the one I use every Christmas. My son’s father is completely absent. One of the reasons why we got as much money from him as we did was because he had no intentions of raising his own damn son.”
“I know,” I said.
“If I can’t get that card reimbursed, I’ll have to dig into one of the only two funds that are automatically at my disposal. Everything is still tied up in escrow until other things are settled.”
“I know, Destiny. I’m going to get you your money. Next week, I’m calling the credit card companies. But your anger is worrying me. I’ve warned you, and now, it’s time to take a deep breath and trust me.”
“All right, I will,” Destiny said.
The two of us ate our lunch and split a slice of blueberry cheesecake. No more talk was dedicated to Wesley, though I could tell my friend was still upset. Little things that worked their way into the conversation worried me a bit, so I decided to keep tabs on Destiny and what she was doing for the duration of this case.
“Lunch is on me today,” she said. “Don’t worry about it. It’s the least I can do.”
“But none of your credit cards work.”
“I’ve got a bit of cash and one account I still have access to. I only use it when I need to or when my son needs something for school, but I wanted to treat you to lunch. Like I said, you don’t get out much.”
“Thanks, I think,” I said.
“Let me know when you get home all right, okay?”
“I will. And remember what I said.”
The moment I left the restaurant and got into my car, my phone rang. I sighed, leaning my head against my seat before I drew my phone from my purse. Immediately, my breathing stopped. Wesley’s name was scrolling across the screen, and I considered not picking up, letting him go to voicemail. My hand was trembling and my mouth was dry, and before I could even make a decision, my body already made it for me.
Funny, it was doing that a lot these days.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hey there, Olivia. I wasn’t sure you’d pick up.”
“Hey, Wes. How are you doing?”
“Honestly? Worried about you. You’ve been running out on me a lot lately, and I figured I might have chased you off for good.”
“Oh, no,” I said. “Nothing like that. Just a lot on my mind, I guess.”
“Would you like to talk about it? Maybe at my place tonight?”
I closed my eyes before a smile crawled across my cheeks. I knew if I went tonight, no work would be done. I could fool myself into thinking I’d snoop around. I could fool myself into thinking I’d ask sneaky little questions to pull more information from him.
But this time, I simply wanted to sit in his presence.
“Are you free in the next half hour?” I asked.
“I am. Would you like to come over in the next half hour?”
“I’ll see you soon, Wes.”
“I can’t wait to see you, Olive.”
Chapter 21
Wesley
After my talk with Chad, I decided to take him up on his advice. I wouldn’t call her until Saturday afternoon, and maybe we could sit down and talk. In the meantime, I decided I would look over the paperwork she’d given me. After all, there was still a business deal on the table and money I was looking to pocket sometime next week. I was ready to be rid of that property as well as this professional wall that sat between the two of us.
But when my eyes graced back over the name of the lawyer, I realized why the name jumped out at me.
Nelson Wainwright was the lawyer I’d used on several occasions for my own cons.
I sat back in my chair as my mind began to spin. The stuttered answers. The hesitant glances in my direction. The scurrying off Olivia had been doing. All the red flags I usually looked for in women were now starting to flood to the forefront of my memory, and I cursed myself for being so stupid.
Olivia was pulling something over on me, and I’d allowed her to do it.
I read through the contract over and over again before taking to my computer. I looked up Nelson Wainwright and placed a strategic call to his secretary. I asked a few pointed questions about things the lawyer could help me with, and one of the questions was whether or not Wainwright had connections with someone in the city named Olivia Hart.
“Ah, heard her name around the block a few times, huh?” the secretary asked. “He frequently partners up with her. She’s the premier private investigator in the city. Are you in need of some sort of assistance?”
Private investigator? Olivia?
My Olivia?
“Thank you for your time,” I said before I hung up the phone.
Olivia hadn’t only pulled the wool over my eyes, she was investigating me. I thought back to the last woman I conned and the credit cards I took from her wallet. I thought about the money still sitting in a safe in my kitchen pantry, and my blood began to boil. Olivia had conned me. Seduced me. Wrapped me around her little finger by using that tight little pussy of hers to pull me in. I slammed my phone down on my table, raking my hands through my hair, and then Chad’s words tumbled back into my mind.
I would call her this afternoon to see if she wanted to talk.
I was shocked when she answered the phone, and even more shocked when she said she would come over. I went and got a bottle of dark red wine and popped it open, precisely for the occasion. Blood red wine was used in transactions like these. Transactions that required blunt force truth before someone got their heart broken. I poured the bottle into a decanter to aerate it before I pulled two wine glasses from the cabinet. Then, I took everything over to the table to wait.
Twenty-five minutes later, I watched Olivia’s car pull into the driveway. I took the paperwork and placed it in the middle of the table and then beckoned Olivia to come through the sliding door when she knocked.
“Hey there, Wes,” she said, smiling.
“Would you like a glass of wine?” I asked.
“I’d love—”
She came around the corner and caught my icy stare before her eyes panned down to the paperwork. In a large red marker, I’d circled Nelson Wainwright’s name. I watched the confusion roll behind her eyes before I ushered her to sit down. Then, I took a sip from my wine glass and waited. I wanted to see if she would come clean. I wanted to see if I could back her into a corner. I wanted to see if she would be the first to speak.
The first to admit. The first to grovel.
“I have a confession to make,” I said when Olivia didn’t begin.
“All right,” she said, grabbing her wine glass.
“I’m a con artist.”
Olivia spat her wine back into her glass before she set it back onto the table. My eyes hooked heavily onto her as she wiped at her chin, then I slid her a napkin so she could clean herself up. When her eyes rose back to mine, I watched the entire wall come crashing down. This was never about emotion or professionalism or unabashed desires she didn’t want to admit to.
No, the wall was because she was running her own con, and I cursed myself for not seeing it sooner.
“What?” Olivia asked.
“I’m a con artist,” I repeated. “I’ve conned women into falling in love with me, and sometimes, I’ve taken things that aren’t mine. I’m not proud of it, but I did what I had to do until I was making enough at the bar to fend for myself.”
“Is that what you told yours
elf when you were gallivanting through Texas and Alabama as well?” she asked.
“So, it’s true,” I said. “You’re a private investigator.”
“You know Nelson Wainwright,” she said.
“Not particularly. I’ve used his services on a couple of occasions with women I’ve backed myself into a corner with, and he’s been particularly helpful. One strategic call to his wife with a well-placed question and she was more than willing to tell me what you actually did for a living.”
“I partner myself with Wainwright frequently, yes. Now, are you willing to listen?”
“I don’t give a shit what you have to say,” I said. “You conned me.”
“Doesn’t feel great, does it?” she asked. “The name Destiny Smart ring a bell?”
“Why would it?”
“Because that’s the woman you recently conned, even though you seem to make enough at the bar to hold your own,” she said.
“That’s why you’re investigating me?” I asked. “Because she hired you?”
“Yes. She called me up crying and told me she’d been duped by some hottie with a nice body and steely gray eyes. No money in her wallet and all her credit cards were maxed out. Ring a bell?”
“Vaguely.” My hands clenched in my lap. How the hell could I have missed this? How the fuck did Olivia pull the wool over my eyes like this?
