He stood up and stretched his arms to the ceiling. “Way to let the four-year-old boss you.”
“I’m going upstairs,” I told him.
“Me too,” Brianna said as she shot up the staircase ahead of me.
I peered into Deliah’s room. She was reading on her back on her bed.
“Can I talk to Deliah alone?” I asked. My sister bounced on the end of her mattress and shook her head. “It’s not a question. Go downstairs and ask Gabe for a Popsicle.”
I walked into the girls’ room and sat on Brianna’s bed. The furniture was moved around again. I sort of felt bad for her. I never had to bunk with my sister.
“Does Shelly know when she’s moving yet? We could have a going-away sleepover.”
She didn’t respond.
“Whatever Gabe said to you—we just want to make sure you’re okay. You shouldn’t be going to a motel with anyone.”
She turned the page on her book and did a lousy job making me believe she was absorbed in her reading.
“Deliah,” I said loudly.
“What?”
It was no use. I left.
“What do you want for dinner?” I asked Gabe as we walked down Meggie’s driveway twenty minutes later.
“I’m not going home.” He waved Deliah’s room card in front of my eyes.
“How did…I put that back in her bag,” I said.
“I took it out of her bag. I’m going to check out the room and find out what she’s up to. If she’s meeting Travis—or some guy—I’ll kill them.”
I didn’t know where the motel was, so I let Gabe drive. He parked the Jeep in the dry cleaner’s parking lot next door. The motel looked nothing like the slummy roadhouse I imagined.
“What about our dinner? What about taking it easy? You should be sleeping in your own bed,” I said when we let ourselves into the room on the first floor. There was nothing unusual about it.
“Go empty the vending machines. This room’s been paid for at least another night.” He fell onto the bed and tossed me his wallet. “You’ll have a hard time paying with just your good looks.”
“Way to show a girl a good time,” I said.
“If Mona Deliah shows up with Travis, I’m gonna scare the livin’ farm boy out of him.”
“Deliah won’t forgive you if you hurt him. He’s a nice kid who saved you,” I replied. “And how do you expect them to get in here?” I held up the card.
“They’ll get in if they want to get in.” Gabe covered his face with his cap. “We’ll see how you feel when dudes start stalking your little sis.”
I came back to the room carrying our snacks in the front of my shirt. Gabe finally answered the door after I kicked it loud enough to wake him.
“You can’t scare anyone if you’re asleep.” I handed him a Coke. “Can we just go home now?”
“Go ahead.” He sat down on the bedspread where I dumped the food. “Nice dinner, dear.”
“I spent twenty-seven dollars so you better like it.”
Gabe tore into a bag of white cheddar Cheez-Its. I opened a Snickers bar. Apparently, I needed sugar more than the candy fiend. In less than a half hour, we ate everything from Cool Ranch Doritos to Rice Krispies Treats.
I fell back and yawned. I was good for the night. “How long do we wait?”
“Until we figure out what’s going on.”
“What if we both fall asleep?”
“Bolt the door. Chain it too. Nobody will get in without making a racket.”
I checked the hallway before I locked the door. Then I curled up beside Gabe and yawned. As my eyes were closing, I wondered why we didn’t just go to the front desk and ask who reserved the room.
* * *
“Housekeeping!”
I rubbed my eyes.
“Housekeeping!”
It was morning.
“Gabe, we overslept.” I shook his shoulder. He had his head on my ribs.
“Where are we?” he drawled sleepily.
“Get up. We’re in the motel room. The housekeeper’s banging down the door.”
I sat up and fixed my hair into a ponytail. Gabe’s head slid onto my legs, and he yawned. He wrapped his hands around my waist and tried to cuddle.
“Housekeeping!” the woman hollered.
Gabe rolled off the bed and held his head. “Hold your dang horses,” he muttered as he stumbled toward the door.
“Can we end the stakeout now?” I asked as he walked back in the room.
“I told her we needed twenty minutes. I’ll go to the desk and ask who paid for this room on the way out.” He walked into the bathroom and shut the door.
I flipped through the TV channels while he showered. A severe weather warning scrolled across the bottom of the screen. The weather woman was discussing a cold air mass that was expected to cause violent thunderstorms over Williston and surrounding areas.
Gabe rubbed the towel over his hair until it stuck up straight. Beads of water dripped down his chest to his waistband. I could feel the heat from his shower radiate off his middle as he stepped up to me. I kissed his stomach scar while he ran his fingers through my bed hair. Suddenly, he spun around to face the television and grabbed the remote. He frantically hit the volume button.
“Lieutenant Colonel Joel Halden, CEO of Halden-Remington Global Holdings and International Trading Corporation and Halden-Remington Oilfield Services, escorted his brother Judson Halden into the Williams County Law Enforcement Center. We have not received comment from Lieutenant Colonel Halden,” said the reporter as they showed footage of Halden Tower and then flashed to the justice center.
I strung my hands around Gabe’s chest and peered over his shoulder to watch. A handful of men were walking behind Judson and Joel.
“Gabe, there’s Caleb,” I interrupted. “Who are all those men?”
“Shhh!” he hissed.
“Is Judson being arrested?”
He flipped the channel, and we watched the same footage on the next station. They showed the last man walking through the doors. The report was live.
“No shit. Lane’s with them at the station.”
I scooted off the bed. “Lane’s back?”
Gabe grabbed his shirt while I stood in front of the TV. He opened the door and marched into the hall as I listened to the last of the story.
“Av’ry, move it!” he hollered.
There was nothing to grab. I pulled the door shut.
We came to the end of the hall. The exit was blocked by construction men and scaffolding.
“Damn,” Gabe swore and kicked the wall with his boot.
“Take it easy. We can go through the entrance,” I said when I recognized he was out of breath.
A dozen oil workers were hanging out in the motel lobby. Some of them were greeting their families. A man wearing a HalRem hat cornered Gabe to chat just as a thunderous boom hit the roof. I waved to show him that I was heading to the Jeep and then ran like crazy through the parking lot.
While I waited for Gabe to follow me, I spotted a woman with red hair approach the entrance and stand under an awning with a suitcase. She stared at Gabe as he passed her. I watched her study him with a stunned expression, clearly more bothered by his uncanny resemblance to Judson than the fact that the storm was about to take out the motel.
“The room is Judson’s,” I muttered to myself before Gabe reached the Jeep.
I didn’t have to ask where we were going, but I got a twinge of discomfort as I noticed the gloomy cloud directly above us. It was going to pour before we got to the police station.
“They wouldn’t tell me who paid for the room. But Jud didn’t do anything,” Gabe said as he started the engine. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re wrong.”
I couldn’t tell him I figured out the room was Judson’s or that Judson knew the woman standing under the awning. I was questioning if Betsy the stripper was even a stripper. I was also questioning why Judson had an entourage with him at the station if he ha
d nothing to hide.
We reached the justice building at the exact moment the heavy rain pummeled the roof. Gabe parked at the curb and ran ahead of me, past a pack of reporters huddling under umbrellas.
“Yo, brother,” Caleb said when he noticed us.
“Why the hell didn’t I get a call?” Gabe asked.
“You were in the hospital. Dad didn’t want to upset you.”
“Don’t you think I should be the one who’s here?” Gabe’s face turned three shades of red before it settled on crimson. “I needed to be here.”
Caleb peered around his brother. “Howdy, legs.”
“Is Lane still here? I saw him on the news,” I said.
Caleb snorted. “He came home pissin’ vinegar.”
I covered my mouth. “Oh no—Molly was with you?”
Caleb nodded.
“Where’s Jud? I wanna see him,” Gabe asked.
“Dad’s in with him and the suits. They won’t let you in. There’s nothing you can do here.”
When Lane stepped out of a room at the end of the corridor, Gabe took off down the hall.
“If y’all wanna get breakfast, I’ll be in my truck,” Caleb told me as he ducked out.
I watched Lane pace toward me while I sorted out what I needed to say to him.
“Hey, Avery,” he said and tipped his hat. “I got your message.”
“But you didn’t think to answer it. Why did you come back now? You missed the wedding and everything.”
He bit his lips and gave me a look that told me to back off.
“Where did Gabe go?” I asked.
He jerked his chin around. “They got the lieutenant and Jud in separate rooms. I don’t know what they want with my dad. I thought they already questioned him.”
“I saw Judson with Brigg Barrett yesterday.”
Lane’s head swung back in slow motion, and his hazel eyes spread wide. “You couldn’t have.”
“I did,” I said with the urge to stomp my foot. “I was at the Ingarsons’.”
“Wait a damn minute. Jud was at the Ingarsons’ with Barrett?” he whispered. “You can’t be saying things like that.”
“Ask Erika Ingarson. She saw too.”
“I’m not asking her if she saw those two together. My dad would lose his shit on Judson after what Brigg’s done to the family and what his crooked son did to Eli.”
“I know. But you’re the one who told me Judson was shady. There’s your proof. I saw him with my own eyes. He’s hiding a stripper in a motel room too.”
Lane shook his head in a dismissing way.
“Gabe doesn’t see any of it.”
“You told him all that?” he asked.
“No. He hasn’t been himself. He wouldn’t believe me anyway.”
* * *
I talked Gabe into meeting Caleb for breakfast. We decided on the diner where Erika worked.
“Let’s lay it all out,” Caleb said as we waited for our order. “We found a skull in the middle of a field. How the heck did it get there?”
I met eyes with him. My stomach grumbled so loud I had to pretend it wasn’t me. “Was it dragged by an animal? Where’s the rest of him?”
“Do we have to do this now?” Gabe griped as he rested his head against the wall.
“Yeah, little brother, we do.”
Caleb regarded me, and I continued. “Judson’s got shot marks on his back. By the way I told him I knew about that.”
Gabe set his hand behind me on the seat and tugged on my ponytail. “What did he say?”
“Nothing much,” I answered. “Except that he was just helping your grandfather.”
Caleb lowered his chin. “He got shot running from something.”
“Maybe Barrett shot him,” I said.
Caleb lifted his gaze at Gabe, and then Gabe looked out the window and watched a man drive in on a motorcycle as the rain picked up.
“We don’t know any more about Oliver’s partner apart from the fact that he was a silent partner,” Caleb said.
“What does that really mean?” I asked.
“It means he forked over money to run Remington Petro Products but kept his name out of it. Supposedly, he was loaded when they started the company. One article said he had no family either.”
“RemPro was your grandfather’s oil company?”
“Went belly-up in the eighties. But dad musta known something that nobody else knew,” Caleb answered. “Future possibilities.”
“My father has some old toy trucks that say RemPro,” I said excitedly.
“Hell, we all had those toys, legs. They bit the dust back in the attic in Benjamin.”
I sat back and crossed my arms over my shirt. “Do we even know the partner’s name?”
“Valentine,” Gabe replied.
I shot him a sideward eye. “How did you know that?”
He shrugged and wound my hair around his finger.
“So we found Valentine. We’ve still got nothing on the murderer, and we don’t know how Judson is involved.”
“It wasn’t his skull,” said Lane. “Dental records didn’t match.”
I twisted my back and neck. He was standing behind my booth.
“It wasn’t Oliver’s partner?” I asked.
Caleb slid over on his bench, but Lane hesitated to go near him. I could cut the tension with a steak knife.
“Sit with us,” I offered. “Was that you riding in on the motorcycle?”
Lane sat down, removed his glasses, and rubbed the spot between his eyes while staring at me. He was soaking wet. “I only got a minute.”
He waved to the waitress who wasn’t Erika. He gave a quick order, and then none of the brothers spoke.
“You guys will work this out. Isn’t this where family comes together?”
Caleb laughed and raised his eyebrows. “This is about as together as we get.”
Lane shot his dagger eyes sideways. “If I ever find you doing the no pants dance on my property again—”
Gabe snickered. I hit his chest lightly with the back of my hand.
“How about we talk about something else?” I said as I set my elbows on the table.
“You tell them what you told me?” Lane asked.
I didn’t respond. I waited to see if he would pressure me.
“She saw Jud shake hands with the devil.”
Caleb leaned in and moved his orange juice out of the way. “Which devil?”
“Brigg Barrett,” I told him.
He sat back and rubbed the side of his face.
“Av’ry—what the hell?” Gabe said, grouchier than ever.
“I saw it happen. Erika was there. You can ask her.”
“For real?” Caleb asked as if I would make that up.
“Yes. Are you going to tell your father?” I asked.
Lane set his head in his hands. “I don’t know how that would help. Dad’s down at the station trying to protect Jud from whatever they got on him.”
“Barrett’s gonna do or say anything to piss off the lieutenant,” Gabe said. “He lost mom. He lost his son, and he lost Longbranch Oil. He’s jealous and ruthless.”
“It’s some kind of blackmail,” Caleb replied. “I hope Jud knows what he’s doing.”
* * *
Gabe made it clear he didn’t want to hear my theories about Judson while we waited at the police station that afternoon. He sulked on the bench two spaces away from me with his eyes closed. There was more tension between us than there was between Caleb and Lane at breakfast. Though I had a feeling he was thinking hard about what I said.
After an hour with no news, Mr. Halden appeared in the hall. “Y’all need to leave. There’s nothing you can do here except attract attention,” he said as he pointed to the front door. “Margareta said there’s been some media noise on her road. I’d appreciate it if y’all could take care of it.”
“What’s going on?” Gabe asked. “Are they charging Jud?”
Mr. Halden set a hand on his s
houlder. “No, Gabriel. Please go home.”
“You need to tell me what you’re covering up,” Gabe insisted.
“There’s no cover-up. Go home. Get some sleep,” he said before he walked away.
“Yes, sir,” Caleb said under his breath.
“Hey,” Gabe shouted down the hall. “Ask Jud about his meeting with Barrett yesterday.”
I closed my mouth so fast I bit the inside of my cheek.
Caleb gasped and then pretended to cough.
“Gabe,” I whispered. “Please don’t.”
“You’re the one who wants everyone to know he’s a criminal,” he said annoyed. “If it’s true—we may as well put it out there now.”
I took Gabe’s arm. He felt warm. “This isn’t the best place to do it.”
Mr. Halden turned around and straightened his hat. He marched right back to us and slapped his palm against the wall beside Gabe’s head.
“Son—not here.”
Gabe stuck out his chin. “Go on, ask Judson. Av’ry saw him shake hands with Barrett. Ingarson was there.”
Caleb butted Gabe’s elbow and surprisingly Gabe moved away from Mr. Halden without saying another word. “Let’s go outside and get the stink off. Every time you open your mouth your brain falls out,” said Caleb.
* * *
I woke up early, just as the sun was warming the fields. Gabe had been asleep since evening the night before. I washed my face quietly in the bathroom. The storms had passed and left a cool misty feel to the land. There was a breeze blowing through the cabin. It was a refreshing break from the heat.
“Y’all shouldn’t leave the door unlocked and open.”
I knew the voice. He was wearing a HalRem cap backward. I walked to the front door and spotted Lane sitting on my front step.
“What are you doing out there?”
I opened the screen and stepped around him when he didn’t move.
“I must have forgotten to lock it. I was listening to the thunder. Gabe went to bed early.”
“It’s not safe out here.”
“Gabe owns a gun. Why are you here?” I sat down beside him.
He set his hand behind me and leaned over. “We’ve got work to do.”
“You’re going to work? You just got back.” I was suddenly conscious that I was only wearing a T-shirt, and it wasn’t doing much for my modesty. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Lane anymore.
The Luxury of Being Stubborn (The Stubborn Series Book 4) Page 20
