Dirty Money

by Denise Grover Swank

  Rose had worked with Bruce Wayne at the Sonder job site on Thursday, and enjoyed it so much she returned the next day, leaving me alone in the office on Friday afternoon. I was working on a design when the bell on the door dinged. I looked up, expecting to see Joe bringing me a latte, but my jaw dropped open when I recognized the woman who was dressed rather casually for a criminally insane outlaw: jeans, a sweater, and a hoodie.

  “Surprise, sis,” Kate said, her dark, shoulder-length hair swaying as she walked toward me.

  I rolled my chair closer to the drawer that held my purse…and my gun. “Kate.”

  “I told you I’d drop in. I figured today was good—TGIF and all. Maybe we can do Happy Hour and get margaritas or daiquiris or whatever women do at those things.” She walked closer to me. “You can even invite Rose.”

  “Somehow I don’t think Rose will want to come,” I said.

  Kate propped her butt against the edge of Rose’s desk. “I guess the whole pregnancy thing is puttin’ a crimp on her social drinkin’, but then, Rose was never much of a drinker, was she?”

  I tried to hide my fear that Kate knew about Rose’s pregnancy, but I wasn’t sure why I was surprised. It wasn’t like the baby was a secret.

  “So invite that other woman—what’s her name? Caroline?”

  If I’d been scared before, now I was terrified. Nothing good would come of her knowing Carly’s real name.

  “What do you want, Kate?”

  “Are you replacing me with that new girl, Neely Kate?”

  “No,” I choked out. “Carly is staying with Rose. She’s Rose’s friend.” Although I wasn’t sure that admission would do much to protect her. She’d planned to kill Rose at one point, after all.

  “And you’re stayin’ with your sexy man at his new house he bought for you.” She leaned forward, searching my left hand. “No engagement ring yet. I figured that boy would have put a ring on it already.”

  I swallowed, unsure what game she was playing right now, which meant I didn’t know the safest way to respond. “I want to be your sister, Kate, but you can’t make me fear for everyone I care about. There’s room for you too.”

  “Isn’t that something mommies say to their kids? My heart has enough love for both of you?” She leaned back, bracing her hands behind her on the desk. “Here’s the thing—my mother never said that. She made it clear that Joe was the golden boy and I was the spare.” She released a bitter laugh. “The joke’s on her since there’s nothing to rule now. Daddy dearest made damn sure of that.”

  I slowly got to my feet and took a step toward her. “What do you want, Kate? Really? No games. Wouldn’t you like to just get to the part where you tell me what this is all about? You want us to be friends? Then let’s be friends.”

  “You don’t want to be my friend,” she said with a sneer. “You’d rather be friends with Rose and that new girl, Caroline. How about we get rid of them for good so I don’t have the competition.”

  Fear raced through my blood. “Kate, I moved out of Rose’s house right after you came back. I did that for you.” That was a truth I’d never admitted to anyone, not even Jed. I knew Kate had a fascination over me, and jealousy was up near the top of her seven deadly sins list. It made sense to put some distance between me and Rose, the woman Kate likely saw as her strongest competition for my affection.

  That caught her attention, and she tilted her head. “Go on.”

  “I was distancing myself from her so you and I could pick up where we left off. See? I want us to be sisters.”

  Kate stood and closed the distance between us. “Don’t lie to me, sister mine.”

  I shook my head, trying to keep control. Despite her inability to understand common logic, Kate had an uncanny ability to see through deception, so it was easiest to speak in partial truths. “Do you know how many nights I laid awake when I was a girl, prayin’ to God to give me a sister?”

  “Rose tried to take that role,” she spat.

  “No,” I said in a rush. “No, that was me, still searchin’ for what I needed. Then you showed up. But you have to admit you weren’t nice to me at first. You tried to kill me, Kate. I was scared of you.”

  She gave a slight nod. “I can see that.”

  “That was before you did all that to help me. I didn’t trust you back then, but you have to admit you didn’t give me much reason to.”

  “But you trust me now?” She sounded suspicious, not that I was surprised. I would be suspicious of me too.

  Which meant I really had to sell this.

  “I trust that you want to help me,” I said, “but I’m worried you’ll be too overzealous. I don’t want you to hurt my friends…or Joe.”

  She released a bitter laugh. “Joe.”

  “Joe cares about you too,” I said. “He let you go back in August, didn’t he?”

  “Only to save you,” she said in a harsh tone.

  “He never would have thought to save me by infiltrating Hardshaw, and he realized you were the only one who could pull it off. He wants us all to be together.”

  “No,” she said with a slow shake of her head. “He doesn’t love me anymore. He’s replaced me with you.” She lifted her hand to pinch a strand of my long blonde hair between her forefinger and thumb. “Maybe I should be more threatened by your love for Joe.”

  “No,” I whispered, realizing the only way to protect everyone was to prove to her that I loved her. Was it even possible? Was it even true? To my surprise, tears filled my eyes. “All I ever wanted was a family, Kate. A real family. A brother and a sister. Don’t take that from me, okay?”

  Something in her face softened as she studied me. “Okay, NK,” she said after a moment. “I’ll leave him be for now.”

  I threw my arms around her and hugged her.

  Her body stiffened at the contact and I realized I’d never hugged her before. In fact, she never made real body contact with anyone when I was with her, Jed excluded, but the way she’d touched him during our visits to the psych ward hadn’t been real. She’d been putting on a show.

  She jerked away from me as though I had a raging case of measles. “What are you doing?”

  “It’s called a hug, Kate.”

  “I’m not a hugger.”

  “Well, I am, so you better get used to it.”

  She gave me a perplexed look, then said, “I have something I need to show you, but I need the money.”

  “Did you run out of cash?” I asked.

  She snorted. “I’ve got more than enough money. I need your money. The money you earned thanks to that castrated asshole.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Why?”

  “Don’t you trust me?”

  “Do you want an honest answer?”

  Her eyes widened and all her bravado slid right off. “Yes.”

  “Call me a fool, but I meant what I said. I do think you’re tryin’ to help me. I trust that you want to be my sister.”

  She looked surprised, then her eyes narrowed. “Why do I hear a but in there?”

  “I can love more than one person at a time, Kate. I can love Joe, and Jed, and Rose, and even you. It’s not a line—it’s the God’s honest truth. But I don’t trust you with the other people I love, and it’s gettin’ in the way of lovin’ you.”

  Her face was expressionless for several seconds, and I was sure I’d played the wrong hand, but then her lips tilted into a small smile and a mischievous glint filled her eyes. “How about I make a deal with you to leave them alone?”

  “What do you expect me to do in return?”

  “We’re goin’ on a road trip.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  “I promised to make things right for you, but it seems like maybe it’s something we should do together. Sister bonding.”

  I studied her for a moment, sure she was about to start laughing at me for being so gullible, but she was serious. “You’re not plannin’ on killin’ anyone else, are you?”

  She pursed her lips,
considering it. “I can’t guarantee I won’t.”

  I scowled. “I won’t be an accessory to murder, Kate.”

  “Don’t worry, little sis. My goal is to get you out of trouble, not get you into it. So what do you say?”

  I couldn’t believe I was considering this. If Jed knew, he’d want to put me into hiding rather than Carly. “How long’s it gonna take?” I asked. “You were gone two months this time. I can’t be gone that long.”

  “I’ve been puttin’ the finishin’ touches on things. I think we can be back in a few days.” When I hesitated, she added, “Or I can go back to my original plan to get rid of a few of your friends to make room for me in your heart.”

  I wasn’t sure if she was bluffing. After all, she wasn’t stupid—she had to know hurting anyone I loved would destroy the chance of any kind of a relationship with me. And to my horror, some small part of me wanted to go with her. To be the wild Neely Kate I’d been before I’d married Ronnie and lost my babies.

  “I’m not your prisoner, am I?” I asked.

  “No,” she said with a serious look. “It won’t work if you are.”

  I wasn’t sure what she meant by that. She needed to know I wouldn’t run off? Or she needed me to be a willing participant?

  What did it say about me that I didn’t ask for clarification?

  “I have to be able to leave Jed a note,” I said. “He’ll be worried sick if I don’t.”

  “He’s never gonna let you go with me,” she said, starting to become agitated.

  “Jed Carlisle doesn’t own me. He doesn’t control what I do or don’t do. Granted, he won’t be too happy about this, but he can’t stop me.”

  She narrowed her eyes, clearly not buying it.

  “Think what you like, Kate, but it’s true. How soon do you want to leave?”

  “Now, of course, but we’ll need your bag of money.”

  “That’s a given.”

  “And we’ll need your tape.”

  The blood rushed from my head to my toes. “Excuse me?”

  “You know what I’m talkin’ about.”

  She was talking about the footage of me killing Pearce Manchester. The question was how she knew it existed.

  Branson must have told her before she killed him.

  “No,” I said quietly. “You can’t have that.”

  She leaned into my face and I could smell the breath mint she must have popped into her mouth before walking in to see me. “I thought you trusted me, NK.”

  “I trust Jed and he doesn’t have it either.”

  She put her hands on her hips. I was pretty sure she was going to insist I get it, but she surprised me by taking a step back. “Okay. My goal is for you to trust me enough to get it when we’re done.”

  That was never going to happen, but I’d let her figure that one out on her own.

  Chapter 13

  I shut down my computer and grabbed my purse. “We’re takin’ your car, I presume?”

  She grinned. “Yep.”

  I locked up the office, questioning my sanity as I followed her to a sporty, red two-door car. “You own this?”

  She shot me a grin. “I like to go fast.”

  “Are you a good driver?”

  Her smile faded. “The only accident I’ve ever been in was the one that robbed me of my baby.”

  The Simmons curse. All three of us had lost our children long before they were born.

  We got into the car—me in the passenger seat, her on the driver’s side—and she drove us out of the town square.

  “So Joe’s gonna be a daddy?” she asked, sounding skeptical.

  Did she know the truth about Rose’s baby? “Yes.”

  “Is he worried about the Simmons curse?”

  I hesitated. “We haven’t discussed it, but I’m sure he is.”

  “Why’d Rose kick him out?”

  How much did she know? Knowing Kate…everything. But I wasn’t about to volunteer information. “You’ll need to ask them.”

  “Come on, sis. I know you know.”

  “I’m not gonna tell you, Kate, so quit askin’.”

  She laughed. “This is gonna be fun.”

  I wasn’t surprised when she didn’t ask for any directions on the way to Jed’s house, and when she pulled up in front of it, she turned off her car and looked up at the two-story Victorian.

  I was proud of our house. Jed owned it, but he’d asked me to make it a home for both of us. It was mine too, he said. We’d decorated the inside together, but I’d designed the landscaping myself. Right now the front was bursting with yellow and orange chrysanthemums, and we’d stacked bales of hay off to the side and made a scarecrow.

  “You really want this domesticated bullshit, NK?”

  I turned to look at her, trying to figure out if I’d heard a bit of wistfulness in her voice. “Yeah, Kate. I do. Didn’t you want that with your fiancé and your baby?”

  She turned to look at me, her eyes hard. “Haven’t you figured out that’s not for us Simmons kids? Hell, Joe can’t have it with Rose, not that I expected that fickle bitch to let him stick around.”

  I could defend Rose, but it seemed safer to keep Kate in the dark. Then again, knowing my sister, this was another attempt to goad me into spilling information.

  “You could have had this too, Kate,” I said in a no-nonsense tone, “but you chose the path of acting like a psycho bitch.”

  She started laughing. “This trip is gonna be fun.” She opened her door and got out, which was how I found myself following her to my front door. Although she arrived first, she had to wait for me to fumble with my keys.

  “What?” I asked as I unlocked it. “No key to the front door?”

  A wry grin lit up her eyes. “No need for me to show off.”

  I opened the door and she followed me inside.

  “I’m surprised,” she said, looking around the living room. “I expected garage-sale chic.”

  I shot her a dark glare. “Watch it, Kate.”

  Her eyebrows lifted in amusement. “Or what?”

  I dropped my keys and purse on the entry table I’d actually bought at a flea market and turned to face her, crossing my arms over my chest. “If you’re gonna spend the entire trip insultin’ me, then maybe I should rethink this.”

  She crossed her arms and popped one hip out to the side, mocking me. “Agreed. We should. I’m feelin’ the need to destroy things and if I can’t insult you…” Her brow shot up, the insinuation as clear as her mama’s crystal.

  “I don’t get you,” I admitted. “You say you want to get closer to me, but you’re still threatenin’ me.”

  “I’m only joshin’ ya,” she said in a thick country accent. “I’m a little peckish. You got any of that raccoon jerky your aunt likes to make?”

  My glare turned deadly, but I wasn’t about to send her away or even call Jed or Joe to apprehend her. Part of it was that I wanted to keep both of them safe—and far away from her—but I had another reason for going with her.

  I wanted to get answers for myself instead of waiting for everyone to give them to me. Jed loved and cherished me, and he’d likely kill any man who dared to touch or hurt me, but his protection sometimes felt constrictive. He always watching, always worrying—and with good reason. All of us worried when Hardshaw—or Kate—would show up to hurt me. I was tired of sneaking peeks over my shoulder, checking to make sure I was safe. I needed to be free.

  The idea of a road trip with Kate scared the bejiggers out of me, but if she had an inkling of how to get Hardshaw off my back, I needed to go with her.

  I spun on my heels and headed up the stairs.

  “Where ya goin’, sister mine?” she called after me with a small laugh.

  “To pack.” And to get the money, but I wasn’t about to tell her that part yet. She’d find out soon enough.

  I had already packed several outfits into a duffel bag when Kate appeared in the doorway of the walk-in closet I shared with Jed.
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  “You’re thick into playin’ house, Neely Kate,” she said, leaning against the door jamb. “You’re sure that’s what you want?”

  I stopped packing and glanced up at her. “Why are you really askin’? So you know what to take away if you change your mind about all of this?”

  “So cynical,” she teased, then started sifting through the hanging clothes. “Mr. Sexy wears dress shirts?” She lifted one off the rod, hanger and all, turning it around to examine it.

  I refused to look at her or react. “On occasion.”

  “Not in that garage of his.”

  I picked up the duffel bag and headed into the master bath to get my toiletries. “Why do you always do that?” I asked bluntly. “Are you tryin’ to show off?” Then, in a mocking tone, I added, “Look at what I know.”

  She laughed, moving over to the large soaking tub and sitting on the edge.

  “Does that mean I’m right?” I asked, throwing cosmetics into a small bag.

  “How about I plead the fifth?”

  I glanced over my shoulder at her. “You could use your powers for good instead of evil.”

  She shot me a wicked grin. “And where would be the fun in that?”

  “Hardshaw’s movin’ into this county, Kate. You could help stop that.”

  “Sounds like Little Miss Perfect’s got that one wrapped up.”

  So she’d heard about Rose becoming the queen of the Fenton County underworld. I wasn’t surprised, but I wondered how many other people knew… Hardshaw was a given. Shoot, we could rent out a billboard announcing the news, but it would likely be a waste of money.

  “But you want to help me?” I asked.

  “I thought we’d covered that already.”

  “Forgive me if I find it hard to believe you.”

  “Have I lied to you yet, NK?”

  I turned around to face her. “No.”

  Her expression turned serious. “I’m gonna get you out of this, but I need you to trust me.”