“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Gabe said with a grin. The hair pricked up on the back of his neck as soon as he’d spoken the words. The smooth TV chef routine he’d perfected now turned his stomach. He was no longer that man.
A slow clap came from behind as Wesley and Lena melted into the crowd.
“Bravo, old boy!”
What the hell?
This day had started off fucking perfect. They’d made it to Oktoberfest, and the event was a success. Christ, he’d even impressed Oma. In a few short hours, he wouldn’t give a damn who knew he loved Monica Brandt. He was ready to shout it from the rooftop.
Corbyn Howell was not supposed to be a part of this day.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“That is not how you should greet the best PR rep in the business.”
“Really, Corbyn, why are you in Langley Park?”
The man ran his fingertips across the blue and white gingham tablecloth and grimaced as if he’d never encountered anything with less than an eighteen hundred thread count. “I’m here to whisk you away from this provincial place. Aren’t you dying to get back to the city?”
“You could have called.”
“I wanted to surprise you! All this time playing a boy scout, or should I say, Camp Fire kid, has sponsors salivating.” He brushed at the lapels of his perfectly tailored suit. “The networks have taken notice, too. What a brilliant call to do public radio and all those spots on the local news.”
A muscle ticked in Gabe’s jaw. He wanted to throttle the man. Punch his damned teeth out so he couldn’t say another word, but he couldn’t. It wouldn’t be right. It wasn’t Corbyn’s fault. The Gabe that Corbyn had known only weeks ago was a man who would have jumped at the opportunity to go back to New York.
“Oh! I didn’t see you there, dear,” Corbyn said, lips curling into a cat-like grin.
Monica stared at the man, but Corbyn didn’t seem to notice the look of shock on her face and pushed on. “Great call finding a model sidekick. You are a model, right? You look familiar. I just can’t place you at the moment. You two look fabulous together.” He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a business card. “After I get the chef all squared away back in civilization, we should talk. There’s no reason that someone as lovely as you should be stuck here.”
Monica’s hand flew to her chest, but her locket was missing.
Her gaze danced between them. “I…I need to go back to the bakery. I forgot my locket.”
The breath caught in his throat. How much had she heard?
That was a stupid question. Her expression said it was everything.
She turned and pushed her way through the people and disappeared outside the tent.
“Monica!” he called, but Corbyn held onto his arm.
Gabe glared at the man. “If you don’t get your paws off me, Corbyn, touching me will be the last thing you ever do.”
Corbyn raised his hands in mock surrender. “Why are you upset? She’s just another model, yeah?”
“I wish to hell I could show you what you’ve just done. But that would mean I’d have to rip your fucking heart out and jam the damned thing down your throat.”
Corbyn smirked. “Look who’s back. Hello, chef.”
Gabe ran his hands through his hair and gestured for his brother to come over. “Sam, I need to get to the bakery. Can you keep an eye on the food?”
Sam narrowed his gaze. “Don’t even think about changing out of the lederhosen. If I’m stuck in them, so are you.”
His chest felt like it was going to explode, but he reined in his anger. “It’s about Monica. It’s important. I’m not fucking around.”
Sam eyed Corbyn. The city slicker looked terrified. “Leave your little friend with me. We’ll be fine. Go do what you need to do.”
Gabe barked a few orders to his line cooks. He should have taken off the damned fire-retardant apron he’d been wearing while he worked the grill, but he didn’t have time. He needed to get to Monica. He pulled out his phone. It was worth a shot, but his call went to voicemail.
Dammit!
He worked his way through the crowd. He hadn’t gotten ten feet before a fan stopped him. Then two more people came over.
“Chef, the food is great!”
“Chef, can I get an autograph?”
His pulse racing, he shook their hands, signed a scrap of paper, then gave a hasty goodbye.
He couldn’t lose Monica. Not to something as stupid as a fucking misunderstanding. He broke through the crowd and doubled his pace through the gardens.
“Chef! Chef!” called a voice, but Gabe kept moving.
“Chef, it’s Jonah! Stop!”
Gabe whirled around. “Jonah, whatever it is, it can wait.”
“No, it can’t! I’ve done something terrible!”
“Kid, burning a strudel or dropping a tray of pretzels is the least of my worries. Sam’s in charge. Go to him. He’ll help you sort whatever it is.”
Jonah shook his head. “No, it’s something else. Miss Brandt might be in trouble.”
An icy chill rippled down his spine. “What do you mean, Jonah?”
“Remember that night Miss Brandt called me? She asked if I’d let anyone in the shop while you guys were at the botanic gardens?”
Jesus, he didn’t have time for this shit.
“Just tell me what you did, Jonah.”
The teen’s eyes filled with tears. “I did let someone in.”
“Who?”
“It was Miss Brandt’s friend, Mrs. Vanderkamp. She was with a man. He had a long scar on his face.”
Could it have been Alexsey Strazds?
Gabe couldn’t breathe. That was weeks ago.
“Why did you let Mrs. Vanderkamp in? What did she want?”
“At first, she just asked about me. She said she could tell I was a hard worker. She was really nice. Then she got all serious and said Miss Brandt had something of hers. She said Miss Brandt might not even know she has it, but that it was important, and it might get her hurt. She said, she just wanted a quick look around, and that she was trying to help Miss Brandt. Then she told me that if I said anything, I could be endangering her and even my own mother.”
“What was it? Did Mrs. Vanderkamp find what she was looking for?”
A hot blush crept up Jonah’s neck. “No, she didn’t. So she started paying me to look around.”
“For what, Jonah?”
“A flash drive for a computer. Those things are pretty small.”
The pieces clicked together in his mind. Somehow, Monica had escaped that pool house with something valuable.
Jonah looked at the ground. “After a few weeks of finding nothing, she asked if I’d let her make a copy of my key to the bakery.”
“Jonah, you didn’t.”
The teen wiped a tear from his cheek. “Mrs. Vanderkamp said it was really important to find this flash drive. She said if I gave her the key, she could come in on her own. I wouldn’t have to snoop around anymore. She said if we could keep this a secret, she’d give my mother a really good job in one of her companies.” He brushed away another tear. “I just wanted to do something for my mom. She always protected me from my dad. She took every beating. We had to live in the women’s shelter for months. I wanted to show her I could be a man. I could help us start a new life.”
“Jonah,” Gabe said and gripped the boy’s shoulder. “I know you didn’t do this to hurt Miss Brandt, but you need to tell me why you think she’s in danger?”
“I overheard the man. He said today was Mrs. Vanderkamp’s last chance to find the drive before he stepped in.”
Gabe’s phone buzzed. Monica was calling. He answered. “Mon! Mon! Are you all right?”
At first, only muffled sounds came through. Monica’s phone had been tucked in her blouse. She’d been accidentally making calls on it all day. He was about to hang up when he heard a voice and his breath caught in his throat.
He scanned the tables a
nd found the sunflower in the hair of Lena Glenn. “Jonah, I need your help. I have to get to the bakery.” He pointed to where Agent Glenn was sitting with his wife. “Get this phone to the man sitting next to that woman with a sunflower in her hair. He’s an FBI agent. Tell him to listen. Tell him Alexsey Strazds may be at the bakery. Tell him Monica is in trouble.”
23
Monica brushed a tear from her cheek.
How could she have been so stupid?
Adrenaline coursed through her body as she ran toward the bakery. The town was eerily quiet with everyone attending Oktoberfest in the botanic gardens. Closed signs hung in darkened shop windows. No laughter. No conversations. Only the sweet song of a lone western meadowlark filled the air. Monica reached inside her blouse, pushed past her cell phone, and pulled out her key to the bakery.
She jammed the key into the lock as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Was it all a lie?
Was Gabe only here to clean up his reputation?
Was he about to leave her for his dream just as she’d left him?
The door opened without even having to disengage the lock. Perfect! In their haste to get to Oktoberfest, they’d left the place wide open. She reached for her locket, but it wasn’t there. Her gaze flew to the work table. There it was. She walked past the display case when a crash cut through the silence.
“Hello?” she called. Another surge of adrenaline hit.
Breathe. It could be Jonah or one of the Park Tavern employees.
“Monica,” Courtney said, staring out at her from Oma’s office.
She wasn’t her usually coiffed self. She’d rolled up her sleeves, creasing the expensive material of her blouse, and her blond hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail.
“What are you doing here, Court?”
Courtney yanked open a cabinet. “Where is it? I know you have it?”
“What are you even talking about?” she asked.
“The jacket, Monica. The jacket you took from the pool house.”
The earth stopped turning. Time disintegrated. The voices came back, and there she was, huddled behind the shower curtain. The woman’s voice was Courtney’s. The low voice, Chip. The higher voice, Bryson. She could hear the same voices laughing over pizza from a decade ago until Courtney’s urgent tone broke through the haze.
“Monica, where is it? I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”
Monica leaned against the wall as the realization hit her. The shock of it nearly brought her to her knees. “You killed Alexsey Strazds.”
“She did?” came a low voice with a thick accent. “Should I go see the doctor? I feel fine.”
Standing at the foot of the stairs that led to the apartment was the Black Bird, Alexsey Strazds. A scar ran down the side of his cheek, but his hair was longer now, hiding the slight pink line. She glanced down at his hand. He was wearing the ring with a tree.
“You like my ring?” he said with a smirk. He held up his hand. “This is back from my Stanford days when my family hoped I would turn out to be a regular, crooked oligarch.”
Heavy footfalls lumbered down the steps, and Monica gasped as Chip Wilkes sauntered down the hall.
He pinned her with his gaze. “We’ve fucked around enough with this bitch! Where is it, Monica?”
She couldn’t think. Blood, thick and ruby red colored her vision. She crossed her arms around herself protectively and felt her phone. In all the excitement, she’d forgotten it was there. A surge of hope shot through her. She’d been accidentally calling people all day. All she could do was pray she’d make another accidental call, and the recipient would hear she needed help.
“Bryson,” Monica said. “You shot Bryson.”
Courtney met Chip’s gaze.
The weight of her situation sank in. She had not only taken a cybercriminal’s ransomware by accident. She also witnessed her childhood friend murder her husband.
“For Christ’s sake!” Chip cut in. “Where’s the coat?”
Monica blinked. “I never brought it inside. It’s still in my car.”
Alexsey released a bemused chuckle. “All this time, the drive has been locked inside a heap of junk. Come on, Chip. Let’s go get it. I need a smoke.”
“Where are your keys?” Chip barked.
Monica pointed to the set hanging on the hook by the door.
Alexsey pulled out a pack of cigarettes and placed one between his lips then followed Chip out the back.
The door slammed shut. She didn’t have much time. The men would be back in less than five minutes. She had to try and reason with Courtney. God only knew what Chip and Alexsey had in store for her.
“How did you know I had the coat? I ran. Nobody saw me. I got on a bus. I got back to my car, and I left for Langley Park that night.”
Courtney went to her purse and pulled out a card, and Monica’s heart sank.
Her old friend held up a familiar rectangle. “You left your card. You must have dropped it when you went out the window. At first, we didn’t know why the hell you were in that bathroom. Then we learned you were just one of the hired eye-candy for the party.”
“So, you followed me back to Langley Park?”
Courtney crossed her arms. “No one thought anything of the boys and I being back in Mission Springs. We’d moved my father here after his last stroke. When I learned about Oktoberfest, I thought helping you would give me an opportunity to get the drive.”
“Why are you mixed up with cybercriminals? None of it makes any sense. You’re rich! You’re successful!”
Courtney laughed, a biting, bitter sound. “It’s all a façade. For the last few years, schemes and private investors have kept us running on empty. My father had made a series of bad decisions, and then he had his first stroke, and we learned the extent of our financial ruin. We were on the brink of losing everything when Chip and I decided to ask Lex for help.”
“But why kill Bryson? He was your husband.”
Courtney shook her head. “He was never a real husband. Our fathers pushed us into it. They liked the idea of a Wilkes-Vanderkamp blood alliance. Ridiculous old money mentality.”
Monica glanced at the door. “Court,” she pressed. “That’s still not a reason to kill.”
The woman stared down at the giant, sparkling diamond on her ring finger. “I overheard Bryson on a late-night call with his mistress. He thought he could fool Lex—make him think he was an unknown competitor bidding on the ransomware. He thought if he paid Lex enough, he could sell it to our competitors. He wanted to take my boys and leave me with no financial means to fight him. We had a prenup. In the event of a divorce, I couldn’t touch his money, and he couldn’t touch mine—but my fortune was gone. Bryson knew we were friendly with Lex. But he didn’t know our friendship went back to our childhood summers in France. Lex clued us in on Bryson’s deceit, and we set up the whole Portola Valley meeting to catch him. When Lex texted the competitor trying to outbid us, the text went to Bryson’s phone. The stupid bastard! He’d gone into that meeting thinking Lex was going to turn us down. But I had to know it was him. I had to see it with my own eyes. I had to know that killing my husband was the right thing to do. The only thing to do. It was my only choice. One way or another, he would have ruined us.”
“This isn’t who you are, Court!” Monica said, voice shaking.
Courtney’s gaze darkened. “This is who I have to be! Not all of us get everything we want. Did you have to watch as your husband’s reckless decisions ruined your family’s life work? Did you have to enter into a loveless marriage? Did you have to sit by and look like a fool? All the other women Bryson had, I wouldn’t have even cared if he’d even attempted to hide it. I never wanted Bryson in that way. I never wanted Bryson the same way I wanted you, Monica.”
“Wanted me?” Monica whispered. “I’ve always loved you, Court. I loved you as my best friend.”
Courtney’s gaze softened. “I know, but it wasn’t enough. Why do you think I tried t
o set you up with my brother?”
“I don’t understand? You said he liked me?”
Courtney huffed. “Chip liked anything with tits and ass. He still does.”
“Then why did you want me to be with him?”
She shook her head. “I was young. I knew you didn’t want me the same way I wanted you. I thought, if you and Chip hit it off, then maybe there was a chance the two of you would end up together. Then I’d get you, too. It was foolish and simpleminded. That life seems so far away.”
A beat of silence stretched between them.
Monica glanced at the door. “What happens now?”
Her friend gave her a sad smile. “I disappear with my boys. Chip will do what he can to rebuild our companies.”
Monica released a shaky breath. “What about me?”
Courtney cupped her cheek. “Just like Portola Valley, you seem to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Monica tried to speak, but she had no words. She had to get out of there. Her gaze darted to the door as it flew open. Chip entered, and Alexsey followed behind with the black sports coat draped over his arm.
“Did you find it?” Courtney asked.
Alexsey held up the flash drive.
Chip met his sister’s gaze. “Your car just pulled up, Court. The plane is ready. The boys are already onboard with the nanny.”
“Courtney,” Monica gasped. She couldn’t let her friend leave.
“What are you going to do, Chip?” Courtney asked.
A smooth smile stretched across his face. “Alexsey and I are going to tie up a few loose ends.”
“Courtney, please, don’t go!” Monica called out.
The woman retrieved her purse. “Goodbye, Monica, I never wanted it to be like this.”
Courtney left the bakery, and the air grew heavy.
Monica’s gaze bounced between the men. “Why do you even need the flash drive? You’re one of the best hackers in the world, couldn’t you have just made another?”
Alexsey rolled the drive between his fingers. “Someday, you would have found it, and you would have given it to the FBI.” He took a step closer. “I don’t give these to just anyone, not even women as beautiful as you.”
The Complete Langley Park Series (Books 1-5) Page 104
