She rolls her eyes, and I chuckle. I’m a lawyer, she’ll have to get used to me redirecting.
“I thought we would grill steaks. I’ve got two sirloins and some twice-baked potatoes.”
“Sounds artery clogging and delicious. My mouth is watering already.”
“When is the last time you made a meal for yourself?” she asks, putting the milk into the refrigerator.
“I’ve been known to make a midnight snack once in a while. Other than that, I usually eat out with clients or Callahan cooks.”
“I used to hate to cook before I bought this house. Now I love stirring something on the stove while I look out at the ocean.”
“The ocean calms some people. It brings them peace and focus, or so I’ve heard.”
“From who, Fiona?”
“For one, yes. She’s very attuned to her feelings.”
“Does the ocean bring you peace?” she asks.
“I’ve never spent much time around it, but it has an attractive rhythm.”
“Rhythm?”
“The flow of the surf in and out, the sound of the seagulls. You know, the vibe as Fiona would say.”
“Yeah, I get what you mean. It’s hypnotic. I find it hard to sleep away from home. I need the sound of the water to put me to sleep.”
“What about those apps with ocean sounds?”
“Nope, it’s not the same.”
I struggle to stand and make my way out onto the deck. I want to experience the vibe of the ocean in Trinity’s favorite spot. It’s a small deck, but she’s decorated it beautifully with plants, comfortable furniture, candles, twinkly lights, and a bird feeder.
“Your bird feeder is empty,” I call to her inside. She joins me, taking a deep breath of the ocean air.
“It’s only for looks. If I fill it, Bikini goes nuts when the birds land on the deck. I’m afraid she’ll launch herself right over the side.”
“Good point. She does have nine lives, however.”
“Oh no, she doesn’t. By my count, she’s down to two or three at this point. She’s had some near misses over the years.”
I look down at the cat pawing at a flower bloom in a pot next to the door. She looks calm enough. She must have a tiger side that comes out when she’s being reckless.
“Hey, neighbor!” a voice calls from the beach. “Thanks for coming to the party, hope you had a good time.”
Trinity smiles and waves at the man walking toward her deck. “Hello, I did. Thank you for inviting me.”
An uncomfortable pause in the conversation prompts her to introduce me when he is close enough to see she’s not alone. “Bodhi, this is Lennon. Lennon, Bodhi. Lennon is going to be staying here with me for a bit.”
“Cool, yeah, I know you, man. You’re one of Fiona’s frat-boy friends, aren’t cha?”
The way he says it makes it sound juvenile and silly. Being a part of Delta Eta Nu changed my life. It brought me lifelong friends and a sense of unity and inclusion I’d never felt before. I can’t stand the term frat boy. It’s shallow and lacks the dignity our fraternity deserves.
“I’m friends with Fiona, yes. Nice to see you.”
“Well, I gotta get back to the house. Star’s makin’ squid or something for dinner.” Bodhi makes a disgusted face, but it only lasts a second, and he’s smiling again. Trinity laughs, and I smile too, although not as brightly as Bodhi who seems to be glowing from within.
“Oh, hey before I go, I wanted to tell you your friend, Kelly, sorta like vanished. That douchey boyfriend of hers was here today looking for her. You might wanna tell her to watch her back if she’s hidin’ out.”
“Thanks, I’m not really friends with her, though. She dated Lennon in college.”
His head bobs up and down with understanding. “Gotcha, cool. Okay well, gotta bail, or Star’s gonna kill me.”
“Bye, Bodhi,” Trinity says, and we watch him make his way back to the mansion that seems so out of place in his life. When he is out of earshot, I turn to her.
“He was here looking for Kelly today. We should stay somewhere else, somewhere with security. I think we should go back to my house.”
“He doesn’t even know me. Why would he come looking for Kelly here?”
“I’m sure he has ways of finding out what happened.” What about Fiona? Could she be in danger too? “Shit.”
“What?”
“Didn’t you say Fiona knew BJ?”
“She said she knew of him. I’m not sure if they ever met.”
“We should call and warn her that he might come around asking questions.” I sit on a lounger to prop my leg up and call Fiona. When I’ve filled her in on what’s happening, she agrees to have a shadow for a few days until things have calmed down. Fiona’s not stupid, she knows when to accept help.
“She’s okay?” Trinity asks when I hang up.
“Yes. I’m having another guard assigned to watch her for a while. She hasn’t seen or heard anything from him so far. I still think we should go back to my house. It’s a fortress. No one can get in or out. We would be safe.”
“No one? Kelly got in and out easily. She took a priceless heirloom from your safe and used your money to party and buy drugs for weeks. I’ll take my chances staying here. Nobody knows you’re here. I’ve never met BJ in person, and I doubt he saw me at that bonfire the other night. And, Kelly and I should, by all rights, be enemies, so why would she come to me for help?”
“Why did she come to you for help?” I’ve been wondering about that since she told me she showed up on her doorstep. “It doesn’t make sense. You should have been the last person she would go to for help.”
“I don’t know, maybe she figured since I was a nurse, I’d help? Maybe she was so scared of BJ that she would have taken help from anyone? Or maybe she figured I would be the last person BJ would expect to help her.”
Her explanations don’t feel right. “All right, we stay here tonight, but if that maniac shows up, we go back to my place.”
“Deal. Hey, did you ever figure out if Kelly returned your grandmother’s actual ring or a fake? I’ve been meaning to ask.”
“I had it sent to an appraiser. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were a fake.”
She sits on a lounger and gestures to another. “You should sit,” she says, and I do. “Doesn’t that make you angry?”
“Yes and no. It was my grandmother’s, so it’s special in that respect. It was also gaudy and ostentatious, things that my father loved. He always expected me to use it when I proposed, but I think anyone who would love and accept that ring isn’t the woman for me.”
“You sound like you’re starting to remember a lot about your parents.”
“I am. In fact, I’m having more trouble with short-term memory now.” I tilt my head and look at her with confusion. “What was your name again?”
She gently shoves my shoulder. “Shut up, you’re off your trolley, you know that?”
“I’m what?” I chuckle, her British accent and slang are two of the things I like best about her.
“I believe Americans say you’re off your rocker or you’re crazy.”
The doorbell sounds in the house. “Are you expecting anybody?” I ask.
“No, are you?”
“I didn’t even know where you lived until a couple of hours ago. Don’t answer it yet. Let me call Claude.” I slide my phone from my pocket and dial the security guard posted outside.
“Who’s Claude?”
The bell rings again, and I ignore her question. “Claude, who’s at the front door?”
“Friends of yours. Hunter Knight, Fiona Romero, and Cole Mason. I checked their identification as you requested even though I know them all on sight.”
“Thank you.” I hang up. “It’s Hunter, Fiona, and Cole.”
“That’s weird, Fiona usually calls before she comes over, and Hunter and Cole have never been here.” She stands and crosses the living room to open the front door.
“Surpri
se!” Hunter and Fiona yell, holding up two bottles of wine. Cole is reserved as he always is lately and holds up a bag of groceries. These guys are famous for showing up at each other’s houses for impromptu dinner parties. I guess Trinity’s place is now in the rotation.
“Wow, thank you,” Trinity says, taking the bottles of wine. Where’s Edie and the baby?” she asks, looking at Hunter.
“She wasn’t feeling well today. My mom’s taking care of the baby so she can get some rest.”
“I hope it isn’t anything serious.”
“No, just a cold mixed with the stress of being a new mother, I think.”
Fiona steps inside and hugs Trinity. “We thought you could use some lively company since you’re stuck here with the old man.” Fiona nods in my direction, and I cringe inside. I am older than the rest of them but only by a couple of years, but she always thinks it’s funny to point it out.
“I hardly think twenty-five constitutes as an old man.”
“Maybe not but factor in the gimpy leg and stuffy job, and you’re at least forty,” Fiona says.
The group moves out onto the small deck, making it very cramped and suddenly not as inviting. “Leave him alone, Fi, he’s young at heart,” Hunter says patting me on the shoulder as he passes to lean against the railing of the deck.
“Okay, I promise no more old jokes in front of Trinity. I wouldn’t want her to change her mind about you, she’s a catch,” Fiona says.
Trinity joins us on the deck. Standing behind my lounger, she offers everyone a drink. The two women head inside to pour the wine. Fiona takes the bag of groceries from Cole, and he flops down on the chair Trinity was sitting in before they arrived.
“I have to say, I’m surprised to see you here tonight, Cole,” I say. Cole has been acting like a total asshole for at least a month, maybe more. Nobody has been able to get him to open up about what’s wrong.
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t my idea. Fiona practically tore my ear off, dragging me out of my house.”
“What’s going on with you lately, man?” Hunter asks, and I’m relieved. I didn’t want to have to be the one to bring it up. Cole and I have never been close. We would never have been friends at all if it weren’t for Delta Eta Nu. Our life goals and professions are polar opposites. He lives in the moment hitting on women who want to be in the movies he directs, or should I say movies his father directs. Cole is still learning the ropes, but it’s a given that he will be a famous director one day with a father like the famous Sebastian Mason of Mason Productions mentoring him.
Cole Mason craves instant gratification and shallow relationships. It’s sad, really. He’s a shell of the man he could be if he would put some effort into his life and develop some morals.
“Nothin’. Same old, same old,” Cole says, taking a cigarette from a pocket in his cargo shorts. He lights it and inhales deeply as if the smoke and tar will give him life instead of the opposite.
“Do you have any good movies in the works?” Hunter asks, waving away the smoke.
“Yeah, a couple, but my dad won’t let me have full creative control. I don’t think he’s ever going to cut the apron strings.”
“I’m sure he will. You just need a billion-dollar Oscar-winning box-office smash to prove it.”
“Fat chance of that happening with him breathing down my neck all the time squashing all of my ideas. He says I’m unprofessional, unreliable, and risky. Nice, huh?”
I don’t doubt that Cole is all of those things and more including an addict and a womanizer. His father is a smart man.
“You are unprofessional, unreliable, and a risky dumb ass!” Fiona yells from the kitchen. Leave it to her to put it all out there.
“Shut up, you don’t know anything about it,” Cole snaps back.
How did my quiet evening with Trinity turn into a house full of aggression? I love my friends, but sometimes they are too much.
Fiona and Trinity join us on the deck. Trinity hands Hunter a glass of wine, and Fiona offers one to me. “No thank you, I have a glass around here somewhere already.”
“What am I, invisible?” Cole says, holding out his hand for the glass I turned down. Fiona rolls her eyes and hands him the glass begrudgingly.
“You’re not invisible, dude, you’re an alcoholic and a druggie. What the hell is going on with you, anyway? Do we need to have an intervention or something?”
He chugs the wine and looks at her with glassy eyes that I’m only now noticing. “Feels like we’re already having one.”
“Well, since you already feel that way, I’m going to lay it all out. Cole, you need help. You drink too damn much, you do too many drugs, and your life’s in the crapper because of it. Stop whoring around with all your leading ladies, take a bath, wash your hair, and have some dignity, man. You’re a talented fucker, but you’re throwing it all away feeling sorry for yourself, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why.”
An uncomfortable silence falls over the group. I’m annoyed, but poor Trinity is in shock. She’s used to Fiona’s in-your-face personality, but this is going a bit far even for her. She must really be worried about Cole.
Cole doesn’t argue. He doesn’t say anything at all, which feels like an admission of guilt. Maybe he did need a Fi-intervention.
Trinity breaks the silence when she can’t take it anymore. “Would, uh, anybody like to help me with dinner? We were about to grill some steaks.”
“Hey, what a coincidence, we brought steaks, too,” Hunter says following her into the house. Now it’s Fiona, Cole, and me. Fabulous.
“So, I hear your girl went to treatment,” Cole says, finally raising his gaze from his shoes to me.
“She’s not my girl, and please don’t spread that information around. She’s in trouble, and we’re trying to keep her safe.” My tone is icy and curt. All we need is for him to blab to the wrong person, many of which Cole knows and deals with, that we are involved in Kelly’s disappearance.
“I’m not saying anything. Kelly was always cool to me.”
I wonder just how ‘cool’ she was with Cole. She may have told Trinity that she hasn’t been sleeping around, but the rumors about her loose ways have been flying for a long time.
“Thank you. Everyone deserves a second chance. This is hers.”
“I don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Deserve a second chance.”
I’m not sure what to say to that. Cole sounds more depressed and down than I’ve ever heard him. It’s as if all the fight is draining out of him right before me.
“Yes, you do, dumb ass. We all love you, that’s why we’re still around. Real friends don’t ditch when somebody’s suffering. Do you need rehab, too? I can find you a spot somewhere if you want. I know a lot of people.”
“Nah, I’m just messin’ with you. I can quit anytime. I’ll be fine.”
Fiona raises a doubtful eyebrow. “Okay, man, but if you change your mind, let me know.” Fiona turns and joins the others in the kitchen.
“I’m here, too, you know. If you need help.”
“Thanks, man, but like I said, I’m fine.”
I’m still not sure if this evening was meant to be an intervention or not, but if it was, we failed big time. Cole went on to drink us all under the table, and I’m pretty sure he went to another party when he left in an Uber after two in the morning.
The evening stretched late into the night with Fiona and Trinity ending up in the ocean. Hunter stood by making sure they didn’t drown. It’s too bad his new wife, Edie, wasn’t here, she’s a lifeguard, and I think Hunter could have used her help a couple of times.
When everyone is gone, I finally get to see Trinity’s bedroom. Like the rest of the house, it’s light and airy and very Trinity. It’s a shame she fell asleep before we could christen it.
There’s always tomorrow.
22
Trinity
I can’t believe it’s taken three days to fully get over my hangover. I
swear never to drink that much wine in one night again. Having Lennon here to nurse me back to health has helped, and along with the sun and the ocean, I feel almost human again.
Listening to the waves slide in and out over the sand puts me in a trance, and I’m almost asleep when Lennon pulls me back to reality. “I need to go into the office tomorrow. I want you to come with me.”
I open one eye and glance at his bronzed body glistening in the sun and wish he wouldn’t talk about work. We’ve been having the best week sunbathing on the beach, having lazy sex off and on all day, watching movies and cooking every meal together. I know it can’t last forever, but a few more days would be nice.
He feels me looking at him and turns his head in my direction. “What?” he asks, seeing the disappointment on my face.
“I wish we could stay here like this forever.”
His smile is sad. “I’m sorry. I’ve been out of the loop for too long. I’ve done all I can do remotely, and I haven’t been with the firm long enough to take an extended vacation. I’m already trying to figure out how to explain this tan,” he says, looking down at himself. I’m supposed to be off recovering from a brain injury not hanging out on the beach.”
“Who says you can’t recover lying on the beach?”
“A bunch of stuffy old lawyers, that’s who.”
“Why do you work for a firm like that? Why don’t you have your own business?”
“I need to make a name for myself with a reputable team. I have considered going out on my own someday, but it’s too soon.”
“Can’t you get a good reputation on your own?”
“Yes, but it’s much more difficult. Believe me, this way is better, and since I don’t have to worry about money, I can take the time.”
I think that’s a cop-out, but I don’t know about the legal business, so I keep my opinion to myself. “I don’t think I need to come with you. We haven’t seen or heard a thing out of BJ or any of his people since we sent Kelly to rehab.”
“You’re safer with me.”
“How long am I supposed to hide? I have to go back to work next week, too, and that’s only a couple of days away. He doesn’t suspect me.”
Rich and Seductive: The Fraternity Brothers Series Book Three Page 18
