Flawless Danger (The Spencer & Sione #1) (38 page)

“The thought did cross my mind.”

“Well, wishing doesn’t make things so, you should know that.”

“Yeah, I do,” he said. “I wished for a woman who was caring and compassionate, a woman I could trust, who was as committed to me as I was to her, which was the kind of woman you tricked me into thinking you were.”

“Oh, there you go, pointing out all my faults and flaws, talking about how I didn’t measure up to your standards,” she said. “Well, I had hopes and wishes, too. I wished and hoped for a man to love me despite my faults and flaws.”

“I wished for a woman who wouldn’t cheat on me with a man who hates me and—” He stopped, warning himself to let it go. Now was not the time to resurrect old feelings and feuds he still couldn’t figure out how to bury.

They’d already argued, too many times, about the destruction of their relationship. They’d yelled and blamed each other about the part they’d both played in the demise of what should have been happily ever after together forever. They’d screamed about Ben’s divisive role in the dismantling of what they’d mistakenly thought was a solid union.

The shouting and fighting had never accomplished anything. It only made Sione regret his decision not to break Moana’s neck.

Right now, the most important thing was … what? He wasn’t sure anymore. Moments ago, the most pressing issue was figuring out what to do about Karen Nelson, how to handle her death, and his suspicions about who had killed her.

Moana had caused an urgent, immediate shift in his priorities. Maybe the call to Truman would have to wait. Maybe he needed to find out how and why his ex-fiancée was alive. What was she doing at Karen Nelson’s rental house? Did she know Karen Nelson? Did she know anything about Karen Nelson’s death? Had Moana killed Karen Nelson? But … what reason could his ex-fiancée have to put a bullet between the blonde’s eyes? After a deep breath, he asked, “So how the hell are you still alive?”

“Well, it’s an interesting story …”

“Oh, really?” Sione asked, but it was hard to focus, and yet he had to be on guard and alert. Moana was a real and viable threat. He had to be ready for any sudden moves that might telegraph her intentions.

“Would you like to hear it?”

“Why not?” He shrugged, trying not to appear as wary and wired as he felt. “Why aren’t you dead?”

“Ask your father.”

“What?”
 

Ask your father
… the same thing Ben had said, and in the same taunting tone, almost as though daring him.

“Richard knows why I’m still alive.”

“You lying bitch,” he said.

“Not surprised you don’t believe me.” The amusement in her dark eyes turned to acrimony. “But, trust me, the whole ‘Moana gets stabbed to death in a violent prison riot’ plot was Richard’s bright idea.”

“I don’t believe you,” he said. “My father would never help you get out of prison. He hates you. He blames you for coming between me and Ben.”

“I never came between you and Ben,” she said, giving him a sly smile. “I wish I had come between you two, but you weren’t down for that.”

“Richard would not help you,” he said, ignoring her innuendo.

“Richard came to visit me in prison,” she said. “He wanted me to steal an envelope for him.”

“An envelope?”

“It belonged to Ben. Really fancy, made of lambskin with a red wax stamp on the back to seal it,” she said. “I don’t know how, but Richard knew that Ben had told me to hide that envelope. Ben had a house in Montego Bay, and that’s where I hid it, in a safe, almost two years ago.”

“What’s in the envelope?’ Sione asked. “Why did Ben want you to hide it? Why does my father want it?”

“No clue.” Moana shrugged, a smile playing at the corner of her full mouth. “I didn’t care and I never asked. Figured it would be in my best interest not to know.”

Sione stared at her, not sure if he believed her or not.

“Anyway, initially, I turned Richard down,” she said. “Then I changed my mind. Figured I could use your father’s request to my advantage. So, I had someone retrieve the envelope.”

“Who?” he asked, wondering if she would be honest.

“Peter,” she said. “Your cousin.”

Sione glared at her. “Why the hell would you get my cousin involved in this?”

Since he’d found out about Peter’s role in the stolen envelope plot, Sione had wondered how Moana had managed to make a damn fool of him, convincing his cousin to break the law.

“Peter is a good friend,” Moana said, walking to the dresser and leaning a hip against the edge of it. “He’s the only person in your whole family who doesn’t hate me.”

“So … my cousin steals the envelope for you and then what?”

“Then I told Peter to hide it for me,” Moana said. “In your casita.”

“
My
casita?” Sione put some outrage in his tone, figuring a bit of incredulity was needed to keep her from being suspicious. “Why the hell did you have him hide it in
my
casita?”

“I’ll get to that,” she said, giving him an enigmatic smile. “And it’ll make sense.”

Worried, he said, “So, Peter hid the envelope and then?

“I contacted your father,” she said. “I offered Richard a deal. He could have the envelope if he got me out of prison.”

“And that’s how you got out of jail?” Sione asked. “He set up a phony fight where you would be killed?”

“No, actually that’s not what happened,” Moana said, smiling. “Richard told me to go to hell.”

Sione had to smile at the frustration marring her features.

He wasn’t surprised by his father’s response. Richard didn’t make deals or allow himself to be leveraged. Richard was about intimidation, not negotiation. Entertaining an offer would make him seem weak.

“So, I told my lawyer to get in touch with Ben for me.” Moana pushed off the dresser and took a step toward him. “Ben and I relayed messages through Mr. Perales. I told Ben everything. And then, I offered Ben the same deal I offered your father. Get me out of jail and I’d give him that envelope. I made a stupid mistake, though.”

“What was the mistake?”

“Ben didn’t take my deal, either,” she said. “Instead, he told me he would circumvent me. He said he wouldn’t have to help me get out of jail because he would find the envelope. He thought he knew me. Thought he knew the places I might hide it. Well, I told Ben not to bother looking for the envelope because I had hidden it in a place where he would never be allowed to enter.”

“My casita.”

“When Richard told me to find the envelope,” she said. “I decided I could use it like a carrot and dangle it over your father. But I had to make sure there was no way Richard could find the carrot. Richard would never think to look for it there. I knew he would never be welcomed in your casita so I didn’t have to worry about Richard stealing the envelope from me. Ben would never be invited to your casita either. He knew that and so he sent a Trojan horse.”

“Trojan horse?”

“Ben figured out that I’d hidden his envelope in your casita,” she said. “So, he sent Kelsey Thomas to look for it.”

“Kelsey Thomas,” he echoed, thinking of how all the dots were starting to connect. But, once all the dots were connected, what the hell would they reveal? Would it be something he could face or something he’d be forced to look away from.

“You remember her? Met her at a club then took her back to the casita and banged her. You thought she liked you but she was really only interested in finding that envelope that Peter hid in your casita.”

“How do you know about Kelsey Thomas?” Sione asked. “Did Ben tell you?”

“Kelsey Thomas and I are old acquaintances,” Moana said, cutting her eyes toward Karen Nelson’s body again. “She came to visit me in prison.”

“Really?” Sione asked, pretending he didn’t know. He remembered Kelsey Thomas’ name on the list D.J. had given him, all the people who’d visited Moana before she’d “died.” At the time, he hadn’t known why Kelsey had gone to see Moana, but he’d figured they were connected by Ben Chang somehow.

“Kelsey told me Ben was forcing her to look for the envelope,” Moana said. “If she found it, Ben would make sure she stayed out of prison. She wanted advice on how to get close to you …”

The goal was for me to get into your casita, but I couldn’t break in, he was really adamant about that, no forced entry, I had to get myself invited into your casita, or I had to trick my way in, and then I had to find some way to get you out of the casita so I could

“—look for the envelope,” Moana was saying. “So, I gave her some advice.”

“You gave her advice?” Sione asked, skeptical, remembering what Kelsey had claimed she was looking for.
 

I was supposed to steal your passport.

“I told her, Sione likes to rescue women so you must appear helpless,” she said, taking another step closer and another quick glance at the body on the bed. “You must resist asserting yourself lest you be perceived as capable, intelligent, and self-reliant because if you are, then he won’t want you. Kelsey didn’t want to do it, but then I told her how big your—”

“Something doesn’t make sense,” he said, cutting her off, not interested in how she’d coached Kelsey Thomas to make a damn fool of him. “If you knew Ben was forcing Kelsey Thomas to look for the envelope, why did you give her advice on getting close to me? Weren’t you afraid she might accidentally find it?”

“I wasn’t worried about her finding it,” Moana said, lifting a shoulder. “And she didn’t. Silly little bitch got caught. But, of course, you know that.”

“Ben’s plan to circumvent you didn’t work,” Sione said. “So, did he rethink your offer? He changed his mind, got you out of prison so you could give him the envelope.”

“Ben didn’t get me out of prison,” she said. “Richard did. I told you, ‘Moana dies in a prison riot’ was all your father’s doing.”

“And I told you I don’t believe that,” Sione said. “My father can’t stand you. He wouldn’t help you.”

“But he did,” Moana insisted. “Months after Richard turned down my offer and told me to go to hell, he reached out to me again with another offer. He would get me out of jail—”

“If you gave him the envelope?”

“That deal was no longer on the table,” she said, looking up at him, a fierce amusement in her midnight gaze. “Richard had a brand new offer. He wanted me to get rid of a few loose ends.”

Sione stared at her, his heart slamming. Loose ends. He’d heard his father use those words before. Loose ends. A reference to dangerous people who knew too much and had to be … taken care of. “What loose ends?”

“One of them is lying on the bed over there.”

“You killed Karen Nelson?”
 

“How do you know her name is Karen Nelson?” she asked. “Had the two of you met before her untimely demise?”

“Why’d you kill her?”

“I told you,” she said, sounding a bit impatient. “Your father wanted me to get rid of loose ends. That’s why he got me out of prison. That’s why he planned it so I would die in that prison fight. A dead girl can’t shoot you in the head.”

“Why would my father want Karen Nelson killed?” Sione asked, thinking questions might give him time to think of some way to get an advantage over her. “How did he even know her?”

“Don’t know, don’t care.” Shrugging, Moana said, “Whatever beef they had is none of my business, but if I had to guess, it probably had something to do with Ben.”

“My father wanted Karen Nelson killed because of Ben?”

“His relationship with Ben is so damn strange and convoluted. I think Richard said Ben forced Karen Nelson and the other two to betray him.”

“The other two?”

“Carla Garcia and Maxine Porter.”

“You killed them?”

Glaring at him, she said, “Loose ends.”

“And you cut their hands off?”

“Richard’s orders.” Smiling, she said, “Nice clean chop.”

“Why would my father want you to use his signature?”

Moana shrugged. “I’m guessing that Ben was supposed to think that Richard had killed those dumb bitches.”

Staring at her, Sione wondered, who the hell was she? Certainly not the woman he’d asked to marry him. Certainly not the girl he’d met on the beach in A’arotanga when they were seventeen and sex-starved. She wasn’t even something in between the two. She seemed to be something new, something he’d never dreamed she could become. Evil.

Had he ever really known her? Had prison changed her, turned her into this cruel, heartless woman glaring at him? Or had she always been this way, so ruthless and mercenary, and he just hadn’t seen it? Had she hidden who she really was from him?

And if she had, how could he throw stones.

Hadn’t he spent the last decade trying to hide who he really was? Trying to fight dark urges and keep people from discovering the truth about him? Desperately doing whatever he had to so he wouldn’t accidentally reveal his past?

“Well, handsome, it’s been a blast seeing you again,” she said. “You still make me wish I had been the right girl for you, but wishing doesn’t make it so, right?”

“Wait a minute, tell me this,” he said. “If my father helped you get out of jail, then why did you call me with that bullshit about him wanting you dead?”

“Richard’s instructions,” she said. “He was hoping you would think he killed me and then you would confront him. He was trying to trick you into coming to see him. He misses you. He wants to repair your relationship. You mean everything to him.”

“I doubt that,” Sione said, though he knew Moana was telling the truth.

“Anyway, I need to clean up this mess I made,” she said, nodding toward the bed. “And then I have one more loose end to tie up …”

“One more loose end?” he asked, his pulse starting to race.

She gave him a look of defiant amusement and then said, “Spencer Edwards.”

Something screamed and roared through his head as he stared at her, paralyzed, unable to form coherent thoughts.

“Of course, you know her,” Moana said. “The sexy, good-looking black girl you’re banging. I have to tell you, handsome, I’m kind of jealous. I wouldn’t mind hitting that myself.”

“You stay the hell away from Spencer.”

“Weren’t you listening?” Moana asked, frowning at him as though he were a recalcitrant child. “I told you, I have to get rid of all the loose ends. Richard’s orders. Spencer Edwards is a loose end.”