MisMatch (A Humorous Contemporary Romance) (27 page)

“She’s something else. I—” His phone buzzed.
Jogging over to the kitchen counter, he snapped it up. “Yeah,
Vince, did you find her?”

“No luck, buddy, but I might have a
different present for you. Those prints you brought over?”

“Yeah?”

“The name Michael Ellis ring a bell?”

Eli frowned and tried to remember where he'd
heard that name before. “The name Ellis sounds vaguely familiar,
but I’m not sure why.”

“Go ahead and ask your brother if he knows
the name.”

“Sam? Uh, yeah, he's here. One sec.”
Covering the mouth piece he asked his brother, “The name Mike
Ellison mean anything to you?”

Sam's eye widened. “Yeah. I was his
daughter's friend back in high school. She and I took a bunch of
the advanced art classes together. Good artist, but never quite
great. I often got scholarships over her. We also used to hang out
and smoke pot behind the bleachers. She eventually introduced me to
the big guns behind the art thefts, but she was innocent. She just
thought they had connections to get me a show or something.
Apparently, they’d approached her about a gallery opening. He even
came by to see me in jail when I first got arrested. He was really
nice. Said a nice kid like me didn’t deserve to be in there.
Why?”

Eli held up a finger and turned his
attention back to Vince. “You catch any of that?”

“Yep. There was no reason you should have
recognized him when you met him the first time.”

“No, of course not. But he looked like he'd
seen a ghost when he saw me.” Eli frowned, then added, “Actually,
he didn't look surprised to see me, more like he was surprised I
was in his house or something.”

“You think he knew you weren’t Samson?”

“Hard to tell. You got anything usable on
him?”

“Prints came back. Fenton’s a match. Thought
you’d want to know. Your girlfriend wasn’t kidding about him. He'd
be behind bars if any of them would press charges.”

“What about Jessica nearly being run over?”
When Jessica had told him about the attempt the night of the
benefit, he’d wanted to go after Ellis then, but she’d begged him
not to until they had more on him.

“Trust me, I'm doing everything I can, but
the license plate was obscured. Unless she physically saw him
behind the wheel, there's not too much we can do.”

“Shit.”

“My sentiments exactly.”

“You have any fucking good news?”

“Well, this is something. It's too much of a
coincidence that he's in the mix. You said he prompted the mom to
recommend that Jessica run down and check Samson out right? I have
a feeling he's been watching your brother since he got back on the
art scene.”

“Why do you say that?”

“We have hits on other small time jobs in
Vegas, and in DC, and Miami, then San Francisco. Now L.A.”

“You think he's after Sam?”

“Not sure. But I’ve also been trying to tie
his movements with any high profile forgeries.”

“Please tell me you have something. In three
of the cities, SF, DC, and Miami, several high profile art works
were forged and replaced. He has to be our guy.”

“Like you said, we can’t pin it on him with
just our guesses, and you would have told me if he had the art
chops to pull it off.”

“No, he's not the forger, but I get the
impression he's pulling the strings.”

“We need to find the forger he’s directing.
We know it's not Samson.”

“Funny you should mention the forger. I'm on
my way to talk to Michael’s daughter.”

“You’re saying she’s also in L.A.?

“Yep and has been in Miami, and DC, and San
Francisco.”

The hairs on the back of Eli’s neck stood
up. “And Sam already said she has the skills.”

“Would somebody tell me what the fuck is
going on?” Samson muttered.

“Sam, give me a sec.” Eli turned his
attention back to Vince. “You got a lead on where to find her?”

“This is where your Christmas gift comes in.
She’s going by the alias Jocelyn Mills. She’s got her own dog
walking business.”

Eli's head swam. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah, I'm sure. She was busted for bad
checks using the same alias. And the dog walking business we're
pretty sure is a front for a drug dispensary.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah, you’re telling me. You want to talk
to her when we bring her in?”

“Yeah, let me know when you scoop her up.
And Vince?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks, man.”

Eli hung up. How the hell was he going to
tell Samson that his sponsor, the one who'd helped keep him clean,
was also the reason he got arrested all those years ago?

“Come on, man, you have to tell me what’s
up.” Sam put a hand on his brother's shoulder. “E, what's the
matter? You look like you got nothing but bad news coming my
way.”

“Sam, dude, I don't know what the fuck is
going on.”

“Then tell me what the fuck you do
know.”

Eli exhaled. “Okay, so you know Fenton. You
know how I told you Jessica’s convinced he's just after her
mother's money. Well, she's no dummy. Vince has been chasing him
for years. He says he's been linked to a sting of rich widows who
he's pretty much swindled out of their fortunes. None of them want
to press charges because they're in high society. Vince thinks he's
the one who tried to run down Jessica.”

Samson looked horrified. “Shit, I'm sorry.
Obviously, he's going to arrest him, right?”

“Not exactly. We don’t have enough to hold
him on that. No witnesses, and Jessica didn’t get a good look at
the guy driving the car.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah, well, I get the impression you're
going to be saying that a lot.”

“Huh?” Samson frowned

“There’s more bad news. So Fenton or rather
Ellis was the one who pushed Jessica into coming to see your show
at the club that night. He wanted her to be your manager.”

“Oh, shit.”

“I doubt he had any idea how convoluted
everything would get. But my guess is he wanted to lure me, you,
one of us in with the lure of legitimacy.”

“I think you missed a step. Go back. What
does this have to do with Mike?”

“Step-dad-to-be is Mike. They're the same
person.”

“No, that’s impossible.”

“Not impossible. Prints don't lie.”

“I barely even knew that guy. He was just
being nice to a fucked up kid.”

“I doubt it. Once Vince brings him in for
questioning, I’d bet money he was behind the forgeries the first
time around.”

“None of those pieces are gelling yet,
bro.”

“Look, back when you were kids, you said his
daughter and you were in many of the same advanced placement
programs together, right? Did she have your talent then?”

Sam frowned and shook his head. “No. She was
really good, but she couldn't forge those kinds of pieces. Her
hands weren’t steady enough. Maybe with time she—” He paused, light
dawning in his eyes. “You’re thinking she's the one forging art
pieces now?”

“It's a theory. Vince is going to pick her
up.”

“She’s in fucking Los Angeles?”

Eli winced. “Yeah, that's the other thing.
Several of the cities that we've tried getting your career going
in, have also had a similar string of thefts and forgeries. Miami,
DC, and SF. She's used several aliases, but they seem to always be
in the same city at the same time.”

Samson rubbed his temples. “What's her
name?”

“Sam, I don’t think—”

“What's her fucking name, Elijah?”

Eli rocked back on his heels and shoved his
hands in his pockets, ready for the blow back. “Jocelyn Mills.”

Sam just stood there and stared. Then he did
the inexplicable. He started laughing. And didn’t stop. Clutching
his sides, he held on to the counter. “You mean to tell me that my
sponsor Jocelyn is Emma?”

“Uh, yeah. What's so funny?”

“I thought you said you went through every
single piece of that file of mine. If you had, you'd have seen
pictures of Emma. She was a brunette. Two, two-fifty easy. Her nose
was bigger. For the love of God, Eli, you’ve seen her. You’re
saying she lost over a hundred pounds and changed her appearance.
C’mon, man, Jocelyn’s a dog walker, not a master forger.”

No, it didn’t sound like the same girl, but
it was. They had her prints. “I'm sorry, Sam. But it's true. She’s
running this scam with her father.”

“You’re for reals on this?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re telling me this chick has been
fucking with me my whole life? Why?”

“I don't know why, but I'll find out.”

“Mom, why do you look nervous?”

Jessica’s mother shuffled from foot to foot,
readjusting her hair. “Oh, you know. I want to make sure I'm making
the right decision.”

Jessica sighed. “It’s like you told me, Mom.
Love is a gamble. You never know if you're going to get it right,
but when you do, it's amazing. Sometimes it’s painful. And
sometimes you run, but you can always believe in it.”

“I said that?”

“Something like it, with my own added
Jessica flair.”

“I can’t believe you came all the way to
Vegas to watch me renew my vows to Karl, honey.”

“That’s 'cause I came here to run. Mom, I
told you before that I wanted to support you in whatever you wanted
to do. I love you and want you to be happy. That’s what I’ve always
wanted for you.”

Her mother rolled her eyes. “I’ve just been
happy so many times, you see.”

Jessica barked out a laugh. “Well, Mom,
sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs. Right? But I'm glad you and
Karl are making it work again. He's always loved you.”

“He's so different from your father.”

“Which is why I think it works.”

“Jessica, I loved your father.”

“I know that. And he knew it, too. I think
you've been married so many times because you’re trying to recreate
what you had with him, and I don’t think it's working for you. With
Karl, it's something else. He's very different and maybe that's
what you need.”

“He is different.”

“And he makes you happy.”

“And what about what makes you happy?”

Jessica blinked rapidly to ward off the
impending tears that sat just inside her lids, ready to spill at a
moment’s notice. She would not cry again. She’d already spent too
long crying over Eli. “I'm happy and happy for you.”

“You might be happy for me, sweetie, but
like your grandmother used to say, you ain't happy.”

“I keep thinking about the whole Eli
situation and wishing I’d done something differently. Maybe if I
hadn’t freaked out as easily, or made it easier for him to tell me,
or maybe listened more.”

“You stop that now. I think Izzy probably
already told you this, but let me give it a shot. After all, I am
your mother. Everything in life was supposed to lead you to this
moment right here. It’s what you do with the information you have
that matters. You can’t change the past. You can only move forward.
You think I didn’t wonder if Karl would forgive me and take me
back?”

“That's different. Karl has loved you since
you two met on that old folks’ singles cruise.”

“I'm not old.” Her mother slapped Jessica on
the arm.

“Ow, yeah, okay. But Eli didn't love me. At
least he never said as much.” And when he did it was in
desperation. “He needed me and went about it the wrong way.”

“But he tried to find you. I called home,
and Rosa said he'd come there looking for you.”

“Izzy said the same thing. But it doesn’t
matter. I will never know how he actually feels about me because he
lied in the beginning. The whole time we spent together is tainted
with it.”

“What about starting fresh? Can we start
fresh?” Eli asked from the doorway.

Jessica whipped around, her breath catching.
Goosebumps rose on her flesh as her heart thundered. This was a
dream. Had to be a dream. She missed him so much that her brain had
conjured an image of him.

As usual, he was dressed impeccably in a
suit. Charcoal this time. He wore no tie, but his bright blue shirt
made the jade green of his eyes even more startling. God, the man
looked good enough to eat. She straightened her legs, mentally
bolting them to the ground before they betrayed her and ran over to
him.

Jessica’s mother’s eyes widened. Then she
whispered, “I’ll just—”

“Oh, no you don't, Mom. Did you call
him?”

“Just once, let me play the meddling mother,
would you? Talk to him.” With that, she teetered on her high heels
and paused in front of Eli. “You hurt her again, and I really will
kill you. You understand me?”

Eli's jaw went slack. Jessica barked a
laugh. Well, well. Mom was full of all kinds of surprises.

“I’ll only take a minute,” he murmured. “I
know this is a big day.”

Jessica couldn’t believe her mother. “Eli, I
don't want to do this. I don’t want to fight anymore. I want this
to—”

“Sassy, please. Hear me out. If you don’t
want to see me ever again after this, I’ll go. I'll leave you
alone. You won’t have to worry about me going all stalker
ex-boyfriend on you, as you say.”

She chuffed a laugh. “Doesn’t have the same
connotation, but whatever.”

“I know I fucked this up. Every which way
that I could have fucked this up, I did. And I know it. Every step
along the way, I kept thinking now, now I can tell her. And then
there’d be some real or imagined reason I couldn't. Some of the
reasons were for your safety or for the sake of the case, but in
all honesty, I just didn’t want to give you up. I knew that once
you realized I was only the guy in the suit and not the artist, any
attraction for me would have been long gone. I knew that if I
wasn’t dangerous or exciting, or all wrong in some way you,
wouldn't want me, so I lied. I’m not proud of it, and every step of
the way I knew it would cost me you. And I still couldn’t do
it.”