Their Ex's Redrock Three (3 page)

Maybe it was for the best, what happened with Finn. Even though he made her feel warm and fuzzy and she drooled over how hot he was, in a bad boy way, it was nothing compared to Vincent. So she needed to figure out, that for her, it was Vincent or nothing. And Tess knew the ‘or nothing way’ was really what she should be doing.

“But, I can’t help it if it’s like I’m single or a widow or something?” she muttered, turning off the ignition to her car sitting in front of Rowdie’s office. Her husband acted like she didn’t exist. No calls … nothing. Didn’t he even wonder how she put up with his disappearing act? How delusional did a man have to be to just wander off with another woman, and not think at all about the wife he left behind?

But the very evil fairy king must have been homing in on her thoughts, because right then her cell rang. It was Steven.

“Hell,” she swore. If she didn’t answer it, she might never know if Torenni told them. And as much as she shouldn’t care, she knew Vincent needed the information.

“Steven, you finally remembered you have a wife?” she answered, without saying hello.

“Damn it, T, you know I’m busting my ass working for a golden future for us,” he started.

She talked over him. “That’s whitewash, Steven. No husband just leaves his home and wife,
never
coming home for days on end!”

“You’re not home,” he snapped.

“Don’t you even care where I am!” she yelled into the phone.

“T,” he scolded. “This is the big time, you got to handle it.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Oh! I so do
not
. And, Steven, you will be getting divorce papers
this
week.”

After a long moment, he muttered, “Maybe it’s for the best.”

Tess tried not to cry. “I’m glad you see it that way.” Her voice broke.

“But we need to talk about money, T. Your future is riding on Whiterose, um ... Luna’s group. Everything is tied up in it.”

Tess wiped her eyes, “I don’t understand, what do you mean? Nothing I have is tied up, as you say, on Whiterose.” Tess fairly spat Luna’s stage name.

“T, it takes a lot of capital to bring a talent up into a big name.”

Blah, blah,
Tess wanted to shoot herself, she’d heard this so much. Money? Really? That was all he could go on about. They were
so
over!

Steven continued, “I’m not quite there, T, and you're going to have to kick in.”

“Kick
in
?” she asked, with her voice rising. “Are you
crazy
? No. Do not answer that. You are!”

“T, we will lose the house if you don’t and the flower shop building...”

He got no more words out, before she yelled, “My shop! Oh, hell no! Do
not
tell me you did anything to the shop!
How
could you, you need my signature.”

He kept talking like she was not screaming at him. “T, in this instance, you have to give more money to get it all back. Superstar talent takes money.”

“Oh God, you mean, Luna fucking Whiterose is expensive to keep!”

Ah oh!
Tess clamped a hand over her mouth. Not believing she said that. But her shop!

“The whole setup is expensive, and I got her on exclusive contract. No one could get that, T, but I did.”

Tess let out a tight breath, realizing her husband was so up his own ass he’d missed the meaning of what she’d said. She said a little thank you prayer.

Then she blurted, because why the hell not. “I’m going to see other men too, Steven, get that into your skull, and my lawyer will be seeing about this money mess.”

“T, I need ten thousand
now
, before...”

Tess cut the call, heaving deep breaths, before she swore, “Bastard.
That
bastard.”

She was too upset. She should have gone straight to Vincent’s and just slept in one of his tee shirts. But she hit Rowdie’s lobby without remembering it would put her in front of Finn. Another man that just dropped her … and then walked away.

She pretty much skidded to a halt, halfway into the lobby, when she saw him. Immediately, she freaked out, because his face was beat up and she forgot she was really freaking pissed at him. But it seemed she was not the only one into cooling their tiny budding relationship. Mr. Busted Lip, O’Neil was not feeling her. At all.

His glare was lethal and it sent shivers up her spine. That she ignored. “What happened to you? Are you okay!” she exclaimed, rushing to the far side of the counter.

“None of your business,” he rasped, and she swore his biceps flexed as if he squeezed his hands into fists out of her view.

Tess frowned. His face looked bad and she wondered what other parts of him were hurt. Then it occurred to her...

“Did Torenni
do
this?” she asked in an exclamation. “Because of me!”

Finn’s battered faced drew deeper into a fierce glare. “Got other business than them. Bad business, and not for a little housewife to be involved in.”

He said housewife like it was distasteful, and she felt as if he’d slapped her.

“You’re not like
this
,” she told him, then she hurried past him so he wouldn’t see her bright eyes and the tears she held back.

“I am, Chiquita,” he growled to her back. “You need to be out of here by the end of the week. Fucking up my business.”

Tess sucked in an exclamation. She didn’t know what was wrong with Finn, but he was scaring her. Once in her room, she grabbed some things not really looking at what she got. After Finn and Torenni this morning, then Luna, then Finn again. Oh, and her bastard husband in between, she was basically a wreck.

She didn’t even know what she threw into a small duffle she unearthed from her partially unpacked things. She was homeless. Again.
But for Vincent’s house.
That thought just came to her, taunting her, even though she knew better. He was not a safe haven either.

“Gad,” she growled under her breath, throwing some things from the bathroom in the duffle, which she then zipped shut. When she went out the motel room door, locking it behind her, she stood for a few seconds praying Finn was like,
not
there. But she heard his deep voice so she knew that prayer was hopeless.

However, lucky for her, Finn was having a very aggressive conversation with a short, wiry guy that looked like a casting call for “Strung out drug dealer” or maybe “Hyped up pimp.” Either way, he looked scary and Tess just motored past them, head down, trying to seem invisible.

She heard, “You gotta hook me up, Ghost. Man, I had your back when...”

Then, she heard Finn’s rough voice bark, “Quiet! Ears.”

Tess just kept moving to the lobby door, pushing past it, and she missed the hard look of regret in electric green eyes, following the swing of her ass out the door.

THREE / LET ME IN

It was past seven when Vincent got off the jet, but Cabe was waiting for him in a WTSF Jeep. Vincent veered from going to his pickup to walk up to the side of Cabe’s Jeep, where Cabe stood leaning against it.

Without a word, Cabe handed him a file. Vincent put his bag down to grab it and Cabe started talking as Vincent flipped open the file. It was too dark so he brought out his cell, flicking it onto flashlight mode, then turned it toward the open file.

“We have a new friend in the agency,” Cabe informed him.

“Which one?” Vincent asked, and his gut suddenly tightened at seeing a black and white, grainy picture of Luna with her tongue down some tall guy’s throat. They were naked in what had to be a hotel room. Shit.

“Not sure which agency, but its Finn O’Neil, street name, Ghost.”

“No shit,” Vincent uttered, looking up at Cabe.

Cabe nodded, then nodded toward the file. “This showed up, compliments of him. And, brother, those pictures are recent, as in yesterday.”

There were a lot of things Vincent thought at that moment, but the one that came growling out of his mouth was. “That’s not fucking Navarro.”

In the growing dark, Cabe’s white teeth showed in a grin. “No, brother, it isn’t.”

Vincent knew Cabe knew that he had no feelings left for his wife, so the pictures on the cheating-him-level didn’t signify. Why Cabe was grinning, slowly came to him. What Vincent could do with
this
.

His gaze jerked to Cabe as an edgy feeling filled him, and he whispered the question, “You think it could work?” He could blackmail Luna with these, playing her two lovers off each other, but getting him fucking free.

Cabe grabbed his bicep, squeezing. “I so do, brother, she wants that fame real fucking bad.”

Vincent nodded and he knew his gaze was fierce. He’d never felt hope of getting free of Luna before. Really, free. But if he used this other affair to blackmail her, he might get that free. Free enough to have Tess. Out in the open.

“Anything Finn needs
ever
, we are on it,” Vincent rasped, with a rough voice he had to clear. “Appreciate you being so current on this with me, brother.”

Cabe nodded, and then straightened from the Jeep. “Piece of advice, brother ... don’t wait long to use that.”

They talked for about ten minutes about WTSF and everything there seemed fairly normal for the usual young women high dramatics. Cabe finished telling him about a new recruit named Angie who was taking to security installations like she was born to it, but had a boyfriend that was not letting go.

“Give me to the end of the week. You, me ... we’ll go head knocking,” Vincent said.

Cabe nodded as he opened the door to his Jeep. “Could use the outlet,” he muttered.

Vincent stopped him from sitting with a hand on Cabe’s forearm. “Talk,” he ordered.

Cabe shook his head, but muttered, “She didn’t fucking come home last night. At all.”

“Hell.” Vincent squeezed Cabe’s forearm. “You ready to have her followed yet?”

“Yeah,” Cabe uttered, and he looked pissed but wounded, Vincent knew Cabe believed in the marriage vows and had given his wife every opportunity or excuse for her behavior he could. And then some.

“Get, Tag on it. Priority.” Vincent paused, then said, “But, brother, you do not view the file alone. You understand me?”

“Yeah, need you to keep me from killing the bastard dipping in my wife. So yeah.”

One thing about Cabe, he cared about his wife, where Vincent just felt trapped by his. Or maybe Cabe really cared more about the vows now after all the shit they’d been through in their marriage.

“I’m a cell call away,” Vincent said, letting go of Cabe’s forearm, then going to pick up his satchel as he watched Cabe pull out. How messed up was it that both their wives were fucking the marriage vows into the ground?

Vincent turned toward his truck to go do something he promised he wouldn’t.

Tess licked the salt on her margarita glass, and then took a deep drink. It was very yummy and a blessing in a truly demanding day. It was her second and she felt better curled on the comfy couch in Vincent’s living room, with Rusty camped out on the other side of it, and Rusty’s incredible nachos sitting on a platter between them.

“Don’t know who your friends are, babe. But I love their kitchen.” Rusty crinkled her nose, looking thoughtful. “You know that magazine-quality kitchen looks really unused.”

Tess dipped a nacho chip in her mouth, crunching. She’d not told Rusty this was Vincent’s house. It wasn’t that she really wanted to keep it from her girl, Rusty; it was just that she was very much not in the mood to rehash.

She changed the subject and told Rusty about Steven’s call. “I think I better get an accountant or disclosure attorney.” She paused with an aside. “Do they have those?” Then she barreled on. “To look into the money and the deed on my shop.”

Rusty leaned forward whispering, “If he did, he forged your name.”

“I know,” Tess muttered. “I could be in more debt than I know.
Damn
him.”

Rusty scooted closer, reached over the nachos and clasped Tess hand sitting on her crossed knee, while expertly keeping her margarita from spilling. “I have to tell you … I hate telling you... But we junior girls gotta stick together.” They’d met in junior high school. Tess braced, because Rusty only used the tone she was using when something was really bad.

“They were in my cab.” Rusty gulped, and then looked down at her drink, which she lifted and took a big swallow from, while Tess tensed. Tess knew who “
they
” were. “Aw, sweetheart,” Rusty started again and Tess immediately knew it was going to be even worse because Rusty used that tone and endearment. “They could give a shit — they were
all
over each other.”

“Oh,” Tess whined, then she exclaimed. “He knows you and I know each other!”

Rusty nodded, but contradicted her nod by what she said, “He was so up her ass he never noticed it was me. I don’t think.”

“It’s like he’s become addicted or something,” Tess exclaimed, throwing up a hand. “He just
goes
off with her like he is totally
not
married. At least the other time he tried to not let me find out. He snuck around but still sort of acted like a husband at home. God, and Rusty...” Tess grabbed Rusty’s hand back, continuing, “That cheating witch is all ‘
My
fans
so
adore me. It’s all me, me,
me
.’” Tess huffed pausing and draining her glass, before she said, “
Why
would Steven like
that
?”

“I don’t know, babe.” Rusty patted her hand. “But this time the ties are really broken and you can get free. I bet there’ll be no more of that no one can have you junk.”

“Yeah,” Tess murmured, instantly thinking of Vincent. But she got up to pour another margarita, instead of lingering on any thoughts of him. Over the next two drinks with very little nacho eating, she and Rusty dissected Finn O’Neil.

“I had such a crush on him in high school.” Rusty slurred her admission a bit ... they’d both drank more than they’d ate. Tess looked at her friend, critically; she was petite but voluptuous, with freckles, auburn hair, and a bunch of sass. She was perfect.