Twist (Siren Publishing Allure) (32 page)

Lana walked to the door, opening it with the pass code and then turning off the alarm. She could smell the scent of gasoline in the air and grimaced. The fire department was hosing down the driveway with some kind of spray solution, and she called out, “I think there might be some over here by the house. I can smell it.” She was about to step inside when one of the firemen jogged over. “You should probably stay outside until we secure the perimeter.”

“Can I cut through and go out the back?”

He frowned, but Jake nodded. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t light a cigarette and throw it out the window or anything.” Jake gestured her into the house and shut the door behind them. He looked around, whistling. “Nice house.”

“Thank you. It’s comfortable.”

“I want your television. What is that, a seventy inch?”

“Seventy-two, 3-D. I wanted it for my birthday and Enar got it for me. I really like 3-D movies.”

She walked over to the coffeemaker, pouring water into the chamber and adding a mocha pod. She set the pod-holder on the table. “Pick one.”

He looked at the choices and chose a Jamaican blend. “I didn’t even know they had organic coffee pods.”

“There are a few companies that make them.” She removed her cup and filled Jake’s. They walked out onto the back patio together, sitting at the table. Lana’s eyes went to the fountain, and she checked to make sure that Enar’s urn was safe. It was undisturbed, the water cascading down over the black marble. “So how are things?”

“Okay. Gina and I were really sorry to hear about Enar. He was a really nice guy. We owe you money, by the way.”

“Don’t worry about it. As far as I’m concerned, all loans have already been paid.”

“Enar loaned us twenty-five thousand when we had a fire at our house.”

Lana shrugged. “I know. It’s in the paperwork. I have read it all. Enar marked it PIF, and even if he hadn’t, I don’t need the money back. Replace some of my trees.”

The phone rang, and he looked at the caller ID, frowning. “That is weird timing.” He flipped the phone open. “Mason, did you send us over a contract to clear a four-acre stretch of property off Lake Drive?” He listened and then leaned his head back, snorting in anger. “Thank you.” He hung the phone up. “I was afraid of that. We get so many contracts with Dover that I didn’t even question it. It wasn’t from Dover. Damn it.” He keyed a number into the phone. “Harry, get our guys out of there right now.”

“What are you talking about, Jake?”

“I’ll explain later. We are clearing private property that wasn’t supposed to be cleared. Get our guys out and try not to do anymore damage in the process.”

“Whatever you say, boss. I guess this has something to do with that nasty bitch on the motorcycle.”

Jake looked mortified. “That lovely woman is sitting five feet from me. She had every right to yell, it is her property that we were accidentally clearing.”

“Sorry, boss.”

Jake set the phone down. “Sorry, Lana.”

“Don’t worry about it. Oddly enough, he was not the first one to call me a bitch lately. Have you been to the club?”

“No. Gina hasn’t been feeling good. The doctor thinks that she has Lyme again.”

“Oh, that sucks.”

“Yeah, it does. How are you holding up?”

Lana went on to explain the things that had happened since Enar’s death, and when the fire department rang the doorbell, Jake took care of them. He headed back to the job, and Lana decided to get back to her original plan of going into town. She felt bad for what had happened to Jessica. It was a pity because the woman had been so fastidious about her appearance. Even if she survived, Jessica would need massive reconstructive surgery because of the burns on her face. Lana had no intention of sitting home to dwell on the event.

She locked the house back up, having a sudden craving for a Reuben on rye with a black-cherry-chocolate-mousse chaser. She headed into town, pulling up outside the Arrowroot café. She parked the beast and walked inside. The usual lunchtime crowd seemed unusually light, and she walked up to the manager, frowning. “Is everyone ordering Chinese today, Sam?”

He smiled, the expression lacking humor. “I guess you haven’t seen the posters that are plastered all over town. We removed the ones around the restaurant, but they are everywhere.”

“No, I haven’t. What posters?”

“It is a notice calling for a town meeting at Saint Matthew’s Church about the corrupt, heathen Manard family that lives among us, pretending to be generous and righteous members of our society. It lists every business that has been financed by the Manard family and makes connections to Trist and a supposed chain of pornography stores.”

Lana tipped her head back, snickering in aggravation and then sighed loudly. “I really don’t need any more shit this week. I have had my share and then some already. Somebody, please take the sign off my forehead.”

Sam stared at her, his expression suddenly worried. “Are you okay?”

“No. Not really.” She blew out a frustrated breath and tried to regain her composure. “Do you think it’s safe to eat out on the patio?”

“It should be. What would you like?”

“I stopped here to get a Reuben and a bowl of black-cherry mousse.”

“I’ll put the order in for you myself. Why don’t you go relax on the patio. You look like you need it.”

“Thank you, but I need to go call my attorney. By the way, where the hell is Saint Matthew’s Church?”

“It’s on Main Street.”

“Thank you. Do you know anyone who could use two hundred dollars and doesn’t mind walking?”

“I could probably come up with someone, why?”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet, counting out ten twenties. “I want every one of those flyers ripped down and collected. I am going to give them to my attorney. I will take a few pictures on my way across town.” She handed him the money. “The sooner, the better. Please.”

“I will take care of it.”

“Thank you, Sam.”

* * * *

Lana called Grace and spoke with her again about Celia. She ate her lunch, reveling in the satisfying flavor of the high-grade corned beef sandwich. Sam knew enough to skip on the fries, instead giving her a dish of their newest menu item, spicy coleslaw with raisins. It was good, and Lana chewed, wondering why anyone would make a decision not to eat at a restaurant because of a slanderous note on a telephone pole. The flyer hadn’t said that there was anything wrong with the food, just with the owners. She pushed the plate aside, moaning as she put a spoon of chocolate mousse into her mouth. She was sucking on her second mouthful when the phone rang. “Hello?”

“Hey, sweets, where are you?”

“I’m at Arrowroot eating mousse. Where are you?”

“In the car.”

“How did your meeting go?” she asked, suddenly realizing that she probably should have called him about Jessica.

“It went great. They were all actually very understanding when I explained the situation. They are going to pass the word around to clear my reputation. How are things there?”

She shrugged, knowing that he couldn’t see her. “Not as well, I’m afraid.”

“Why, what happened?”

“Are you sitting down?”

“Yeah, I’m driving.”

“Well, pull over.”

He was silent and then said, “Okay. I pulled over. What happened?”

“I know where Jessica is.”

“Where?”

“In the hospital, here in Ridgefield.”

“What?”

“It seems that she has been here all along, working for a construction company. She flew to California and created a bunch of shit to get you to go back to California. In the meantime, she created a bogus contract for a company to clear four acres of our land, starting this morning. I went to confront the company to find out what the hell they were doing, and Jessica planned to burn our house down while I was gone. I realized what was going on, flew home, and surprised her in the act. She dropped the can of gasoline and then tripped over it in a panicked rush to get to her truck. Unfortunately for her, she had a flare in her hand and it snapped when she hit the ground, setting her on fire. She was taken away by ambulance a while ago. Jake is going to have a crew remove the gas residue from the front of the house, along with half the bushes and flowers. Everything has been soaked with a solution to make it nonflammable.”

“How bad did Jessica get burned?”

“From what I saw, it was bad. The upper portion of the front of her body was burned and most of her hair was gone. Jake put her out with a fire extinguisher.”

“Was the house damaged?”

“No.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’ve had better days. I came into town and found out that flyers had been plastered all over town to announce what businesses we own and that we are devils.”

“You have to be kidding.”

“I’m not. I paid Sam two hundred to have someone go collect them all so I can give them to Grace. I talked to her a little while ago and she said that she would deal with it. I was thinking about going to the church directly.”

“You could. For what reason?”

“To make a little donation to whoever runs the place for whatever he needs in exchange for getting Celia to lay off.”

“He is called a priest. Not too churchly, huh?”

“I haven’t been to church since I was sixteen. My aunt used to drag me twice a week to services and I hated it.”

“Auntie sounds like a winner.”

“She was.”

“I find it amazing from what you have told me that you are not a neurotic wacko.”

Lana laughed, realizing it was the first time she had done so since he left. “Thank you.”

“You are quite welcome. Do you still want me to come home?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know. I was just thinking that you are handling things well without me. What do you need me for?”

“For all the things I don’t want to handle alone, like sleeping, laughing, and keeping my sanity.”

“Are you handling your twat alone without me?”

“No,” she replied, with a chuckle. “Right at the moment I am too tired and too aggravated to have that as a top priority. Although, I could really use oblivion right now.”

“Really?” he asked as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

Lana turned her head to look at him. “How did you know I was here?”

“I installed a tracker on your phone so I could locate you, plus, you told me.”

He walked around her, pulling up a chair and sitting down. “Miss me?”

She physically wilted as she looked at him and started to cry. “Very much.”

“Why are you crying?”

“I used to be so self-sufficient, and I fell apart when you left. I missed you so much. I just wanted you home, and you are here. What did you do to me?”

“I didn’t do anything. You don’t really need me, Lana. You want me. There is a difference. You missed me because you love me and I wasn’t here to support you. I’m sorry.”

“Didn’t I say something like that to you a while back?”

“Yeah, you did. In reference to how I would know that you loved me. You handled everything that happened, and now you’re here in town ready to go tell off a priest. How did you get the construction crew to help you?”

“I know the boss from the club. Enar loaned him and his wife a bunch of money when they had a fire at their house. Their insurance wasn’t sufficient to cover the damage and they had just had twins. He has tried to pay some of it back over the years, but he barely made a dent. He is going to clean our yard and plant some trees to replace the ones that were cut down. They made a hell of a mess in our forest. Do you know how to transcribe miles to acres?”

“You really can’t. A mile is a straight measurement and an acre is square feet. Why?”

“I was trying to relate the ten acres beside the house to a mile on the road and wasn’t sure how to do it.”

“A mile is five thousand two hundred plus feet. An acre on the other hand can be many different dimensions that add up to forty-three thousand plus square feet. The problem is that the property can be square, rectangle, any combination of dimensions to add up to the correct number. Basically any quadrilateral can be an acre.”

Lana furrowed her brow at him, and he smiled. “A quadrilateral is any form that has four straight sides in any combination. If you are talking about the property, the distance between the house and nature preserve is basically a narrow trapezoid with the large end at the preserve, narrowing down on the opposite side of Lee’s house. The longest distance is from side to side in line with the road. The actual footage from the side of the house to the preserve is a little over two thousand eight hundred feet, so just over half a mile. Give or take.”

Lana stared at him in awe. “And you figured this how?”

“I have seen the deed to the property and I’m good with numbers.”

“Cool, so am I, well, basic math at least. I just didn’t get the time to look up the square feet in a mile or an acre. Why haven’t you kissed me?”

“I was actually wondering if it was worth the shit we are going to get for doing so. The café is full of people and we are kind of under scrutiny. I was thinking it would be wiser to wait until we were in private. I have no problem claiming you as mine, but I think discretion would be prudent at the moment.”

“I hate to say it, but I have to agree. Are you going to the church with me?”

“Are you proposing?”

Lana laughed, shaking her head. “Do I have to? I thought that was the guy’s job.”

“I didn’t know it was a job.”

“It’s not. You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, and I would love to go to the church with you.”

“Glad to hear it,” she replied, wondering at the undertone of his comment. He had seemed reluctant to make a true commitment to her, so it probably meant nothing. Yet, if he asked her to marry him, would she? Pushing the thought back in her mind, she asked, “How did you get back so fast?”

“I straightened things out last night with a bunch of private meetings over the phone. Lenny is having the brunch for the buyers, and those I spoke with will make sure the others know that Jessica was lying. I had a late dinner with two of the Egyptian traders and showed them the pile of receipts to prove I always pay a fair price. Did I forget to mention that I have my own jet?”