South, p.8
South, page 8
“I’m saying I want to tell you everything for immunity.”
“You aren’t an accomplice to a serial killer. This is petty theft.”
“Are you sure that’s all it is?” Paisley countered, leaning forward on her forearms. Getting closer to Jed and meeting his gaze head on. “I mean, she’s had access to that mansion for a few months. Are you sure she hasn’t stolen anything before now? I’m in jail and she’s where?” She burst into tears.
I’d heard enough. I pushed out the door again and this time made it all the way outside. It was dark now and the air was sharp. Snow would be coming soon. West followed.
“Where the fuck are you going?” he called.
I ran a hand over my face again. “I have no fucking idea. All I know is that this mess doesn’t involve me.”
“You sure about that?”
“We had sex. I didn’t marry the woman,” I countered.
My cell rang and I pulled it from my pocket. “Wainright.”
“South, hello. This is Nancy with the cleaning service.”
“Hi, Nancy.”
In the glow from the station’s exterior lights, I saw West’s eyebrow go up. There was no one in the lot but us.
Since I’d have to repeat everything the woman said anyway because West was a nosey fuck, I pulled the phone from my ear and pushed the speaker button.
“I’m sorry it’s taken me a little time to get to you, but I’m calling every client who’s had Maisey Miles clean their homes.”
“Oh?” I asked, meeting West’s eyes.
I couldn’t miss the woman’s sigh. “I’m sure you have heard from your sister about the theft at her home, but I wanted to call you personally to apologize. Not only for having her steal from your family, but that I sent her to your house as well. I understand if you don’t wish to use my services any longer after what one of my employees has done.”
I caught on. I’d hired Nancy to have my house cleaned, specifically requesting Maisey, to get Maisey in front of me. My plan had worked. Too well.
I hadn’t cancelled Nancy’s services. I couldn’t now because she’d believe I didn’t have faith in her. This was a small town and I was a Wainright. If I ended my arrangement, others might as well. I wasn’t an asshole, therefore it looked like I was going to have my house professionally cleaned from now on.
“It’s not your fault, Nancy. Please have someone come at the same day, perhaps every other week?”
This time, when she sighed, I could tell it was in relief.
“I’ll put you down. Thank you.”
“Nancy?”
“Yes?”
“Do you know what Maisey’s doing now?”
“Good question. I assure you, she won’t be working in this town ever again. I told her to leave and never come back. I’m sure she’s a hundred miles down the interstate by now. Good riddance.”
Nancy hung up and I tucked my phone away.
West set his hands on his hips. “Maisey’s left town and her sister’s in jail.”
“Paisley said she wasn’t sure if Maisey had stolen things before now. If she took something small but valuable—”
“Which there is a lot of in that fucking house,” West cut in to add. “How often do we go into the downstairs rooms? There’s a Faberge egg in the den and I haven’t been in there in… years.”
When at the big house, I stuck to the kitchen and great room. The powder room right off of it. I hadn’t been upstairs in forever. “Then she could be carrying a fortune, rolling out of town with her pride in tatters, but her sister behind bars.”
“Holy shit. That’s… cunning.”
“Do you remember seeing a Band-Aid on the woman’s finger at the bar the other night?” I asked.
West looked out into the dark as if trying to remember. “I wasn’t paying much attention to her hands,” he admitted. “Not when two men were practically sucking her tits.”
I stepped away, spun in a circle and came back. My breath came out in a white cloud. There was no moon and the wind was sharp.
“I know for a fact I didn’t have sex with the woman in there. If that’s really Paisley, then I was with Maisey because of the cut. I marked her, too.” I thought about how I’d sucked that dainty skin. “Gave her a fucking hickey. I’m not going to strip her down to check, but she’d still have a mark on her inner thigh.”
Thankfully, West didn’t comment on the fact I had my head between Maisey’s thighs. “What are you going to do?” he asked.
I faced him. “Find Maisey Miles and learn the truth. I fucking hate liars. If she’s guilty, I’m putting her behind bars.”
“She isn’t Macon,” he reminded.
I stalled and my stomach churned. “No, but she’s just like him.”
“You sure about that? Trust your judgement, your gut. You had it bad for her. Things may not be as they seem.”
“I intend to find out.”
12
MAISEY
* * *
The pounding on the door woke me. I popped up in bed and blinked, confused. Where was I? God, the crappy hotel. There was no clock in the room, but it was still dark out. Only the orange glow from the parking lot lights seeped through the cracks in the tired curtains.
The knock came again, and I jumped. “Maisey. Open the door.”
South.
My heart was already in my throat from being woken, but now I panicked. Why was South here? I was over three hours from his house.
Slipping from bed, I grabbed my glasses and put them on, then pulled the curtain aside and peeked out. The rooms of this old motel exited directly onto the parking lot. My old car was right in front.
There was South, staring at the door. The light hit him harshly, but with his Stetson on, his face was in complete shadow. I’d know him anywhere though.
“I’m not going away,” he called.
While the banging had been loud, his voice was tempered down. Was it to let the others staying at the motel sleep or to keep from scaring me?
Either way, it was too late.
I heard someone shout through the wall to shut up.
I opened the door and South pushed his way in, forcing me to step back. I shut it behind him, the cold air making me shiver.
“What… what are you doing here?”
I hadn’t seen him in person since I left his studio. Since he’d said he’d come to Billionaire Ranch to see me. My stomach flip flopped. I wanted to jump into his arms and have him hold me again. To tell me everything was going to be all right. Except he hadn’t wanted me. Except—
He reached out, took a hold of my wrist and turned it as if he was looking for something.
I yanked against his hold.
It was barely light enough to make out his face. He flipped on a switch and the lamp—which had been put in this room in the late seventies based on the brass and orange shade—brightened the room.
I squinted, needing time to let my eyes adjust.
“Maisey,” he said, running a finger over the cut that was slowly healing.
“What?” I asked, confused, yanking against his hold. This time, he let me go.
“Just want to make sure I’m talking to the right woman,” he said, taking off his hat.
Oh.
He found out. Of course he found out. It was his family’s house that had been robbed.
Realizing I was standing before him in just my panties and t-shirt, I grabbed the jeans I’d had on earlier, then sat on the edge of the bed to put them on.
“Don’t do that for me,” he said, his voice holding none of the warmth I’d heard until now. “I’ve seen it all. So have the guys at the bar.”
I had one foot in my pants and looked up at him. I didn’t like his tone, or his words. “What guys at the bar?”
He huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “The two who used you as part of their tequila shots, then went with you to the bathroom to fuck.”
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I was catching on pretty fast though.
“Right,” he scoffed. He didn’t believe me.
“You met my sister,” I said, returning to putting my pants on.
“Oh yeah.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “You don’t seem all that upset considering what happened.”
I looked up at him. I wanted to argue. Fight for myself, what Paisley kept right on taking. She’d stolen South from me. He was a few feet away, but he wasn’t mine. He hated me. His anger was pumping off him in waves.
I didn’t have it in me. I was too worn down.
“I’ve been right here before,” I told him. “A guy pushing me away because of Paisley.”
“Pushing you away?” His eyes widened and he stared. “Are you fucking serious?”
I stood. I couldn’t stay here a second longer in this shitty room with a guy who seemed to hate my guts. Even though it was the middle of the night, I wasn’t going back to sleep. I’d keep on driving.
“I’m always serious.” I stood, did up the zipper and the button. “That’s the problem.”
I didn’t even look his way when I snagged a hoodie, then closed my bag. I grabbed it and my purse.
“Where the hell are you going?” He stared at me wide eyed, as if he expected me to take whatever shit he dished out.
“Salt Lake City. I’ll have a better chance at finding work in a bigger place.”
“Finding work or another family to scam?”
I spun on my heel and looked at him. My eyes widened and my mouth fell open. “You think—” I blinked, then took a breath. “What did Paisley say?”
“You’re the mastermind.” He came over to me, grabbed my purse from my hands. “That you set it all up and left her in jail while you run off with something valuable. What did you get? My grandmother’s diamond brooch? The Faberge egg? That’s going to be pretty hard to sell at a pawn shop.”
We fought over my purse, but he was stronger. Going over to the tiny table, the laminate top worn and chipped, he tipped the items onto it.
“Hey!”
My cell, wallet, keys, a bag of tissues, lip balm and a tampon landed with a clatter.
He flipped open my wallet, read the ID. Then he rifled through it, tugged out the cash.
“Did you already pawn something?” His blue eyes met mine. They were ice cold.
I blinked back tears. I couldn’t help it because he was digging through my things. Accusing. This was worse than learning Tommy had slept with Paisley. I shook my head.
He didn’t believe me. He didn’t believe in me. I’d learned long ago not to chase, to not try to run after someone who didn’t want to be with me. I wouldn’t be my mother begging for scraps from men who didn’t give a shit about her. South definitely wasn’t here because he wanted an “us.”
“It’s my money.”
“There’s got to be three, four hundred dollars here.”
I might not beg for scraps, but I wasn’t letting him take my hard-earned cash. He might have billions, but he held all that I had to my name. I reached for it, grabbed it from him and shoved it back in my wallet. I collected my things and slid them back in my purse. “It’s all I have,” I murmured, slinging it over my shoulder. “It’s my word against Paisley.” I looked South square in the eye. “You can believe me when I say I had nothing to do with what she did today. Or not. Unless you’ve got a police officer out there to arrest me, I need to go.”
“Running away.” The words were tossed out as if they were foul.
I swiped at the tears that fell now. I was running away. From Paisley again. Yeah, her shit hurt, especially when I learned she’d said I was the mastermind, leaving her in jail. It was seeing South, knowing what he thought of me, that sliced deep.
I offered him a small smile and took one last look at the cowboy who I’d thought was mine.
“Yeah, running away. You’ve got it all figured out.”
I opened the door, grabbed my bag off the floor and went to my car. There was no sense in locking it since no one in their right mind would steal it. I tossed my stuff in. It was fucking freezing.
“Maisey.”
I looked up. He was silhouetted in the open room door.
“What?”
“Tell me.”
“That I didn’t do it?” I sniffed and wiped at my cheeks. “That it was Paisley? That she finally found me and used my access to a billionaire family as a dream come true? That she pretended to be me, again, so she wouldn’t take the fall? That she blamed her scheme’s failure on me, just like a sociopath does? It’s what you want to hear, right? To absolve you or something?”
“Then why the fuck are you running away?”
I blinked and looked down the side of the motel. This was my life. Fleeing a cheap motel in the middle of the night. To nowhere. Anywhere.
“To protect you.”
With that, I dropped into my seat and tugged the door closed with a squeak. Before South could move from the doorway, I backed out of the lot and drove away.
13
SOUTH
* * *
I went into Maisey’s hotel room and slammed the door shut. Sat on the edge of the bed, set my elbows on my knees. I picked up her familiar scent over a musty, mildew odor. This place may have been nice, back in the sixties. Now, it was rundown to the point of sketchy, built along an empty stretch of the highway. It was the middle of the fucking night and far from home. Hours from Billionaire Ranch.
Everything Paisley Miles at the police station had said had been accurate. Maisey had fled town. She had plenty of cash. I doubted North would press charges and Paisley would never step foot on the ranch again. We’d been duped. So had my dick.
I ran a hand over my face. Weary. Grabbing my cell, I called my sister.
“Did you find her?” she asked right away, even though it was four in the morning.
North had been a workaholic, pushing herself too hard. Then Macon had died and she’d met Jed. He helped with her work/life balance, sometimes even tossing her over his shoulder and carrying her away from her laptop and toward their bedroom. He dragged her to his off-the-grid cabin often enough. He didn’t let her work there at all and she’d told me he stuck her cell in a kitchen drawer.
She’d been asleep, of course, although she sounded as if she was at her desk at the company headquarters in Billings instead of in her bed in the middle of the night.
I had to talk to someone, and it wasn’t going to be West. He was more of a girl sometimes than North. Besides, chores on his ranch started early.
“Yeah. A motel close to the Idaho state line.”
“And?”
“And she’s gone.”
“You let her go?”
“Why wouldn’t I let her?” I countered, picking at a fray in my jeans. “They stole… hell, I don’t even know what Paisley Miles even lifted from the house.”
“A bottle of Cognac.”
“I could see Mrs. Sanchez busting her for taking anything from the house, but Jed thought she should be scared straight at the police station for a thirty dollar bottle of liquor?”
“Try a hundred thousand dollar bottle from the wine cellar,” she countered.
Fuck. I’d pretty much forgotten it even existed. I didn’t touch the fancy shit, sticking with whiskey or beer.
“It’s a bottle of Cognac. Yes, it’s a shit ton of money for a bottle of old grapes, but it’s a thing. I’m more upset the woman’s that cunning.”
“I know,” I replied. “And you didn’t sleep with her.”
Jed didn’t keep anything from North. Since West had blabbed to Jed, North had to know about my thing with Maisey.
“Maisey? South, I was talking about Paisley,” she countered.
“You don’t think—”
“Jed and I agree. Paisley’s the crazy one.”
I sat up, stared at the old TV, the kind with the dial to change channels I remembered from when I was a kid.
“You pressed charges then.”
“No.”
I blinked. “I shouldn’t have let Maisey go then? You want to arrest her instead?”
“No.”
I wanted to sigh and growl and rip my hair out. “I’m so fucking confused. Why not?”
“Why did you go after Maisey?”
I had no idea why she was asking me this. If I were a kid, I’d respond with duh. Instead, I said, “Because she stole from us.”
“We’ve had people steal before. This wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. Why did you chase after her? I mean, it’s four in the morning.”
“Because she stole from us,” I repeated. Again, duh.
“Because you care,” she countered. “You went after her because she took from you.”
I did groan now. “I trusted her. Jesus, I told her she was the one. That I’d been waiting for her. Shit, I sound like I’ve grown a pussy.”
North laughed. “It sounds like you found your heart.”
I sighed, because I was so fucking tired and confused. Hurt and yeah, my heart felt like it had been back-kicked by a pissed off horse, then stomped on.
“What did you learn from her?” she asked.
“There’s nothing hidden in her purse. She had some cash on her.”
“That’s what you found. What did she say?”
“That her sister’s a sociopath. That she’s moving to Salt Lake to find a job. To start over.”
I heard Jed’s voice, then muffling as it sounded like North covered up the phone, then she came on again. “You’re on speaker. Jed’s here.”
It was the middle of the night. Of course he was there beside North.
“Hey,” Jed said. “I’m thrilled we’re doing this now, not hours ago at the station. You could’ve stuck around. Because of it, you’re interrupting my sleep with my woman.”
“He needs help,” North told him.
“Princess, he needs to get his head out of his ass, is what he needs help with.”
I wasn’t sure why I was on the phone if they were going to talk as if I wasn’t listening in.
