Acquiring Trouble (18 page)

Marshall looked between them
.
"How do you know?" he asked his brother.

"She passed the test."

Marshall just nodded and wrote something down in his notebook. Katelyn was obviously confused and wanted clarifi
cation. "What does that mean?" s
he asked Marshall.

"It means
you
didn't do it.
Any of it.
The person
responsible is still out there. Morgan, do you have any idea who did do this?"

"No."

Miles looked over at Morgan and knew in an instant that she was lying. No one could tell unless they were trained, but her pulse jumped and she forgot to breathe for a split second. She didn't do it, but
did she kno
w who did? Was she covering for Top Producers? There was a lot more to this story and he was go
ing to get to the bottom of it.

*
    
*
    
*

Katelyn thanked Miss Lily for the glass of
Rose
s
ister
s
pecial
i
ce
d
t
ea and leaned back in her chair. She had just told the story to the girls at her bachelorette party at Wyatt Estate. Miss Lily and her grandmother, Ruth Wyatt
,
had planned the event. All the Rose sisters, her best friend and
m
atron of
h
onor, Paige
,
were
there along with
Kenna
,
Dani
, and her s
oon
-
to
-
be sister-in-law, Annie.

"So, she didn't do it?"
Dani
asked in confusion as she
took another sip of water
.

"Miles said he asked her and she passed the test. Marshall just accepted that, but he didn't have time to tell me what that
meant
."

"That doesn't sound like the only test she passed," Annie joked as she gave the crowd a wink and took another bite of cupcake.

"
Ew
w
. That's my brother. I don't even like thinking about how you got pregnant with Cade," Paige said as she made a face. "What it means is that Miles is basically a human lie detector. It's uncanny.
He can detect changes in your breathing and eye movement.
He can
even feel when you lie.
"

"I think he was feeling a lot more than a lie," Annie sputtered.
"Sorry! Sorry! I can't help it.
Miles does nothing remotely interesting and yet he's doing the horizontal mambo with the bad seed of Keeneston? I mean, look at how petrified you all are!"

"
It wasn't that she was
just
a bad seed, but bless her heart, she was the spawn of Satan. She was constantly at the center of everything bad that happened. Even her own father and sister turned
their backs on her," Miss Violet
told them as she brought in more cupcakes.

"The last time I saw her she was tearing apart my rose bushes. I had to chase her away with my broom before she destroyed them for no reason!" Miss Lily
clucked.

"I'm sorry, but I disagree with you all," Annie jumped in. "I've talked to her and I really like her. She may have been that way when she was seventeen, but she's not like that now."

Kenna
bit her lip and furrowed her brow. "So, if she didn't do it, then who did?"

"I don't know,
but I think I need more chocolate
if we're playing detective,"
Dani
said as she picked up
another cupcake
. "I
also
think it's Katelyn's bachelorette party and we
have a duty to get her wasted."

"Here
! H
ere!"
Kenna
toasted. "To Katelyn and Marshall!"

Miles swirled
his bourbon
in the crystal glass and watched as the
amber liquid
circled around. It was doubtful that the glass of bourbon held the answers he sought
, but
the warmth that
overtook
him as he drank it sure did help.
Morgan was lying to him and he wanted to know why.

Miles looked up as his brothers and fri
ends took their seats around his
poker table and collected their chips. Mo had joined them tonight, along with Ahmed, Dinky
,
and Noodle to make their n
ormal poker party considerably
larger.
However, tonight
was
Marshall’s bachelor party and not the
brothers’
weekly poker
night
.

“I’m not lucky in love nor at cards, so I can just deal if y’all would like,” Dinky, one of Marshall’s deputies
,
said as he took a seat at the extended table.

“That’
d be great. We usually have to wait for Pierce to lose his money before we get a dealer,” Marshall joked as he took the seat next to Miles. “Hey man, thanks for hosting this shindig tonight.”

“Of course. It’s my pleasure.” Miles took another sip of his bourbon and pasted on
the
fake smile that he had perfected since his return from overseas.

“I’m sorry, but your regular poker night for a bachelor party is lame,” Pierce w
h
ined as he opened his bee
r. “
Where’s the strippers
? Where’s
the music and party?”

“Poor Pierce. You still haven’t learned about women at all, have you?”
Cade
teased his brother
-
in
-
law and Mo gave a chuckle.

“What does that mean?” Pierce puffed up his chest
defensively.

“I wouldn’t mind knowing either,” Dinky said as he leaned
forward
,
not miss
ing
a thing.

“It means boys dream of strippers, men dream of the
ir wome
n waiting for them at home,” Mo said while he shrugged out of his Armani suit coat.

“It also means that
once you reach a point in your relationship that you’re getting married, you don’t care about those things anymore
,
” Cole told his youngest brother
-
in
-
law as Pierce just rolled his eyes.

“In my case it means that
I’d
be shot if I came home wearing glitter.”
Cade joked about his gun-toting wife, getting a smile out of Ahmed.

“I don’t think I’ll ever feel that way about a woman. I’m enjoying my freedom, thank you very much
,
” Pierce said as he picked up his cards. “However, when Miles gets married I’m calling dibs
on hosting the bachelor party.”

“Speaking of Miles getting married, how’s Morgan?” Marshall asked with a grin a
s the men at the table laughed.

“There’s nothing going on with us.” Miles took another sip of his bourbon and hoped that would put an end to the discussion, but he knew better. It had only begun.

“Yea,
nothin
’ going on when you were at her hotel for two hours the other morning,” Noodle snic
kered.

“Thanks for keeping that quiet
, Marshall
. I didn’t tell them about Ruffles attacking you when you climbed into Katelyn’s window that one night.
Death by poodl
e, very manly.
I don’t know how you made it out alive,” Miles shot back.

“Hey, I had to put it in the police report. You were her, um, alibi,
” Marshall laughed.

“
You know, I think Morgan is perfect for you. You need some excitement. She’ll be just like my
Dani
and keep you on your toes.” Mo tossed another chip on the table and Cole cursed, folding his hand.

“S
he’s
very attractive. But, why is everyone so
scared of her?
I’ve
ru
n a background check and th
e only thing remotely interes
ting is the horse tattoo she has
on her lower back,” Ahmed said casual
ly as he raised his boss’s bet.

“How do you know about that?” Miles almost leapt across the table at the thought of som
eone else seeing Morgan’s body.

Ahmed just smiled and Miles took a deep breath. They were teasing him. It’s what guys did. So instead of putting his fist through Ahmed’s face, Miles just smiled
and put his cards on the table.

“I believe the pot is mine.” Miles grinned and raked in his winnings.

As the
players started to drop out, they talked about Noodle’s girlfriend who had asked him to accompany
her
to
the
Doctor’s Ball. Mo gave him advice on small talk and Pierce mumbled something about th
em not having strippers either.

“
How is you new house coming, Pierce?” Cole asked after he lost another hand.

“It’s coming a
long. The property is run down. I’m in the process of demo
lish
ing the house. Selling off the fixtures and whatnots to some of the antique stores. As soon as that is torn down, I can st
art building the new house. I’
ve only
cleared about 8 acres so far for
farmland. It’s so overgrown that it’s taking forever to get ready for crops. Hopefully next year
it’ll
be in condition for me to
move in and start planting
.”

“Mayb
e you can have your twenty-seventh
birthday
par
ty out there. Strippers and all,” Miles stated dryly. “All teasing aside, we’re proud of you little bro.”

“Aw! You’re growing up!” Cade grabbed him and ran his knuckles over Pierce’s head as he squirmed.
“What are you laughing at, Mo?” Cade let go of his brother and Mi
les watched as Mo
’s
grin widened.

“
I’m
simply imagining if I did that to one of my brothers at the palace. My father would be horrified.”

“How are your royal duties going?” Marshall asked as he tossed a chip in the center of the table.
Mo was so down to earth most of the time
they all
forgot he was a prince.

Mo played with a chip and l
ooked at his hand before tossing out his chips
. “My father
is in grand preparations for when he gets his
heir
at the end of the summer
.
H
e wants to send me around the world to represent the family at conferences. He believes that with me living in the United States it shows other countries, especially English speaking countries, that
Rahmi
is the better choice to do business with than some oth
er countries in the Middle East
.
As an expectant father, he thinks they’ll find me less intimidating now.
”

“That’s rough. Will
Dani
go with you?” Cole asked as he sat back from the ta
ble after losing his last chip.

“Some. She’ll go to New York City with me when I speak to the United Nations, but from there she’ll come home and I’ll be on my way to Belgium to meet with the European
Union.
I don’t want her traveling too much in her condition. She’s not quite
ten
weeks so I want to keep everything as stress
-
free and normal as possible.
”

“It
’s
very ex
c
iting.
I’d
love to see all those places. I wonder what kind of fishing you d
o in Belgium?” Noodle pondered.

“It sounds exciting, but it’s not. You don’t have time to see what that fishing would be like. Every minute is scheduled. All you see is the airport, the inside of a car as it drives through the city
,
and then the hotel. You don’t do much else but shake hands with politicians and try to fig
ure out what everyone is after.”

“Sounds like a game of Clue,” Dinky said to Noodle who just nod
ded. Miles even smiled at that.