Inner Circle (31 page)

“That can be dangerous,” Eve replied, sipping her coffee and looking over the edge of the cup at Jackie.

Jackie glanced up and smiled slyly. “Fine with me. I like walking on the wild side.”

“I guess you do,” Jai said grabbing another slice of bacon. “But one of these days you’re going to report the wrong thing and somebody is going to whoop that ass!”

“Well, you know what they say. You gotta bring some to get some!” Jackie laughed.

“Well, bring your ass in the back bedroom and get some of them
damn boxes Eve and I spent all night packing,” Amber laughed getting up and starting to clear the table.

“Right!” Jai said, standing and stretching. “Let’s get started. I don’t want to be here all day. Good breakfast, Eve,” Jai said, licking her fingers and then dusting the bread crumbs onto her napkin. “So where do we start?”

“Eve and I were up until midnight bringing boxes downstairs. We thought it would make things a little easier,” Amber said, standing.

“I brought my truck so I can take quite a bit,” Jai said.

“Me too,” Jackie stated, still typing. She bit a slice of bacon and chewed slowly, concentrating on her e-mails.

“Then I’ll use Chase’s truck,” Eve said. “With that much truck space, we can be done in no time. I’ll grab the dolly from the garage, and, Amber, you can use the cart we left in the back bedroom.”

“Okay, then Jai and I will work together and you and Jackie can team up,” Amber suggested, scooping the last of the leftovers into a container.

Eve turned to Jackie who had pulled out a pad and was now talking and taking notes. “Are you going to help or not?” Eve asked.

“Yes, but this is important.” Jackie held her hand up. “Give me about five, ten minutes.”

“You’re parked in the driveway so we need to load your truck first,” Eve stated impatiently.

“Shit, here, take my keys.” Irritated, Jackie reached into her purse and tossed Eve her keys.

“You’ve got ten minutes, and then I’m turning your damn cell phone off until we finish,” Eve said tucking Jackie’s keys into her pocket. She made her way out of the kitchen and down the hallway to the garage side door. She sighed, not happy about the fact that Amber had arbitrarily paired her to work with Jackie. With what she knew about Jackie, Eve was still uncomfortable with being alone with her.

Eve stood on her tiptoes and strained to reach the dolly from its hanging place. She stretched, pulling at the dolly until it came
crashing down. Eve screamed as she managed to barely escape getting hit in the head. “Jackie needs to bring her ass on,” Eve fussed realizing she needed help.

She lifted the dolly to its upright position and rolled it into the house. She laughed when she witnessed Jai gingerly lifting only the small boxes. “Can you guys move to the side?” Eve said, rolling her eyes. “I can make two trips to your one at the rate you two are going.”

“I don’t do manual labor,” Jai said checking the fingernail on her left index finger. “Shit! I chipped a nail already! Where’s Jackie?”

“Busy being busy as usual. I have her keys so I’ll start packing her truck while you guys pack yours, Jai,” Eve said.

Eve loaded four boxes onto the dolly and headed back down the driveway, through the garage. She pressed the garage opener on the wall and waited as the door slowly opened. Pushing the dolly slowly, she headed for Jackie’s Cadillac Escalade that was parked next to Jai’s Range Rover. Unlike Jai, Jackie had not backed in, so Eve carefully maneuvered the dolly between the two vehicles being careful not to scratch their custom-paint jobs. She reached the rear of the Escalade and balanced the dolly with her foot while she searched in her pocket for Jackie’s keys. When she managed to retrieve them, she pressed the automatic door opener and waited for the door to lift. She saw that there was a camera bag, tripod, and two boxes already inside.

“Jesus!” Eve complained. “She didn’t even bother to clean it out.”

She steadied the dolly until she got it to stand upright by itself, then rearranged the camera equipment and shoved the two boxes together. One was longer than the other, so Eve leaned in to reach the box that was farthest from the front. Leaning over the first box, she tugged at it, causing it to fall forward and the contents of the box to spill out. Eve tried to push the garments back into the box while tilting it upright, but it fell over on its side and out came a knit cap and a long braid of hair.

Lifting the cap, Eve discovered that it was actually a ski mask. She frowned as she held up the rest of the outfit which turned out
to be a pair of black knit pants and a black hoodie. Eve looked back and forth at the assortment of clothing and the braid of hair and laughed, wondering what kind of cat burglar shit Jackie was carrying around in her trunk. The thought was barely out of her head before she froze suddenly. The reality of what she was looking at hit her like a ton of bricks!

“What the fuck!” she exclaimed staring at the garments and Carmen’s cut-off braid. Eve couldn’t believe what she was seeing, let alone what she was thinking, but as she quickly began to replay conversations and details over in her head, unanswered questions began to fall into place like a jigsaw puzzle. As if suddenly greased with Vaseline, Eve’s hands became slick and clammy while her heart raced with emotions.

“Holy shit! It can’t be!” she gasped.

Eve looked around to see if anyone was watching. She heard Amber and Jai pulling the cart through the side door and with only a split second to make a decision, she lifted her sweatshirt and tucked the braid underneath.

Eve quickly returned the clothing to the box and shoved it back into its original spot. Her hands were shaking as she hurriedly rearranged the items to make space. Quickly, she placed the four boxes into the truck, then slid the last box back into place. She peeked her head around the rear of the truck at the sound of Amber’s and Jai’s voices.

“You okay back here?” Amber asked, slightly winded.

“I’m fine,” Eve said ceremonially dusting her hands off and trying to appear calm. She could tell by the look on Amber’s face that she was failing miserably.

“You sure?” Jai asked, double-checking.

“Yeah, one of the boxes was a little heavier than I expected.” Eve forced a big grin and pushed the dolly past Amber, entering the garage along the far side of Jai’s truck. As she pushed, she gripped the dolly tightly in an effort to keep her hands from shaking, purposely not looking back at Jai and Amber.

“We stacked boxes in the hallway for you,” Amber yelled after Eve.

“Okay!” Eve replied over her shoulder. It was the only response she could muster as she made her way back into the house.

Once alone, Eve stood trying to gather her senses, but instead, felt a knot forming in her stomach. She needed to think, but her thoughts were coming so fast she couldn’t sort them quickly enough. First the Paula and Jackie scene, and now this! Although, she had known Jackie for a long time, at the moment, she was beginning to wonder if she had ever really known her at all.

Eve felt her shock slowly turn to anger as she rushed to the guest bathroom and closed the door. She pulled the braid from her sweatshirt and examined it at arm’s length; it had to be at least two feet long with rubber bands at both ends. She knew the braid belonged to Carmen Garza.
What the fuck do I keep stumbling into?
Eve thought as she leaned back on the sink and closed her eyes.

“Hey! You taking a break already?” Amber asked, knocking on the door.

“Be right out!” Eve said as she reached over and flushed the toilet.

She folded the braid and placed it in the cabinet, then turned and looked at herself in the mirror. While she was a nervous wreck on the inside, she made sure that she looked as normal as possible on the outside. She grabbed a guest towel, dropped it in the sink, and turned on the cold water. Quickly, she dabbed the cold towel on her face and rubbed it across the back of her neck, then tossed it into the hamper. Taking a deep breath, she checked herself in the mirror one more time. “God, please get me through this day,” she sighed quietly and opened the bathroom door.

As she exited Eve was startled by Amber who was standing directly outside the bathroom. “Are you
sure
you’re all right? You don’t look so good.”

“I’m fine.” Eve dismissed Amber with a wave of the hand. “I guess I just didn’t get enough sleep,” she said faking a yawn. “I’ll be
okay. Come on, let’s get finished.” Eve hurried down the hallway before Amber could protest.

“And where the fuck is Jackie?” Eve yelled over her shoulder.

“I’m right here,” Jackie said appearing in the hallway.

“It’s about time,” Jai snapped.

“Damn, I told you I needed a minute,” Jackie snapped back.

“Help us load the cart,” Jai said, grabbing a box.

“Are we putting this stuff in my truck?” Jackie asked, lifting a box and placing it on the cart.

“I already put boxes in your truck, but you can probably get a couple more in,” Eve said tossing Jackie her keys without making eye contact. “We can start loading mine.”

“What’s up with you?” Jackie asked, eyeing Eve suspiciously.

“Nothing. Why does everybody keep asking me that?”

“Damn, who pissed in your Cheerios?” Jackie huffed.

“It was hash browns,” Jai said trying to lighten the mood. “And why don’t you two leave her alone? She said nothing was wrong.”

“I was just concerned,” Amber said.

“Yea, Eve, what’s up?” Jackie continued to pry.

Without responding, Eve shoved the dolly under a stack of boxes, spun it around, and headed for the garage. Before exiting, she stopped and turned to face the trio. “It’s nothing. Now let’s just focus and get this done, already,” she concluded as she rolled the dolly into the garage and out of sight.

Eve lifted the boxes into Chase’s truck two at a time. She needed to get Amber moved as quickly as possible. She could hear the ladies mumbling but tried to remain calm. Jackie was a master at reading body language, and right now, she felt like an open book, so she’d have to avoid her at all costs.

Eve
stretched and rubbed her shoulders as she slowly walked toward Chase’s truck parked in Amber’s driveway while Amber, Jackie, and Jai
followed a short distance behind. She ached all over from the lifting and pulling, and she had a headache. She could hear the trio behind her expressing the same sentiments.

“What was I thinking?” Jai asked. “I hurt in places I know I shouldn’t! Whose big idea was it to have a moving party anyway?” she yelled to make sure Eve could hear.

Eve kept walking, without bothering to turn around and flipped Jai the bird. She could hear them all laughing, but she was too tired to join in. It was nearly eight o’clock in the evening, but the relocation of Amber and Olivia was complete. Amber had insisted that they leave the boxes for her to unpack, but the ladies would hear none of it. Together, the four had unboxed, folded, and placed every bit of clothing, toys, and personal items back in their rightful places.

It had turned out to be more work than Eve had anticipated, but in the end, that turned out to be a good thing. They were all so busy that Eve barely had time to think about what she had found. She had forced it to lie dormant in the back of her mind until now, but once released, the thoughts came rushing back like a tornado.

She climbed into the truck and watched as Amber hugged and thanked Jackie and Jai for the umpteenth time.

“Night!” Eve waved lazily as the two yelled good night in her direction.

Within moments, Jackie’s and Jai’s cars disappeared into the darkness.

“God, I had no idea this was going to take so long. I promised the girls I would take you all out to dinner after I’m back to a normal routine.” Amber stretched. “Damn that feels good!”

“Take your time on that dinner thing. I’ve spent enough time with the three of you to last me for a while,” Eve smiled.

“So are you going to tell me what was up with you today?”

Eve contemplated telling Amber what she had found, but she was saved from making the decision when a vehicle turned into the driveway.

“It’s Sean and Olivia,” Amber said, shielding her eyes from the bright lights.

“Hey, you go and make nice-nice with the family. I have something I gotta do. We’ll talk later.”

“Thanks,” Amber said, nervously, thrusting her hands into her pockets. “Oh! Guess I won’t be needing these,” she said, pulling Eve’s spare house keys from her pocket and handing them over.

“Let’s hope not,” Eve smiled as she accepted the keys and squeezed Amber’s hand before letting go. “Good luck, boo,” she said as they exchanged expressions that needed no words.

Eve started the truck and slowly drove past Sean and Olivia, waving to them through the window. She added a good-bye honk and headed off into the darkness. Eve sighed so heavily that she could feel her breath on her hands as she gripped the steering wheel. She shuttered at the thought of what she would find when she got to the bottom of this latest discovery, trusting that she would, in fact, get to the bottom of it. But in order to get to the bottom, she knew she had to start at the top . . . And now more than ever before, she was sure that the person at the top was definitely Callie Peteers.

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