Trusting You (17 page)

The next morning we met Mason down at the café and ate breakfast before heading to Sonoma Valley where Claire lived. I was taking a gamble going out there to see her, because if she was supportive of Daniel he would for sure find out about my lying to him, and hence, I would see his wrath. However, the feeling in my gut was telling me I had to see her. I had to trust my instincts even if it caused a shit ton of problems when I got back home.

When we arrived at the main estate where I assumed Claire still lived, I walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. Mason and Brett stayed in the car while I tried to listen for movement inside. Nothing … it was quiet. I looked back at the guys and shrugged. I waited a few more minutes, and when it was clearly apparent that she wasn’t there I marched right back to the black Honda Ridgeline which served as our rental car.

Sighing, I climbed up into the truck and buckled my seat belt. “She’s not there. I guess she’s still in London.”

Mason spoke up from the back seat. “What are we going to do if she doesn’t come back while we’re here? Do you think she’s ignoring your phone calls?”

“No, she wouldn’t do that. We were really close when Daniel and I were married. I’d talked to her a few times after the divorce, but she was busy trying to finish up college and I had started teaching. Time just wasn’t on our side.”

Brett took my hand and kissed my knuckles. “We’ll come back tomorrow, okay? Maybe you should try calling her again.”

Nodding, I grabbed my phone out of my purse and dialed her number. After pulling out of the long driveway we headed down the country road that was surrounded by nothing but rows and rows of vines with succulent grapes. Memories flooded my mind of the times I spent wandering through the fields and enjoying the peace it offered. I smiled just thinking about it, and also about the times Daniel’s mother would teach me about the various grapes and how the winery worked. I was so fascinated by it all.

Before I could press ‘send’ on my phone to finish the call to Claire, my gaze caught a bright yellow FJ Cruiser flying down the road toward us. My eyes went wide. “It’s her,” I shouted. “That’s Claire coming this way. Turn around!”

Brett slammed on the brakes and waited for Claire to fly past us before he turned the truck around. Mason growled behind us, “What the hell is she doing? She needs to slow the fuck down. ”

Giggling, I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Oh, Mason, have you forgotten her already? I don’t think she knows what driving slow means. I think she got pulled over three times for speeding in just the one weekend she came to visit.”

“Yeah, I remember her,” he started, “she also jumped off the roof of your house into your pool at the annual summer party. She had all my friends drooling over her.”

I raised my brows at him. “I seem to remember someone else drooling over her, too.” Brett tried to cover up his smile by turning his head.

Mason scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest; he was in denial. “Yeah, yeah, Mel. Keep telling yourself that.”

When we pulled back into the driveway, Claire was unloading her bags out of her car but turned when she heard us sidle up. Squinting her eyes, she tried to figure out who was pulling in behind her, but as soon as I stepped out of the car, her eyes went wide and she squealed, “Melissa, is that really you? Oh hell, girl, come here.”

She waved her arms impatiently, so I rushed over to her and tackled her in my arms. She was a couple inches taller than me with long, straight blonde hair and legs for days. She was a dancer for years and was accepted into Julliard, but after an extensive ankle injury she gave it up to go to college and learn business management. I don’t think she ever regretted following in her family’s footsteps.

“I am so sorry about your mother,” I whispered to her. “She was a magnificent woman.”

I could feel her nodding against my shoulder as she hugged me. “Yes, she was. She asked about you all the time you know. I don’t think she ever got over being mad at Daniel for what he did to you.” She let me go but held onto my hands when she faced me. “So what are you doing all the way out here? Does Daniel know you’re here?”

“No,” I replied hesitantly, squeezing her hands. “I need to talk to you and I don’t want Daniel knowing. Can we come in for a while?”

Narrowing her eyes, she slowly said, “Sure, no problem. Is there something wrong?” She looked past my shoulder at the guys and smiled, acknowledging them.

I turned my gaze to the men and introduced them. “Claire, you already know my cousin Mason.”

“How could I forget?” she said, grinning from ear to ear.

“And the other one over there is Brett Walker. He’s the guy I’m seeing right now.”

Claire’s eyes went wide and she whistled. “Wow, he’s a handsome one. I wonder where I can find a guy like that.” I hooked a glance over at Mason who lowered his head and shifted on his feet. She blushed when I raised my brow at her, but then shook her head and led me to the door; the guys followed.

When we got inside, Claire asked, “So what has my brother done now for you to come all the way out here to talk to me? Did you try to call me?”

“I did,” I replied. “I called several times, but you never answered. I also left messages. I was starting to get worried about you.”

Ambling into the kitchen, Claire grabbed a bottle of wine and opened it. “Yeah, I lost my phone in London. Daniel shipped me off there after Momma died, and said I needed to get away while he handled everything here. I should’ve checked my messages, but I just wanted to get away, you know? Most of my messages were probably from people saying how sorry they were about my mom’s death, and I didn’t really want to listen to it.”

Pursing my lips, I sat there confused, chewing the inside of my cheek. She didn’t sound distraught over losing the vineyards at all.
Surely, I didn’t make a mistake coming out here.
When I looked over my shoulder, both Brett and Mason were waving me on to continue talking.

“So Daniel was the one who shipped you off? It didn’t sound like that when I talked to him,” I began.

Wide-eyed, she stopped pouring her wine. “You talked to him? He won’t even answer my calls.” She glanced over at Brett and then back to me. “What does loverboy say about you hitting it up with the ex?”

Brett grumbled in the background. Claire immediately put her hand over her mouth and groaned. “Sorry, didn’t mean it like that. But seriously, what did he say? I don’t know why he’s not answering my calls.”

“See that’s funny, Claire, because he basically said the same thing about you. He said that you aren’t really speaking to him right now because of the whole situation with your mother’s will.”
Okay, I brought it up. Let’s see where it goes.

“Excuse me? What are you talking about?” she questioned. “Why wouldn’t I be speaking to him? He’s the one not speaking to me for some reason.” She finished pouring a glass of wine and slid it over to me. Confused, I took it and drank the fruity, sweet goodness in a matter of seconds. I was going to need more … lots more.

“He told me what was in your mother’s will,” I informed her.

She smiled and poured me another glass. “Yeah, I was wondering if I was going to have to call and tell you. I bet you’re excited, aren’t you?”

Taken aback, I looked back at the guys and shrugged my shoulders. “Umm … why would I be excited?” I asked, turning back to her and furrowing my brow.

She crossed her arms over her chest and gazed at me incredulously. “Did he not tell you about you being in the will also?”

Wide-eyed, I spewed out my wine and coughed. “I was in the will? No, he didn’t tell me that. What did your mother put in it?”

Claire lifted a finger for me to hold on. She walked out of the kitchen and disappeared down the hall. Immediately, I turned around to see Brett and Mason were just as confused as me. I was completely lost.

“I was in the will,” I whispered incredulously. “I had no clue.”

Brett shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t think she knows what Daniel’s doing. She seems clueless. He probably sent her off to London so he could get this all planned behind her back.”

“That would make sense,” Mason cut in. “Especially, if he’s ignoring her calls. I bet he doesn’t plan on answering them any time soon.”

At that moment, Claire came back with a folder clutched in her hands. She laid it gently on the kitchen table and motioned for me to sit down with her. Brett and Mason both hovered over our shoulders. She pulled out the thick cream colored paper and set it in front of me, excited.

“Read it,” she ordered with a grin on her face.

Narrowing my eyes, I carefully read over each line of the document. I reread it twice just to make sure I read it right. Nowhere in that version of the will did it say anything about Daniel inheriting any patch of earth from his family. He did, however, have a substantial amount of money in his name. But what really got me was when I saw my name, in black print with an inheritance right beside it. I gasped the first time I read it and even gasped again the second time.

“What is it?” Brett and Mason asked at the same time.

Tears welled in my eyes and I searched over Claire’s face for confirmation. She nodded and took hold of my hand before saying, “You read it right, Melissa. My mother left you our other estate out past the northern vineyards. If you remember correctly it’s about two miles north of here. It’s a little smaller than this place, but personally I think it’s the most beautiful.”

“No, I remember,” I muttered shakily.

Claire squeezed my hand and I looked up to see nothing but truth in her bright blue gaze when she explained, “Momma asked me if I minded if she gave it to you. She really liked you and admired the way you took to her teaching you about all the different aspects of running a vineyard. She had high hopes of us working together some day.”

“Really?” I shrieked. “I had no clue,” I admitted. But then my face fell and anger settled in my gut. Daniel deliberately kept that bit of information away from me. How could he want me back and keep this kind of information from me? It didn’t make any sense.

Claire looked hopeful when she asked, “Do you think you’ll ever move out here now and help me? I know it’s a long move, but I want you to know that it’ll be a wonderful experience. I can’t wait to get going with all of my ideas. I have a new wine I want to try.”

My cousin took a seat at the table and pierced me with his steely glare. He was angry and ready to get on with the action. “You need to tell her, now. She has no clue what’s going on. All I know is that I’m going to rip that fucker a new asshole by the time I’m done with him.”

“Whoa,” Claire shrieked, sitting back in her chair, glaring at Mason. “Are you talking about Daniel? What did he do this time?”

Brett scoffed, “What hasn’t he done is the question.”

Claire looked confused and terrified, so I got up and grabbed the bottle of wine, filling up her glass. I filled mine up as well and sighed. “You might want to drink up, babe. You’re going to need it after everything I’m about to tell you.”

Her face fell and she groaned, placing her head in her hands. “Oh shit, this isn’t going to be good,” she muttered.

No, it’s not
, I thought to myself.

“I can’t believe he threatened you like that,” Claire sputtered angrily. She carefully placed her mother’s will back in its folder and tucked it away in her
carry-on bag. “And what’s worse is that he thinks he can get away with fraud. He must be delusional.”

“Or desperate,” Mason interrupted from the seat behind us. After telling Claire everything about Daniel, she insisted on coming back with us to North Carolina. I sat beside her while Mason and Brett sat behind us on the airplane.

While Mason tried finding his buzzing phone, Brett poked his head around the side of my seat and glanced at Claire. “You know none of us have asked this yet, but please tell me you have more than one copy of that will you brought with you. If Daniel gets his hands on that then he could easily destroy it.”

Claire waved him off and smiled half-heartedly. “Oh no, it’s not the only one. My mother also has one locked away in a safety deposit box that only her and I had access to. Daniel didn’t know we had our own little secrets. So either way he couldn’t have destroyed the truth.”

“Smart girl,” I added.

She snorted in disgust. “I learned at an early age not to trust my brother.”

We had just landed and were waiting to get off the plane. Mason was staring at his phone, scrolling through what must have been a gazillion text messages. He took a deep breath and said, “Well, it appears old Danny boy has been embezzling money from his clients from what I’m gathering with this text I just got. Jacob, my partner at the PD, has been doing some investigating while I’ve been gone. It looks like Daniel has an extra account that siphons money from his business accounts. He’s going to try and find out more information on it. He’s getting blocked from accessing it, but he’ll be able to figure it out soon. It’s only small amounts at a time that he’s stealing, but definitely substantial enough to equal out to a very large sum once it’s all said and done.” He huffed and shook his head. “Is he really that cocky to think he could get away with something like that?”

Claire and I both snorted. “You know the answer to that, Mase,” I muttered.

“I was being sarcastic,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, once we get the will on file and find out who Daniel’s lawyer is that helped him then we should be ready to arrest his sorry ass for fraud, forgery,
and
embezzlement.”

“What kind of sentence will he serve?” I asked.

Mason shrugged and sighed, sounding defeated. “With who Daniel is in the community he would probably serve hardly any time. Maybe a year at most, if that. The main thing with this would be his credibility. No one will ever trust him again with their money so therefore leaving him jobless and broke basically once he paid off all he stole.”

“Well, he shouldn’t have been so stupid, especially when it came time to build on my land. It would be kind of hard not to notice that if he was trying to keep it a secret from me,” Claire explained.

“It would’ve been your word against his,” I informed her regretfully. “If he’s buying people off then whose side do you think they would take? Definitely not yours, babe.”

She groaned. “Shit, you’re right. I wouldn’t stand a chance against him.”

We exited the plane, with Mason and Claire walking side by side while Brett had his arm around my waist. When we got to baggage claim I turned into him and put my head on his chest, breathing him in. “When do you think you’ll talk to Daniel again? I’m sure he’s going to call soon and ask how it went in California.”

He kissed the top of my head. “I’m not sure, but …” He stopped and grabbed his vibrating phone from his pocket. When he saw who it was he huffed and gritted his teeth. “Well, what do you know? I’ll be right back, firecracker.”

Brett marched over to a quiet corner and answered the phone. His stance was tense, but I could tell he was working the conversation over like he didn’t have a care in the world. As soon as he got back,
my
phone rang and I knew who it was going to be.

“What did he say?” I asked, sending my phone straight to voicemail. I had to know what he talked about to Brett first before I spoke to him myself.

Mason and Claire had joined us with our bags and came to stand beside us. I mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ to Mason for grabbing mine and Brett’s luggage. Brett took a deep breath and began, “Well, it looks like Daniel and his investor are throwing a party together tomorrow night and they both want me to be there. His client wants to officially meet me.”

“Are you going to go?” I asked.

“Are you?” he countered. “I know he was the one who just called you. I’m sure he’s going to ask you to go, too.”

I shrugged. “If I go then Mason will be my date.”

Mason smiled and cracked his knuckles. “If we get all of our information together by tomorrow night it’ll be the perfect time to take Daniel out. Just imagine his face when we handcuff him in the middle of his party.” Frowning, Claire turned her head and sighed. Mason put his arm around her and apologized, “Look, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that, but the guy deserves everything he has coming to him.”

“I know,” she breathed, smiling sadly at him. “Unfortunately, he’s the only family I have left.” Mason frowned, but I knew it was because he knew exactly how that felt. I was basically his only family left.

As we walked out of the airport and through the parking lot to my car, my phone rang about three different times. “Is that him calling you again?” Brett asked incredulously.

I threw my phone back in my purse. “Yep. He did the same thing in college until I caved and gave in to him.”

“Are you going to call him back?”

I sighed. “Yeah, when we get to my house. I didn’t want to talk to him in the loud airport where you just got through talking to him at. He might’ve recognized the background noises.”

Brett winked. “Smart thinking, firecracker.”

We loaded up the trunk of my car, and Mason and Claire squeezed into the backseat. I looked in the rearview mirror at her. “If I go to the party tomorrow night what will you be doing? Are you going to let Daniel know that you’re here?”

She shook her head. “No, not yet. If Mason thinks we can bust him tomorrow then I might sneak into the party so I can be there and surprise him.” She winked and grinned mischievously. “I’m good at blending in. And besides, when you saunter off with Brett I’ll be there to take Mason off your hands.”

She elbowed him in the side and a small smile splayed across his face. If she didn’t live across the country I was pretty sure they would hit it off great. Maybe there was still hope. Once we dropped off Mason and made it to my house, I was surprised to see what waited for me at my front door. Bundles and bundles of flowers were set in different arrangements all around the front entrance.

What the hell?

Claire’s eyes went wide. “Oh wow, yeah this is definitely Daniel’s doing. He must be working hard to get back in your pants, girl.”

I groaned. “Yeah, and it’ll only get worse until I give in to him.”

Fuming, Brett shook his head and slammed the car door. “Fuck, I wish I could beat the shit out of him. He must not care too much about me finding out about you and him. If he invites you tomorrow what do you think he’ll say to me after he pretended he didn’t know you?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out now,” I answered, pulling out my phone. When we got inside, I showed Claire to one of the guest bedrooms before going up to my room with Brett.

I dialed his number and hit send, placing it on speaker so Brett could hear. “Here I go.”

The phone rang a couple of times before Daniel picked up, sounding happy and excited. “Hey baby. Did you have a good time in the mountains?”

I rolled my eyes and brightened my voice. “Yeah, I did. It felt good to get away. How have you been?”

“Busy,” he chuckled. “Do you like the flowers?”

“Yes, I do. Thank you. They’re all very lovely.”

“I thought you might like them. Anyway, the reason why I’m calling is because there’s a party tomorrow night that I’m hosting and I want you to be there.”

Brett paced my bedroom floor and scowled, fisting his hands by his side. To Daniel, I asked, “Who else is going to be there? Did you invite Brett, too?”

“I did and I wanted to talk to you about that. My investor really wants Brett to be there, and he was adamant about it. I had no choice but to invite him.”

“What about your friends? If they’re going to be there too they know that I’m your ex-wife. There’s no way you can keep that away from Brett. He’s going to find out,” I added, confused. “I thought you didn’t want him knowing.”

Daniel sighed. “I don’t, but I still want you there. We can sneak away and spend time together. That’s why I want this project finished so I won’t have to see Brett ever again. The sooner I don’t have to deal with him, the sooner we can fully be together.”

There was another reason why he wanted the building done earlier and it sure as hell didn’t have anything to do with me. “So what time should I pick you up tomorrow?” he inquired.

“I didn’t say I was going, Daniel,” I chided. “I actually have plans tomorrow night.”

“With who,” he grumbled.

“With Mason if you must know.”

Daniel huffed and groaned into the phone. “Well, bring him with you then. I really want you there, but if he starts anything with me he has to leave. If you recall, we don’t exactly get along, except I’m willing to negotiate for …”

“For what, Daniel? Do you always have to get something in return?” I teased.
If he says he’ll negotiate for sex I’m going to rip out my hair.

He chuckled. “I was just going to say for a dance with you. Save me a dance and I’ll keep my mouth shut about him being there with you. Do we have a deal?”

I sighed. “Yes, we have a deal. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

The party was going to be at his house at seven o’clock and there was going to be a ton of alcohol, which wasn’t a good thing with Daniel since he was a sloppy drunk. I just hope he’d keep his hands to himself, especially with Brett being there, watching every move we make.