Erica Lucke Dean - To Katie with Love (24 page)

“Mom, it was
my
idea not to tell you about the whiskey in the coffee.”

“It’s noble of you to take the blame, but you must see my point here. He’s not to be trusted.”

I started to say, “I do trust him,” but the words wouldn’t come.

“While the two of you were doing whatever it was you were doing in the shower this morning—”

I blushed. “I… we—”

“Don’t try to deny it, you were hardly quiet. Since you are either unable or unwilling to do it for yourself, I decided to take advantage of an opportunity to do a little investigating of my own.”

“Mother! You can’t just go around snooping through Cooper’s things!” She had no idea how lucky she was she hadn’t tripped the motion detectors on her little
expedition
.

“You might change your mind when I tell you what I found.” She lowered her voice, watching for Cooper to come around the corner.

My eyes followed hers, and we both waited to see if he would reappear. He didn’t.

“You need to come with me,” Mom said, pushing away from the table.

I followed her up the stairs and paused outside her room. She shook her head and pointed at the door to the bedroom adjoining Cooper’s office.

I shook my head. “I’m
not
going in there,” I whispered.

She reached out and grabbed my sleeve. “Yes, you
are
,” she hissed.

“What if he catches us?” I wasn’t entirely sure where he was at that moment.

She thought up a lie, and she thought it up quick. “Then you’ll tell him you were giving me the tour. Now come on.”

Realizing she wouldn’t let it go and feeling a healthy dose of curiosity, I allowed her to pull me into the other guest room. “So tell me what you found so we can get out of here before Cooper catches us,” I said, plopping down on the bed.

My mother flashed a grim smile and nodded at the foot of the bed.

I leaned over to stare at a low cedar chest with a seat cushion. “So? It’s a bench.”

“It’s not a bench. It’s a trunk.” She lifted the lid with one hand and waved me closer. “Look.”

I peered into the cedar-lined trunk and felt my breakfast threatening to come back. “Are those what I think they are?” I gaped at the two long cases.

She nodded.

“Are they empty?” I asked hopefully.

“I’m afraid not.” She reached into the trunk to open the top case, exposing a gleaming wooden rifle… complete with a scope.

I took a small step back. “There has to be a reasonable explanation.”

“What possible reason could anyone have for possessing two rifles like these?”

I swallowed hard. “Hunting?”

Mom shook her head slowly. “Your father has hunted for years. These aren’t the type of guns you use to hunt animals. They’re the type you use to hunt
people
.”

THE SPANISH INQUISITION

F
or the third time in less than two weeks, I was staring at the barrel of a gun. What were the odds?

“Katie, listen.” Mom carefully closed the gun case and then the trunk. “Did you hear that?” She crept closer to the bathroom.

“No, Mom. Cooper’s office is through there. He’s probably still on the phone,” I said, blocking her path.

“That’s exactly why we’re going to listen!” She shoved me out of the way to poke her head into the bathroom, then looked at me with raised eyebrows.

I blew out the breath I was holding and followed her. I could hear Cooper talking to someone, and he didn’t sound happy. He sounded exasperated.

“For the last time, Vivian, I’m not doing it.”
Vivian
.

I didn’t have a clue who she was, but I knew her name from the checks I’d discovered.

I could hear his foot tapping against the wood floors. Then he chuckled. “No, I don’t care about the big payoff.”

Mom poked me hard in the side when he said
big payoff,
and I almost cried out.

“No, I don’t. We’re doing it my way this time.” He got quiet again, but I heard his swivel chair roll on the floor. “No, you listen to me! We’re not just talking about a job here. We’re talking about my life.” His footsteps moved around the room, and I could tell he was pacing.

I was terrified he would open the bathroom door, exposing us as the eavesdroppers we were.

“No, I don’t really care what your opinion is on this.” He raised his voice. “I’ve listened to
your
point enough times already. You’re not listening to mine. Of course, I’ll discuss this with the family, but leave Katie out of it.”

My pulse quickened, making my knees all but buckle beneath me.
Leave Katie out of it?
What was she trying to drag Katie… I mean…
me
into?

He raised his voice to another level, yelling into the phone. “How many times do you expect me to do this, Vivian? How many times have I done it already? Can you even count at this point?” His voice dropped to a normal tone. “Listen, I’m tired. I don’t want to do this anymore. No more secrets.”

There was a long break in the conversation, and I assumed he’d hung up until he groaned and spoke again. “Fine. If that’ll shut you up, I’ll take the weekend to consider my options, not that I think you’re actually giving me any.”

I’d heard all I could bear and dragged Mom out of the bathroom by the arm, shutting the door gently behind us. Mom started to say something, but I shook my head.

“Not in here,” I whispered, pointing toward the door, and she followed me into the hall.

“You need to help me pack,” Mom urged, pulling me toward her room. “We’re getting out of here. Leave that strange bracelet he bought with his blood money.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Mom.” I held my ground, tucking my hand behind my back. “You’ll get my bracelet over my dead body.” I stomped my foot like a spoiled child.

“Excuse me?” Her eyebrows shot up. “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“I’m not leaving over a little circumstantial evidence.” I turned to head back to Cooper’s room and paused outside his office, hearing the sound of fingers furiously clicking against a keyboard.

“Have you completely lost your mind?” Mom marched over to where I stood and seized my arm again. “Weren’t you listening? He mentioned you by name! And the family? Anyone who’s seen
The Godfather
knows
what that
means… the mob!”

I frowned at her and knocked on Cooper’s office door with my free hand, but he didn’t answer.

My mother yanked my hand away before I could knock again. “Katherine Grace James, you need to have your head examined!”

“Mom, he’s not a
murderer
.” I wasn’t about to tell her Cooper’s favorite book,
The Bourne Identity
, which had an assassin for a main character.

“Just a minute!” Cooper snapped.

The hair on the back of my neck bristled. I was suddenly running all kinds of crazy scenarios through my suspicious mind. I thought I’d put all that behind me after my ill-fated snooping forays. I didn’t want to be suspicious. I wanted to trust him without hesitation. But his unwillingness to share his secrets with me was always in the back of my mind. And thanks to my
mother’s
snooping—and our eavesdropping—I had new worries fueling my not-so-easily forgotten ones, leaving me with a brand-new sense of insecurity. There were just too many things piling on top of each other in my head. I had to find a way to get back into his office and onto his laptop.

“Katie!” Mom shook me until I turned to look at her. “I really don’t think it’s a good idea to spend one more minute in this house!”

The door creaked open, and we both screamed.

“Did I scare you?” Cooper asked.

I ran his question through my head. The answer was a very complicated
yes
.

I wasn’t sure what was worse—arguing with my mother or the sudden icy strain between Cooper and me. I wasn’t even certain the strain was real—I may have made it up in my head—but real or manufactured, I felt it.

We all stood in the hallway, staring at each other without speaking. I had no idea what
they
were thinking about, but I was busy thinking unpleasant things. I played every frustrating discussion over again in my head until I was twisted into a state of panic. I tried to replay the conversations where he told me he loved me—but he hadn’t told me he loved me all day—and he seemed distant… distracted. His thoughts were somewhere else. Somewhere I wasn’t invited.

Cooper broke the silence with an uncomfortable laugh. “Did I miss something?”

My mother cleared her throat, so I jumped in first. “Mom doesn’t feel up to shopping after all.”

“Is there something you’d rather do?” Cooper asked.

I peeked at Mom out of the corner of my eye, and she was seething, but she kept silent.

Sometimes, I wondered if my mother wasn’t really all that bad, but maybe I just interpreted her that way.

“So, Cooper, what is it that you do?” Mom asked, speaking to Cooper but staring straight at me. On second thought, she was definitely that bad.

“I do lots of things. Did you have something
specific
in mind, Mrs. James?” His smile was disarming, as usual, but it wasn’t enough to sway her from her mission.

“Actually, yes I do.” She turned to scrutinize him. “What
specifically
do you do for a living?”

He let out the same nervous laugh I remembered from every time I’d asked him what his occupation was. “I wouldn’t want to bore you with the details.”

She smiled, but it was a cunning, deliberate smile. She glanced toward the spare room where we’d discovered the guns, and I knew she was planning her attack. “Oh, go ahead. Bore me. I’m sure I’ve heard worse.”

His jaw flexed. “As I’ve already told Katie, I’m a contract employee.”

“And
precisely
what sort of contracts are you carrying out?”

“I try not to talk about work when I’m not working. I don’t want to waste a single minute of the time I spend with Katie.” As if to underscore that, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and tugged me close to kiss my hair. Even then, I could feel the tension mounting in him.

She must have felt it too because she didn’t relent. She locked her eyes on his. “That’s exactly why I ask. Katie’s my daughter, and I think she has a right to know who she’s getting involved with.”

“I think Katie knows me very well.” He held his smile in place, but it obviously took great effort.

“I don’t think she does, actually. For all we know, your secrecy is masking something sinister.”

Cooper’s body went rigid, and his hug became uncomfortable.

“Mom—” I wasn’t really sure what I was going to say, but I didn’t have a chance because Cooper cut me off.

“Katie understands
precisely
who she is getting herself involved with.” He sounded angry.

“Does she?” Mom’s voice was calm and flat, but I felt the current of severity building just below the surface. “Why don’t you ask her then?”

My stomach lurched. “Stay out of it, Mom.” But secretly, I was hoping she would get the truth out of him, once and for all.

“What is it you think I should be asking her?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“Ask her how she feels about all the secrets.”

“Mom… really!” My voice rose an octave, and I quickly cleared my throat. “Cooper and I have already discussed this.”

But that was before we found the guns and listened to his phone conversation. Although I wasn’t going to say anything about that! And I did understand—in fact, his way of thinking seemed completely reasonable then—but standing in the hall outside the guest room—the one that contained guns—I wasn’t sure.

“For all she knows, you could be a
murderer
!” Mom blurted.

“Mom!” My eyes went wide as I watched Cooper’s expression go from irritation to fury.

Mom didn’t seem to care about the effect she was having on him. “Since you’ve already discussed this with Katie, you shouldn’t have a problem letting me know exactly what your intentions
are
with regard to my daughter.”

My mouth fell open with a pop. “You have got to be kidding me!”

Cooper spoke to my mother, but he locked his eyes with mine. “Your daughter knows how I feel about her.” He took my hand and brought it to his lips for a light kiss.

“You’ve gotten very serious in a fairly short amount of time. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you stayed in the same room last night.” She whispered the last part as if talking about something unsavory.

I was horrified. “Mother! I’m almost thirty years old. I think it’s a little late to be concerned about my virtue.”

“Don’t be so naïve, Katie. How could you even consider marrying a man when you don’t know a thing about him?”

She’d finally done it. She’d said the M word. I was mortified. Cooper blushed, and it was painfully obvious he was horrified as well.

“That’s enough,” I hissed. My stomach twisted into a new knot, and I wanted the conversation over and for my mother to go home.
Immediately.

“Katie…” Cooper looked at his watch. “I have a phone call I need to make. Will you excuse me for a minute?”

I wasn’t sure if he really had a phone call or if he was just giving me an opportunity to rebuke my mother in private. Either way, he disappeared into his office, taking the only warmth in the hall with him, and I was left to face her alone.

“You were way out of line,” I snapped.

She grabbed me by the arm and pulled me toward her room. “Katie, have you already forgotten the guns? Or the big payoff? You have no idea how many people he’s killed!”

I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, “He’s not a murderer!” But I wasn’t really sure what to believe anymore. “We have no
proof
he killed anyone.”

Just a day ago, I had been convinced Cooper loved me, and it didn’t matter what he did as long as that was true. In a matter of twenty-four hours, not only was I worried that I was just a fling and he was getting bored with me, but more pieces of the puzzle were coming together, and they looked suspiciously like dead bodies. All of this because my stupid mother couldn’t keep her nose in her own business.

Hot tears built up behind my eyes. The floodgates were opening, and I was powerless to close them again. I turned my back on her to wipe away the first few tears with the back of my hand.

She interrupted my meltdown. “Who walks away from a conversation like this?”

“Anyone talking to you, that’s who!” My voice cracked, but either she didn’t notice or didn’t care.

She just scoffed and walked away. I wiped furiously at a new barrage of tears and wished for a box of Kleenex. I made a beeline for Cooper’s bathroom and locked myself in the CRWAT.

How unbelievably pathetic of me. I tried to muffle the gasping sounds coming from my throat but knew it was a feeble attempt. My body shook as sob after sob ripped through me. A new storm of tears came with it.

My cell phone vibrated in my pocket, and after a brief struggle, I dug it out and flipped it open. A text.

Cooper: Where are you?

I didn’t feel like lying to him. Right then and there, I officially swore off lying for good, and I quickly texted him back through a blur of more tears.

Katie: Crying in the bathroom… where are you?

Cooper: Hiding in my office… where’s your mother?

Katie: With any luck she’s jumped out the window.

He didn’t text me back, and if I were honest with myself, I didn’t expect it. I wouldn’t have known what to say to me if I were him. He must have finally realized I was too emotional.

“Katie?” He was right outside the door.

I hesitated for a second then squeaked, “I’m in here.”

“Please let me in. I don’t want to have this conversation through the bathroom door.”

I almost laughed at that image, but instead I turned the lock, letting the door swing ajar.

“Please don’t cry.” He pulled me against him in a crushing embrace. “I can’t bear to see you so upset.”

I sobbed. “You must think I’m a wretched mess.”

“You’re a beautiful mess,” he whispered.

“But still a mess.”

“I’ll take you however I can get you.”

I shuddered. “How can you stand to be around me? My mother is ruining everything.”

“Your mother is definitely challenging my patience today. I won’t lie to you about that. But ruining everything? I think you’re overreacting just a little.”

“She’s putting you through the Spanish Inquisition. How can you say I’m overreacting?”

He leaned down and kissed me gently. “Well, she’s right about a few things. You and I need to sit down and have a long talk. But not today.”

That didn’t sound good at all. My mother had said some pretty awful things, and I didn’t want to imagine even one of those being true. I certainly didn’t want to have a talk of any length about them. What if he was going to tell me he
was
a murderer? Or worse, that he wanted to break up?