Shadows of Doubt (26 page)

“So I butted in and sorta met her, somewhat.” She started chewing on her thumbnail. “When I went to get the plans signed off I kinda on purpose went to the wrong house so I could see who had you’re panties all in a twist.” Max slapped his hand to his forehead. “But she doesn’t know a thing! It was all brilliant! I got to sit with her while I waited for her mom to come back and we got along super great! Its all good, I swear!”

“Max, you would have picked up on her knowing anything weird today if Abby had blown it, so don’t get stuck on that. It’s what we do now that’s critical.” Frank sat down next to Abby. “You really need to read this first though.” He held up the disc.

“Is that the data Joe told me to look at?” Max asked as he snatched it out of Frank’s hand. Not waiting for an answer, he went inside to load it into his computer.

“Yeah, but its not a happy thing Max.” Abby was afraid to go inside.

It took a few moments for the disc to load but soon enough Max was scanning through the information. There were several police reports, medical reports, court documents and crime scene photos. When he read through the first restraining order, he could feel his stomach knot. With every paragraph he read his fury rose. The thought of anyone laying a hand on Lou was almost more than he could handle. Then he began reading the details of the injuries she sustained and flipped immediately to the digital crime scene photos. He found himself looking at pictures of the massive pool of blood on her kitchen floor where she had been found barely alive. Photos of her in a hospital bed, nearly beaten to a literal pulp followed. Bile rose in his throat as he studied the pictures but he forced himself to swallow hard. He bypassed the text and went directly to the images of the second assault and saw the single image of Lou laying on the gurney. Limbs twisted in directions they shouldn’t have been able to go. Her face was unrecognizable with all the blood, the intubation apparatus shoved in her mouth and all the bandages wrapped around her head. Lou had almost died not once, but twice.

Max snapped. He shot up out of the chair and kicked the monitor off the coffee table, sending it flying across the suite. Outside, Frank wrapped an arm around Abby and pulled her close as if to protect her while they helplessly listened to the rage spilling out of Max for what felt like an eternity. It was a wonder there were any walls left standing when he finally stormed back out onto the terrace. The fury in his eyes scared the hell out of them. Frank simply held out the piece of paper with the information Niko had instructed Abby to get on the man who had made Lou’s life a bloody living hell. Max ripped it from his hand.

As if timed precisely, Niko stepped out of the shadows. “There’s a bit more to the story you need to know.” Max whirled around and stared at Niko as he strategically planted himself between Max and where Frank and Abby sat. “This sick twist of a shit-stain sent a couple of his pals to visit your detective last night. Sort of a pre-homecoming gift in his warped thinking. They tried to kidnap her but they failed miserably.” Niko recounted events once again, including the part he omitted from Abby and Frank about the second assailant that was about to hang himself. “Everything is arranged. We will leave here at six tomorrow morning. The son-of-a-bitch will be waiting in an isolation cell when we get there. By the time your detective makes the connection between that grand poobah of fuck-heads and the two lumps of crap from last night, it will all be over.”

Max stood staring into Niko’s cool gaze as he took in everything that he had just been told. His rage was boiling within him to the point that his eyes felt hot. After several moments of processing the situation, he was finally able to inhale and blink. Oddly, above the pure primal instinct to shred the source of Lou’s pain into oblivion, Max felt the weight of concern pressing on him from Abby, Frank and Niko. It was disconcerting to him that the three of them knew him better than he knew himself. But it was also extraordinarily comforting. It calmed him instantly.

“Alright.” It was all Max could say as he began pacing back and forth across the terrace, trying not to jump out of his own skin.

The three watched him for a long moment, guaging his mood. What was said and done in the next few moments would be critical to how Max handled anything further. They all knew he was at his breaking point and were very cautious with the situation.

“So what do we do about winning Lou over now?” Abby broke the silence and took a chance by trying to bring him back to happy thoughts.

“Well, we have a really good source for insight.” Frank said as he looked at Abby and Niko.

“What?” Max stopped his pacing and looked at Frank, only semi-back from his full blown rage-fit.

“Not a what, a who.” Abby smiled.

Caroline should have been petrified but she wasn’t. She walked through the disheveled suite and out onto the terrace with the desperate need to hug this hulking man for having the gut instinct, passion, need even, to defend and protect Lou. So that was exactly what she was going to do. She walked straight up to him, did a little curtsey because it seemed like something you were supposed to do when your face-to-face with what amounted to be your king. Then she wrapped her arms around his thick trunk and hugged him tight. “It’s nice to meet you, my Dominor.” She said in a choked voice as she began to cry. Her simple, silly and pure act of courage and devotion defused the mortal combat vibe instantly.

Max really didn’t know what the hell to make of this stranger hugging him and he sort of felt like panicking when he heard her sobs. He looked desperately to Niko, Abby and Frank for any sort of help.

“Max, meet Caroline Devereux. Lou’s best friend, besides her mom that is, and our latest addition to the family.” Abby beamed proudly at Caroline. Her courage and sincerity made her own tears well up.

As understanding sank in, Max let his arms fall around Caroline and couldn’t help but smile. That took serious guts for her to do.

“Caroline...” Max said in a gentle tone. “...I really need your help here.” She shoved away from him and wiped her tears as she nodded and did another little curtsey for the hell of it. “Caroline please stop doing that.” Max laughed at the absurdity of her curtseying to him. “We are not that formal around here.” He took her hand and led her to sit at the table.

“Okay, sorry.” She sniffled.

“No need to be sorry, I appreciate the sentiment, truly.” His demeanor had taken a one-eighty from where it had been only a few minutes ago. He was calm and gentle with her.

“So yeah, you do need my insight here.” Gathering her composure and determination, Caroline looked him dead in the eye. “Because you have to win her heart and bring her over because I can’t live without my best friend. And from what I can see so far, you can’t live without her either.”

So there it was. The truth in a nutshell, tossed at him by a woman he had only just met. The Fates were truly throwing a whole bunch of weirdness at him lately.

After a very
hot bubble bath with a very big glass of wine, Lou had finally calmed down. It took over an hour of kicking herself for acting like such a bitch before she settled on the cold fact that what was done, was done. After calling in to learn there were no new developments with grease monkey number one, whom she now knew to be a parolee named Teddy Monroe, she had made herself a couple of corn dogs, one of her favorite self-pity foods. She put her pajamas and striped socks on, climbed into bed and found a mind numbing B-movie to watch just so she wouldn’t start thinking about her day of golf with Max any more. She had tried to call Caroline again but got sent straight to voice-mail. Again. That would have normally worried Lou but she knew that Caroline’s parents were in town so she was more than likely still visiting. She would start worrying if she didn’t get a call back by ten.

Lou’s parents had come in while she was in the tub so they said their good-nights through the intercom system. She really didn’t want to face her mother after what had transpired that afternoon. Mostly because she didn’t want to have to admit her mother was right. Again. Lou was scared. She ran it over and over again in her head and there was really no reason this Max person should have been under her skin the way he was. Even so, it wasn’t the end of the world for Lou to find someone attractive or interesting, that was a normal human thing after all. But Lou was petrified of it. He wasn’t a complete and utter stranger. Joe had known him for ages, apparently, so she should have been more at ease with things. But she wasn’t. She was scared of so many things and so many of them were in direct contradiction with each other. The whole, “he likes me so run, but does he really like me?” It was just so ridiculous. She really needed Caroline.

Then a simple thing that Lou had overlooked popped into her head and had her sitting up in bed and completely ignoring the movie all together. What the hell had he been doing at the morgue and the crime scene anyway? What would some big shot lawyer, business tycoon guy from back east be doing at the morgue and then at the crime scene of some unknown student/stripper? Lou jumped out of bed, grabbed her robe and headed to the other side of the house to her parent’s room. She knocked on the partially open door and when her mother’s voice said to come in, she pushed it open to see her parents sitting on the floor playing Scrabble in their pajamas. It was a sweet image that almost distracted her from the reason she had come down there in the first place.

“Hey Joe, when did Max arrive in L.A.? Do you know?”

“Well, yeah.” Joe gave her a perplexed look. “He came in Tuesday afternoon. He texted me from the airport asking when we could meet but I told him I was in India and would get in touch when I got back in town.”

“Do you know when was the last time he was in L.A.?” She had her fingers crossed behind her back.

“Ah shoot, maybe four or five years ago? It was just for a day, though. For the closing of some deal.” He cocked his head at her. “Can I ask why?”

“Was just curious. Thanks. Night.” Lou closed the door behind her and headed back to her room so completely relieved that Max hadn’t been in town when Angela Talbott or Marjorie Scott had been murdered. He may not have been guilty of murder but he was guilty of something, or knew something. Yet another reason to kick herself for putting her feelings before the case. If her head had not been so thoroughly shoved up her own backside, the fact that this guy had been in at both places would have been in the forefront of Lou’s mind. She looked at the clock to see it was half past ten and was really pissed that Caroline wasn’t calling her back. She picked up the phone and dialed her again, getting her voice mail, again, and leaving another rambling message, again. Tomorrow Lou was really going to kick Caroline’s ass.

Caroline was nodding
emphatically. “It will work.”

“It will totally work!” Abby agreed.

“And how is this different from lying?” Frank asked.

“These are white lies, and it’s totally for Lou’s own good so that’s completely okay.” Caroline rolled her eyes at Frank when he just looked at her with a glazed expression. “You are a guy, I don’t expect you to get it.”

Frank looked at Max and Niko for some sort of solidarity but they looked just as confused as he was. After a couple of hours of hashing things out, Caroline and Abby had come up with a plan to help Max win Lou over. They had ordered room service, a lot of it, and Caroline had tried to explain how Lou rationalized things and why Caroline’s plan would work. Abby had understood immediately but the men were still absolutely clueless.

“I don’t understand!” Frank rolled around on the floor, frustrated. “If you can lie and not tell her about Max, why can’t you just lie and not tell her about the Sanguinostri?”

“Oh. My. God.” Caroline threw a grape at his head. “Because they are two totally separate things! Totally different importance values!”

“Wait one minute here.” Niko was squinting as thought his brain hurt. “Are you telling me that the whole Max and Lou thing is more important than the secrecy of our kind? Is that what you are trying to say here?”

Abby and Caroline looked at each other then Caroline looked back at Niko. “Well, duh! That is exactly what I am saying! Abby, can you help me out here?” Caroline flopped back into her chair as if she were exhausted.

“You’re guys, we don’t expect you to understand.” Abby stroked Caroline’s hair as if to soothe her. “It’s not their fault, honey, its that whole Y chromosome thing.” Abby looked at the three men and contemplated how to make it very simple. “Okay, its very, very simple. Are you paying attention?” Max actually leaned in closer as if to listen harder. “To a woman, a matter of the heart trumps even the threat of a nuclear attack.” All three men looked at each other, completely flabbergasted. “With Lou, the only thing to make a matter of the heart more important is to factor it in to one of her cases. In this specific instance, our rogue.” She waited and watched as what she just said soaked in. “So, based on the simple principle that love trumps all, Caroline’s first priority is Lou’s heart, the Sanguinostri is a second but a happy byproduct if this plan works. Do you understand now?” They all stared at her as if they were deer caught in headlights.

“Oh for Christ’s sake! Just do what we say!” Caroline bellowed and got up to pace around the room.

“Wait, I think I sort of understand this.” Frank sat up and adjusted to face his brothers in confusion. “You know how women get all fussy about getting the perfect dress, then once they find it, the shoes are like the critical thing?” Abby sat up, hopeful as she listened.

“Yeah, what the hell is that anyway?” Niko asked.

“No, no no. It’s not something we can figure out, it’s just the way it is and we have to accept it. Kind of like the whole ‘Does this make me look fat?’ thing is really a rhetorical question if you want to keep your manhood intact. If a girl asks another girl though, then it’s expected that they be honest.” Frank looked at Abby for validation.