Chapter 10
Zane
I should probably have just stayed out. That was my waking thought Wednesday morning. I hadn’t slept for a long time after I’d come home, and it felt like I’d only been down for a few minutes when I woke to the early morning sun. It was a blessing and a curse that I didn’t need an alarm clock to wake me up. I only managed to sleep in if I really put my mind to it.
Maybe I should have done that this time, but it wouldn’t have worked so well, since I couldn’t get Kathryn out of my mind. It had been almost impossible to leave, with Kathryn so vulnerable lying there on the couch in her peaceful sleep. When she’d first fallen asleep, the rhythm of her shallow breathing was such a hypnotizing feeling against me that I’d dozed off, too, lured in by her quiet slumber.
But I’d only been out a few minutes when the door opened and Crystal tiptoed through to her room, her eyes bright and dancing with happiness while the rest of her was a little disheveled. She went straight to her room without a word. I considered knocking on her door and telling her about Kathryn’s situation, but I didn’t want to risk waking Kathryn up.
But I’d blatantly ignored a text from Sam on several occasions throughout the night. I’d deleted the texts, just in case Kathryn picked up my phone for one reason or another.
Trying to minimize the damage, I slid out from under Kathryn, wrapped her in a blanket, and replaced my legs with several pillows, all while calling in a favor to a local florist I knew. I met him downstairs, grabbed the lilies, and paid him three times what the flowers and delivery were worth for his personal service and willingness to show up in the middle of the night. I took them upstairs, kissed Kathryn’s cheek, and left, knowing it was the right thing to do. I needed to be able to see her again soon, and if I stayed out all night, I’d never slip past my wife again.
Then I’d crept into my own house like some teenager guilty of staying out past curfew and trying to evade detection by his parents. It was humiliating, but I still held out some hope that Sam had fallen asleep and stayed that way, missing my late entry. And in case she had kept such close track of my absence, I took my time leaving my wing of the house for enemy territory, knowing I was putting off the inevitable if she’d even so much as reviewed the security feed or the log on the system to find out what time I’d entered the code and reset it.
Usually, I got up, had a small snack, and went straight to the gym, but in the interest of trying to hole up out of my wife’s reach, I showered and dressed first, and I spent a little extra time shaving and conditioning my hair.
To distract myself a little longer, I checked the other messages on my phone, and I was relieved to hear from Charlie that all was well and to his knowledge, no one had asked for me.
I checked the time and figured Sam might be out of the house by now. Skulking through my wing of the house, I stepped into the living room.
“Where were you last night?” she demanded. In a stunning cream colored dress that hugged every curve of her body to perfection, she stood with her hands on her hips and her eyes blazing.
I could almost see the forked tongue lashing out at me.
I cleared my throat. “Good morning to you, too, Sam.”
“Don’t toy with me,” she warned. “You should have been here, Zane. You came home ridiculously late again, without a call, and you ignored my texts. What the hell were you doing all night?”
I obviously couldn’t tell her the truth. “I own a nightclub, Sam. I was working. I have to manage all the behind the scenes stuff, all the expenses, and still pretend to be a party hound from time to time. It’s summer. It’s the busy season, and I’m tied up more often and later than usual.”
She scoffed, and I could almost feel her rage like a whirlwind getting ready to blow me away. “You should have been here. I’m your wife, remember?”
I remembered all too well, but I couldn’t say that out loud. I didn’t need to wage war this morning. “I know that, Sam. I know how important it is to stay on track, and I’m as committed to making this work as you are. I just can’t get away all the time.”
She crossed and uncrossed her arms, tapping her foot at a rapid pace. “You are so full of it, Zane. You think I don’t know?”
I blinked at her, not having to fake my confusion.
She suddenly came at me, striding across the room and stopping with her finger in my face. “Alfonso saw you! He saw you go into some apartment over on Montrose. Do you think I’m stupid, Zane? I can’t believe you were even in that neighborhood!”
I froze. Alfonso? The guy I’d just hired at the club?
So I hadn’t been crazy last night. Sam had hired someone to follow me. I should have guessed she’d do something so underhanded.
But this time, she’d gone too far. She had hired someone to come into my nightclub, one of the few places that was solely mine, and find some dirt on me. I was seething, and it took a moment to control my temper. It didn’t usually flare like this, and at the moment, I wanted to put my fist through a wall. But I found a better way to throw a punch, one that would be truly satisfying.
“Call off your hound, Sam. I have a life, and I have things I have to take care of.” She started to speak, but I wasn’t finished, and I cut her off. “If you don’t, I’ll just get in touch with dear old Daddy and mention your investments to him.”
Sam went perfectly still, like a statue. I’d hit her in the solar plexus, and it was a TKO. She couldn’t stand the idea of disappointing her folks, not after all the crap she’d already done to earn their shame in the past.
I nodded. “That’s right, Sam. I’m sure your father would consider that a gross misappropriation of funds. You’d not only lose the money, but you’d also lose every bit of respect he’s ever had for you.”
She stood there for a moment, her eyes wide with absolute fear. But she let her secondary emotions take over and channeled that terrified energy into rage and resentment. Backing up three steps, she gave me a cynical laugh. “Okay, Zane, you got me. I’ll back off. I’ll call Alfonso and have him stop following you.” She shook her head and laughed again. “I should throw you out, swear you to silence, and be finished with you. But I have a much better idea.” Her smile faded. “I’m going to forbid you to leave the house. See, I don’t need to have Alfonso follow you. I can keep you here, where I know you aren’t betraying me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Do you really think you can keep me confined within these walls? I’m a grown man, Sam, and I own a business. You don’t have that kind of power over me.”
“Oh, but I do.” She had her finger in my face again. “If you so much as set one foot off this property, you can kiss your precious club goodbye.”
She could do it, too. She had ways of taking everything that I’d worked so hard for, and ruining it.
And suddenly, her whole demeanor changed. She became the seductive, pleading, calculatingly beautiful woman she pretended to be most of the time. It was the only way she knew to deal with people. She didn’t have much of a social personality, and so she had to do something to fake her way through. As I thought how much I hated her in this moment, she batted her lashes at me and said, “Come on, Zane. I’m not doing this to hurt us. I’m doing it to help us.”
I didn’t respond, and she seemed nervous again. Crossing her arms and tapping her nails – which were now a deep shade of purple – on her biceps, she said, “You really need to think carefully about all this, Zane. That club is yours, free and clear. All you have to do is cooperate.”
She stormed out of the room, and I heard the door to the garage slam. I had no idea where she was going, and I didn’t really care. I was the one who was pissed off now. But I didn’t stay mad long and smirked to myself. I had the upper hand here, and she had no idea.
Confidently, I took out my phone, and as I heard her whip the Jag she drove out of the garage, I dialed a number I had saved. I hadn’t called Matt at the brokerage firm in a while, and this little confrontation prompted me to check in. He answered quickly, and I asked, “Hey, Matt, how’s it going?”
“Good, man. What about you?”
“Oh, I’ve had better days. I was hoping you might be able to tell me something that’ll lift my spirits a bit.” I wasn’t going to bite myself in the ass here. I needed to be vague on my end of the line. I didn’t trust Sam after knowing that she had me followed. For all I knew, the house was wired, and she was recording every conversation I had. I didn’t need to let on that I was speaking with a broker about anything.
“Well, I might just make your day altogether, my friend. How would you feel about that?”
“I like it. What do you have for me?” I was anxious now, and I paced back and forth while I listened. Ten percent gains were good news, and a cash-out that nearly doubled a risky investment was even better. I didn’t like nickel and diming things, and even though that was the root of my gains, I had to take some calculated risks if I was going to succeed at this venture.
Matt hadn’t steered me wrong yet, and he made a couple of suggestions for my accounts. I nodded, thinking hard, and finally I said, “Let’s go with the first and third options. I don’t like the second. And go double on that last one. I have a gut feeling on that.” It was vague enough that I could have been talking about almost anything. Sam was smarter than a lot of people gave her credit for, but if she was having me recorded, she wouldn’t be able to decipher the discussion from my end alone.
“Thanks, Matt. I’ll holler at you later. Maybe we’ll hit an Astros game or something.”
“Sounds like a plan. Talk at you later!”
Maybe I’d be stuck in the house for a few days, but I hung up feeling like gold. And gold just might be what I had to look forward to in the very near future.