Chapter Sixteen – Sam

“Now do you believe Lia isn’t responsible?” Sam asked Martin Delamere as they got out of his car. They had just arrived outside of the Delamere residence.

“I suppose. Perhaps some part of me always questioned her guilt. But my wife can be very persuasive,” came the reply.

“Well, now it’s time for you to be very persuasive,” Sam said, as he slammed the car door shut, and marched toward the house. The plan had gone perfectly, Sam had explained how the whole robbery occurred, and how the jewels had been planted in Lia’s apartment. Hearing his wife’s confession had made Martin Delamere admit his wife had sent those men to search Lia’s apartment and threaten her. Mr. Delamere had taken Lia’s flight as guilt; now he knew better.

“I don’t think you understand,” Martin Delamere said. “My wife…”

“Wears the pants?” Sam finished, not willing to accept any excuses for the Delameres’ behavior toward Lia.

“You could say that.” Mr. Delamere stood outside the front door, looking nervous. “I don’t think I want to go inside.”

“Marty. Can I call you Marty?” Sam clapped his massive hand down on Mr. Delamere’s shoulder, nearly grinding the man into the ground. “I just want you to know, this is not a request. You are going to go in there and make your wife believe Lia is no threat to her. Do you understand?” Sam used his height to its fullest advantage and loomed over Lia’s old boss.

In truth, it wasn’t an act. Sam was going to do whatever it took to end this whole thing right now. Whatever it took. And his expression conveyed that message loud and clear.

Mr. Delamere reached out a shaking hand, unlocked the front door, and pushed it wide open. Sam lifted his hand from the other man’s shoulder and pushed him through the doorway. He tried to be gentle. OK, maybe that was a lie. He tried to be persuasive, and it worked.

“Hi, honey, I’m home.”

“Is that what you really say when you get home?” Sam asked.

Mr. Delamere shrugged. “She likes it.”

“Lia,” Sam called, looking down at the phone in his hand. The call had been cut off abruptly when Lia had said something about a mouse. Words that had made Mr. Delamere go pale. All this left Sam afraid his plan had backfired. He had no idea what was going on inside the house. All he knew was that his mate was in here, and she might need his help.

Or then again, she might not.

“I’m in here,” Lia called.

Both men ran forward, Mr. Delamere giving a squeak of anguish as he saw his wife trapped under a glass bowl, her little legs moving frantically as she tried to get out.

“What have you done to her?” Mr. Delamere demanded.

“What have I done to her?” Lia hissed. “Do you know what she has done to me?”

“She’s very territorial.” Mr. Delamere said in way of an explanation, as he knelt down beside his wife.

“That is not going to wash here,” Sam said, entering the room, and nearly filling it with his huge body, which seemed to grow bigger the angrier he got, and he was angry. The swift elation he had felt at finding he had put the pieces together in the correct order, was replaced by a strong need to stomp on a certain mouse.

“Did you know she was a mouse?” Lia asked looking up at Sam, horror filling her expression.

“Not a mouse. She’s a shrew,” Mr. Delamere corrected.

“That would explain how she got into your apartment and planted the evidence. And how she learned the combination for the safe. She’s small enough to get into most places.” He’d seen it all now.

“She was jealous.” Lia looked down at the shrew, and then at Mr. Delamere. “She thought we were having an affair.”

“I heard,” Mr. Delamere said, getting closer to his wife, who stopped moving and looked at him—lovingly. If a shrew could experience love. “I’m sorry, Solange. Lia means nothing to me.”

“I’m still trying to figure out why she thought we were having an affair.” Lia frowned at the shrew through the glass.

“It started off as an accusation, she said she’d heard us…” Mr. Delamere began. “I denied it, of course. But she didn’t believe me. And then…well, we had the best sex ever. It was her way of renewing her claim on me. Like other married couples renew their vows.”

Sam nearly choked as those words registered. “You let Lia’s life get ruined because you had the best sex ever?”

“I’m not proud,” Mr. Delamere said. “But my wife has always been somewhat dissatisfied with me.”

Lia’s face turned pale, and she wrinkled her nose as she looked at her boss. “So you used me?”

“Solange fed on her jealousy for you. She made demands of me that I had never dreamt of. You see, she comes from a family of strong men. Very strong men. And I am not like that.”

“Shocker,” Sam ground out.

“I thought this would all go away, that Solange would let it go. You know, once you were out of sight, out of mind. I thought that you would take the jewelry and run. I didn’t know she had threatened you.”

“Even so, you should have believed I didn’t have the jewelry,” Lia said hotly.

“I believed you did. Solange insisted I send someone over to search your apartment, she said it had to be you. That you had only been so efficient as a PA so that you could gain my trust. When they found the necklace I realized she was right, and you were guilty. We had the necklace, I could work something out about the earrings, I was sure. So I figured you would make do with the earrings and sell them, and I’d never see you again. It would be over. I let you go.” Mr. Delamere turned to face Lia. “But then you tried to blackmail me, and that reinforced your guilt. Which is why I hired you, Sam Spencer.”

“Oh, Marty,” Sam said, with genuine sympathy. “You really are a piece of work. Your adoring wife set that up too.”

“I know that now.” Mr. Delamere’s face paled and he looked down at the spider. “Although I can’t understand why?”

The air shimmered and the glass under Lia’s hand shattered, making her jump back out of the way as Solange Delamere returned to her human form. And boy, was she pissed. “Because you still had feelings for her.” An angry finger was pointed at Lia. “When you refused to hunt her down over the earrings, it confirmed my worst fear. I wanted you to destroy her.”

“Why didn’t you let it go, Solange?” Mr. Delamere said sadly. “Didn’t you believe me when I said you were the only woman for me?”

“I tried,” Solange said. “I truly tried.”

“You could have both walked away. That would have been the sensible thing to do,” Sam said, he took Lia’s hand and moved toward the door. “Because then I would not have looked at your business quite as closely.”

“What do you mean?” Solange asked.

“While we have been here, having a chit-chat, the police have visited your office, and they have seized a number of documents. From your safe.” Sam let those words linger in the air, as the sound of vehicles outside of the house reached them. “Right now, there are several arrests being made by Interpol. And here are the police to arrest you.”

Behind them, there was a flurry of action as police filed into the room. The Delameres were quickly arrested, even though Solange nearly tried to make a break for it, but she didn’t shift in time. So much for loving her mate. Or maybe she planned to turn into a shrew and visit her mate in his jail cell.

“This has to be one of the craziest cases I’ve ever worked,” Sam said. He sighed as he leaned against his car. They had left the house and were watching as several items, including the missing diamond earrings, were carried from the house. “Worst thing is, I never got the rest of my fee. I solved the puzzle. But didn’t get paid. Story of my life.”

“He really did think I was blackmailing him,” Lia said. “What if those men had found me? I didn’t think Mr. Delamere was capable of hurting me, but Mrs. Delamere…she wanted me destroyed.”

Her hand in his was trembling. “Hey, I’d never have let that happen,” Sam assured her.

“But what if you hadn’t walked into my life?” She leaned against him and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “We’ll never find out, and I refuse to let it overshadow my life with you. It’s over.”

“Except for the court case. We will both be witnesses,” Sam informed her.

“Yeah, a shrew did it. That is going to sound totally plausible,” Lia said. “I still don’t understand it all myself. How can two people allow their relationship to become so toxic?”

“Don’t even try. All you need to know is, thanks to you the police had the combination, and the bad guys got arrested. You know the Delameres only got in trouble because they didn’t trust the mating bond.”

“That is never going to happen to us.” Lia’s tone was firm.

“Never. There is no one else for me,” Sam assured her.

“Good.” Lia sighed. “This has taught me one thing.”

“Which is?” Sam asked.

“I am not as good at reading people as I thought I was. I figured Mrs. Delamere ignored me because I was nothing to her, but in reality, I was everything. All her anger and suspicion. And those meetings…I should have known they were shady. Those secret meetings.”

“Hey. Let it go. None of it matters. You have an expert by your side now.”

“Sam Spencer, Private Investigator. Yeah. I’m going to go back to the Bear Creek News offices and do my job, and let you do the finding.”

“I could train you. You know. You could be my sidekick.” He looked down at Lia, glad to see the smile back on her face.

“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll pass. One of us has to earn some real money.”

“Good point,” Sam said.

“Speaking of which, we have to go and pick up Lenny and clean his house.”

“We do. And luckily, since it’s Saturday, I have organized a few helping hands.”

“I like it when someone else does the organizing.” Lia thumped his chest lightly. “At least, just this once.”