Chapter Twelve
“Are you absolutely sure?” Heath demanded.
“Yes, I’m sure. I’m looking at the private investigator file now,” Gavin said over the phone.
Heath racked his fingers through his hair. He and his cousins intended to take care of the Dale situation without Zora finding out, but now he wondered if they’d have to get her involved after all. “Shit. Then who the fuck was making those harassing phone calls to her? It couldn’t have been some random person. Zora said the caller knew too much about her to be someone random. She was positive it was Dale.”
“I thought about that as well. Zora never told us specifics on what exactly was said. That would give us a real clue about who this person is. And if they found her once before, they could find her again.”
“Or maybe it was someone who already knew she was with her grandmother. Maybe it was someone in Covington.”
There was a sigh on the other end of the phone. “I thought of that too. I have the investigator checking out that angle.”
“Fine. Did you call Logan?”
“Yes. As you can imagine he’s not happy either. When you get home tonight, we’ll talk about this further.”
“Fine, I have a few more meetings scheduled, but I’ll have my PA cancel all my afternoon appointments and be home by three. Where’s Zora now?”
“She’s taking a shower. I’m about to head into the office for a couple hours. I should be home by the time you get there. Zora will be here.”
“Do you think it’s wise to leave her alone, knowing there could be some psycho stalker after her? I’d feel more comfortable if someone is there with her.”
“I agree. Logan will be home shortly. He has someone else watching the shop for him. I’m going to leave a little before he gets here because I don’t want her to be alarmed.”
Heath knew his cousin was right, but he still didn’t feel comfortable with Zora being on her own. “I don’t disagree with you, but dammit, this is frustrating. Just keep us posted when you hear back from the PI.”
“Will do. Hey, hold on for a sec, someone’s on the other line and I don’t recognize the number.”
“Sure.” Heath waited as his cousin clicked over. When they’d returned from their cabin, everything had fallen into place seamlessly. Zora fit right in like the missing puzzle piece of their lives. They discussed their future and marriage and even children. The only dark cloud in their horizon was the Dale situation. It didn’t sit well with either him or his cousins and they’d decided they’d look into it and handle it themselves. But finding out the other man had been dead for some years put them back at square one.
“Sorry about that,” Gavin said once he clicked back over. “That was Zora’s cousin.”
Heath frowned. “Her cousin? The one who left her homeless and jobless?”
“The very one.”
“Why is she calling you and how did she get our number?”
“It’s the last number Zora contacted her from before she got her new phone. Bernice wanted to speak to Zora. Said it didn’t work out with her last tenant and was wondering if Zora was still at a loose end.”
“Nice cousin.” Heath snorted. With family like Zora’s, it was no wonder their woman had so many insecurities.
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I just gave her Zora’s new cell number. I figured Zora would want to deal with her cousin herself. Although I was tempted to just hang up.”
“You’re much nicer than me because I sure as hell would have hung up on that bitch,” Heath growled.
“Like I said, I was tempted. But I don’t think Zora would have appreciated it when I told her.”
“You probably didn’t have to tell her.”
“We agreed no secrets. It’s bad enough we haven’t told her about the Dale situation yet. Hopefully she’ll understand when we tell her. Anyway, I have to go, but I’ll touch base with you later.”
“Okay, I’ll see you when I get home.” Heath hung up.
Damn. Now what?
~~~
Zora was surprised when Gavin told her Bernice had called and there was indeed a message from her cousin when she’d checked her phone. She ate something and took a walk around the estate before returning her cousin’s call.
Bernice picked up after the third ring. “Hello?”
“Hi, it’s Zora. I got your message. What’s up?”
“Who was that dude who answered the phone when I called?”
Zora paused, not quite liking the way her cousin asked the question as if she had the right to know. “My boyfriend,” she finally answered giving the safe response. And while she wasn’t ashamed of her men, it was a lot less complicated to call him that. Besides, it was none of Bernice’s business.
“Mmm, he sounds hot. It seems like you landed on your feet just fine, little cousin, so I’m not sure if it’ll matter to you or not.”
“What are you talking about, Bernice?”
“Well, I, uh…that damn tenant I let stay in my rental property got arrested for selling dope, and on top of that he and his junky friends trashed my damn house. It’s going to take a long time to get the house back to the way it was.”
“Your tenant did that in a month?”
“Yeah, the dirty ass bastard. There’s stains in the carpets that won’t come out and markings all over the walls. They broke most of the appliances with their wild parties. To make matters worse, either he or one of his friends took a shit in the vent.”
Zora gagged. “That’s disgusting. How did you find that out?”
“Well, after me and the cleaning crew did the best that we could cleaning, there was still this funky odor and we couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. I didn’t think to look into the air vent on the floor but when I was standing next to it, the air conditioning system kicked in and the smell got worse. So open vent and I found turds. Who even does that?”
“This was an adult?”
“Girl, it shocked me too. I can only assume that whoever did it was high at the time.” Bernice sighed. “I wish I would have waited for you to get in contact with me, but I figured since he was willing to pay in cash and you were MIA, I might as well rent the place out.”
Zora was still puzzled about why her cousin was calling. If it was to apologize, she bore no ill will. “Oh, that’s too bad. Sorry to hear you’ve had bad luck with your renter.”
“Well, even though you have a boyfriend, I was wondering if you still need a place to stay. I mean since I have an opening, you can move in right away.”
“But didn’t you say the house was a wreck?”
“Yes, but I figured if you had nowhere to go, you wouldn’t mind the mess.”
Zora bit her tongue to hold back a sarcastic retort. “Bernice, I’ve found other accommodations. I wish you luck in finding another tenant.”
There was another pregnant pause on the other end of the phone before Bernice spoke again. “Okay. Well, do you plan on coming to the family reunion this weekend?”
“Umm, no. This is the first I’ve heard about it, so probably not.”
“Oh well, I hear Uncle Darren and Aunt Rayna aren’t coming either. Not that we’re surprised. They haven’t been to any family events in a while, not since they got all religious.”
Zora froze at the mention of her parents. “They’ve always been religious.”
“No, they’ve gotten really weird from what I hear. They don’t really keep in contact with anyone. My dad calls Uncle Darren sometimes just to make sure he’s still alive. Dad thinks they’ve joined some kind of cult or something.”
This sounded strange, even for her parents. “Cult?”
“I don’t know if it was a cult per se, but from the little bit my father got out of Uncle Darren, it’s one of those really strict churches where the women have to walk two steps behind the man. Your mom is a better person than me because I wouldn’t put up with that mess from any man. Anyway, I’m really sorry about the way things happened. Things haven’t been going too well at the boutique and I was counting on that rent money so I got a little greedy. I meant no harm by it. And I would have helped with repairs of the house. I just thought if you still needed a place to stay, you wouldn’t mind so much.”
It was no excuse, but at least Bernice sounded sincere. Zora wasn’t one to hold grudges, besides one couldn’t pick one’s relatives. “I appreciate that. Maybe when things settle down for me, I can come up for a visit.”
“That would be nice. It’s been a long time.”
“I’d like that. Please keep in touch.”
“Will do.”
When she clicked off her phone, Zora felt much better at how the conversation ended than how it began. Maybe she and Bernice could be real friends one day and not just cousins who spoke on occasion.
~~~
“You owe me five hundred dollars.” Zora held her hand out for her payout.
Logan slammed his palms against the table. “This is getting ridiculous. Tell us again how you ended up with all these properties with so little cash. You own all the railroads, utilities and the three most expensive properties on the board.”
Zora held her hand out. “Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Now hand it over, buddy. If you weren’t so busy trying to run your hand up my leg, maybe you’d own more properties too.”
The blond reluctantly handed her a five hundred dollar bill. “You’re lucky you’re cute,” he grumbled.
She grinned. “Nice doing business with you. Your turn, Heath.”
Heath picked up the dice and rolled a six. “Damn. I’m out.”
“Uh-uh. You have to move your marker six spaces,” Zora ordered.
“Why? You know I’m just going to land on one of your properties. I only have fifty dollars left. I think Logan may be right. You’ve been cheating, haven’t you?”
Zora had suggested they have a game night because when she’d lived with her nana, they’d have people over and play board games. She wanted to keep the tradition going with her new family as a way of paying tribute to her grandmother. She appreciated that her men were willing to participate in this activity with her. They were good sports even though they completely sucked at board games.
“Don’t be a spoilsport. You have to move your little doggie to make it official.”
Heath pursed his lips and moved the designated spots. As he said he would, he landed on one of Zora’s properties. “Happy?”
“Very much. I’ll take those fifty dollars even though you owe me more.”
“She’s a shark. I think you should check under her chair for hidden money,” Gavin teased. He sat by watching after Zora had knocked him out of the game a while ago.
“Ha ha, very funny. You guys are just being a bunch of babies. It’s not my fault you suck at this.” Zora counted her money ostentatiously to rub it in their faces. She could admit she was competitive when she played board games, but it was all in good fun and even though they grumbled and pretended they weren’t having a good time, she knew they were.
“Right now, the only thing I want to suck is your pussy.” Logan smacked his lips suggestively.
A wave of heat spread through Zora’s body and she squirmed in her chair as the image of Logan eating her pussy entered her head. “You have such a one track mind. But it’s not going to distract me from this game.”
The men grumbled collectively. Since Zora had the majority of the money, Logan was knocked out in no time, leaving her the undisputed winner.
“We’re definitely going to check you for cheating next time. I say one of us gets to choose the next game,” Gavin suggested.
“Yeah? What game did you have in mind?” she asked, putting the pieces neatly back in the box.
“Strip poker, of course,” Logan said straight-faced.
She rolled her eyes, knowing exactly how this night was going to end. Not taking the bait, she decided to steer the subject to another topic. She’d wanted to bring it up since she’d heard them whispering when they thought she wasn’t around. At the time, Zora hadn’t dwelt on it because they’d distracted her with a lot of heavy petting and kissing, but now she wasn’t going to be put off.
“So guys, what were the three of you talking about earlier today?”
To their credit, none of the men batted at eye, but she could still sense their unease, a testament to how well she’d learned to read them in the time they’d been together.
When they remained silent, she prompted them. “Well? Is anyone going to tell me? I thought we said no secrets, but this morning I find Gavin on the phone talking to someone rather rudely, and then the three of you are speaking in hushed tones when you think I’m not in the room. If we’re supposed to share things with each other, you guys aren’t holding up your end of the bargain very well.”
The three men looked at each other, silently communicating while Zora grew more annoyed by the second.
Finally Gavin answered. “Remember when you were telling us about those harassing phone calls you’d started to receive when you still lived in Covington?”
She nodded. “Yes, what about them?”
Gavin glanced at his cousins again before speaking. She could tell he was stalling to find the right words. “We knew you were worried about Dale coming back into your life and we wanted to go to the source. We hired a private investigator to find him and it was our intent to confront him.”
It took a moment to process what Gavin had just told her. She was highly annoyed they’d gone behind her back without telling her, but she managed to hold back any harsh words because she knew they’d meant well. “So what did you find out?” she asked as calmly as she could.
“This morning when you walked into the kitchen, I was on the phone with the private investigator. I was upset because I got some unexpected news,” Gavin said.
Zora’s heart sped up at the thought of that maniac being free to do her and her men harm. Though she was almost frightened to ask again, she did anyway. “What did you find out?”
Another long pause followed her question before Heath answered, “Dale’s been dead for the last three years. It seems when he was released from prison, he was in and out of trouble with the law, drug charges mostly. From what the investigator learned, he’d picked up a heavy crystal meth and heroin addiction. He was found dead in his parents’ home of an overdose.”
So many thoughts rushed through Zora’s head. She felt relief that she’d never see him again, yet also anger because she’d never be able to confront him to tell him what he’d stolen from her. And sadness because of the terrible way he’d died. She wouldn’t have wished that on anyone. And finally she felt trepidation. If it hadn’t been Dale who’d been making those calls, then who? She wanted to think maybe it was a random nut, but how would they know such intimate details about her?
“So if it wasn’t him, then who was making those calls?” she finally asked.
“That we don’t know, but at least we know who it wasn’t,” Heath answered. “Zora, you said this caller said things only Dale would know. Exactly what did he say to make you believe that?”
Zora shuddered just thinking about the vulgar things the caller had told her. “He mentioned things on my body, like my birthmark, and moles on strategic parts of my body. Dale wasn’t my only lover, but he was the only one other than you guys, of course, who I’d been with more than once. He would have been the only one to know my body as intimately. Plus, he taunted me with some things I’d shared with him about my childhood. Remember I said he used to throw things back in my face? That’s why I couldn’t think of anyone it could be other than him.”
Gavin, Heath and Logan seemed just as puzzled as she was. Who would know all this stuff about her? “And you didn’t recognize the voice of the caller?” Logan wondered aloud.
“The voice was scratchy. The person was obviously trying to disguise himself, but it did sound a little familiar. I just couldn’t place it for sure.”
Logan leaned forward, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Did Dale have a best friend he might have confided in? Perhaps this person might blame you for what happened to him and wants revenge or at the very least, they want to rattle you a bit.”
Zora snorted. “Dale didn’t have friends, he had admirers. He surrounded himself with sycophants because he threw his money around so freely.”
“But was there anyone he hung out with more than others? Someone who might have considered him a friend?” Gavin asked.
“There were a couple guys, one guy’s name was Craig Martin and the other Ron, but I can’t remember his last name. Those two don’t really strike me as the stalkerish types.”
“We have to look into all possibilities at this point.” Heath reached across the table. “Our main priority right now is ensuring your safety, and trust us, we will get to the bottom of this.”
She believed them when they promised to keep her safe, but if someone was really after her, who would keep them safe?