Page 173 of Embracing the Change

I stopped pacing, sat in an armchair and crossed my legs. “I didn’t have a chance to tell you. Before we left New York, Rhys Vaughan left us a package.”

“Really?” she asked, not hiding she was intrigued.

Ah, yes.

The mysterious Rhys Vaughan perked up everyone’s attention.

“Really,” I replied. “And in it was information to show that Paloma, through some shell companies, paid Chester Lynch two hundred thousand dollars.”

She asked the same question I did. “Where did she get that kind of money?”

“Would you like me to guess?” I offered.

“Please do.”

“Jamie told me there was quite a bit of value at that ranch. So I think she got it by pawning AJ’s valuables, likely things he wouldn’t notice missing. Because Jamie went fishing by mentioning it at the funeral, and it was obvious AJ knew nothing about it, but Paloma’s face grew deathly pale.”

“Well, that’s interesting,” she remarked.

“It was a long ride back from Reid and Greer’s, so I had time to think, and what I think is that you don’t poke the bear that’s mauling you. AJ has so much on his plate simply to keep his head above water, he isn’t considering messing with Jamie, even if he threatened to do it. The man is all bluster. And I certainly don’t think, if he could get his hands on nearly a quarter of a million dollars, he’d give it to the likes of Lynch.”

“He sure showed up with a wallop in an effort to fuck with Jamie this evening,” Mika pointed out.

“That didn’t cost him any money.”

“Right. That makes sense,” she mumbled. “So that’s all Paloma in a bid to fuck with you?”

“Perhaps.”

“Therefore, what we have is maybe AJ accidentally killing his son in an insurance fraud scam that also ended with the tragic deaths of four magnificent horses. And Paloma manipulating Roland and Chester Lynch for the sole purpose of screwing with your happiness because you made her persona non grata at a couple of Prada stores.”

“I also made sure she was struck off every list for every event that’s of any consequence in New York City, which is her preferred hunting ground.”

“Oh yeah, and there’s that.”

There was that, and that was at the heart of it.

I didn’t regret it. She was trying to harm Tom for falling in love with Mika. If a lover moves on, you take it like a woman.

But it had certainly made things inconvenient.

I had no idea when Jamie would arrive in our room. I’d left them down there nearly an hour ago. But I had one more thing to bring up with Mika, so I needed to do it fast.

“Have you noticed anything…mm… curious between Dru and Sully?”

“You mean that they’re totally in love with each other and for reasons unknown aren’t acting on it?”

I sat blinking at my fabulous shoe.

“In love?” I forced out.

“Totally. Tom and I have discussed it, and we think Sully believes Dru needs to get some life under her belt before he goes there. They met when she was still quite young, and so was Sully. Or he doesn’t want to go there at all just in case it doesn’t work out and it makes things awkward for the rest of us. I like to think it’s the first, even if that’s foolish, and risky, because Dru might find someone else in the meantime.”

I thought about Sully, and suggested, “It could be he’s waiting so he can have time to deal with his own issues.”

“What issues?”

“I don’t know. But it always struck me as odd, in getting to know him, and how close he is with his father, his brother, and how quickly that family melded when Duncan and Genny got together. You’d think Chloe, Matt and Sasha were his blood, and he’s known them since he was born, when he’s known them what? Perhaps four or five years?”

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