Page 62 of Very Special Forces

"Boardroom types?"

"She's alawyer. Lot of money. Put her career before him," repliedVincent.

"Wheredoes she work?" I asked.

Vincentshrugged. "Somewhere downtown."

"Why didthey break up?"

"Shecheated," said Stocky.

"Oh,wow. How did he find out?" I asked.

"He saidhe saw messages on her phone and she wouldn't talk about it. Hetried and tried and in the end it didn't matter, so he left. Sheeven threatened him with the police but we told him, man, do not goback to that."

"Soundsterrible."

Theyboth nodded. "We're so happy he met Julia. Getting married isexactly what he wanted."

"She'llprobably perk up after the wedding," said Vincent. "I heard it'sstressful planning a wedding. I'm glad my future wife is happy toget on with the planning. I just have to show up, wear a tux, andtake her on a honeymoon."

Stockyglanced at his watch, then at me. "Are those the menus? We're justgoing to get hoagies and maybe some fries," he said.

"Oh,sure." I handed the menus over since their conversation had turnedto food and less to gossiping about their friend's relationships."If you know what you want, I can take your order right now." Ipulled a pad and pen from my pocket and wrote down their order."Your friend gave me his business card at the party and said theremight be some temp work at his office. Do you know if that'strue?"

"I workthere and yes, there's some temp work available. I don't think it'sanything exciting, just answering phones and filing. Did you wantto come by and talk to someone?" asked Vincent.

"I'dlove that. I don't get enough shifts at the bar," I lied. "It wouldbe nice to work in an office environment. I've done some tempingbefore."

"Drop bythis afternoon," said Vincent giving me a friendly smile. "Brycealways tries to help and our temps never last long."

"Great.I'll do that." I flashed them a smile as I turned away and hurriedthe order over to the bar. I had a way in to talk to Bryce. Now Ijust needed to work out how to play it.

Chapter Fifteen

I leftthe bar a few minutes after Bryce's friends; I had to change out ofthe bar t-shirt and into my own clothes.

Theinformation they provided wasn’t anything wildly exciting but theydid drop a couple of names that I needed to check out: Lana andAngie. Who were they? And just how likely was it that Bryce haddated three "crazy" women, one after the other?

That reminded me of a conversation I once had with Lily, rightafter I caught my ex-fiancé cheating. He unsuccessfully tried toput it all on me that I was "crazy" even after I'd seen the exactnature of the cheating with my own eyes. He wasn't the first guy topull the crazy card. I'd heard it before when refusing dates, orduring breakups, and just about every guy I ever dated — with theexception of Solomon and Maddox — called their exescrazy."Men," Lily hadsaid over cocktails one night, "always call women crazy when wedon't do what they want. We should beware of any man who calls hisex crazy especially if she's not actually doing anything crazy likeslashing his tires or stalking him. Crazy is probablyhim."

Theproblem for me now was how could I track down Lana and Angie? Thenames weren't uncommon but except for their link to Bryce I had noother information about them. However, his buddies dropped a usefulpiece of information regarding Jessica. She was a lawyer andaccording to them, at the boardroom level so she had to hold asenior position. Downtown narrowed the location of her firm alittle but not by much. There were plenty of legal firms in thedowntown area.

Before Icontinued my investigations, I ducked into a coffee shop andordered an iced latte, taking it over to the bar at the window andhopping onto a tall stool. I called up a browser on my phone,thanked everything I knew that I wasn't a PI thirty years ago whenthe internet didn't exist, and searched for "Jessica + lawyer +Montgomery." The search results listed ten Jessicas; two werepartners in local law firms, six were senior lawyers, and two werejunior. Even if I discounted the two junior lawyers, I couldn'tcharge around town interrogating the remaining eight and asking ifthey knew Bryce. I needed more information to narrow down whichJessica she was.

I calledJas and after I filled her in on what I’d found out, I askedher.

"Yeah, Iremember the name," said Jas. "Julia mentioned a Jessica a fewtimes when they first started dating. She told me Bryce was worriedabout Jessica's behavior and that she should becareful."

"He toldJulia to be careful? Why?"

"He saidJessica was nuts and he was afraid she would try to attack Juliabecause she would be jealous of her and how happy they weretogether. He said she made up stuff all the time and that's partlywhy he had to leave her. He also said he was afraid she would saysomething to Julia and upset her."

"DidJulia believe that?"

"Yes.Bryce showed her some texts and emails from Jessica and Julia saidthey were full of accusations and horrible stuff."

"Do youremember what kind of accusations?"

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