Page 1 of The Perfect Lie
Prologue
Davian
While I dressed, my eyes fell upon Reyna as she lay on the bed like an angel. My lust for her rose as I remembered last night and the way her perfect tits bounced with each thrust inside her. The thought of losing her sent an ache to my heart, which made me thankful that I had her back. Morning sex would have been amazing, but Patton was waiting, and I wanted to get an early start to Suches so we would be back before nightfall. I had promised Reyna I would never leave her, but she was in good hands. Other than the safe haven back at The Regency, the warehouse was the safest place for her to be.
Closing the door behind me, I headed to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee before heading downstairs. Mika was already awake, which didn’t surprise me. The smell of breakfast blanketed the kitchen, and soon everyone would be awake.
Flipping over one of the cups she had laid out on the counter, I filled it to the rim. Taking a sip, I snatched one of her signature muffins while her back was toward me. “You never could resist my blueberry muffins.”
It was a fact. Mika’s muffins were the best in Georgia. “Do you blame me?”
Turning to face me, she placed her hands on the counter. “Can I ask you something?”
“You know you can ask me anything, Mika.” Mika never asked for permission to say what was on her mind. I never wanted her to think that she couldn’t.
“I think it would be a wonderful idea to have a twenty-first birthday party for Reyna. The other women and I have been talking. Reyna never had one, and it would be nice. After all, she is only twenty-one once.”
Taking another sip, I leaned in like I was letting her in on a secret. “I think that is a wonderful idea. I was just thinking about doing something for her myself.” It had been only a passing idea arising from a conversation Reyna and I had yesterday, but I couldn’t let Mika know it hadn’t been on my mind.
“I’m glad you agree. I’ll let you know what we come up with. I think Mr. and Mrs. McCall should be here when we celebrate her birthday,” Mika said, rearranging the muffins on the platter so it didn’t look like I had taken one.
“Let me know what you need me to do.” Only having attended parties, I had no clue what went into planning Reyna’s twenty-first birthday. Whenever I had an event to plan, my secretary Helen always took care of the details.
As I made my way down the stairs, I ran into Patton on his way up. Stopping with two steps between us, he looked up. “The SUV is fueled. I’m ready to go whenever you are.”
“Let’s go so we can get back before dark,” I replied as I waited for him to turn before I followed him down the stairs.
After loading the SUV with the tools we thought we would need, Patton pulled away from the warehouse. Looking back at the garage door closing through the side mirror, I couldn’t stop thinking about what we would find once we reached Suches. Curtis admitted he stole fifty million dollars in diamonds from Salko as payment for what he did to Louise. I couldn’t help but wonder if we would find the diamonds. There was a better chance than not that we would find them, mostly because of Curtis’s fixation on Reyna’s locket.
Once we were close to Suches, I plugged the coordinates into the reverse geo-tracker and waited for the location to show up on the screen. Unlike what I had expected, the location was inside the city limits of Suches and not along Suches Loop. It was totally unexpected since Louise’s so-called accident happened there.
“Are you seeing this?” I turned to Patton to see his reaction.
Patton dropped his gaze to the tracker. “Are you sure you put in the right coordinates?”
Looking down at the coordinates I had written down, I double-checked them against the ones I had entered. “They are spot on. I guess we will have to see what we find there. Maybe there is a reason Curtis chose this spot.”
Twenty minutes later, Patton pulled up to a residence just north of Woody Lake. The property appeared deserted. Patton stopped the SUV and turned off the engine. As I looked around, the property was definitely abandoned. It reminded me of a scene from the movieDeliverance.Three rusted truck frames occupied the northeast corner of the property, hidden by weeds about three feet high. An old shed was on the other side of the property; it looked like it could collapse at any minute. “What is this place?” I looked over to Patton as he held the geo-tracker in his hand.
“I don’t know, but let’s find these coordinates so we can get out of here.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
Once we exited the SUV, I followed Patton to a wooded area behind the shed. He paused for a moment, looking between the trees that overtook the grounds. “I think we better grab a shovel. If what we are looking for is somewhere in this wooded area, I have a feeling we are going to need it.”
Jogging back to the SUV, I popped the liftgate and grabbed two shovels. Holding one in each hand, I hurried back to Patton, waiting on the edge of the tree line. I handed him a shovel and we made our way through the trees. The signal on the tracker started to beep, which told us we were close. The more frequent the beep, the closer we were. At one point during our search, the beeping stopped. It was an indication that we were going in the wrong direction, according to Patton. The beeping resumed when we switched our direction.
We continued to move deeper into the wooded area; the tracker took us further away from where we parked. The trees were so thick that only a sliver of light could be seen. It was only when the tracker gave off a steady beep that we knew we had reached the coordinates we were tracking. We were in the middle of nowhere, at least a mile away from where we parked. There was no reason to believe this was a setup. No one knew we were here. The numbers meant something. We had to take a risk, so without hesitation, we began digging away the leaf-covered soil.
The pile of dirt, about three feet high, continued to grow until the tip of Patton’s shovel hit something. “I think we’re here.”
Kneeling, we began to use our hands to push away the remaining dirt. Hidden beneath the ground was a black duffle bag wrapped in thick black plastic. My only thought was at least Curtis was smart enough to think about the elements and the bag’s survival. We pulled away the plastic secured around the bag with duct tape until the only thing that remained was the bag. We were surprised it was in good condition after being buried for as long as it was.
Patton pulled the zipper back, revealing several black velvet cases inside. Taking one in his hand, he pulled it open. It was no surprise that the box was filled with diamonds. The same diamonds that Curtis had stolen from Salko.
“Wow! I wasn’t expecting to find these.” Patton’s face matched his reaction as he picked up a handful of the small diamonds and held it out in his hand. “Do you think these are real?”
I told him about Curtis’s confession, but it was still unbelievable that we found them. “They’re real. When Curtis told me that he had stolen them from Salko years ago, I guess I never thought that we would actually find them.”
