Three Hearts Beat as One (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (19 page)

“That’s how I flow. Look, when I go back to the store I’m going to look through yesterday’s video, find Ben. Like I said, I know for a fact he bought some turpentine, but he bought some other items, too, that I can’t recall. The point of sales system will back up whatever the video tells me, or vice versa. Both can be used in court.”

Chase got back up on the stepladder to continue washing the ceiling. Filthy black water ran down his forearms and throat, but he couldn’t force any of his other employees to do such a messy job. Julie was washing walls out of guilt that she’d let that bratty child into the store, but Devin had gone out on some urgent errand. He hadn’t even told Chase where, just that it was urgent Hardscrabble business and he’d be back in an hour. So Julie and Katrina were Chase’s only helpers now. Chase felt especially bad about Katrina, who was using vacation days from her job to wash his damned walls.

Cal added, “I talked to a counselor at the juvenile hall who admitted they had detained Dean Smithson, but he wouldn’t give me any other information. Here, I wrote down his direct dial number.” Cal placed a sticky note on an unopened can of paint. “He’d probably give you more information, as the owner of the place the juvenile delinquent burned down.”

Julie chimed in. “I want to get these walls cleaned ASAP before the soot soaks in. Chase, go ahead and call that counselor.”

“Yeah,” added Katrina. “We’re crushing this wall-washing business. I’ll start mopping the floor underneath where the ceiling is clean.”

Chase felt even worse, but he stepped down the ladder after a few more minutes of washing. He got the counselor’s voice mail and left his name and number, doubting that anything concrete would come of it. Then he tried to call Emilio Castillo at the police station and also only got to leave a voice mail. If the hoodlum wouldn’t confess to being funded by Ben Pearson, Chase could at least go after his father, Stormy, to recoup some of his losses. But right now they had nothing to arrest Ben on other than his purchase of some turpentine.

“Babe.” Chase now left a voicemail for Devin. Chase heard it buzz over by the cash register where Devin had accidentally left it, but he left a message anyway. “Where the hell did you disappear to? Call me.”

“Hi,” Lacey said weakly. She draped herself over Chase’s shoulders from behind, placing her warm cheek against his back. The men had forced her to sleep upstairs in Chase’s apartment, but it was only noon. She hadn’t slept very long. “Any news?”

“Unfortunately, no,” said Chase. “No one’s talking to me.”

“Sounds like the story of my life,” Lacey said ruefully. Sighing deeply, she twisted her strawberry blonde hair into a bun.

“Did you go to Sam Brannan High?”

Lacey paused, about to stick a pencil through her bun. “Yes. Did you?”

“Yeah, but I would’ve been a few years after you. A couple of years,” he corrected himself quickly.

Lacey laughed, only now seeming to wake up. “We can go with ‘a few years.’ I was class of ’97.”

Chase didn’t want to admit he was class of ’01. “So we probably weren’t even at Sam Brannan at the same time. That explains why I never met you.”

“That, and I wasn’t there that often.” Lacey looked at the floor as she spoke. “I rarely attended school. I had to work a day job when I was fifteen, before my mother married Mr. Zhukov, so I got my GED by studying at night.”

Chase blurted, “Why? I mean, why did you have to work a day job so young? Most parents want their kids to at least graduate high school.”

“My mother wasn’t the best of mothers. She really wasn’t cut out for it. She really didn’t know or care what went on with me, just lost in her own little world. Nowadays we would probably say she was bipolar.”

Chase was sorry he’d brought it up when her eyes misted over. He wasn’t accustomed to the emotions of women. He tried to say something to change the subject. “Devin was at Brannan, too,
way
ahead of me, of course. He had to drop out, too, to take care of Hardscrabble when his dad died suddenly. You probably weren’t there at the same time, either.”

But Lacey was carried away, probably from lack of sleep. Her lower lip quivered. “I don’t know how to love, Chase. I mean, I know I love Devin. And I believe I love you, too, judging from how strongly I feel about you, how much of my thoughts the both of you occupy. I really can’t imagine a time when I didn’t have the two of you in my life. And I don’t
want
that time to ever come again!”

Chase was moved by the strength of her passion. Although unfamiliar with these weird twinges in his stomach and chest, he thought they were probably normal and healthy. Could it be compassion? Love? He stroked Lacey’s hair. “As big of an asshat as your ex is, you must’ve been in love with him, too, Lacey. At the time.”

Lacey looked at a far wall. “I’m starting to doubt that. My feelings for the two of you are so different. I’m starting to think Ben was one of those lust-fueled crushes you hear about. Anyway, I’m still working out my self-image issues. The only times my mother talked to me were to tell me how stupid and fat I was, so I really have no model to judge anything by.”

“You know what helped me the most, when I was figuring out that whole thing about my dad beating me? Your parents make you what you are. But it’s up to you to change it.”

Lacey grinned remotely. “Yeah, but…How do you
get
self-esteem if you don’t
have
any? See the conundrum? You don’t seem to suffer from a lack of it, Mr. Underwear Model.”

Chase had to really think about that one. His father certainly hadn’t given him an over-abundance of self-assurance. Without even noticing he was doing it, he gathered the soft woman in his arms and rested his chin on the crown of her head. “I had to develop it myself. In my twenties I kept telling myself my father was wrong—he didn’t know me at all, so how could he be beating me and criticizing me? It was
obviously
only his own anger and control issues coming out.”

“But you have control issues,” Lacey said quietly.

Chase had to chuckle at that. “Of course. But I’m aware of it. I don’t go mindlessly inflicting them on others. That’s part of the game, Lace. We
know
we like to control each other, me and Dev. That’s the fun of it. We
mindfully
toy with each other, goad each other, manipulate each other. I’m not inflicting it on some kid down the street.”

Lacey giggled. “You’re inflicting it on an athletic, strong adult.”

“Exactly. It’s why things are never dull between us. Anyway, how I became so fucking vain? Practice. I started modeling when I was eighteen. The more success I had, the more people fawning over me, the more my ego puffed up. That’s all. You’ll see. In a few weeks from now, after Dev and I have stroked, praised, and applauded you, you’re going to start walking taller, too. It’s a catch-22. The more praise is heaped upon you, the more you believe it, the better you feel about yourself.”

Lacey turned her face up to Chase. “I hope so,” she whispered, then snuggled back down into his chest.

“We can tell you till the cows come home how beautiful you are, Lacey. And we will, no doubt about it. We can tell you how pretty, luscious, tasty, and feminine you are. But until you believe it yourself, you’re just going to scoff at us.”

Lacey snorted. “That’s for damned sure.” She sighed heavily and looked up at Chase again. “I’m sorry to be such a basket case, Chase. It’s just that divorce isn’t exactly the thing to up your self-esteem. Even though I was the one who left, it still stabbed me deeply. I knew I had no other option. I feel as though I’ve never been a winner. I’ve never succeeded, until meeting the two of you. That’s why I’m so afraid it’ll all evaporate. Like I’ll wake up and it was all just a dream, you know? Like on
Newhart
or
Dallas.
”

Chase frowned. “What?”

Lacey frowned, too. “You know, like in
St. Elsewhere
, where the whole thing is revealed to be a dream.” Chase stared at her. “
Star Trek Voyager?
”

“Oh!” Chase was relieved to know what Lacey was talking about. “I remember that! B’Elanna survived a shuttle accident but wound up on a barge to a Klingon afterlife.”

Lacey smiled. “Something like that, yeah. Except I think I’d rather be in a Klingon afterlife than without the two of you.”

Chase stroked Lacey’s temple and was about to kiss her when Cal loped down the hallway that led to the back alley where Katrina and Julie worked. His tennis shoes squeaked, and he waved a piece of paper. “Dudes! You’re never going to believe this!”

“Oh, I think I would,” said Lacey ominously.

* * * *

Devin didn’t know what Mayor Alessi wanted, much less how he’d gotten his cell number to send a text.

But he knew he was going to do the mayor’s bidding.

Jared Alessi wanted a meeting at his office. Devin could see no potential harm in that, although he must have had misgivings, because he didn’t tell Chase where he was going. He felt bad about that. But the issues Alessi wanted to discuss could only have to do with Positive Vibrations and the recent rash of vandalism. Maybe Alessi wanted to propose a solution that he was uncomfortable proposing to Chase.

Or maybe he wanted to arrest Devin for public indecency for the incident the night before.

Either way, Devin had to find out what Alessi wanted. The text had said noon, and Alessi’s secretary seemed to expect him, ushering him into the mayor’s private office and shutting the door. The door was one of those old-fashioned heavy oak doors with the person’s name painted on the upper panel of foggy, opaque glass.
ISSELA DERAJ
, Devin read, for lack of anything else to do.

Why did Alessi invite me here? Is he playing some sort of long con? So it wasn’t my imagination he wanted me at the silent auction. Last night? Hoo doggie. He likes to watch. I like to show off.
Devin squirmed uncomfortably in his chair, remembering last night.
Good God, I can be such an arrogant degenerate. What’s even worse is that I can show my face here with barely any embarrassment. I’m just as deviant as Alessi.

Alessi came in and shut the door behind him. He shook Devin’s hand, a good sign, and sat on the edge of his desk with hands clasped between his knees. “Devin, I’ve got to be honest with you. I admire your business acumen. You took that ranch when your father died and turned it into a well-oiled machine. You’ve more than quadrupled your acreage and given some over to open space. You seem like a real nice fellow.”

Devin didn’t know what to say. Was this about the open space again? “Thanks, Mayor. I only wish my brother wasn’t such a damned partier. We could’ve probably done even better if we’d of teamed up.”

Alessi chuckled, chummy. “He was a party animal, all right.” It wasn’t Devin’s imagination that the pervert was eyeballing his crotch, so he leaned forward and clasped his hands together, too. “He was a character. Where’d he wind up?”

Devin snorted. “Who knows? China? Last I got a call from him, about a year ago, he was in Malta, wherever that is.”

“Europe, I think. Well.” Alessi appeared to be thinking deep thoughts. “You always were the much better-looking brother.”

What the fuck does that have to do with anything?
Now Devin was getting uncomfortable. “So what’s up? I need to get back and help Chase clean his walls and paint.”

Alessi appeared to wake up. “Yes, about that.” He stood now and paced. Hell’s Delight was a casual, western foothill town, but even here the mayor had to wear a tie. He clutched his hands together behind his back and paced thoughtfully, as though making a proposal for paving or wetlands reclamation. “You seem pretty sure that Ben Pearson is behind all of this harassment of you, Chase, Positive Vibrations.”

“Oh, absolutely. Cal Zhukov sold him some turpentine yesterday, and the kid admitted Ben put him up to stapling those fliers all over town. Ben
is
Sam Ramone of the End of the Century Pioneers. Ben’s just pissed because he lost his wife and now we’re dating her. Now we just have to get the kid to admit that Ben had him soak those rags in turpentine, and pour the motion lotion everywhere.”

Alessi stopped pacing in front of Devin at the mention of motion lotion. Though his suit jacket was buttoned at the waist, Devin could discern a definite bulge, and he glanced uncomfortably at the door. Had the mayor locked it? “You’re probably right, Devin. But unfortunately a child’s word isn’t admissible in a court of law. Remember that daycare scandal a couple decades back? That’s the reason for the law, to prevent unreliable children from doing great harm to innocent adults.”

Devin had no idea if that was true or not. He luckily hadn’t had cause to study that aspect of the law recently. “Well, even if that’s true, Cal’s getting some other evidence. Yesterday Ben Pearson purchased some other items along with the turpentine, and Cal is looking into it right now.”

Alessi shrugged. His stupid erection was just three feet from Devin’s face, and Devin was forced to look up into his beady eyes. The mayor loomed over him with authority. “There’s a problem with that. Ben could have purchased turpentine for any variety of reasons. That’s not going to lead to a charge.”