Flare, p.9
Flare, page 9
“Just her first year?” I ask.
“Our grandmother only went to college one year. She became pregnant with your dad, Brock. And she left school, went to the Steel ranch to live. Married our grandfather.”
“Okay. Are you suggesting that these bones belong to this Patty?”
“There’s not really any way to know without having a sample of Patty’s DNA. But everything else seems to point to that fact.”
“Who would want to kill an eighteen-year-old girl?” Donny says.
My blood is running cold. “Really, Don? After what we’ve recently found out about our esteemed family, you’re asking that question?”
“Anyway, it sparked a memory in me,” Dale says.
“What do you mean?” I ask. “You weren’t alive back then.”
“I know that, numbnuts. But do you remember that old guy who worked with Uncle Ryan back in the day?”
“I don’t,” I say.
“No, you wouldn’t. You were too young. But Donny might remember.”
“I don’t know,” Donny says. “A lot of guys worked around the ranch.”
“Yeah, maybe you don’t remember. But I spent a lot of time with Uncle Ryan. That’s how I got my interest in wine. Anyway, there was this old British guy. Apparently he was the first winemaker at Steel Vineyards.”
“British guy?” I say. “What the hell does a British guy know about wine?”
“This British guy knew about wine. He lived on the ranch, but then he went back to England years later. I was probably twelve or so.”
“Okay.”
“Anyway, his name was Ennis. Ennis Ainsley. He also knew our grandmother from college, and that’s how he met our grandfather.”
“What’s this got to do with our dead girl’s bones?”
“Ainsley never married,” Dale says. “He trained Uncle Ryan to run the winery, and then when Uncle Ryan took over, he stayed around for a few years on the ranch. But I remember him talking about the one true love of his life. Her name was Patty.”
“The one who disappeared,” I say.
“Yes. Probably. Uncle Ryan might remember her last name. Ennis and Patty were visiting Snow Creek, were here to see our grandparents, and apparently Patty disappeared.”
“Was she killed?” I ask.
“That’s what we need to find out. We’re going to do some research. Her parents are most likely dead by now. They’d be in their hundreds. But you know who is still alive?”
“Ennis Ainsley?” I ask.
“Yes. Ennis Ainsley is still alive, and he lives in London. He’s eighty-eight years old.”
“That’s way too old to fly him over here.”
“Yes, it is,” Dale agrees. “Which is why we’re going to have to go to him.”
“Drop everything and fly to London?” I say. “With everything else going on?”
“We don’t all have to go. Only one of us.”
“I’ll do it.” My words surprise myself.
But getting the hell out of Colorado? Sounds like freaking paradise to me.
You can’t escape your problems, but when we’re talking about rotting human flesh, my uncle being poisoned, finding out your family really does own the damned town, and still no leads on the whole Brendan Murphy situation… Oh, and the best of all. Finding out Pat Lamone is probably a long-lost cousin…
I just want a fucking break.
Even if the break entails talking to an old man about his one true love who disappeared sixty years ago.
“You sure?” Dale asks.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure. I’ll take Rory with me.”
“Have you told Rory everything?”
“No… But I’d like to. With your permission of course.”
“You’ve got mine,” Donny says. “I let Callie in on everything without even checking with you guys first, so I won’t stand in your way.”
“You’re truly serious about her?” Dale asks.
I regard her as she sits across from me, her beautiful brown eyes heavy-lidded, and her lovely lips in a soft smile.
“Yeah. Totally. Believe me, I’m as surprised as you are. Plus, she’s Callie’s sister. The Pikes are good people. She can be trusted.”
Rory lifts her eyebrows at me.
“In fact, she’s sitting right here. At my table.”
“At five in the morning?” Donny says.
“Yeah. I’m not sure why she’s up.”
“I had a dream,” Rory says.
“Apparently she had a dream that woke her,” I tell them.
“All right,” Dale says. “You and Rory go to London. Find out what you can from Ennis Ainsley. In the meantime, I’ll talk to Uncle Ryan about it. He knew Ennis well.”
“All right.” I sigh and run my fingers through my already messed-up hair. “Anything else?”
“You mean other than all the other bullshit we’ve got going on?” Donny says.
“That’s exactly what I mean. After all, just when you think it can’t get any hairier…”
“It does,” Dale says. “It always fucking does.”
“Send me all the documents you got from the guy about bones,” I say. “And anything else you have on this Ennis Ainsley and Patricia Watson.”
“Will do. They’ll be in your email within a few minutes.”
“All right.” I draw in a breath. “I guess I’m going to London.”
Chapter Fifteen
Rory
I drop my jaw.
I guess I’m going to London.
Why the heck is Brock going to London?
He ends the call and meets my gaze. “So how much of that did you actually understand?”
“The part where you said you and I were in a relationship.” I smile as the warmth of a sheepskin blanket envelops me. “Other than that… I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“Well… You’re going to wish you didn’t after we get on with the conversation. I have my cousins’ permission to tell you everything.”
“You mean everything Callie already knows?”
“That, and whatever else there is.”
I swallow. “Maybe I’d better put some coffee on.”
“Yeah. Coffee, definitely. In the meantime, how’d you like to go to London?”
“You really want me to go with you?”
“Of course I do. Have you ever been there?”
I roll my eyes. “You’re talking to Rory Pike, Brock. I’ve never been anywhere, except a few trips to New York for auditions back in the day.”
“Then I’d love for you to come with me.”
“But I have work. Students.”
“Didn’t you just say you were going to a gig with your brother next weekend or something?”
I open my mouth, and then I close it.
“You didn’t have any problem taking a break from your lessons when that was the issue,” he says.
“I probably can’t go. I did tell him I’d do the gig.”
“But first you told him you wouldn’t do the gig.”
“It’s all a big mess,” I say. “Maybe I’ll go. Maybe I won’t.”
“All right.” He draws in a breath. “Here’s what we’ll do. I have to go to London. And I have to go soon. As soon as I get the information from Dale, I need to get in contact with this old man in London. Ennis Ainsley. I need to tell him that we’re going to come see him, that we have some questions. I need to do that as soon as I can, which means I have to tell my father that I’ll be leaving for several days, and Rory, I really want to do this, and I really want you to go with me.”
“I understand why you want to go.”
“Do you?”
“Of course I do. Even though it has to do with… Actually, what does it have to do with?”
“It’s family stuff. More family bullshit. And I will tell you everything.”
“Still,” I say, “it’s a trip to London. Which in its own way is kind of an escape from everything else that’s going on.”
“Bingo.”
“I’d love to go with you. I’d love to see London. But will there even be time for that? You’re going on business.”
“Sweetheart, I will make the time to show you all the sights in London. That I can promise you.”
“All right. Jesse’s going to kill me.”
“Why? Because you’re doing the whole push me, pull you thing?”
“Push me, pull you? Is that from Dr. Doolittle?”
“Yep. One of my favorite books as a kid.”
“You’re kidding. Mine too.”
“Makes total sense for me because I love animals. Why for you?”
“I love animals too. Dogs especially. Why do you think I want to be a mom so bad? I love babies of all kinds.”
He smiles then. My God, he’s so good-looking.
“You are perfect in every way, Aurora Maureen Pike.”
“And you, Brock… What’s your middle name anyway?”
He rolls his eyes. “Promise you won’t laugh.”
“Oh, no. I do not promise that at all.”
“It’s Alistair. After my mother’s grandfather.”
“That’s not so bad,” I say. “I was thinking you’d say Eugene or Maurice or Aloysius or something.”
“Nope. Still, it’s not something I advertise. I don’t even use my middle initial. My signature is simply Brock Steel.”
“Well… Brock Alistair Steel, you are amazing and magnificent, and I’m completely in love with you.”
His features soften. My God, he’s even more beautiful.
“Anyway, the push me, pull you thing,” he continues. “I’ve been feeling that since I kissed you that night of Uncle Talon’s welcome home party. Something was pulling me toward you, and I was trying to push you away. I was feeling more than I wanted to feel, even then.”
“And now?” I say.
“Now I’m all in, Rory. I’m not going to try to push away these feelings any longer. I’m all in.”
I warm all over. “I’m all in too, Brock. And yes. I will go to London with you.”
“You’re fucking kidding me,” Jesse says.
“I’m really sorry.”
“For Christ’s sake, Ror. I should be mad as hell at you, but I can’t be. I wish I could go to London.”
“You will, Jesse. Someday. I’ll make it happen.”
He scoffs. “How exactly are you going to make it happen?”
“I don’t know, but I will. In the meantime, I’m making an executive decision.”
“What’s that?”
“Brock and I are producing a recital for me. It’s going to be sometime before Christmas at the cinema in town.”
My brother furrows his brow. “Say what?”
“I don’t have all the details yet, but when I do, I’ll fill you in. I’m going to need your help with sound and lighting, and…I want you to sing with me.”
“You want the band at a Christmas recital?”
“I don’t want the band, Jesse. I want you.”
“I don’t sing opera, Ror.”
“I know you don’t. But you have a beautiful voice for musical theater. We can do some duets. I was thinking ‘A Little Priest’ from Sweeney Todd. ‘The Song That Goes Like This’ from Spamalot.”
“As long as you don’t make me sing ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside.’”
“Gross. We’re brother and sister.”
“Exactly.”
“But yeah, we can find some arrangements of holiday duets as well.”
“Rory, I’ve probably wrecked my voice over the years singing rock and roll.”
“I’ll get you into shape. I’m a voice teacher, by the way.”
“I know that. But Ror…”
“I’m not taking no for an answer. In fact…”
My mind is racing. Brock has connections, right? Maybe he could get some agents to come to the recital.
“What?”
“I can’t make any promises yet. Just trust me. You want to be part of this, Jess.”
“So you’re bailing on me for a gig, and now you want a favor?”
“Yes, but in the end, I think you’ll realize that I’m doing you a favor.”
He scoffs again. “Okay. Send me the material as soon as you’ve got it. When is the recital?”
“I don’t have a date yet. Brock set it before Thanksgiving, but we’re going to change that. First of all, I don’t have time to get something together by then, and second of all, he doesn’t want to interfere with Ryan and Ruby’s big Thanksgiving anniversary thing.”
“Their anniversary is Thanksgiving?”
“Apparently.”
“All right. Send me the information. And Ror? Don’t you dare call me back tomorrow and say you want back on the gig.”
“Dude, tomorrow I’m going to be in London.”
Enough said.
Chapter Sixteen
Brock
The Steel family doesn’t own a private jet.
The cost outweighs the benefit. We’re ranchers. We do most of our business in the USA, and mostly in the West. So we fly commercial—first class of course, but commercial.
Rory’s eyes are as big as dinner plates when we board the British Airways aircraft and sit in our first-class pods with lie-flat seats. Last-minute airfare was exorbitant but of course pennies to my family.
Dad wasn’t happy I was leaving, but when I told him I was researching the bones we found on our property, he relented. The work gets done, even if I’m not there. We have a vast stable of employees, all who are well-trained to take over pretty much everything we do.
Everything except what Dad and Uncle Bryce do. They run the entire company.
Dad and Uncle Bryce.
God… So much to unpackage there.
But for the next couple of days, I’m going to focus on showing Rory London. The only time I’m going to let my brain think about my family will be when we talk to Ennis Ainsley.
Rory hasn’t said much since I brought her up to date last night.
We sat on the deck, Sammy and Rory’s dog, Zach—she brought him for a visit—between us, each getting loves and pets and scratches behind their ears, as I told her the story.
She had to get up a few times, go inside.
I asked her later if she was getting sick. She said no. That she just had to be alone for a minute to recap everything and wrap her head around it.
I’m not even sure I told her all of it.
“And Callie knows all of this?” she said.
“According to Donny, she does. They’re engaged now. They have no secrets.”
“I don’t want us to have any secrets either.”
I widen my eyes.
“No, I’m not asking for an engagement ring, silly. You’re so funny, Brock. I can see from a mile away that you want to run away screaming when you think about commitment.”
“Actually, you’re wrong,” I said. “I do want to go running away screaming, but not at the thought of committing to you.”
She laughed then. We both laughed, because sometimes, when things seem insurmountable, all you can do is laugh.
Now we sit, hand in hand, in posh first-class seats on the plane.
The flight attendant brought me a beer and Rory a Diet Coke before takeoff.
“My nerves are a mess,” Rory says, taking a sip.
“Welcome to the club.”
“Oh, no. I mean because of the flight. I’ve never flown overseas before. What if we crash and plunge into the ocean?”
I smile at her. “You’re safer up here than you are in your own car. You know that, right?”
“Yeah. I mean, but…”
I kiss her cheek. “I promise you that you’re safe. Just like I promised I would keep you safe from Pat Lamone.”
“Yeah. Except now Pat Lamone may be your long-lost cousin.”
“All that means is that we share a relative somewhere on our family tree. It doesn’t mean I owe him any loyalty. He sure as hell doesn’t feel like he owes me any.”
“That’s for sure.”
“He said something to Dale or Donny a while back. I can’t remember which one. Probably Donny because it involves Callie. He said he wouldn’t put it past your family to have started that fire themselves.”
She gasps. “Just when I thought he couldn’t sink any lower.”
“Yeah. He’s pretty much proved how low he can go.”
“You know, Callie said something a few weeks ago about him and the fire. She said what if Pat started that fire?”
“At this point, I wouldn’t put anything past him,” I say. “But…I’m not sure he has any beef with you guys. I mean, it’s high school drama, right? What brings him back now?”
“Callie thought he may have gotten wind of her dating Donny and thought he could get some Steel money for the photos.”
“Yeah, that made sense at one time, but now? It’s so much bigger. If he thinks he’s a Steel, and that he’s entitled to part of our fortune, I could see him having a bone to pick with us. Like setting our land on fire. But why yours?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it was easier access. I mean, you guys lost stuff in the fire too. Maybe that was the ultimate goal, but it didn’t work out that way due to the way the winds blew.”
She has a point. You can’t plan a fire. Mother Nature always has its own ideas.
Then she gasps and clasps a hand to her mouth.
“What?” I ask.
“I can’t believe I forgot this. Remember yesterday morning when I said a dream woke me up?”
“Yeah…”
“I was going to tell you about what I remembered, but then it got lost in the shuffle with the old bones and planning an impromptu trip to London and all.” She shakes her head.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
“When I was with Pat that night in Cage’s van—the night we… God, I hate even thinking about it—he said something that I’d forgotten until I had the dream, and I didn’t think anything of it at the time, or even afterward, until now. Now that Pat is claiming to be a Steel relative.”
