Tahoe Blues (21 page)

Lisa
nodded and eased back into her chair. “I shouldn’t be more than twenty minutes or so.”

Tanner closed the door behind him and caught up with the mastermind behind the infamous
, and more than likely doomed, Cara Caper.

Mrs. Grimes narrowed her eyes in disgust. “Humor me?”

Tanner raised his hands in disbelief. “Don’t give me that look. You’re nuts and you know it.”

“I am not nuts
TJ, I’m wily. There’s a big difference.”

“You’re nuts,” he corrected her. “You just brought the enemy into our camp. Face it, you took one look into her sultry brown eyes and you caved worse than any man ever has.”

She shook her head. “I’ve been around more beautiful women in my life.” Mrs. Grimes stopped and cocked her head flirtatiously. “Back in the day, I was even considered one of them,” she teased. “I didn’t cave. I always planned on recruiting her.”

Tanner couldn’t comprehend the reasoning behind this. “Why?”

Mrs. Grimes smiled and slipped her arm around his. She patted his hand and with only a hint of patronization said, “You have a lot to learn, my friend.”

Chapter
Ten

Cara’s father arrived on her doorstep less than five hours after her phone call, which informed her parents of her legal problems. The news he brought was devastating. Her mother was ill, and Willa Greene sent her husband to tell their daughter exactly what that entailed.

Cancer, the dreaded word turned Cara’s world upside down. Blood rushed to her head and her father’s next words were muddled. Like the teacher in a Charlie Bro
wn cartoon, all she heard was wa waaa wa waa wa. Oliver Greene’s mouth moved, but Cara couldn’t understand a thing her father was saying.

When the fog dissipated
, she turned to find her dad already waiting with open arms. Her throat caught, and she could no longer hold back the wave of emotion building inside her. She flew to her dad and cried. In his comforting embrace Cara let it all out. She knew he wouldn’t let go, so she clung to him tighter than she had since she was a hormonal teenager trying to navigate the horrors of high school.

Cara
tried to spare her parents the worry and kept most her problems with Duncan to herself. She refused to run home and had been determined to stand on her own two feet. She thought she’d been fairly successful, but having her dad here made her realize what a fool she’d been. They were her family. She had shut out the two most important people in her life and now she was paying the ultimate price. Her mother was ill, far sicker than she’d been led to believe, and Cara could tell by how ragged her father looked that they were short on time. If she’d gone home like a good daughter, she would have backed out of the gala commitment and could not have been held responsible for the misappropriated funds.

“I should
have come home. I’m nothing but a selfish brat,” she sobbed onto her father’s shoulder.

Her dad gripped her
arms and stood back. With a little distance between them, he looked down into her eyes. “What are you talking about?” he asked softly. “How does being strong and independent translate into selfishness?”

“Mom needed me.”

“Mom needed rest,” he countered. “There wasn’t anything you could do. All you need to do is love her.” He smiled kindly. “She’s very uncomfortable right now. She barely tolerates me. I’m pretty sure she would have kicked you out after a couple of days.” Oliver Albert Greene hugged his daughter tight and with soft reassurance said, “She didn’t want you to see her so sick. She wanted you to remember her as she used to be, but the moment she heard you were in trouble, she sent me to you.”

“How sick is she
, Dad?”

“About as sick as you can get. She has refused any more chemo
, so it’s up to God now.”

Cara’s
anguish over being shut out spilled out, and she pushed back against her father’s chest. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Oliver grabbed her close and cooed into her ear. “Hush, baby girl. She’s doing this her way. She loves you more than life itself
, which is why she wanted to save you from having to worry about her.”

Cara clutched her father’s jacket and burrowed her face in his now wet shirt. “I was trying to do the same thing.”

Oliver chuckled sadly. “Like mother, like daughter.”

He guided her over to the sofa and sat her down. Cara grabbed a throw pillow and laid her head in her dad’s lap. Oliver petted her hair. Without looking
, she knew his eyes would be warm and caring.

Her dad was a gentle man who hardly ever raised his voice. For a long time Cara believed her mother ran rough shod over him, but as she matured and wised up, she realized her dad would have given her mother the world. He loved her that much. She also knew without a shadow of a doubt that the same was true for her mom. There was
very little take in her parents’ marriage and a whole lot of give, and Cara dreamed of having the same thing for herself.

The doorbell rang and both Cara and her father jumped at the sound.

The eyeball door flew open
and caught Leah by surprise. “That was fast.” She brushed past the red-eyed Cara with bags full of Chinese Food. She set the packages down on the dining table and turned around. “Have you been crying, and what the heck happened to the inside of your door? It looks like someone took a chisel to it.” She looked up and saw Cara’s dad sitting on the sofa. “Hi, Mr. Greene, I see Cara finally called you. I hope I brought enough food.” She looked around the room. “Where’s Mrs. Greene?”

Cara
and Mr. Greene looked at each other. They both sucked in a breath, and Leah braced herself for whatever it was she was about to hear.

Cara gripped Leah’s hand and they joined Oliver
at the kitchen counter as he opened a bottle of wine he brought from his private label. Leah took a sip from the glass he handed her and sighed, “Willa’s not here is she. I know that woman. She’d be here if possible.” Leah rubbed her chin. “She must be really sick.” She waved her hand when Cara opened her mouth. “You don’t have to tell me. I can see that it’s not good.” Leah closed her eyes and tried to wrap her head around Cara’s vibrant loving mom being so ill that she couldn’t come to support her daughter. “So what do we do now?”

Oliver unpacked the food containers. “We eat a good meal, drink some fine wine
, and take comfort in knowing how much Willa loves us.” He raised his glass in salute and drank down the contents in its entirety.

“How can you be so calm? Mom is dying.”
Cara cried out.

Oliver handed his daughter a goblet
filled with the nectar of the gods. “This has been coming on for quite some time. I’m about to lose the love of my life. I assure you, daughter, I am far from calm.”

Cara accepted the glass and followed her father’s lead and
threw back the wine.

Leah groaned. “I hope you called your lawyer and had him amend your ankle monitor agreement.” More than not wanting to see Officer Nate Waters again
, Leah didn’t want Cara being re-arrested at such a tumultuous time.

Cara
’s eyes grew wide. She rushed to the kitchen and smashed a glass under the water dispenser on the outside of her refrigerator. She downed it faster than she had the wine. Then she grabbed a plate and began dumping Chicken Chow Mein onto it. Bite after bite she forked into her mouth, hardly taking the time to chew. “Fill me another glass of water, Leah.”

Oliver observed his
daughter quietly. After she consumed a hefty amount of the food Leah brought, he scratched his neck and asked, “So no alcohol while that thing is on your leg?”

Cara nodded and gulped down one final bite. “Not only that, but Leah had a thing going with the officer who keeps an eye on the damn t
hing. It didn’t last long. Leah figured out he was only trying to gather intel on us.” She shook her head in disgust. “I still think that should be against the law. Talk about fraud, the man totally misrepresented himself.”

Oliver ran his
hand across his balding head. “Do you want me to go kick his ass?”

Leah laughed out loud. “Hell yeah
, we do.”

Cara smiled and scooped som
e fried rice and broccoli beef onto the other plates. “Sorry, I kind of devoured the Chow Mein. I hope you guys are good with what’s left, because I can’t go out and get us more.”

After
Leah left and Cara settled her dad in her bedroom for the night, she stepped into the living room and dumped a blanket and a pillow onto the sofa. She eyed her cell phone on the coffee table. She was still convinced Duncan could stop this insanity with one phone call. He had the power to pull the plug on her punishment with a flick of a switch. Cara prayed she would be able to get home to her mother before it was too late. She picked up the phone and called her ex-husband.

A familiar sleepy voice answe
red. “Babe,” he said softly, “are you okay?”

If only he’
d asked that question a few more times while they were married. She had no reason to believe the concern he showed now was genuine. “Do you remember me telling you that my mother wasn’t feeling well?”

“Of course I do. How is Willa doing?”

“I’m begging you, Duncan,” she cried. “Please stop this investigation. Let me go home and see my mom.”

Silence greeted her. When Duncan found his voice he s
aid, “Cara, I know you think I’m responsible for the mess you’re in, but I’m not. I can be a total ass, but this ass happens to love you. If I had the power to make this all go away, you would have never spent a single moment in that police station.”

Cara had never truly hated Duncan until this moment. He was refusing her the one thing she needed most. “She is dying.”

The line went silent again. Cara imagined the lofty King Alexander sitting on the edge of their massive bed as he decided her fate. He would be bare-chested, wearing only a pair of loose sleep pants and the line of his pelvic bones would be prominent. His abs ripped with muscles as he hunkered over the phone.

Duncan had been given everything while Tanner toiled away to make a success of himself. Tanner didn’t have Duncan’s assets, but he possessed something Duncan wouldn’t be able to fathom. Tanne
r had integrity. She knew she’d made a mistake asking him to go away, but it was a mistake she would have to live with until she received the all clear from her defense team.

“Did you hear me, Duncan?
” Cara pressed. “My mother is dying.”

Duncan
’s voice was barely audible. “I heard.”

“She needs me
. I know you don’t understand what that means. Your mother is different from mine.” Her voice grew loud as her anger mounted. “Mine actually loves me.” Cara couldn’t believe those words had come out of her mouth, but she forged on. She wanted to hurt Duncan as badly as he hurt her. “Inga is loyal to you, but no one in your family knows what it is to truly love someone. To put their needs before your own. To sacrifice yourself for their happiness.” She stood and began to pace her small living room. “You never loved me, and I no longer believe I ever truly loved you. What I loved, was the idea of you. But at least I tried to put your needs and happiness first, even when you went out and screwed every bimbo you could.”

“You’re wrong.”

Cara could hear Duncan gearing up for a fight, but it was high time she had the last word. “See! Even now you profess your love, but you don’t have the courtesy to simply let me vent.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter whether I’m right, wrong, or somewhere in between. Right now I need to yell, scream, and stomp my feet, and I needed you to let me do that, but you always come first and nothing else matters.”

Cara hit end. She threw the phone back onto the coffee table, placed her hands over her face and cried.

~~~**~~~

Lisa’
s spiked heel slid into a crevice on the floor of the dank, dark tunnels below the Cascade Bay Casino. She caught herself from falling by reaching out and steadying herself on the wall. Her fingers touched a web and she felt a spider scurry up her arm. Lisa swallowed a scream and brushed every single one of its hairy eight legs back onto the ground where it belonged.

Mrs. Grimes looked at Lisa and rolled her eyes.

Tanner rubbed his brow. The two women had been bickering with each other for hours, and the Triple H threat was turning into the Battle of the Hellions. Both women expected to have things their way, and Tanner had spent most of the day playing referee. He hoped Lisa would give in soon, he knew from experience that Mrs. Grimes would come out on top and all this arguing was a waste of time.

“What are we doing
down here anyway?” Lisa spat with disgust. “It’s scary.”

Mrs. Grimes planted her hands on her hips and stared th
e ex-Blackjack dealer down. “I doubt the police would think of searching down here. The tunnels have been officially closed for about twenty years. If the Alexanders wanted to hide something, this is where it would be.” Mrs. Grimes’ eyes turned sad and her voice softened. “There are a lot of skeletons buried in these walls.”

Lisa shot the older woman a dubious glare. “You mean that figuratively, right?”

Mrs. Grimes ran a respectful hand over the cold stone and sighed. “I wish.”

The loud clicking of Lisa’s stilettoes stormed past both Tanner and Mrs. Grimes. “Oh for goodness sake, let’s get this over with. I don’t think I could stand another ghost story from our resident raconteur.”

“Slow down, girly.” Mrs. Grimes grabbed the back of Lisa’s blouse. “Just because you know a few big words doesn’t mean you won’t be swimming with the fishes if we get caught.” When Lisa turned to face Mrs. Grimes, she quickly discovered that the elder was ready for her. “And for the love of God, will you please explain to me why you felt it necessary to wear that fancy get up down here?”

“You said we were going to the casino. I had no idea you meant
the belly of the beast.” Lisa went nose to nose with Mrs. Grimes. “And how did you know about that secret entrance? I worked here for three years, and I only heard rumors about these tunnels. I thought they were a myth.”