War Wounded (The War Trilogy #2.5) (2 page)

~
Chapter Two ~

~ Duke ~

I’m sitting at my little kitchenette table, eating a bowl of cereal when my cell phone starts ringing. I glance at the screen and see that it’s a local number, but not one that I know. Probably a new potential client. I slide my finger across the screen and bring the phone to my ear.

“Duke Tavish speaking,” I answer.

“Uh, hi, Duke. It’s Arianna Bennett,” a familiar, sweet female voice says.

I smile. “Hey, Beautiful. How are you?”

I wonder if Tucker gave her my number? I’m curious as hell as to why she’s calling me. I doubt she broke up with her fiancé - who I just met the other day - and is looking for a date.

“Um, okay,” she says, sounding nervous. “I just came across your website…”

My smile slips. I hope this isn’t going where I think it’s going.

“…And I was hoping to hire you.”

“For what kind of services?”
Please don’t let her say that she thinks her fiancé is cheating.

“Well, I think that my fiancé might be cheating on me and our wedding is only three weeks away and I need to know for sure before I…”

“Say no more, Arianna,” I interrupt her rambling. “When can we meet? I need details and it’s better to talk in person.”

“I’m going to be in my shop all day. Can you meet me here at twelve when I take my lunch break?”

“Absolutely. Text the address to this number. It’s my cell phone.”

“Okay. Thanks, Duke. I really appreciate this.”

“Hey, it’s what I do. See you in a couple of hours.”

“Okay, bye,” she says softly and hangs up.

“Shit.” I curse out loud.

I really hate doing these types of cases because it does nothing but bring back bad memories of my failed marriages. But, it pays the bills and I’m good at it. I finish my cereal then go to my bathroom to take a shower. I’m really glad that I decided to move to New York. I got a great apartment with a sweet view, and I’m closer to my two best friends, Tucker and Dennis. Yeah, my family is in Baltimore, but so are my ex-wives and all of the shit associated with them. I had to move away or I was going to lose my ever-loving mind. Stupid cunts. First, it was my high school sweetheart, Mallory. She cheated on me while I was deployed. Then, most recently it was Aimee. I kicked her ass to the curb close to a year ago now.

Once I’m dressed, I grab a small note pad and pen to bring with me then pull on my dark gray pea coat. It’s the beginning of December so it’s fucking cold out. I pull up Arianna’s text with the address so I can put it into my navigation app on my phone. Twenty minutes away, with traffic. Good, I have plenty of time to get there by noon.

I climb in my car and blast the heat. Fucking hell. I hate winter. I’m definitely a “Suns out, guns out” kind of guy. I am all about the heat. I should have moved to Florida. What the hell was I thinking?

I make the trek to Arianna’s shop. I wonder what kind of shop it is? I’m thinking something like a clothing boutique. She definitely seems like the kind of woman who loves clothes enough to own a shop-full. Wow, that was really presumptuous. I have no idea if she’s that kind of woman or not. Last time I saw her, though, she was looking very fashionable, so I guess that’s why that came to mind.

I turn onto the street where the shop is and take the first parking spot I can, which is at the opposite end of the block from where the shop is, but parking spots around here are hard to come by. I’ll just have to suffer in the cold wind and walk down the block.

I get out of my car and flip the collar of my pea coat up. The wind whips sharply around my face, making my eyes water and my breath catch. Dammit, I should have worn my hat and scarf. I shove my hands into my pockets and start down the sidewalk. I stop in front of the door with the right address and the corner of my mouth lifts to a smile. I look up at the large sign over the door. In pretty pink calligraphy writing, it says:

The Cupcake Place

How cute.

The door opens and a little bell rings, drawing my attention down to whomever opened the door. My breath catches. Not from the freezing wind this time, but because of the beautiful woman standing in the doorway.

Her dark mahogany hair whips around her face. “Don’t just stand there, come in!” she says and waves me in.

I brush by her, catching a whiff of her scent, which is all sugar and vanilla. She smells like a cupcake. A delicious cupcake.

“Jesus, it’s freaking cold out there,” she says through chattering teeth.

I turn to look at her. She’s looking as gorgeous as ever in her dark jeans and fitted pink T-shirt with the shop’s logo on her chest, over her heart. She’s smoothing her silky looking hair back into place. Her cheeks are flushed red from the cold. Or at least, I think it’s from the cold. Could be me. It would be nice if I made her cheeks flush like that, but I’m not getting my hopes up, especially because she’s most likely getting married in three weeks.

“Cute place,” I murmur, looking around.

“Thanks, I just opened a few months ago.”

“Great name, real original,” I tease.

She narrows her eyes at me and I grin wide.

“Oh, shut up, you,” she huffs.

I chuckle.

“Jules, you okay for an hour?” Arianna asks the young girl behind the counter.

The cute blonde, who looks to be around 18 or 19, nods. Her big brown eyes are wide as she stares at me. I smirk and give her a little wave. Her face turns bright red before she ducks down behind the counter. I roll my lips in to keep from laughing. Apparently, someone in this room finds me attractive, even if it’s not the one I want. I turn back to Arianna who rolls her eyes at me.

“What kind of cupcake would you like?” Arianna asks me.

I raise an eyebrow at her in question. “Who said I even like cupcakes?”

She gives me a look that says “get real.”

“Everyone likes cupcakes. Come on, pick one,” she says and waves at the display case.

I purse my lips and walk over to the counter. There is a huge variety of cupcakes with all different flavors, icings, and designs. My mouth waters just looking at them. Damn her for exploiting my sweet tooth.

“I’ll try the red velvet,” I mutter in defeat.

“Jules, can you get Mr. Tavish two red velvet cupcakes, please?” Arianna says to her employee.

The red-faced Jules slowly stands up from behind the counter and taking every caution to avoid eye contact with me, places two red velvet cupcakes in a plastic container and sets them on the counter in front of me.

“I really don’t need two,” I tell Arianna.

She smiles at me as if she knows something I don’t. “Believe me, you’ll want two.”

“A bit arrogant in your confectioner skills, aren’t we?”

She shrugs. “You tell me.”

She motions for me to follow her. I grab my cupcakes, glancing at Jules, who I find watching me. If it’s possible, her face turns even redder. I can’t help the laugh that slips out. I send her a wink, which makes her groan and cover her face with her hands in embarrassment.

We walk through the kitchen to get to her office. It’s a nice space. She has a decent sized desk with a couple of chairs set up in front of it. She plops down in one and motions for me to take the other. I’m actually surprised that she didn’t sit behind her desk. That’s what most people would do.

“Have a seat,” she says quietly, some of her lightheartedness from a moment ago having dissipated.

I set my cupcakes on the desk and shrug out of my coat. I remove my notepad and pen before I drape it over the back of the chair then sit down. I set my stuff on the desk and sit, leaning forward to rest my forearms on my knees.

“Wanna tell me what’s going on?” I ask gently. One thing I’ve learned from working with scorned women is that you need to be a good listener, understanding, and sympathetic; otherwise, they can get downright nasty.

She takes a deep breath and glances at me before saying, “I think my fiancé, Kyle, might be cheating on me.”

I tilt my head in curiosity. “And why do you think that?”

“It started when my cousin, Jade - who is also my maid of honor - showed me a picture of who she swore was Kyle, dancing in a club with some other woman and getting really touchy feely. I couldn’t tell if it was actually him or not because the pictures were dark and grainy. He told me he was working overtime that night. And he’s been doing a lot of texting and hiding his phone screen. It just all seems really suspicious.”

“What kind of work does he do?”

“He’s an ER doctor.”

“Does he have set hours?” I ask. This could get kind of tricky trying to follow him around if he doesn’t have set hours.

“Yeah, he has a schedule, but he also does a lot of overtime. Or at least he says that he’s staying for overtime,” she scoffs bitterly.

I reach over and give her knee a squeeze. “Hey, I’ll get down to the bottom of this, I promise.”

She lifts her pretty brown eyes to meet mine and gives me a tight smile. “I’m sure you will. I’m just not sure if I want to know what’s at the bottom.”

I sigh, sit back in my chair, and cross my arms over my chest. I usually don’t share personal stuff with my clients, but she needs to know that staying with a cheater is not something she wants to do.

“Listen, Arianna, I’ve been through this myself. Twice, actually. My first wife, Mallory, I found out was cheating on me while I was deployed. I was able to go home earlier than expected and walked in on her and my best friend from high school screwing on the couch. After I beat the hell out of the guy and she apologized a million times over, I tried to stay and make it work, but everything she did raised suspicions. I couldn’t live like that. And every time I looked at her, all I could see was her fucking my friend. So I ended things.”

Arianna frowns at me. “And the second time?”

“The second time was with my second wife, Aimee. We were married for five years before I started seeing the signs. God, she was so stupid. I mean, this is what I do for a living. I don’t know why she thought she could hide it from me. I followed her, took pictures of her cheating, and showed them to her. We got divorced about a year ago. I didn’t even try to make it work with her.”

Arianna sighs heavily. “I’m sorry. That really sucks.”

“Yeah, so no more getting married for Duke. Never going to happen again.”

She shakes her head. “I just don’t understand why he would do it.”

I scoff. “Who the hell knows? Probably some stupid ass reason. Either way, he’s an asshole if he is.”

“I thought he loved me,” she sniffs, her eyes moving down to look at her hands in her lap.

Ouch. Is that my heart breaking?

“Hey, we don’t know anything for sure yet,” I say, trying to reassure her.

She nods and seems to pull herself back together.

“Why don’t you try a cupcake?”

“Will it make you feel better?” I smile.

She lets out a small laugh. “Yes, it will.”

“Alright, fine.”

I open the container and lift out a cupcake. It smells heavenly. I peel back the paper on one side and take a bite. Oh. My. God. I close my eyes and groan in pleasure. This is the absolute best cupcake that I’ve ever had! I swallow and open my eyes then glare at Arianna.

“What?” She laughs.

“I hate you! I hate you and your damn deliciously addicting cupcakes. You’re going to make me fat!” I bark and shove the rest of the cupcake in my mouth before grabbing the other one and peeling the wrapper down. “
‘Believe me, you’ll want two
,’” I mimic her earlier words around a mouthful of red velvet.

Arianna bursts out laughing, her hands coming up to cover her mouth. I eat the other cupcake while muttering about hating her. She’s laughing so hard that she has tears running down her face. I don’t care, as long as those are happy tears not sad tears. I really am going to despise the day that I have to tell her that her fiancé is cheating on her. Because just going by what she’s told me so far, in my professional opinion, I can almost say with absolute certainty that he is. And now, that little flicker in his eye the other day when I mentioned my cheating spouses makes all the sense in the world.

~ Arianna ~

Duke is hilarious. I’ve never had someone tell me that they hate me because they love my cupcakes. I guess there is a first time for everything. He polishes off the second cupcake in record time, all the while glaring at me.

“Would you like some more to take home?” I giggle.

“Fuck no! Do you know how much cardio I’m going to have to do just to work off the two I just ate? Shit,” He huffs.

“I do have healthier selections that taste just as good,” I offer.

“No! No more cupcakes, woman!” he practically shouts.

I laugh, unable to tear my gaze away from his. His hazel eyes are beautiful. They have green rings around the pupil that branch out into a light brown color. I’m sure he would disagree that anything about him is beautiful. He’s a big, tough, manly kind of guy. He also has really nice lips. They are full - but not in a girly way - with the bottom being slightly bigger than the top. And his teeth are white and straight. His smile is sexy and infectious.