“It was short notice today, so I can’t have you meet with her in the usual office. We’ll have to use an empty patient room.”
“That’s fine,” Jed said, his voice tight. “Thank you.”
Jed was nervous. My pulse picked up and I tried to control my breathing. I needed to get myself together before I saw Kate. She could smell fear from a mile away.
Candice led us down a long hall to a room at the end. Inserting a key, she said, “The a/c in this room isn’t working right. Maintenance is scheduled to come work on it tomorrow, so you’ll be undisturbed. Text me when you’re done.”
Then she pushed open the door and let us in.
The room had a single cot for a bed with a desk and a chair overlooking the street. Sure enough, I broke into a sweat seconds after walking into the room. Of course, my nerves might have had something to do with it. It seemed silly given everything else we were dealing with, but I couldn’t figure out where to sit. Jed always started off by standing, but Kate often forced him to sit. If I took the chair, she might make him sit on the bed and insist on sitting beside him. I wasn’t sure I could deal with that.
“Sit in the chair,” I said, plopping down on the mattress.
He started to protest, but he must have put things together because he pulled out the desk chair and sat, turning to face me.
“You can do this, NK,” he said in a fierce voice. “You’re one badass woman. Kate is nothing.”
My gaze found his. “She could hold my entire future in her hands, Jed.”
“Then we’re getting what we need from her this time.” The stone-cold look in his eyes told me he didn’t intend to play around.
I started to ask him what he planned to do, but the door opened before I could get the words out. My sister’s dark hair had grown out past her shoulders, and the stripes in her hair were a vibrant blue. Did they have hair dressers here, or was she bribing someone else for favors? She wore a simple dress today, which was a departure from her usual yoga pants and T-shirt.
“Change of scenery?” She hung on to the door knob and leaned against the doorframe. “I like it. More intimate.”
“Don’t read anything into it, Kate,” I said in a deadpan voice. “It’s the only available space on short notice.”
She walked the rest of the way in and shut the door, her eyes on Jed. “You’re lookin’ mighty fine, handsome.”
He didn’t respond, but I almost wished he had because she would now go to great lengths to get him to talk to her.
“I’m done playin’ games, Kate,” I said in a firm tone. “I’ve done everything you asked for. We’ve painted each other’s nails. I’ve brought you gossip magazines. I even brought you a burner phone. All of that, and you’ve told me next to nothing about my mother or what you claim to know about what I supposedly did in Ardmore. Unless you can give me some compelling reason to come back, this is my last visit.”
She gave me an exaggerated pout, then sat down next to me, patting my leg. “Now, Neely Kate,” she said in a placating tone. “No need to get into a snit.”
“A snit?” I asked, telling myself I could not lose my cool. “Call it whatever you like, Kate, but I’m done playing games and I want some straight answers. I need to know everything my mother said when you met with her.”
A broad grin spread across her face. “That’ll cost you, sister mine.”
“I’ve paid my dues, Kate. Several times over. I’m done. Either answer my questions or I’m leaving, and this time I won’t be coming back.”
Her eyes twinkled. “I’ll tell the police what I know. I’ll tell Joe.” Her eyebrows waggled.
“Go ahead.”
She looked taken back. “You don’t mean that.”
I stood. “I do. If you knew anything important, you’d have told me more than the few tidbits you’ve parceled out over the past few weeks. You have ten seconds to tell me something substantial or I’m gone.”
Her grin fell away, and she stared up at me. “Why, you’re finally acting like a Simmons instead of a Rivers. Set your ass down and I’ll answer five questions.”
“No. All of my questions.”
She stuck out her bottom lip in a fake pout. “I love our weekly chats. I can’t tell you everything.”
I put a hand on my hip. “Have you ever considered that I might actually want to come visit if you were nice?”
She laughed. “Not a chance. I killed Hilary, and consequently Joe’s child, although between you, me, and handsome over there”—she gestured to Jed—“he’s better off without her. Too bad I can’t save him from his own taste in women. Rumor has it he’s datin’ someone nearly as bad.”
I found it difficult to keep from agreeing with her, and once again, I wondered who was feeding her information.
“And then I tried to kill your bestie.” She waved her hand dismissively. “And a whole lot of other dastardly things the authorities know about and quite a few they don’t.” She winked at Jed. “Including the Murray portfolio and a few other things my father had his hands in.” She gave me a taunting look. “So no, I don’t think you’ll come visit me.”
“You seem to think I’ve done something bad. Wouldn’t that make us alike?”
She held up a finger and waved it at me. “I’m on to you, girl. Tryin’ to trick me into tellin’ you what I know.”
“Just spill it, Kate,” I said with a sigh. “For once in this screwed-up relationship, tell me the unvarnished truth.”
The expression on her face changed to shock. “You think we have a relationship?”
I hadn’t meant it like that, and I wasn’t sure if she was pissed or happy. “We’re sisters, like it or not. Sure, you’re screwed up, but so am I, and I’ve always wanted a sister. So yeah,” I said, “call me stupid, but there’s something deep down inside me that still hopes that we’ll actually have a relationship, but I swear on our father’s grave, if you don’t answer my questions now, I’ll walk away and never come back.”
After five seconds of silence, I turned to walk toward the door.
“I met her,” she said so quietly I almost missed it.
My heart pounded in my chest. My mother was alive. I slowly turned back to face her, maintaining my poker face. “Where did you see her?”
“Like I told you, West Virginia.” Some of her sass returned. “She ain’t lookin’ so good, Sis. Good thing you take after the Simmonses.”
She’d told me something similar before. “Did she know why you were lookin’ for her?”
Her eyes lit up with mischief. “You mean did she ask about you?”
I didn’t answer.
“Yeah, she knew why I was there. I told her who I was and that freaked her out. She was terrified of our daddy.” She chuckled. “She thought I was there to stir up trouble for her, but I assured her I was there to stir up trouble for you.” Her grin spread.
“What did she say to that?” I asked, unable to stop myself.
Kate cocked her head, turning serious. “Why do you want that piece of white trash to love you so badly?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. I wasn’t about to give my sister any more ammunition to use against me. “Did she want to know anything about me?”
“She wanted to know if you knew the truth. I got the distinct impression she was under the delusion that if you knew and survived, you’d fall into our family’s financial fold. I assured her you were none the wiser, and she was quite disappointed. She didn’t ask anything more about you. You were barely a passing thought…quickly forgotten.”
That struck deep, and while she could have been lying, I knew better.
Jed gave me a look that suggested this was not the purpose for our visit. He was right.
“How did you find out about Beasley?” I asked in a firm tone. Beasley had been my boyfriend’s brother, but boyfriend was too generous of a word for Branson. Sure, he’d started out that way, but he’d soon turned into my captor, my pimp. He’d locked me in my room for days on end, and threatened to hurt my surrogate grandmother, Miss Zelda, if I didn’t do exactly what—and who—he said.