The Perfect Homecoming (Pine River #3)

“Anyway, Emma takes off before I even wake up, and honestly? We didn’t do anything but fool around a little. She had her period or something, I don’t know, she wasn’t into it and seriously, a waste of my time. But we were in my room, and it wasn’t going anywhere, and I got bored and fell asleep. The next thing I know, Alicia is standing there and she’s holding up a pair of panties. And she is pissed, man. She said, ‘Just give me the fucking medal, Carl.’ But it was gone.”


“Damn, Carl,” Cooper said. “How do you live with so much drama?”

“I know, right?” Carl said, almost tearfully. “So I’m looking, I’m looking, and I figure out what happened. I was straight with Alicia,” he said, throwing up his hands. “I tell her I’ve misplaced it, that I will ask my housekeeper, Tiffany, about it, but Tiffany was on vacation, would be gone through Thanksgiving, so I couldn’t ask her right then. And Alicia gets this weird look on her face, almost like she’s happy, and she says, ‘You know what else was in that medal box, you dumb fuck? My mother’s wedding ring. My mother’s four-carat wedding ring!’”

Carl threw his hands out wide and stared at Cooper. “Get it? Alicia put that ring under the medal on purpose! She was banking on me not finding that medal and the ring she hid under it. Now she’s going to take me to court. She’s going to throw out the settlement and go for the jugular. She’s got me, Cooper. Emma took that medal, and Alicia’s going to clean me out.”

“So . . . just call Emma and ask for it.”

“You think I didn’t do that right away? She denied it, and then she wouldn’t take my calls. So I sent one of my guys over there, and he comes back and it’s Thanksgiving, and she’s not there, and I figure, okay, she’ll be back after Thanksgiving. So I try again. She won’t pick up the phone. I send my guy there again and he tells me she took off.”

“Took off—”

“Like . . . fled.”

“Fled!” Cooper did his best not to laugh. “That doesn’t make any sense, Carl. Why would she—”

“She’s somewhere in Colorado. She told me she inherited a ranch or something, that’s all I know. I’m willing to pay, Cooper.”

“For what?”

“For what!” Carl said loudly, perturbed. “To find her! To go and get it, what do you think?”

“No,” Cooper said instantly. “We’re not private eyes.”

“You have no idea how important this is to me, Coop. It’s worth—literally—millions of dollars.”

Cooper didn’t care if it was worth the gross national product to Carl, he wasn’t getting in the middle of this. He tried to stand, but Carl put his hand on his shoulder. “I’m begging you.”

“Just get online and find another medal like it,” Cooper said impatiently. “Buy another ring.”

“Won’t work. The medal is engraved with his name. It’s a star with this blue ribbon. And the kicker is I don’t know what that ring looked like—I never saw it. Alicia would know instantly if it was a fake. Listen, Cooper, you guys know the mountains. I just need someone to go and confront Emma and bring back that damn medal and ring—the box, the whole box. Or I’m going to end up in court and lose my shirt. Alicia has been waiting for me to do something to give her the ammo she needs to take it all, you know?”

“No, I don’t know, Carl,” Cooper said, and stood up. “I can promise you that TA doesn’t want any part of the divorce business. I’m sorry—”

“No, no wait!” Carl said, and jumped up. “I’m not asking you to get in my business, I’m just asking you to go and get it back. Pay Emma if you have to, I don’t care. Just get it.”

“No thanks,” Cooper said, and started for the door. “Listen, Carl, I’m sorry—”

“Wait!” Carl shouted. He hurried to his desk and grabbed a pen, then began to look for paper.

Cooper watched him, feeling sorry for him in a weird guy way. No man liked the idea of a pissed-off wife; women could be lethal when they wanted to be. But that didn’t mean he was going to let TA anywhere near this.

Carl whirled around, holding up a pink Post-it. “Just one weekend. That’s it.” He handed Cooper the Post-it with the figure he was willing to pay.

Cooper blinked with surprise. He glanced up at Carl. “That’s a lot of zeroes.”

“It’s nothing compared to what I stand to lose if this goes to court, and Alicia says her attorney is going to get it on the court calendar this month.”

Cooper looked at the figure again. No way around it—that was a lot of money. “I have to talk to the guys.”

“Of course, sure you do. But maybe you could talk to them today?” Carl asked, looking as hopeful as a kid waiting to open presents on Christmas morning.

Cooper sighed. This was exactly the sort of thing he despised, the sort of “service” agency he feared TA was becoming. He looked at the figure again. “I’m not promising anything.”

“No, no, of course not,” Carl said anxiously.

“I’d have to do some digging around you know, to find out where she went.”

“Sure, of course.”

Cooper looked at Carl, debating. The man looked desperate. “I’ll be in touch.”

“Great, great,” Carl said. “But do you think you could be in touch sooner rather than later?”

Dammit, how did Cooper manage to get himself into these things?





TWO