“And there was nothing at all about the fireplace in his thoughts,” Vincent added. “It really doesn’t seem like he was trying to kill Nicole. That’s why we stopped here on our way back to California. We thought we’d be bringing good news.”
“But then we got here and Dante told us about the car trying to run Nicole down, and then the hot tub and the car accident, and it seems like you really do have a problem,” Jackie said on a sigh.
“So the incidents that made Marguerite concerned enough to hire you to protect Nicole weren’t murder attempts at all,” Elaine murmured slowly.
“But the hot tub and car accident were,” Jake said firmly. “And Rodolfo seemed like the most likely culprit. He had the most to gain from her death.”
“No he didn’t,” Nicole said at once, and Jake glanced at her with surprise.
“Certainly he did,” he argued. “He would have got everything instead of just half.”
“How stupid do you think I am?” Nicole asked irritably, sliding out from under his arm to go to the cupboard and grab a coffee cup. He noted that she took several deep breaths as she carried it to the coffeepot, as if to calm herself, and then she admitted, “The first thing I did after I left Rodolfo was to change my will and the beneficiaries on my insurance.”
So, despite her protests that Rodolfo wasn’t trying to kill her, she’d protected herself . . . and she was obviously annoyed that they would think she hadn’t. Jake watched her pour herself a coffee and then asked, “Who did you make your beneficiary?”
“Joey and Pierina get everything,” Nicole answered and then glanced around. “Do you want a coffee? I —”
Something in his expression must have told her what he was thinking, because she stopped and scowled.
“Oh, come on!” she protested. “You can’t be serious?”
“What is he not serious about?” Roberto asked curiously.
“He’s thinking Joey must be behind the hot tub and car accident,” Elaine murmured, obviously reading his mind. Jake was only surprised Roberto hadn’t.
“Do they know you put them in your will?” Jake asked, ignoring the pair.
Nicole sighed wearily. “Jake—”
“Do they?” he insisted.
“Yes, but Joey has his own money. He made a fortune in land development. That’s why he was able to retire.”
“And he’s running through his retirement like water,” Dante said quietly, drawing Nicole’s startled gaze.
“What?” she asked with surprise.
“That bitchy beauty of his is expensive,” Dante said with a shrug. “He’s spent a good bit of his retirement on making her happy.”
“And once she’s gone through it all, will no doubt move on to a new sucker,” Jake said dryly. He really hadn’t liked the woman.
“It doesn’t matter. Joey wouldn’t try to kill me,” Nicole said firmly. “He’s my brother.”
“What is this about Dad’s selfish asshole gene?” Elaine asked suddenly.
Jake glanced to his mother uncertainly. “What?”
“Please stop reading my mind,” Nicole said stiffly.
“What did you read?” Jake asked with interest.
“Dammit, my brother is not trying to kill me,” Nicole snapped before his mother could answer. She then headed for the door, weaving her way through the group to get out of the room. “I’m going to my studio to work.”
“You’re supposed to be relaxing,” Jake growled. “And what about the lunch I was making you?”
“I’m not hungry. And working is a hell of a lot more relaxing than standing here listening to you guys accuse everyone in my life of wanting me dead,” Nicole snapped, heading for the stairs.
“Let her go,” his mother said gently, catching his arm when he started to go after Nicole.
Jake paused and looked from Nicole to his mother unhappily. “What were you talking about with the asshole gene?”
“It was a conversation Nicole thought of even as she denied her brother would try to kill her. He said she was pathetic and too nice and it was because she’d spent too much time with Pierina who had encouraged that in her. That she should have spent more time with him. He’d got his father’s selfish asshole gene and would have nurtured that in her instead,” she explained, and then added, “Nicole was surprised and said that his thinking he was selfish meant he wasn’t.”
“And what did he say to that?” Jake asked when she paused.
“I believe it was, “Ha! Got you fooled,” she said solemnly.
“Maybe Vincent and I should go have a chat with Joey,” Jackie said slowly. “Do we know where he lives?”
“Florida,” Jake answered, and then added, “He’s staying at a hotel downtown while here, though.”
“Do you know which one?”
Jake nodded. Joey had mentioned it the night they’d had dinner here at the house. He gave them the name now.
Nodding, Jackie glanced to Vincent.
“We shouldn’t be long,” he said, slipping his arm around his wife to escort her out of the kitchen.
“We’ll go with you,” Dante announced and he and Tomasso followed them out.
Jake watched them go and then returned to the stove. He’d taken the soup and frying pan of sandwiches off the burner when Nicole had entered. Now he put them back on the burners. He would finish cooking it and take it down to her anyway. She hadn’t eaten in twenty-four hours now. Besides, maybe she’d accept his peace offering and some of her anger with him would ease.
“Well, Neil,” Roberto said now. “I guess we should take your mother and go check into our hotel.”
“Hotel?” Jake asked with surprise, turning to peer at the trio as his mother collected her purse from the table. “I thought you’d stay here.”
“It’s not your place to make that offer. This is Nicole’s home,” Neil reminded him with amusement.
“Yeah, but I’m sure Nicole would—”
“There’s no need to bother Nicole,” his mother said, slipping her purse strap over her shoulder as she walked over to him. Pausing beside Jake, she gave him a hug, kissed his cheek, and then reminded him, “There are only the three bedrooms here, son, Nicole’s and the two guest rooms. You and the twins are already using the guest rooms.”
“Yeah, but . . .” Jake hesitated. He’d been about to say that he was sure he would be staying in Nicole’s room with her from now on, leaving the bedroom for his parents. Neil could sleep on the daybed in the studio, or one of the couches. But Jake wasn’t all that sure he would be welcome in Nicole’s bed at the moment. She was pretty upset with him right now . . . and all because he was trying to keep her safe, he thought unhappily. Was it his fault her brother was trying to kill her?”
“We are happy to stay at a hotel,” Roberto announced, coming over to give him a hug too. “Your mother and I have got used to not having to be quiet when we go to bed and would not be very good at it now.”
Jake couldn’t keep the grimace off his face. He understood what the man was saying. The older couple were as passionate and loud in the bedroom as he and Nicole were . . . as most life mates were. Roberto may be saying they had tried to be quiet, but while the pair had slept during the day while he was at school, they would disappear into their bedroom at all hours when he and Neil were younger and still living at home. To be sure, they hadn’t bellowed like a couple of mating mooses, but they hadn’t exactly been silent either. The sounds that had come from their bedroom had been enough to traumatize him when he was young.
“Oh, stop,” his mother said with a combination of amusement and embarrassment. But he didn’t understand that she’d caught his thoughts, until she added, “We weren’t that bad.”
“No,” Roberto agreed, and then grinned, eyes sparkling wickedly as he contradicted himself, admitting, “We were that bad.”
Jake didn’t miss the quick squeeze his stepfather gave his mother’s derriere either. The pair was as frisky today as they had been fifty years ago. Oddly enough, he didn’t mind. It meant he had a lot of frisky years to look
