Heir's Affair

NINE-1

NINE

Kicking Max out of her bed had been a novelty. It had been fun to watch him leave in a grump, but even if Tally had wanted to, she couldn’t let him stay. It was against Stretton rules for employees to invite anyone onto the premises let alone have them stay over. But the joke ended up being on her because after he’d gone, Tally had struggled to sleep in her sheets that smelled of them. Every time she almost drifted off, she’d reach for him, and then remember she was alone.

Before leaving, she’d told Max to avoid the employees in the room beneath hers, and given him directions back to the drawing room where the others were. He must have followed her instructions because she wasn’t told otherwise by her roommates or employer, and he never came back to her bedroom.

That Saturday, Tally got the oddest call from Max’s friend, Robbie, asking her to come to Fitzpatrick’s. Max hadn’t been in touch since the night of his dinner, so the call from his friend was perplexing. Robbie hadn’t said much other than it was urgent, which only made her worry about Max.

So after asking one of the other girls to cover for her, Tally went straight over there without taking the time to change out of her floor-length chiffon cocktail dress. The crystal detailing around her waist stopped glittering as soon as she stepped into the dark atmosphere of Fitzpatrick’s.

It wasn’t busy, but all the patrons who were there had chosen to gather at the furthest, darkest end of the room. Trey was behind the bar, and she immediately saw what was making the other customers nervous.

There at the bar were two plainclothes cops. It wasn’t only their stern expression that betrayed their profession, she knew these particular guys personally. She’d liaised with them after the car accident that killed Laura, Teddy’s wife, when it was discovered that jewelry and personal effects had been stolen from the scene.

Detectives Sanford and Calder had been more than thorough in their investigation and had interviewed all the Stretton staff from the estate, which was how they’d become part of the employee poker games too.

The last place she’d expected to see them was here at Fitzpatrick’s. Three people rushed from the back of the room, and she barely made them out as Robbie, Ryan, and Mark. But she didn’t wait for them to reach her, she headed straight for the bar.

“Sanford?” she asked.

The cop closest to her turned around. “Tallulah.”

She accepted his kiss on her cheek, and Calder’s too. “Calder.”

Ryan, Robbie, and Mark skidded to a halt. Trey was definitely examining her, but she was focused on the cops. “We pulled you away from something,” Sanford said, looking at her dress.

“Yes, and I can’t thank you enough for it,” she said, smiling. “You saved me from the Yates engagement. Is something wrong? What’s going on?”

He took a small plastic baggie from his pocket and put it on the bar; inside was her diamond earring.

Oh no.

“Got a report of this. Someone sighted it, said it might be stolen,” he said. “When we came to check it out, we recognized the stamp on the gold, it’s a Stretton.”

“Yes,” she said.

All valuable jewelry that was custom made for the Stretton family was etched with a specific identifying mark.

“We called in and the guys checked out the insurance docket… this is one of a pair of earrings Laura gifted you three years ago.”

“Yes,” she said again, looking at the stone on the bar.

“We were going to arrest him, but these guys said it was legit,” Sanford said, nodding backwards at the trio. “Said they knew you… is that true?”

Glancing at Trey, it was clear he didn’t expect her to vouch for him. Robbie, Ryan, and Mark looked similarly concerned. “Couldn’t anyone get in touch with Max?” she asked Robbie, who shook his head.

Calder, the other cop spoke up, nodding at Trey. “All he told us was it belonged to Max’s girl.”

Sanford looked at the trio on their side of the bar. “These stooges said they knew who Max’s girl was… Are you Max’s girl, Tally?”

Well that was a complicated question for so many reasons. She didn’t want to answer because these cops might have contact with the Strettons. If Sanford and Calder had been at Fitzpatrick’s for a while, they might have learned just how intimate she’d been with Max on her first night here, when she’d dragged him from the bar and screwed him in the back alley.

Calder’s hand began to move as though he was going for his cuffs. “Tally?”

“Yes,” she said on a long blink. “Yes, I am… and Trey did nothing wrong, the earring was given to him as a gift. That’s all.”

A gift or payment, she didn’t really want to commit. Sanford and Calder sneered at the environment. “You can do better than a scumbag from this joint.”

These cops were her friends, but offense scalded her, and she had to remind herself that they didn’t really know what they were talking about because they’d never met Max.

“Maybe,” she shrugged and smiled. “But he’s my scumbag.”

“Okay,” Sanford said, and straightened up. “You call us if you think of anything else.” Or change your mind, that’s what he was saying. It seemed that he was leaving it open for her to change her story when there weren’t so many witnesses around. “Do you want us to take you home?”

As cops, they were supposed to look out for citizens. Choosing not to look deeper than that, she accepted their question at face value and ignored its undertones.

“No,” she said, holding her clutch in two hands in front of her. “I’m good here for a while.”

The Yates’ engagement party was still going on, and she could go back, or go home. But she felt it was important to show a sense of solidarity by standing here. Tally wanted to prove, not only to the cops, but to the patrons, that she wasn’t afraid to be here, and that she didn’t share Sanford and Calder’s disdain.

“You sure?” Calder asked, sneering at the guys around them and the customers who were beginning to spread out again. “It’s not safe around here… especially for a woman dressed like you are…”

So he was going for direct? But that was okay, he could warn her as much as he liked, Tally wasn’t scared anymore. “I’m Max’s girl,” she said and as soon as she uttered the words, an odd, unexpected heat spread through her. “And now everyone here knows it.” Even if it hadn’t been her plan to out them. “That makes this room the safest place in the world for me.”

They didn’t seem to understand. The cops exchanged a confused look, but Sanford tipped his invisible cap at her and glared at the trio behind them before heading for the door.

When they were gone, the whole bar let out a collective breath that they’d been holding all this time.

“Someone get this girl a drink!” Mark called out, but Trey was already pouring tequila.

He held it up for her and she went over to retrieve it. But when she took the glass, he didn’t let go. “Your drinks are free in here, forever,” Trey said, and she was touched by how relieved he looked. “That would’ve been my third strike.”

He took her hand and kissed the back of it. “Okay, okay,” Robbie said, coming over to pull her hand away from Trey. “Didn’t you hear her say she’s taken?”

She sipped her tequila and Robbie turned to demand that the music be turned up. Now there was a real party spirit and it seemed like she was the guest of honor. Tally was standing next to the stool she’d been sitting on when Max taught her about fitting in around here. His lessons gave her an idea.

“Do you have scissors?” she asked Trey, who frowned but ducked down to retrieve some from beneath the bar.

After taking another drink, she put her glass on the bar and bent to cut into her dress. Max’s lessons got her approval because when others saw her hacking the length from her skirt, they cheered along, and she laughed as Ryan and Robbie bent to help her rip it free.

Sliding the scissors across the bar to Trey, he caught them and the skirt that Ryan tossed at him next. Now she fitted in much better. Taking a deep breath, she relaxed. Despite the circumstance, Tally felt so much happier, and so much freer here. In fact, she was so glad that she wasn’t at the stuffy Yates engagement that all the tension slipped from her shoulders; she just couldn’t stop smiling.

“Come and dance,” Robbie said and pulled her toward the jukebox at the back of the room. “There’s a card game going and pool, do you know how to play pool?”

“Pool?” she asked, calling over the music. “No, but cards… what cards?”

Robbie stopped to turn back to her. “Texas Hold’em,” he said, suspicious as he examined her innocent expression.

“I… might give that a go.”

His smile was slow to spread, but when it did, she laughed. Yes, she knew how to play, but she wasn’t going to tell anyone that. Sean had taught her how to hustle, though she’d never believed she’d have the chance to use those skills.

“You got it, MG.”

That wasn’t a name she’d heard before. “MG?” she asked.

“Max’s Girl.”

“Ah.”

It fitted, at least tonight it did, and it was sort of insurance that if the cops ever came around again, everyone would know who to call. But this wasn’t a night for worrying about tomorrow. Tally let Robbie pull her over to the jukebox and didn’t hesitate when he demanded that she choose the next song.

She had never known Fitzpatrick’s existed before she heard the name on Max’s lips, now, the place was starting to feel sort of like home.

Tally had been banned from the card table. In the nicest way possible, that was how Ryan had explained it to her when he drew her away from her seat. What he really meant was that no one wanted to play with her anymore because they’d figured out that she knew what she was doing.

But she was alright with giving up poker; it gave her a chance to watch the pool game. Standing with her back to the card game she’d been banned from, Tally observed others playing pool and tried to work out if she wanted to give it a go.

Something hit the back of her leg and she looked down to see there was a poker chip on the floor. Doing a good deed, she crouched to pick it up, but she wobbled when she surged back to her feet, probably as a result of the alcohol streaming through her system. Someone put their arm around her and she pushed back against the embrace until she looked up and met the eye of a surprised Max.

Identifying that he was the one steadying her, Tally relaxed. “Hey, handsome,” she said, and smiled before turning out of his arms to face the table. “Who does this belong to?” Tally held up the chip, but the last two players, Doug and Andy, weren’t looking at her, they were growling at each other. Edging the chip toward her cleavage, she waited for one of them to claim it, and hoped she’d distract them before they could make something of their obvious tension. “Going, going, gone…”

“Mine, MG,” Andy growled.

She flicked it over to his stack. “Please, boys, play nice. Winner gets a dance,” she said and they both perked up. “As long as there’s no more fighting.”

They had the decency to appear contrite. “Sorry, MG,” both men muttered.

An arm came around her and this time she assumed it was Max’s, so she didn’t resist when it pulled her away from the table.

“Hey,” she said again when she looked up and saw he was scowling.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Max asked her.

“MG!” someone hollered, and she turned to see Ryan holding up a glass.

“Oh,” Tally said, pushing away from Max. “Excuse me.”

Hurrying to the other end of the pool table, she accepted the drink and was swallowed into the circle of men she’d been hanging with.

“So are you going to do it?” Bobby asked her.

But Max loomed large behind them. “What the f**k is going on here?”