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Now, this. While I’d looked over my shoulder for five years, I’d stopped doing so a couple years before. Clinton was right. I had enough enemies who could have been responsible for making the hit, and I wouldn’t have suspected otherwise unless I’d seen the man’s hand.
“Maybe you’re right.” I rubbed my jaw, the memories kicking my ass all over again.
“Incidentally, I had a call from a Kentucky detective asking questions about Theo.”
Snorting, I narrowed my eyes. We’d never be free of the nightmare. And we shouldn’t be. “After this many years?” Hearing Theodore’s name always left a bad taste in my mouth. After the asshole had been stupid enough to try and rape Ava just to prove his worthiness, the three of us had handled him in the only acceptable manner. That didn’t mean his justifiable death didn’t weigh heavily on our minds.
Or maybe I was the only one of the three of us with a conscience.
William Watkins had done everything to pin a murder on the entire house when there’d been no body to find, no evidence of any kind as to what had occurred inside the third-floor laundry room.
“New to the job. Assigned a cold case,” Clinton chortled. Ice remained in the man’s veins.
“And it’s getting colder.”
“I wanted you to know in case the asshole tracked you down. I’ve already warned Christian.” He gave me a look that was a clear reminder of my requirement to keep the code of silence until the day I died. There was no need to challenge him. All three of us knew the score and what we could lose.
“Noted. You and I know there’s nothing to find.”
He’d handled the disposal of the body, and I hadn’t asked questions then, nor did I plan to now.
As far as I was concerned, the kid was dead and buried where he belonged.
No one attacked a woman in my world and lived.
Clinton took a deep breath. “Look, I have some business to attend to I can’t get out of. I’ll return, and we can continue discussing this. Incidentally, I convinced Christian to fly in.” He grinned as he waited to see my reaction.
“All the way from South America?”
“You obviously don’t keep up with the news, do ya?”
“I have a fifty-billion-dollar company to run.” It was a slight to the man standing in front of me. While we’d remained friends, our respective businesses had kept us from getting together more often.
He lifted his glass again. “You always were in competition with me. Including with women.”
“Women? All three of us had our pick if we wanted.” We’d been taught to believe we could have anything and anyone we wanted. While I’d enjoyed the years of feeling as if I was a king, I’d learned that anything worth keeping was also worth working for. I wasn’t certain Clinton had managed to claw his way out of the vacuum his father had imprisoned him in.
“I’m talking about one woman in particular.” He lifted his arm and index finger to reiterate the point.
Neither one of us needed to mention her name. In allowing her to become an obsession, we’d all built some aspect of our lives around her. Her death had driven all three of us into dark, icy conditions and had yet to release its brutal hold.
“Very funny,” I said, although none of it was funny in the least. If I didn’t change the subject, we’d become mired in the quicksand as we’d once been. “At least I don’t burn down buildings to inflate my ego and my bank account.”
“Once an asshole, always an asshole.” He tossed back the rest of his scotch, issuing a slight growl. “How’s the suite?”
“The penthouse? Almost better than my estate. Almost.”
“Only the best for my buddy.” He stepped away from the bar then turned back. “By the way. In case you get bored, check out the entertainment in the auditorium. I’m impressed my Entertainment Manager was able to come through with the booking.”
“Hmm… I’m certain whoever you have headlining is a stunning female.”
“Why, yes, she is. And no, I’m not fucking her if that’s what you’re thinking.”
I threw up my arms, chuckling under my breath. “Does that mean you’re waiting for the right woman?”
He thought about my question, his expression becoming haunted. “Maybe I am. We’re not getting any younger, you know.”
“Who knows. Maybe we’ll find the right woman to share the rest of our lives with us.”
“You still think about that?”
“From time to time.”
We’d talked about sharing a single woman for the rest of our lives in a jovial discussion over a bottle of liquor. Even then I’d known it was a pipedream created by monstrous men with god complexes. Yet we’d been serious about Ava .
As he rubbed his jaw, he got a faraway look in his eyes. “It could have worked you know.”
“With Ava ?”
“Yeah. She was everything I’d ever wanted and more.”
A quiet tension settled between us. “You were in love with her.”
Clinton nodded several times, taking a swig of his drink before answering. “Yeah, I was. It’s funny how no one else has mattered.”
I almost felt sorry for my friend. He’d lost his way after his brother’s murder. Now, he was nothing but a shell of a man going through the paces.
Maybe all three of us were.
“You need to let the past go.”
As he lifted his head, the shimmer in his eyes surprised me. “Have you been able to do that?”
I wasn’t surprised I had no answer. Or maybe I was terrified that if I admitted my feelings, I’d break the slight tether I still had to the beautiful girl with the stunning eyes.
“That’s what I thought.” He walked away and I was surprised. Maybe he was softening in his old age.
“Chuck. Let me have another one.”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Augustine.”
As I watched Clinton leave, another pang of guilt and remorse settled into my system. The three of us were fucked up men living an emotionless life.
And as had occurred several times before, I wondered what would have happened had fate not torn the four of us apart.
