Page 17 of Just Desserts

Clearly though, I had let it take over a bit too much. So when Wes called me out of the blue earlier, I was thrilled. I hadn't heard from him in almost a year and answered the phone immediately.

"Wes! How are you man? It's been forever!" I answered excitedly. Wes let out an all too familiar sigh before replying.

"Hey man, yeah it's been too long. Wish I was calling to catch up but, fuck man. I could use a drink." I glanced at the clock and raised my eyebrows as it was barely 10am.

"Are you okay? Anything I can do to help you know I will. Are your parents OK? Your sister?" With that he let out something between a bark and curse.

"My parents are okay, and my sister, well she's doing a fine job of ruining her life and everyone else's but what's new there?" I was taken aback at the bitterness in his voice.

"What's going on Wes? Why did you call me?" After some muttering, Wes cleared his throat.

"I hate to do this but I need to ask for a favor. My cousin, you remember I have a cousin, Isla, who is about our age? Well she caught her husband cheating on her. The bastard's contesting the divorce saying the photo she has isn't enough evidence. There are a bunch of charges on their credit card statements for The Bennett. Is there any way you could put me in touch with your security guys? Maybe we can dig up some footage of them in one of the main areas for my cousin to use?"

"Damn man that's rough, you know I'll help however I can. Why don't you come by tomorrow afternoon and I can take you to the security room myself? Make sure they give you full access? We can also get that drink and you can fill me in on how you've been, all this aside?" I asked, worried for my friend.

"You're a lifesaver man, I can't just sit by and watch this piece of shit put her through the wringer, she deserves so much more. Anyway, yeah I'd love to come by tomorrow and catch up."

Despite the reason behind the call, I was happy to hear from Wes and even more excited to get a chance to see him in person. I was barely over 30 years old, I was too young to shut myself away from the world. It was time to get back out there, socialize with people who weren't vendors, guests or staff. A beer with an old friend sounded like the perfect first step.

Chapter 16

Isla

My cousin was an oaf and imbecile. I loved him, but I was currently repressing the urge to run him over as I watched him cross in front of my car in the parking lot of The Bennett House. It had been a little over a month since Lydia called about getting my own evidence, and I finally caved and asked Wes to put me in touch with his friend at the hotel.

Despite my request for the family to stay out of everything, not to pick sides, Alyssa had essentially forced their hand. Still, it didn't sit right with me to have her brother help me find explicit photos of her with my soon to be ex-husband. I grabbed my large purse, filled with my notes and documents from the passenger seat then scurried to catch up to Wes.

I knew as soon as I asked him, that he was planning to go ahead without me to try and get some footage. How he intended to do that without the dates of their visits was beyond me. Not to mention, Wes didn't have any social media and I don't exactly expect him to have a photo of Jonathan in his wallet. For all his good intentions, this was ridiculously ill-planned.

I made my way through the revolving doors and had to take a minute to pause once I entered the lobby of the hotel. It was gorgeous, everything about the decor and architecture was rich and opulent but still managed to feel homey. For a random week day, the hotel was buzzing with activity. My eyes darted all over trying to take it in but a loud yell from the other side of the lobby caught my attention.

"Wes! Hey! Chambers!"

I looked around and stopped when I saw a tall, dark haired man smiling as he waved my cousin Wes over. My feet started moving without my permission and before I even realized it, I was right next to the two men. They did the token man hug where they vigorously hit each other on the back, then right as they stepped apart Wes noticed me standing there.

"Isla what the fuck!" Wes yelled.

I made eye contact with his friend and was startled at the intensity in his gray eyes. He was wearing a dark blue shirt, the cuffs unbuttoned and rolled up on his forearms revealing part of a tattoo. I pulled my attention away from him and focused on Wes. I stood up on my tip toes and smacked him across the back of his head.

"What the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK? That's what I'm here to ask YOU Wesley. What part ofdo not get involvedis hard for you to understand?" Wes lifted his hands up in surrender.

"How could I not get involved, especially when I have the connections to help! Myles here is gonna give us full access to the security footage."

He pointed to the dark haired man that was standing slightly behind us. I stepped around Wes and went to introduce myself.

"Hi, Myles is it? Sorry for the scene, I'm Isla. I really appreciate you helping us out."

I reached my hand out to give him a shake. With my palm in his he held my hand for a beat while a half smile revealed a dimple in his left cheek.

In a deep voice with just a hint of a southern drawl he replied, "Not a problem, I've known Wes a good while now and canhonestly say he could use several more slaps up the head so I think you've done the world a service just now."

Wes scoffed while I gave a little chuckle and pulled my hand back to my side, ignoring the tingles running up my arm. Myles continued to focus on me, not once looking back at Wes.

"It's nice to finally meet you, I've heard a lot about you."

"You have? Why? What has he told you?" I slapped my hands over my mouth. Lack of sleep, fielding calls from people non stop and my new side gig as an investigator seemed to completely wipe my internal filter. Grasping at straws I spit out the lamest explanation for my presence, and lack of preparedness

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just, I'm so sorry but I don't know how you and Wes know each other or what you do here at the hotel. I only planned ahead enough to know I had to crash his meeting." My ability to form a coherent sentence apparently disappeared under this gunmetal gaze.

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