Page 53 of Tangled
Sabina and Kara snorted, identical sounds coming from both women. “Josh and Sofia aren’t,” Sabina said. “Mitch and Ava aren’t either, although my guess is they’ll start trying their wedding night.”
“Charley and Joey aren’t. Neither is Matt, Josh’s son who’s finishing college this year,” Kara said.
“But other than that, pretty much all of us,” Sabina said. “In a few years, the holidays are going to beinsane.” She rolled her eyes, but her tone sounded more excited than anything.
“Complete mayhem,” Kara agreed.
Scarlett couldn’t help but laugh. She couldn’t fathom what it would be like. If luck was on her side, she’d find out, though.
“So, is there a reason you stopped by?” Kara asked, nudging her sister with her toe just as her phone dinged with a text.
Sabina waggled her eyebrows. “There is. Mari sent me those numbers in the card Katz left you,” she said, looking at Scarlett. “They are both bank account numbers.”
“And?” Scarlett prompted, eager to know the owners and how they tied to Gracie.
“One belongs to—”
“Ronald Simms,” Kara said, looking up from her phone.
Sabina blinked. “How did you know?”
Kara frowned. “Know what? I was telling Scarlett the name of the man who fathered Gracie’s baby. The DNA results camein,” she said, holding her phone up. “Simms had another paternity case from twenty years ago, so the lab found his match.”
“Simms fathered the baby?” Sabina asked. Kara hesitated, then nodded. “Simms’s bank account was one of the ones on the card,” Sabina said. “Petrov’s was the other. I dug into both and I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that Simms wired twenty thousand dollars to Petrov a week before Maria was killed. Simms is also a retired colonel and likely the ‘colonel’ Gracie referred to in her journals.”
“So he fathered the baby, but why havemekilled?” Scarlett asked.
“Um, well, as to that,” Sabina said. “Gracie was blackmailing him, too. We recovered all the remaining files this morning, including her communications with both Simms and Derek Rathwell, the officer who assaulted her. Between what she was demanding from each, she’d have more than enough to pay for rehab and start a new life. She’d been talking to a realtor in a small town on the Oregon coast. I think she planned to move there after getting clean.”
Scarlett let that sink in. “Now Simms, Rathwell, and someone from Sussurri are after me because they think I have whatever files Gracie was using to blackmail them with?” she asked.
Sabina hesitated. “Actually, we don’t have any evidence that she was blackmailing anyone from Sussurri. Although I think it’s safe to assume they knew she had the information we found.”
“And?” Kara prompted, obviously sensing her sister had more to say.
Sabina exhaled. “Simms sent Petrov and Sussurri sent Kimmie Garza. Of the three people we know Gracie pissed off, I find it very interesting that the only one whohasn’tmade a move against you is Rathwell.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“You think Rathwell killed her, don’t you?” Brad heard Scarlett say as he lethimself into the apartment.
“I’m not certain, but I find it strange that so far, he’s the only one who hasn’t shown his face. Or sent someone on his behalf,” Sabina answered.
“What’s this?” he asked, entering his room to find not just Sabina, but Kara, too. “How are you feeling?” he asked Scarlett before anyone could answer his first question.
Scarlett smiled. “Better now that Kara has dosed me.”
“Good enough for breakfast?” he asked, hovering in the door.
“Pancakes?” she asked with an impish glint in her eye.
“Of course,” he replied.
“That sounds perfect, but in a little bit.” She held her hand out to him. He walked into the room, took it, then perched beside her. “Gracie was blackmailing the father of her baby, and he sent Petrov to kill me presumably because he thinks I still have the proof. Sabina traced the money yesterday, and Kara got DNA confirmation a few seconds ago.”
“The numbers on the note Katz left for Scarlett were bank accounts?” he confirmed, rubbing Scarlett’s palm.
Sabina nodded. “Colonel Ronald Simms,” she said. “Retired army turned venture capitalist from LA. But not a very good one. It’s a good thing he, like Rathwell, married into money. A status I’m sure he’d like to protect, given his spending habits.”
