Page 10 of Betrayal In Calusa Cove
The scent of lemon and garlic wafted through Fletcher’s kitchen as Baily chopped fresh herbs, the rhythmic sound of her knife grounding her. Chloe sat on a stool at the island, sipping a glass of wine while flipping through a dog-eared cookbook. Audra had taken over the sink, rinsing vegetables, and Trinity stood by the stove, one hand resting lightly on her just-visible baby bump as she stirred something in a cast iron skillet.
“I swear,” Audra muttered, holding a hand to her mouth. “If I so much as smell bacon one more time, I’m going to hurl.”
“Hey, bacon is sacred,” Trinity said, grinning. “Don’t go insulting the only reason my husband pretends to cook.”
Chloe laughed, reaching over to steal a cucumber slice from the cutting board. “Didn’t he make eggs last weekend and nearly set your entire house on fire?”
“Not exactly what happened.” Trinity waved a wooden spoon in the air. “And the eggs, they weren’t…horrible.”
“At least Keaton tries,” Baily said, shaking her head.
“Yeah, but he can’t roast a marshmallow without setting it on fire.” Trinity laughed. “Hayes keeps trying to show him how, and Keaton keeps shoving the damn stick all the way in the flame, as if he doesn’t understand the definition of insanity.” Trinity leaned her hip against the counter, her expression softening. “Baily? I hate bringing this up on our fun night, but are you doing okay? With the marina and stuff?”
Baily shrugged. “Define ‘okay.’ There’s a giant question mark hanging over my livelihood. I’m sitting around waiting for some loan shark to call in my debt and steal my marina, just because they can, and someone fried my security cameras. But sure, let’s call it okay.”
Audra handed her a towel. “You’re not alone, Baily. You’ve got all of us, and Dawson is so dialed in. He’s been a man on a mission all day. He came home from work, barely shed his uniform, sat in front of the computer, and was researching and looking for clues. Gotta love that man of mine.”
Chloe nodded. “Hayes has been making timelines. He’s trying to pinpoint all Ken’s trips to Calusa Cove and how it might be connected to your dad’s poor decision-making. He’s been going through all his finances, looking over the notes he kept from Ken, which is a total shocker that he had any of that, because Hayes keeps nothing. Can’t even call him a minimalist. He’s simply a guy who holds no sentimental value in anything.”
“But people,” Trinity said. “People matter to him, and that’s what counts.”
Baily smiled. These women had become her family. Her lighthouse in a world filled with thunderstorms, chaos, and grief. “Fletcher printed me off a copy of the parts of Tripp’s journal with all the scribbles about Ken. I remember some of the things in there. Like arguing with Ken over marina things, over things he already knew about, and those things were all the reasons why he started pushing me to sell. And then there was the one about Julie and the boat slip. I remember that one like it was yesterday. She asked me all sorts of questions about seasonal and annual rentals. How I manage the boats for owners who don’t live here, which was weird because I don’t have a single person who isn’t a local, except those who used to live here and come back often for family. It was the oddest conversation ever because it was the first time Julie ever seemed engaged or excited about anything in this town. But the second it was over, she was back to being bitchy.”
“Did you ever get along with her?” Audra asked. She leaned against the counter, snagged her fruity non-alcoholic drink, and slurped. “And before anyone goes and makes a judgment that I might be a little jealous of my late ex’s wife, I’m not. I’ve got my man, and he’s the best. The only thing that bugs me about Julie is the way Ken treated me when he found me, and only because I think he already knew her. Looking at it now, he hadn’t tracked me down to win me back. He’d done it to make sure I wouldn’t return. There’s a small part of me that believes he knew what Paul Massey did to my dad.”
“Jesus,” Baily muttered. “I’ve never heard you say that before. Have you mentioned it to Dawson?”
“I have.” Audra nodded. “He grapples with the notion. Says Ken was as solid as they came regarding being a SEAL. That he never thought twice about him on a mission.” She raised her hand. “But the last few years he’d been alive, Ken changed in the friendship department. He became distant, secretive even. They all blamed it on Julie, who treated them like they were a problem in hers and Ken’s marriage.”
“That’s because she looked at them like they were the enemy.” Baily sighed. “She was all sunshine and unicorns when we first met. Kept telling me we’d be like sisters. That lasted for a few months. Once they got engaged, it was as if a switch flipped, and she became someone else. Someone who saw me as a fly that needed swatting. About the only time she was nice was when her boys were around, or she was trying to offer me a job with her family’s business, so I’d sell the marina. Occasionally, Ken would stick up for me, but that didn’t happen often, and when it did, Julie really laid into him.”
“I don’t understand the part about why she’d care if you kept or sold the marina,” Chloe said. “What difference did it make in her life? Your dad left it to you. He left both debt and any potential income to you. Not Ken. The only thing he got was profit if you sold, and I’m sorry, but even back then, you were upside down and wouldn’t have had anything left at the end of a sale. She had to have known that.”
“Unless Ken lied to her.” Audra arched a brow.
“Even just a year ago, that statement would’ve had me either kicking you out or me storming off,” Baily said. “But I’m seeing so many cracks in my brother’s personality these days, I don’t know what to believe. It was like he was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
“Well, as your brother’s ex-girlfriend, I’m telling you, as lovingly as this crazy redhead can, that man wasn’t always truthful, not even when we were teenagers.” Audra eased into one of the chairs at the island. “I understand that he lied to me because he was dealing drugs for Massey and was looking for a way out without fucking up his life. But there were other little lies. Subtle ones. The biggest thing I can’t reconcile in my mind is how hard he fought to have me believe that those dreams about my dad I used to have, right after he went missing, were just crazy nightmares about a traumatic event, and that I was starting to act just like my father…a nutty conspiracy theorist with an ax to grind.”
“Are you thinking he never stopped dealing for Massey?” Chloe asked.
“I don’t know. He quit working for Massey’s Law firm, so there’s that. He also avoided him, but he didn’t avoid his son, Benson. Always a bone of contention with me. I hated that guy. Ken and Benson weren’t great friends, but they were friendly. It just makes me wonder what Ken really knew because the one thing about Ken was that he always knew the right buttons to push with me to set me off. That last couple of months of our relationship, he constantly hid them, causing so many arguments. When he found me a year later, under the pretense that he loved me and wanted me back, he didn’t say those words kindly. It was more like, you love me. Now do what I tell you or be stuck in the miserable cycle you built for yourself and end up like your dad.”
“That’s not nice,” Trinity said. “Kind of sounds like my mother.”
Audra nodded. “Anyway, reading Tripp’s journal only drives those points deep for me.”
“I didn’t know Ken, but I have to say, what I’m learning does have my hackles up,” Chloe said, growing serious. “But Tripp, he talked in circles, and his journal doesn’t make much sense.”
“It’s really affecting Fletcher. He’s not sleeping,” Baily admitted. “The nightmares are back. He told me that since the journal surfaced, they’re coming every night.”
“Keaton’s had a few, too.” Trinity stirred the pot one last time and turned off the stove.
“Same with Hayes. He wakes up in a cold sweat, shaking,” Chloe said.
“Dawson flies out of bed sometimes at two in the morning with what sounds like a strangled scream. He can barely breathe,” Audra said. “He calms down pretty quickly, but the first time it happened, it scared the crap out of me. At least they’re all talking about it.”
“It just sucks, because they’re not only reliving what happened to my brother,” Baily said. “They are reliving their own torture, and I hate that for each of them. And now, I feel like a bitch for being so stubborn about all their generosity. It’s just I had no idea about the fine print on that loan until Fletcher pointed it out. It stunned me, and my pride has gotten in the way because all I’ve ever wanted was to be able to prove I can do this on my own.” She wiped away the few tears that fell.
