“One room?”
“Yes,” I said, pulling away from the curb and driving out of the parking lot. I reached in front of me to input the address of the hotel into the GPS of my phone sitting in the cupholder. “But it is a suite. So, we should be able to share it with no problem. Worst-case scenario, there’s a bedroom that you can have, and a living room with a pull-out couch where I’ll sleep.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Of course,” I said. “It’s no big deal. As long as you’re okay with it.”
She shrugged, the expression on her face like she couldn’t think of any argument. “I’m fine with it.”
“Good,” I said, starting to feel like things might be getting better. At least slightly.
We got to the hotel, and I went to the registration desk to check us in. The clerk handed us two key cards, and I brought a luggage cart out to the car to load up all of our bags. We rode the elevator up to the top floor and went to the room at the very end of the hall.
“I think I know why this was the last room available,” Amanda said.
I laughed. “What? You don’t usually stay in the Siberia section when you check into a hotel?”
“Not usually.”
We finally got into the room and dropped off our bags. Calling the room a suite was generous on the part of the marketing department. I was accustomed to traveling for work and staying in suites that rivaled small apartments. They usually offered a full bedroom and bathroom, a living room, another bathroom, and sometimes a kitchen and dining area.
This room was exactly what I thought it was going to be when I gave Amanda the worst-case scenario. A small room with a fold-out couch, a door, and a small bedroom with the bathroom. That might pose some interesting complications, but I was sure we could figure it out.
As soon as she got into the bedroom, Amanda set her bags on the bed and started unpacking. It didn’t surprise me that she was one of those people who had to fully settle into a hotel as soon as she got there. Organization was a way of life for her. She probably wouldn’t have been able to cope if she didn’t have her clothes in the drawer and closet, and her toothbrush beside the sink.
When she finished, I started to ask if she was hungry after her trip and suggest we go to get something to eat, but before I could, my phone rang. I glanced at the screen, then answered, walking back out of the room.
“Hey, Jordan,” I said. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. I just wanted to let you know what was happening. I’ve been following Danny around for the last few hours to see what he was up to,” Jordan said.
“Did you find out anything?” I asked.
“I just watched him meet up with some guy behind a building. They talked for a few seconds. They were too far away and were talking too quietly for me to hear what they were saying, but I saw Danny pay the guy a big wad of cash,” he said.
“Holy shit,” I said.
“I know,” Jordan replied.
“It can’t be a coincidence. He has to have had something to do with the bar. That’s what he was doing. Paying off the arsonist,” I said.
“I mean, that’s definitely what it looked like. We just have to figure out how to prove it. That’s the thing. We can’t just call the police and say we know it was this guy because he’s an asshole and we saw him give money to another guy. They’re not going to go for that,” Jordan said. “We have to find out something about him that will prove he was involved.”
“Let me look into it,” I said. “I’ll find out everything I can about him and let you know.”
I got off the phone and pulled out my computer. I spent the next hour digging into Danny and trying to find out anything I could about him. I was sure it would be easy to find some sort of dirt about the man.
From the very first time I met him, Danny had struck me as shady and not trustworthy. It wasn’t just that he was gruff and unpleasant. There were plenty of people like that. There was just something about him that put me on edge. I didn’t put it past him for a second to do anything he could to sabotage his competition.
But I couldn’t find anything. The full hour of scouring every corner of the internet I could think of still left me empty-handed. Finally, I forced myself to stop and push away from the computer. Rubbing my eyes with my fingertips, I turned to Amanda.
“I need a break,” I said. “I’m not really getting anywhere, and it’s just frustrating me. I’m going to go see what my brothers have found out and check on everybody. Would you want to come with me?”
“Sure,” Amanda said.
We went to Mason’s house, and he met us outside. As soon as I got out of the car, he came around to give me a hug. He smiled at Amanda.
“Hey, Amanda, good to see you,” he said.
They had met on a few occasions when Mason came out to San Francisco, but she hadn’t met Ava, yet. We went inside and found Ava in the living room sitting on the floor with baby Robert. He was changing so much it was amazing. He looked distinctly different than he did the last time I saw him just a few weeks before.
He was sitting up now, clapping his chubby hands and occasionally reaching for the stuffed animals sitting around him.
“Ava,” I said when we came into the room, “I want you to meet my secretary, and the savior of just about every element of my life on a regular basis, Amanda.”
Amanda scoffed and shook her head but reached out her hand toward Ava. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Nice to meet you, too,” Ava said. “How long are you guys going to be in town?”
Amanda looked over at me, and I gave a noncommittal shrug.
“We don’t have a set timeline, yet. I’m here for as long as I need to be to handle everything. Amanda was good enough to agree to come and work remotely from here. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep her, but as long as she’ll stay, I’m happy to have her.”
I noticed a slight flush go across Amanda’s cheekbones.
“I can stay as long as he needs me,” I said. “I am without pets, roommates, or any other obligation. Which I realize now as I’m saying it out loud sounds sad and a little bit pathetic rather than carefree and rife with opportunity as I intended it to.”
Ava laughed. “Well, if you need any girl time while you’re out here, just let me know. We can hang out.”
Amanda laughed and nodded happily. “I will definitely take you up on that.”
“Tom, can we talk for a bit?” Mason asked. “Jesse and Jordan are on their way over here.”
“Sure,” I said. “Let’s go wait outside for them.”
We went out onto Mason’s porch. There was already a small cooler sitting on it, which told me Mason had been doing lawn work that day. This was his style. Anytime he needed to go out into the yard to mow the grass, work in the garden, or anything else, he brought along a cooler full of beer. He reached into the cooler now and handed one of the bottles to me.
A few seconds later, our brothers pulled up and joined us. We started talking about Danny and all the shady things he did. It was worse than I even thought. I wasn’t around as much, so I didn’t see as much as my brothers did. They told me about how he drank the inventory of his own bar with the town drunks, who had moved over to his bar from ours. He would then charge everybody else who came in extra to cover the cost of what he drank.