A case just like any other we decide to take on. Or not at all.”
Rafe said nothing, just stared ahead as they rolled along with the traffic on Grand Central Parkway. “Whatever works.” He cut across two lanes and took the expressway heading toward JFK.
“Where do you think—?” Mac snapped his mouth shut and shifted his gaze out the side window. “Turn around,” he said flatly, in a tone that used to make even the most desperate, hopped-up scumbag take note. “I need time to prepare for this. Let’s go round up Frank first, finish this job.”
“No,” Rafe said, just as flatly. “Every minute you take right now will be time spent talking yourself out of doing what you know you have to do.”
“I don’t have to do shit. This is not my problem.”
Rafe swung into the airport entrance. “I know it’s not. Trust me, if it were up to me, I’d steer far clear of the whole Sutherland clan.”
“Peachy. Then we’re on the same page.”
“Except it’s not up to me. This one is yours. I’ll square everything with Finn. We’ll get you whatever you need.” He pulled to a stop at the entrance to the car rental counters. “Check in with me later and I’ll bring you up to speed on this mess.”
Mac looked at his partner, fully intending to tell him where he could take his Father Knows Best attitude and stick it, but was caught off guard by the real regret he saw in his partner’s eyes.
“I really am sorry—” Rafe began, but was immediately shut down.
Mac raised a hand. “Don’t. Being an asshole worked better.”
Rafe grinned. “Suits me. Tell Katherine hello from the remaining two-thirds of the Unholy Trinity.” He popped the locks on the doors. “And get some new clothes, man. You smell bad.”
Mac said nothing, just got out of the car and trudged into the rental agency without so much as a toothbrush to his name. The irony didn’t escape him.
You ain’t never gonna escape your roots, boy, no matter how far you run from ’em. Can’t escape your genes, neither. You’ll see.
His father’s wheezing cackle rang in Mac’s ears.
“Looks like you were right about some things after all, Pops.”
Chapter 2
Going into the city had been a complete waste of two of Kate’s most precious commodities: money and time. She’d suspected Shelby wasn’t going to make probating the will easy for either of them, and he hadn’t. Why should he change spots now? He’d spent a lifetime making things as difficult as humanly possible for her. But even she hadn’t seen this latest stunt coming. Everything had been finally decided upon, and well in Shelby’s favor, to boot. All he had to do was sign the damn papers.
She took the last couple of mountain curves a little more tightly than might have been perfectly safe. The wheels of her secondhand Toyota pickup squealed in protest, but she didn’t ease up on the pedal. She’d been here as a permanent resident for only a little over a month now, but she already knew the roads through this range of the Catskills so well she could drive them blindfolded.
Which was a good thing considering she was blinded with fury at the moment. She’d left Manhattan behind two hours ago, and she still wished she could strangle Shelby with her bare hands.
If such things were possible in the afterlife, she had no doubt her mother was off somewhere enjoying the havoc she’d wrought when she’d changed her will for what had turned out to be the final time. Louisa Slavine Hamilton Pepperdine Sutherland Graham had loved nothing more than wielding the collective assets of her deceased or departed husbands over the heads of her only daughter and stepson. Most especially her last husband, given how their divorce had provided Louisa the most to work with. And by then she’d had plenty of practice and knew exactly what to do with it, too.
She’d tortured Shelby the most, probably because he cared the most. Hell, Kate wasn’t even a real Sutherland. She was a Pepperdine. But she’d only been four when her mother had remarried and had her daughter’s name legally changed in order to let the world assume George Sutherland had adopted her, which he most definitely had not. Though, to be fair, he’d been more of a father to her than her own, whom she didn’t even remember, seeing as how he’d died when she was two.
George had lasted until just after her eleventh birthday when his heart had quite literally given out. After marrying and divorcing quite young her first go around, her mother had developed a penchant for older men. Much older. As with Kate’s natural father, Louisa hadn’t spent long in mourning for the dear departed George. The only real surprise had been that it had taken her seven years to land husband number four. Although Trenton Graham had been her biggest fish by far, so perhaps worth the wait. Even though the union had been short-lived, a tumultuous four years that she often said felt like fourteen, her divorce settlement alone had ensured her continued residence amongst the highest of high society. Her transformation finally complete.
And although Kate had never gotten along with her sole stepsibling, by rights, the pile of assets her mother had accrued upon her death should have gone to Shelby. No matter whether the slimy little toad had actually deserved any of it or not, he was the one who had stuck by Louisa’s side, year in, year out, husband in, husband out. He was the one who’d endured working for her all those years, helping to grow her fortune, doing whatever was asked of him, taking her abuse with a smile and a nod, waiting for the day it would all pay off.
Kate, her only natural child, hadn’t done any of those things. So no one had been more shocked than Kate when Louisa’s lawyer had calmly recited the contents of the will stating Shelby was to inherit Winnimocca—which had belonged to his father and was, at the time, the single greatest asset he’d brought to his union with Louisa—and only Winnimocca. Leaving Kate to inherit everything else.
Although, to be fair, perhaps Shelby had been even more shocked. If the instantaneous blanching of every bit of color from his already florid complexion and the white-knuckled grip he’d had on his Hermes briefcase were any indication. She’d been half afraid he’d go into full coronary occlusion right then and there.
The final irony was, she’d wanted the only thing Shelby had gotten. She’d wanted Winnimocca. Kate turned onto the long drive that led into the camp grounds. Well, maybe it wasn’t so ironic. Just before her death, Kate had ended her long estrangement with her family to ask about leasing Winnimocca. So, with that bit of information at hand, Louisa could use her last will and testament to deprive both of her children their hearts’ desire in one fell swoop.
A small smile curved Kate’s lips. Well, Mother, she thought, you can’t control things now. Before they’d even left the probate lawyers’ office, Kate had proposed a deal to essentially swap her inheritance with Shelby’s, giving them both what they wanted. Perhaps it had been an emotional and not entirely rational decision on her part, but, of course, Shelby had jumped at her offer.
Her expression grew more determined as she passed the cheerfully painted sign announcing the new Winnimocca Youth Camp. She’d officially moved in thirty-seven days ago. Shelby hadn’t said a word about it, which she’d taken as a good sign, as their arbitration had headed into the final stages. The sign had been the first thing she’d changed. More as a statement to herself, one of hope and optimism, than to the world at large, but it was only a matter of time. If everything went as planned, next year at this time, the whole world would
