“Unless you want to shackle yourself to another sugar daddy, this time for real, I suggest you figure it out.”
“I’m not good at anything other than shopping and spending.”
“Don’t forget partying and making everyone around you smile,” Trina added.
Avery lifted her head from Trina’s shoulder. “My marketable skills are zip. I hated school, never really held a job. I’m about as privileged as they come,” she confessed.
Trina scanned the room full of Fedor’s things. Expensive things. The desire to call a one-stop auction house or estate sale agent was huge. But they would want a big cut, and the money sent to charity would be less. An idea started to form in Trina’s head.
She stood and crossed to the set of watches collecting dust. She picked up one she couldn’t name and handed it to Avery. “What do you think this is worth?”
Avery took it, rolled it around in her hands. “It’s an Omega . . . so somewhere between two and three thousand.”
Seemed like a lot of money for a watch.
Avery put the watch back and pulled out a different one. “But this, this is a Piaget. You can’t get out of that store for less than twenty grand.” She peered closer. “This has constellations, I’m guessing it’s one of their higher end models.”
“How high?”
Avery shook her head. “I have no idea, as much as a hundred grand.”
Trina squeezed her eyes shut. “For a watch?”
“Could be. I’ll have to look it up.”
“It was just sitting in his closet. I’m afraid to look in the safe.”
“Is there a safe?”
“Yeah, a couple of them, the biggest one is in his office.”
“Do you know the combinations?”
Trina shook her head no.
Avery looked around the room again. “This place is holding a fortune, not to mention the house itself. You sure you want to give it all away to charity?”
“Feels like blood money.”
Avery lost her smile and Trina looked away.
“You didn’t kill him.”
Her eyes landed on their wedding picture. “I didn’t save him either.”
“That wasn’t your job.”
“I was his wife.”
“Trina.”
She placed both hands in the air as if to stop Avery’s words. “I know it was in name only. I’ve still been dealing with that guilt for a year.”
“I don’t understand why you’re feeling guilty. You didn’t ask for this.”
Trina squeezed her eyes shut and felt moisture gather. “Fedor started having feelings for me.”
Avery paused. “Oh, no.”
Trina’s eyes started to mist. “At first I thought it was just our friendship. We seemed to be able to talk about anything. He was losing his mom, so we talked a lot about that. But he started lingering and looking at me differently.”
Avery set the watch down and placed a hand on Trina’s shoulder. “Did he say anything?”
“He started to one night, at dinner. I felt it coming and made a comment about how nice it was to have a male friend who wasn’t trying to make more out of our friendship. He got the hint. Not that it seemed to stop his feelings. If I had let him talk, or maybe tried to feel something more for him . . .”
“Stop it. This isn’t your fault.”
“I know that, intellectually. Still doesn’t stop me from feeling guilty.”
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier? We could have been working through this.”
Trina started to cry for the man she never loved. “I pushed it out of my head. Coming back here reminded me of all the conversations and little things.”
“We can close this down and come back another time.”
Trina shook her head. “No. I need this behind me.” She turned a full circle. “Who knows, maybe there will be something in this house to clue me in to why Fedor did this.”
“Losing his mom and falling in love with someone who isn’t feeling the same is a strong reason,” Avery pointed out.
“I know, but Fedor wasn’t that weak. Or at least I didn’t think he was. He was a man who found solutions. Even with his overbearing father.”
“There is a solution to Ruslan?”
“Yeah, ignore him.”
“That didn’t work for us last year.”
No, it hadn’t. Ruslan had researched Alliance, the company that arranged her and Fedor’s marriage, and went after Lori. Not in a legal way, but by kidnapping her brother and attempting to hold him hostage for proof that their marriage wasn’t completely real. By the time that unfolded, Ruslan’s people were either dead or gone forever, and no ties to Ruslan had been kept intact. Which prevented any legal action against the man. Yet they all knew who was behind it. Since that day, Ruslan had dropped out of the picture. After six months, Trina shook loose the bodyguards and extra protection.
Fedor’s estate had ended up in the company lap, which Trina said she would manage, and Alice’s estate had ended up in Trina’s bank. None of which Trina had wanted. Ruslan, on the other hand, wanted it all. There simply wasn’t any way he was going to get it. Fedor hated his father, and from what Trina had figured out, the man had abused his wife before they divorced. So Alice and the entire Everson family hated him, too.
Avery picked up the expensive watch again. “I’m going to look this up and call a locksmith. I’d feel a lot better if all the six-figure stuff was somewhere safe. Just talking about Ruslan makes me feel like he’s outside, listening and ready to try his hand at burglary.”
“He would never dirty his own hands.”
“Still.” Avery tossed the watch in the air, caught it. “Hiding stuff in plain sight only works for so long. Once we get appraisers and movers in here, nothing will be hidden.”
“Let’s figure out what we’re looking at before we hire anyone. Then maybe we should consider a guard.”
“Sounds good.” Avery started to leave the room.
“Oh, one more thing.”
Avery turned.
“Five percent, or whatever the going rate is.”
“Five percent of what going rate?”
“You need a job, and I need someone to manage all of this and sell it for as much money as we can get. It will be like reverse shopping. Considering you’re the knower of all things high end, I think you’re perfect.”
Avery used the watch as a pointing stick. “You want me to work for you?”
“Why hire a stranger when you’re right here and already doing the job?”
“I don’t know anything about estate sales.”
“Me either. But I need to learn. When we’re done here, there is Alice’s house in Germany I haven’t even been to.”
“You’re not going to keep it?”
Trina shrugged. “I don’t speak German.”
Avery grinned.
“It gives us something to do,” Trina said.
The air in the room felt lighter. “There is a lot here. More than just a closet to go through.”
Trina agreed. They thought they’d only be there for a long weekend, but when you found a watch worth a hundred thousand dollars sitting in a drawer with a dozen of its brothers, the job became bigger.
“Five percent?”
“Or whatever the going rate is.”
Avery smiled. “You’re on. But if I screw up, or don’t know something . . .”
“I would have guessed that watch to be a few hundred bucks. Probably sold it for thirty.”
“Got it. The bar is set low for messing up.”
“Go, find a locksmith. One that isn’t named Guido.”
Avery turned and left the room. “On it.”
Chapter Eleven
The ranch had a state-of-the-art recording studio that sat separate from the main house. It made life easier when Wade wanted to work. No need to head into Austin, or even Houston, where he’d have to deal with hotels and fans. Right now was time for rest, reflection, and living. Although he wasn’t sure what rest looked like.
He turned on the lights and walked past all the expensive recording equipment and into the studio he would eventually sit in completely alone to record.
Half a dozen guitars lined the wall.
A smile crept onto his lips. He remembered his first six string and sitting in the senior quad at his high school, writing his first song. The instrument was an extension of his fingertips. Or so he’d been told the first time he’d shared his music. It was like he was born to it. Considering he’d never taken lessons to play the thing, he couldn’t argue.
Wade removed one of the guitars from its stand and walked over to a stool to perch his butt. He strummed a few chords and tightened a string to bring the instrument into tune.
He started the opening riff of a melody that had been drifting in and out of his head for over a month. Even though he’d been on tour and busy with sold-out arenas for the better part of eight months, he still found himself writing new music. He didn’t think touring and creating were exclusive to themselves, so he always had new stuff in the works.
He hummed a note, changed the rhythm, and then repeated it again. “I’m gonna make you smile . . .” He changed a chord, sang the verse again. He did it half a dozen times more before he grabbed a piece of staff paper and wrote the music down.