Half Empty(30)

He chuckled. “Spoken like a scorned woman.”

“Your father left for cigarettes and never came back.”

“I’ve heard the story. I even wrote a song about it.”

Vicki sighed. “I worry.”

“I’m fine.”

“Women have always wanted to get at your money.”

He switched his cell phone to his other hand and turned away from a group of people that were walking out of the elevator. “I promise you, Trina isn’t like that.”

“Oh, and who paid for the emergency flight to New York?”

His mother was trying hard to find fault. “Neither one of us. She knows someone with a private jet.”

“Oh, that’s right . . . she’s a flight attendant.”

He didn’t see this conversation ending until he gave his mother enough to nibble on.

“You know how much I hate it when people name-drop to get what they want?”

“W-what? Yes, and what does that have to do with this conversation?” she stuttered.

“Everson Oil, Mama. Trina is worth more than I am. She isn’t using me. We met, we’re both attracted and would like to see where this goes. There is nothing for you to worry about, so I’m going to ask that you end this entire conversation.”

The line was silent.

“Mom?”

“Fine.”

When a woman said fine, it was never fine. “I love you for your concern. Hold down the ranch a little longer without me.”

“If I must.”

Wade wanted to laugh. “Bye, Mother.”

“You know I hate it when you call me Mother.”

He chuckled. “Well, stop acting like a mother and more like my mama.”

“You always were ornery when you had your mind set on something.”

“Yeah, remind you of someone you know?”

“Wade Michael Thomas!”

Ohhh, the middle name.

Wade laughed.

“Bye, Mama.”

She backed down. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

The waiting room had started to fill with nearly a dozen of Avery’s friends and family. Trina was back in the unit with Avery’s parents for the brief visit until they were all kicked out again. Wade poured himself his fifth cup of coffee for the day and was walking back toward his seat next to Lori when a short, balding, middle-aged man nearly knocked him over to get to Lori. Coffee splashed on his hand.

“Oh my God, how is she?”

“Bernie . . . what are you doing here?” Lori stood when the man approached.

“I got here as fast as I could. Is she okay? What happened?”

Lori glanced around before she encouraged the man to walk beside her as they left the waiting room.

Wade watched them disappear before taking his seat next to Shannon.

“Who is that?” Wade asked.

“That’s Bernie . . . Avery’s ex-husband.”

Wade choked on the coffee he’d just placed in his mouth. Full-on spat the coffee onto his shirt like he didn’t understand the concept of swallowing hot liquid.

“W-what?”

Shannon pulled a tissue from her purse and handed it to him. “Yeah, not shocking it didn’t work out.”

Bernie looked more like an older uncle, a father . . . maybe a brother from a different marriage. But Avery’s husband? Oh, hell no.

The man was talking in hushed whispers to Lori across the room, but his eyes kept gravitating toward the door to the ICU. The man was clearly concerned. “Let me see what I can do,” Wade heard Lori say.

Lori offered a polite smile when she picked up the phone to the nursing station inside the locked unit. Within a few minutes, Avery’s parents, a pretentious couple if Wade ever met one, stepped out.

“We knew you’d come,” Avery’s mother said as she grasped Bernie’s hands.

“I’d like to have some time alone with her,” Bernie told them.

“Of course, of course.” They stepped aside.

Wade expected Trina to funnel out once Bernie walked in, but she must have stayed behind.

Wade stood and offered Mrs. Grant his seat.

She took it. “He’s such a good man. I don’t know why they ever split up.”

Lori offered a polite smile.

Shannon’s smile was just as plastic.

All Wade could think was . . . how on God’s green earth did they ever get together in the first place?

Reed walked back into the waiting room after taking a phone call and returned with a man approximately the size of a small house. He smiled, scanned the room, and then narrowed his eyes on Wade.

Because House Man was with Reed, Wade offered a nod as if to say, Yeah, I’m him.

Then the strangest thing happened. The man nodded and was like, Cool.

That was it.

For what felt like the hundredth time since this whole ordeal had started, Wade enjoyed the fact that the people in Trina’s inner circle were not influenced by fame. Outside of acknowledging who he was, they didn’t do the starstruck thing that so many others did.

He liked that.

Reed waved Wade and Jeb over to an empty corner of the waiting room.

Reed pointed to his friend. “This is Rick. Rick, Wade. Jeb is his bodyguard,” he said.

“And friend,” Wade made clear.

“Of course.” Reed leaned in, lowered his voice. “Just making sure he knows who is carrying.”

Which meant Rick was.

Wow, again with the armed response.

“Let’s take this outside in the hall.”

Wade followed Reed’s gaze to find the same family that had been eyeing him all night, snickering as they watched them.

“Good idea.”

They were two steps into the hall when Reed launched into his monologue. “So here’s the plan. Someone is on Avery at all times. I’m arranging it with the hospital that one of us is in the room with her regardless of their stupid rules. Someone is with Trina like a shadow. Easy with you here”—he pointed to Wade—“but one of us three will be a breath behind you. We have reinforcements coming in to allow for rest. With the exception of you, Wade. We expect you to be on Trina like white on rice, and if that’s a problem, you need to tell us now.”

White on Trina’s rice had a very nice ring to it. “Not a problem,” he started with. “Mind telling me why this is necessary?”

Reed looked at his friend, his expression shifting from I’m on a mission to This part sucks.

“Forensics didn’t find any prints in the office.”

Wade felt a little lost. “Okay?”

“As in any. Not one. Not Avery’s, not Trina’s, not Fedor’s . . . not the maid. None!”

“Oh, hell,” Jeb said.

“Exactly,” Rick said to Jeb.

“I sing songs for a living, mind helping me catch up here?” Because it seemed the three of them were talking in a different language.

“Have you ever heard of the term ‘a cleaner,’ Wade? That would be someone hired to come in and clean up a murder scene and not leave a trace. They miss nothing. Nothing! So when something looks like a burglary and ends up without a single print . . . that means there’s something big at play,” Rick explained.

“Whoever ransacked the office at Trina’s house wasn’t there to take anything, they were there to clean up,” Reed added.

“Clean up what?”

“Only one person died in that house,” Rick said. “And it’s been closed up ever since. Now two women come in, they start shuffling through things, next thing you know one of them is in the hospital and the house is broken into. There is no way of knowing if whoever did this found what they wanted and are gone, or if they’ll be back. Until we know who hired the cleaners, we have to assume the two women shaking up the dust need protection.”

“You believe someone murdered Trina’s late husband,” Jeb concluded.

That was the moment that Wade caught up. “Trina said it was suicide.”

“Which is how it looked,” Reed said.

“Does Trina know this?”

Reed and Rick exchanged glances. “Not yet.”



Trina had never seen Bernie in person. He was even shorter in real life.

Yet the lack of height was made up for by the dread-filled concern in his eyes. “Oh, dear lord, no. Who did this to you?” he asked the second he entered the room.

Avery had opened her eyes for a short time while her parents were there and then closed them after a few seconds. “What are you doing here, Bernie?” she asked slowly.

“Oh, thank God you’re talking. Oh, darling.”

Bernie sat on the edge of the seat Avery’s mother had just vacated; his hand moved to grasp Avery’s and ended up resting on top of the exposed skin of her upper arm.

“Who did this to you? Tell me and I’ll put a hit out on them.”

For the first time since Trina had walked into the hospital, a smile started to peek out from under the bandages covering Avery’s face. “You won’t kill spiders.” A slight chuckle came from her and resulted in a cough that brought a grimace.

Trina brought a cup of water with a straw to Avery’s lips.

Bernie’s worried eyes met Trina’s.

Avery finally opened both eyes and tried to smile a second time. “Who told you I was here?”

“Adeline called me.”

“My mother should have left you alone.”

“For once I’m grateful for her meddling. Oh, Avery . . .” He said her name with a sigh. “I know you’re not mine anymore, but I do still love you.”