The Inheritance (Happy Endings Resort Book 1) Read online

  I felt my entire body heat with a blush. All I could do was shake my head and tried to avert my eyes, but they were only drawn to the other man who was now also stroking himself.

  “You sure you don’t want to join in? Plenty for everyone.” He smiled devilishly at me.

  “No, she’s good.” Stixx finally stepped up next to me now wearing a short silk robe and handed me a black plastic bag, like one you get in a liquor store. “Bear, the pothead down the way,” she pointed to the back of her trailer. l shook my head. “Haven’t met him yet?’

  “No?”

  “He is a sweet boy, but a stoner. Ask Jason about him.” She nodded with her head and shoved thebag at me again. “Bear said he picked it up out by the woods, but couldn’t remember where or when.” I looked down at the bag and peeked inside. There was a small black book, like a journal. Before I closed the bag again, I saw the initials D.P. in a simple script in the bottom corner of the book.

  “Stixx, I can’t take this.” I tried to shove the bag back at her.“This has to go to the police . . . I . . .” I tried again to hand the bag back to her.

  “Yes, it does, but it can’t come from me or Bear.” She wrapped her hand around my upper arm and turned me back to the door. “Rory, Bear was so high off of his ass last night he didn’t know which way was up. He may have walked into the middle of a fucking crime scene. They will tear him apart questioning him.” I could hear the concern for Bear in her voice, but what she was asking me to do was . . . “I’m asking you to basically break the law here, I know, but Bear wouldn’t hold up to questioning, let alone jail time.”

  “Do you know for a fact that Bear had nothing to do with Drew’s death? Why would he have been out there anyway if he lives all of the way over here?” I looked at her for answers. “Stixx?”

  “He grows his weed at the edge of the woods. A little here, a little there. He has it planted so it blends in and you can only really see it if you are looking for it.” She stood with her hand on her hip and sighed. “And no, I don’t think he had anything to do with Drew being killed.”

  “It wasn’t a drug deal or anything like that?”

  “Bear is a pothead, yeah, but he’s no killer. He doesn’t have it in him. He is a good guy. He just had lots of shit happen to him and it makes him feel safer being high than actually living his life.” I looked into her eyes and she was telling the truth.

  “You’ll tell me another time?” I looked back down at the bag in my hand.

  “I’ll tell you this.” I stepped down from the trailer and looked up at her. “Bear didn’t lose his pinky in a bar fight. He had it chopped off.” I gasped and covered my mouth. “Bear’s mother was an abusive bitch. One day she was drunk and got mad at him for something he didn’t do, so she chopped it off. She was going for the next one when Cyber walked in and pulled her off of him. He was twelve.” She sighed. “Bear is a good kid, but he had a fucked up childhood. He lives in his video games and does his web shit to make his rent, but he is no killer.” All I could do was nod.

  “I’ll tell the police I found it just outside of where they taped the area off.” I sighed. “And you are going to help me get Bear help . . . cut back or even get off the pot.”

  “We’ll work on it.” She smiled and moved to pull the door closed. “I have to get back before they finish without me.”

  “Oh, and sorry about walking in.” I looked down at the ground.

  “No worries. You aren’t the first and probably won’t be the last. Cyber likes an audience.” She laughed and closed the door.

  As I ran back to the road where I had parked the golf cart, I heard what sounded like a man shouting “fuck yeah!” I couldn’t help but laugh. They were able to just get right back into what they were doing and finish before I even got back on the road.

  “Gotta love a Happy Ending here at Happy Endings Resort.” I laughed shaking my head as I slid onto the cushioned seat of the golf cart and headed over to the taped off crime scene.

  Chapter Nine

  “SORRY,” JASON LAUGHED as we continued to make our way around the roads to Betty’s cabin. “I should have warned you that if Cyber’s motorcycle was parked outside, then you might not want to go right in.”

  “That would have been nice. I mean the door was unlocked.” I shivered at the memory of what I had seen going on in Stixx’s trailer. “If they were having sex you’d think they’d lock the door.”

  “Nah, they like getting caught. They like an audience. Trust me, the neighbors are all used to it. That's why they are where they are.” He waved at a couple of people as we passed by in the golf cart. “Bear doesn’t really care and the neighbor on the other side is blind so he doesn’t see anything. He certainly hears them, I’m sure, but he doesn’t see them.”

  “What about the other guy? Who was that?”

  “Probably a friend of theirs or someone they picked up at the bar.” He spoke so nonchalantly about it. “Your first threesome?” He looked over at me. “It was only the three of them right?”

  “I only saw the three of them. I guess I was just shocked.”

  “So not your first threesome?” he cocked an eyebrow at them.

  “Yes, my first threesome. In person. Like in real life. I’ve read about them, seen them online and in movies, but this was my first in person, up close and personal, front row seat.”

  “Next time, call her first.”

  “She didn’t leave her number on the note.”

  “So am I allowed to ask what it was she needed to give you?” he turned the wheel slightly as we rounded the last turn toward Betty’s cabin.

  “I think it is a book. I think it belonged to Drew.” I pulled it out of my bag where I had stuffed it when I had gotten back to the golf cart from Stixx’s trailer.

  “Did she say why it was so important?”

  “What do you know about Bear?”

  “He’s been here since he was a kid. He and his mother moved in when he was about ten or eleven. She was a nasty lady. She yelled and screamed at Bear all the time. She cut his pinky off when he was a kid. Betty let his aunt move in, rent free for six months if she promised to take care of Bear. Betty said he reminded her of the little boy she always wanted.”

  “So Bruce and Betty never had any children of their own?”

  “No. Bruce traveled a lot and Betty would go with him sometimes. They said that the kids here at the resort were their kids.”

  “How did Betty run this place if she was traveling with Bruce?”

  “They had, and still have, a really great staff. Betty personally trained everyone and everyone knew that she would fire them without hesitation if they fucked up “ He laughed at my shocked look. “Her words, not mine. Why are you asking about Bear?”

  “He said he found this book, but was too stoned to remember where he found it.” I pulled the book out and placed it on my lap, with the front cover facing down against my lap.

  “What’s in the book?” Jason asked as he pulled up to Betty’s house.

  “No idea. I haven’t even opened it yet.” I flipped the book back and forth in my hand, covering the letters on the bottom corner.

  “Why don’t you go on in and I’ll grab the files from the back and meet you inside.” He handed me a key ring with four keys on it. One was attached to a round, bluish coin with the outline of a cabin on it. “The key opens the handle and the deadbolt.”

  I slowly and unsurely made my way up the steps to the large cabin. It was bigger than any of the ones we had passed on the way here. There were two levels. There was a wraparound porch running around the whole front of the cabin. The view of the lake was fantastic. The cabin was set a little further back than the trailersand cabins on the other side. It made the landscape seem larger.

  I slipped the key into both locks and held my breath for an alarm to sound, but none came when I pushed the door open. My breath was caught in my chest when I stepped into the living room.

  “Rory? Rory? Hello? Rory coul
d you move in a bit so I

  can . . .” I heard Jason’s voice, but I couldn’t respond. I felt like I was drowning. “Rory.”

  “This is . . .” I brushed my hands over my face. I looked around the living room. The four walls felt like they were closing in on me. “I need to sit down.” I felt Jason take my elbow and walked me toward the floral printed couch.

  “I know this can all be overwhelming. Being in someone ‘s house for the first time like this can be . . .”

  “This looks like my grandmother’s house.” I said trying to catch my breath. “I mean it looks exactly like . . . how can this . . . I don’t . . .”

  “Let me get you a glass of water. You just sit tight.” He patted my thigh and disappeared around the corner. “Here, drink this.” He handed me a glass and took a seat on the edge of the coffee table across from me, his knees almost brushing against mine. He gently rubbed my knee as I took sip after sip of the water while I continued to look around the room.

  Is it possible that my grandmother and aunt being twins would have given them the exact same taste in interior design? I mean this wasn’t just a few things matching or the same theme running through the room. This was the exact same room. Right down to the pictures on the walls, the knickknacks on the shelves and on the fireplace mantel. The fucking curtains were even the same.

  “This is my grandmother’s living room. Right down to the curtains, pictures and knickknacks.” I pointed to the mantel behind him.

  “Well, they were twins. I’m sure the might have liked some of the same . . .”

  “This isn’t some of the same stuff. This is the same couch, the same carpet, the same everything,” I stated. My stomach was in knots.

  “Should we check out the rest of the house? I doubt it would be the same all of the way through.” He stood up and reached his hand out to me.

  “But what if it is?” I mumbled as I took his hand and stood up.

  “Is the design the same? I mean did your grandmother . . .”

  “Oh my God!” I covered my mouth as we stepped into the kitchen. “The floor plan is different, but this is . . .” I turned around in circles looking at every inch of the room. “This looks exactly the same.” I opened the cabinet closest to me. “This can’t be real.” The cabinet had the exact same items lined up in them. I moved to the next cabinet. Then the next and the next until every cabinet and drawer was opened. “The dishes, the glasses, the silverware, everything. What the hell is going on?”

  “Maybe we should go back to my place with the files.” He tried to pull me out of the room.

  “I want to see the rest of the house.” I let go of his hand and started down the hall to the first door. Every room. Every single room was the same. I hesitated at the last door. I had seen every room recreated from my grandmother’s house, but one. Mine.

  We had only lived in grandma’s house for a short time before—I hesitated at the word—“mother” died. She called it my blank slate. The first time I opened the door to go into the room I was disappointed that it had nothing in it. She stood behind me looking into the room and said, “This is your room. Your space, your place. You do whatever you want with it.”

  My hand wrapped around the last door’s handle. I gripped it so tightly my knuckles were turning white and it felt like needles were beginning to poke at my skin.

  “Rory. Rory let go of the handle.” Jason’s hand covered mine and he eased my hand from the handle.

  “I have to see it. I have to see if that is my room.”

  “I’ll open the door.” He gently moved me aside and stepped up to the door. I held onto his arm as he turned the handle. “I’m going to count to three and then I’m going to turn the handle and open the door.” He squeezed my other hand as he began to count. I closed my eyes when he got to three.

  I heard Jason turn the handle and the swooshing sound of the door open. Jason took a step forwards. I heard his feet hit the bare, uncarpeted floor and my heart sank. The floor in my room had been uncarpeted. I only had a rug surrounding my . . . my eyes immediately popped open and were met with an exact duplicate of my room.

  My legs gave out on me and the heavy feeling of my body and mind had me dropping to the floor. I couldn’t help but continue to scan the room before me. The walls were the same light shade of purple. The queen size bed that stood in the middle of the room with the same bedding. My small wooden desk was in the far corner facing the door. My dresser was at an angle from my desk. Everything was exactly the same.

  “Why? What is going on? Why is everything the same?”

  “Let’s get out of here.” Jason bent down in front of me and lifted me with his arms under my elbows. I could barely move on my own. Jason gave up and lifted me from the floor and carried me back out to the waiting golf cart. “Rory, I need for you to hold on. I’m going to get us back to my cabin as fast as I can.” He started the golf cart. “We are going to figure this out Rory. I promise.” The golf cart jumped with a start. “Now hold on.”

  ***

  I was sitting on the couch with my head in my hands trying to figure out what the hell was going on. My life was boring as hell a few days ago and now there was so much going on I couldn’t keep anything straight. Jason was talking to someone in the kitchen. I didn’t hear another voice so he must have been on the phone.

  “I don’t care what you have to do. I’ve only got what Betty gave me, but there has to be more. There has to be a hell of a lot more. Are you listening to me? Rory said the house is the same.” He paused listening to their response. “Exact . . . to a tee. Who the fuck does that?” I turned to look at him, he moved closer to me. “I need it right away. Like a week ago. Yeah, I’ll be here. I’m not going anywhere and I’m not leaving her. You’ll have to come here.”He covered my hand with his.

  “Who was that?” I wiped the sleep from my eyes.

  “I have a friend down at the police station. His father worked the case of the body they found years back. He was also good friends with Betty’s husband. And he’d done some side work for Betty.” I looked at him, about to ask what kind of work. “Some kind of security stuff from what Tony said. He wasn’t really too sure.”

  “Is his father coming over now?” I ran my hand through my hair.

  “Yeah, Tony said he’d bring him by in a little bit. For now do you want to go through Drew’s book with me?” He lifted the book from the table behind him and handed it over to me.

  “Did you already read it?” I looked at him, hoping he hadn’t.

  “No, I helped you to the couch and then I started making some phone calls. I thought all of a sudden it seemed very strange that so many people have lived here and have known Betty and Bruce so long, but did anyone really know them?”

  “What did you find?” I questioned. Something brought him to this frame of mind about Betty and Bruce.

  “I admit I flipped through Drew’s book and I found this.” He held up a thumb drive. “Now this I did look at.”

  “That was in the book?”

  “There was a hole cut in the back and this was tucked in the little nook of the pages.”

  “What was on it?”

  “Recent pictures of you from when he was following you.” I went to say something, but he stopped me. “None of them were anything more than following you around, outside of your house.”

  “Still freaks me out a bit that he had been following me.”

  “I know. I’m sorry about that, but Betty insisted.”

  “What else was on there?”

  “That’s why I called Tony. There were pictures of your grandmother, well I can only assume it was your grandmother and you when you were a child, pictures of you at her house, pictures of you and Caroline when you were a baby, and . . .” he ran his and down his jaw.

  “What?”

  “Pictures of you with Bruce.My head snapped up at him. But you said you never met Bruce or Betty.”

  “I hadn’t.” I was confused.

  “Wel
l, you wouldn’t have remembered it, you were just a baby. Maybe two.”

  “I don’t understand this. I don’t understand what is going on.”

  “I’ve got the pictures loaded to my laptop. I’ll hook it up to my TV and we can see them on the bigger screen.” He moved to get his laptop.

  “I’m going to go freshen up. Splash some water on my face.” I stood up and headed toward the bathroom in the hallway.

  Chapter Ten

  “Wait! Wait! What are you . . .”

  “Jason what is . . .” I stopped in my tracks as I stepped out of the bathroom and found Jason being pressed against the wall of the living room by a very large man. He was bald and dressed in all back. He stood what I guessed to be about 6’4 because he had Jason about two inches off of the floor and they were eye to eye.

  “Don’t you dare touch her.”

  “The two of you just couldn’t let it go. You couldn’t just freak the fuck out over a dead fucking body and go the fuck away. You were supposed to run. You were supposed to want to give up this place. You were supposed to say no to owning the property where a dead fucking body was found. A dead body found where a previous dead body had been found. You were supposed to take it as a threat and run.” The man in black grumbled while still holding Jason to the wall.

  “Run? Why would I run?” I took a step toward the man. I was getting pissed now. What the fuck was going on!

  “You stupid bitch!” He shook his head angrily. “So the property would be broken up and sold! Christ, how stupid can you be? Do you have any idea how much the fucking land is worth? Do you have any idea how much money I’m going to get when I sell it?” he threw his head back laughing. “I’m going to be rolling in so much fucking money.”

  “You! Why you? Who the hell are you?” I was now screaming.