Chapter Twenty-Four

~ Scotty ~

This was not how I planned to spend my evening, but I couldn't exactly argue against it. Cynthia had finally been caught and she had been the biggest threat to my continued happiness. With her headed to jail, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Now I just had to deal with Julia and her father.

I headed to the cabinet where we kept the liquor. I grabbed some glasses and poured everyone a drink except the detective and the security guards. They were still on duty.

I set them all on a tray and then carried it to the living room where everyone was sitting and began handing them out. "I didn't get you one, Detective Waterston, because you are still on duty, but I will if you want one."

"No, thank you." The man shook his head. "Your husband is getting me some coffee."

That's what I thought.

"We probably owe you a couple of drinks after the crap we've put you through," Jake said. "Give me a call when you have some time off and we'll get you set up."

Detective Waterston snorted. "You owe me more than a few."

Luckily, Jake chuckled. "We live interesting lives."

"You live insane lives."

"Could be worse," Jake countered. "Kyue Kincaid could be here."

Detective Waterston shivered. "God, no."

My eyebrows lifted. "Kyue Kincaid?"

"Lucas's husband," Jake replied. "Word of advice? Don't piss the man off. He can take your head off, literally."

"He's like the size of a postage stamp and he's put more than three people in the hospital," the detective complained. "My captain refuses to go out on any call where his name is mentioned."

I needed to meet this guy.

"Kyue is an interesting man," Jake said. "I think you'd like him, Mr. Prescott. He built his company up from nothing with his own two hands. It's worth over twenty million dollars now."

"What does he do?" I asked.

"He designs and races motorcycles."

Huh.

"Lucas is crazy about him." Jake chuckled. "Funny thing is, Kyue has put Lucas on the floor more times than I can count."

"He's not abusive, is he?" I didn't want Beck around anyone like that.

"No, not at all," Jake quickly said. "The first time it happened, Lucas tried to stop Kyue from leaving. It didn't end well for him. And that was before they got married."

"As much as he freaks me out," the detective said, "he's never gone after anyone that didn't go after him first. The first three guys he put in the hospital attacked him and his husband. He was only defending himself."

"Like we discussed before, once everything calms down, I'll call everyone and plan a dinner or something. You really need to meet the new people in our lives."

"Does that include your mobster friends?" the detective asked.

"Mobsters? I don't know any mobsters." Jake smirked. "Just some enterprising businessmen."

"Uh huh."

I didn't think the detective believed him.

I tensed when I heard someone knock on the front door. I knew who it was. I glanced at Beck. "Are you ready for this?"

Beck nodded. "They can't hurt us."

"I suggest you have Cynthia moved to one of the other rooms temporarily," Jake said. "If they see her in cuffs, they will clam right up and we'll never be able to figure out how deeply they were involved in her schemes."

"You don't think they'll figure it out when they see Detective Waterston?" I asked.

The detective stood up and took his long coat off. He gestured to Fred. "Let me borrow your suit jacket. I need to hide my gun because I am not taking that off."

Fred was probably the only one that could lend him a jacket. They were about the same size.

Fred peeled his jacket off and handed it over to the detective after Jake nodded to him. Once he had it on, he sat back down on the couch. "Now, I'll take that drink."

I chuckled as I headed to the cabinet. "Coming right up."

While Jake ordered his men to take Cynthia to one of the bedrooms, I poured Detective Waterston a drink and carried it back to him.

The man took a small sip and then frowned at the glass. "You know your scotch."

"My father knows his scotch. I take after him." Speaking of my father. "Dad, has Julia or her father ever met you?"

"I don't know about Julia, but I am very familiar with Mr. Beckerman. He manages the bank that the company does business with."

That wasn't good.

"You might want to hang out in the kitchen for a few minutes."

My father got up and walked into the kitchen without saying a word. We all knew the only reason we were playing this game was to get information. Hopefully, by the end of the night, Julia and her father would have pretty bracelets like Cynthia.

"Everyone set?"

When they all nodded, I went to answer the door. When I pulled it open, Julia and her father were standing there with two of Jake's security guards.

I almost didn't let them in.

After staring at them for the longest moment, I stepped back and gestured for them to come inside. The two guards took up positions on the outside of the door, mirroring the guards standing inside the apartment.

I shut the door and then turned to face two of my least favorite people. "What do you want?"

Julia's eyes rolled as she turned to look around the apartment. "If I'd known you wanted to live in New York City, I would have been more than happy to move here with you."

"You weren't invited."

Julia waved me away. "Don't be ridiculous, darling."

"I'm not your darling." Never was, never would be. "Again, what do you want?"

Julia huffed as she turned back to me. "It's time for you to come home. We have a wedding to plan."

Oh god, I really liked saying this. "I'm already married and bigamy is illegal in any state."

"You're engaged to me."

"Nope, never was. That's just something you and Cynthia hatched up. I never agreed to it."

Julia held out her hand where a very sparkly diamond ring sat on her finger. I stared at it for a moment, then looked at her for a moment, and then went back to the ring.

"It's very pretty, but what does that prove?"

"It's my engagement ring, Darling."

"Congratulations. Who are you marrying?"

"You, you imbecile!"

"Nope." I held up my hand this time and wiggled my ring finger. "Married. Very, very married."

"You're marrying me."

A grin started to spread across my lips as I shook my head. This was kind of fun. Julia had always been so condescending, so snobbish and arrogant. She was finally on the other end of things and it was glorious.

"You need to hear me here, Julia. I never agreed to marry you. That was all Cynthia's idea. I am married now and I have no intention of getting a divorce from someone I love so that I can marry someone I can't stand."

Julia's eyes narrowed. "I have a contract. If you refuse to marry me, I'll sue you in court and take everything you own."

"Does it have my signature on it?"

"What does that matter? Your mother—"

"Stepmother. Well, former stepmother."

"What?"

"Oh, didn't you know? My father divorced Cynthia before he had his stroke. Cynthia has been feeding everyone a load of bullshit this entire time."

"You're lying," Julia said quickly.

"He's not actually," my father said as he walked into the room. "I did divorce her."

"You remember my father, don't you?" I asked. "Jonathan Prescott."

Julia's eyes grew saucer size. "You..."

I was surprised by the anger on my father's face as he glared at Beck's father. He had dismissed Julia totally and was only staring at Mr. Beckerman.

"I remember you," my father slowly said. "You were the man my ex-wife was sleeping around with before I divorced her. Are you still fucking her or has she moved on to a younger man?"

Mr. Beckerman bristled with what I could only describe as indignation. "I don't know what you mean."

My father snorted. "You think I don't have evidence? Cynthia signed a pre-nuptial agreement before we married. One of the clauses stated that if proof of her infidelity appeared, I could divorce her and she got nothing. I had the proof and I divorced her, and that's when she started this little scheme of hers. Considering you're still around and probably still fucking her, I can only assume that you were in on it."

I remember my father stating in his letter to me that Cynthia had fooled around, but I had no idea she had fooled around with Beck's father. That gave me creepy vibes all over the place.

"If we had corporate do an audit on your books at the bank, what do you think they will find?" my father asked. "Everything above board? No biased treatment? No loans that shouldn't have been given out? Hmm?"

Oh, my dad was good. I could see the sweat dripping down Beckerman's temple from across the room. The man was so nervous, he was practically vibrating in place.

"My bank has nothing to do with Cynthia," Mr. Beckerman insisted.

I wonder if he realized he didn't deny sleeping with her.

"Really?" My father glanced toward the living room. "Hey, Waterston, do you have those papers Miles gave you? Could you bring them in here?"

My eyes narrowed as I wondered where my father was going with this.

Detective Waterston walked into the room with the file and handed it over to my father. He clasped his hands together in front of him as he stood next to him, his gaze going from the file to Mr. Beckerman.

"It says here that your bank loaned Prescott Textiles three hundred thousand dollars, except there is no record of that money ever getting to Prescott Textiles." My father glanced up. "Why is that?"

"I wouldn't know," Beckerman replied.

"Well, considering that Cynthia didn't have the right to sign a loan agreement as we were divorced, she was not the CEO, and she didn't have my power-of-attorney, don't you think you'd better figure it out?"

"I'm afraid whatever the customer does after they receive the money is not our responsibility or our business. You'd have to ask her."

"That's going to be pretty hard to do considering she was just arrested for attempted murder," I said. "Unless she starts singing like a bird to get a better deal." I crossed one arm over my chest and then tapped my chin. "Now, who do you think she could implicate if she wanted to make a deal?"

"If you want to know if he's in on it," Beck said as he walked into the room, "you should probably search the false bottom in the drawer of his desk in his study. That's where he keeps his real books along with all the papers he doesn't want others to see."

"James!" Mr. Beckerman shouted. "Shut your mouth."

Beck smirked as he crossed his arms. "Nope."

God, I loved him.

In fact...

I walked over and looped my hand around the back of his neck and yanked him closer until our lips met, kissing him until I was forced to come up for air. "You're so fucking sexy."

Beck wagged his eyebrows at me.

"What in the hell do you think you are doing?" Julia shouted. "Why are you kissing him?"

I grinned as I turned to face her, keeping my arm around Beck. "Because I'm married to him."

The slack-jawed looks of shock that statement got me from those two was wonderful to see. I couldn't help letting out a small chuckle. "I was never engaged to you, Julia. It was always Beck. He's the one I love, he's the one I married, and he's the one I'm going to spend my life with. You were never in the running."

Detective Waterston sighed. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you both in for questioning."

"What?" Julia shouted as if suddenly pulling herself out of her shock. She sneered as she looked the man up and down. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

The detective smiled as he whipped out his badge. "You really don't have a choice."

Julia's eyes widened for a moment before they snapped to me and Beck. "You called the police?"

"No, he came with Cynthia," I explained, "but after she tried to shoot us, we explained the situation to him and gave him all of the evidence we've collected on you, your father, and Cynthia, and what you were all trying to do. He has every right to take you in for questioning."

"My advice," Beck said, "answer his questions honestly. Especially you, Julia."

"Me?"

"You wanted to marry Scotty to get the CEO position and have access to all the Prescott money. While your behavior was reprehensible, I don't think you were involved in the rest of this crap. Father, however, is in this up to his neck."

"But, what am I supposed to do now?" she asked in a broken tone, sounding like a little girl who had lost her doll.

"Not my problem," Beck stated. "As of right now, I am cutting all ties with you and father. Not only was what you did morally unethical, I have no doubt that you would continue to try and get Scotty to marry you since his father officially made him CEO of Prescott Textiles."

I smirked as I hugged Beck close to my side. "Never going to happen."

I was perfectly happy right where I was.