Forever in Love by Nadia Lee Read Free Book Online

handed her the package and left. She kicked the door closed and felt the weight of the white Tyvek envelope. It was too heavy to be money. Salazar was just eccentric enough to send her a wad of cash rather than using a wiring service, but this would be far too much.
    She located a pair of scissors and ripped the package open. A large manila folder fell out, along with two inch-thick printouts of some sort. What the…?
    The first thing in the folder was a set of color photos of Blaine in Cooter’s Bluff. Given the foreshortening of the street signs and buildings, and excessive blurring of some of the objects, they must’ve been taken from a distance with a powerful lens…the kind of equipment you would expect paparazzi to carry around. She flipped the pages. There was one hand-written sticky note, which she ignored. The rest were densely typed reports on something…probably Blaine, based on the pictures.
    What did Salazar expect her to do with this? Read every single page? She never read, and she didn’t see why she’d need to waste days reading up on Blaine. It wasn’t like the report had anything useful. If it did, Salazar wouldn’t have asked her to go to Cooter’s Bluff.
    She stuffed everything back into the envelope and put it in a kitchen drawer. What would be more helpful was some money. And a way to cancel her cards and get them reissued before Willie Rae figured out the PIN to her ATM card. Catherine needed the money more than Willie Rae. It was expensive to get a husband—mani and pedi, hair, makeup, clothes and shoes. The kind of man she needed didn’t always look beyond the surface. No, the exterior—how she presented herself—was more important than anything else. Not even the Fairchild name would be enough if she didn’t look right.
    Almost ten minutes later, the doorbell rang again, and this time it was Irene. She came bearing a large black plastic bag. Her hair had been teased until her head looked like a giant wad of cotton candy. She wore a big frown, her lips in the shape of an upside down U. “Here,” she said, shoving the bag at Catherine. “Property management told me to give this to you.”
    “Thank you.” Catherine glanced inside. Bundles of cash. Oh Salazar, Salazar.
    Irene licked her lips. “You gonna count that?”
    “Should I?” Catherine asked, arching an eyebrow.
    “I’m just asking. Wouldn’t want to be accused of anything later.”
    Catherine shrugged. “I’m sure nothing’s been touched.” If she guessed right, Salazar had sent at least ten thousand dollars. The man rarely had any sense of proportion when it came to money, but then he’d been born rich and lived in the lap of luxury all his life. The amount in the bag was pocket change.
    She could’ve been like that too, if her father hadn’t made such foolish decisions with money. What had he been thinking, leveraging himself in the stock and commodities markets? The only person she knew who could do that and actually come out ahead was Gavin. Everyone else blew up.
    “So you need anything else?” Irene said.
    Catherine was about to answer when there was another knock on the door. What now? She opened it and saw Sheriff Earl. He was in the exact same uniform he’d been in the night before, with the addition of a pair of sunglasses and a cup of coffee that smelled tantalizingly fresh. Catherine looked at it longingly.
    “Good morning, ma’am,” he said in a booming voice. “Got a minute?”
    “Sure. Come on in.”
    Earl walked inside, but stopped in the foyer.
    “Did you get a chance to see Willie Rae?” she asked.
    “I did, and she says she doesn’t have your purse. Hasn’t seen it and doesn’t know who could’ve taken it.”
    Irene snorted. “What’d you expect her to say? ‘Here ya go, Earl. I had it all along’? Might as well expect a frog to sing gospel.”
    “Now, Irene. It ain’t nice to speak ill of your neighbors.” He turned his attention back to Catherine. “But she did say she