Deconstructed(93)

“Can I get you something while we wait on the results? Are you hungry?” I asked my grandmother.

“Well, I could pick at somethin’. Maybe some of those little powdered doughnuts they sell in those machines. Or a honey bun.” My grandmother lifted a cup of ice water and sipped. “Oh, and bring me a Dr Pepper. You know I hate water.”

Over my dead body. She’d just about died. Okay, not died, but if they were indeed TIAs, then they had happened for a reason. They were warning signs, and Gran was going to need to pay better attention to her health. “I’ll see what I can find.”

I slipped out of the bay and headed back toward the waiting area. As I passed the nurses’ desk, I said, “I’ll be right back.”

I entered the waiting area and was surprised to find Cricket, Griffin, and Juke—all the players in our “Blue Moon Sting,” as Cricket had called it. The woman did, indeed, love a theme. “Hey, what are y’all doing here?”

“We came to check on you . . . and your grandmother. How is she?” Cricket asked.

I felt a bit stunned that she had come all the way here on a day that was, well, important. Griff and Juke weren’t as surprising—Gran was their relative, after all. “They’re running tests but don’t seem to think she’s in danger at present. I was about to get her a snack.”

Ed Earl moved toward us, Jimbo lagging behind. His eyes moved over Cricket, who looked a bit messy but in a sexy way. Over the last few weeks, Cricket seemed to have abandoned the priss for the sass. She looked good mussed up. My uncle looked intrigued by my boss. “I can get Mama something to eat. And who’s this?”

Cricket gave him the look one might give a cockroach that had crawled onto a counter. “Who are you?”

He tried out a charming smile, which looked like he had a stomachache. “I’m Ed Earl, darling. And who might you be?”

“Oh,” Cricket said, turning away from him and training her gaze on me.

Damn. She had that society direct-cut thing down.

Ed Earl looked confused, which almost made me laugh. I glanced back at him. “Gran said she wanted a honey bun. You can get that, but it’s probably her last one for a while. The TIAs she had are like a warning buzzer going off. Gran needs to start paying better attention to what she eats and doing more walking.”

Ed Earl lifted his eyebrows, and I knew he knew what the whole family knew—we were about to battle the woman who cooked with bacon grease and kept jelly beans next to her recliner. But he did as I asked, his sidekick Jimbo following him down the squeaky-clean hall toward the room that had vending machines.

“Well, I’m glad she’s going to be okay,” Cricket said.

“As far as we know,” I amended, glancing down to where Ed Earl and Jimbo had disappeared. “So? How did everything go?”

Juke smiled. “Well, she got the signature. It may not stand up in a court of law, but the bank in the Caymans won’t know that. She should be able to recover her part, at least. May have to go down there to do it. Not sure.”

“Look, I did not lie to Scott; I just didn’t tell him what the paper was. If he didn’t read them before he signed, that’s his mistake and his problem.” Cricket crossed her arms and looked a little perturbed at Juke. Juke looked a bit like he faced a prostate exam. Griff just looked like he always did. Like he might grind someone’s bones to make his bread.

“Yeah. Right,” Juke said, withdrawing his phone. “So I think we can make that appointment with the investigators from the SEC and Justice Department. You can give them the information they need to arrest Donner and Scott, and maybe that will do a lot to help you in regard to the divorce and the recovery of the untainted money. I did some poking around. Even if they freeze your joint accounts, you can petition a judge to release your lawfully gained funds. Might be a hill to climb, but you might be able to get at it.”

Cricket lifted a shoulder. “I don’t care as much about the money as I do winning against Scott. He doesn’t think I’m smart or motivated enough to best him. I want him to know that he’s wrong.”

Juke motioned at his phone and stepped away, leaving me with Cricket and Griff. I glanced down at where Ed Earl stood against the hospital wall, holding a honey bun and chatting with someone on the phone. “You didn’t have to come.”

Cricket wrapped an arm around me and gave me a squeeze. “Ruby, you’re my friend. I wanted to be here.”

“But you have so much going on and—”

She shook her head. “I know you think you’re an island, Ruby, but you’re not. We all need someone. Look how much you’ve been there for me. Do you know what that means to me? You roping your cousins into helping me, into conducting a sting to nail my husband? That was pretty cool. And generous. And slightly bloodthirsty, but I like that about you.”

That made me chuckle. “Well, we know how to choose our weapons.”

Griff snorted.

Cricket grinned and then watched as Juke approached, pocketing his phone and looking like he had juicy info. “Okay. Jim Arnold is the contact. He wants you to come in to meet him as soon as you’re able. I get the sense that they’re ready to move.”

Cricket looked surprised. “Like when?”

“Can you go by tomorrow?” Juke asked.