Murdered by Success Read online

  Connor was clearly rotten. Didn’t he know how much hard work Simon had put in for him? How much money Simon had spent in winning back custody? He was such an ungrateful boy. Why had God cursed him with such a son?

  But Simon, being generous and forgiving, was willing to give Connor a final chance.

  Peter grumbled, “I didn’t even get a son. Three daughters. Took ‘em fishing and to football games, though, and one of ‘em plays pro soccer now.”

  “Yeah? Well, my son’s making multi-million property deals,” Simon said. “Making his old man proud.”

  Peter lifted his glass of lager and tapped it against Simon’s. “Well, Norman, here’s to more happy years with our children.”

  Simon imagined jetting all over the world with Connor, taking over his business, with Connor second in command. He grinned. “Cheers to that!”

  CHAPTER 4

  The next morning, Gina set out a very unusual breakfast in the lodge dining room, one that was according to Connor’s exacting specifications. Not a trace of gluten or dairy was in sight, so that ruled out all the usual bread, pastries, milk, yogurt, and cream.

  But there was homebaked bread that Gina had done herself, with gluten-free flour. “I substituted coconut milk for the regular milk I usually use in the recipe,” she said, nodding at Connor with pride.

  There was also bacon, sausage, eggs, broiled tomatoes, and fried mushrooms. Gina had laid them out in individual serving dishes, as requested, since Connor liked to pick and choose his food.

  “Thank you,” Connor said, looking preoccupied. He piled his plate high with everything, and wolfed down three pieces of bread slathered with peanut butter before he even touched any of the rest of it.

  Julita was much more restrained, just placing a poached egg on a piece of bread and cutting it into dainty pieces with her knife and fork.

  Roger was just as enthusiastic as Connor with his meal, but he also had a huge smile on his face. “Gina, this is fantastic. I didn’t come back from my business trip to see you, Liz. And not Winston or even Brandy Boy. I just came back for Gina’s breakfasts,” he said with a laugh.

  Liz swatted him and rolled her eyes. “Thank you. That makes me feel so appreciated,” she said with a chuckle.

  Connor ignored the jovial atmosphere and said, “Julita and I are going to drive to the hotel negotiations this morning. I have to be very careful on the road, in case someone tries to sabotage me or crash my car. I don’t trust having a driver drive us, that’s why I want to drive myself.” He didn’t make eye contact with anyone or anything but simply kept his head down and stared at his bacon.

  “Connor’s been the target of a smear campaign.” Julita said. “We think it’s being conducted by someone who doesn’t want him to close this deal. All sorts of lies and threats have been published online.”

  “I’m really sorry to hear that,” Liz said. “That must be difficult for you.”

  Connor looked up and flashed a fake smile. “I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

  Liz’s heart went out to him. For a young man, he certainly seemed to be under a lot of pressure. “I don’t want to pry, but have you considered hiring a bodyguard?”

  “Connor doesn’t trust them,” Julita explained. “He wants to keep new people around him to a minimum.”

  “I only hired Julita because I know her from my childhood,” Connor said. “She was my foster mother’s next-door neighbor. She used to give me food when my foster mother wouldn’t.”

  “I need to add that his foster mother is a changed woman now,” said Julita. “She’s given her life to the Lord, has had a lot of therapy, and now is a very loving, giving woman.”

  “The past is the past,” said Connor. “As they say, yesterday don’t pay.” He shoveled a final spoonful of food into his mouth, then grabbed his car keys from where he’d set them on the table. “Come on, Julita, are you finished? I’m ready to go.”

  “Okay,” Julita said, in a business-like tone, then drank the last of her coffee. “Let’s do this deal.”

  “Let me walk you to the parking lot,” Roger said. “I’m finished with breakfast.” That might have been an understatement considering there wasn’t a single crumb of food left on his plate.

  “Thank you,” Julita said.

  Connor was already striding off towards the front door of the lodge.

  When the three of them were out of earshot, Liz mused out loud. “I wonder why he doesn’t get a licence to carry a firearm. That might make him feel safer.”

  “I’ll bet he’s already got one,” Gina said. “He looks really afraid.”

  “I know, poor man,” Liz agreed. “I feel sorry for him in a way.”

  “Yes, but I guess when you’re that successful, you’re bound to have some problems, and yes, some enemies.”

  “You’re probably right. It just seems he’s had it really rough. Did you hear what Julita said about his foster mother not giving him any food? I wonder what happened to his parents. Sounds like they weren’t around.”

  “It does seem like he’s had a rough ride,” Gina said. “And Julita mentioned to me before breakfast that his wife is pregnant. In fact, the baby’s due any day now.”

  “Good grief, that’s a lot for anyone to have on their plate,” Liz mused as she buttered a piece of bread. “Well, I hope he gets this deal he’s so desperate for, and the baby is born safely. Then he’ll have two things to celebrate.”

  Gina smiled. “Let’s hope so.”

  They fell into silence for a while.

  “What do you have planned for the day, Gina?” Liz asked. “Since there aren’t any guests around, and Connor won’t be back until evening, you’re pretty free to do whatever you want. I told you Roger and I would arrange our own lunch, so the rest of the day is yours.”

  Gina laughed. “Well, this is certainly a rare occurrence, isn’t it? I think I’ll treat myself to a little retail therapy, and a long quiet lunch at my favorite Italian restaurant. Plus, I’ve arranged for a massage. Bertha said she’d have one of her best massage therapists come in for me.”

  Liz grinned. “Sounds like you’re making the most of your free time.”

  “You bet I am. What about you?”

  “I thought Roger and I would have a lazy morning. Dawdle around the lodge, take some time in the sauna, and spend some time cooking up a delicious lunch. There’s a Mexican flap steak salad recipe I’ve been wanting to try for a while, so I thought I’d do that. I might even start to catch up on my reading. I don’t remember the last time I’ve had free time to drift away with a good book.”

  “Sounds like a heavenly day for all of us.” Gina held up her glass of juice. “All thanks to Connor. Cheers to him, his deal, and his baby.”

  “Absolutely. Here’s to Connor,” Liz said.

  They clinked glasses so enthusiastically they spilled some juice on the table.

  “Oh dear,” Gina said, laughing and mopping it up with a napkin.

  “Thank you for the lovely breakfast, Gina,” Liz said. “This bread is just as delicious as your regular loaf.”

  Gina looked pleased. “Thank you. That bread machine really works wonders.”

  “Sure, blame it on the bread machine,” Liz said with a laugh. “I think it was helped along by a bit, no, with a lot of magic by you. I can put all the right ingredients in it, and the bread still comes out like a chewy block.”

  Gina grinned. “That’s why you hired me to take over as chef around here.”

  “That I did.” Liz stood up and began to stack the plates.

  “Hey, let me do that,” Gina said. “Go and enjoy your day with Roger.”

  Liz met Roger at the entrance to the lodge as he returned from giving Connor and Julita directions. He smiled at her, that lovely soft smile that made her heart melt, and hugged her. He had the kindest eyes of anyone she’d ever known.

  “Have I told you this morning how much I love you?” he asked, holding her in a gentle embrace. “How
glad I am you’re in my life?”

  “Oh, stop it,” Liz said, grinning back at him, “you’re just a big softie.”

  “Seriously,” he said. “You know, whenever I come home, I fall in love with you all over again.”

  “Roger,” Liz said with a laugh. “I think you’ve been memorizing lines from a movie.”

  “Nope,” he said, and held her even closer. “They say you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, but I’m not going to let that happen to me. Even when I go away on business, I miss you and want to come home. That’s plenty enough ‘gone’ for me.”

  Liz smiled. “How did I ever get so lucky to end up with you?”

  “No, I think you have it all wrong. I’m the lucky one,” he said. “Now, don’t we have a sauna date?”

  “That we do,” Liz said, looking forward to it. “And we said we were going to talk about life, the universe, and all kinds of things, but absolutely no business talk allowed whatsoever.”

  Roger rocked back, pretending to be shocked. “Then I don’t think we’ll have anything to talk about.”

  Liz laughed. “Roger, we’ve got to get some balance in our lives.”

  “Okay. Let’s go down to the spa.” He took her hand and they strolled towards it like lovestruck teenagers. It was like they were dating again, and Liz felt like her heart could burst with the sheer happiness of it all. It was a beautiful spring morning. The sky was blue and little cotton candy clouds drifted above the bright green canopy of the cedar trees. Even the birds seemed to be singing sweeter than usual.

  When they reached the spa, they exchanged their clothes for robes, and headed to the sauna. Liz played with the settings outside the door and got the room just the way she liked it, pleasantly hot and filled with steam.

  “So,” Roger said, settling down into his place, “go on then. Life, universe, and everything.”

  Liz had a topic on her mind which had been sparked by Connor and his experiences. “Some people just get dealt a bad hand in their life. Take Connor, for example. We know he grew up in foster care, which must have really been tough. I mean his foster mother didn’t even feed him properly. Now he’s achieved amazing success at a very young age, and bad things are still happening to him. I really hope the birth of his baby goes okay. It would be too tragic to think of something going wrong there.”

  “Hmm,” Roger said. “I agree. It seems that some people do go from one tragedy, then to another, and then to another.”

  “That’s exactly my point,” Liz said. “Everyone has to play the hand they’re dealt the best way they can, and for each person it’s different. Then other people judge them for the way they’re living their lives, when really, they’re just trying to survive and thrive, like we all are.

  “I don’t know, Connor’s got me thinking quite philosophically this morning. He’s quite a presence. To think he’s been through everything he has, and to still be so successful at such a young age. Obviously, he’s not a run-of-the-mill person.”

  “No, he’s not,” Roger said. “He’s one of life’s outliers. A lot of people from the foster care system end up strung out on drugs or in prison. For many people, the lack of stability he’s experienced in his life would be crippling.”

  “Some of those children must wonder if anyone loves them,” Liz said. She tried to wrap her head around the idea of a child having no one to love them or guide them. It was really quite sobering. “I wonder what happened to his parents. I know it’s none of my business, so I don’t feel I can ask him.”

  “No, you can’t,” Roger said, “although he might decide to volunteer it. It could be anything. Drugs, car accident, neglect, who knows?”

  Liz shook her head. “I don’t know, it’s just unthinkable. I’m glad he’s got Julita, though. Despite being his assistant, I think she’s like a mother to him.”

  Roger smiled. “He looks like he needs one.”

  “Yes.”

  They drifted off into thoughtful silence for a while, then began talking about politics. They shared slightly different political beliefs, so it got a little heated, but in a weirdly enjoyable way.

  “Given your current crazy political beliefs, I think we need to get a divorce,” Liz joked.

  Roger grinned. “As soon as we get back to the lodge, I’m calling my lawyer to draft the papers.” Then he leaned over and kissed her.

  They spent the rest of the morning lazing away at home. Liz cooked the Mexican steak salad recipe she’d been wanting to try, while Roger read a novel. They sat outside on the back porch and ate the salad while enjoying a glass of red wine. Brandy Boy and Winston were very grateful for the portions they were given.

  When they were finished, Roger cleaned up the kitchen while Liz soaked in the tub. She even floated some flower petals from her garden in the bath water, read a book, and stayed in the tub until her toes were wrinkled like prunes.

  Just as she was thinking about getting out of her bath, Roger knocked on the door. “It’s Julita,” he said, coming in with the cell phone in his hand. “She wants to speak to you.”

  “Okay,” Liz said as she took the phone from him. “Hi Julita. Is everything okay?”

  “Hi Liz. Well, yes, it’s okay. I just wanted to let you know Connor and I had lunch at a local restaurant before our meeting, since the people who were to attend the meeting weren’t ready for it when they said they’d be. Then, after lunch when we got ready to drive out to the hotel site, Connor became extremely paranoid and accused me of some nonsense. He refused to let me get in the car with him and left me high and dry at the restaurant.

  “I’m going to take a cab back to the lodge, but I wanted to let you know so you can open the gates for me. I know Connor requested that they always be locked.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about calling a cab,” Liz said. “I’ll come and get you.”

  “Are you sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble?”

  Liz had already gotten out of the tub and was reaching for a towel. “Of course not. What’s the name of the restaurant?”

  CHAPTER 5

  Danica Wilcock tied her long strawberry blonde hair up in a high ponytail, her favorite style, and smiled at herself in the mirror in the staff bathroom. Then she pouted, flicking her ponytail from side to side, and placed her hand on her hip.

  The future Mrs. Moynahan. Danica Moynahan, she thought. That sounded so much better than Charlotte Moynahan.

  When she’d told her friends and family about the love story between Connor and her, they’d all said to forget him and go on with her life, that men didn’t leave a pregnant wife. But Danica was no quitter.

  She was going to get Connor, whatever it took. He was the best man she’d ever come across, and there was no way she was letting him go. For one thing, he was a multimillionaire. He was also young, handsome, and interesting. He traveled and stayed in fancy hotels. He was a little paranoid, but she was sure she could get him to relax, and that would take care of his paranoia.

  That’s what she’d done when he’d first come to the bar. He’d caught her eye immediately. Of course he had. He was handsome and young, which wasn’t a prerequisite but was always a bonus, and extremely well-dressed. Danica was no amateur when it came to scoping out and endearing herself to wealthy men.

  She knew the places to check for real wealth, like what kind of watch they were wearing on their wrists, and the shoes they wore. He was wearing an expensive watch, and his shoes were the real deal.

  Even better than all of that, he looked desperately stressed. That was how she liked them. Some laughing, providing a look at her generous cleavage, and some flirtatious hair flicking, always loosened them up, and within a few minutes they were putty in her hands.

  Sometimes she and her best friend Hannah, they’d gone to the same high school and now worked in the same place, had competitions to see who could get men to crack faster. An offer for a date, or a proposal to check into the hotel across the street that night after their shift ended, was the crite
ria. Just getting phone numbers didn’t count. The guy had to really take it to the next level.

  The competition between Hannah and Danica was fierce, and they both took it extremely seriously. They’d even fallen out over it a few times, but somehow, they always managed to get back on track. Maybe it was because no one else liked them, and they got so lonely they had to seek each other out again.

  Hannah had just arrived for her shift, and joined Danica in the bathroom. “Hey, girl,” she said, and put her arms around Danica for a hug.

  Danica hugged her back. “Hey yourself.”

  Hannah looked in the mirror, fluffed up her dark hair, and began to apply eyeliner. She was gorgeous, but thankfully Danica’s and her looks were so different they were rarely in competition for the same man, because they were such different “types.” Otherwise they would have been insanely jealous of one other.

  “So tell me,” Hannah said, waggling her eyebrows. “How’s the Moynhan mission coming along?”

  “Hmm, it’s okay,” Danica said. “I took a new letter over there.”

  Hannah giggled. “And no one’s called the cops on you yet?”

  “Nope.”

  “I think he wants you,” Hannah said. “It’s, you know, the whole pregnant wife thing. It’s hard to get out of a marriage when that’s going on. I’d bet he’s really trying to resist his attraction to you, and I guess he’ll crack pretty soon.”

  “You think so?” Danica asked as she looked in the mirror, pouting and smoothing out her ponytail.

  “Of course,” Hannah said. “Look at you. You’re beautiful, and don’t forget we looked up his wife online. I mean, yeah, she’s pretty, but you’re like a goddess compared to her.”

  “Aww, thanks babe.”

  Hannah shrugged. “Just telling the truth.” She said as she began to apply another layer of mascara.