Page 46

“This morning, she asked me for money. She’s divorced. Infidelity. Her husband caught her, and he finally has all the proof, which means he doesn’t have to pay her a dime. No alimony payments. Nothing. It was all written in the prenup. She was entitled to half his wealth, if she remained faithful. If not, she would lose it all.”

“Shit,” Grim said. “But she’s rich, right? An ex-model, and your family is rich.”

“Like I said, if you know what to do with your money and you don’t squander it. I invested and I didn’t squander.”

“What happened?” he asked.

“She has nothing.”

He shook his head. “I mean this morning. What happened?”

Martha sighed. “I told her no. I told her if I gave her money now, she would just keep coming back for more. She knows Betty is the one who will inherit my estate. She hates her daughter, and it would seem rather than make things right with her, she is going to take everything Betty loves.”

This angered Grim.

“We don’t know for sure.”

“She was missing, Grim. You and I both know what this means, but ... I don’t know what to do. Bettina has always been a spiteful person. She will hurt anyone that gets in her way. I forgot she had a thing with fire when we were kids. I figured she had grown out of it. What am I going to do?”

“Leave it to me,” he said.

“But Grim...”

“I know what I’m doing. Let me handle her. Trust me, I can handle it. Just don’t hide anything with regard to the investigation.”

Martha nodded. “I wouldn’t do that.”

He pulled out his cell phone and placed a call to the sheriff. He asked them to call him the moment Bettina Jackson was spotted, and when she was, they were to give him the information and leave.

Grim said good night to Martha and made his way back toward Betty. He was pissed off. He didn’t get to tell her how he felt, and now he had a problem to fix.

Bettina was on his shit list, and if she had any lick of sense in her body, she would fuck off out of Rivermont Ridge before he found her.

****

The following day, Betty stood in the Chaos Monsters MC clubhouse kitchen, and she did so in shock. This was nothing like she had seen it days ago. First of all, the fridge, freezer, and pantry were completely stocked. Flour, sugars, canned tomatoes, and a variety of vegetables and beans.

Maeve had donated several of her cameras.

“You shouldn’t have done this,” Betty said.

“Well, we all chipped in. We got it cleaned and with a new layer of paint, which is what that smell is,” Razor said.

“The club is one hundred percent behind this,” Mac said. “We all want you to cook. All we ask is that we have plenty of leftovers ourselves.”

Betty looked toward Grim, who gave her a wink. “This is incredible. I really don’t know what to say?”

“Say yes. The club wants you to cook for them, and your talents should not be wasted elsewhere. They’re needed here, with everyone.”

She pressed her hands to her face and felt tears in her eyes. “This is so amazing. Thank you all so much.”

“Is that a yes?” Maeve asked.

“It’s a yes.” She didn’t have much choice. This morning after breakfast, she didn’t break the seal the firemen had put up, but she gazed into her old studio, and it was all gone. She was able to catch a glimpse next to her bookshelves, but there was nothing left of her notes.

She was glad she’d put most of her recipes into drafts on her website, and she had already called Eden. She just needed to get a laptop. It felt strange, waking up without a studio or a way of working.

Grim had been there, and he’d kissed the worry away between her brow, which had been sweet. She had needed it. Then, he’d kissed the tip of her nose and made all her worries evaporate as he made love to her.