Flame (Steel Brothers Saga 20)

“I know. It’s just…”

“Mom loves Raine. You know that. Have you even told her…?”

“Yeah. I mentioned it because Willow White is buying the salon. She said she’s sorry, but deep down I think she’s relieved.”

“Because Raine’s a woman?”

“She’d rather see me with a man.”

“She’d rather see you happy, Rory. You know that.”

“Yeah, I know.” She sighs. “I suppose I’m just trying to find something else to ruminate on to forget the fact that our lives are tumbling into a big void.”

I shake my head. “You’re so overdramatic! You and Jess both. It must be a performer thing.”

“Don’t tell me you’re not worried about this.”

“Oh, I am. Great save with Mom by the way. I never knew you had it in you.”

“It kind of just popped out. When you didn’t say anything, I knew I had to.”

“Well done. I kind of froze.”

“I know. That’s totally not like you.”

I sigh. “Life has gotten…weird.”

“You’re telling me. Except while my relationship is ending, yours is just beginning. So you have that to be happy about.”

“What if…”

“What?”

“What if Pat Lamone tells Donny everything?”

“So what if he does? We didn’t do anything wrong.”

“That’s not exactly true, Ror.”

Rory sighs.

Silence for a few moments before Rory heads toward the door. “You take the first shower, Cal.”

I nod. Our water heater can’t handle two showers at a time, so if I go now, Rory can go in a half hour. We’re used to it.

I head into the bathroom I share with my sister. Our bedrooms are on either side of it. Mom calls it a Brady Bunch bathroom or a Jack and Jill bathroom. I turn on the shower and then open the mirrored door to the medicine cabinet. Already I feel a headache coming on, and I need a few ibuprofen.

As I open it, an image pops into my mind.

It’s me. Opening Donny’s mirrored cabinet, and finding…

Finding…

A glasses case holding a safe-deposit box key.

A key that—now that I think about it—looks very familiar.

A key that resembles what Rory and I hoped to find buried inside that metal file box.

No.

No way.

Donny did not take that key.

I didn’t look at it too closely. Already I felt guilt at nosing through his stuff.

But I did think it was rather odd that a key was stuffed inside a glasses case.

Why there?

Why a glasses case?

Why not hidden in a dresser drawer under his socks? Or elsewhere?

One thing’s for sure. I have to ask Donny about it. And if I ask him, he’ll know I was snooping.

Damn.

“Stop it, Callie!” I say aloud.

“Stop what?” Rory’s voice comes from her room on the other side of the door.

Shit. She heard me over the shower?

I unlock the door to her room and peek in. “You decent?”

“Yeah.”

“Remember when we went over a few days ago to help Darla? And I cleaned Donny’s bathroom?”

“Yeah.”

“I found a safe-deposit box key in a glasses case in the cabinet over his sink.”

“So?”

“It was from a bank in Denver, and now that I think about it…”

Her eyes widen. “Donny has the key?”

“Donny has a key. Assuming it’s our key goes pretty far.”

“Was it from the same bank?”

“I think so. I didn’t think about it at the time. It was before we knew Pat was back in town, so there was no reason to be thinking about any of this stuff.”

“If it’s still there, you can get it.”

“Sneak into his bathroom and steal his key? It might not even be ours.”

“True, but if you can get a good look at it, you’ll know. Isn’t the box number on the key?”

Is it? I rack my brain. “I… I don’t know, Rory. Do you recall?”

“No.” Rory shakes her head. “I don’t. I kind of put that to bed the night we buried the damned thing. Lamone was gone. It was over. I never thought it would come back to haunt us.”

“Neither did I.”

“I don’t suppose you can… You know. Get into the Steel house and check. Jade’s still in Grand Junction, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So you get Donny to take you there, and then you use his bathroom. Easy enough.”

Right. Easy enough to put something over on the man I love. Not a great way to begin a relationship.

“For God’s sake, Rory. It’s probably not even our key.”

“Probably not. But why would Donny Steel use a safe-deposit box in Denver? The Steels have actual safes.”

“He did live in Denver for ten years.”

Rory twists her lips. “Right. I wasn’t thinking.”

“So it actually makes perfect sense for him to have a safe-deposit box in Denver.”

“Wouldn’t he have cleared it out before he moved back here?”

“In a perfect world, maybe. But maybe he didn’t have time.”

“I suppose,” Rory says. “Still, you can easily check.”

I sigh. “Yeah. I suppose I can.” I close the door and listen to the shower running. It’s fogged up the mirror by now, and the humidity in the bathroom erupts on my skin.