Swept Away: Resolution Part 7

"You're not answering the door like that," he said firmly as his hands cupped my b.r.e.a.s.t.s through my T-shirt. "Those are mine and only mine. I don't want some other guy getting a view of the nipples that I made hard."

"Jakob, you're being ridiculous. You know Blake is just a friend."

"A friend that wanted you and most probably still wants you," he said grumpily as the doorbell rang.

"Jakob, stop being stupid."

"Put on a bra and some shorts," he said as he grabbed a pair of black sweatpants. "I'm going to answer the door."

"Without a shirt on?" I said snarkily.

"And with no boxers either." He grinned as he walked to the door. "Maybe he'll notice that he interrupted us at an inopportune moment."

"You're gross."

"Nope. Just h.o.r.n.y." He laughed and slapped me on the bottom as he hurried out of the room. "I expect you to finish what you started when he leaves."

"You're the one who started it," I protested as my face flushed, but he just walked out of the room.

"Sorry about earlier, Bianca." Blake's face was flushed, and he looked up at me with a guilty expression. "I hope you weren't waiting at the coffee shop too long."

"It's fine. I was more worried about you," I said as I sat next to him. I could see Jakob glaring at me as I rubbed Blake's leg.

"I got caught up at the library." Blake's eyes were blazing with excitement. "I didn't want to leave until I was clear about what I found."

"What exactly did you find?" Jakob asked impatiently. "Is my dad alive?"

"Well, I'm not sure." Blake leaned forward as his voice lowered. "But there is no death certificate for him."

"What do you mean there is no death certificate?" Jakob frowned. "There has to be a death certificate."

"There isn't one that I can find." Blake shook his head. "Which isn't altogether unusual, because they never found a body."

"Yes, we know that." Jakob rolled his eyes.

"Did you know that your dad was working on a cryopreservation machine?"

"A what?" I said in confusion.

"A machine to help humans stay alive forever."

"Like in Vanilla Sky?" My jaw dropped, and I looked at Jakob. "That's a movie with Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz."

"Ask me if I care." Jakob smiled at me. "Though I'm glad to know if I ever need a movie-related lifeline, I can call you."

I stuck my tongue out at him and turned to Blake. "So what you're saying is that Jeremiah is alive and will live forever?"

"No." Blake laughed. "I don't know that. As far as I can see, there are no machines that can guarantee an everlasting life. No one can live forever."

"So he's dead, then?"

"I don't know. We have no valid proof of his death." Blake shook his head, and Jakob jumped up, an exasperated look on his face.

"So what are you saying?" Jakob sounded annoyed. "Aside from the fact that my dad may be dead or alive? Is that what you were so excited to tell us?"

"No." Blake grinned and gave me a look as if to say, Is he always like this?

"So you know how when you and Bianca came back and they arrested him for embezzling, it came out that Larry Maxwell became Larry Renee?"

"Yes, we knew that already."

"And you know how Rosie is Larry's daughter?"

"Yup." Jakob was irritated, and I gave him a short look. I wondered if his blue b.a.l.l.s were why he was being such a d.i.c.khead. Maybe I needed to take him into the bedroom and finish the job I'd started before we talked to Blake.

"Well, did you also know that Larry has only been married once?"

"What?" I frowned, and Jakob stopped pacing back and forth.

"Larry has only been married once," Blake said with a grin. "And that was to Rosie's mother, Brigitta."

"But what about Mrs. Renee?" I said with a frown. "I've met her. We've both met her." I looked at Jakob, and Jakob nodded his a.s.sent.

"Yeah, we both met her."

"What if I told you that Mrs. Renee didn't exist?"

"We saw her in the flesh," Jakob said. "Unless you're now going to tell us that the frightened woman we saw was a ghost." His voice was sarcastic as he stared at me. "There's another one for you, Bianca. Maybe we're real-life ghost whisperers."

"Ghost Whisperer was a TV show, not a movie." I rolled my eyes at him and then looked back at Blake. "But we did see her, Blake. She definitely existed."

"Yes, I believe you saw someone." Blake nodded. "However, whoever that someone was, was not Mrs. Renee. She was not related to Larry."

"But they've been married for years," I said, as my mind raced back. "I know that for sure. I've met her before."

"Maybe they were common-law spouses," Jakob said. "Is that all you've got for us?"

"Did you know that Larry bought the house in Long Island the week after Oliver Case died?"

"Oliver Case?" Jakob frowned. "Steve's dad?"

"Yes. Oliver Case had one relative at the time of his death, a younger sister by the name of Penny. She was never married. And she disappeared a couple of days after her brother died."

"How do you know that?"

"I uncovered a missing persons report in my research. She left her job and never came back-her landlady filed a report a few days after the funeral. She said that Oliver was the one who sent in the rent check every month."

"Okay, so say all that is true," Jakob said as he sat back down. "Say Mrs. Renee was Oliver's sister. Why would she marry Larry? Or pretend to be Larry's wife?"

"That's what I wanted to know." Blake grinned excitedly. "Why would Oliver's sister disappear and take up with Larry?"

"What did you come up with?" I asked, and leaned in closer to Blake.

"Not much." He sighed, but then he smiled again. "But we can ask her."

"We don't even know where she is, and we also don't know if Mrs. Renee really is this Penny," Jakob snapped, obviously tiring of Blake's dramatics.

"Ah, but we do!" Blake grinned.

"How?"

"Look." He opened up his messenger bag and pulled out some sheets of paper. "Look at this." He handed them to me, and I looked at each one carefully. The first one was a copy of Penny Case's driver's license. There was a photo of a young woman, and my heart stopped for a second as I stared at the photo. I didn't even have to see the other papers to know that Penny was the woman we'd met as Mrs. Renee, but I looked them over anyway. I handed the papers to Jakob silently, my heart racing as I thought about what we now knew. Steve's aunt was married to Larry. Oliver Case-the man who had been taken advantage of by Jeremiah, Larry, and my father-had a sister. A sister who presumably loved him. And she'd married Larry. Or had gotten into some sort of relationship with Larry. I just didn't know why. She had to have known that Larry had been one of the guys who had taken advantage of her brother, didn't she?

"Okay, so Penny is Mrs. Renee." Jakob said, his voice surprised. "What else did you find out?"

"What would you do if I told you that you have a third sibling?" Blake said casually, and Jakob and I looked at each other in shock.

"What?" Jakob jumped up again. "What are you talking about?"

"You have a sibling." Blake nodded.

"I know my father didn't have any other kids." Jakob shook his head. "Are you saying my mother did?"

"I'm saying that your father has a love child." Blake shrugged. "I don't know what he told you."

"How do you know this?" Jakob said with a frown.

"Because there was a blackmail claim." Blake paused. "And your father paid a million dollars to keep it hush-hush."

"To whom?"

"Well, that's the question." Blake frowned. "I'm not sure."

"How do you know all of this?" Jakob said in a direct voice. "Unless you found some sort of signed declaration from my maybe dead and maybe alive father? And how is that connected to Penny?"

"We know that because Mrs. Renee's blackmail letter is now in the hands of Penny's ex-landlady."

"And you know this how?" Jakob said with a raised eyebrow.

"Because I spoke to her," Blake said with a grin. "She's still alive. She never told the police because she felt like they never did much after Penny disappeared. She was happy to tell me everything she could when I called and told her I was a history student doing some research."

"So then Penny sent the blackmail letter?" Jakob said matter-of-factly. "If Penny lived there and it was returned back to her address."

"This is where it gets good." Blake shook his head. "It was Penny's handwriting." He opened his bag again and pulled out another piece of paper. "This is what took me so long. I got the landlady to fax me a copy of the note. She didn't have a scanner to send it from home. I had to wait for her to go to a Staples, and then I had to go and find a store to give her a number to fax it to me." He scratched his head. "I wasn't about to risk having her fax it to my e-mail address."

"So you have the letter?" I asked eagerly, and he handed it to me.

I glanced at Jakob and began to read aloud.

"'My Dearest Jeremiah, I can't keep it in any longer. You are the love of my life, and I am yours. I don't want to keep quiet. I don't want to do this alone. We've been through too much. Our love can change everything. We have a bond now. If you continue to shut me out, I will tell the world. I will tell them everything. We have a child that shares our DNA. I can accept yours if you can accept mine. Forever yours.'" I paused and turned the page over. "That's it, no name." I groaned and looked at Jakob to gauge his response. His eyes were narrowed, and I could tell he was thinking hard.

"So we know it is most probably from Penny, but what if it's not? It's likely from her, unless . . ." He paused and stared at me for a few seconds, his gaze darkening.

"Unless what?" I said, my throat constricting as I realized what he was trying to say. "No, it's not from my mom. It can't be, can it?" I gazed at Blake, my face red and hot.

"No, it's not your mom." Blake shook his head, and I let out a deep breath. "I admit, I did some research to check. However, it's not her."

"Thank G.o.d." I shuddered and then frowned. "So who else could it be? And who is Jeremiah's third child?"

"It's not Rosie, is it?" Jakob spoke up, and I stared at him in shock.

"You don't think it could be Rosie, surely?" I felt sick to my stomach. If Rosie was Jeremiah's child and she was dating David, well, that would just be sick. I didn't even want to think about it, no matter how much I now hated her.

"That would explain why she was trying so hard to help bring you down," Jakob said. "I've always thought she had to have some sort of secret agenda."

"But her dad is Larry, right?" I looked at Blake questioningly. "And she's dating David. Would she really date her own half brother?" I almost threw up at the thought.

"I don't think Rosie is Jeremiah's daughter," Blake said, and made a face. "Even though I can't stand her, I don't think she'd stoop to incest."

"So then who?" I said, and looked at Blake. "Who can it be?"

"We'll figure it out," Jakob said, and sat down next to me. "We'll figure it out together."

"Yeah, we'll get to the bottom of this." Blake nodded. "Now, what happened with you and Rosie and Steve?"

"They wanted me to go with them to meet someone." I spoke carefully. "They didn't say who, but I keep thinking that they were talking about Jeremiah. I think he might still be alive, but I don't know what he would want with me. Anyway, they want me and Jakob to go to the annual Bradley Masquerade Ball to meet this person."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Blake frowned. "It sounds like a setup."

"I know, but what else can we do?" I sighed. "I didn't even know Rosie knew Steve. I'm just confused. I need to find out what's going on."

"There's one last thing we could do," Blake said, his eyes thoughtful.

"What's that?"

"I can go and see Larry," Blake said. "I can question him."

"Not alone," Jakob said with a small shake of the head. "We'll all go."

"But what is Larry going to do?" I pursed my lips. "I think that's a waste of time."

"Not if we tell him we know about Penny," Jakob said thoughtfully.

"But we don't know much," I protested.

"Then we have to find out more before the ball on Sat.u.r.day," Jakob said, and Blake nodded. "We need to make sure that when we arrive at the ball, we're armed with as much information as possible."

"That's true." I chewed on my lower lip and stared at the two men next to me. I realized that I didn't feel anxious or worried. I felt calm. Frustrated and thoughtful, but my heart wasn't racing as it would have been when I first started this quest. I was no longer alone in this crazy adventure. I no longer felt like someone playing the role of a brave person-now I really was brave. And I had two men by my side who had my back. "So should we go now?"