Lost & Found

Chapter 4

Three days.

For three days the video doorbell thing has sat on my dresser gathering nothing more than brief clips of Nita coming in the bedroom to grab a sweater or make the bed.

She must know I'm suspicious. Since the day that Richard was at the house, she's been clingy and flirty with me, and she hasn't pestered me about making more money. Last night she suggested sex for the first time in quite a while.

I told her I had a headache.

She is my headache.

I've gone over my personal finances with my accountant. At my request, Lauren had limits lowered on the joint credit accounts I share with Nita. We looked over our spending, my assets, and even ran through some potential divorce scenarios.

If I just leave, I'll be skinned alive financially and might not be able to keep the business afloat. If I can prove that Nita's cheating, I should be able to settle in my favor. There's a lot riding on that little camera.

The situation with Coulter has also weighed on me. He's still in Chicago, still flying under the radar - though how a man as large and famous as him doesn't get noticed, I will never understand. He's seeing Dr. Amar every day, and the Giants have officially declared him out for the rest of the season.

He hasn't been back to my office. I know he'd like to see me again; Tris tells me so almost daily. But things are so messy with Nita that I can't spare an evening without telling her about it, and during the day I have a business to run.

Tris has seen him, not just spoken to him. Just this morning she mentioned offhand something he said 'at dinner last night,' and I realized from context that he's been to her apartment. I know I should mind my own business, but the idea bothered me as much as thinking about my wife screwing her brother-in-law.

So, basically, nothing is going well. I feel uneasy and stuck.

I heave a heavy sigh and scrub my hands over my face before looking at the latest snow removal bill from our plowing company.

I'm interrupted by a buzz from my office phone.

"Yeah Tris?" I question.

"Uh, Thomas? Eric Coulter is here," she says nervously.

Ugh. This is the last thing I need today.

"Send him in," I say tiredly, hoping to get the NFL star behind my closed office door before anyone sees him.

"You need to get out of town."

I stare uncomprehendingly at the determined-looking blonde giant marching into my office.

"You need to get out of town," he repeats. "Your bitch of a wife, the camera, all that. If you go out of town, you give her a bit more rope to hang herself with. Either that or I could try to seduce her. But I think catching her would be more effective than a sting operation, don't you?"

What. The. Fuck.

How does Eric Coulter know about Nita? I mean, there's really only one explanation. Tris had to have told him. But I swore her to secrecy.

I'm stunned. And devastated. I can't believe she betrayed me like that. Like Nita did. Another woman tossing me under the proverbial bus for a man with more money. I… I honestly thought better of her.

Do I fire her? This is a serious breach of confidence. But it's about my personal life, not business. And she knows my secret, and the whole story of my past. If I fire her, she could tell people in retaliation.

I feel like… like I trusted her to hold my gun, and she shot me with it.

"Tommy!"

God, I hate being called 'Tommy.' Zeke does it now and then, mostly just to push my buttons. No one else gets away with it.