“Did you have a lot of pets growing up?” He leaned his head back and enjoyed the cadence of her voice. He wondered if she’d ever really tried to sing. Her voice had that quality to it.
“Oh, yeah. Dogs, cats, hamsters. I even had an iguana once. A male.” She chuckled. “But I cross-dressed it. I used to tie a pink bow around its neck because I was afraid people would think I was a tomboy having a big lizard.”
“I can’t see you as a tomboy,” he said.
“I wasn’t. I was Nurse Sara. Took care of all the injured animals in my neighborhood. I was eight when I told everyone I wanted to be a vet.”
She paused, and he worried where her mind had gone.
“Why did you call me back?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he lied, knowing he’d called her just to feel a part of something decent, something not sleazy.
“It’s not that I mind, or that we can’t just talk, but—”
“Then let’s do that. Let’s just talk.”
“I think I’ve done most of the talking,” she said.
“All women do,” he said. “Haven’t you ever noticed how many more words a woman says a day compared to men? So, don’t stop.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Tell me why I should read a romance novel?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE NEXT DAY, Roberto pulled into the diner for lunch. He wasn’t sure why he’d even come here. His appetite had seemed to go the way of his sanity. Had he really stayed up talking to Sara until two in the morning? Time had flown, and when he looked at the clock and saw it was two a.m., he thought the damn thing had gone haywire.
It hadn’t. He’d been the one to go haywire. Crazy to have called her in the first place. Before he’d hung up, he’d heard it in her voice. The question. What now? She hadn’t verbalized the question, but he knew she wanted to.
He’d almost answered it, too: What now? Nothing happens now.
As much as he wished it wasn’t so, he owed it to Anna and Bobby, Jr. to get the piece of shit who took their lives. There was no going back.
He got off his bike. The store in the strip center right behind the diner caught his eye. Funny how he hadn’t noticed the store until now. He started toward the diner, then thought what the hell. Turning around, he walked to the store.
Ten minutes later, he sat at his regular table with his bagged purchases at his side. Rosie delivered his coffee. “Fried chicken’s on special,” she said.
“Sounds good,” he said. “Thanks.”
She hung there. “You gonna be by yourself today?”
He remembered how Cruz had treated her yesterday. “I think so.”
“Well, if you get company, not that big, bald guy—he’s a nice guy—but that one from yesterday, I’m getting Bea to take over the table. That guy gives me the creeps.”
“I don’t blame you,” he said. “Sorry about that.” When she left, Roberto’s mind went to Brad, and he wished he had a clue as to what was happening with the guy.
But focusing on what he didn’t know wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He reached down into the bag and pulled out one of the books. He folded the cover completely back so no one could see what he was reading, and then he dove right in.
Two chapters later, he heard Rosie clear her throat. “You wanna eat, or read?”
“Sorry.” He dropped the book in the booth’s seat. As she placed the plate on the table, she glanced down at the book.
She smiled. “I read that book.”
He almost blushed. “It was recommended by a… friend.” The last word caught in his throat. Was Sara a friend?
“Your friend has good taste.” She lowered her voice. “Wait until you read the hot tub scene.”
Now he did blush. He slipped it back in the bag with his Patterson novel.
He’d barely picked at his food when Rosie came strolling back over. She had an odd expression on her face and the restaurant’s portable phone in her hand.
“It’s for you.” She offered him the phone.
“Me?”
“It’s the bald guy. Said he had to talk to you.”
Leah forked a piece of chicken from atop her salad and looked up at Evelyn and Sara across her desk. Jamie, the young intern from college who came in once a week, was watching the desk. And since they didn’t have appointments for the next hour, Evelyn decided they’d have lunch together.
Normally, Leah would’ve been thrilled, but for the second day in a row she had a wine headache. Of course, the wine wasn’t the only culprit. She regularly got headaches when consumed with worry. And she had plenty to worry over. What did Rafael want with Luis? Had it really been one of Rafael’s buddies who’d broken into her place and stolen her address book—which had Luis’s address in it? And although Luis had promised to stay with a friend for a few days, had he just been placating her?
Not that worry and wine were the only reasons her right temple throbbed. Regret always had her reaching for the Advil. Only this time her regret was bigger than the three Advil she’d popped. How could she not regret losing her inhibitions and climbing into Austin Brookshire’s lap and behaving like some stripper looking for a tip?
“Okay, do you two wanna come clean?” Evelyn crossed her arms.
“Come clean?” Sara asked, sounding guilty.
Leah realized Sara had been quiet. “Is something wrong?”
“Of course it’s wrong,” Evelyn said. “And don’t act like it’s all on Sara just because she’s been checking her phone every fifteen minutes. Because there’s the whole thing with your apartment getting robbed and you not calling the police. And you’ve only asked about a hundred times if Luis called. And if you don’t stop frowning, I swear that crease between your brows is going to become permanent. So spit it out, both of ya. What’s going on?”
Roberto waited for Rosie to walk away before he put the phone to his ear. “What the hell is going on?”
“It’s bad,” Brad said. “You need to get your ass out of there. Quick. Walk away before it’s too late.”
Roberto shook his head. “What’s bad? Too late for what? Why are you calling on the restaurant’s phone?”
“I had to make sure you weren’t with anyone. ’Cause if you were, you’d have to lie about who it was, and I don’t think you’re that good at lying.”
You’d be amazed at how good I am at it. “Where are you? Cruz is looking for you. Your wife called me looking for you. I didn’t know if you’d been arrested or dead.”
“Neither. Not yet. But that could change anytime.”
“Have you gotten with Cruz?”
“Forget that asshole, worry about yourself.” Brad moaned. Roberto heard so much in that desperate sound—the sound of a not-so-bad guy put in a very bad position.
“Look, if you tell me what’s going on I might be able to help.”
“That’s why I’m calling you. I need you to get a message to my wife. Tell her… tell her I’m okay and that… just tell her I’m okay.”
“That’s not what I meant by help.” Roberto’s gut clenched. “Tell me what’s happening.”
“I’m not pulling you into this,” Brad said.
“Brad—”
“Talk to Sandy for me, please.”
Roberto closed his eyes. “I’m sure she’d rather talk to you.”
“I can’t call her. She… If she figures out what I’m doing—”
“What are you doing?” Roberto asked.
“Just call her, okay?” Brad insisted.
Had Brad killed someone? Had DeLuna made him do his dirty work? “Look if you did anything, you did it under duress.”
“Hell, yeah, it’s under duress, but what the fuck difference does that make? I’m screwed no matter which way you look at it. And I’m probably going to end up losing the only thing that matters to me. My family. But I’ll lose them before… I gotta go.”
“Brad…” The line went silent.
“Shit!” he mutt
ered. What the hell had Brad done?
“Fine,” Sara said. “I’ll go first. I made an idiot out of myself on the phone with the guy.”
“What guy?” Evelyn asked.
“The guy who brought in Spooky.”
“Ohh.” Evelyn wiggled her brows. “He’s worth making an idiot out of yourself over. But I didn’t think you’d heard from him again.”
“I hadn’t. Leah convinced me to call him.”
“Good for you,” Evelyn said to Leah, then turned back to Sara. “So what happened?”
Sara told them about how his wife and child had died in a car crash and then went into answering his call thinking it was her mom. “I think I said, ‘The panties are just about off, can I call you when the deed’s done.’ ”
In spite of her headache, Leah, along with Evelyn, laughed so hard she had tears in their eyes. Then Sara went into how she was supposed to call him back, and hadn’t. Then he’d called her back and they’d stayed on the phone talking like teenagers until two in the morning.
“And?” Evelyn said.
“And what?” Sara asked.
“When are you gonna make your own losing-your-panties story?”
“He’s working in Dallas,” she said, but something about her tone sounded off. And Leah wasn’t the only one picking up on it.
Evelyn frowned. “What does that have to do with the price of bread? It’s like a three-hour drive. What? He doesn’t think you’re worth coming up here on his day off? When I first met Stewart he lived in Florida, and let me tell ya, he didn’t let a few thousand miles get in the way of some good lovin’. He drove down sometimes two times a week. And I made sure it was worth it.”
“Stewart hadn’t lost a wife and kid,” Sara said, but didn’t sound convincing. There was something else going on; Leah heard it in her voice.
“Yeah, you said that was two years ago,” Evelyn said. “I think—”
“Evelyn?” Jamie called from the front, sounding panicked.
“I swear,” Evelyn said. “That girl couldn’t make a decision on her own if there were neon signs pointing the way. Bless her heart.” Evelyn sighed. “Gimme one second.” She popped up.
Leah looked at Sara. “What’s got you spooked about Spooky’s hero?”
Sara frowned. “It’s partly what Evelyn said and part… Oh, hell, I’m attracted to him. And while there’s this part of me that wants to believe everything he says—that he’s not on drugs and he doesn’t have warrants out for his arrest—I always fall for bad boys. He’s like this expert at avoiding questions about himself. But I’m falling. Falling hard. He’s all I can think about. I forgot to pack Brian’s lunch today. I had to go back to the house. I don’t know if I can do this. Whatever the hell ‘this’ is.”
“Leah!” Evelyn called, panic now ringing in Evelyn’s voice. “I think you’d better come out here. Now!”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LEAH TOOK OFF with Sara beside her. Evelyn stood by the front door, a box in her hands. A shoe box. And it looked like blood dripping from one corner.
Leah’s heart stopped. She flashed back in time when another shoe box had been delivered. Her chest swelled, and she had to force herself to move closer.
As she got a foot from Evelyn, she saw the note taped on top of the box. “Don’t piss me off.”
She swallowed bile down her throat and took the box from Evelyn’s hands. Leah wasn’t sure who was shaking the hardest, her or Evelyn. Knowing she had to look, prepared to see one of her cat’s mutilated bodies, she opened it.
No body. But internal organs. Oh, God!
She dropped the box and reached for her phone. Barely able to think, much less push the right buttons, she hit the recent calls link. She didn’t breathe until she found the one she needed.
Turning away from the other three people staring at her, she put the phone to her ear and waited for Austin Brookshire to answer.
“If you remember, at first I couldn’t find shit on him,” Tyler said.
Austin sat at his kitchen table, his phone to his ear, his mind rewinding to last night. Rewinding to what happened. To why it shouldn’t have happened. To why he wanted it to happen again.
“I was worried he was illegal,” Tyler continued.
“Yeah, I remember.” Austin had to focus on the conversation. He wanted to mull over what he’d learned about Leah from Tyler. DeLuna was her half brother on her father’s side. The father had been married to someone else. Leah’s mom had been his longtime mistress.
It appeared that after her mother died, her father completely dropped out of the picture. In his obituary, the only kids listed were those from the man’s marriage. The man hadn’t died when Leah was young the way she’d led him to believe. She’d have been around eighteen.
And since they lived in the same small town, Austin couldn’t help wondering if Leah had seen the obituary.
“Then it finally hit me,” Tyler continued. “Surnames. It’s common for Latinos to have two last names. But since he didn’t have his father’s last name, I found both his mother’s surnames. And bingo. Roberto Rivera had nothing on him. But Roberto Marcos, aka Roberto Rivera Marcos, has some history. He was married. Had a kid. Both killed in a car accident.”
“That sucks,” Austin said, meaning it.
“Yeah, but there was one article that claimed the husband and the wife’s brother didn’t believe it was an accident. The brother, a Freddie Gomez, said that his sister and nephew were murdered because she’d witnessed a murder that took place near her house. So I looked up all murders in the area about that time. And you’ll never guess whose name popped up as a person of interest in one of them.”
“DeLuna.” So DeLuna killed Roberto’s wife and kid. Fuck, was there no end to what this guy would do?
“Yup. I knew Roberto had a personal agenda.”
“What does Dallas say about this?” Austin asked.
“He said we need to put our heads together. Decide if we should call him on this, or not. Part of me says it doesn’t change anything, but it feels…”
Austin’s phone beeped with an incoming call. He looked to see the number. His breath caught. Leah. “Gotta go,” he said.
He took a deep breath, clueless to how this call would go. Even though she’d admitted to initiating their kiss, he was prepared to apologize again. She hadn’t been the one to unhook her bra and unsnap her jeans. He’d spent all day regretting his actions. Or trying to regret them.
“Hey,” he said. “I’m glad you called.”
“Are my cats okay?” She sounded breathless.
“What?”
“My cats? Has anyone broken into my apartment today?”
He shook his head “no,” and then said, “I don’t think so?”
“Can you check? Please. Please check on my cats.”
“Sure.” Then he remembered she wasn’t supposed to know he could get into her apartment. Was this a test? Was she onto him? “I don’t have a key.”
“Break it down. I don’t care.”
It wasn’t a test. Panic rang in her voice. But for her cats? “What’s going on, Leah?”
“Just check on my cats, please.” Her voice stuttered.
The fear in her voice reminded him of when she’d left a message with her brother. “I’ll call you right back,” Austin said. “And calm down, I don’t think anyone has broken in.”
Dropping his phone in his pocket, he grabbed his gun from the top cabinet and his lock picks from under the kitchen sink. He hurried out into the hall and turned the knob to her apartment door to see if it was open. It wasn’t.
He went to work. Was done in seconds. He dropped the picks in his pocket. Remembering her fear, he pulled his weapon and quietly opened the door.
Two cats came hauling ass at him. The orange and black ones.
Shit, he’d come to calm her fears and hadn’t considered his own. The cats stopped less than a foot from him and stared as if he was an intruder and they were the guards. He ca
utiously stepped around them until he could see in the kitchen. It took a second to take his eyes off the two felines. He didn’t trust them. Finally, he glanced up. Kitchen empty.
As he crept past the two creatures again, he listened to see if he heard anything anywhere else in the apartment. Nothing. He stuck his head into the bathroom. It smelled wonderful—soft, sweet, with hints of waffle cone. He went into the bedroom. The other two cats were on the bed, but at the sight of him they both scrambled up and darted under the bed.
Seeing them move so fast had his heart moving with them. He backed out of the room. Before walking completely into the living room, he located the other two creatures on the sofa. Job done, he hurried out the door.
The moment he stood in the hall, he grabbed his phone.
She answered before the phone rang. “Are they okay?”
“Yes. I didn’t get really close, but they seemed fine. What’s going on, Leah?”
“You saw all four of them?”
“Yes.”
He heard her exhale. “Thank you.”
“Tell me what’s up?”
“Someone just played a mean trick, that’s all.”
“This is no trick!” Austin heard a female say in the background.
“What kind of trick?” He got a bad feeling.
“I’ll explain later,” she said. “No, don’t call the police,” Leah said, but she wasn’t talking to him.
“Why would you call the police?” he asked, but too late. She’d hung up.
He stormed into his apartment, snatched his keys, and lit out.
Less than five minutes later, his speed ticket-worthy if he’d been spotted, he walked into Purrfect Pets. Leah stood behind the counter. She frowned.
His heart did a crazy leap in his chest at the sight of her. And damn if his first thought wasn’t of kissing those sweet frowning lips. He spotted the desperate look in her eyes and decided instead of kissing her, he wanted to pull her against him, to let her lean on him.
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