Nick put down his fork. “Maybe he was.”
Blue gulped down another swig of coffee. “Naw. He passed a criminal record check when he worked for the scouts. He’s clean. Still, something happened. As for Justine, she was a single mother of a ten-year-old and desperate for a man. He could probably do anything and she’d praise him. Plus he gives her a cushy lifestyle.”
“He does everything she wants him to.” Nick leaned back in his seat with his coffee. “He must love her.”
Blue shook his head. “I doubt it. She just unlocks the right doors for him. Her daddy was a judge before he retired. She knows every lawyer, judge and government official in the state. He can bid for government contracts with his supply firm and pretty much have them in his pocket.”
“Interesting.” Nick tapped his fingers on the table. “What exactly does he supply?”
“Technology. The latest office gadgets and the parts for the older ones. Has a fleet of trucks.”
“Hmm. That’d be a good racket to be in if you were say, smuggling drugs out of here?”
Blue jerked his head up. “Shit. You’re right. But how can we find out if the guy’s a lead?”
Nick smiled. “You’re the one with a friend of dubious past.”
Blue nodded. “I’ll speak to Chris. Have you decided anything with regards to Emily?”
Grinning, he pulled a box out of his pocket. “Got it this morning. After what happened to Cal, she’s really down in the dumps. I was going to wait until the end of the month, but I called Andy and found where he bought Carolina’s ring, then left after Emily went to work.”
Blue opened it. “Wow! That thing puts your eyes out with the sparkle. It’s got to be at least six carats. An emerald, eh? But not emerald cut.”
He chuckled. “Yeah. Round cut, but more facets than normal, whatever that means. All I know is the jeweler said it had extremely few occlusions. Again, I’m not educated when it comes to stones. But I wanted it to have a Celtic feel, thus the color and the Celtic knot.”
“But, son,” Blue said, “even with your salary, this is a load. It has to be in the five digits.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “It is. High five.” Nick took a sip of his water. “I haven’t told her I’m, well, rather wealthy.”
Blue leaned forward. “How wealthy is wealthy, if you don’t mind my being nosy?”
“You don’t care,” Nick said. “Chances are you have so much money stashed away you don’t know how much, and no one will ever find out about it until you’re long gone.”
Blue shrugged. “As charged. It’s just you took me by surprise. I figured your mom would have inherited everything when your dad died.”
He shook his head. “No, she had her own family money. My dad’s fortune was left to me, along with all his royalties. To tell you the truth, I can’t keep up with my net worth. But let’s say I wouldn’t have to work if I didn’t want to.”
Blue almost spit out his coffee. “Wait a minute. This is rich. I have to ask, but I think I know the answer. Are you better off than Taylor?”
Nick scooted forward in his seat. “Yeah.” He laughed. “It’s a game I play.”
A twinkle appeared in Blue’s eyes. “I can’t wait until he figures it out.”
“Oh, no.” Nick shook his head. “I don’t plan to tell him. It makes for a better friendship.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Emily sat next to Cal’s bed, staring at him. “Cal, I wish you’d wake up and tell me you’re okay. And I really, really wish you could tell me who did this to you.” Tears trailed down her face. “I can’t help but feel guilty you were there. After all, you wouldn’t have been patrolling there if that weirdo hadn’t been peering in my windows and speaking lewdly.”
She reached out and grabbed his hand. “I just need to know. Did Quent really show up when he saw a green car go down the road? Or was he already there? Was he doing something down there, Cal? Did you surprise him, not the other way around?” She broke down in tears again and laid her head down next to his hand, sniffing into the side of his sheets.
“Emily?”
She popped up from the bed and jerked her head around, seeing Quent standing there and wondered how much he’d heard. “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you come in. I just came to see Cal at lunch hour. A long one, obviously. I couldn’t eat anyway.”
He shifted back and forth on his feet. “Well, I’m on suspended duty, of course, until everybody figures what really happened. I want you to know I really didn’t….”
“Quent, I didn’t mean to imply….”
He held up his hand. “No, Em, it’s okay. I’m not perfect. Believe me, I’m nowhere close to it. And I am certain my days are numbered. But, I swear on a stack of Bibles, I didn’t mean to shoot him. I honestly thought he was the other guy. The one who I thought was down there.”
“You shot him?” Emily gripped the sides of her chair. “But you told the sheriff you followed a guy down there and he shot him.”
He shook his head. “Not exactly true either. I was already at the site. But I thought the other man followed me. I didn’t realize it was Cal until after I fired.”
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked.
He nodded at Cal. “Because he deserves it. He’ll probably tell everyone when he wakes up anyway. Just know that despite the things I’ve done, I never meant to harm anyone long term, and what I did, I did on orders. You see, everything backfired on me. The dark bastard killed my brother. He’s probably plotting to kill me. So, all I’m asking is to let me go. Give me a head start, and just tell the sheriff I came and I said Cal could tell everyone exactly what occurred.”
“And I’m going to do that because why?”
“Because if you promise you will, I’m going to give you a much larger prize.”
“What could be larger? Look, Quent, I work for the sheriff.”
He nodded. “I can tell you who the second in command is in the drug ring.”
“What about the sex ring?” she asked.
“The sex ring?” His forehead wrinkled and his eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh my God,” she said, “you don’t know. Whoever’s running this has two rings.”
“No wonder my brother got killed. Look, I don’t know who Kingpin is,” Quent said, “or what he does. But I don’t think my contact, code name Lieutenant, knows anything about a second ring. However, he does know Kingpin’s real identity.”
Emily took a deep breath. She knew she shouldn’t make the bargain. But in the end, if he were telling the truth it was worth it. “Okay, Quent, I swear I’ll wait thirty minutes and then tell the sheriff you confessed to shooting Cal and nothing more. I’ll say you just left and told me you weren’t in your own car.”
He attempted to smile, but all that showed was the faint outline of a try. “Thanks.”
“Can I ask you if Quent’s you real name?”
He shook his head. “Nope. It’s Sam. The lieutenant fixed it so I could assume a someone’s profile.”
“Powerful guy.”
He smirked. “I guess. The main man probably helped. Just so you know, I’m not in my own car, so you won’t be stretching the truth on that part. I’ll tell you what you want to know and then I’m gone. Tell Cal I’m sorry about what happened to him.” He stared at the ground. “The lieutenant’s name is….”
****
Minutes later, Sam pulled up next to the abandoned house. Getting out, he looked both ways and entered. His eyes searched the room, but all he saw was a blank canvas, bare walls, rubble from the torn down wall, nothing denoting his brother.
Damn. I told him to meet me here.
Sam knew timing had to be everything. That’s why he’d told Mark to extract the stash further down the trail from where he shot Cal. All the Franklins were gone from the house, the men at their jobs, as was Millie. The kid was at school. It was the perfect time. All Mark had to do was beat it down and out. They’d leave with the l
ast load and store it where their own source would pick it up and pay them. At least they could come out of this with enough to last them a good long while.
But it bothered him Mark hadn’t beaten him to the rendezvous point. He should have been back with time to spare. Mark had a short way to go, while he’d driven all the way to Danville and back.
“Well, lookie what the law dragged it.”
Sam twirled around, grabbing for the gun in his pocket.
Monstruo had a gun already pointed at him. “Drop the gun, lawman. Or should I say, pretend lawman?”
Quent pulled the gun out and threw it across the room. “Why do you think I’m not a real deputy?”
Monstruo laughed, the sound reverberating on the walls of the empty room. “Brother Buzz blurted out a lot, squealed like a little pig when I stuck him.”
“You killed Luke?”
His eyebrow raised. “Luke was your brother?” He laughed again, this time from the pit of his stomach. Like the howl of a lone wolf before the kill. “I wasn’t talking about that stud. I was talking about Mark.”
“What about Mark?” His heart hammered in his chest, his breath beginning to accelerate.
Monstruo walked over and slid the door away from the attic opening.
Sam looked up to see his brother’s cold, fish eyes and turned, fear washing over him like the frigid sting of a sub-zero meat locker.
Monstruo pointed the gun at him. “It’s too bad you couldn’t have a leading role like the preacher. But sometimes, that’s just the way it is.”
****
Emily walked through the door of her house and collapsed on the sofa. Nick stared at her, his eyes closing slightly as he realized how exhausted she was.
“Where’s Carlos?” she asked.
“Your aunt took him to see Jésus, and they’re going out for ice cream.”
She nodded, her body shaky, spastic, screaming nervous wreck. “Good. I need to talk.”
“I guess it was hard to work with all the people milling around talking about Cal, huh?”
She nodded. “But it was seeing him that really did me in. Then Quent showed up.” She teared up and grabbed him, burying her head in his shirt.
“Emily, what’s wrong? What did he do?”
She sobbed, her chest heaving into his, sniffing hard. “I’m sorry,” she squeaked, her voice muffled against him. “I’ll wash your shirt.”
He stroked her back. “The last thing I’m worried about is my shirt. What did Quent do that has you so upset?”
She looked up, her eyes puffed out and red as raw meat and. “He confessed. Told me he shot Cal. But said it had been a mistake.”
“And you’re upset because you turned him in?” He shook his head, and continued to stroke her. “Honey, you had to.”
She shook her head. “But I didn’t. He asked me to wait a few minutes, told me everything he’d done he did on orders, and said he’d tell me the second in command if I did it.”
“Wow!” He said. “I don’t know if I’m more surprised about what he did and how he trusted you or the fact you agreed.”
“Mmmhmm.” Her bottom lip trembled. “I know. But after he left, I waited thirty minutes and called the sheriff from my car on the way back. But…but….”
“But what honey?”
She clutched him like she couldn’t let go, like she’d lost everything but his love. He held her with the promise he’d keep her safe. Her body and her love.
“Someone saw a car in front of that old abandoned house. You know? The one where they found Carlos’s parents?”
“Yes?” He dug his fingers into her back, knowing this was bad.
“Quent’s dead.” She began to whimper. “Dismembered next to another man with no head.”
His body trembled with the force of her words, cold perspiration breaking out, dampening his shirt more than her previous tears. The shock that a killer so brutal was still on the loose made him frightened for them all. And, no matter what, he refused to let anyone harm Emily.
****
Later that evening, in bed, they lay spooned together. Nick kissed behind her ear. “I have an idea.”
“What?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
She’d been crying so hard most of the evening, he doubted this would fly. But if anything could take a person’s mind off problems, it was sex. “Tell me what you wildest fantasy is about making love.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Emily took a deep breath and shifted her body. “Considering your smaller, now dominant, head just poked me in the ass, I’ll take that as a no.”
He chuckled but didn’t say a word. He felt her body shake and knew. Even though she’d been upset, he’d already turned her on.
“You’ll think it’s weird.”
“Try me.”
She shifted, turning to face him. “I always fantasized that I’d walk through the door and my lover would meet me, say, ‘I want you, I want you now.’ Then he’d walk over to me and bend down, grab me. Lift up under my skirt and take off or rip off my panties, and then carry me to a bed, or wherever and immediately go down on me.”
He stared into her eyes and thought he’d never get enough of looking at her. She was so concentrated, so focused when she talked about sex, about love, about life. To know how you saw it and be able to convey it with such simplicity was a gift. And she was his present. “Let’s do it,” he said, huskily, sticking his finger in her vagina and massaging her clitoris.
She shivered. “Oh, I don’t know. This might work.”
He laughed. “I bet it would. But the other will be much better, trust me.”
“But I don’t have any clothes on,” she said. “How can I walk through the door in clothes, much less a skirt or dress?”
He nodded at her closet. “Put one on. We’ll pretend you have on underwear.”
She sat up. “To hell we will. It’s my fantasy. We’ll do it right.”
He smiled. She was a quick study, already in her part. She jumped up, went to her high boy, opened the drawer and took out a pair of panties. Then, crossing to her closet she jerked a dress off a rack and slithered into it.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m ready.”
He smiled ear to ear, sitting half way up propped on one elbow. “All right. Go outside the door and come inside.”
“What if somebody’s up?” she asked, suddenly hit with a wave of uncertainty.
“No one’s up, sweetheart. It’s one a.m. Just do it quickly and I’ll be in my role.”
She walked out and came back in, a comic smile on her face. “Honey, I’m home.”
He jumped up, puffing out his chest. His dick didn’t need any help. “I want you,” he said.
Her eyes were wide with passion as he bent over her, crushing her to him in a kiss. Her hands flailed until she finally settled into the power of his embrace….
Then he bent down and ripped the panties from her, excited as he felt how damp they were, and scooped her in his arms. He carried her to the bed, threw her on it, got on top of her and drove inside. She was hot and wet and amazingly lubricated, and he heard her squeal in pleasure as he went deeper inside. And then, he began to rock gently, with the stride of a lover who adored his woman more than any who has ever been or will be.
Her muscles clutched him tightly, as if they were stroking his cock, urging him on as he drove and then surged upward, his cock expanding and angrily claiming its prize. He felt his own body quiver, matching the urgency of her own as she thrashed under him shouting out his name in short spurts. His pulse quickened, his breath raw with need. “Oh, my God, Em. I can’t get enough of you.”
She gripped his forearms, pulling him down to her, and she released her body upward in a surge. It convulsed in short jerking movements beneath his continued drive in her body. Seconds later he felt his cock explode and joined her in an explosion of love.
He lay on top of her and tried to control his breath as she did the same, and both of them, almost
simultaneously began to laugh. “I know what you’re going to say.”
She nodded, her hair slicked back from her face with exertion. “Um, we didn’t forget the passion.” Her eyes flared with desire. “It was the best. But I think we forgot the condom.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Nick met Blue and Chris at Good Ole Boys the next morning. He’d arrived first, sitting in a booth far away from everyone else. Blue and Chris arrived minutes later, Blue staring around the room before he spotted him.
They walked back to him and Blue chuckled. “I always sit up there, son. What’s with being a recluse?”
“I need it that way.”
Blue turned his head to one side, his smile fading. “Okay, I guess we sit.” The two men sat down. “Your party,” Blue said.
Nick placed his palms on the table. “Two men were murdered yesterday. In that old abandoned house where we found the cemented wall.”
“Dang.” Blue slapped his knee. “Ever since Emily and her aunt stopped spreading gossip, I don’t have a handle on anything going on in this town.”
“Were any of the bodies beheaded?” Chris asked.
Nick nodded. “Both. But I think the killer wanted us to recognize one man, because he left his head.”
“Holy shit,” Blue waved his hand in the air. “Sorry, short break for emergency coffee on that one.”
“Both the Mexican gangs and La Em use that technique,” Chris said. “In fact some of the gangs work for the mob.” He glanced back at Nick. “Do they know who did it?”
He shook his head and nodded toward the waitress as she sat down the cup in front of Blue.
“Okay, you sweeties,” she said, “I get it. You don’t want me to hear. I’m gone.” She sauntered off.
“Smart girl,” Nick said.
“She’s been around a lot of business deals in her time,” Blue said, taking a sip of the coffee. “Continue.”
Unforgettable Heroes II Boxed Set Page 150
