Laced In Lies

by Colleen Helme

I pulled off my helmet and answered. “She was supposed to take Lacie inside and leave her with Jodie’s assistant, then get her stuff and take off. Maybe we should check the motorhome just to make sure she’s gone?”

  Ramos nodded, even though his first instinct was to head inside and make sure Lacie was all right. He shut off the bike. In the quiet, we both heard a faint gasping sound. I scrambled off the bike, and followed the sound to the other side of Dusty’s car.

  To my surprise, Dusty lay on his back with a dark stain of blood spreading over his chest. I knelt down beside him, frantic that he’d been shot. With blood pouring out of his chest, it didn’t look good. “What happened? Did Stephanie do this?”

  He took in a quick breath to speak. “Yeah… Lacie…” His eyes closed, and his breathing slowed.

  “What about Lacie?” Ramos asked, kneeling at his side. “Where is she?”

  “In… inside. But Stephanie…” He tried to draw in another breath, but it never happened. The light went out of his eyes and he died.

  My eyes filled up with tears, but I caught his last thought, and it wasn’t good. “He was thinking that Stephanie’s still around here somewhere.”

  “Is Lacie okay?”

  I blinked the tears away and nodded. “Yeah… I think so, but it’s a little fuzzy. Stephanie might have taken her inside, but I don’t know if it was before or after she shot Dusty.”

  Ramos let out a breath and stood. He glanced around the parking lot but could see no sign of Stephanie or Lacie. “I need to go inside and find them.”

  “Yeah… okay. I’ll call nine-one-one and see if I can find the security guards.”

  With a grim nod, he ran toward the arena doors.

  I let out a breath. Watching Dusty die sent a cold chill through me, and I got a little lightheaded. Still, I needed to pull it together and call the police. I took a deep breath and stood. With the helmet in my hand, I laced my arm through the neck and face so it would rest in the crook of my arm. Then I pulled my phone out of my jacket pocket.

  With shaking hands, I fumbled just a little before I got it turned on. Taking a breath to place the call, the click of a cocking gun sounded right behind my left ear, and I froze.

  “Drop it,” Stephanie said. Since she was ready to shoot me, I lowered it to the ground. “Where’s Luke? How did you get away?” Her voice shook with desperation.

  “He’s fine,” I said. My heart raced, and I could hardly catch my breath. I slowly raised both arms and turned to face her. Then I backed up a couple of steps since she had the gun pointed right in my face, and her hand shook like crazy. I picked up that she didn’t believe me, so I scrambled for a reasonable explanation.

  “I’m telling you the truth. He let me go. Call him if you don’t believe me.”

  “Don’t you think I’ve tried?” Her gun hand shook even more, and spittle flew from her mouth. She glanced at Dusty’s sprawled body and realized she’d killed him. Panic grabbed her chest, and her eyes bulged. What had she done? She pulled her desperate gaze back to mine. “Where is he? Where’s Luke?!”

  “He’s at a bar not too far from here.”

  Stephanie’s brows drew together in confusion, so I quickly continued, “He had a deal with the Polynesian gang who runs it, and he went to pick up the rest of his money. The gang members there know me, so we worked out a deal. I’m sure he’s still there. I can take you if you want. Then you’ll see that I’m telling you the truth.”

  She didn’t want me taking her anywhere, but she needed to get out of here… now. She glanced at the car, but Dusty’s body was in the way, and she didn’t want to touch it. Then she noticed Ramos’ motorcycle, and the helmet hanging off my arm. She didn’t know how to drive it, but maybe I did.

  “Can you drive that?” She pointed to the bike.

  “Uh… yes,” I lied. “Yes I can.”

  “Okay. Let’s go.” She thought that sitting close behind me was ideal for keeping the gun at my back, since she didn’t think for a second that I would take her to Luke. But as long as I got her away from here, it didn’t matter where we went. It was ideal since everyone would be looking for her in the motorhome or Dusty’s car. Then, the first chance she got, she’d just shoot me and ditch the bike, and then call a taxi or Uber for a ride to the bus station.

  Swallowing my fear, I led the way toward the bike, knowing this was the only way out. I slipped on my helmet and snapped it up tight, since I was pretty sure I’d crash it right off the bat. In his haste, Ramos had left the keys in the ignition and his helmet on the seat.

  Stephanie grabbed Ramos’ helmet and put it on, grateful for the extra layer of obscurity it offered, and thinking no one would know it was her.

  Letting out a deep breath, I straddled the bike like I knew what I was doing. Stephanie got on behind me, then poked me in the ribs with her gun. I planted my feet on the ground and managed to stand the bike up, but it was a little heavy for me, and I wasn’t sure I could pull it off.

  Instead of kick-starting it like Ramos liked to do, I pulled in the hand clutch and pushed the little red button. It started right up, surprising me that I’d made it this far. With my heart racing, I revved it up like Ramos did and knew this was my moment of truth.

  I wasn’t sure what gear Ramos had left it in, mostly because I had no idea how to work the gears. I also knew that if I tried to lift my foot off the ground we’d probably tip over without some forward momentum.

  So… that left letting out the hand clutch and giving it some gas and hoping that somehow it moved forward. After that, I had no clue what to do, except maybe scream a little and jump off. That reminded me that the brake lever was above the gas handle, and maybe I should pull that at some point.

  Stephanie began to wonder what was taking me so long, so I said a quick prayer and let out the clutch while giving it some gas. To my astonishment, the bike started forward. Surprised, I lifted my feet and managed to get them onto the pedals.

  In the excitement, I accidentally pulled harder on the gas without realizing it, and we shot forward, heading straight for the back of the building. We gained speed and, sensing immediate death, Stephanie screamed, reaching some part of my brain that told to let up on the gas.

  Pure survival instinct kicked in, and I turned the wheel and leaned to the side, then pulled on the brake and put my foot down to stop us from falling over. In the momentum, Stephanie flew off the seat, and the bike spun out beneath me, turning almost completely around before pivoting to a stop.

  The engine died, and I gasped for breath, shocked to still be alive. It started to tip over, so I put both feet down, but it was too heavy for me to hold. As it began to fall over, I screamed a little. Holding tight to the handlebars, I tried to get my leg out of the way, but the bike came down on top of me anyway.

  “Shelby!”

  Before I could register any pain, Ramos lifted the bike off me. He set it up on the kickstand and knelt by my side. “Are you hurt?”

  “I don’t know.” It came out a little garbled, so I sat up to take off my helmet. Ramos helped me get the strap undone, and I pulled it off. Taking a deep breath, I blurted, “Where’s Stephanie?”

  “It’s okay. The security guard’s got her. He just put her in handcuffs.”

  I let out a breath of relief, then glanced at Ramos with a wince. “Sorry about the bike.”

  He shook his head, thinking that seeing me trying to drive that thing had nearly given him a heart attack. He thought for sure I was going to crash right into the building. Then I executed a nearly perfect one-eighty and promptly fell over. He was still speechless.

  “You saw that?”

  “Uh… yeah.”

  Wanting to stand, I moved my leg and groaned, mostly because of the big rip in the knee of my favorite black jeans. “Damn! That hurts.”

  “Don’t move.” Ramos proceeded to run his hands down my leg from my thigh to my ankle. “I don’t feel any broken bones, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have any.”

&n
bsp; I swallowed, embarrassed that his touch had sent my heart racing. Plus, I was talking more about the rip in my pants than my leg. But now I had to play along. “Um… I think I might just have a few bruises. See? I can wiggle my toes just fine, although my ankle hurts a bit.”

  “Let’s see.” He pulled up my pant leg and found a dark bruise forming along my ankle bone. “Why don’t you try moving your ankle?”

  I rotated it in a circular motion. “Uh… yeah. That only hurt a little.”

  “What about your knee? Can you bend it?” He took hold of my foot and raised it toward my body to test my knee. It hardly hurt at all, and a spasm of guilt rocked through me. Here he was being so concerned that I was hurt, and I’d probably put a few scratches and dents in his bike. Still, maybe I shouldn’t complain and should just enjoy it, especially since I’d been through a lot in the last hour or so.

  “That didn’t hurt much,” I said, trying to keep a straight face. “I think it might be bruised, and a little swollen. But that’s it. I want to stand up on it just to make sure.”

  His eyes narrowed, and he wondered if I was pulling his leg. “You sure?”

  “Uh… yeah.”

  Ramos helped me up, thinking that if I was pulling his leg, he didn’t mind too much. That made it easier to hold me in his arms, because he was sure grateful I wasn’t dead. He slid his arms beneath mine and lifted me up against his body, startling a gasp out of me.

  My feet dangled off the ground and his lips were mere inches from mine. He held me close, then reluctantly lowered me to the ground without kissing me the way he wanted to. Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes that he’d left me breathless and shaken.

  “Can you walk?”

  “Huh?” His smirk woke me up, and I quickly backed away from him. “Uh… yes. Of course.” I took a few more steps back, and stumbled over the edge of the sidewalk.

  Ramos grabbed my arm to steady me, and I got a little dizzy. “I think I need to sit down.”

  Alarm widened his eyes, and he helped me to the sidewalk where I could sit and lean against the back of the building. He studied my pale face, and his brows drew together. “I thought…”

  “I was teasing?” I finished. “No… uh… well yeah… but then you… and… I think it all caught up to me. I’m fine now… and I really hope your bike’s okay too.”

  He let out a breath and sat beside me, shaking his head and thinking the bike was the least of his worries. “What a night.”

  “Yeah… you can say that again.”

  The security guard trotted over. “The police are on their way… just thought you’d like to know.”

  Ramos tensed. He still had Luke to take care of but, with Dusty dead, and Stephanie in custody, he wasn’t sure how that was all going to play out. “Uh… maybe I’d better go.” He didn’t want to leave me to fend for myself, but he also didn’t want to be involved with the police.

  “I’m not sure you should go. Stephanie saw you, and so did the guards. But I think I can help you out. You know I’ve been working on this case with Dimples. Why don’t you go inside and watch the rest of the concert? That’s why you came. I’ll tell Dimples what happened and ask him to keep you out of it.”

  Ramos narrowed his eyes. “You think he’d do that?”

  “Yes. I do.”

  “What about Luke?” He really wanted to kill the bastard for everything he’d done, but if we did things my way, he wouldn’t be able to, and it might tarnish his image.

  I shook my head, but I managed not to roll my eyes since he was mostly kidding. “I know… but he killed a Polynesian gang member, and his drugs killed two kids. Then Stephanie killed Dusty. We need to let the police handle it. Trust me, it will all come together.”

  He let out a breath. “All right. But where do they find Luke?”

  “Let’s leave him where he is. Dimples and I will pick him up at the bar later tonight. Just give them a heads up, and tell them it’s something I worked out with the police. I promise they won’t get in trouble… you know… since they saved my life?”

  He shrugged. Big Kahuna might not like it, but if Ramos told him to do it, he was certain they would. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. But I’m moving my bike out of the way.” He grabbed both helmets, then rolled the bike close against the building. Securing the helmets, he took the keys and pocketed them, thinking that maybe he’d better teach me how to drive it, even though it was way too big for me. Hmm… considering what had just happened, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea…

  Just then, two police cars pulled into the parking lot. With a pang of regret at leaving me to the cops, Ramos sent me a nod before slipping inside the doors. As the police took charge, I leaned my head back against the building, knowing it was going to be a long night, but grateful to be alive.

  Chapter 14

  L ucky for me, Dimples was the first detective to arrive on the scene. As he recognized me sitting on the concrete, surprise rolled off him, followed by disbelief, and then resignation. How did I get involved in these things? He quickly came to my side, noticing my bruised cheek and my torn pants, along with my pale face. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said, sighing. “It’s been awful, but I think it’s over now. I’m glad you’re here. I can explain all of this and tell you what’s going on with the whole drug thing. I can also tell you who murdered that drug dealer we found today.”

  His eyes widened. “That’s good.”

  I pursed my lips and nodded, hating to ask him for a favor, but I needed his assurance to leave Ramos out of it before I told him the whole story.

  “Why do I get the feeling there’s something else going on that you don’t want to tell me?”

  “Wow. You caught that? You’re good.”

  He chuckled. “I think I know you better than you give me credit for.”

  This time, I held his gaze and smiled. “I guess that’s why we make such great partners.” I took a breath, then let it out. “There is something that I need from you. There’s a certain someone I’d like to leave out of this if it’s possible. This person didn’t do anything but help, which you might find hard to believe, but it’s true.”

  “Well… you certainly have my attention.”

  “Can you promise me you’ll consider it? You know I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think it was the right thing to do.”

  Now it was Dimples’ turn to let out a breath. “Fine. I promise I’ll do everything I can to leave him out of it.” The fact that Dimples had a good idea it was Ramos should have surprised me, but I was too relieved to care.

  “Great. Thanks. Uh… can I text Chris first? I need to tell him I’m all right.” He nodded, a little perplexed as to why I hadn’t already done that. “Oh… my cell phone’s over by the… the dead body behind the car over by the motorhome. Can you get it for me?”

  His brows rose at my request, and he glanced in that direction. None of the cops had gone over there, so he figured they didn’t know about the dead body. He hurried that way and took in the scene, pocketing my phone before he called a police officer over.

  After giving the officer instructions to secure the scene, he called the precinct and asked for the crime scene unit, then came back to my side and handed me the phone. “You know the dead guy?”

  “Uh… yeah. He’s Jodie McAllister’s brother, Dusty. It was Stephanie over there who killed him.” I pointed out Stephanie, who was now sitting in the back of a police cruiser. “Thanks for getting my phone.” Since Dimples had a hundred questions to ask me, I quickly continued. “I’ll just send a fast text, and then we can get down to business.”

  Dimples shook his head, but waited patiently, so I only texted that I was fine, but things had gotten complicated, and I needed to stay a little longer to help Dimples. It was a cowardly way to tell Chris about all the trouble I’d been in, but if I actually heard his voice, I knew I’d turn into a blubbering idiot.

  “Do you want to sit in my car?”
Dimples asked. Since that was much better than the hard sidewalk, I quickly agreed. He helped me up and I took my time, testing out my leg to make sure it was okay.

  Sitting in the car came as a relief. Then my little reprieve was over, and it was time to tell Dimples everything. I wasn’t sure how much of Ramos’ story to share, so I did my best to leave him out of it, saying that Dusty and I had a mutual friend who, in his concern for Dusty, asked me to help because of my premonitions.

  Dimples shook his head at that, since he knew my premonitions got me into all kinds of trouble. Then he wondered if this ‘friend’ knew I could read minds.

  I decided to ignore that thought and continued my narrative, telling him that when I found out about the link to the drugs, I decided to follow up.

  “Naturally, one thing led to another, and I ended up meeting the person responsible for the drugs.” Here, it was easy to talk about staying with Lacie in the motorhome, while Dusty went after Luke, and all the events that happened afterward, up until and including Stephanie killing Dusty, and our little motorcycle ride.

  Dimples had noticed the bike because… well… who wouldn’t? It was a beauty. “You drove that? Oh my hell!”

  “Hey. It turned out okay. I don’t think it’s scratched up too much.” I’d only seen a few scratches, and maybe one little dent. “That can be fixed, right?”

  Dimples closed his eyes and shook his head, then came back to the matter at hand. “Okay… so we need to go get this Luke person from the bar where the Polynesian gangs hang out?”

  “Yeah… actually, he’s in the basement. But I made a deal with them, so he shouldn’t be dead yet, but we might want to hurry.”

  Dimples sighed, then he jumped out of the car to tell the other detectives and officers where we were going and that we’d be back soon. He asked me for the address, so I pulled it up on my phone from the time I’d been following Kyle.

  Once we arrived at the bar, I directed him to pull around to the back parking lot, and we got out of the car.

  Not knowing what else to do, I knocked on the back door and waited. A moment later, someone pulled the door open and peeked out. “We’re here for Luke,” I said.