Man in Control

by Diana Palmer

  She grinned. “I will. And, Mr. Ritter, thank you very much for the opportunity. I won’t let you down.”

  “I know that, Ms. Clayburn,” he told her, smiling back. “Hunter will walk you outside. Just in case. Not that I think you need too much protection,” he added, tongue-in-cheek. “There aren’t a lot of people who’ll drive into gunfire to save another person.”

  She laughed. “If I’d had time to think about it, I probably wouldn’t have done it. Just the same, I won’t mind having an escort to the front entrance,” she confessed, standing. “I’m getting a cab to my apartment.”

  “We’ll talk again,” Ritter assured her, standing. He was tall and very elegant in a gray business suit. “All right, come on, Lane. We’ll inspect the warehouse one last time.”

  “Yes, sir,” Lane agreed.

  “I’m just stunned,” Jodie murmured when they reached the street, where the cab she’d called was waiting. She’d also phoned Cobb to meet her at her apartment.

  “Ritter sees more than people think he does,” Hunter told her, chuckling. “He’s sharp, and he doesn’t miss much. Tell Cobb I owe him one, too. My wife and I have been a little preoccupied lately—we just found out that we’re expecting again. My mind hasn’t been as much on the job as it should have been.”

  “Congratulations!”

  He shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind another girl, but Jennifer wants a son this time, a matched set, she calls it. She wants to be near her cousin Danetta, who’s also expecting a second child. She and Cabe Ritter, the old man’s son, have a son but they want a daughter.” He chuckled. “We’ll see what we both get. Meanwhile, you go straight to your apartment with no stops,” he directed, becoming solemn. He looked over the top of the cab, saw something, and nodded approvingly. “Cobb’s having you tailed. No, don’t look back. If anyone makes a try for you, dive for cover and let your escort handle it, okay?”

  “Okay. But I’m not really nervous about it now.”

  “So I saw the other night,” he replied. “You’ve got guts, Ms. Clayburn. You’ll be a welcome addition to security here.”

  She beamed. “I’ll do my best. Thanks again.”

  “No problem. Be safe.”

  He closed the door and watched the taxi pull away. Her escort, in a dark unmarked car, pulled right out behind the cab. She found herself wishing that Cara and her group would make a try for her. It wouldn’t bother her one bit to have the woman land in jail for a long time.

  Alexander was waiting for her at her apartment. He picked up the suitcase she’d packed and then he drove her down to the Jacobsville ranch. She didn’t have time to tell him about the changes in her life. She was saving that for a surprise. She was feeling good about her own abilities, and her confidence in herself had a surprising effect on her friend Margie, who met her at the door with faint shock.

  Margie hugged her, but her eyes were wary. “There’s something different about you,” she murmured sedately.

  “I’ve been exercising,” she assured the other woman amusedly.

  “Sure she has.” Alexander chuckled. “By aiming cars at men armed with automatic weapons.”

  “What!” Margie exclaimed, gasping.

  “Well, they were shooting at Alexander,” Jodie told her. “What else could I do?”

  Margie and her brother exchanged a long, serious look. He nodded slowly, and then he smiled. Margie beamed.

  “What’s that all about?” Jodie wondered aloud.

  “We’re passing along mental messages,” Margie told her with wicked eyes. “Never mind. You’re just in time to try on the flamenco dress I made you for our Halloween party.”

  “Halloween party.” Jodie nodded blankly.

  “It’s this Saturday,” Margie said, exasperated. “We always have it the weekend before Halloween, remember?”

  “I didn’t realize it was that far along in the month,” Jodie said. “I guess I’ve been busier than I realized.”

  “She writes poetry about me,” Alexander said as he went up the staircase with Jodie’s bag.

  “I do not write poetry about you!” Jodie called after him.

  He only laughed. “And she reads it on stage in a retro beatnik coffeehouse.”

  “For real?” Margie asked. “Jodie, I have to come stay with you in Houston so you can take me there. I love coffeehouses and poetry!” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine you reading poetry on a stage. Or driving a car into bullets, for that matter.” She looked shocked. “Jodie, you’ve changed.”

  Jodie nodded. “I guess I have.”

  Margie hugged her impulsively. “Are we still friends?” she wondered. “I haven’t been a good one, but I’m going to try. I can actually make canapés!” she added. “I took lessons. So now you can come to parties when Jessie’s not here, and I won’t even ask you to do any of the work!”

  Jodie burst out laughing. “This I have to see.”

  “You can, Friday. I expect it will take all day, what with the decorating, and I’m doing all that myself, too. Derek thinks I’m improving madly,” she added, and a faint flush came to her cheeks.

  “Cousin Derek’s here already?” she asked.

  “He’s not actually my cousin at all, except by marriage, although I only just found out,” Margie said, drawing Jodie along with her into the living room. “He’s got two brothers and they’re on the way here. One of them is a cattle rancher and the other is a divorced grizzly bear.”

  “A what?”

  Margie looked worried. “He’s a Bureau of Land Management enforcement agent,” she said. “He tracks down poachers and people who deal in illegal hunting and such. He’s the one whose wife left him for a car salesman. He’s very bitter.”

  “Is Derek close to them?”

  “To the rancher one,” Margie said. “He doesn’t see the grizzly bear too often, thank goodness.”

  “Thank goodness?” Jodie probed delicately.

  Margie flushed. “I think Cousin Derek wants to be much more than my cousin.”

  “It’s about time,” Jodie said with a wicked smile. “He’s just your type.”

  Margie made a face. “Come on into the kitchen and we’ll see what there is to eat. I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.” She stopped suddenly. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but why are Derek and his brothers moving in and why are you and Alexander here in the middle of the week?”

  “Oh, somebody’s just going to try to kill me, that’s all,” Jodie said matter-of-factly. “But Alexander’s more than able to handle them, with Cousin Derek’s help and some hard work by the DEA and Alexander’s drug unit.”

  “Trying to kill you.” Margie nodded. “Right.”

  “That’s no joke,” Alexander said from the doorway. He came into the room and pulled Jodie to his side, bending to kiss her gently. “I have to go. Derek’s on the job, and his brothers will be here within an hour or two. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Except you getting shot,” Jodie replied worriedly.

  He opened his jacket and showed her his gun.

  “I know. You’re indestructible. But come back in one piece, okay?” she asked softly.

  He searched her eyes and smiled tenderly. “That’s a deal. See you later.” He winked at Margie and took one last look at Jodie before he left.

  “How people change,” Margie murmured dryly.

  But Jodie wasn’t really listening. Her eyes were still on Alexander’s broad back as he went out the door.

  Alexander and his group met somberly that evening to compare notes and plan strategy. They knew by now where Cara Dominguez was, who her cohorts were, and just how much Brody Vance knew about her operation. The security guard on the job at the Ritter warehouse was linked to the organization as well, but thought he was home free. What he didn’t know was that Alexander had a court order to wiretap his office, and the agent overseeing that job had some interesting information to impart about a drug shipment that was still concealed in Ritter’s warehouse. It w
as one that no one knew about until the wiretap. And it was a much bigger load than the one the drug unit had just busted.

  The trick was going to be catching the thieves with the merchandise. It wasn’t enough to know they were connected with it. They had to have hard evidence, facts that would stand up in court. They had to have a chain of evidence that would definitively link Cara to the drug shipment.

  Just when Alexander thought he was ready to spring the trap, Cara Dominguez disappeared off the face of the earth. The security guard was immediately arrested, before he could flee, but he had nothing to say under advice of counsel.

  When they went to the Ritter warehouse, with Colby Lane and Phillip Hunter, to appropriate the drug shipment, they found cartons of drilling equipment parts. Even with drug-sniffing dogs, they found no trace of the missing shipment. And everybody connected with Cara Dominguez suddenly developed amnesia and couldn’t remember anything about her.

  The only good thing about it was that the operation had obviously changed locations, and there was no further reason for anyone to target Jodie. Where it had moved was a job for the DEA to follow up on. Alexander was sure that Kennedy had something to do with the sudden disappearance of Cara, and the shipment, but he couldn’t prove a thing. The only move he had left was to prosecute Kennedy for giving secret information to a known drug dealer, and that he could prove. He had Kennedy arraigned on charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, which effectively removed the man from any chance of a future job in law enforcement—even if he managed to weasel out of a long jail term for what he’d already done.

  Alexander returned to the Jacobsville ranch on Friday, to find Margie and Jodie in the kitchen making canapés while Cousin Derek and two other men sat at the kitchen table. Derek was sampling the sausage rolls while a taller dark-eyed man with jet-black hair oiled his handgun and a second dark-haired man with eyes as green as Alexander’s sat glaring at his two companions.

  “She’s gone,” Alexander said heavily. “Took a powder. We can’t find a trace of her, so far, and the drug shipment vanished into thin air. Needless to say, I’m relieved on your behalf,” he told a radiant Jodie. “But it’s not what I wanted to happen.”

  “Your inside man slipped up,” the green-eyed stranger said in a deep bass voice.

  “I didn’t have an inside man, Zeke,” Alexander said, dropping into a chair with the other men. “More’s the pity.”

  “Don’t mind him,” the other stranger said easily. “He’s perfect. He never loses a case or misses a shot. And he can cook.”

  Zeke glared at him. “You could do with a few lessons in marksmanship, Josiah,” he returned curtly. “You can’t even hit a target.”

  “That’s a fact,” Derek agreed at once, dark eyes dancing. “He tried to shoot a snake once and took the mailbox down with a shotgun.”

  “I can hit what I aim at when I want to,” Josiah said huffily. “I hated that damned mailbox. I shot it on purpose.”

  His brothers almost rolled on the floor laughing. Josiah sighed and poured himself another cup of coffee. “Then I guess I’m on a plane back to Oklahoma.”

  “And I’m on one to Wyoming.” Zeke nodded.

  Derek glared at them. “And I’m booked for a rodeo in Arizona. Listen, why don’t we sell up and move down here? Texas has lots of ranches. In fact, I expect we could find one near here without a lot of trouble.”

  “You might at that,” Alexander told them as he poured his own cup of coffee, taking the opportunity to ruffle Jodie’s blond hair and smile tenderly down at her. “I hear the old Jacobs place is up for sale again. That eastern dude who took it over lost his shirt in the stock market. It’s just as well. He didn’t know much about horses anyway.”

  “It’s a horse farm?” Josiah asked, interested.

  Alexander nodded. “A seed herd of Arabians and a couple of foals they bred from racing stock. He had pipe dreams about entering a horse in the Kentucky Derby one day.”

  “Why’d he give it up?”

  “Well, for one thing, he didn’t know anything about horses. He wouldn’t ask for advice from anybody who did, but he’d read this book. He figured he could do it himself. That was before he got kicked out of the barn the first time,” he added in a droll tone.

  Zeke made a rough sound. “I’m not keen on horses. And I work in Wyoming.”

  “You’re a little too late, anyway,” Margie interrupted, but she was watching Derek with new intensity. “We heard that one of Cash Grier’s brothers came down here to look at it. Apparently, they’re interested.”

  “Grier has brothers?” Jodie exclaimed. “What a horrifying thought! How many?”

  “Three. They’ve been on the outs for a long time, but they’re making overtures. It seems the ranch would get them close enough to Cash to try and heal the breach.”

  “That’s one mean hombre,” Derek ventured.

  “He keeps the peace,” Alexander defended him. “And he makes life interesting in town. Especially just lately.”

  “What’s going on lately?” Derek wanted to know.

  Alexander, Jodie and Margie exchanged secretive smiles. “Never mind,” Alexander said. “There are other properties, if you’re really interested. You might stop by one of the real estate agencies and stock up on brochures.”

  “He’ll never leave Oklahoma,” Derek said, nodding toward Josiah. “And Wyoming’s the only place left that’s sparsely populated enough to appeal to our family grizzly.” He glanced at Margie and grinned. “However, I only need a temporary base of operations since I’m on the road so much. I might buy me a little cabin nearby and come serenade Margie on weekends when I’m in town.”

  Margie laughed, but she was flushed with excitement. “Might you, now?”

  “Of course, you’re set on a designing career,” he mused.

  “And you’re hooked on breaking bones and spraining muscles in the rodeo circuit.”

  “We might find some common ground one day,” Derek replied.

  Margie only smiled. “Are you all staying for my Halloween party?” she asked the brothers.

  Zeke finished his coffee and got up. “I don’t do parties. Excuse me. I have to call the airline.”

  “I’m right behind you,” Josiah said, following his brother with an apologetic smile.

  “Well, I guess it’s just me,” Derek said. “What do you think, Marge, how about if I borrow one of Alex’s suits and come as a college professor?”

  She burst out laughing.

  Alexander caught Jodie by the hand and pulled her out of the kitchen with him.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “For a walk, now that nobody’s shooting at us,” he said, linking her fingers into his.

  He led her out the front door and around to the side of the house, by the long fences that kept the cattle in.

  “When do you have to go back to work?” he asked Jodie reluctantly.

  “That wasn’t exactly discussed,” she confessed, with a secret smile, because he didn’t know which job she was returning to take. “But I suppose next week will do nicely.”

  “I still think Brody Vance is involved in this somehow,” he said flatly, turning to her. “I can’t prove it yet, but I’m certain he’s not as innocent as he’s pretending to be.”

  “That’s exactly what I think,” she agreed, surprising him. “By the way,” she added, “I quit my job before we came down here.”

  “You quit…good for you!” he exclaimed, hugging her close. “I’m proud of you, Jodie!”

  She laughed, holding on tight. “Don’t be too proud. I’m still working for Mr. Ritter. But it’s going to be in a totally different capacity.”

  “Doing what?” he asked flatly.

  “I’m going to be working with Colby Lane as a computer security consultant,” she told him.

  “What about Hunter?” he asked.

  “He’s going back to Arizona with his wife. They’re expecting a second child, and
I think they want a little less excitement in their life right now,” she confided with a grin. “So Colby Lane is taking over security. Mr. Ritter said I might have to do some traveling later on as a troubleshooter, but it wouldn’t be often.”

  He was studying her with soft, quiet eyes. “As long as it’s sporadic and not for too long, that’s fine. You’ll do well in security,” he said. “Old man Ritter isn’t as dense as I thought he was. I’m glad he’s still keeping an eye on the company. Colby Lane will keep his security people on their toes just as well as Hunter did.”

  “I think Mr. Hunter is irritated that Cara managed to get into that warehouse parking lot,” she ventured.

  “He is. But it could have happened to anyone. Brody Vance is our wild card. He’s going to need watching. And no, you can’t offer to do it,” he added firmly. “Let Lane set up his own surveillance. You stick to the job you’re given and stop sticking your neck out.”

  “I like that!” she exclaimed. “And who was it who encouraged me to stick my neck out in the first place planting bugs near people in coffeehouses?”

  He searched her eyes quietly. “You did a great job. I was proud of you. I always thought we might work well together.”

  “We did, didn’t we?” she mused.

  He pushed back wispy strands of loose hair from her cheek and studied her hungrily. “I have in mind another opportunity for mutual cooperation,” he said, bending to her mouth.

  Eleven

  “What sort of mutual cooperation?” she whispered against his searching lips. “Does it involve guns and bugs?”

  He smiled against her soft mouth. “I was thinking more of prophylactics…”

  While Jodie was trying to let the extraordinary statement filter into her brain, and trying to decide whether to slug him or kiss him back, a loud voice penetrated their oblivion.