Tracy laughed. “An entire chocolate cake is not going to discourage those flyboys from ordering lunch whenever the whim strikes.”
“Well, that’s true. But they are family.”
“Kelsey? The entire town is family. Well, practically.”
Kelsey just smiled and then turned her attention back to preparing the pulled pork which was that day’s lunch special.
It didn’t take Tracy long to get everything together. She cut down a cardboard box so it wouldn’t be so deep, making it easier to handle. Slipping her light jacket on and then hefting the box, she headed out through the dining room, on her way to her car.
When she’d been staying at her apartment, she’d walked to work every day. It was only a few blocks, after all. But since she’d been living at Jordan’s, she’d been driving in each morning.
There were no municipal parking lots in Lusty, and no back-alley parking area for the restaurant, either.
This morning, Tracy had left her car nearly two full blocks from Lusty Appetites, practically in front of the museum. She shouldered the door open and stepped out onto the sidewalk under the pretty midday sun.
A male voice immediately caught her attention. “Hey there, Tracy.”
Tracy jumped, but then relaxed. “Hey, how are you doing?” She looked up into the smiling face of Manny Ramirez. She’d practically stepped into him when she’d come out of the restaurant. Clearly heading in the same direction as she was, he fell in step beside her.
“Good, thanks. Here, let me take that for you.” He plucked the box from her hands, carrying it easily. “Where are you headed?”
“Just down to my car. I’m taking this lunch order out to the airfield, to the hardworking folks at Kendall Aviation.”
Manny laughed. “I imagine Morgan is hardworking, though I’m not so sure about Henry.”
Tracy didn’t quite know what to say to that. Then Manny said, “I didn’t know Kelsey had a takeout business going.”
“Neither did Kelsey.”
Manny chuckled. Tracy had heard Manny recently left Dallas behind after having gotten into some trouble there. He’d come to live with his aunt and uncle and seemed determined to get his life straightened out. In fact, she recalled that Jordan told her he was working with his uncle, and had been out to work some of the kinks out of the new computer system Morgan and Henry had bought.
She was sorry she hadn’t taken the time to get to know him a bit better over the years, especially considering the help he’d so recently given Peter. Even before making Lusty his home, Manny had been a familiar face there in the summer, and at civic events like Founders Day, the annual rodeo, and the Fourth of July celebrations.
“So, which car is yours?” he asked.
“That red Buick just up ahead.”
“Hey, I parked right behind you,” Manny said. “Nice car. Uncle Joaquin has loaned me his—uh-oh.”
“He loaned you his uh-oh?” Tracy slowed her pace because Manny slowed, and he was looking down at the pavement, so she looked, too.
“No, uh-oh, you’ve got a flat...holy crap, no, you’ve got two flat tires!”
Sure enough, both of her back tires were flatter than pancakes on a hot griddle. “Well, damn it! How the hell did that happen?” She looked up and down the street as if the answer would be right there for her to see.
“Maybe you drove over some broken glass, or something on the way to work today. Have you been out to any construction sites, or anything like that, lately?”
“No, I’ve just driven between home and here. Rats, if I had one flat I could change it. But with two…”
“Look, why don’t I drive you out to the airfield so you can deliver this food?” Manny said. “Then I’ll bring you back here, and I’ll see what I can do to get these tires fixed for you? It won’t take much time, and I don’t have anything better to do. I’ll just pop them off, one at a time, and run them out to Gord Jessop’s garage.”
Tracy hated to impose on anyone, but the truth was, she needed help. She nearly refused Manny’s offer, because Peter was just a block away, after all, holed up with Adam in the sheriff’s office. But they were working hard to try to find the one bit of information that would lead them to Miguel Ramos. Son of a bitch put a contract out on one of her men? He needed to be busted, and Peter needed to be the one to bust him.
Which he couldn’t very well do, she reasoned, if he had to stop working to rescue her from a couple of flat tires. Decision made.
“Thanks, Manny. I really appreciate your help.”
Manny shook his head. “You don’t have to thank me, Tracy. Seriously, I’m glad to do it.”
He pulled his car keys out of his pocket and unlocked the Chevy that sat parked just behind her Buick. While he set the box on the backseat, Tracy got into the front passenger seat. In moments, Manny was sliding behind the wheel and starting the car.
“Don’t forget your seatbelt,” he said as he eased the car out onto Main Street. He flashed a grin, then stepped on the gas, but only got as far as the traffic light before he had to stop the car.
Tracy tried to ignore the fact that Manny’s grin made her feel jittery. Instead, she focused her attention on the fact that her car had two flat tires. Funny that both of the back tires are flat. If she’d driven through something like broken glass, wouldn’t it make more sense that the back and front tires of one side would be flat, rather than both of the back ones, and neither of the front?
“What’s the matter, Tracy?”
Something in Manny’s tone sounded off to her. She looked at him, but he spared her only a brief glance, then turned his attention back to the road. The light turned green, and he drove the car forward, at the speed limit, heading out of town.
Tracy shook her head. What was up with her emotions today?
Manny continued to drive at a sedate speed, both hands on the steering wheel. Tracy didn’t understand why a sense of dread bloomed in her belly. Conscious that Manny had asked her a question and that the silence between them felt heavy, she answered him.
“I’m just trying to figure out how the hell I managed to give myself two flat tires.”
“Ah. Well, that’s a puzzle. But the truth is, I used my sticker to puncture them.”
Tracy jerked her head to look at Manny, and instead found her gaze drawn to the very ugly gun he was holding, pointed at her face.
“Manny! What the hell is the meaning of this?”
“Shut up, gringa. Very slowly, reach forward and open the glove box.”
Gone was the congenial young man she’d met on the sidewalk just moments before, and in his place sat a young, tough-looking punk with a gun. Tracy swallowed hard and did as she was ordered.
Inside the glove box lay a pair of unlocked handcuffs.
“Put them on, after looping them through the ‘holy shit’ handle, first.” Manny grinned. “Today, from you I am sure, that handle above the door earns its nickname.”
Tracy recognized why she’d shuddered in response to Manny’s previous smile. In his eyes and on his face she saw only pure evil.
Manny continued to drive and hold the gun on her, and Tracy could think of nothing else to do. Swallowing, she fit the handcuffs through the center of the handle above her, and then closed the manacles on her wrists.
“Perfect. Good girl.” He put the gun in his lap, then reached over and squeezed her left breast.
“Don’t you fucking touch me, you bastard! You’re going to break Joaquin and Portia’s hearts.”
“As if I care. I’ve been the poor relation to them all my life. But now, thanks to Miguel Ramos, I will have enough money that I won’t need to beg anyone for anything. And after today, I’ll have lots of people who’ll be willing to pay for my services. I will have no more need for this town, or my so-called family.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“I suppose it won’t hurt to tell you.” Manny looked very pleased with himself. “First, I am going to kill that bastar
d, Peter Alvarez, and collect the reward money Ramos is offering.”
Tracy gasped, terror for Peter filling her. “No!” She began tugging on the handcuffs, as if she could somehow get free and stop him.
Manny laughed, and waved the gun at her. “Oh, sí! And then, thanks to the work your hombre has done tracing Ramos’s accounts, I am going to hack into Señor Ramos’s bank account and steal his money…electronically. I’ve cloned the computer that Alvarez has been using at the sheriff’s office, and all that information he has accumulated is now mine. Ramos has millions stashed away, and those millions will soon be mine, too.”
Tracy swallowed hard. She needed to stop Manny, but had no idea how she could. She watched as familiar scenery flashed past. They’d taken the turn off the state road that would bring them past the airfield. She desperately hoped someone there was looking out, and would see her. But who was she fooling? She was in an unfamiliar car, and everyone there would likely be busy working.
When they passed the airfield, she could only watch as her last hope for rescue went by. The only person she saw was Joe Grant, but she didn’t think he noticed her at all.
The road forked ahead. The right fork would take them out beyond Susan Benedict’s ranch. The left only went for a couple of miles before it petered out to a dirt road that ended in the middle of an abandoned farm.
The buildings had been torn down long ago and the land itself left to become pasture for Kendall cattle. She tried to recall the lay of the land, but it had been years since she’d been out there.
Sure enough, Manny took the left fork.
He drove to the end of the paved road, and for another mile or so along the dirt track. Then he stopped the vehicle, shifted it into “park,” and turned off the engine.
He threw open the door and got out of the car. He held the gun pointed at her as he reached into his pocket with his other hand. He pulled out his cell phone, looked at the front of it, and nodded.
“Fortunately I have a signal here. Now, gringa, if you make one sound, I swear that I will shoot you in the face. Nod if you understand me.”
Tracy was so frightened she felt her insides begin to curdle. She didn’t know this man who stood before her. In that moment, he looked like a hired killer. Unable to think of anything else to do, she nodded.
“Good.”
She wondered who he was calling. She didn’t have to wonder long.
“Sheriff Kendall, it’s Manny. I…I saw…you have to do something! Someone has Tracy Jessop…they passed me, and I saw he had a gun…no, they drove off out of town…a white car, maybe a Chevy. Hurry! She looked crazy scared!”
Manny hung up the cell phone then put it back in his pocket.
Grinning, he came toward her.
She leaned back as he reached in through the open window. He chuckled and grabbed her breast again and squeezed it hard. Tracy wanted to rage in protest, but decided maybe if she ignored him, he wouldn’t do it again.
“If I had time, I would very much enjoy fucking you. But there’s lots of pussy in my future. I can miss using your cunt, tempting as it is.” Instead of reaching for her again, he reached toward the glove box and pushed the trunk release. Then he was gone, heading toward the back of the Malibu.
It seemed to take forever before she heard the trunk slam. When she saw him next, he was walking toward the stand of trees and bushes that were ahead and to the right. He’d replaced the handgun with a rifle.
Oh, God. In a single heartbeat, she understood Manny’s terrible plan. His call to Adam would of course have alerted Peter that she was in danger. She knew Peter, knew he’d drop everything and come running to save her.
Only instead of saving her, he’d be walking into a trap.
Chapter 19
This isn’t where I need to be.
Jordan closed his office door behind his first appointment of the morning and made a decision. Ever since he left the house that morning, there’d been a niggling something in the back of his mind. When he allowed himself to think about it, he understood that something was worry. He was worried about Peter and about the threat to him he’d learned about the night before.
This felt like more than his usual worry over the fact the man he loved had a dangerous job, though. If only he could pinpoint exactly…
Son of a bitch.
His lover had confessed the night before there’d been a contract put out on his life, and what the hell had Jordan done just the day before that?
He’d brought a fucking stranger to Lusty, that’s what he’d done. Given a man he really didn’t know personally entrée to the community where both of his lovers and most of his family happened to be.
Unable and unwilling to focus on anything but his concern for Peter’s safety, he called and cancelled the rest of his appointments for the day. In less than ten minutes he was in his car and headed for Lusty, Texas, and the sheriff’s office. He’d ask Adam and Peter to check out Joe Grant—something he should have thought to do right from the get-go.
Traffic on the Interstate slowed. Jordan tapped his hands on the steering wheel, a sense of urgency kicking him. He pulled out his cell phone and hit number three on his speed dial.
Peter answered on the second ring.
“Hey, Jordan. What’s up?”
Jordan heard the smile in Peter’s voice. “Listen, I may not have done as thorough a job of checking out Joe Grant as I should have done. He was recommended by a man I sometimes do business with, but I just haven’t gotten around to checking out all his references yet. Maybe you should have Adam run him, or something.”
Peter was silent for a moment. “We did that already. He came back a little too clean—so Adam has Morgan keeping an eye on the guy.”
“Well, now I just feel stupid. I guess I should have realized you’d do that. I’m about a half hour out, sooner if this damn traffic clears. I had this horrible feeling, and just decided to come home.”
“Hey, don’t feel stupid.” Peter’s voice softened, and damn if it didn’t give Jordan a little hum of pleasure deep inside. “I’ll give Morgan a call and make sure your Mr. Grant is still in sight. And I’m glad you’re almost here. It’ll give me a chance to show you the progress I’m making. I’ve been following a money trail, and I think I may have the bastard.”
“Good. I’ll see you soon.” Jordan closed his cell phone and set it on the console. Traffic finally cleared, and Jordan focused on driving. He knew Peter, and Morgan for that matter, were more than capable of looking out for themselves.
That sense of nagging worry should have eased, but it didn’t. If anything, it seemed to be stronger the closer he got to Lusty. Jordan used a heavier foot on the accelerator. If he got a ticket for speeding, so be it.
He beat his estimate for arriving in Lusty by nearly ten minutes. Noon hour, and Main Street fairly hummed with traffic. He had to drive past the sheriff’s office to find a parking spot, but got one just as old Mr. Parker left his spot, probably after having his usual early lunch at Kelsey’s.
As Jordan got out of his car, his attention was snagged by the red Buick parked a bit further north and on the opposite side of the street. He’d noticed Tracy’s car as he’d passed it. He looked hard, wondering what was off about it.
He realized what was wrong at the same instant his cell phone rang. A quick check at the number on the call display told him who was calling. “Peter…”
“Where are you?”
The urgency in Peter’s voice stabbed him. Motion in his peripheral vision drew his head up and toward the north. Peter, Adam, and Matt had just burst out of the sheriff’s office.
Peter saw him and came jogging down the street. Jordan crossed and met him, as Matt passed them both and ran into the restaurant.
“Tracy,” was all Peter said.
They both bent to have a look at the back tires. Adam joined them.
“Looks slashed,” Peter said.
“What’s happening?” Jordan pushed aside the panic that wanted
to bloom in his chest.
“Manny Ramirez called and said he saw Tracy being kidnapped, but I wasn’t able to call him back to confirm,” Adam said.
Matt came running out of the restaurant. “She’s supposed to be delivering a lunch order out to the airfield.”
Darryl Jessop, who owned Darryl’s Duds, came out of his store. “Hey, what’s up, fellas? Does it take four of you to change a couple of flats?”
“No, we’re looking for Tracy, Darryl,” Adam said. “Have you seen her?”
“Sure. That young Ramirez boy drove off with her in Joaquin’s old Malibu, oh, must have been ten minutes ago, or so,” he said.
Adam’s cell phone rang. He looked at it, then answered.
“Morgan, has Tracy arrived…what? Son of a bitch, okay. Did he see which way they were headed?” Adam listened for a moment. “We’ll be there in five.” He slipped the phone away then looked at Jordan. “Joe Grant saw them pass, said that it looked as if Tracy was hanging on to the chicken handle with both hands.”
Peter was shaking his head. “Not holding on. Likely handcuffed to it. Fuck. Let’s go.”
Adam and Matt ran for one of the two cruisers parked in front of the sheriff’s office while Peter stayed with Jordan as they tore across the street for his car.
“I don’t understand,” Jordan said as he slid behind the wheel. “What the hell does Manny Ramirez have to do with anything?”
“I think he’s the one Ramos hired to kill me. And he’s taken Tracy…”
“To lure you out there. Shit.”
Peter grabbed his arm. “If anything happens to her because of me…”
“Not because of you.” Jordan was terrified for Tracy, but suddenly he understood something that had eluded him all this time. “Not because of you,” he said again. “Because of this punk that we are so going to pound the living shit out of once we grab him. And because of the slime bucket who’s paid him to do this.”
Jordan checked his mirrors then executed a sharp 180-degree turn, flooring it until they caught up to Adam and Matt.
“Fuck, I wish I’d thought to grab an extra gun. I know you don’t carry one,” Peter said, “but I know you know how to use one.”
Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Strong Men [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 18
