Love Under Two Private Dicks Part 24

Lucy's spa was right next door to her brother's business, and how cool was that?

Emily Anne placed a hand on her stomach to quell the b.u.t.terflies going berserk inside her. When she thought back on her first meeting with Lucy Carter, she remembered being somewhat intimidated by the woman. Oh, there was nothing Lucy had done to give her that feeling-it was just that the brunette was tall and beautiful and had seemed so self-a.s.sured.

Emily Anne smiled. She herself was feeling more and more self-confident with each pa.s.sing week. She remembered the gorgeous leather outfit that Lucy had bought at Discretion, and thinking that she wished she was brave enough to dare to wear such a thing.

At the rate I'm going, that day may come sooner rather than later. That, Emily Anne decided, was a very nice thought.

As she reached for the door handle she looked in and saw Lucy, her head down, standing by a gla.s.s counter, writing in a book of some sort.

The woman with her hair pulled back and up and her attention focused looked different than the one Emily Anne had seen at Discretion. This Lucy looked professional, but just as competent and kick-a.s.s.

Lucy looked up, met her gaze, and smiled.

Oh, what a great smile! It's her best feature. That smile turned Lucy from seeming slightly intimidating into a woman who looked like she could be a friend. Emboldened, Emily Anne opened the door and entered the spa.

"Hi, Lucy. Thanks for seeing me."

"Summer thought it would be a good idea if we talked. I agreed for a couple of reasons. I realize that I may have seemed rude to you when we met. I'm sorry for that. I had the feeling at the time that I made you nervous. I'm very sorry if I did. It wasn't intentional."

"Oh, no, you didn't. Well, not directly. It was all me. You looked so confident and...I guess queenly. I told Summer that my first impression of you was of a beautiful Amazon. Actually, I was in complete awe of you."

"Wow." Lucy blushed. "You just made my day."

Emily Anne felt her own face color. "I hope you don't think I'm pandering. I have a habit of saying what I think-especially lately." She sighed. Her gaze slid to the gla.s.s case that Lucy used as a counter. She could see products for sale, what looked like bees wax body products and...honey? She read the little card by the products and remembered that Beck O'Malley was a beekeeper. The fact that Lucy had his products featured prominently in her spa spoke of the woman's feelings for the man, in her estimation. "It changes you when you find a couple of men who love you beyond all reason, doesn't it?"

"Yes, I think it really does." Lucy leaned against the gla.s.s cabinet. "Summer said you wanted to talk to me about Chloe Rhodes, and that I should listen to what you have to say. Would you like to go and grab some lunch?"

"I'd love to, but my men are waiting for me at The Dancing Pony. They're having a meeting there."

Lucy looked interested. "Beck and Patrick are there, too, I think. Does that meeting have to do with Chloe?"

Did Lucy look worried? Emily Anne waved her hand, because she shouldn't be worried one bit. "Not in the way you think. When she and her sister were just kids, they lost their parents in a tornado. The man who had been their dad's business partner and charged with the duty to see to the estate, stole it. The l.u.s.ty Town Trust hired Mel and Connor-those are my men-to see if that man, Ralph Baxter, could be tracked down. Not that he can be charged with the theft, although I don't think there should be a statute of limitations when it comes to crimes where kids are the victims."

"I agree with you there. But why are they having the meeting here, in Divine?"

"Because they've traced Ralph Baxter to Divine. Anyway, what I wanted to say was, when you think of it, it's a full circle, you know? Chloe was here and now she's in l.u.s.ty." Emily Anne shook her head. She needed to tell the whole story. "When Chloe and her sister went to foster care, they were separated. Carrie ended up in a home where the parents were raising a little sociopath. He s.e.xually abused Carrie, and when he got out of prison he came looking for her again. If Chloe hadn't been there he might have succeeded in his horrible plan. But she was, and because she'd been prepared, she was also able to save the life of Sheriff Kendall." Emily Anne almost never talked about what Chloe had gone through, because it had been so hard for her. She didn't know why she was doing it now, but Lucy was listening. She lowered her voice. "She had to kill that awful s.e.xual predator to do it, and even though the man deserved killing, it was a hard thing for her to deal with afterward. But Grant and Andrew were there to help her through it. I believe with all my heart that those two firefighters were meant to be hers."

Lucy remained silent and Emily Anne wondered if she was making any sense. "When I first met Chloe, it was just after she came to town. Did you know that she is an esthetician, and ma.s.sage therapist, too, just like you?"

"Yes, Beck told me a little about her."

"She's self-employed and has her own place, too. She wouldn't have anything to do with those two Jessops at first. She was still pretty broken up about having to say no to Beck. She told me that she simply hadn't loved him enough to say yes, and that it would be worse to accept his proposal and then have it all go to h.e.l.l in a year or two. I didn't really understand that at the time, because I had been dumped by my boyfriend a month before and I was still stinging-convinced that no one would ever love me."

"Beck was more than badly hurt, he was a mess. Even when I was falling for Patrick, and he insisted that Beck, who was always around, was a good guy, I couldn't figure out why he was so surly, so-" Lucy laughed but it didn't sound humorous. "He was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d at times. And then came Valentine's Day."

Emily Anne recognized the look in Lucy's eyes. She was reliving a painful memory. "Chloe called him to tell him she was getting married. I know. That was the day her men proposed to her."

"Yeah. I think that was the moment he went into a free fall because until then, he had hope she would come back to him. He was devastated." Lucy swore as she swiped at a tear.

"Chloe isn't a bad woman, Lucy. She just wasn't the woman for Beck. But I think you are."

Lucy looked up as if to deny what she'd said about Chloe, and then frowned. In the next instant the door opened and a man came into the spa off the sidewalk. Squinty gaze, salt and pepper eyebrows, and hair all askew, at first Emily Anne wondered if he was a homeless person.

Emily Anne couldn't help but notice how Lucy seemed to go stiff. The tone she used with the man told her as no words could have that she didn't like him one bit. "The computer store is down the street, sir, remember? Between Batson's Grocery Store and Divine Auto Repair."

"It's not the computer store I want, it's you. Tell your hooker friend to leave."

Emily Anne didn't understand what was happening, but her temper spiked. She'd turned to face this stranger, and now she took a step backward, closer to Lucy.

"I'm not a hooker, and I'm not leaving, unless Lucy wants me to. You're rude!"

"Fine, have it your way." He pulled out a nasty-looking gun and pointed it at them both. "You come with me or I'll kill you both right here, right now."

Chapter 23.

Chloe Diane Rhodes, what in the h.e.l.l do you think you are doing?

Chloe's fingers gripped the steering wheel with renewed intensity as her inner voice continued to give her a good chewing out. The closer she got to her destination, the louder that voice seemed to be.

Grant and Andrew are going to be heading home from that conference they went to and they're going to discover you M.I.A. You should be back in l.u.s.ty seeing to your clients instead of on the road to Divine, seeing to the past.

Chloe exhaled and then reached over and turned the car radio on. Maybe Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert and Luke Bryan could drown out the voice of her conscience yammering away at her.

The truth was, she should be at home seeing to her business. She'd had to feverishly rebook her slate of clients for the day, and she'd begged Carol to take the two that couldn't reschedule. Yes, she should have resisted the urge to come to Divine, but she hadn't. She should have left well enough alone and let those two professional, private investigators handle their case. But she wasn't doing that, either.

Mel Richardson and Connor Talbot had been keeping her up to date on their progress. They hadn't told her that they were taking a meeting in Divine today and hoping to put a plan into motion to bring Ralph Baxter, aka Bruce Smith, to justice. But she guessed they'd held back, unwilling to let her get her hopes up, in case things didn't work out.

But ever since Emily Anne left her spa earlier this morning, there'd been something inside of her nagging and nagging her to make this trip. In a way she couldn't understand, every inner instinct she possessed had begun to scream at her, and only shut up the moment she'd pointed her car down the road to the town she used to live in.

Chloe had never been to The Dancing Pony before, but she knew where it was. She could just saunter in as if she just happened to be in town today-oh, maybe on her way to see Madeleine-and got thirsty, and then, when she saw those detectives there, why she'd just walk over, pretty as you please, and act all surprised to see them. And then she would worm her way in to their conversation. Them being so polite and all, and her being the best friend of the woman they were fixing to marry, she'd bet they would not to tell her to go away. That way, if they were going to be on their way over to arrest the son of a b.i.t.c.h, she'd be there when they did it.

She just wanted a minute or two alone with the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, and she was very much afraid she was never going to get her wish.

d.a.m.n it.

Pay attention to the road, baby. Remember how I taught you to drive. Always be alert and aware of your surroundings. Focus.

Chloe s.h.i.+vered as the voice of her father echoed inside her head, as clear as if he'd been sitting right there in the shotgun seat correcting her. Just like he'd done all those years ago when he'd taught her how to drive.

She was getting married in a few weeks, and he wouldn't be there to walk her down the aisle.

Chloe blinked back the stinging in her eyes and tried to swallow around the sudden ache in her throat. She didn't need a trip through her memories now.

The strange moment reminded her of another strange, almost supernatural moment. Not long after arriving in l.u.s.ty, she had felt her mother so close to her, giving her the words she needed to hear, just when she needed to hear them the most. She'd even imagined that she'd felt her mom's arms come around her and smelled her perfume.

Chloe didn't believe in ghosts at the time, and she still didn't know if she believed in them now.

What she did believe in was the power of the human spirit to find answers from within when they were needed, and the ability of the subconscious to put those words into the voice of whomever would make the person doing the remembering pay attention the most.

Now, baby. Look now.

Was something about to happen? Chloe focused on the road, her gaze sharp, her attention alert. She crested a small hill and came down the other side to find a flat stretch, and another car, one she didn't recognize, approaching.

She slowed her car, wondering if she'd received a supernatural warning of an impending accident, but the s.h.i.+ny red Ford Escape stayed on its own side of the road and pa.s.sed her.

With a terrified-looking Emily Anne Bancroft at the wheel.

They made eye contact for just a second, and Chloe could have sworn that Emily Anne had mouthed the word "help."

Her friend wasn't alone in the car. In the s.p.a.ce of time that she had to see as they pa.s.sed each other, Chloe noticed a dark-haired woman and a man in the car with Emily Anne. They were both in the back seat.

"What the f.u.c.k?"

Chloe quickly looked in her rearview mirror and memorized the license plate of the car. She also noticed the vehicle's turn signal come on.

Emily Anne was turning left at a gated driveway, one Chloe had just pa.s.sed. She reduced her speed, trying to stretch time, but there was another knoll just ahead, and she knew she was about to lose sight of her friend.

Emily Anne had looked so scared. As Chloe watched, the red Escape came to a stop and Emily Anne got out of the driver's seat and opened the gate.

And then Chloe couldn't see her because the road had risen, and then dropped again.

Chloe stopped her car, pulling it to the side of the road. Hands shaking, heart pounding, she grabbed her purse and frantically rummaged through it for a pen and sc.r.a.p of paper, all the while reciting the license plate of the Escape out loud. She nearly cried in relief when her fingers found what they were looking for. When she had the number down, she reached for her phone. Even though she was on the outskirts of Divine, there was only one person she thought to call-the one person who had made it his business to appoint himself her big brother.

The phone only rang twice before it was answered.

"Kendall."

"Adam, it's Chloe. I'm just on the outskirts of Divine. I think something horrible is happening right now to Emily Anne-and I don't know what to do!"

Adam's voice, clear and strong, sounded in her ear. "Okay, little sister, why don't you tell me all about it?"

That nickname, "little sister," reminded her of the special sibling-like bond they shared. Chloe exhaled, because she knew that Adam was going to believe her, but more, he'd get Emily Anne the help she needed.

"All right. I don't know exactly where I am. They can't see me, but-"

"Don't you worry about that. Matt's on the other line right now calling the Houston office of Benedict Oil and Minerals. Their security chief has all the family cell phone GPS stats on file. We'll know exactly where you are in a few minutes. Now tell me what happened."

I forgot about the GPS! Thank G.o.d for it.

Chloe closed her eyes, sighed in relief, and began to fill in the sheriff who was nearly two hours away, never once doubting he would know what to do.

Emily Anne had never been so frightened in her life. She hadn't known what to think, what to do when that creepy man had lifted his arm, and pointed his gun at them.

At first she'd thought it had all been a joke. Until Lucy had demanded to know who the f.u.c.k he thought he was to do such a thing, and he'd answered her.

"You know who I am. You can call me either Bruce Smith, or Ralph Baxter. Take your pick."

Lucy had asked if the name was supposed to mean something to her. Emily Anne thought she'd done a h.e.l.l of a good job, acting as if she'd never heard it before. Now, she wished she'd had the time to tell her what else she knew about Ralph Baxter. Her men suspected he'd done something even more heinous than stealing from two orphans.

They believed he'd committed murder, and at the moment, Emily Anne had no trouble believing that herself.

Emily Anne pulled herself back to the present moment. She had imagined driving this snappy red Escape down country roads, but this wasn't exactly the ride she's had in mind at the time.

"Turn right at the next FM road. And don't try to do anything funny. The first sign that you're speeding up or doing anything you shouldn't, I'll put a bullet in your friend's head. Got it?"

Emily Anne swallowed convulsively and nodded. Just in case Baxter hadn't seen her move, she said, "Yes. I've got it."

She didn't know the area well, and didn't really possess a good sense of direction. They'd left Divine behind and were in the Hill Country, but that was about all that Emily Anne knew.

She tried not to let despair swamp her. She had to believe that somehow, Mel and Connor would find her. She knew they knew where Baxter, or Smith, or whatever the h.e.l.l his name was lived. If he was taking them to his house, which she thought he might be, then they'd find her. They'd find them.

She dared a look in the rearview mirror. She thought that Baxter might have his attention on her, his eyes fixed on her the way an eagle eyed a mouse, but he seemed to have an unfocused look about him. He began to babble, talking to himself out loud. Her gaze connected with Lucy's.

She didn't know the woman well enough to say for certain, but she thought maybe that Lucy Carter was more angry than she was frightened.

Emily Anne wished she was, too. Unfortunately, except for that moment when the odious man holding a gun on them had called her a hooker, she'd mostly been scared.

Scared? Who the h.e.l.l am I kidding? I'm terrified out of my mind.

Not for the first time, Emily Anne wished she was different than she was, only this time her wish list had nothing to do with her physical appearance.

Oh, how she longed for some ability, some skill in self-defense. She made a promise to herself right then and there that if she got out of this mess alive, she was going to beg Connor to teach her some slick moves.

The man had been an army ranger and a secret black ops member for the government. She'd bet he had a whole truckload of slick moves.

"We're nearly there. One more hill after this one we're on. It's on the left just at the top of that hill. There's a gate. You'll have to stop, get out, and open it."

Baxter had obviously snapped back to the present. Emily Anne looked in the rearview mirror again. He raised his gun, so that she could easily see he had it pointed at Lucy.

He didn't need to worry about her forgetting he had the d.a.m.n thing. She was quite well aware the other woman's life was in her hands at the moment.

Emily Anne put her attention back on the road. About a half of a mile ahead, she saw the next hill, though it wasn't much of one. So far, they hadn't pa.s.sed any traffic, but a s.h.i.+ny silver car had just crested that hill, coming toward her.

The silver glistened in the sun and made her think of Chloe, because just a few weeks before, Grant and Andrew had surprised her with a new Lincoln MKZ, and the car coming toward her looked just like it. Chloe had loved her little Mini and still owned it, keeping it in the garage at home, but the Lincoln was a vehicle that her men could fit into.

They'd given it to her for that reason, and because they thought the Lincoln with its new inflatable seat belts, was safer.

She didn't know why, but Emily Anne began to slow the Escape, just slightly, as the oncoming car approached.