Beef Stolen-Off (28 page)

“Bloody hell, Michael, you have to tell them,” Victor exclaimed. “Jordan is about to cry.” He giggled.

“Tell us what?” Rosie asked.

Michael turned to her, mischief in his eyes. “After I told my boss how unbelievable you are with casseroles, he couldn’t wait to talk to you.”

Rosie squinted her eyes. “Why would they want to talk to me?”

“Seems with all the fancy food the contestants will be dishing up at night, they wanted to have simple home-cooked meals for lunches for the celebrity judges and the radio personnel. What better way to feed the masses than with your mouthwatering dishes?” He paused to look at his watch. “Matter of fact, you have an appointment to discuss this with my boss in about two days and twenty hours, but just between you and me, you’re already a shoo-in. I gave him part of your leftover Potato Chip Chicken from last week, and after one bite, he was ready to hire you on the spot.”

She jumped up and hugged Michael. “I’m actually going on a cruise to the Caribbean?” When he nodded, she hugged him even harder.

It was hard watching her friends celebrating and laughing about how much fun they’d have on the cruise, knowing she wouldn’t be there with them. She loved them all and wished them the vacation of a lifetime, but she didn’t know what she’d do by herself for seven days.

“Why the pouty face, doll?” Victor asked. “Will you miss us?”

She tried to smile. “Of course, you ninny. How could I not?”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing you won’t have to,” Michael said.

When his meaning sunk in, Jordan jumped up from the chair. “What do you mean I won’t have to? Please tell me you got your boss to give me a job with housekeeping or something.” She was already planning on how she would approach her editor with the request for a whole week off.

Michael threw his head back and laughed. “I tried to sell him on the idea of your being Rosie’s assistant, but he would have none of it after I told him your idea of a home-cooked meal was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Michael. Look at that face. Tell her now or I will,” Victor said.

“Okay, okay.” Michael reached for Jordan’s hands. “Right now, your boss is working out the details with the radio station executives to send you on the cruise with us. They want Rosie cooking the recipes that you’ve printed in the newspaper, along with more of her own.” He grinned. “I didn’t tell them most of them were from her recipe file, anyway.”

Jordan screamed. “Are you playing with me, Michael?”

The mischief was still in his eyes. “Sweetie, I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“What would I be doing?”

“Here comes the really funny part. You, my dear, will be judging the contest with George Christakis, the legendary chef from the Cooking Channel, and Beau Lincoln.”

After five trips to the lake in Ray’s Suburban crammed with boxes, the gang decided Jordan and Victor should pick up meatball subs while the others stayed behind to start unpacking and to hook up Sandy’s washer and dryer.

A few miles from the lake house, Jordan’s cell phone rang, and she fished it out of her purse.

“Hey.” Not bothering to check caller ID, she fully expected to hear Rosie with a request to add a few turnovers to the food list. The woman had a sweet tooth that could put a toddler to shame.

“Jordan, this is Bella.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Not really,” Bella responded. “Lucas seems to be getting worse instead of better. For the past two days he hasn’t even been out of bed. That’s why I’m calling.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“He wants to talk to you,” Bella blurted before Jordan could add the standard
Is there anything I can do?
that usually followed news like that.

“Me? Why does he want to talk to me?”

“He didn’t say. Can you swing by sometime today?”

Jordan lightly banged her head on the window, causing Victor to turn her way and nearly crash Ray’s car. She’d thought her visits with Lucas and Bella were over.

When his eyes questioned her, she waved him off and lifted the cell phone back to her ear. “I don’t know, Bella. I’m helping a friend move today, and I’m dirty and sweaty.”

“Your friend who lives out by the lake?”

“Yes,” Jordan said, racking her brain, trying to remember when she’d mentioned Sandy to Bella.

“That’s perfect. The ranch is on the way to her house. You can stop in for a few minutes.” When Jordan didn’t respond, she added, “He really wants to see you today.”

Crap!
All the guilt she’d learned from the nuns in Catholic grade school compelled her to nod, even though she knew Bella couldn’t see her.

“Jordan, did you hear me?”

“Yes, I heard.” She glanced down at her watch. “I can run by right now for a few minutes, but that’s all the time I can spare. It will be dark soon, and we have one more load before we call it a day.”

“I’ll tell Lucas you’re on the way.”

“What did you get us into now?” Victor asked when she’d closed the cell phone.

“Apparently, Lucas needs to see me for something. It’s on our way. Do you mind if we stop for a few minutes before we go to Guido’s?”

“Are you kidding me? I’ve wanted to get a look at that ranch and those two ever since you first told me about them. Lead the way, woman.”

Ten minutes later, Victor pulled into Santana’s circular driveway, and they both got out.

“Wow! This is some kind of spread,” Victor commented, turning a complete circle to take it all in.

Walking up the steps, Jordan whispered, “If we’re not out of here in ten minutes, excuse yourself and go to the bathroom. Then call me so I can say we need to leave.”

“Okay.” Victor reached into his shirt pocket. “Dang it! I laid my phone on the table when we moved the heavy bedroom set out of the master suite. I was afraid it might get crushed.”

Jordan blew out a frustrated breath as she rang the doorbell. “Figure something out. If I give you the look, use your love for drama to get us out of there.”

“Drama I can do.” He smiled just as the door opened.

Jordan heard his sharp intake of breath as he got his first look at Bella. The tight pair of Levi’s she wore had the kind of holes at the knees that came with a high price tag. And the aqua and purple turtleneck sweater capping the outfit showed off a body that would make a much younger woman green with envy. Apparently used to getting that kind of reaction, Bella smiled back.

Jordan made quick introductions.

“Come in. Lucas is waiting for you,” Bella said.

Victor was still staring at her like an awestruck teenager with his first peek at the centerfold of a Playboy magazine. Knowing her friend preferred hairy-chested men with five o’clock shadows over beautiful women, Jordan couldn’t decide if his mouth hung open because Bella was train-stopping gorgeous today in her jeans and sweater, or
because he wanted her outfit for himself. He loved anything with purple.

They followed her up the winding staircase and down the hall to the master bedroom. The stunning cherrywood four-poster bed was nearly swallowed up in the massive room decorated with a definite masculine touch.

“Good heavens, is this a Victorian Eastlake?” Victor asked, thoroughly impressed. “I love the marble topped dresser and washstand.”

Bella nodded. “It belonged to Lucas’s grandmother. You have a good eye.”

Victor beamed. “I own Tomorrow’s Treasures on the square downtown. You should stop in someday. And if you ever want to sell this furniture…”

Bella laughed. “The only way that bed is ever leaving this room is over Lucas’s dead body.” She moved closer to the bed, and Jordan and Victor followed.

Propped up with huge pillows, Lucas didn’t look anything like the towering, obnoxious man Jordan had met that first night in the limousine. With dark circles under both eyes and a hollowed face from visible weight loss, he tried to smile but didn’t quite pull it off.

“The doctor doesn’t want him to get too excited until we can get the palpitations under control,” Bella explained. “He gave him a mild sedative before he left earlier.”

“Jordan,” Lucas whispered, motioning with his hand for her to move closer.

“I’m sorry you don’t feel well, Lucas. I…” She winced in pain as he grabbed her hand and squeezed, cutting off the rest of her sentence—and her circulation.

“I think I’m dying.”

How do I respond to that?

“You’ll be back to your old self soon, Lucas,” Jordan
said, mentally slapping herself. They both knew it probably wasn’t true. “Why did you want to see me?”

The old man looked confused. “I wanted to see you?” he asked in a raspy voice.

She turned and shot Bella a questioning look before the woman moved closer to the bed and pried Lucas’s fingers from Jordan’s hand.

“Jordan has to go now, Lucas. Ring the bell if you need me.” She gently nudged Jordan toward the door. Victor was already in the hallway ahead of them.

“I’m sorry. He gets so confused. I think he just wanted to ask if you could thank your brother for putting the cattle rustlers behind bars.”

He couldn’t have done that over the phone?
Jordan thought but said instead, “No problem.”

When they were downstairs, Bella asked if she could get them something to drink.

“Actually, we have to be on our way. They’re waiting for us to bring back dinner, and they have no idea we even made a stop,” Jordan said.

Bella eyed the two of them before she finally asked, “That was something else about Cooper, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Jordan thought Bella was probably desperate to have a conversation with another human being after being holed up for a week with a sick man, but she was in too big a hurry to discuss Cooper with her. Her stomach was already growling, not to mention that the others were going to kill her and Victor if they didn’t get back soon with dinner.

“Did you actually see him kill Diego?”

Jordan froze. At Sheriff Delaney’s request, the
Globe
had deliberately left out her name when they reported the murders at North Texas Beef Distributors. Since she had
been the only witness, he’d cautioned about the very real possibility of Cooper coming after her—which he’d already done.

But how did Bella know this?

“What makes you think I was there?” Jordan blurted before she could stop herself.

She was getting an uncomfortable feeling, especially when Bella glared at her through narrowed eyes as if reading her mind. No one except her friends knew she’d been there that night. The only way Bella could have that information was if—Jordan gasped—if she’d been there herself and
had
seen her.

“We have to go now,” she said, grabbing Victor’s sleeve and practically running to the front door. She’d call Sheriff Delaney as soon as she got to the car. He could deal with it after that.

As her hand gripped the door knob, she heard a click.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Bella said, her voice strangely ominous.

Both Victor and Jordan turned. At the sight of Bella with a gun in her hand pointed directly at them, Victor’s inner drama queen finally surfaced, and he threw both arms above his head. “Oh my God, woman, put that big-ass gun down before you blow somebody’s head off.”

Although there was a smile on her face, her eyes remained hard, and she didn’t bother to respond, instead turning to Jordan. “You’re too smart for your own britches. Unfortunately, that’s what will get you killed.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Jordan prayed she could pull this off. “I did see Cooper kill Diego that night, but that’s all I saw.”

Bella smirked. “I never figured you for a liar, Jordan. I saw your face a minute ago and knew you’d put two and
two together.” She backed up to the hutch and opened the drawer, then pulled out Jordan’s scarf and threw it at her. “Pick it up and look at it,” she commanded.

Jordan bent down and picked up the scarf, fingering the tear from the nail it had caught on right before Cooper ran out of the building that night.

“As you can see, it’s the one you lost the night you saw me kill Diego. So don’t try to play innocent with me. We both know Cooper didn’t do it. In fact, he was lucky he made it out alive himself.” She chuckled. “Well, maybe not so lucky.”

Thinking Bella might have been there, and actually hearing her admit she was the one who had committed the two murders were two different things. The only reason Bella would confess to her and Victor was if…

“I asked you to come here for two reasons. I needed to find out if you’d seen me, and I wanted you to be able to say how sad it was that Lucas’s health had deteriorated so rapidly. Then when the poor man dies in a few days, you could say you witnessed firsthand how I did everything in my power to help him.”

Jordan stared, hoping that didn’t mean what she thought it did. “What makes you think he’s going to die this week? I thought you said the doctor was treating him.”

The cold laughter that came out of Bella’s mouth sent shivers up Jordan’s spine. There was no doubt she and Victor were in deep trouble.

“Because the pathetic man is going to bleed out while he sleeps.” She shook her head, pasting a phony sympathetic look on her face. “Honestly, he’s been so confused lately that he must have taken too many of his blood thinners. And since the doctor prescribed potassium for his palpitations, it won’t be a shocker when they find high
potassium levels in his blood, too.” The sympathy transformed into an evil grin. “Pretty clever, don’t you think?”