Secrets That Kill (13 page)

“There is that,” I agreed, half-heartedly. Maybe now was the right time to tell him Fitch’s secret. “What if your brother isn’t really dead?”

“What?” He glanced at me, his eyes wide with astonishment. “What are you saying?”

My heart raced with trepidation. Maybe I should have told him before now. He seemed a bit unhinged. Would he be mad at me? “Um… well, you see, I’m not sure… I mean when we were at the bar… it all happened so quickly…”

Ramos swore under his breath, barely missing a car on the side of the road. He pulled to the curb and killed the engine, turning his body to loom over me. “What did you hear?”

I flinched back and took a deep breath. “That’s why Fitch was asking you all of those questions about what kind of life you were living now. He was trying to decide if it was safe to tell you about Javier. To tell you he’s alive. The reason Fitch didn’t was because he didn’t want Javier to be a target because of you again. Because of the kind of life you lived and what you did.”

Ramos froze for a moment, then slumped into his seat, his head falling back against the headrest, and his breath rasping in and out with shock. “He’s alive? All this time I thought he was dead.” He straightened, looking at me, his eyes full of vulnerability and hope that it was true. “You’re sure about this?”

“Yes. I think that’s the real reason why Fitch felt so guilty.”

“Where is he? Where’s Javier? Is he here in the city? We need to find Fitch and make him talk.”

“No,” I said, panicking. “We can’t do that… at least not yet. Involving Javier in your life could be dangerous for him, unless you want to forget about Carson.”

Ramos’ gaze jerked from mine like I’d slapped him. He lowered his face, and for a moment, I thought maybe he’d consider it. “You’re right,” he conceded. “We can’t risk it.” He ran his fingers through his hair, something I’d never seen him do before, thinking about the consequences to Javier. He glanced at me, and my chest tightened the moment his eyes turned hard and cold. “Maybe when it’s over.”

“Yeah. That’s probably best,” I agreed. My heart filled with sadness, and I felt tears gather in my eyes. I blinked them away and cleared my throat. “We’d better get going. Are you okay to drive, or do you need me to take over?”

“I’m good,” Ramos replied. He glanced at me, and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “I’m really good.”

I smiled back, hoping he didn’t notice that my lips were trembling.

The drive to the rental house gave me time to get my emotions under control. For just a moment, I’d had a small hope that maybe Ramos would give up going after Carson and let Fitch handle it. I thought the gift of his brother’s life might change that, or at least make him think about it. But it never even crossed his mind. Not once.

Too much had happened to Ramos to change him, and I needed to accept that. If it got out that Ramos had a brother, would it put Javier at risk? I knew Ramos had to have enemies. Would Javier become a target? Had I done the right thing? I guess it all depended on how Ramos handled it.

I glanced at Ramos, opening my mind to his thoughts. He was still in shock that Javier was alive. Ramos’ yearning to see Javier nearly overwhelmed me. He wondered what he looked like, calculating that he was now twenty-seven years old. What kind of life did he lead? Had he finished school and gone to college?

Ramos surmised that Fitch must have stepped in and taken care of Javier and their mother until she died a few months later. If so, he owed Fitch a great deal more than he’d ever dreamed. Once Carson was out of the way, he’d have a long talk with Fitch and find out everything he could about Javier, and if there was any way he could help him, he’d do it. Whatever Javier needed, Ramos would be the big brother Javier had lost all those years ago.

Hearing those thoughts quieted my doubts. Ramos may be a killer, but he still cared about his brother. I hoped it was enough to keep Javier safe.

We entered a nice residential neighborhood not far from the resorts, and Ramos pulled into a driveway. “According to Jackie,” he explained, “this is a three bedroom house with two master bedroom suites. That means you can have one all to yourself. The best thing about it is the price. For the cost of one night at The Ritz-Carlton, we get five nights here.” He smiled widely, clearly in a good mood. “It even has a swimming pool.” He was thinking that would make me feel better for not getting home sooner.

“It will help,” I said, unable to hide my discontent.

A woman got out of a car parked across the street, and came toward us with a big smile. “Alejandro Ramos?” She had beautiful long brown hair and eyes, straight white teeth, and her accent was perfect. She was thinking how hot Ramos was and disappointed he had a wife.

I blinked in surprise, but gladly played along as she introduced herself and opened the house to give us a brief tour. I may not have any claim on Ramos, but thoughts of him with her made me a little nauseated. How crazy was that?

The house was bigger on the inside than it looked, and had a nice open feel with vaulted ceilings over the cozy living room and kitchen-dining area. Two large bedrooms were located on the third floor with their own bathrooms, and the third bedroom was on the main floor across the hall from a bathroom and laundry room. All of the bedrooms had their own wall-mounted flat screen TVs. Just off the kitchen was a small computer room with internet access and printer. Between the kitchen and dining rooms, a sliding door opened onto a deck with a hot tub and swimming pool that took up most of the backyard. I had to admit it was pretty fantastic.

A sick pang went through me to realize that my family would have been much more comfortable in a home like this than at the resort hotel where we’d stayed, and all for about the same price. Why hadn’t I checked out vacation houses? Sometimes I really wished there was such a thing as a ‘do over.’

The woman handed Ramos the house keys and her card with instructions to call her if we needed anything and strutted away, casting an alluring smile at him over her shoulder. Ramos enjoyed the sway of her hips and the way she’d smiled at him with a clear invitation. And now he had her number… The tapping of my foot caught his attention, and he turned to me with a guilty flush. “Um… which room do you want?” he asked.

“I’ll take the best upstairs bedroom,” I answered curtly, even though the rooms were pretty much the same.

“That’s what I thought you’d say. I’ll take the other one, and Nick can stay down here.”

My smile didn’t quite reach my eyes, and I really wanted to tell him he wasn’t thinking that at all, but I had no claim on him, so I shouldn’t be upset. It was stupid of me to even be thinking that way. I had a husband of my own… which reminded me. “Um… I should probably give Chris a call.”

“Oh, yeah,” he agreed. “While you’re at it, I’ll run to the store for some groceries.” He was thinking I needed some privacy for this and was more than willing to disappear for a while, especially since he’d basically promised Chris he’d have me home by now. He didn’t really want to talk to Chris and explain why. That could be awkward. He was happy to let me break it to him and not be around in case Chris wanted to talk to him again. “I’ll be back soon. Be sure and lock the door after I leave.”

He bolted out, shutting the door behind him before I could call him a coward like I wanted to. Annoyed, I grabbed my bag and hiked up the stairs to my room. Dropping my bag on the bed, I opened the curtains over the window to watch Ramos back out of the driveway and take off down the street.

“Damn!” I yelled in frustration, finding it hard to believe that if I hadn’t nearly fainted, and dropped my dark glasses for Fitch to find and return, we’d be on the plane for home by now. It was crazy to think how that one little thing had changed everything else. And now I had to make this call to Chris. Of course, if we hadn’t talked to Fitch, Ramos wouldn’t know his brother was alive, so looking at it that way, maybe it wasn’t so bad.

Only… how was I going to explain all of this to Chris so he wouldn’t be upset? I sighed. I was the coward. It couldn’t be half as bad as I thought. Chris would understand. He was a great guy. And if he didn’t, he could always fly back out here and stay with me. This place was great, and there was plenty of room… that was a good compromise, right?

I picked up my phone before I chickened out and placed the call. “Hi honey,” I said in my usual cheerful voice.

“Hey,” he answered, relief in his tone. “I’m glad you called. I was beginning to think something had happened.”

“Actually… it has.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Oh… it’s nothing really. Except that I have to stay a couple more days, but that’s not too bad. I should be home by the weekend for sure. I hope you’re not too upset. I know I am, but it couldn’t be helped. You know I’d be there if I could. It’s just… things happen, and sometimes it’s out of my control…”

“Shelby,” he interrupted, his voice a low rumble. “What’s going on?”

“Um… well, I got a call from Detective Fitch,” I explained, grabbing on to the first excuse I could think of. “He needed my help with something, and one thing led to another, and now it looks like I have to help Uncle Joey and Ramos take care of some business here, but like I said, it won’t take long at all.”

“Really? Are you serious?” His tone had gone up a whole octave. He wasn’t taking this very well.

“Look, if you want, you can come and stay with me. I’ve got my own suite and everything. It could be fun.” I heard Chris sigh and could imagine how his eyes were shut and he was rubbing his forehead. I grimaced, realizing he’d probably been doing that a lot lately.

“You know I can’t do that,” he said. “Not when I’ve just taken two weeks off work. I can’t clear my schedule that quickly.”

“Oh, right,” I said. “Bummer.”

“Bummer? I’ll tell you what’s a bummer. I’ve got reservations for dinner and tickets to a play tonight, all because I wanted to surprise you with something fun. Remember that?”

“You do? Oh Chris, I feel horrible.” Hot remorse washed over me. “But you have to know I’d rather be there with you than stuck here.”

“I don’t get it. What’s so important that you can’t come home? Tell me so I can understand.”

Now it was my turn to sigh. How much could I tell Chris about Ramos’ secret? I had to tell him something so he’d understand better. Maybe keeping it vague would work.

“Okay, I’ll tell you as much as I can, but keep in mind that it’s pretty complicated. Detective Fitch called this morning and needed me to identify the body, so I went to the morgue and dropped my dark glasses. When Fitch brought them out to the car, he recognized Ramos from when he knew him fifteen years ago. Fitch told Ramos that Carson was the person responsible for something that happened back then, and now Ramos and Fitch need my help to bring Carson to justice.” I paused for breath, hoping Chris wouldn’t ask too many questions.

“What? That doesn’t make any sense. What body? You already talked to Fitch about Warren.”

“Oh… it wasn’t his body. It was the guy who killed Warren, you know, the guy with the snake tattoos. When we went to the restaurant last night to get the thumb-drive, tattoo guy tried to shoot us, and Ramos shot back and accidentally killed him. Um… in self-defense.”

“You went to the restaurant with Ramos?” Chris asked, his voice tightening with tension. “Yesterday, you told me you weren’t going to go.”

“Huh… I did?” I swallowed, realizing he was right. “Well, it worked out okay. I mean we got the thumb-drive and were on our way to the airport this morning when Detective Fitch asked me to identify the body. If Fitch hadn’t seen Ramos in the car, I’d be on my way home by now. But unfortunately he did, and now I have to stay and help them catch Carson.”

Chris huffed. “You and Ramos are helping Detective Fitch catch Carson. That doesn’t sound like something Ramos would do.”

“You’re right. Normally, it’s not. But like I said, they knew each other a long time ago and Fitch has been trying to catch Carson all these years, and now with our help, he can. See? It makes perfect sense.”

“No… actually… it doesn’t,” Chris said. “But besides that, why do they need your help? What can you do… unless... oh no.” Chris caught his breath. “Does Ramos know about you? Did you tell him you could read minds?” I didn’t answer right away and Chris moaned. “Shelby…what have you gotten yourself into now?”

It was a relief to answer that question and not the first one. “To tell you the truth, I’m not really sure. All I know is Uncle Joey’s sending Nick Berardini to crack the thumb-drive, and we’re going to use the information from that to get Carson. And… I might have to play poker.”

“Poker? What has that got to do with anything?”

“Well… it looks like Carson has some kind of professional poker games going on, and Ramos thinks we might be able to use my mind reading abilities to back Carson into a corner and catch him or something. You did want me to learn how to play poker didn’t you? So now I will. That’s good, right?”

“No! I never wanted you to learn poker. Look… this is getting out of hand.” He paused to rein in his frustration. “Is Ramos there? I think I’d better talk to him.”

“Ah… no. He skipped out to get some groceries, and then he’s got to pick up Nick from the airport. Jackie got us a nice vacation rental home for a few days, so we have a kitchen and everything. It made me mad to think we could have stayed in a place like this for about the same amount of money as the hotel. It would have been so much better, but what do you do?” When Chris didn’t answer, I continued. “I can call you back when he gets here if you want.”