Trouble With the Law (33 page)

The sound of l
oud, screeching tires pulled her eyes to the street outside the gate.  Bright headlights hit her in the eyes and blinded her, but she could see a vehicle barreling down the street toward the gate.  The front end of the van collided with the gate.  Metal crunched, the gates peeled back and Ronnie dove into the bushes beside the driveway.  A black van jumped through the gate and skidded to a stop beside the shrubs.  The side door slid open and a dark figure hopped out.  Strong fingers gripped her arm as she was jerked to her feet and shoved toward the van.  She fought, but the man was stronger, and she’d lost her damned can of mace. 

She was
shoved inside the back of the van and landed in a heap against the far wall.  He jumped in behind her, and slammed the door closed, then yelled, “Go,
go
!”

S
he recognized the voice, and spun to sit on her butt.  Her eyes locked with Dave’s angry glare as the van lurched when the driver threw it into reverse and punched the accelerator.  She was thrown across the van and only stopped because her body slammed into the back of the front seat.  There were several loud booms then pings off the side of the van that could be nothing other than gunshots.  With a squeal, she ducked lower between the seats and covered her head.

“Left, left!” Dave shouted as the van shot forward and the tires squealed again.
  Ronnie lifted her head and leaned forward through the seats to hazard a look out the passenger side window.  The houses she’d admired coming into the neighborhood were nothing but a blur as they zoomed past now.

“Run it,” Dave ordered gruffly
, and the engine of the van roared faster. 

Through the windshield, Ronn
ie saw the guard shack and the yellow cross member that blocked their exit.  She ducked and covered her head again, wood splintered and something heavy bounce off of the side of the van.

“
You are one hardheaded woman,” Dave growled, bracing against the side of the van as they made a sharp left.  “That stunt you pulled was the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard or seen.  What the fuck were you thinking?” he grated.

“
I was thinking we needed Talmedge Bartlett to help decode those books, or it will be two weeks before we can sort this mess out and get back to our lives.  He wouldn’t have just helped us if I invited him to lunch, you know,” she said defensively.  “You won’t think it’s stupid when he calls us tomorrow.”

“He’s not calling us
.  Talmedge Bartlett knows who butters his bread, Veronica.  He’s probably helping Leland get a posse together right now to find us,” Dave argued.  “He’s been in Leland’s pocket for thirty years.  You think because you threatened him with jail, he’s going to roll on Leland?  He knows the size of the stick that Leland wields.  They will all come out of this just fine.  And we’ll be in jail most likely.” 

The frustration in Dave’s tone made each word as sharp as the sound of the bullets that had hit the van a few minutes ago.  Each one drove into her heart like a bullet too.
  He shook his head.  “We were almost clear, and you should have just followed the plan.”

“We won’t be clear until those men are taken down,” Ronnie said folding her arms over her chest.
  “He’ll call tomorrow.  You’ll see.”

Dave
grunted.  “You’re deluded, Veronica.”

“We’ll see who is deluded tomorrow,” she
countered stubbornly.

“If we see tomorrow,” he said seriously.  “Trace
, turn right up here.  There’s a logging road where we can hide the van.”

“Did Caleb get out with the files?” she asked as she clutched onto the seat back for dear life
when the van rolled to the right on what felt like two wheels.

“He put them in a garbage can and pushed it outside the gate.  Trace picked them up,” Dave replied
.  The anger in his face was spotlighted by every street light they passed. 

Trace hadn’t said a word, but she could feel his anger surrounding her like a scratchy
wool blanket.  “Are you pissed off at me too, Trace?  If you are, just spit it out.” 

H
e didn’t answer, he focused on the road, but she could see his hands gripping the wheel and his knuckles were white.  Dave leaned through the split in the seats and pointed to the right.  “There,” he said gruffly.

The van swung to the right and Ronnie was thrown into Dave’s bulk, then bounced from side to side in the back of the van as Trace drove the van over the deeply rutted dirt road.  The bouncing continued for what felt like an hour, but was probably only a few minutes, until it turned left and suddenly stopped.  He killed the engine, and she heard a heavy sigh.  “What now?”
Trace asked.

“I texted Jamie and he’s on his way to pick us up, but we need to hike back to the highway and wait.”

“Hike?” Ronnie screeched.  She looked down at her sore, bare feet and shredded stockings.  Her heels and the can of mace were in the bushes at Leland’s mansion.  There was no way she could hike through the woods.

Dave didn’t seem to hear her, or care.  He opened the side of the van and got out.  Trace exited the driver’s door and they stood outside waiting. 
Ronnie scooted across the van and got out.  When her feet hit the sharp pine needles and burrs on the floor of the woods, she whimpered and sat back on the edge of the van door.  “I can’t walk out of here.”

“You’re going to have to,” Dave replied.  “And you’re going to have to move, because we’ve got to get our weapons out.”

Ronnie stood again and gritted her teeth as she took a step away from the van to give them room.  It was pitch black in the small little alcove in the woods where Trace had parked the van, but she could hear things moving in the woods around her.  And what she heard wasn’t comforting.  Was that a coyote or a bear with those heavy footsteps?  Or maybe a mountain lion.  She’d heard there was an overpopulation of those this year. 

The night sounds quieted
when Trace and Dave started making noise inside of the back of the van as they gathered their weapons, but she could feel eyes watching her.  Ronnie shivered, and hugged herself.  The air was cooler here too, and she wished she’d have brought a coat.  She could handle the chilled air though, if she just had a decent pair of shoes.  Her feet would be bloody stumps by the time they got back to the highway.

Something tickled the back of her neck and she swatted it, then realized it was just her hair that had come down from the rhinestone clip.  She tugged it out of the snarled mess and tossed it to the ground, then worked her fingers through her hair.
  In the headlights that Trace had left on, Ronnie saw the front tires of the van rested against a log.  She limped over there and sat down to remove her stockings.  Maybe she could wrap them around her feet to make shoes of some kind to protect her feet while they tramped through the underbrush, she thought.  She removed one black stocking then the other and bent her knee across her thigh to wrap it around her swollen foot.  Repeating the process she covered her other foot and stood to test her handiwork. 

She took a step, and felt something slither by her foot.  Ronnie screamed, she heard metal on metal scraping as guns were cocked, then looked up into the barrels of those guns and screamed again.

“Fucking be quiet, Red,” Trace hissed and uncocked his weapon.  Dave did the same and they lowered them to their sides.  Ronnie tried to get control of the adrenaline that was making her heart beat like a drum inside of her chest.  When his words cut through the adrenaline to register, it combined with anger. 

“Be quiet?” she screeched
taking a leap away from the log.  “So I should let the wild animals in these woods have their way with me?” she asked indignantly.

Trace laughed.  “With a scream like you just let out, I could almost guarantee the
re’s not an animal left in the woods,” he said as he hopped out of the van with weapons strapped across his chest and a lantern swinging at his side.  He looked like Rambo meets Wyatt Earp with the plaid western shirt, jeans and dusty boots on his feet.  All that was missing was a ten-gallon hat.  Where he’d gotten the clothes, Ronnie didn’t know, but she guessed either Dave or his men had loaned him some.  The jeans were a little tight, but it was the sexiest she’d ever seen him look.

“Where’d you get those clothes?” she asked. 

When they left the lodge, he’d been wearing the same too-small camo pants he’d been wearing for a week.  The same black t-shirt that had developed a hole under the arm, because his biceps were too big for the material to contain them.

“We’re about to die and you’re worried about my wardrobe?” Trace grated with disbelief.

“He took Caleb’s clothes,” Dave informed as he exited the van and slid the door shut.  “Because he pissed his pants when you said what you did to Talmedge.”

Trace shot him a look.  “I fell in the mud asshole.”

“Because I had to tackle your ass to keep you from running into that house and getting yourself killed.”

Trace’s eyes met hers in the glow from the lantern, and she saw the fear there.  Dave was telling the truth. 
Trace had been coming to try and save her.  Her heart did a somersault in her chest and something bloomed there.  Both of these men cared about her.  They were the only people on Earth who did.  “Thank you,” she said and her lips wobbled.

“Welcome,” he said gruffly and walked over to her.  He sat the lantern down on the ground, then squatted.  “Lay over my shoulder.”

“You’re going to carry me?” she asked softly, as she took a step forward.

“Don’t have much choice, do I?” he replied brusquely. 

The side of Ronnie’s mouth kicked up.  He was acting like it was an imposition, and she knew it was.  He was already loaded down with the weight of the weapons, but he was going to carry her.  Because he cared.  Her heart did another little flip in her chest as she took another step forward and bent over his broad shoulder.  The steel band of his arm clamped around the back of her thighs and he grunted as he stood.

He shifted her weight a little, then moved the weapons to the side.
  “Grab the lantern, Dave, and let’s get going.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“I can make out about every fourth word,” Allison said with a frustrated sigh.  “I thought for sure I’d be able to figure this out.”

“You did good last night,” Ronnie said tightening the tie of the fluffy robe she wore a little tighter around her waist.

“Getting these calendars and diaries was the easy part,” Allison said
, her eyes scanning the items scattered over the table.  There was also a black satchel Allison had gotten that they hadn’t opened yet.  Ronnie wanted to know what was in there.

“We’ll figure it out,” Ronnie said pacing the length of the long wood
en table in the three-bedroom hotel suite Lou Ellen had rented for them late last night.  Trace had insisted they take the bedrooms, and he had slept on the pull-out sofa.  It was a quarter til noon, and she, Allison and Trace were up, but Lou Ellen was still sleeping behind the closed door across the room.

“I’m not so sure,” Allison said.

“If worse comes to worse, we’ll just turn them over to Susan Whitmore with our notes and the files we have.  If she agrees to my terms on Monday, that is,” Ronnie replied glancing over at Trace who was watching TV on the sofa on the other side of the room. 

The robe
he wore barely reached mid-thigh, and the way he leaned lazily back against the sofa, allowed her to see straight up the hem of the robe.  She didn’t know if that was accidental or on purpose, but she certainly took advantage of it.  Her eyes slid up his long muscular legs to his inner thighs then skipped across his abs and up over his delicious chest.  When her eyes reached his, he was staring at her.  A sexy smile eased up the corners of his mouth, and a knowing look came into his eyes.

“See something you like, Red?” he asked.

She saw a helluva lot she liked, and he knew it.  Trace was sitting like that on purpose to tease her.  Because he knew his mother was there and she couldn’t do a damned thing about the effect he was having on her.  Retribution probably for what she’d done at that mansion last night.  Dave had come right out and called what she did stupid.  Let her have his anger with both barrels all the way to the hotel and then some. 

Trace hadn’t reamed her out,
he had even kissed her discreetly before he helped her into the van when Caleb picked them up on the highway last night.  But he had let her know, even though he admired what she had done, thought it was courageous, he was not happy about it, and there would be consequences.  Ronnie was turned on enough from his thumb raking across the inside of her thigh, while he carried her through the woods.  Hearing that had almost sent her over the edge, as the delicious consequences of the last time she crossed him flitted through her mind.  Then he put her into the van and hadn’t touched her since.

Since they arrived at the hotel last night, all she’d had to think about was that kiss.  And the consequences he promised.
  She’d lain awake half the night waiting for him to come into her room last night, but he never did.

Trace evidently heard something on the TV, because his smile faded and he grabbed for the remote to turn up the volume.
  “Amarillo criminal defense attorney Veronica Winters, daughter of prominent attorney Phillip Winters, was a guest at a party last night hosted by state Senator Leland Rooks.  Sources with the Dallas Police say she was kidnapped by men in a black van right from the guarded and gated mansion.” 

Ronnie
’s heart shot up to her throat and she ran across the room to sit on the sofa beside Trace.  “Around ten o’clock last night, the van sped down the quiet street and crashed through the gate.  One man exited the van and shoved Ms. Winters inside, before it fled.  Police haven’t located the vehicle as of yet, but they say they are looking for it and leads in the case.  Guards at the compound say they were approaching Ms. Winters, because Senator Rooks wanted to see her, but before they reached her, she was abducted.” 

A still photo of the black van, obviously taken by the security cameras flickered up on the screen, followed by an unflattering photo of her from her driver’s license.  “If you see Ms. Winters or have any information on her abduction, please call the Dallas Police.  Her father Phil Winters was out of town and unavailable for comment.”

“Holy shit, they think I’ve been kidnapped,” Ronnie said putting a hand to her mouth.  Thank god, Lou Ellen was the only one who went inside to check in at the desk downstairs last night.  The rest of them had snuck in through the back door.

“And they think Dave and I kidnapped you,” Trace said gravely.

“No, they don’t.  They think you’re dead, and that photo of Dave was so blurry there’s no way they’ll identify him from it.  They have no idea who kidnapped me.”

“Okay, so what do you think this means?
  Do you think Talmedge went to Leland?”

“I
don’t know.  His guards couldn’t say we were going to jerk her up by her hair and drag her to the dungeon at the mansion.  They had to say something.  People saw what happened.  Maybe Talmadge talked to Leland, and he is just covering his ass as usual,” she said with defeat.  “I gave Talmedge a deadline of noon today.  It’s after that now, and he isn’t going to call, so that’s probably the case.”

Her plan had been stupid.  Dave was right.  Thinking Talmedge Bartlett would switch sides to save himself was a pipe dream.  That he would trust her to save him was stupid.  The man was loyal to Leland and Leland probably could get him out of his problems by pulling a few strings.  A lot easier than she could.

Those diaries on the table meant nothing.  Right now, all they had was speculation and shaky evidence against people who didn’t really matter.  Extortion, bribery, election fraud were not capital murder, drug dealing, human trafficking and horse thievery.  She was sure the feds had proof that was going on out at the Diamond Bar Ranch, but she was also certain that they couldn’t connect that to Leland.  And neither could she at this point.

W
ould their notes, these coded diaries and their files be enough leverage to convince Susan Whitmore to drop the charges against Trace?  Ronnie didn’t know, but she had to try.  She knew one thing.  What they had right now wasn’t enough to bring down Leland Rooks.

She sighed
and met Trace’s eyes.  “I have enough evidence for the feds to get search warrants to look for more on Judge Jennings, Seemus Nichols, and Talmedge Bartlett.  Bribery, extortion, witness tampering, and election fraud are about all it amounts to.  I don’t have enough for them to risk taking on Leland though for the other stuff at the Diamond Bar ranch.  I’m not sure that what I have is going to be enough to cut a bargain with Susan Whitmore to drop the charges against you.”  Ronnie dragged her eyes from his to stare at her hands, which rested on her knees.

“You’ve done the best you could, Red,”
Trace said, dropping his arm over her shoulders and squeezing her to him.  “I couldn’t ask for more.  Thank you for trying.”

Ronnie heard the sound of defeat in his tone too.  Trace was going to leave town, leave his mother and leave her.  She heard it as clearly as if he’d spoken the words.  She’d never see him again after to
day.  Panic settled in her chest and she looked up to see Allison staring at them too.  She had tears in her eyes and her lower lip trembled.

“Thank you for trying too, Mama,” Trace said.
  He lifted his arm from her shoulders and stood to walk over to Allison.  She stood, let out a keening wail, then threw her arms around his waist.  Ronnie could see Trace struggling to hold back emotion too.  His nostrils flared and he stared at the ceiling, while he rubbed his mother’s back trying to console her. 

Ronnie’s heart felt like it was a lead weight in her chest, and she felt like bawling too.
  Instead she stood there and watched Trace push his mother away from him and wipe her tears away with his thumb.  He leaned down and kissed the top of her head, then stood to smile down at her.  “I love you, Mama.  Stay away from Leland and take care of yourself.”

H
er eyes filled again.  “You’re really leaving?” she whispered.

“I have to.  Those federal charges aren’t going away, and I’m not going back to jail.  I promise to check in now and again though to let  you know I’m okay.”

Allison tried to put her arms around him again, but he pushed her away.  ‘Mama, please don’t make it tougher for me to go.”  The door of the bedroom across the room slammed back on its hinges and Lou Ellen filled the doorway in her furry pink robe, with two curlers holding up her bangs, and a sleep mask around her throat.  In her hand was a mean-looking hand gun. 

“What the hell is all the caterwauling about?” she asked sourly waving the gun around for emphasis.  “I thought a damned herd of goats had gotten in
here.”

“Trace is leaving,” Allison said brokenly and ran across the room to throw herself at Lou Ellen.  She caught
Allison with one arm, and her eyes flew to Trace.  “You ain’t going a damned place, boy,” she said angrily.  “And close that damned house robe.  Nobody wants to see your pecker,” she said roughly.  Looking at Ronnie, she waved the gun in her direction and said, “Except her maybe.”

Trace pulled the sides of the robe closed and yanked the ends of the tie.  “I’ve got to leave, Aunt Lou,” he said
firmly.

“Bullshit
.  You still owe that one a few days,” she said with a nod at Ronnie.  “And you owe it to the rest of us for trying to help you.  Don’t be a yellow-belly coward.  We’ll figure out something to take that asshole daddy of yours down.”

“Aunt Lou you’re a stock broker.  Stock brokers don’t talk like you do.  Where the hell do you come up with that shit?” Trace
asked shaking his head.

“I was raised on a farm. In the country.  And
I’m proud of it.  I’m not slick, but I damned well know money.  People trust me.  And I know how to take down a slimy weasel.  Just give us a few more days.  What else have you got to do?” she asked eyeing him intently.

Ronnie turned her back, discreetly wiped her eyes with the hem of her robe then sucked in a deep breath and turned back around.  “He’s right to want to leave.”

Trace’s eyebrows shot up and Allison and Lou Ellen gasped. 

“It’s not running
,” Ronnie said with a glance at him.  “He can’t go back to jail.” 

Ronnie knew firsthand what the last stint in jail had done to him.  She wasn’t going to ask him to have faith
she could keep him free, when she didn’t have any herself.  She was not going to join the women in trying to keep him with them and be the cause of him going to jail again.  “I let you out of your promise, Trace.”

His eyes looked sad when he nodded.  He walked over to his mother and kissed her cheek, then kissed Lou Ellen.  “I told Mama that I’m going to check in now and again to let ya’ll know I’m okay.  But you can’t tell anyone.”

“We won’t,” they both said in unison.

Ronnie followed Trace into the bedroom and closed the door.  He dropped the robe and grabbed his folded clothes from the dresser
, and her eyes drank in his delicious body.  He slipped on the jeans, and Ronnie knew it was now or never.  She peeled her tongue from the roof of her mouth preparing to say something that wouldn’t matter now, but needed to be said.  Something she’d never said to another human being in her life.  Not even her parents.  But last night she realized it is exactly how she felt about this man.  “Trace, I lo—“

His body jerked, h
is eyes flew to hers, and Trace dropped the shirt he was about to put on to rush over to her.  He pinched her face between his hands.  “Don’t say it,” he said gruffly.  He put one of his hands at her waist and pulled her against him.

“But I—“ she started again
.  Trace’s mouth cut off her words as he slammed it down over hers, kissing her like he wanted to eat her alive.  She wanted to soak him up, absorb him inside of her, memorize how he smelled, what his skin felt like beneath her fingers.  How good she felt when his arms were around her.  Warm wetness slid down her right cheek, as he continued kissing her like there was no tomorrow.  There wasn’t going to be one for them, she realized, and another wet drop slid down her left cheek.

His thumb stroked away the tear, but more followed.  Finally, he pulled back from her and jerked his shirt off of the dresser to wipe her tears.  “Damn, Shark Lady, I think you sprung a leak
,” he said with an emotion choked laugh.

Ronnie laughed, but her heart was breaking in
to a million pieces as she stood still and let him mop away her tears.  “I’m sorry,” she said in a broken whisper.  He tilted her chin up and placed a soft gentle kiss on her lips.

“Nothing to be sorry for, sweetheart.  You can’t win them all
, Shark Lady.  You tried.  That’s what matters.  And you gave me fair warning, before you quit this time.”

“I’m going to miss you,” she said.  “And worry.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be good, I promise.” 

Her eyes welled up again and he kissed her tenderly again, then pulled her to his chest to hug her.  “You’re the one you need to worry about.  Call and let someone know you’re not kidnapped.  This might be a ploy so if you’re found dead, it won’t tie back to Leland.  Do it, Red.  For me.”

“Who should I call?” she asked.