You're Busting My Nuptials (Tizzy/Ridge Trilogy Book 2) (12 page)

A half-hour later, the girls returned to the van. Tizzy leaned her head against the back of her seat and took a deep breath. The stripper missing was a surprise. She
’d never considered that. She’d assumed once she found the dancer, she’d find out what happened to Ridge.

Rayann reached over and placed her hand on Tizzy’s shoulder. “I know how it sounds, Gwynn and Ridge go missing at the same time, but you can’t start having doubts now. Ridge wouldn’t leave you for some stripper.”

Tizzy covered her face with her hands and tried to keep the quiver from her voice, but failed. “That’s not what I’m thinking.”

“Then what?” Synola asked.

“Gwynn helped someone take Ridge and then she knew too much. What if they’re both . . . ?” She stopped, unable to finish the sentence.

“C’mon, Tiz, this is no time to get negative,” Rayann said.

Tizzy pulled herself together. “You’re right.” She scanned the area looking for Jinx, and even though he was nowhere in sight, she could hear him breathing in her ear bud.

That made her think of Ridge and the way he nipped at the curve of her neck, whispered erotic things in her ear, his lips hot against her skin. She felt a little strange about Jinx being the catalyst for all that heat.

She twisted in her seat to get a view of both passengers. “Let’s review what Ramona told us.”

“She didn’t tell us much of anything we didn’t already know,” Synola said. “She hasn’t seen Gwynn since last Friday and assumes she has run away with Ridge.”

“We did find out what kind of car she’s driving, so that’s something,” Rayann said. “Since you insisted on helping Ramona report Gwynn missing, the cops will put out an All-Points Bulletin for her.”

Tizzy understood Ramona’s reluctance to file a missing person’s report. Once she did, she admitted there was a chance Gwynn wouldn’t come back. Tizzy felt the same way about taking her wedding dress off. “Poor Ramona, she keeps thinking Gwynn is going to show up.”

“What’s our next move?” Synola asked.

Tizzy couldn’t think. So much needed to be done, and the guilt of spending so little
time with Gracie exhausted her. She needed to go over all of Ridge’s case files. She’d intended to search the lake, but finding Gwynn took precedence.

Synola’s voice pulled her back to reality. “Did you hear me, Tizzy? What’s our next move?”

“I’m sorry, I was thinking about something else. Tomorrow, I’m going to arrange for someone to drag the lake in the area of the Big Eddy.”

“Why drag the lake if you think Ridge is still alive?” Rayann asked.

“I can’t say why. I feel almost compelled to drag it. I’ve had this nagging feeling ever since Annie Mae mentioned the Big Eddy. There’s a clue there. Call it woman’s intuition.” Tizzy wiped her hands across her face. “All I know is I have to do it. But right now, let’s go home. I’m worn out.” Tizzy rolled the engine over and backed out of the alley. She glanced in her rearview mirror to check for Jinx and saw a set of headlights come on down the block and ease into the lane behind her.

She took a left on Vine Street and the car followed. Before she reached the next street, Jinx spoke to her
. “You see him?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Weave through the neighborhood. Let’s see if he follows. If he does, when you get to Beckham, hang a right. Go to Front Street, turn north, and head to the interstate. I’ll take care of him.”

“Okay.”

Rayann looked over at Tizzy. “What was Jinx saying?”

“Don’t panic, but we have company.”

Both girls twisted their heads around to look behind them.

“Holy crap,” Synola said.

“This is bad,” Rayann said.

“Damn straight this is bad,” Synola said. “This is the kind of stuff you
should
be afraid of. Forget the clowns and gnomes.”

Tizzy accelerated and turned right onto the next residential street. “Don’t worry. Jinx said he’d take care of them.”

Tizzy tried to make the words sound as if she believed them, but she wasn’t sure she did. She told herself Jinx had the advantage. He was on a motorcycle and in all the movies she’d ever seen, bikes could go faster and in much tighter places than cars. So everything would be okay. Yeah, that’s what she told herself, but the truth was, things might not be okay. In the last forty-eight hours, pretty much everything in her life had not been okay.

Rayann and Synola both had their necks craned to the back window.
“Where the hell is Jinx?” Synola asked.

The headlights moved closer.

Tizzy hung a left. The car behind took a left. They were gaining ground and still no sign of Jinx. Tizzy’s heart kicked up a notch. She knew when she reached the next street, there would be a red light.

Synola unbuckled and turned around in
the seat. “What’s in this box?”

“Something for Nana’s shop,” Tizzy said.

“Why are you worried about the contents of a box when we’ve got goons following us?” Rayann asked.

Synola ripped the box open. “I’m looking for something we can use to distract them. These might work.” She held up a plastic package.

“That looks like Gracie’s juice pouches,” Tizzy said, glancing to the rear of the van.

Synola squinted at the label. “It’s some kind of dog dye.”

Rayann pulled her brows together. “Dog dye? Do people really dye their dogs?”

Synola pulled some more pouches out. “Yeah, on holidays. I’ve seen them green on St. Patrick’s.”

Tizzy approached the red light, the car still close on her tail. She tapped her brakes, checked for on-coming traffic and ran the light. The SUV behind her didn’t slow down. It barreled through at full speed.

“Roll the back window down, Tizzy!” Synola shouted.

Tizzy hit the button and the window went down. Synola grabbed a pouch in each hand and hurled them toward the car. One landed on the hood, the other on the windshield, bursting open on impact.

Synola screamed. “Woo-hoo! I got ’em with a red and blue one. Take that you clowns!”

“Why are you calling them clowns?” Rayann asked.

“Because they’re wearing rubber clown masks.” She launched two more pouches. Red and green this time.

The SUV swerved and turned on their wipers, spreading the dye like a rainbow.

“Oh Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” Rayann prayed. “I told you clowns were trouble.”

Tizzy’s speedometer read sixty. She slammed on her brakes and negotiated a turn, fish-tailing and knocking Synola over.

Once Synola regained her position, she grabbed two more containers. Before she could throw them, the SUV rear-ended the van with a bump and knocked her down again.

“Okay, now these guys have pissed me off,” Tizzy said. “Open the glove compartment Rayann, and get my gun.”

“What the hell? You have a gun?” Rayann squeaked out.

Tizzy gave the van more gas and widened the distance between the SUV. “I come from three generations of lawmen and I’m about to marry a Texas Ranger, of course I have a gun! Give it to Synola.”

Synola sat up straight. “You want me to shoot them, or just the car?”

“Are you kidding me?” Rayann shrilled. She opened the glove box, removed the gun, and was momentarily distracted. “Ahhh, this is pretty. It’s pink.”

Synola thrust her hand out. “Give me the damn gun, sissy pants!”

Tizzy caught a flash of light in her rearview. “Never mind. Jinx is coming up on the right.”

Synola grabbed the gun, tossed a couple more pouches and connected with the windshield directly in front of the driver. “Jinx is not on the right, he’s on the left,” she said.

Rayann’s eyes were wide.

Tizzy checked her mirror. There were three motorcycles and they had the SUV boxed in.

“
Slow your speed, Tizzy. Once the SUV stops, we’ll take care of him and you girls head home. I’ll meet you there later,” Jinx said into her ear bud.

Tizzy pushed the bud tighter into her ear.
“Where did those two other motorcycles come from?”

“I called a couple of friends. Slow down.”

Tizzy reduced her speed until she stopped with the SUV behind her. A second SUV pulled from a side street. Tizzy caught a glimpse of a gun barrel sticking from its window. She screamed at Rayann and Synola. “Get down! Get down!”

As she sped away, she heard a blast and Jinx yelling in her ear.
“
Get the hell outta here.”

After a phone call from Jinx, Tizzy couldn
’t relax until he showed up at her house safe and sound. She had a lot of questions she wanted to ask him, but they would have to wait. Too tired to think anymore, she crawled into bed.

Once she did, she tossed, turned and fought tangled sheets for most of the night. She only managed to get a couple of hours sleep. The numbers on the digital clock pulsed in her brain as if counting down until lift off. She flopped onto her back and stared at the ceiling then back at the time again. Four a.m., too early to accomplish anything.

Ridge’s face formed in her mind and she thought about the Big Eddy. Earlier, when Rayann asked why she insisted on dragging the lake if she believed Ridge was alive, her stomach sank. For her, the answer was simple. Eldora had gotten a message, so the location must hold a clue and Tizzy needed to find it.

No need to stay in bed any longer, she decided. Once her brain shifted into overdrive, sleep wouldn’t come. As her feet hit the floor, she gave herself a minute to clear her head. She stretched to her full height, found some sweatpants in the dark, and slipped her feet into a pair of flip-flops.

She went into Ridge’s make-shift office, closed the door, and switched on the light. The dry erase board caught her eye. Maybe if she used Ridge’s formula, she could get things straight in her head. She picked up the marker and began to make a chart.

First, she drew a line across the top and divided the diagram into columns. In the first section, she wrote:
two men/one woman. Gwynn, Ridge, unknown Or Gwynn and two unknowns.
She reasoned if Ridge was drugged, he wouldn’t be able to sit up. So, in her mind, it was possible neither of the two men were Ridge.
In the next,
clowns/SUVs/tail.
This part confused her. The SUV tailing them had two clowns. According to Jinx, the second SUV also had two occupants. She moved on. In the third column, she wrote,
Tawny.
Why did waitress warn Tizzy not to ask questions? She must know more than she let on. They needed to pay her another visit.

Jinx wasn
’t able to get a plate number from the car with the two clowns, and the one he got from the second vehicle, turned out to be stolen from a car rental business.

Right now, the most unsettling part was Tawny’s warning. Well, that and the gunfight, and the car chase, and the clowns, and the masked men, and the prediction of cold death.

She picked up a flashlight from the desk, eased out the front door, and walked across the lawn to Browning House.

She didn
’t understand why she wanted to go there. Maybe she wanted to feel close to Ridge and sleeping in his bed would give her comfort. She thought back to the afternoon of the rehearsal and could almost taste the petit fours and champagne they’d shared. Heat slid across her skin and she trembled at the memory of his naked body stretched out next to hers, both of them heaving for breath and what he’d said.
“Damn, Margie Lou, if this is any indication of how our honeymoon is going to be, you’ll be a widow again by the end of the week.”

They laughed and agreed death by sex would be one hell of a way to go. Tizzy bit her lip as her heart pounded. Hot all over, she pulled the sweatshirt over her head and tied the sleeves around the waist of her flannel nightshirt.

The cold October breeze felt good against her skin. An owl hooted in the distance. The scent of firewood wafted the air.

She opened the back door and eased down the hall to the master bedroom. Standing in the doorway, she swept the room with the light, and when the beam reached the corner chair, her knees buckled.

“Holy Mother of God!” she gasped, steadying herself against the door jamb. “Jinx! What the hell are you doing here? You’ve got to stop doing this. You scared the crap out of me.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting company.”

She staggered to the bed and sat on the edge, trying to regain her composure. “Why
are
you here and sitting in the dark?”

“I think better this way.”

“Whataya got so far?”

“All of his personal things are gone. Wallet, badge, clothes, even his toothbrush. Right?”

Tizzy hung her head. “I know it looks like he packed up and left, but I don’t believe he did. He’s a good man, Jinx. He loves me and he loves Gracie like she belongs to him.”

Jinx leaned forward, and the light coming through the window cast his face in silhouette. “I believe you. The way you found the pre-nup laid out along with his tuxedo, makes me think someone tried hard to make you believe he left by choice.”