Rosita expertly used the razor to put the powder in thin straight lines on the mirror plate. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
“I…I was in a hit-and-run incident,” Richard said and looked down. “I hit a woman in a car and kept going. I was drunk. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Everyone remained quiet.
“The woman is fine, but there was a witness,” Richard said. “I think he got half of my license plate’s number. It’s only a matter of time before the police catch up with me. I can’t do prison time.”
Duke leaned down and snorted white powder up his nose.
“You can’t pay anybody off to make it go away?” Rosita asked.
Andy stood up and walked over to Duke.
Duke finished a second line and handed the dollar to Andy.
Andy quickly took it and leaned his head down over the coke.
“I’m afraid to try,” Richard said solemnly. “If I try to find out who the investigating officer is, it might expose me.”
“Ah,” Rosita said with understanding. She took the dollar from Andy. “I think my friend can help.” She leaned over and snorted a line.
“Oh?” he asked as he fought the itch to partake in the snort fest.
“Yes,” Andy said, and then he dug in the front of his nostrils to clear the coke. “I’ve done things like this before. I hacked the Dallas PD a few years ago for another client. I’m sure I can do it again, but I don’t work for free.”
“All right, but what would be the purpose of hacking it?” Richard asked.
“I can get into the system and find out who is investigating the case. All you have to do is give me the day and time that you hit the driver. I can run a search on it and find out the name of the witness and the cop looking into it. Then, you’ll be able to buy them off,” Andy said.
“Andy will also be able to wipe the system clean of any evidence,” Rosita said.
“Yeah, the cop you buy off can get rid of any hard copy evidence that the cops have,” Andy said. “What condition is the vehicle in? That might be a little trickier. They could get the paint color of your car from it.”
“The car caught on fire,” Richard said. “The woman got out in time, but the car is a heap of metal now.”
Duke had a weird look on his face. Richard couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Duke took a long swig of his beer.
“Even better,” Andy said. “You won’t have to worry about it.”
“I appreciate the offer to help, but how in the world did you and Rosita meet?” Richard asked.
“We met in California,” Rosita said. “He’s my dealer.”
Richard was taken aback. “You said he was a hacker.”
“I’m both,” Andy said. “I only get hacking jobs here and there. The drugs mainly pay the bills.”
Duke took a sip of his beer.
“Oh,” Richard said. “I heard of hackers getting into payrolls and robbing them.”
Andy scoffed. “Too much trouble anymore, and most of the time, it isn’t worth it. The payrolls that are open to cyber-attacks don’t have much in them. And, I wouldn’t even rob a poor sap who is barely making above minimum wage.”
“Are you sure you can do it?” Richard asked. “You’re not out of practice?”
“He can do it,” Rosita said with a smile. “I don’t know about the client that he did the job for in Dallas, but he did hack a courthouse system and a police station in Texas before.”
“Oh yeah,” Richard said with mild interest. He didn’t want to let on that he was needling them for information. “Tell me about it.”
“Well,” Andy said. “I guess I can tell you about that since I got immunity.”
“You got caught?” Richard asked.
“No,” Andy said. “I turned the guy who hired me in.”
This was it. The information Richard had to get. “Why?”
“Oh, it wasn’t personal,” Andy said with a smirk. “Not for me anyway.”
“Remember the guy that beat your father up four years ago, but didn’t go to jail for it?” Rosita asked.
Richard slowly shook his head. “Yeah.”
“Andy was the guy who wiped that man’s records clean,” Rosita said. “Of course, I didn’t know that at the time. I just knew that the hotel clerk that witnessed what happened had disappeared and the evidence was gone. That’s when I refused to testify. I didn’t know what was happening and your father couldn’t get any headway in Texas to find out.”
“Ah,” Richard said. “So, you found out Andy did the job when he became your dealer.”
“That’s right,” Rosita said. “And the guy’s little brother hired Andy to clean the electronic files.”
“All right, but that doesn’t explain why you turned the guy in years later,” Richard said.
“Normally, I’m not a snitch, but I wanted to help Rosita out,” Andy said with a smile.
“I went back to Elliot a month ago. I tried to make amends with my family and the man that I left to marry your father. My family spurred me, and if that wasn’t bad enough, my former fiancé and his other brother treated me like a tramp when I showed up at their house. Practically threw me off the ranch,” Rosita sneered and picked up the rolled-up dollar. “I vowed to get revenge, and I did.”
“So you asked Andy to turn your ex-fiancé’s brother in?” Richard asked.
“Yep,” Rosita said. “But I did more than that. I called in an anonymous tip alerting the DEA that they were trafficking drugs through their property. Of course, one phone call wasn’t going to get them moving, so I got Duke and a girlfriend in California to call the DEA, too.”
“Are they trafficking drugs?” Richard asked.
“No,” Duke said flatly. He took a sip of his beer.
“No, I got Duke to plant some product on their land, but they found it and got rid of it before the agents showed up,” Rosita said.
“How did you get on the ranch?” Richard asked Duke.
“Oh, I got my ways,” Duke said. “But, I can’t plant anymore because now they are on the lookout for it. They do a search every day to make sure more haven’t magically appeared.”
“I see,” Richard said.
“So, do you trust Andy to do the job for you now?” Rosita asked, and then snorted a line.
“Well, as long as he doesn’t turn me in later,” Richard said bluntly.
“Nah,” Andy said and walked back to his chair. He grabbed his glass and took a long swallow.
“He won’t,” Rosita assured Richard. “Like I said, Andy just did it as a favor to me.”
Andy sat back down in the leather chair. “Yeah, I take exception to people who treat my friends like shit.”
“How much do you charge?” Richard asked.
“For the job you want, and you are Rosita’s step-son, plus Rosita is a good customer, I’ll do it for $700,” Andy said.
“Deal,” Richard said.
“If you got the money on you now, I can get started,” Andy said. “I got my laptop with me.”
Richard shook his head. “I got cash in the safe in my bedroom.”
“Great,” Andy said happily and picked up his laptop case. He started opening it.
“Now that your problems are about to slip away, take a line,” Rosita said and held out the dollar to Richard.
“It doesn’t look like you have much left,” Richard said. “I don’t want to snort all your supply.”
“I got more with me,” Andy said as he booted up his laptop. “Have a ball as long as you can pay for it.”
“And we can,” Rosita said, and then giggled.
“Yeah. It’s Saturday, let’s party,” Duke said and stood up. “Mind if I have another beer?”
“No, help yourself,” Richard said and gestured towards the bar.
“Thanks,” Duke mumbled and headed for the bar.
“Andy, while you’re working on Richard’s case, see if you can find out any more information about that girl Adrian is see
ing,” Rosita said.
“I thought you were going to let it go now,” Duke said from the bar. “You got them in knots at the ranch. Isn’t that enough?”
“If the DEA would have found the coke you planted, it would be,” Rosita said.
“Faith’s a nice woman. She didn’t do anything to you,” Duke said.
“I know, but she’s important to Adrian,” Rosita said. “He’s the one I want to hurt. Looks like I have to go through her to do it.”
“I told you that she’s clean,” Andy said. “Besides, do you really want to hurt a pregnant woman?”
“She’s pregnant?” Richard and Duke asked at the same time.
“Calm down guys,” Rosita said nonchalantly as she batted her hand in the air. “I don’t want to destroy her life. I’m a mom, too, remember? I’m just hoping we can find out if she had a lost love that might want to come back into her life. Perhaps she wants him, too. Perhaps she would leave Adrian for him.”
“Hmmm,” Andy said. “I can try to find that out, I guess.”
“Good,” Rosita said with a satisfied smile. “You know I’ll pay you.”
Andy’s laptop started beeping really loud.
“What the hell is that?” Duke asked from the bar.
Andy slammed the laptop closed, reached in his bag, and pulled out a gun. “Nobody fuckin’ move!” he said harshly as he pointed the firearm around the room. The gun had a silencer on it.
Everyone froze in place.
“This is a fuckin’ setup!” Andy yelled as he frantically stuffed his laptop into the case.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Duke asked.
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Andy said as he looked wildly around the room. “My alarm went off. It’s set to detect listening devices and camera equipment.”
Shit.
“The coke has made you paranoid,” Rosita said as she slowly stood up. “Put that thing down.”
“Shut up, you conniving bitch!” Andy yelled at her. “You brought me here. You’re setting me up. Why? You want to blackmail me into giving you free product?”
“No!” she yelled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Screw it. I’m not taking any chances,” he sneered, and with that Andy started firing his gun.
Chapter 44
Adrian, Cliff, Joey, and Steve were listening at the door. They couldn’t hear a damn thing until a man started yelling his head off. Then, they were startled by a woman screaming.
“No!” a man yelled.
Adrian kicked the door in. A gun barrel met him.
“Get down!” Cliff yelled and dove down.
Steve tackled Adrian to the floor before the man could fire his gun.
“Put the weapon down!” a man ordered with harshness.
Then, two gunshots echoed into the atmosphere.
“Shit!” Cliff yelled.
“Is he dead?” another man asked.
“Oh God!” a man groaned in agony.
“Nope,” a man said.
Adrian saw a pair of black lace-up boots approach him. “Get up, you damn fools!” the man said with disgust.
Adrian and Steve looked up to a man wearing blue jeans and a black polo shirt. He had a badge clipped to his belt and a gun holster around his waist. He had the strangest eyes Adrian had ever seen.
“Who the hell are you, and what the hell did you think you were doing?” he asked in a deep tone.
“We heard a woman screaming,” Adrian said as Steve got off of him.
“So your first instinct was to kick the door in?” he asked with disbelief. “Are you cops?”
“No,” Steve said as Adrian got up. “I’m Steve Matthews, and this is my brother, Adrian.”
The man scoffed. “Well, fuck.”
“You shot me, you fuckin’ pig!” a man yelled from inside.
The cop who was talking to them looked over his shoulder. “At least you’re alive,” the cop sneered. “The woman you shot isn’t.”
“Shit!” Cliff said and pushed his way past everyone.
“Hey!” the cop said.
“Faith!” Adrian said as he followed Cliff inside.
“She’s fine,” the cop said as he went to the entryway of the hall. “Faith! Come on out, it’s safe!”
The door down the hall opened, and Faith emerged.
“Faith,” Adrian said as he opened his arms to her.
She quickly jogged down the hallway to him, and they embraced.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Adrian asked against her ear.
“I wanted to help you,” she answered. Her voice was muffled against his chest.
“Do you enjoy making me worry like a damn woman?” Cliff asked as he approached them.
Faith’s head shot up from Adrian’s shoulder. “Cliff?”
“Yeah, remember me?” Cliff asked and pulled Faith out of Adrian’s arms.
The siblings hugged.
“What are you doing here?” Faith asked.
“Making sure you were all right,” Cliff answered. “I started getting a bad feeling about all this. I tried calling you a dozen times, but your phone kept going to voicemail. So, I got on a plane, and here I am.”
“You paid for a round-trip plane ticket for me?” she asked with shock. “And you left Florida?”
Cliff smiled down at her. “If those two things don’t say I love you, I don’t know what will.”
They hugged again.
“Where the hell is Lewis?” a black cop asked.
“Here,” a man said in a shaky voice. The man who owned the voice slowly emerged from behind an armchair. He was trembling like a leaf in the wind, and holding on to the top of the chair for dear life.
“Did you get hit?” a cop asked.
“No,” he breathed. “But, I pissed on myself.”
“Holy shit,” Joey said.
Cliff, Adrian, and Faith turned to look at him. Steve was standing beside him gawking at the same scene Joey was. They followed their eyes to Duke, one of the Lone Wolf’s ranch hands. Blood was seeping from his shoulder, but he didn’t seem to be concerned about it. He was on his knees with his hands balled into fists next to Rosita. A bullet hole was in Rosita’s forehead. Her brown eyes were open and lifeless.
Duke snapped his head over at a man who wore glasses. The man was sitting in the floor. His hands were behind his back. His shoulder and leg were bleeding.
“I’m going to kill you for this,” Duke said with simmering rage.
“You ain’t going to do shit,” the cop with the strange eyes snapped. “Murphy, take this guy to the back and take his statement.”
“Yes, sir,” Murphy said.
Adrian stared at the body of his former fiancé’. Rosita’s ways had finally caught up with her.
“Well,” the man with the glasses said. “Fancy seeing you here, Joey.”
Adrian looked up.
Joey and the man, who Adrian assumed was the hacker, were staring each other down.
The cop with the strange eyes and dark hair seemed to know who Joey was. He walked over to him.
Adrian’s gut clenched. He was going to take Joey into custody for violating his bail.
“Hey, kid,” the cop with the strange eyes said. “You better get out of here before the ambulance, coroner, and backup gets here. Matter of fact, all of you should go.”
Adrian looked at Cliff. “Take Faith to the car.”
“What are you going to do?” Faith asked with wide eyes.
“I’ll be along in a minute,” Adrian said. “I want to talk to these nice officers.”
“I’m staying with you,” Faith said.
“No, you’re not,” Cliff said as he took her elbow in hand.
“I’m not a child,” Faith said.
“Angel, please go with your brother,” Adrian said and kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be along shortly.”
Faith nodded and left the condo with Joey, Steve, and Cliff.
�
�Um officer, um,” Adrian said to the cop with strange eyes.
“Detective,” he corrected. “Detective Chambers.”
“Detective Chambers,” Adrian said. “The man that your officers took in the back is one of my ranch hands. What the hell was he doing here?”
Chambers exhaled. “No offense, Adrian, but you should be more careful about who you hire. He was the one that planted that coke on your property for the DEA to find.”
Adrian rocked back on his heels. “Did he say why?”
“Not yet, but judging by how he reacted to Rosita being dead, I take it he did it for her.”
“I want to talk to him,” Adrian said.
“Not now,” Chambers said. “This turned into a shit show. This was supposed to be a simple off-the-book sting. We weren’t expecting Duke to show up. We got to get a statement, and then get him to the hospital. I don’t think the bullet went straight through.”
“I’ll be meeting you at the hospital,” Adrian said with conviction.
Chapter 45
Adrian and Steve were at Duke’s bedside in the ER. Joey was in the hospital parking garage in his jeep. They didn’t want to take the chance of a cop seeing him. Adrian had given Cliff some cash and asked him to get two hotel rooms. Adrian, Faith, and Cliff would go back to Elliot in the morning.
Faith had protested in the condominium’s parking lot. She wanted to stay with Adrian. However, Adrian had hushed her with a kiss and sent her off with Cliff.
Adrian and Steve stared down at Duke. His shoulder was in a sling. The ER doctor gave him something to numb his shoulder so he could get the bullet out. It was only a flesh wound.
“Why, Duke?” Steve asked. “Why did you betray us?”
Duke looked down. “It wasn’t about betraying you. Ya’ll treated me well, but I loved her. After Rosita told me how you two treated her when she came to the BBQ to make amends, I got hot. She wanted to teach you guys a lesson. She asked me to plant the coke and I did, but that’s all I did. I didn’t meet Andy until later on. I didn’t even know he was her dealer until last night.”
“You were in love with her?” Steve said. “Didn’t you know that was a fool’s cause? She was married.”
“She was going to leave her husband to be with me,” Duke said. “We were going to raise little Carlos together.”
The Rancher Page 20