“If you’re serious, give me a holler and come by to check out my new crop of prospects.”
“Thanks. I’ll do that.” She glanced at my arm casually looped around Wyatt’s waist, to his fingers brushing my shoulder, then back to his face. “It’s good to see you out and about. I was worried about you after Sofia…passed away.”
I latched on to the opening I’d been waiting for. “Especially considering he just found out she might have been murdered.”
“Murdered?” Her gaze hopscotched across Wyatt’s face. “What would make you think such a damn fool thing?”
“Some new evidence that came to light when he was settling with the car rental company,” I said in my best drama queen voice. “Her car was run off the road.”
“You’re kidding!”
I shook my head and leaned toward her to whisper, “Her job killed her.”
“No.” Glenda shook her head like a bobblehead doll on a bumpy road. “That’s impossible.”
I jerked a shoulder. “They say the data she was carrying was stolen.”
“That wouldn’t make a difference,” Glenda pooh-poohed with a sour-grape twist of her mouth. “It would all be transmitted electronically anyway.”
“Unless there was a mistake to hide.”
Glenda honked out a dry laugh. “Too many checks and balances. That could never happen.”
“What Sierra means,” Wyatt said, “is that a competitor might have stolen the data Sofia was carrying for their own use. You know how Allied Defense is always a target for spies.”
Glenda bit her lower lip in thought. “No, you’re wrong on this one. No disrespect meant, Wyatt, but Sofia wasn’t important enough to kill.”
My well-honed instincts for a lie zeroed in on all the anxiety Glenda’s body language shouted—the eyes that flitted away, the shifting weight, the hand that kept trying to cover her mouth.
An icy shudder barreled through me as Sofia realized a close ally might have betrayed her, and Wyatt skewed me a worried look.
I ignored him. “Sofia was still working on a secret project.”
“The HART.” Wyatt’s low-key voice masked the tension stringing his body tight. “That’s got to be high on the compromise list.”
Glenda threw her chin up and shored up her defenses with crossed arms and hiked shoulders. “But she wasn’t high up enough to have enough pieces to put together. Whatever she had would do a spy no good. Not without heftier slices of the pie.”
“She was run off the road.” I dug my fingers into Wyatt’s solid side so I wouldn’t slap the snooty bitch. “Deliberately.”
Glenda curled her lip. “You know, she had enemies outside of work.”
“Sofia?” Wyatt shook his head. “Everybody liked her.”
Nose in the air, Glenda plowed on. “Not long before she died, she was telling me about the trouble she was having with one of the families she tutored.”
“Who?” Wyatt asked, a touch of outrage sharpening his tone.
“I don’t know their name.” She heaved an impatient sigh and fluttered her hand. “It’s one of the Mexican families she was teaching English to. Her father’d helped them relocate up north. Their teenage daughter wasn’t happy about being uprooted from her friends and committed suicide. Sofia told me the girl’s father blamed her.”
Sofia’s tantrum broke and a roar filled my head. No!
“How could that be her fault?” Wyatt’s growing irritation had him tightening his hold on my shoulder.
“Well,” Glenda huffed, “considering how your mother-in-law reacted to Sofia’s death, I’d think you’d know all about misplaced blame.”
That was a low blow.
“Did Sofia say she felt in danger?” I asked.
“She said she was scared of the father.”
Wyatt’s expression hardened. “She never said anything to me.”
A wave of sadness rolled through me. My hand reached for my chest at the quick-changing swing of Sofia’s emotions that were starting to feel like a runaway amusement park ride. This couldn’t be good for my heart.
“Of course she didn’t tell you,” Glenda said. “She knew you’d worry too much.”
The pinch of guilt heightened the fine lines around Wyatt’s eyes. He nodded distractedly, then glanced at his watch. “The three-year-old class is up soon. I’ve got to go get ready. It was nice seeing you again, Glenda. I was serious about looking over stock.”
Relief sagged Glenda’s shoulders now that the fire was turned down from under the frying pan of tough questions. “I’ll do that.”
“Why don’t you join me, Glenda?” I still needed to find out who had taken Sofia’s place, and I couldn’t let Wyatt chase her off just because he was uncomfortable with the scum she was stirring up. “I’ve never been to a cutting competition before. I could use a guide.”
“Sure, I’d, uh, love to.” Glenda dropped the shirt she was holding on the table, and it promptly slid to the floor. “Wyatt, I’ve been hearing some good things about the way this young mare of yours is working.”
“We’ll find out before the afternoon’s out.” Wyatt strode toward the exhibit hall exit.
I didn’t let go of his waist until the pull of the crowd forced me to—mostly because I wanted Glenda to believe Wyatt’s and my relationship was more intimate than it was.
Once we got to the stable area, Wyatt stopped. His worried glance told me he didn’t want me where germs teemed. Though I was more than happy to oblige him, I wished I hadn’t told him about my fear. I didn’t need him going all protective on me.
“I’ll see you after the class,” he said.
I leaned into him as if I were going to kiss him. A shudder rippled through his hard chest, momentarily distracting me with a strong need to taste him.
“Glenda’s hiding something,” I whispered into his ear as Glenda gave us space to smooch. Doing it for real was tempting.
“Glenda’s solid stock,” Wyatt whispered back, tickling my ear. “She’s had to work hard to get where she is and get past the old-boys’ network.”
“She’s wound up tight.”
“She’s going through a divorce.”
“What she said about Sofia’s volunteer work is a lie.”
“Just how would you know?”
The stir of Sofia’s anger still roiled in my gut. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll bet if we check it out, there’s going to be nothing to the story.”
“Then we’ll check it out.” His fingers rounded against both my shoulders and he pushed me away. “Can you stay out of trouble for an hour?”
I scoffed at his arrogance. Something both visceral and contrary flashed through me, and before I could stop myself, I nipped his earlobe with my teeth. “You betcha, cowboy.”
Rubbing his ear, he mumbled a curse, then shook his head as he stalked toward the stall area. I chuckled. Turning toward Glenda, I pinned on a goofy smile, pouring on the ditzy-blond act with a hair flip and giggle, though I was neither ditzy nor blond. “I can’t wait to see Wyatt ride. He looks so hot on a horse.”
Glenda raised an eyebrow and slanted me a questioning smirk.
Wyatt’s class was due to start in about thirty minutes. Glenda led me to a spot by the boards where we watched the action on both sides of the split arena. I kept her talking about surface things and waited for her guard to slip.
“There he is!” I twisted my face into a dopey, love-struck expression, which came surprisingly easy looking at Wyatt. I jumped up on my toes and waved at him on a pretty copper mare with a bold white blaze down her face. His slow smile gave my heart an unexpected lurch. He knew this was a pretext, didn’t he? Of course. I’d shown him that while I was hanging all over him for Glenda’s benefit. He was just being a good sport.
Wyatt walked the mare inside the warmup ring at one end of the arena. He did look hot astride a horse. The long legs wrapped around the horse’s barrel, the flex of his thighs under the leather chaps, the promise of power waiting to fly free
cranked up my temperature.
Sofia’s desire-heated voice whispered across my brain. Foreplay.
Yeah, I was attracted. I hadn’t felt anything like this for a man since Leo—even if it was all Sofia’s memories. But doing anything about it would be plain stupid, and I prided myself on being smarter than I looked. Besides, Wyatt really wasn’t my type. Too uptight. Too controlled.
Glenda pointed to the milling cattle at one end of the ring. Two riders were settling them. “The cows are all yearling heifers. They’re chosen for their uniformity of weight and size.”
“To keep the competition fair?”
Glenda nodded. “Right. The first eleven cutters are going to work this herd, then a fresh bunch is going to be brought in for the last twelve cutters.” Glenda jerked her chin at the five tables set up between the show ring and the warmup ring. “The judges sit over there. They can’t see each other or the scoreboard. The highest and lowest scores get thrown out and the middle three are added together.”
“I’m surprised at the number of people cramming the stands.” The whole competition sounded kind of boring to me.
Glenda tipped back her head and laughed. “People get hooked on this. You’ll see. It’s exhilarating to watch. Even more fun to do.”
Soon the first rider was allowed in the ring. Two herd holders kept the cows from moving up the fence. Two other riders were positioned behind the cutter to keep the cow being worked from running off to the far end.
“He’s going to have two and a half minutes to work,” Glenda explained. “He might get to cut two or three cows.”
“In two and a half minutes? That doesn’t seem like enough time to even get to one.”
“A cutter’s happy if he can work a cow for thirty seconds.”
This sounded more boring by the second. I needed to bring the conversation back to Sofia and the HART. “So you worked with both Sofia and Wyatt?”
“Good people, both of them.”
“Must be hard to replace good workers like that?”
“When it comes to work ethics, yes, but the job itself, anybody trained in their field can do. Programming takes some imagination, but engineering is pretty straightforward.”
“Who’s taking over Sofia’s job?”
Glenda shushed me. “The competition’s starting.”
Well, shoot. Now I’d have to wait for the next lull to get my answer.
The rider entered the herd and separated one cow from the others. He dropped his rein hand to the horse’s neck, signaling for time to start. The horse hunkered down and a charge of electricity zapped through the whole arena. The horse ran, stopped on a dime, reversed directions at a dizzying pace, drawing screams, shouts and whistles from the crowd. I got caught up in the excitement of the surprisingly quick action. The rider’s second hand touched the rein.
“Oh,” Glenda roared. “He’s going to lose three points for that touch.”
The buzzer sounded and the crowd applauded.
Halfway through the first group of cutters, Wyatt entered the arena riding Tara Ten Tall, when something—or someone—caught Glenda’s attention. Her smile slid like a Popsicle in hot sun. I scoured the crowd but couldn’t see what had spooked her. Her mouth recovered fast enough, but her eyes remained clouded. “I’ve got to run to the ladies’ room. Be back in a flash.”
Oh, yeah, there was definitely something going on with Glenda. Not that I could prove anything right now. Hunches just gave direction. I’d follow her and see where it led.
I let her slip into the crowd, and in spite of her sequined shirt, I almost lost her. Then she lurched sideways and disappeared.
Some quick maneuvering through the thick crowd brought me close to the spot where Glenda had disappeared. I soon realized someone, hiding behind one of the concrete pillars in the hallway, had yanked her out of the stream of people. I couldn’t see who was there, but the hand crimped like a manacle around Glenda’s shirtsleeve was definitely male. Using a nearby pillar to hide, I edged my way closer until I could hear their exchange.
“I told you never to contact me in public.” Glenda gritted her teeth, and her eyes darted about like a trapped sewer rat.
“You aren’t meetin’ your end of the bargain, darlin’.” The voice was deep, masculine and condescending.
Glenda tugged her shirtsleeve free and crossed her arms beneath her chest. “What do you want?”
“Have you seen the headlines?” Gingerly the man crooked up the corner of the paper he was holding and read. “‘Air Force Jet Lost over Persian Gulf.’” He jettisoned the paper, and it scattered over the floor where passersby trampled it.
Another death.
“So?” Glenda’s fear peeled off her, raw and open.
“It’s the fourth jet in just over a week.”
My spine tingled with that Novocain feeling again. Stay out of me, Sofia. Let me do my job. I shrugged her out but still went cold. Cold enough to see my next breath frost the air. Cold enough for my scalp to crawl. Glenda knew. She knew about the fault that was making the airplanes crash.
Glenda paced in a tight, dog-on-a-leash half circle. “Have they detected a common thread?”
The man stepped forward to get into Glenda’s face, but his black cowboy hat shaded his face. With a hand around the collar of her fancy shirt, he stopped her agitated pacing.
“We’re talkin’ about the government here.” He guffawed. “They couldn’t find their own asses with a road map. It’ll take them years. By that time, the blame will point to them. And you can be sure they’ll keep that particular fact nice and quiet. All you have to do is keep up your end of the bargain to make that happen.”
“But—”
“I don’t think I’m makin’ myself clear here. Take care of the details you were hired to deal with, or I’ll make sure you lose what’s most precious to you. Do you understand?”
Rey had used those same words with Wyatt. Was there a connection?
Glenda swallowed hard. “Yes, I do.”
He let go of her collar. She backed up in a careful motion and rubbed the skin of her neck.
Could Glenda have sacrificed Sofia for whatever she was trying to save?
“You’re scared,” the man said. “And scared people make stupid mistakes.”
“I’ve got everything under control,” Glenda assured him.
“See that you do.”
“The pilot?” she asked, her voice clipped and precise. She didn’t sound worried so much about the pilot’s health as to how his status would affect hers.
“Dead.”
“Natural causes?”
Interesting question. To ask it, she had to know the man was capable of killing. Someone that cold would think nothing of using Sofia as a pawn or a convenient fall guy.
“Let’s just say you didn’t have to break one of them fancy nails of yours on this one.” He shook his head in disgust. “I don’t know why you were trusted in the first place. When push comes to shove, women just don’t have the balls for business.”
Glenda shot him a look of hatred, pure and undiluted. He laughed uproariously. “Loosen up, darlin’, or you’ll pop a spring.”
Nose high in the air, Glenda pivoted on her fancy boot heel and clipped her way toward the ladies’ room. He fell in behind her, giving me a clear view of his broad back. He caught Glenda’s elbow and spun her around. I slunk to the next column for a better look. If I moved closer, they’d see me but this far I could barely hear their exchange above the rumble of voices.
“Remember, I can’t afford any popped springs,” the man said.
As his meaning hung in the air, Glenda wrenched her arm free. “You can’t afford to kill me off right now, either.”
“No one’s indispensable.”
Glenda’s throat worked. “Someone’s asking questions about Sofia James.”
Now she was willing to use Wyatt and me to get herself out of a tight spot.
“Who’s askin’ questions?” the man asked, but h
e didn’t seem surprised. Did that mean that Wyatt and I were under surveillance? By whom?
“Her husband and some woman,” Glenda said.
“Toss ’em some tainted crumbs.”
“Like what?”
“Use your imagination, darlin’. That’s what got you in this mess in the first place.”
What had Glenda done that someone could blackmail her into betraying a friend, her employer and possibly her country?
A strong stink behind me made my nose itch. Recognition of its owner hit me a second before Rey tapped me on the shoulder. Shoot. I should’ve paid more attention to what was going on around me. Multitasking was a basic P.I. skill.
Rey! Sofia went positively giddy.
“Hey, pretty lady.” Rey’s snake charmer’s smile dazzled. “Where is your lover?”
My gut tightened at the thought of Wyatt as a lover. But I didn’t bother to dignify Rey’s taunt with an answer. That would only have fed his wimp ego. When I glanced in Glenda’s direction, she was plowing through the bathroom door, and her tormentor was striding toward the exit.
“Hey, yourself.” I shifted to widen the space between Inez’s lapdog and me. “You don’t look like the rodeo type.”
His smile widened, showing off orthodontic-perfect teeth and a well-chewed toothpick. “I am a man of many talents.”
I’d just bet. The breadth of those talents probably came printed on a rap sheet. “Are you checking up on Wyatt?”
Rey splayed a hand over his bony chest. “I have Wyatt’s and your best interests at heart.”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“All is not as it seems.”
“Why don’t you enlighten me, then?”
He tipped his head. “There are forces in motion to right wrongs.”
“Such as?”
“I am not at liberty to reveal.”
“Then how can I believe anything you say? After all, you like to hang out with fifty-something women instead of girls your own age.”
“Ah, your eyes trick you.” Surreptitiously, he flashed a knife at me. “Walk with me.”
Rey? Sofia startled and her frown bit into my forehead.
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