“Tony?”
He didn’t bother with the small talk but started issuing orders. “I want you to pull over right now, Mandy.”
“What?” Not the least bit of surprise rang in her tone. She’d gone flat, and Tony had only seen her go there once before.
“I want you to listen to me.” Tony kept his tone soothing and his motions hurried as he roared out of the parking lot and headed down main to pick up the highway running toward the Reese Ranch. “I know you’re upset. I can hear it in your tone. You shouldn’t be driving like this. I want you to pull over. Tell me where you are, and I’ll come get you.”
“They used me, Tony.”
It made him want to go shoot all three brothers. Tony just might, but right now he had to deal with Amanda. “I know, honey.”
“They bought and paid for me like I was a whore.”
Definitely would be shooting them, and now Tony knew just where. “No, Amanda, no man can make you into a whore.”
“But they did.”
“No.” He wouldn’t let them do this to his friend. “Never, Amanda. Now I want you to pull over. Will you do that for me?”
“Okay.” Tony could breathe again with her silent agreement. Giving her a moment, he waited for her to confirm she’d done as he asked. “Okay, I’m off the road, but I was driving just fine.”
“I’m sure.” Tony smiled at the bit of heat seeping back into her tone. It was a good sign those jackasses hadn’t done too much damage to Amanda. “Thank you for humoring me, Amanda. Now if you’ll just tell me where you—”
“What’s that?”
“What?” Tony scowled. From the fading sound of her voice, she knew she wasn’t talking to him anymore, but he could hear her clearly.
“Mother fucker!” He heard the roar of something sounding it like it moved too fast, sending wind almost right through the phone. It crashed into a loud grumble of grinding metal and crunching. Over it a female scream cut short and Tony felt his heart stop.
“Amanda!”
Chapter 48
“Is there anything else you can remember?”
Amanda stared at Tony, not even trying. Everywhere around her things beeped and chirped. Rubber wheels squeaked over linoleum while IV tubes ratted every time something shifted. As if the chaos and confusion of waking up in an emergency room didn’t disorient a person enough, the full on battle going on in the hall didn’t help.
“Let me go! Stupid mother fucker!”
That was Jace, and from the sound of it, somebody threw him right into the wall. Probably one of the four deputies who had been gawking around her bed while Tony interviewed her. Apparently Tony had left a couple more in the hall to greet the Reese brothers, but they hadn’t been enough.
“Amanda?”
She blinked, taking in Tony’s pointed look. “I told you everything I remember.”
“Please, just one more time.”
What were they doing there? Amanda didn’t understand. Knox, Jace and Cody couldn’t possibly think their appearance could make this day any better. Amanda knew the truth now, and it couldn’t be unlearned.
“Son of a bitch!”
“Maybe you should just let them in.” Her suggestion came out a hoarse whisper, the loudest she could talk.
The paramedics had treated her like she’d been about to die, shoving tubes down her throat and up her arms before wrapping her like a damn mummy to a board and then banging her all about. Now five hours later she just ached. From the tip of her head to the edge of her toenails and all the way down to her soul, Amanda just ached, nowhere near the bliss of death.
Tony sighed heavily, shaking his head. “Just ignore them.”
When they were destroying the hall outside? “How?”
“Give it a minute, Mandy.”
Cindy squeezed her hand, drawing Amanda’s gaze to the other side of the bed. Like a mother worrying over her child, Cindy sat in the stiff-backed chair, clutching Amanda’s hand and looking bravely determined.
“The deputies will get everything under control.” Something heavy and hard hit the wall hard enough to shake it. Tony didn’t even blink. “Now, you left the ranch…”
“I was upset. I sped down the drive.” Amanda had given up on elongated sentences. She’d told this story three times already. “I turned onto the highway. I was going to go see Cindy.”
The quick squeeze from Cindy’s hand offered her support even as Knox roared out his objection for everybody to hear.
“Get the hell out of my way!”
“Somebody is going to get hurt.” Amanda placed her concern at Tony’s feet, but he just shrugged.
“It won’t be my guys. Now, you driving…”
Amanda didn’t want anybody getting hurt, especially not her guys. Her guys. They weren’t hers, and she wasn’t theirs. It had ended. In a way, it had never really started. They’d been looking to buy a wife, and she’d been looking for…well, Amanda didn’t know.
“You were driving…” Tony prompted her again even as Cody called out.
“Amanda!”
It was too much. Everything was too much. Amanda didn’t want to be here anymore, but she couldn’t escape. Not from anything. Even closing her eyes to shut the world out. The blackness only released her from the moment. All the problems and all the pain still existed in the darkness.
“Amanda?”
Cindy gave her a shake, but Amanda didn’t respond. What would be the point? Everything she did remember hurt and none of it helped Tony. Hell, he remembered more than her. If Tony hadn’t told her he’d called her, Amanda would have been completely clueless. Her last real memory was looking up into Jace’s eyes and feeling like she was dying inside. Now she just felt dead. Except death was supposed to be peaceful.
At least the commotion outside died down, but it came at a cost. Knox, Jace and Cody didn’t go easily, and she had no doubt where they were going—jail. It might have made her life quieter, but it didn’t make it any more relaxing. Not as Tony and Cindy started talking.
“You think Davey did this?”
Cindy’s question almost tempted Amanda to open her eyes. Of all the confusing mass of emotions Amanda had to deal with, she had no problems knowing what she felt about Davey.
“No,” Tony sighed, echoing Amanda’s silent disappointment. “He’s been sitting in jail down in Dodge City for the past two nights. They got him on some petty shit, so he’ll be out soon enough, but not in time to take the rap for Amanda’s accident.”
“It wasn’t an accident,” Cindy snapped. “And I’m still wondering when exactly you’re planning on telling Amanda that.”
Not an accident? Suddenly Amanda found herself capable of feeling something—tension and fear.
“I told you,” Tony growled. “I’ll get to it soon enough, but now isn’t the time.”
“Oh? And when is? After Davey kills her?”
Go, Cindy! Amanda voted for killing Davey first.
Damn him, Tony just wouldn’t give up his point. “This isn’t Davey.”
“So he hired somebody to do it, so what? We both know there is only one person who would benefit from Amanda’s death and that’s Davey. You said it yourself last night when you found that policy he just took out.”
“And I’m building a case on it too,” Tony snapped back, possibly cutting off a Cindy-tirade before it sailed into full swing. “But Davey isn’t the only one who benefits.”
What?
“What?” Cindy laughed, but Amanda didn’t have the luxury. Not if she wanted to find out what Tony was keeping from her. Her best friend, it didn’t shock her in the least Tony would be trying to do what was good for her.
So was Cindy, she just had to get over her moment of shock. “What are you talking about? Who else would try to drive a Hummer over Amanda’s jeep?”
Somebody had tried to drive over her car? That didn’t exactly match the ‘she got rear-ended while parked on the side of the highway’ story Tony had been telling her
earlier, but it did explain why she felt like crap.
“I’m not talking about who else, but what else,” Tony answered way too rationally.
“What else?” Amanda could hear the snicker in Cindy’s voice. “What was it? A ghost?”
“A solider.”
A what? It took Cindy almost too long to respond, making the scream in her head almost painful to hold back.
“What are you talking here? Army?”
“Drugs.” The deep breath being sucked in came from Tony’s side of the bed and Amanda could imagine him bracing himself to spill his load. “I got to ask you something, Cindy, and then I’ll answer any of your questions, but this all stays here, between just you and me.”
It should have been among the three of them, Amanda, Cindy and Tony, but it never would be. Cindy and Tony were cut from the same cloth and they viewed Amanda in identical ways. Weak, frail, damaged, they’d been there with her when her brother had killed her mother and himself.
They’d seen her then and the memory would never wash away. She would always be the victim needing their protection, never strong enough to stand up for herself. They didn’t know the truth. Only Will knew and that’s what made him family.
In those seconds, Amanda ached so hard to have Will there. Silently, she cursed him for not being with her. He would have called her a fool and told her to get over herself. “Somebody somewhere had it worse.” That’s what Will would have said. It would have worked too. Even thinking of it helped. Anything and everything could be survived.
“Okay, ask your question.”
“Do you know where Will is?”
If Cindy did and Will wasn’t within a foot of her bed in the next hour, Amanda would hurt somebody.
“Will?” She could hear it in Cindy’s voice. The answer was no, like it would be anything else. “Not specifically. I mean, I know he split town a few weeks back, but you’d have to ask Amanda—”
“She already told me what she knew, but I’m asking you if she said anything else.”
There came Cindy’s disbelieving laugh again. “Me? Why? You think she lied to you?”
When Tony didn’t answer ‘no’ immediately, Amanda got offended. “I don’t know, so I’m asking you.”
“All right.” Cindy hesitated, probably thinking. “Well, she didn’t say much. My memory is he left about a month back, right when Amanda started taking up with Cody. As for the where, I don’t think he even told Amanda.”
“You don’t find that odd?”
Well, now I do. Now they were talking about Will after saying somebody had tried to compact her car on top of her, Amanda had to admit Will’s reasons for leaving really started to worry her.
“I don’t know.” This time Cindy sighed, her voice losing its hard edge as it softened toward sadness. “I mean, you know about Will and his problems. We all know, but, you know…
“I think Amanda thought he was headed off for rehab. That’s what she wants to think because she’s always looking for the hope when it comes to Will. Honestly though, I figured he hit rock bottom, his habit drained his money and he folded out, just didn’t want to break her heart.”
No shock there. Cindy didn’t say anything Amanda hadn’t silently considered and dismissed. That was the thing about family. It just didn’t matter.
“Why? What do you think? Or maybe I should ask, what do you know?”
“Know?” There came Tony’s breath again. She could hear it, which meant what followed would be bad. “Well, I know about a month back some men got shot up over at the Shade Tree Motel and a whole bunch of money got stolen which has ignited a drug war that’s now spanning all the way down through Texas.”
“You’ve told me this story before.”
Cindy’s interruption annoyed Amanda because she hadn’t been dating the sheriff and hadn’t heard all these pesky details before.
“Then you remember the feds think it’s a local boy.”
Suddenly details didn’t matter. A local boy and Tony asking about Will, Amanda could do the math. So could Cindy, apparently, but, like Amanda, she didn’t accept it without question.
“You’re saying Will stole the money?”
Tony wouldn’t say. He wouldn’t answer a question so simply. “You know I’ve been turning this town upside down looking for anybody who has even a faint habit, particularly anybody who split town. I—”
“And you didn’t think of Will until when?” Cindy sounded pissed, matching Amanda’s mood, but probably not for the same reasons.
“It’s Amanda,” Tony retorted. “And Will, he’s always been into pills. This money is coming from heroin. No, I just—”
“Are you saying Will is into heroin now?” There was disbelief, bordering on laughter, in Cindy’s tone. Amanda wished she could have that kind of doubt.
“That’s what I asked myself yesterday when Amanda told me Will had skipped town. The feds and my people have been whipping through the information and, it’s not heroin.”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“Because I don’t know how to say what I got to say,” Tony snapped, putting a bolt of cold terror into Amanda’s stomach. Tony, the blunt, straight-talker, couldn’t figure out how to say something? What the hell had Will done?
“What are you doing?”
“Okay this is better.”
“Tony.”
“I just can’t look at you when I say this, so jut let me say it to the wall and, then by God have some mercy and don’t make me answer too many questions.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, fine.”
Another deep breath and Tony started saying things Amanda didn’t want to hear. “Will was a prostitute. We found the safe box with his ledgers in the old root cellar out back of his place. It’s got a lot of notations and thanks to Amanda telling me she caught Will with the mayor’s wife, we can already start to decode his bookkeeping—”
“Will you just get to the short of it?” Cindy growled.
“Most of his clients were men, appear to be on the lines of very wealthy business men throughout the state as well as some politicians and other affiliated public officials.”
Nobody said anything for several minutes, giving Amanda the time to absorb what Tony had said. It wasn’t so bad. She didn’t honestly care if Will was gay. It didn’t suit her that he sold himself, but she had little room to cast a stone. Besides it was his affair and—
“Ultimately the feds are looking at a local idiot who managed to kill a money runner and his two bodyguards who also happens to be sleeping with a ‘who’s-who’ list of the West and they want to talk to Will.”
Tony’s voice flowed from one side of the bed to the other, matching the shuffling sounds of his feet. “If this just coincidence or somebody hired Will or something has gone wrong, it doesn’t matter to the feds. All they want, all anybody wants is to get to Will and there is only one person in the world Will has any real connection to.”
Me.
“Amanda.”
“Now you want to tell me who you think tried to drive over Amanda today?” Tony asked.
A solider.
“You think that’s what happened to her home? Drug dealers looking for information?” Cindy sounded just as appalled as Amanda felt.
“No,” Tony snorted. “That reads more like Davey, but the bastard’s just complicating a nightmare. The accident, though…” Tony heaved a big sigh. “Somebody’s figured it out. Will’s connection to the money, Amanda’s connection to Will, we don’t even have solid proof, but somebody doesn’t care. They’re trying to make a connection and they got a little tired of waiting.”
“I don’t know what the hell that means,” Cindy snapped. “You’re saying this accident is—”
“A warning?” Tony cut in. “Yeah. The only problem is I don’t know who is trying to make contact.”
“What are we going to do?” Cindy whispered and Amanda could almost feel their gazes on her.
“I’m going to take Amanda
home and sit on her.” Tony’s response almost made her laugh because she bet he would literally sit on her if it came to it. “And you are leaving town.”
* * * *
“I can’t do this again.” Jace finally gave voice to the thought circling his head. His words broke the heavy silence filling the cell. Since being pretty much shoved into the little cement box, none of them had spoken.
Knox had paced. Cody had sulked in the corner, but Jace had thought and thought hard. It was like history repeating itself, but this time they were being given a chance.
“What do you mean?” Knox stopped in the center of the room, glaring at Jace and looking ready to go another round.
Licking his lips, Jace pinned Cody with a hard gaze, knowing what he was about to say would hurt his younger brother. “I’m not going to help destroy another woman.”
On cue, Cody came off the wall. His arms dropping from across his chest as fingers curled into fists. “Why don’t you just say it like you mean it, Jace? You think Amanda tried to commit suicide today just like Sharon killed herself three years ago.”
“That isn’t what he said,” Knox snapped to Jace’s defense, blocking Cody’s forward progression. “And we’re all sore enough, so why don’t you go back to your corner.”
“This is stupid,” Cody spat, but still he turned to sulk into his side of the cell. “You’re going to look me in the eye, Knox, and tell me you think Amanda is even capable of conceiving of the idea to kill herself?”
Both brothers waited for the oldest who shrugged. “I don’t know. I do know Sharon got behind the wheel when she was upset, and she died because of it. Amanda got behind the wheel for the same reason and came close to the same fate. She’s not strong enough.”
“What?” Cody shook his head. “You’re not saying what I think you’re saying. You can’t be.”
“I’m not going to be the reason Amanda dies,” Knox stated softly, echoing Jace’s own conclusion. Amanda told them to stay away, and away they should stay. Loving her didn’t give them the right to own her.
“No.”
“Cody—”
Kansas Heat Page 45