Before Duke even stopped to consider the time, the sun was coming up over the horizon. Hank still hadn’t made it home, but Duke hadn’t missed him.
Chapter Thirteen
Carl Carlton slipped away from the bushes and walked down the cobblestone pathway leading toward the garage. Carl had seen a lot back in the early days but couldn’t recall anything quite as enjoyable as watching Duke Hinman go at Julie Jenkins like she was a man’s toy.
Before he was a car owner, he was an up-and-coming rookie, a man who took money under the table from bookies. He wrecked drivers when they were favored to win. He bought off their wives so they could take their husbands out partying the night before a big race. He paid extra if they’d keep them busy with an insatiable appetite and hefty intimate demands. And he’d been known to slip drugs into a driver’s drink whenever he was gifted with opportunity.
At one time, Carl Carlton was well-respected, but then Jake Jenkins came along and confronted him about his activities, and Jake wouldn’t hear of it when Carl offered him a piece of the pie. Carl killed him. Not because he wanted to, or even because those behind him thought it needed to be done.
Carl killed him because Jake was a stupid idiot who should’ve taken the money he was offered. He was a man who had the world by its tail and he simply refused to fly.
Carl had no patience for that. None whatsoever. At least Jake’s daughter wasn’t a chip off the old block. She’d wanted to race. She’d wanted to win. As fate would have it, Carl was lucky enough to have Julie Jenkins on his payroll. She’d made him more than chunk change. Thanks to her, he’d made a mint.
The girl didn’t have much in the way of brains, though. When Carl asked her to make him the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, she’d gladly filled out the paperwork. She’d told him that she understood what he would lose in the way of profits in the event of her death, and she’d never questioned why he suddenly wanted her life insured. She accepted the request as protocol.
Then again, he was lucky she hadn’t mentioned the policy to anyone else. Carl had told her all the team owners requested insurance on their moneymakers. She believed him.
He pulled his cell from his pocket and stared at the Hinman house as he keyed in a number he knew by heart. He pressed the send button and waited. Two rings later, a woman picked up the phone.
“It’s Carl.”
“Tell me the bitch is dead.”
Carl snickered. “I see why you want her cold and buried.”
“What do you have for me, Carl?”
“I got pictures. Wanna see ’em?” he asked, thinking if he shared photographs of Annie’s man fucking his driver, she might decide to get revenge and slip into bed with him. Once she did, it was all over. He’d hook her with what he had between his legs. The sluts always stayed awhile. The good women, those were the women he couldn’t keep.
“I want her dead. I didn’t ask you. I told you. If you don’t kill her, I’ll start talking. We both know I have enough to not only ruin your career, but get you locked up for life. Maybe even the death penalty. Is that what you want, Carl?”
He snarled. Sometimes he’d love to tie Annie down and stuff his cock in her mouth. The bitch had no mercy, and all she did was nag. When she wasn’t bitching, she was whining because she truly believed the Hinman brothers loved her, but chose to help Julie out of pity.
He should’ve told her right then. Julie Jenkins wasn’t a charity case. She was a sexy woman who knew how to use what she had between her legs and make a man grovel for more.
He’d been as hard as cannon as he’d stood outside that room and watched her play with Duke Hinman. In fact, he’d been so erect, he almost jacked off until he thought of the possibility of being caught with his pants down and his own hand tugging at his prick. He didn’t think he could stand the public humiliation if someone had witnessed what he’d been dying to do.
“I’m waiting for an answer, Carl,” Annie persisted. “What do you think will happen to your daughter and son when I come out and tell them Daddy Dearest killed a few drivers, all because he was gambling on their careers?”
“You’re a bitch, Annie.”
“And you’d still fuck me.”
“You’re right about that. I’d do it so I could control you. Not because I think you’re beautiful or sexy. I’ve seen enough of Julie Jenkins today to know there’s no comparison. It’s like comparing a horse to a donkey. For the record, you’re the ass.”
Silence filled the line. “I want her dead by midnight tonight,” she grated out. “Insult me again and I’ll kill you myself.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, darling. I want to make sure you’re in a good mood when we meet up to celebrate.”
“A party won’t be held unless you bring me the Hinmans and a death certificate for Julie Jenkins.”
“I can promise you Julie will die today. I can’t promise you Hank or Duke Hinman. After I watched Duke and Julie, I tend to believe that ain’t happening. If they’ve already been there and done you, why would they go back when they’ve had the best of the best?”
“Trust me. You don’t know Duke and Hank. They love me. They never said so but they do. They wouldn’t have spent time training me for their submissive partner if they didn’t intend to keep me around. They trained me to love and serve them.”
“And let me guess. You think they want you to get rid of Julie because they’d be so much happier with you, right?”
“They will be.”
Carl laughed outright. “I just watched two deeply connected people fuck all night. If you think you can come between that—even in death—you deserve the hell you’re gonna face, because I’m here to tell you once Hank and Duke find out you’ve been trying to kill the woman they love, they’ll take you apart with their bare hands.”
Annie purred. “It sounds like something I’ll enjoy.”
“They don’t belong to you, Annie.”
“You’ll see. When Julie is gone, they’ll come back. A man always returns home after he finishes playing on the wrong side of the tracks.”
Carl slapped his cell phone closed. He mumbled all sorts of profanity under his breath. When he turned around, he discovered the shock of a lifetime. Four guns were pointed at his head and a badge flashed in front of his face. “Carl Carlton, you’re under arrest for the murders of several race car drivers. If we can’t make that stick, we’ve got you for racketeering, laundering money, and the attempted murder of Julie Jenkins.”
About that time, the old guy Carl often saw with Julie walked up the sidewalk, an easy lope to his gait. Flashing a plastic case housing a DVD, the old man said, “I love that little girl. I loved her enough to place security cameras in the garage bay. You tried to kill her, and if I had my way you’d be dead right now.”
The agent with the badge took a few steps toward him. “I need your hands in the air.”
Hank Hinman appeared from the other direction. There were camera crews behind him.
Carl sneered. Without a doubt, he was going down. But he wasn’t leaving there without a fight.
“You couldn’t let this be a private matter?” Carl called out.
“Not a chance, Carl. It became a public when Julie nearly died on a televised event,” Hank said, bitterness and hatred in every word. “What excuse do you have, Carl? Didn’t she make you enough money? Hell, I thought being the number one driver in drag racing should’ve earned her your loyalty, but it wasn’t enough, huh?” A beat later, he added, “For guys like you, it never is.”
Julie and Duke walked out of the house then. Julie looked as fresh as an inexperienced virgin actually penetrated for the first time. Duke extended his arm and pushed her back behind him. “What’s this all about, Hank?”
Hank’s nose twitched. “We’ll explain later. Ain’t got the time right now.”
Duke shrugged. “As long as you have this under control.”
“I got this,” he assured him.
“If you say so,” Duke
said, a troubled look in his eye. “Let’s go, Julie.”
As the younger Hinman tried to push Julie inside, she stepped away from him, darting under his arm. She rushed down the steps with her fists drawn tight. “What have you done, Carl?”
An agent stepped in front of her. “Miss Jenkins, we’d appreciate it if you waited in the house.”
Carl saw the greatest opportunity to make a name for himself. He’d tried to do that as a rookie driver and failed. He’d tried to establish himself as a prominent car owner and failed. In fact, throughout life, he’d constantly come up short.
If these guys wanted to take him down, he would be remembered.
Grabbing the pistol he had tucked at his belt, he secured the weapon in his hand, wielding the piece forward, and taking aim.
“He’s got a gun!” Hank shouted, rushing him.
Shots were fired all around him. He released at least a couple. He’d never know who or what he hit. His world went dark. His body went cold. Death welcomed him.
He wasn’t at the start-finish line. He was in victory lane. Race fans everywhere would always remember his name.
Chapter Fourteen
“Frank!” Julie screamed as the man she’d thought of like a father fell to the ground after catching the third bullet fired into his stomach. He wouldn’t have suffered such a fate if he hadn’t jumped in front of Julie as Carl’s gun became clearly visible, dangling from his fingertips.
Julie immediately went to Frank, propping his head on her lap.
Hank and Duke rushed to his side, too. He gasped as he tried to speak, raising his head off the ground to look down at his bleeding gut. “Oh geez…” he whispered, his head dropping to her knees again. “You gotta go, little girl. Get outta here. Hank, get her away from here.” Blood pooled at his sides. “Hank, now.”
Hank studied the old man for a moment and nodded. Julie wasn’t a fool. Frank thought this was the end, and he didn’t want her to watch him die. “Julie, let’s go, honey.”
Her sobs filled the air. “Give me a minute!”
By this time, the policemen there gathered closer. One stooped next to him.
“Frank, can you feel your legs?” Duke asked, trying to keep him talking.
“Yes,” he breathed. “Can’t feel my heartbeat though.”
“You still have one, buddy,” the cop said, patting his arm. “Paramedics are on the way.” He lifted his shirt and checked out the wound.
“I want my little girl outta here. She ain’t safe!”
“Frank, no!” she screamed as Hank forcibly brought her to her feet. “You’re hurt. You’re bleeding, Frank!”
A second later, Hank picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder, his arm securing her hips. “Hank Hinman! Damn you! I want to be with Frank. Put me down!”
“Get her out of here, I said. It ain’t safe!” Frank’s tortured words tore at her soul. He was apparently still concerned about her safety when he should’ve been worried about his own.
Hank stormed toward the house with Julie in his arms. She fought him every step of the way. She needed to be with Frank. She didn’t want to be under Hank’s protection when Frank had been shot trying to save her!
“Damn it, Julie. Be still. You heard him. You aren’t safe. Frank knows something, and we need to find out what’s going on. See if someone can talk to him. Please give us a chance to do that!”
“I can’t lose him!” she wailed. “Please, Hank. Let me go to him. I can’t let him die alone.”
“Honey, listen,” Hank said, releasing her body but securing her arms. “Frank isn’t dying. The paramedics will be here soon, and Frank knows everyone. Those guys will work like crazy to save him.”
The detectives scurried around, trying to secure the area as they searched the property, ducking behind bushes and trees as if they thought someone else lurked nearby. In the distance, Julie heard Duke. “Frank, stay with me, buddy. You’re too much of a fighter to give up on us now. I’ll never forgive you if you crash on me now.”
In the distance, someone called for an ambulance again. A detective approached. “Hank, I need to question her if you don’t mind.”
“Actually, I do, Agent Dickerson. This isn’t a good time.”
“Then maybe I should ask you, and she can respond, if she knows why a woman by the name of Annie Taylor wants to see her dead?”
“What?” Hank screeched, tightening the grip he’d fastened around Julie’s arm.
“The reason Frank told you to get her out of here,” he began, tilting his chin toward Julie, “is because he must’ve known that there’s still a threat to Julie. It’s an ever-present danger, too. The buzz is out among the drivers. She’s been hiring assassins to do her dirty work.
“We just found a Mustang convertible on the back side of your property, down the road a bit, and it’s registered to Annie. Would you happen to know why she’d want to harm Julie?”
“Hank?” Julie searched his eyes and when she saw he was as surprised as she was, she didn’t press for his opinion. At this point, the only thing that mattered was that Carl Carlton, a man she’d once considered her boss, shot the only man she’d ever recognized as a father figure.
“I couldn’t tell you. My brother and I had a relationship with Annie, but we all parted on exceptional terms. She moved on and accepted that we didn’t want her in our lives. When we severed ties, we didn’t tell her we left her because of Julie. Maybe she assumed, but even so, she had no reason to blame our decision on someone else.”
“Apparently, she didn’t move on,” Agent Dickerson said. “From what we’ve gathered from intercepted calls and other research, she hired Carl Carlton to kill Julie. Carl is who we suspected of putting a hit on you, and we were right on the money.”
“I barely knew Carl,” Hank said.
“Seems he felt you were responsible for taking his driver away from him, and according to Carl’s son—and we questioned him yesterday—you became his enemy overnight. Apparently, Carl built his entire team around Julie.” Agent Dickerson took a deep breath and said, “Julie, based on several phone calls we’ve overheard, it appears Carl is responsible for your father’s death, too.”
“Oh no, he wouldn’t have known my father. Carl is approaching fifty, and my father would’ve been in his seventies if he’d lived.”
“You might want to look him up on the internet. They were close friends. And Carl wasn’t approaching fifty. He’s seventy-one.”
“What?” Hank asked, obviously surprised, too.
“Plastic surgery,” Agent Dickerson said, continuing right away, “Julie, have you ever met Annie Taylor?”
“In passing, a few times. Why?”
“Can you think of any reason why she’d want you dead?”
“Like I told you,” Hank replied for her. “My brother and I had a relationship with her at one time.”
“So you think this is some kind of jealous rage?”
“It would have to be,” Hank answered him. “Julie isn’t the type of person to scout for enemies.”
“Actually that’s not true, is it, Miss Jenkins?” Agent Dickerson asked.
She shook her head.
“Julie, don’t let him talk you into saying something you’ll regret.”
“I don’t mind,” she began, looking over his shoulder and watching as Frank seemed to come around. He was laughing and talking to the paramedics as they loaded him in the ambulance. “But you’ll have to question me at the hospital. I’m riding with Frank.”
“Actually, you can’t go, Miss Jenkins,” another detective said, entering the room. “Annie Taylor was just found in the garage. Her neck was sliced. We have some questions for you.”
About that time, a blinding light caught Hank’s eye. “This may have to wait, Detective. Can you get a few of your men together and follow me?”
* * * *
Sam McMann watched the police come and go. He noticed the detectives snooping around the house, and hid from them as they
walked through the stables. If they thought he was going down without a fight, they had him mixed up with Julie Jenkins. The dumb bitch gave up as soon as she had a wreck worthy of reporting.
Afterwards, she decided to take up stock car racing. What a stupid cunt!
He rubbed his jaw. Then again, she was a slight improvement over the other dumb bimbo the Hinman duo brought home. That Annie Taylor was a nut job, a real quack. She owned a few cars, earned some quick cash, and started hiring men to kill Julie. Like he’d do that for her.
Just because he fucked Annie, didn’t mean he’d kill for her. If that was a stipulation she wanted satisfied prior to screwing him, she should’ve asked first. Instead, she bent over, showed her pretty pierced clit, and thought she had him by the balls because he shot off like a rocket inside her tight pussy.
Hell. He’d seen and fucked better. Things were about to get a lot sweeter for him, too. Julie Jenkins was a prize, and before he killed her, he planned to fuck her silly.
Satisfied everyone finally left the scene, Sam eased away from the loft. Jumping away from the ladder, he dusted off his jeans and took a deep breath.
He was home free.
“Put your hands where I can see them,” Duke Hinman called out. “Don’t try anything stupid. I will drop you where you stand.”
Slowly, Sam raised his arms high in the air. “I’m the only one here, but I know you can’t be talking to me. I’ve been covering your asses all day.”
“Is that a fact?” Hank asked, standing over him and looking down from the loft.
“Well Hank, I didn’t see you up there. There must be another way in and out of that loft. I must not be as sharp as I thought. Never saw you while I was up there watching the house for ya.”
“Guess I failed to mention that I spent several years in the Marines. I can scale any wall in front of me.”
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you, Hinman?”
“I reckon so,” he said. “Annie always thought so.”
Acres, Natalie - Bang the Blower [Country Roads 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 10