Vi began to tremble. She couldn’t help but second-guess everything she had done. Taking Annabeth to the shelter had been a mistake, a fatal one at that.
“I’ll be there within the hour.”
“All right, thank you.”
Vi jammed the end call button and took another swig of whiskey. She hadn’t lost a client before. Despite some serious cases she had always managed to save the girls that came to her in their darkest hour.
Why didn’t I listen to Anna? She’d been right about the drugs. If I had warned the director...
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. The last two weeks had been hell, but this...
She wiped away the tears with the back of her hand and looked up to see Ligia and some guy getting hot and heavy up against a parked car. She watched as he slid his hand down her side and then up her skirt. It seemed like ages ago since she had been that young, that free.
The smell of the roses Ricky sent were still fresh in her mind. She no longer had his shoulder to cry on, his strength to draw upon. And then her quiet tears turned to all-out sobs. As she buried her face in her hands she felt her necklace fall away and land on the concrete. Vi picked it up and examined it. The clasp had broken. She remembered the day Ricky had given it to her like it was yesterday.
They were celebrating their first anniversary at a nice sit-down restaurant. He had just gotten his first big check from bull riding and had blown the whole thing on their dinner and the matching necklace and earrings. He’d told her it was meant as a promise that he would make her his wife one day. After dinner they had driven out to the Hill Country and made love in the back of his pickup truck. And, two weeks later, while she and Joy were watching Ricky ride at the Rodeo, her parents had died in a four-car pile-up.
Now, with the necklace lying broken before her, all she had left was her memories. Her days of making out in parking lots were over.
She couldn't pull her eyes away from the young people. It was easier to watch them than it was to think about all that had been lost. The soundtrack of their heated moans and heavy breathing seemed all wrong for the anguished feeling wreaking havoc inside Vi’s heart.
The guy pushed up Ligia’s short skirt and unbuckled his pants. Were they actually going to just have sex standing up in the back end of the parking lot for all to see?
The ping of a new text message broke the spell of her voyeurism.
What the heck does Joy want now..?
Red hot with embarrassment she scooted further into the shadows before she pulled up the new text message.
It wasn’t from Joy, but rather Brooke.
Annabeth has completely gone off the rails! Have you seen Ligia? I really need to talk to her. And where are you for that matter? The auction starts in 20 minutes. You’d better not bail on me!
Vi took a deep breath before texting back.
Ligia is in the back parking lot with some guy, and I actually do have to bail on you. I’m sorry. You know I wouldn’t leave unless it was important.
Vi took another swig of her whiskey before she called for a cab. While she waited her phone rang yet again. This time it was Annabeth, whose uncharacteristically high-pitched voice screeched in her ear.
“Vi, where exactly is Ligia? The guy she’s with is part of the group I am investigating. Part of the group that took Anjali. She’s in real trouble, Vi. I have to get to her before they can hurt her, too.”
Vi stopped breathing.
No!
“Vi, are you there?”
She whispered into the phone in the hopes that the young couple didn’t hear her. “Yes, I’m here. They are making out in the back of the building where the overflow parking is.”
She looked up to see Ligia’s tanned legs disappear into the passenger side of the car they’d been groping each other against.
“They are getting into a car. What should I do?”
“Stop them, Vi!”
Vi dropped her phone into her purse and shot up from her spot in the darkness. “Ligia! Wait!”
The girl spun around and looked surprised to see Vi running toward them. “Vi, what are you—?”
The young man bent to kiss her—silencing her.
“We’re kind of busy here.” His sinister eyes glowed in the light of the street lamp.
Wait...I know him! Carlos.
The doors to the back lot swung open. Brooke and Anna rushed out into the parking lot.
I can’t let him hurt her!
Vi crept closer to the young people, keeping her eyes on Ligia who looked confused and a little frightened.
“Vi, what the heck is going on?”
Carlos wrapped his arm around Ligia’s neck and pulled a gun out of his pocket.
Vi’s body vibrated as adrenaline shot through her veins. Her hands shot up and she stopped in her tracks, mid-step. “Please don’t hurt her.”
Ligia stood stone still. Her eyes widened and her chest rose and fell. A single tear slid down her cheek and over the lips that just moments before the boy had been kissing.
“Come any closer, I’ll kill her.” His coal black eyes trained on Vi.
Time slowed down. Vi’s crisis training had never prepared her for a hostage situation, and she was equally compelled to stay and try to talk to him and to run in the other direction as fast as she could. Instead she stood there, paralyzed by fear.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Brooke
How far was Annabeth going to take this little farce of hers? Normally, Brooke would tell her to take her drama elsewhere, but she didn’t play around when it came to Ligia. If her goddaughter really was in danger, she’d put an end to that real quick. And if Annabeth was lying about the whole thing? Not even God could save her from the hell storm Brooke would unleash.
“They went outside for a smoke,” one of her Volunteer Bees had said.
“She really is in danger. We need to hurry,” Annabeth said next.
And that brought them to this precise moment in time. There she and Annabeth stood facing down what could only be described as Brooke’s very worst nightmare—that is, if Brooke would have descended to such silly things as nightmares. But there was nothing silly about the tangle of limbs and cold hard steel that greeted them from across the parking lot.
Annabeth had been right. Ligia was in danger. And now so was Vi. If anything happened to either of them... Especially with the way she had left things with Vi earlier that evening.
Oh my gosh.
“Come any closer, I’ll kill her,” the gunman growled at Vi.
Vi inched closer. She probably thought that if she could move slowly enough, he wouldn’t notice. But she hadn’t factored in her heels or the junky gravel drive of the back lot.
She slipped.
He sighed exaggeratedly and wrapped his arm tight around Ligia’s throat. “A shame your friend here refused to listen.” He kicked Vi who lay splayed across the ground at his feet. “You’d have been such a good lay.”
“Stop!” Brooke shouted, the word tearing from her throat without waiting for her permission.
“Auntie B, help me,” Ligia sobbed between gasps for air.
“Hush. Go to sleep, go to sleep.”
Brooke watched in horror as Ligia’s face went from tan to pink to mauve. She struggled and kicked, but he was much stronger.
“No!” Vi screamed as Ligia’s eyes rolled back in her head and her unconscious body slumped to the ground.
“I don’t have a gun,” Annabeth mumbled without moving her lips. “We’re going to have to talk him down.”
“Carlos, we can talk this out. No one needs to get hurt,” Annabeth said with her hands out in front of her. “I’m sure we can all work this out.”
The gunman cackled and shook his head. “Is this really the best you could do, Anna? Sending an unarmed bimbo to take me down? You’re going to have to try much harder than that. As for you…” He grabbed onto Vi’s hair and yanked her up to a standing position. “And just who do you think you a
re, intruding on our nice little evening like this? You’re what? Twenty-eight? A bit past your prime, but you’ll do.”
Vi’s voice shook, but she did not cry. “Anna—”
“Don’t talk to her,” the assailant spat. “You’ve got something to say, you’ll say it to me.”
“Carlos,” Vi pleaded. “Do what you want with me, but let Ligia go.”
“C-Carlos,” Annabeth inched closer. “Put the gun down. It doesn’t have to go any further than this.”
Why was everyone so insistent on talking? Why weren’t they acting? Words were pointless, but a well-aimed bullet might do the trick. Annabeth didn’t have a gun, but…
Vi kicked her heel back and connected it with Carlos’s knee, startling him just long enough to get out of his grasp.
“You, little…!” He slammed his fist into her nose.
“Carlos, stop!” Annabeth further closed the distance between her and Carlos. What was she going to do?
It would be up to Brooke to end this. Typical.
“Oh, for goodness sake.” Brooke reached into her handbag and pulled out her Lady Smith & Wesson. It was pink, the perfect match to her heels and the perfect solution to this situation.
“Brooke, what are you doing? Why didn’t you tell me you had a gun?” Anna tugged at Brooke’s arm.
Yeah, like she would actually give it up.
Now what was the stance the instructor had taught her back when she’d taken her CPL certification? Legs shoulder width apart, check. Arms straight out at chest height, check.
“Brooke, give me the gun,” Annabeth urged, but Brooke knew she had to act fast.
She unhitched the safety and…
Steady, steady...
Bam!
The .38 caliber bullet whizzed through the night air—and took Vi down.
No, no, no!
She squeezed the trigger again, and watched in equal parts satisfaction and horror as Carlos stumbled back and fell to the ground, part of his body trapping Ligia’s beneath him. Blood bloomed from Carlos’s chest. It came fast—gushing like a geyser.
She couldn’t move, couldn’t look to see what had happened to Vi. Was blood draining from her chest as well? Would Vi die? Was Ligia already dead?
That jerk! Look what he had done. Look what he had made her do.
“Nobody hurts my friends,” she said so quietly that probably nobody heard. Then she was charging forward, the gun held at arm’s length.
Click. Bang. Plop.
She’d shot the jerk again, right in his dirty, stupid head.
Annabeth waved her arms wildly, her lips moved furiously, but Brooke couldn’t hear anything. It was all over now.
Annabeth reached for the gun again, and, this time, Brooke let her take it. As the cool metal switched hands, Brooke’s senses blazed up once again.
A sour, metallic smell wafted by, and Brooke realized it was blood, blood she had spilled.
Annabeth yelled at her about overstepping this and not thinking enough about that, while Vi sobbed violently from across the way.
Vi…
Vi!
She was alive and clutching at her shoulder as thick, dark blood flowed over her fingers.
Ligia, though.
Oh, God.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Annabeth
She could hear the sound of sirens in the background, getting closer. Someone must have called the police. She had been too numb to notice. A switch flipped in her mind, cutting off the flood of emotions coursing through her, keeping them from reaching her conscious mind. Years in the criminal justice system had left an imprint on her. Her body could go through the motions of what needed to be done even as her heart burned with grief and anger over the events of the evening.
Brooke’s actions had destroyed whatever chance they had of bringing down the group. They were back to square-one. Annabeth’s heels made a crunching sound as she crossed the parking lot to where Vi lay. Squatting down as best she could in her dress, she checked Vi’s vitals. She was unconscious but her chest still rose and fell.
Annabeth let the relief wash over her. Thank God!
She ripped off Vi’s pashmina scarf and wrapped it tightly around the wound to slow the bleeding. It wasn’t the best but it would hold until the ambulance showed up.
“AHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Annabeth started at the shrill scream. Ligia. Annabeth stood slowly and began to walk over to where the poor girl sat shrieking. All of the air in Annabeth’s lungs was sucked out like she was in a vacuum. The girl was trapped underneath Carlos.
Ligia’s horrified expression broke through Annabeth’s false calm exterior. Brain matter and blood splatter covered the girl like a Jackson Pollock painting. Annabeth felt her gorge rise.
Brooke’s third shot had hit the man’s right temple. Blood oozed out of the open wound in the middle of his chest. He was most definitely dead. Brooke had seen to that. Thankfully she had handed the gun over before she did any more damage.
Before Annabeth could help the girl, she needed to record the crime scene for the cops. She quickly took out her phone and took a couple of snapshots before getting Ligia out from underneath the body.
“I’m sorry. It’s a matter of protocol,” Annabeth said, hoping she would understand.
Ligia clung to her, breaking through Annabeth’s protective wall. Full of grief and anger, she squeezed the shivering girl back. Shock was setting in. Annabeth walked her over as best she could to the stoop where Brooke sat trembling. Annabeth squatted down again, pushing the limits of the fabric of her dress.
“Brooke?”
Brooke’s glazed-over eyes rose to meet Annabeth’s. “Is she dead?”
Annabeth noticed a slight tremor ripple through Brooke. “She’s alive, Vi’s going to be just fine.”
Annabeth walked back over to Carlos’s body. She had to act fast before the police came and all the information was lost to her. During the scuffle his phone had fallen out of his pocket and onto the ground. She pulled up the recent calls and took a snapshot of the screen with her own phone. She quickly flipped through the dead man’s phone taking as many photos of information as she could before using the hem of his jacket to wipe her prints clean and place it back where she had found it.
People from the party had started to file out the back to see what was going on and a cacophony of gasps and screams filled the night air.
Annabeth was relieved to see Jesse push his way to the front of the crowd. His wide eyes met Annabeth’s. “What the heck happened?”
Annabeth stepped over the parking stump and pulled Jesse off to the side. “I need your help? Can you help me?”
Jesse’s wide eyes darted around taking in the scene. “Yes.”
Annabeth nodded and held out her hand. “Your jacket.”
Without question, Jesse removed his jacket and handed it to her.
“Thank you. I need you to try to get everyone back inside and see if you can scrounge up some blankets or something. Brooke and Ligia are going into shock. We need to get them warm. Can you do this?”
Jesse bit his lip. She could see the control start to unravel. He could lose it at any moment. “They need you Jesse. I need you to keep it together. Okay?”
“I can do that,” he said with a grim determination.
Annabeth watched as he charged toward the crowd with a confident look of authority.
“All right everyone, let’s get back inside.”
Annabeth could hear the combined voices of concern and worry from the party-goers who wanted answers that Jesse couldn’t give, but everyone knew and loved him and did what he asked.
Annabeth took a mindful breath as she tried to calm her body.
She covered Vi in Jesse’s jacket to keep her warm. She checked her crude tourniquet and tightened it again for good measure. The sirens blared as the fire and police departments and ambulance pulled into the front lot. Annabeth squeezed Vi’s hand. The next couple of hours were going to be a circus so s
he breathed in the last quiet moment.
The back door flew open. Jesse was leading the cavalry.
Annabeth squeezed Vi’s hand one last time. “Hang in there Vi, the ambulance is here.”
Annabeth lost all awareness of the passage of time. She dutifully answered the police questions. She informed her contact at the FBI and texted a quick update to her boss. Vi had regained consciousness just before they put her in the ambulance.
Annabeth stood in the middle of the lot with her hands on her hips, looking up at the night sky. A hand touched her bare arm. She turned to see Jesse standing behind her. The sleeves of his tux had been rolled up to the elbow. He looked as tired and drained as Annabeth felt. In his hands he held one of those emergency car blankets.
“Here,” he said handing it to her. “It was in my car.”
Annabeth took the blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Thank you.”
Jesse gave her a weak smile. The air of confidence that normally hung around him was gone. There was no pretense left.
“The cops took Brooke’s statement. Since it matched the one you gave they are going to let her go. I’m going to go and take her home. She’s refusing to go to the hospital.”
Annabeth nodded. Brooke had to be the most stubborn woman alive. Of course she would refuse to go to the hospital. “Okay.”
Jesse turned to leave but paused and turned back to her. “Anna.”
“Yes?”
“You were robbed.” He paused with a sly smile on his face. “You had that other girl. It should have been you at the Olympics.”
Jesse turned to leave, letting his statement hang heavy in the air between them.
He knows who I am!
Jesse turned his head and winked at her from over his shoulder.
“Your secret’s safe with me.”
I am the worst P.I. ever!
A simple Google search had unearthed her identity to the town gossip of all people.
“Miss, can I give you a ride somewhere?”
Annabeth started and turned to face the plain-clothes detective behind her.
Walker Texas Wife (The Book Cellar Mysteries 1) Page 22