Only in Texas

by Christie Craig

  “Ellen said Leon’s last message sent her over the edge. She said Nikki was just getting over the jerk. So Ellen called Jack back and told him to stay the hell away from Nikki. Ellen said Jack got ugly, called her a bitch, and told her to get her nose out of his business. When he hung up on her, she called him back.”

  “Which explains the two phone calls,” Dallas said.

  “Yeah,” Tony admitted. “So we’re back to square one. We got fingerprints at Nikki’s place and the gallery, but who knows if they belong to the perp? Other than a vague description of Wise’s attacker, we’ve got nothing. We don’t even know if the two crimes are connected.”

  Dallas set his cup on the table a little hard. “Oh, hell, they have to be.”

  “I know.” Tony held up his hand. “It’s coincidental otherwise, but…” He raked his hand over his face. “I keep thinking we’re missing something. Something obvious. Something Nikki Hunt isn’t telling us.”

  “We’re probably missing something, but she’s not hiding anything.” He remembered the look in her eyes when she stared at the snapshot of her and her grandmother. “She’s an open book, Tony. She’s like Mom was. Remember how we could read her? Whatever she was feeling showed in her eyes.” The words hadn’t left his mouth when he recalled the sadness that played in his mother’s eyes when she’d visited him in prison. His gut twisted as he realized how upset she’d been about him during her last year of life.

  Tony chuckled. “You knew your ass was grass before she opened her mouth.” He pulled his coffee to his lips and sipped. “Damn, I miss her.”

  “Me, too.” Dallas sipped his own coffee and realized this was the first time they’d talked about their mom since he’d been out of prison. Probably because it hurt too much. Just losing his mom to cancer was hard. Losing her while he’d been unjustly put behind bars was hell. And while his mom had never questioned his innocence, she died not knowing he’d been cleared. How unfair was it that the last year of her life, when she’d been almost too sick to do it, she’d visited him once a week? For that reason alone, Dallas wanted to be the one to put a gun against the forehead of the man responsible for framing him, and Dallas personally wanted to pull the trigger.

  “I hope you’re right about Nikki,” Tony said.

  “I am.” They stared at each other for a minute as if emotionally gathering their ground. As hard as talking about his mom was for Dallas, Tony had his own reasons not to want to go there. Less than two weeks after their mother had died, Tony lost his little girl. Then he lost LeAnn. The O’Connors had had some lousy luck lately.

  Tony stood up. “I expect to see Nikki in my office by three this afternoon.”

  “She’ll be there.” Dallas met Tony by the door. “Why don’t you go home and get some sleep? You look like shit.”

  “It’s good to see you, too.” Tony slapped Dallas on the back and started out.

  Dallas remembered the potentially combative question he needed to ask. Not enjoying fighting with his brother, Dallas almost let Tony go, but he remembered nineteen-year-old Eddie Nance sitting across that same table, scared of what his future held. The kid didn’t deserve to go down for something he didn’t do, and if pissing off his brother was what Dallas had to do to get the kid off, he’d do it.

  “Hey?” Dallas said.

  Tony looked back.

  “You wanna share with me what you and Shane nearly went to fist city over last night?”

  Tony’s eyes tightened. “I’m serious, Dallas. Stay the fuck away from my crime scenes.”

  “It was the Nance case that got him riled up, wasn’t it? You saw something and mentioned it to him.”

  Tony stood stone faced. Dallas even watched his eyebrow, thinking maybe his brother suffered from the same infliction.

  “Tell me it’s not the same MO that Nance was arrested for. Tell me that and I’ll drop this.”

  “I’m not telling you shit.” Tony’s eyebrow didn’t budge.

  “But you wouldn’t let an innocent kid go down if you knew something, right?”

  Frown lines deepen in his brother’s face. “What I’m going to do is my job.” Tony left.

  Dallas let go of a deep breath. It wasn’t the answer he’d hoped to get.

  Before Dallas entered the office, he walked back into his apartment to let Bud in and to make sure Nikki wasn’t up. With Bud inside, Dallas went to his bedroom door and listened and heard… nothing. Worried the horn or his brother’s shenanigans had awoken her and she was in there chewing on her lip and fretting about what was happening out here, he cracked the door a bit to check.

  She was still asleep. Resting on her side, her face toward the door, she had her hand tucked under her cheek. With her hair scattered over his pillow, she looked… warm, soft, and curl-up-beside-me beautiful. And what he wouldn’t give to be able to do that. Curl up beside her and snag a few more hours of sleep. His gaze shifted to the curvy figure under the sheet and he knew if he did crawl in that bed, he wouldn’t want to sleep.

  A few very visual images of what he would want to do filled his head. Suddenly Bud went charging into the room and stopped by the bed.

  “Shit,” he muttered, and then whispered, “Bud?”

  The dog looked at Dallas and shook his head as if saying no.

  “Come here!” Dallas ordered, speaking low.

  Bud’s answer to that was to jump into the bed and ease over to Nikki.

  “Shit,” Dallas muttered again. Thankfully Nikki didn’t budge. Obviously she was a deep sleeper. But deep enough for him to grab the dog?

  Still holding the doorknob, he debated whether he should go snatch the dog away or just let him stay. He imagined the conversation they would have if Nikki woke up with him in the room, one knee on the bed. He snarled at Bud, and swore to cut the dog’s rations for punishment.

  “Lucky dog,” he muttered as he headed down the hall.

  Walking into the office, Dallas found Tyler and Austin arguing. It took all of two seconds to catch on to what the argument was about: Tony.

  “I just said it’s not the time to start shit,” Tyler snapped.

  “I wasn’t going to start shit. I wanted to ask a few questions about the crime scene.”

  “Tyler’s right,” Dallas said. “Wrong time. Tony was up all night working and would’ve gotten pissed if he’d even seen you.”

  “I’m worried about a kid going to prison and you’re worried that your sleep-deprived brother might get upset?” Austin snapped.

  Dallas stared at Austin and fought with his own sleep-deprived patience. “If pissing Tony off would give us something to help get this kid off, I’d be first in line to shovel piss. But I know my brother, Austin. He’s a good cop and a decent person, and I’m hoping he’ll eventually give us what we need. But I know how far to push and when to back off. Let me deal with him.”

  “And how long are you going to deal with him while wearing kid gloves?” Austin asked, his frustration front and center in his voice. “Is your brother going to come around before Nance is in prison having to take it up the ass?”

  A gasp echoed behind Dallas. The look on both Austin and Tyler’s faces told Dallas whoever stood there was bad news. Dallas envisioned Nikki, but when he turned, he saw it was much worse.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  SEEING EDDIE NANCE’S scared face, Dallas winced.

  “I didn’t mean that,” Austin said.

  “Everything is going to be fine,” Tyler added.

  “We’re on top of this,” Dallas said, trying to sound more confident than he felt. But none of their words removed the look of total fear from Nance’s eyes or the look of hopelessness in his seventy-five-year-old grandma standing behind him. She’d already lost three grandsons.

  Right then, Dallas decided he had to hire a receptionist, someone to man the front and announce their clients’ arrivals. He saw Nance swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down with nervous fear. Damn it! Austin was right. Dallas had to get to the bottom
of what happened last night at the crime scene. Tony would just have to understand.

  “Tyler,” Dallas said. “Show Ms. Nance and Eddie to the conference room and get them something to drink.” He looked back at Eddie and his grandmother. “I’ll be right in.”

  As soon as they were gone, Dallas faced Austin. His partner held up his arms. “Don’t tell me, I already know. I’ve gotta fucking watch what I say.”

  “Yeah,” Dallas agreed. “But let’s worry about that later. Right now tell me if you are still on speaking terms with that critical care nurse you banged a couple of weeks ago—the one who works at Methodist Hospital.”

  “I showed her a good time last weekend. Why?” Austin asked.

  “Call and see if she can tell you who’s on her floor. Tony mentioned going to see someone in a couple of hours. I think he meant Methodist Hospital and I have a feeling this is a witness of last night’s convenience-store shooting. We need to know what this person knows.”

  “Won’t that piss off your brother?”

  “Hell, yeah. But I’ll deal with Tony. You, however, avoid him at all costs. He said he’d arrest us for interfering and he means it.” Dallas took off to try to help Tyler soothe Eddie and his grandmother.

  Ten minutes later, the soothing wasn’t going so well.

  “I don’t want to go to jail,” Eddie said with so much emotion Dallas felt the kid’s words slam against his chest. “I didn’t do this. How did this happen?”

  Dallas remembered asking the same damn question himself when he’d been called into the lieutenant’s office and stripped of his badge and gun. But at the time, he hadn’t been nineteen and still trying to figure out how to be a man. Prison was no place for a kid in his formative years. Prison could destroy a boy like Eddie Nance, and Dallas knew it.

  “I know this is scary.” Dallas pressed a hand to the boy’s shoulder and wished he could promise the kid that nothing bad was going to happen. “We’re doing everything we can to make this disappear.” Dallas could see the kid working hard to keep it together.

  “But what if you can’t?” The boy swallowed. “You, all of you, went to jail for something you didn’t do.”

  “We were framed,” Dallas said. “You aren’t being framed.”

  “It sure as hell feels like it,” Eddie said, reminding Dallas he’d said much the same to Tony earlier. Tears filled the kid’s eyes. He looked at his grandmother. “I did everything right. I did what you said for me to do. Kept myself clean. Finished high school. And where’s it gotten me?” He wiped away tears he no doubt saw as a weakness. “Maybe I should just disappear.”

  “No,” Dallas and Tyler said at the same time.

  “We’re not done fighting here,” Dallas said. And he vowed to fight harder. Someone had to save this kid.

  Eddie’s grandmother looked at Dallas, emotion brightening her eyes. Dallas thought of his mom, how much she’d hurt seeing him behind bars. Blinking, he pushed that thought away. But another replaced it. He remembered another older woman who stood strong for someone she loved. Nikki’s grandma.

  Recalling Mrs. Littlemore led Dallas to thinking about Nikki. Someone else he had to save.

  “Are they going to come after me for this last robbery?” Eddie asked. “Are they going to say that I killed someone? Try to give me the death penalty?”

  “Slow down,” Tyler added. “We don’t know if they suspect you for this.”

  “The hell they don’t. You weren’t there when the cop came asking questions at two this morning.”

  “What cop?” Dallas asked. “Detective Shane?”

  “Yeah, him. Why does he hate me?”

  “Look,” Tyler intervened. “This second robbery might work in our favor. If the MO is similar, we can use it to cast doubt on your case.”

  “He’s right,” Dallas said. “Right now we need you to stay calm. Let us do our job. We found the girl that saw you at the park the night of the robbery. That’s going to help. I’ll get with your lawyer and we’ll go over the case.”

  Ten minutes later, Nance seemed more in control. He walked out of the conference room with Tyler. Mrs. Nance, the boy’s grandmother, hung back.

  She stared at her grandson’s departing back, and then at Dallas. “He’s a good boy.” Her voice sounded ready to break.

  “I know,” Dallas said. “We wouldn’t have taken the case otherwise.” And they wouldn’t have. But neither had Dallas expected to get so emotionally involved. In the beginning, opening the PI business had been something to do while the three of them hunted down DeLuna. Dallas didn’t think any of them had lost their need for revenge by a long shot, but it wasn’t the only thing that got Dallas up in the mornings anymore. He suspected it was the same with Tyler and Austin.

  “He wouldn’t last a month in prison,” she said. “We both know that.”

  Dallas wished he could argue with her. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  “It won’t come to that,” she said. “I have a friend who lives in Mexico. She’d take Eddie in.”

  “If he runs, Mrs. Nance, he’ll be running the rest of his life.”

  “But he’d have a life. I can’t lose another one. I’ve buried too many of my boys as it is.”

  “Don’t give up on us yet,” Dallas pleaded.

  “I haven’t. But when you give up, when you know it’s a lost cause, I want you to tell me… in plenty of time.”

  It was then Dallas realized how far removed he was from being the cop he’d been years ago, because he looked that grandmother right in the eyes and said, “You have my word.”

  With Nance and his grandmother gone, Dallas snagged himself another coffee and inhaled the last doughnut. Before he sat down with his partners, he checked on Nikki. He needed to shake off the doom and gloom he felt and, for some reason, even though Nikki’s case wasn’t a laugh a minute, thinking about her didn’t get him down. Probably because he wasn’t just thinking about her case. Anticipation. That’s the feeling she inspired in him.

  One day at a time.

  He nudged open the bedroom door. She was sleeping, still looking too damn good in his bed, with Bud snuggled beside her and looking as happy as a pig in mud.

  Realizing he was jealous of his dog, Dallas rejoined Austin and Tyler in the office. “Anything?” he asked as Austin hung up the phone.

  “You were right. The new patient at Methodist is a second shooting victim. Fifty-year-old woman—in bad shape I’m afraid.”

  Dallas frowned. “Can you get in to see her?”

  “I asked, but Karen said the doctor’s not even letting the family back yet. It’s bad.”

  Dallas dropped down in his desk chair. “Okay, but let’s stay on top of it and, as soon as she’s better, see if we can’t get in.”

  “I hope we get in,” Tyler said. “Because I’m reading the news on the shooting now and the press didn’t release shit. Except the shooter was described as a black male.”

  “By who?” Dallas asked.

  “Witness,” Tyler said. “That’s all I’ve learned, but I’ve already posted it as a question to be answered.” He tapped a pad with his pen. Tyler’s question list was a daily ritual.

  “Okay,” Dallas said to Austin. “See if you can find out who their witness is. It could be the patient at the hospital or it may be that someone else saw something. I’ll talk to my brother this afternoon when I take Nikki in. Hopefully, he’ll give us something. Tyler, you call Nance’s attorney and update him on the witness who puts Nance at the park the night of the first shooting. We gotta get this kid off.”

  They all nodded. After several seconds, Dallas’s phone buzzed with an incoming text. He pulled it from his pocket and flipped open the lid.

  The text was from Suzan Kelly, his biweekly sex partner. “Friday not happening. Rain check?”

  “Bad news?” Tyler asked.

  Dallas looked up. “No,” he answered honestly. And that was what bothered him. He didn’t care if Suzan couldn’t make it Fri
day. He wasn’t even eager to schedule a rain check. The sex was good. It suited his needs and he made sure he suited hers. So since when did he lose interest in a night of no-strings-attached, commitment-free sex?

  Since you have a gorgeous blonde taking up residence in your bed.

  He pocketed his phone without answering Suzan and decided to put it out of his mind for two weeks. He was dealing with Nikki and his mangled attraction for her a day at a time. “Did you get anything on Jack Leon?” he asked, remembering he’d put that bug in Tyler’s ear yesterday.

  “Mostly gossip, but it’s interesting.” Tyler thumbed through a stack of files on his desk.

  “While he finds that, you wanna update us on your houseguest’s case?” Austin asked.

  Dallas leaned back in his chair. “You know about her ex being found in the car.”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t fill us in on the best part.”

  “What part?” Dallas eyed Austin’s shit-eating grin. Before the man answered the question, Dallas knew what it was.

  “The part where she puked all over you.” Austin let out a deep laugh and held up his hands. “Sorry, but I would have loved to have seen the look on your face.”

  Dallas rolled his eyes.

  “She puked on you?” Tyler asked.

  “The guys at the crime scene last night were talking about it,” Austin told Tyler. “They said Dallas had her by the shoulders, when she bent at the waist and got his shoes. Then she rose up and she got him right in the chest. Which is the reason he came in without a shirt on yesterday.” Austin laughed so hard he could hardly talk.

  “I’m glad I gave you some comic relief,” Dallas said. “Can we get down to business now?”

  They both sobered, but humor lingered in their eyes. No doubt, they’d give him shit about it later. Not that he blamed them. If the shoe was on the other foot—if it had been their shoes to have been christened with barf—he’d be doing some shit-slinging as well.

  “Anyway…” Dallas filled them in on everything from Ellen’s attack to finding Nikki’s apartment broken into. When he finished, he looked at Tyler, who was busy taking notes—or listing questions to be answered. “Now, what you got on Leon?”