by Becky McGraw
“The meanest. Just ask my husband,” she said with a laugh.
Terri walked away to the cabinet, pulled down a bottle and shook out some pills, then poured a glass of water at the sink. She walked back over to him. “Sit up and take your medicine.”
Trace eased up to sit and held out his palm. Terri dropped the pills there, and he took the water and downed them. “Now, stick around and take your medicine,” she said as she took the cup from him. “Ronnie is not going to let you go to jail. She is the best damned attorney I’ve ever seen.”
“So, I’ve heard,” Trace grumped. “Personally, I haven’t seen that side of her. Did she tell you she is the reason I was in jail the first time?”
Terri’s head jerked back. “No, she didn’t.”
“Yeah. Ask her about it sometimes and maybe you’ll understand why I have no faith in her abilities. Well, I have faith in her abilities, it’s her motivations that I question.”
“Well, I’m not getting in the middle of it. But I know that if she wants to help you, Ronnie Winters won’t stop until she gets results. And it’s obvious she wants to help you.”
“Thanks for patching me up,” Trace said ending the conversation.
He was weak, frustrated and in pain. Now was not the time to get into this argument with Terri Rhodes or anyone else. He was going back to that lodge and getting answers from those men they rounded up. Then he was going to find Ray Brown and end this situation so he could take care of himself. He didn’t need help dong that. Well, maybe he could use Dave Logan’s muscle. “Can you get Dave Logan to help me get to the van?”
Terri sighed then nodded and walked out of the med shack. Trace had no idea where Ronnie and his mother had gone, or Ethan and Jenny. He didn’t really care where they were, but Trace wanted to get out of here. The sooner he got back to that lodge and got answers, the sooner he could find Ray Brown. If that resulted in Leland being taken down, all the better. If it didn’t, Trace was cutting his losses and moving on.
Dave walked through the doorway, and his body language gave away his frustration too. “Come on, before those women drive me crazy,” he said as he stopped by the table.
“Ronnie and my mom?” Trace asked.
“No, those women at the lodge. Caleb and Jamie have called me no less than ten times since they got to the lodge. They can’t communicate with them, and I told them not to take off their masks. They have ten hysterical Latinas on their hands and three criminals who are doing everything they can to incite a riot there. Caleb said it’s a zoo.”
“I’m sorry. I should have just left well enough alone, I guess,” Trace said with a grunt as pain sliced through his side when Dave lifted his arm to put it over his shoulder.
“Nah, we needed to rescue them. But we need to get rid of them, before we all wind up in a tortilla. I hear Jamie had to stop one of them when she slipped her wrist out of the cuff and tried to sneak into the knife drawer in the kitchen.”
Trace laughed and hissed when it rumbled through his chest. “Don’t make me laugh, man.”
“Your mother and Ronnie made you a cot in the back of the van,” Dave informed as he slowly led him across the room to the door. “I’m sure they’ll have a robe and slippers for you back there too.”
Laughter rumbled in his throat, but he fought it. “Dammit, Logan.”
“Sorry, I find it funny. You get a paper cut and they want to wrap you in swaddling and nurse you.”
“A paper cut huh?” Trace hissed as they made it to the steps and he hesitated to catch his breath.
“Yeah, I’ve gotten worse buttering my toast,” Dave said smugly.
Trace looked up and saw his mother, Terri and Ronnie at the back of the van with their hands on their hips staring at him. They did look like a pack of mother hens. He groaned, but not from pain. Dave wasn’t kidding about them coddling him evidently.
“You’re just jealous,” Trace said with a short laugh that cost him a shot of pain in the ribs. “Maybe you should let me work you over, so you can get some of it.”
Dave snorted. “No thank you.”
He led Trace to the back of the van and the women stepped aside. Sitting on the back ledge he scooted inside and laid down on the pillow that was propped against the back of the seat. To his surprise, before they closed the doors, Ronnie hopped inside.
“You can sit up front, Red. I don’t need you back here,” Trace said, holding his side as he readjusted his position to get more comfortable. He wanted to sleep on this ride, not argue with Ronnie Winters. From the look in her eyes, he could see that is what she was winding up for. An argument.
“Nope, I’m right where I need to be. You just lay back and shut up.”
Trace heard the front doors of the van open and shut, before the engine roared to life and the van jerked as it started forward.
“Hey, Logan,” he said breathlessly as he lifted up on his elbows to absorb the jarring impact. “Take it easy, man.”
“Stop being a puss, Rooks,” he volleyed with a grunt. “Roads are rough, and you have a nursemaid back there.”
Ronnie put her hand in the center of his chest and shoved him back flat. “Don’t move around, or you’re going to open up your stitches.”
“Stop mothering me, Red,” Trace said with a grunt.
“Stop being a terrible patient.”
Trace knew she was right, he was being a baby. His side hurt some, but he wasn’t dead. He should be thankful. But if he was being a terrible patient, she was being a worse caregiver hovering over him like she was. If he had to put up with that the entire ride, he was going to go nuts. Trace laid his arm to the side. “Lay down,” he invited gruffly. “Maybe you’ll fall asleep and not give me hell the whole way back to the lodge.”
Ronnie’s eyes met his then traveled along his arm to his hand, before he gaze swung back to his. She eased down beside him and laid her head on his shoulder, then the Shark Lady cuddled into his side, and put her hand over his heart. Trace tightened his arm around her and she whispered into his shoulder, “I’m glad you didn’t die.”
He was glad when he heard her soft even breaths follow the statement, because Trace didn’t know what to say to that. Or what he was going to do with the softer side of Ronnie Winters. He kissed the top of her hair and closed his eyes. Right now he needed rest. The nice soft bed the women had made for him, Ronnie’s softer body snuggled against his side, and the strange sense of peace that settled inside of him holding her made it impossible for him not to fall asleep too.
Cool air rushed into the van as the back doors were opened wide. Trace’s eyes adjusted to the bright light which followed, and he saw his mother standing beside Dave Logan in the doorway. His brain kicked into gear, and he realized two things. They were back at the lodge, and his mother was with them! “Mama, what the hell are you doing here?!?”
“I’m helping Ronnie Winters help you,” she said evenly.
Ronnie sat up beside him, then scooted to the edge of the van and crawled out. Trace sat up and carefully scooted to the door. Dave took his arm and put it over his shoulder. Ronnie stood beside his mother. Both women had their arms crossed over their chests and wore similar stubborn expressions. The two former foes back at the ranch had banded together, and Trace knew that didn’t bode well for him.
The front door of the lodge opened, and even though it was the wee hours of the morning, Caleb came outside followed by Jamie. Both men were still fully dressed and looked like they were running for their lives, as they hurried across the porch and down the steps. They stopped beside Dave and Trace could see they were at the end of their ropes babysitting the women they had rescued.
“Dave you’ve got to do something. I can’t take much more of the crying. I’ve fed them, given them water and tried to comfort them, but they’re still fucking wailing,” Caleb said with a frustrated sign.
“I guess my Spanish is rusty,” Jamie admitted ruefully. “I meant to tell them help was on the way, and I think they under
stood that INS was on the way or something. They haven’t settled down since. I think if we hadn’t had weapons they would have busted through the windows.”
“Those three assholes we captured have been trying to egg them on too. I finally put them in a separate room,” Caleb grated angrily. “The women were definitely afraid of them. I think they’ve been terrorizing them for a while.”
“Did you take off the chains?” Dave asked.
“Couldn’t find bolt cutters, and the men we captured didn’t have keys.”
“Well, shit. No wonder they’re upset,” Ronnie said walking toward the front porch.
Dave helped Trace inside and the others followed. When they stepped into the gathering room, Ronnie was standing in the center of the room speaking rapid fire Spanish to the ten women who were sitting in a huddle in the middle of the gathering room floor paying rapt attention to her. The relief was obvious on their dirty faces. Trace was relieved too, until she said something, looked back over her shoulder at him and all the women giggled. She was speaking too fast for Trace to catch what she said. Whatever she said seemed to be calming them down, so he was grateful, and he was sure Dave was too.
“I’m going to look out in those sheds now and see if I can find some bolt cutters,” Jamie said with a sigh of relief. “I couldn’t leave them alone.”
“There’s a pair in the van we left in. They’re in the compartment in the bottom, under the carpet,” Dave said shortly, as if the men should have figured that out on their own. “If you had asked on the phone, I could have told you that.”
Jamie nodded, but his face looked like he felt like a dumbass for not doing just that. Trace kind of felt sorry for both of the men who had been put in charge of taking care of the traumatized women. He couldn’t say he would have done a better job of handling them. At least nobody had been hurt. The women looked dirty and tired, but the men had done the best they could to care for them. He was just glad Ronnie was there to communicate with them.
Trace held his side and looked at Dave. “Let’s go question those men, and get this show on the road,” he said.
“We’ll be doing the questioning. We don’t want them to know you’re alive, remember?” Dave reminded.
“Crap.”
“Yeah. Can you make it upstairs? You need a shower and rest. We’ll handle this.”
“Find out where Ray Brown is,” Trace said, as his mother came up to his side. “Find out if they know what my father had to do with this too.”
“If you want to know that talk to his campaign manager,” Allison said.
All eyes in the room swung in her direction. “What does Talmedge Bartlett have to do with it?” Trace asked.
The man had been his daddy’s friend and sidekick for years. It definitely made sense to Trace that he would have knowledge of Leland’s activities, but the man was damned good at hiding his tracks if it was him. Better than Leland even. He ran with a pretty highfaluting crowd that had money and connections. Money that kept Leland in office for all these years. If his mother was right, it looked like he had friends in low places too.
“He’s the ring leader. He does the dirty work,” she said with a short laugh. “You think Leland would get his hands dirty?”
So that’s who Leland used to head up his criminal activities. As far as Trace knew, the feds had never been able to figure that out. They kept hitting a brick wall with someone who they all called El Patron. Trace had figured that was his father, or Ray Brown, but evidently it wasn’t. His father would probably be called El Diablo. The devil would be a fitting name for the man who had given him life. But his mother was taking her own life in her hands by giving up that information. So far, she had refused to testify against her husband, and that was a good thing as far as self-preservation went. So was getting away from the man.
“Mama, that’s enough,” Trace said gruffly. “You shouldn’t even be here!” If he had known she slipped into the van at the ranch, she wouldn’t be here. He told her to stay out of it, but it looked like she had waded in knee deep. Maybe he could talk Dave into taking her back to town.
“No, son. It’s time I talked. Leland has run amok too long. I’m here to help you bring him and his cohorts down. You’re not stopping me. I’ll go to the police, if I have to,” she said firmly. That would mean publicly announcing she had turned on Leland. It would also mean those criminals he was involved with would hear about it too.
His mother would have a target on her back. “Don’t do that, Mama.”
“Either I help you, or I help the police. It’s time for your father to get his comeuppance, and I’m the woman who is going to deliver it.” Her stance, stiff shoulders and the look on her face was not something Trace was used to seeing. But he knew when a woman looked like she did right now, she meant business.
Trace sighed. “Okay, Mama. You can help me. Don’t talk to the police.”
At least here he could keep things quiet, and he could protect her too. Just what he needed. Another woman to worry about. Shit, pretty soon he’d have a whole tribe of them to watch out for here at the lodge. And if he didn’t assert himself as the tribe leader now, he would probably be the sacrificial lamb when the sisterhood decided to revolt.
“But you are going to do exactly what I say, because I don’t need problems.” He looked at Ronnie who had stopped talking to stare at him from across the room. “You too, Red. No funny business. Before you do anything, you are going to talk to me about it.” When it looked like she was winding up to argue he added, “If either of you go off on your own, so will I. I will be out of here faster than you can spit, and you’re on your own.”
“But—“ both women chimed in at once.
“I mean it,” Trace cut them off. “Don’t make a phone call, or a decision without going through me first. This could get ugly, and if it does, I want to know it’s coming at me—at us—before it happens.” He met Ronnie’s angry eyes, and lifted a brow. She folded her arms over her chest, and her lips pinched, but she nodded. He moved his gaze to his mother and she nodded too.
“Well—if we’re done with the drama,” Dave said with a laugh. “We have suspects to question.” He nodded at Caleb and they walked toward the room at the back of the house where they were holding the captured men.
“Let’s get these women settled for tonight,” Trace said and took a few steps toward them. “We can move them to the other house in the woods tomorrow. It’s too late now.”
His mother took his arm. “What you’re going to do is go upstairs, take a shower and go to bed. It’s almost morning now, and you are hurt. We’ll take care of these ladies.”
“But, Mama…” Trace said putting on the brakes when she tried to move him toward the stairs.
“But, Mama nothing. Go!” she said with a swat to his butt. She didn’t move until he shook his head and walked to the stairs.
Trace was exhausted, and hurting again. A warm shower and a soft mattress sounded like exactly what the doctor ordered. The way things were going here at the lodge he better enjoy the luxuries while he could. He had a bad feeling that pretty soon all he’d have to look forward to would be a hard cot, a stainless steel toilet and a weekly shower.
Either that or white rubber walls.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The next morning Trace woke up sweating. It felt like he was sitting in a sauna wrapped in plastic. Either he had a fever, or someone had turned the furnace up to hell in the lodge. He threw back the covers to get some relief and quickly realized why he was so hot when he looked down and saw a tangle of red hair.
Ronnie Winters had crawled into bed with him to sleep. Naked. His eyes traveled down her perfect curves to her pink-painted toenails. Her soft body was suctioned to his side from the waist down and her thigh was thrown over his leg. Trace grabbed the her leg and pushed it off of him. With a groan, she stirred and slid her hand down from his waist. She brushed his dick and it went as stiff as the muscles in his body.
“Fuck, Ronnie.
Wake up! What are you doing in here?” he growled peeling her arm off of him, before he tried to push her away. She mumbled something, rolled onto her back, then twisted to lay on her other side away from him. She wiggled her delicious ass against him, and her hand found his cock as she fumbled behind her for the covers. Trace sucked in a sharp breath and moved his hips then rolled toward her. He shook her shoulder, and leaned close to her ear. “Wake up, Ronnie!”
She woke up all right, and rolled back over to snuggle against his chest. Her hand slid up his chest, over his shoulder to curl around his neck. Her naked breasts pressed into his chest as her lips landed on his chin. She trailed tiny sweet kisses up to his mouth, the made a slow pass over his mouth with her lips. Trace tried to push her away, but stilled when her tongue moved across the seam of his lips, and she moaned. His heart did a funny little wiggle in his chest, and on its own his hand slid over her smooth, warm skin to rest at the curve of her hip.
Her body moved against his. “Mmm…” she murmured, as she put a kiss at the corner of his lips. “Kiss me,” she begged breathlessly.
Trace fought the urge to take control and do just that, and made himself push her away. “Wake up, Red.”
One brown eye popped open, she looked a little stunned as the other followed. “Oh…” she whispered and scooted away from him then flopped onto her back beside him and threw her arm over her eyes. “Sorry.”
The sheet rode low at her hips, and Trace couldn’t help himself. He took the opportunity to stare at her full breasts. Creamy smooth skin, led to coral circles tipped by hard raspberry-colored nipples. His mouth watered to taste her but he fought that urge too. Plopping back on his pillow, Trace closed his eyes and rested his arm over them too. “What are you doing in here, Ronnie?”
“Every other bed in the house is occupied,” she said.
There were ten bedrooms in this house. Two of those rooms had two sets of bunk beds. No way were all the other beds occupied. “Not buying it, Red,” Trace replied.
“Those women needed a comfortable place to rest last night. They have been through enough. I let them sleep in the bedrooms. Your mother has one, and Dave and his guys have another. The rest are occupied by the women,” she said then looked over at him. “Besides I was worried about you, and so was your mother.”