by Becky McGraw
“Yes, Trace. I’m putting it in my bra. It’s small enough.”
He wished Lou Ellen had a longer dress for her. Maybe one with long sleeves and a turtleneck. This dress had a soft draped neck, but that drape didn’t stop until well past her sternum. Half of her damned breasts were exposed. It was too damned short for her too. When she bent over to pick up her high heels he could almost see her round ass, and the top of her black thigh-high stockings. His palms itched to grab her and feel that smooth skin again. It had been almost a week now, and he was having withdrawals.
Trace dragged his eyes away, and huffed a breath. He needed to focus on the task at hand. Making sure these women made it out of this tonight unscathed. “I have a bad feeling,” he said. The feeling he’d come to despise when he was a cop. Something bad was going to happen, he just didn’t know what.
“Stop worrying. Everything will be fine,” she assured him, bending her long leg to slip on one heel. She balanced then put on her other shoe.
His eyes traveled up her long legs past her slim waist, and skidded to a stop at her beautiful breasts. “You look good enough to eat,” he said, wishing he could forget about tonight, and make love to her all night instead.
Ronnie groaned and turned toward the mirror. “And if we had time, I’d love to be eaten,” she said. God he loved to hear that sound. It made him harder than he already was. “But we don’t,” she added as she twisted her gorgeous auburn hair up into a knot and secured it with a rhinestone-studded clip. His tongue tingled to lick that long neck, to suck her plump red lips. Ronnie clipped on matching earrings, then turned toward him. “Let’s get this show on the road, handsome,” she said with a broad smile that did strange things to his insides.
Trace stood to walk over to her, slid his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. Her eyes were on level with his, her red lips at the perfect height to kiss. He made an exploratory dip of his lips to hers, and she pulled back a little.
“Kiss me, Red,” he whispered, as he leaned in to make another pass over her lips.
“I thought you didn’t like to kiss,’ she mumbled when he nipped her lower lip.
“I like to kiss you,” he said nuzzling his nose with hers in an Eskimo kiss.
Ronnie sighed, and slid her arms around his neck. Her fingers twirled in the hair at his nape as she tilted her head to seal her lips to his. A warm wave floated through him, as he absorbed her soft moan into his mouth. There was not a woman he had met in his life who fit more perfectly in his arms than this one. It was too bad she wouldn’t fit more perfectly in his life. Ronnie Winters was a high-class city girl. When this was all over, if he wasn’t in prison, Trace was going to find some peace in the country. From here on out, he wanted simple and easy. Ronnie Winters definitely wasn’t that.
There was no middle ground for them. And no future. He’d told her that from the get go, but for different reasons. Those reasons were gone now, but others had replaced them. Ronnie deserved better than a broken down ex-cop who wanted to be a cowboy. Ranching was a hard way of life. A way of life she wasn’t suited to. She was champagne and power suits. Trace wanted his faded Levis and a cold beer at the end of a hard day.
He wasn’t the type of man she needed either. His background and record would hurt her career. She needed a man who was above reproach. On the right side of the law.
Ronnie would find that man one day. Maybe that man would be Conner Lucas. Or even Dave Logan. That thought made him hold her a little tighter to him, kiss her a little deeper.
Before he let her go though, if he got another chance, he was going to do what he could to make sure she remembered him. His hands slipped to her butt and he inched the skirt of her dress up so he could touch her warm skin. Trace was seriously considering taking that chance right then, no matter if they were late getting to Dallas.
Lou Ellen evidently had other ideas. She knocked loudly at the door, then shouted, “C’mon ya’ll. We’re going to be late!”
Trace dragged his lips from Ronnie’s and rested his forehead to hers. His heart was beating so fast he felt like it would break out of his chest. He took a deep breath. “Promise me something, Red.”
“What?” she asked softly, as she pushed away from him.
He met her eyes directly. “Promise you won’t take any chances tonight. Whatever you do, do not let Leland know you are on to him.”
“I told you not to worry,” she said with a smile that turned wobbly at the edges.
“And I told you I had a bad feeling. Don’t take any chances.”
“Dave will be with me,” she reminded him. She patted the valley between her breasts. “And I have the mace.”
“Ya’ll watch out for my Mama and Lou Ellen too.” Lou Ellen had a big mouth. It wouldn’t surprise Trace if she took the opportunity to tell Leland off. She hated Leland almost as much as Trace did.
“We will. Don’t you do anything stupid either like trying to crash the gate. Dave wasn’t happy you’re going at all, but I convinced him we need a lookout. Someone to keep the car running outside, in case we need to make a fast getaway.”
“There better not be a reason you need to make a getaway,” Trace growled as fear made his heart skip a beat.
She stepped toward him, put her hand in the center of his chest then leaned in to kiss him. “We’ll be careful, I promise.”
Lou Ellen knocked again a little louder, and Trace shook his head as he walked to the door and opened it. “Keep your drawers on, Aunt Lou,” he said with a grin.
“Wipe your smart mouth. You look like a rodeo clown,” she said with a shake of her head, her lips twitching.
Trace wiped the back of his hand over his mouth and looked at his wrist which was smeared with red lipstick. Heat rushed up his neck.
“That’s right, bad ass. It’s definitely not your shade. Now you two stop necking and get your asses in gear so we can get to that party.” With another shake of her piled up bottle-blond hair, Lou Ellen headed back down the hall. Trace glanced at Ronnie and she was grinning from ear-to-ear. He grinned too, and followed her to the dresser. She snatched a tissue from the box there and handed it to him, then took one for herself.
“You’re a bad influence on me,” Trace said as he wiped the lipstick smudges from around his mouth.
She shrugged. “You’re the one who kissed me. Evidently you like bad girls,” she said then met his eyes in the mirror. “Bad ass,” she said with a roll of her eyes. She thought on that a minute then smiled. “I think Lou Ellen has that exactly right.”
He winked at her in the mirror, as he snuck his hand behind her back to squeeze her ass. “I think you know exactly how I feel about bad girls.”
Ronnie elbowed him. “Be good or I’m going to call Lou Ellen,” she threatened.
“She doesn’t scare me,” Trace growled giving her butt another squeeze.
“Well, she scares me,” Ronnie said with a laugh, stepping around him. “Let’s go.”
Two hours into the five hour drive to Dallas, Trace’s phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. He saw it was Conner Lucas and handed it to Ronnie who was in the passenger seat of Lou Ellen’s Cadillac beside him. Lou Ellen had let him drive, so she could nap in the back seat. They were going to pick up Dave Logan on the way to the party. Trace was taking his van.
Ronnie looked at the phone, smiled then answered it quickly. “Where are you?”
“I’m on a forced vacation thanks to you,” Conner said grumpily.
“So, Dave called you…good.”
“Yeah, he called me,” Conner replied. “Do you realize how many cases I’m juggling, Vee? This is not going to work for long.”
“I promise we’ll have it settled soon,” she said with a glance at Trace whose pleasant expression had flattened into a frown when he saw who was calling.
“You better, or you’ll be representing me in front of the bar for negligence, and helping me find another job.” He grunted then said, “You may have to
do that anyway once they corner me about pulling those files.”
“What did you tell the office?” she asked.
“I told them my aunt was sick and I needed to go out of town for a few weeks to help take care of her.”
“Your mother is an only child,” she reminded him with a laugh.
“They don’t know that. And my father’s brother is as close to an aunt as a guy can get. You know he’s almost done with his operations.”
Ronnie held back a laugh. His father’s brother was a cross-dresser and the butt of many a Lucas family joke. “Don’t go anywhere too obvious, Conner. They could find you. You need to keep your head down until we finish with this.”
“I’m really taking a vacation.” He didn’t sound happy about that at all.
“You need a vacation anyway,” Ronnie said seriously. Conner was a worse workaholic than she was. He hadn’t taken a vacation since he joined the firm three years ago. At least she had taken a weekend away after the Longmire case closed. When this mess was over she would probably take another one. Maybe a week this time. Hell, maybe two weeks. Lord knew she was going to need one.
“Look I just called to tell you I had a thought on my way out of town. I forgot to pull the physical evidence they had against Trace for his trial. I know it wasn’t much, but I thought we might find something. I realized that fingerprints weren’t done on it back then.”
“It was still there?” Ronnie asked in amazement.
“The drugs weren’t but the zip lock bag and the money bands were there.”
“Who did you send it to? Not to the lab the firm uses, I hope.”
“Hell no, I’m not stupid. Dave Logan knew a forensic guy, so I dropped it off there on my way out of town. I also dropped off the coroner’s report for reevaluation. They’re putting a rush on it and I told them to call Dave with the results.”
“Are they running any prints they find through AFIS?” That was a national database of all fingerprints across the United States.
“I told them to do that, but ask Dave.” Conner sounded distracted now. He let out a breath, then a low whistle. “Wow…I need to let you go, Vee,” he said.
Her heart rate kicked up a notch. “What’s wrong?” she asked quickly.
“I just saw someone I think I need to meet. Maybe this vacation thing won’t be so bad after all. Bye,” he said and the line disconnected. Ronnie shook her head and handed the phone back to Trace.
“What?” he asked giving her a couple of anxious glares.
“Conner is safely vacationing. On his way out of town he picked up the physical evidence from your trial to have it looked at again.”
“The drugs and money they found in my locker at the station?” Trace asked darkly.
“Yeah. They destroyed the drugs, and disposed of the cash, but the bag and money bands were still in cold storage at the courthouse. Conner dropped them off to be checked for fingerprints. I should have done that back then, but we both knew that evidence was planted there. I was more worried about trying to read through all those depositions and cross examine the drug dealers who were testifying against you.”
“None of that would have mattered,” Trace said and she saw his hands tighten on the wheel. “I’m glad now you suggested I take that plea. If I hadn’t, I probably would still be in there.”
“We’re having the coroner’s report looked at again too. I think he may have been paid off as well.”
“Most likely,” Trace said with a short laugh. “I think Leland forked out a bundle to make sure I got put under the jailhouse. Then he spent more trying to make sure I didn’t make it out alive. Dead men tell no tales.”
“Well, your father is going to be the one under the jailhouse when this is over,” Lou Ellen, who she thought was sleeping, piped up from the back seat. She leaned over the middle. “Your mother and I knew something was going on. We never could put our finger on it though.”
Trace looked into the rearview. “Aunt Lou you need to stay out of this. You’re along for the ride here. I don’t want anyone getting hurt, because of me.”
She snorted. “Honey, you’ve known me your entire life. Have you ever known me to stay out of anything?”
“No, ma’am,” Trace said with a huffed breath and shake of his head. “But this time you need to do that. Just watch out for Mama, and stay away from Leland. If we tip him off, we won’t find anything. And someone will end up hurt.”
“Don’t worry, kiddo. This dress I have on is short, but Bruno is strapped to my thigh. He always takes care of me.”
Trace’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. “Bruno?”
“My forty-five,” she clarified with a laugh.
Trace hit the brakes to slow the car. “Do not go Dirty Mary on me Aunt Lou,” Trace growled. “Promise you won’t create a problem tonight, or I’m turning this car around.”
“I’m not making any promises, son,” she said with a cackle as she sat back against the seat. “I’ll try to be good tonight, but you know how hard that is for me.”
“Do it for Mama…” Trace said then glanced over at Ronnie. “And for Red. They don’t need to have to fight their way out of there.”
“Doesn’t that Dave Logan carry?” she asked.
“He does, but if ya’ll are smart and quiet tonight, you can get out of there without having to use your guns.”
“Have you ever known me to be quiet? Quiet is not a word people use to describe me. Ever,” Lou Ellen said with a chuckle. “We’ll just leave it at good. I won’t try to stir up anything. Does that work?”
Trace sighed. “Yes, ma’am.”
Ronnie drifted off into her own thoughts as she watched the miles tick off to their destination. With every mile they got closer, she could feel the tension in Trace inch up. By the time he pulled into the parking lot at the big box store where they agreed to meet Dave, he was practically vibrating with it. He drove slowly up and down the aisles looking for Dave’s van, then she spotted it parked at the side of the store.
“Over there,” Ronnie said pointing.
Trace made a right and slowly drove over there. He stopped beside the van and put the Cadillac in park then turned in the seat to face her. His eyebrows pinched together, as he said gruffly, “Be careful tonight, Red.”
Ronnie slid across the seat and put her hand on his face. “You be careful too. Make sure nobody sees you.” He was the one she was worried about. She wished he would have just stayed at the lodge until this was over. It sure would make focusing on what they were doing tonight easier. Instead she’d be worried about him in the van parked near the mansion. She leaned toward him and he met her in the middle for a short kiss.
Dave knocked on the driver’s window then opened the door. “We need to get moving,” he said stepping back.
Trace looked very worried as he pecked her lips once more, before he slid out of the car. Dave shut the door and he and Trace had a short conversation, before he opened the door again and got inside. He reached inside the breast pocket of his tuxedo and pulled out four very small black devices. He handed one set to Ronnie. “Put this in your ear, it’s a listening device. The other is a voice transmitter you’ll clip somewhere discreet. That way we can all know what’s going on tonight,” he said, then offered the other set to Lou Ellen over the back seat.
“I feel like Mata Hari,” Lou Ellen said with a giggle as she took the device.
Ronnie pushed the receiver in her ear, then clipped the transmitter on her shoulder and tucked it under the strap of her dress. She jumped when she heard Trace’s voice in her ear as she watched the black van take the lead. “Red, you better not do anything stupid tonight. You either, Aunt Lou.”
“You just keep that pretty face of yours hidden, handsome, and we’ll take care of the rest,” Ronnie said with a laugh.
“I have a bad feeling,” Trace said gruffly.
“So, you’ve said,” Ronnie replied with a glance at Dave.
She was starting to have a funny feeli
ng in the pit of her stomach too. She was an attorney, not a spy. Leland Rooks was a dangerous man who was connected to other dangerous men. Some of those men could be at this party tonight. They would have to be very careful, or things could go south.
“We’ve got this. Stop worrying,” Lou Ellen said with a confident snort.
Ronnie sighed and crossed her arms over her chest to stare out the window. She sure hoped they did. She hoped Trace’s feeling wasn’t right. The same feeling that was starting to make her have doubts this was a good idea.
It took them thirty minutes more to turn into Leland’s neighborhood. Trace kept driving down the block when they turned off, because he wasn’t going to be able to get past the guard shack. They checked in at the guard shack of the gated community. Using Lou Ellen’s name, the guard let them through. Dave drove slowly down the street, which was lined with massive estates locked behind brick and wrought iron fences.
Ronnie’s father’s estate was much the same as these. Even though he wasn’t home much to enjoy the fruits of his labor, his wife, her mother, didn’t have that problem. She threw lavish parties there, and lived in her ivory tower. Her daddy deserved his lavish lifestyle, even though he couldn’t enjoy it. He worked for his money. Leland Rooks was another story. The man lived well off of the sweat of others. The blood of others. It was time he got what he deserved. Ronnie used that thought to shore up her confidence when Dave turned into his driveway and stopped at the security post. He pushed the button, and when he announced Lou Ellen’s name the gate swung inward.
He pulled up to the front of the house, and stopped at the steps where a uniformed valet stood. The valet opened her door and cool air rushed inside the car. Ronnie smiled at him and eased her legs out, then stood. He opened Lou Ellen’s door and she got out too. Dave stood on the other side of the car and handed the valet the keys when he made it to the driver’s door. “Keep those handy, and don’t park us too far away. We may need to leave quickly. I’m a doctor and I’m on call.”