by Nancy Warren
Brent surprised her yet again. His reflexes were too good. He grabbed the flying phone with his left hand while the gun in his right hand barely wavered.
He found Dwayne’s number on her cell, never letting his attention or gun waver. He glanced at her. “I’m sure you know enough about guns to recognize a silencer. If you do anything stupid like try to yell something, you’ll be dead before you get the first word out. Do you understand?”
She sent him a glance so sour she hoped it withered his liver. She nodded.
He pushed send.
Don’t pick up, she begged.
“Toni, darlin,’” she heard her ex-husband say, loud and clear.
Oh, please gush right back, she begged Brent silently. Then Dwayne would know something was up.
But Brent had obviously been listening to her and Dwayne as closely as he’d listened to Suzie’s conversations with Grant Forstman.
“Dwayne,” Brent said in a tone that sounded more like her mother than like Toni. “I’m at Brent’s house. I need to talk to you. Can you come right over?”
“Why sure, darlin’. What’s up?”
Brent rolled his gaze. “Somebody dropped off some money. Said it’s for you.”
He whooped. She could hear him as clearly as though he’d been in the same room. “Didn’t I tell you my ship was comin’ in? I got my car back, too. I’m on my way. Don’t move. I’ll be right there. And I am taking you and Tiff and Linda for the biggest steak dinner you ever saw.”
As Brent ended the call he shook his head. “That was almost too easy.”
“Please, Brent,” she said. “Please don’t do this.” She thought maybe she could manage a few tears, and by thinking about Tiffany losing both her parents, managed easily. If Brent considered she was weak and frightened he might let his guard waver.
Which would be a great plan if she wasn’t frightened and, compared to a wiry guy with great reflexes and a loaded gun, she did feel pretty weak.
However, she had Tiffany to think of and no female-impersonating, mommy-obsessed murderer was going to get rid of her. Not without the fight of her life.
Everybody has weaknesses. She already knew his. His obsessive love for his mother. And hatred for his father.
While they waited, she got him talking about his mother. As she’d suspected, she was the showgirl in the photographs dominating this room. Brent could talk all day, but he wasn’t going to let his guard down. Not for a second.
In all too short a time, she heard loud country music, which suggested that Dwayne had the top down on his convertible and was outside.
Brent heard it too.
He said, “You’re not going to do anything stupid and you know why?”
She shook her head, still trying to look weak and frightened.
“Because if you screw this up, I will call Tiffany and tell her you’re in trouble and you need her.”
She felt the rage of a mother tiger rise within her, fought to keep it from showing. “No. Please. I’ll do anything you say.”
He smiled briefly. Nodded. “You keep your mouth shut and do everything I say.”
The front door banged open and Dwayne called out, “Hey, Toni. I’m home. Where’s my gorgeous wife?”
“Ex-wife,” Brent snapped in exactly the tone Toni used. Holy crap he was good. “I’m down here in Brent’s room.”
“What are you doing in Brent’s room?” Dwayne asked. She could hear him getting closer.
“I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“And I’ve got a surprise for you,” Toni said.
She’d grabbed the garment bag and dragged the zipper up into the black silk, mangling it horribly.
She held the outfit in front of her hoping that Brent wouldn’t put a bullet through one of his precious mother’s outfits.
A cry of rage came from the man holding the gun on her. “Stop that,” he spat.
“Honey?” Dwayne ambled into the open doorway, a big smile on his face and his guitar in his hand.
She saw the second Dwayne caught sight of Brent and the gun. That moment she’d made him crazy had given her a split second. It was all she was going to get.
With all the strength of a mother tiger with a cub to protect, she launched herself at Brent, the gown, still in its protective cover, held in front of her like a shield.
“What the?” Dwayne yelled.
She smashed into Brent, wrapping the bag around his face and knocking him over. He screamed, staggered, and she hooked a foot behind his calf in a move she’d learned in a women’s self-defense class. But he was a lot stronger than she was and if she had the strength of a mother tiger, he had the strength of a cornered lion.
The garment bag was slippery in her hands and she was hopping on one heel trying to trip Brent. Dwayne stood staring like the statue of a country and western singer, something you’d see on a Nashville sidewalk.
In desperation she went with a last-ditch move.
She kneed Brent in the balls.
He huffed out a breath as he started to double over. And then she heard a second huff. The muffled sound of a bullet.
Burning pain, like a hot poker stabbing her. Her left side was on fire.
She staggered back to the bed, struggling to breathe.
Brent was like something out of a horror movie, rising, his head caught in the open bag, black silk hanging over his face.
He batted at the encumbrance.
“Dwayne,” she yelled. “He’s going to kill us.”
Her ex finally snapped out of his stupor. The garment bag fell away from Brent and he righted his crooked glasses, turned toward Dwayne, leveling the gun. In that moment, Dwayne raised the guitar over his head and brought it down on top of Brent’s head.
She watched the man who’d killed two people and tried to kill her and Dwayne fall to the ground. Her vision was blurry and she could feel the wetness of blood running down her arm, but she managed to kick the gun out of Brent’s nerveless hand.
As she sank to the ground she heard sirens. “Thank goodness,” she said and then everything went black.
Chapter Twenty
“Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.”
— Jane Austen
Toni opened her eyes, wondering where she was. Nothing seemed familiar. The smell was awful, like a hospital. She blinked and realized that the place smelled like a hospital because she was in one.
Her arm hurt. Her throat was dry. Her lips felt naked as though there were no lipstick on them.
She must have made a sound for a figure rose from a chair and came toward her.
She blinked again as she recognized the dark hair and sexy eyes, the cop face. “Luke?” Her voice sounded rusty.
His expression lightened and she saw the relief as he smiled down at her. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I need a day at the spa.”
“That’s my girl.” He leaned over and kissed her.
“Am I in Texas?” She had hazy memories but they were coming back thick and fast.
“No, honey. You’re in Vegas.”
“But why are you here?”
“I am here on official police business.” He picked up a paper cup with a straw in it and passed it to her as though he knew how thirsty she was. She sucked some water thankfully.
“Is Tiffany okay? My mom?”
“They’re fine. We’re taking turns sitting with you.”
She had so many questions but one was paramount. “Brent?”
“He confessed on my cell phone. Remember?”
She nodded then winced. Everything hurt. “I was going to call you and tell you what I’d found.” She sucked some more water. “And then I heard him behind me. I hit speed dial. Wasn’t sure you were even there.”
“Oh, I was there.” He ran a hand through his short hair. “I recorded most of it, and got through to LVPD as fast as I could.” His mouth twisted. “But not fast enough.”
“I thou
ght he’d killed me.”
For a second his eyes were bleak with rage and maybe grief, but in the overbright lighting it was hard to be certain, the cop shutters came down so fast. “I thought so, too. Last thing I heard was him ordering you to give him your cell phone so he could lure Dwayne there and kill both of you.”
“That was a bad moment.”
“For both of us.” He took her hand. The one that didn’t have tubes coming out of it.
“What happened to Brent?”
“He’s in police custody.”
“Dwayne? Is he okay?”
In an expressionless voice, he said, “Right about the time the cops arrived, your ex-husband came running out of the house screaming for help. He left you inside wounded and with a psycho killer for company.”
“Did he at least take the gun with him?”
Luke shook his head.
Somehow she wasn’t surprised.
“Luckily, the cops and the paramedics arrived around the same time. They got to Hodgkin before he regained consciousness and to you before you bled out.”
“At least Dwayne knocked him on the head with his guitar.”
“To save you or his own skin?”
She did her best to squeeze the hand holding hers, so warm and sure. “I believe I mentioned I have better taste in men now?”
“You sure do.” He held the cup so she could sip more water. “After they played Hodgkin the recording I made on my phone, he confessed. Naturally, his lawyer is going for a psych defense.”
She suspected Brent was crazy but didn’t have the energy to argue with Luke at the moment. She was too glad to see him.
They kept her in hospital for a couple more days. She’d been incredibly lucky, the doctor told her. The bullet had grazed her side and only cracked a rib. It was the blood loss that was making her feel so weak. She’d always bear a scar, but she was vain enough to be happy that it was in an area where it wouldn’t be too noticeable.
Linda and Tiffany refused to fly home, but spent every minute they could with Toni. Thanks to her mother, Toni was the best-groomed patient in the hospital. Thanks to Tiff, she was the best entertained. Her daughter was so much on her best behavior it was almost painful. When she wasn’t working on homework, she was thinking up ideas to help Toni grow her business. She’d even taken to wearing color.
“It’s unnerving,” Toni said to Linda when Tiff was out of the room.
“It’s because she almost lost you.” Her mom sighed. “Don’t worry. She’ll soon get over it.”
At one point, while Linda was painting Tiffany’s nails a real color, and they were going over the unbelievable events one more time, Tiff said, “I can’t believe I shared a house with a murderer. Eew.”
Linda paused in the application of a very pretty soft pink color to her granddaughter’s fingernails. “And let that be a reminder to you, to always listen to your mother.” And then she went on painting nails.
Once she was released from hospital, Toni still needed to go to the cops and give her statement.
Luke insisted on driving her, and waiting for her, then driving her back to the hotel.
“Thanks,” she said.
“For what?”
“Being a man I can count on.”
His expression was skeptical. “If you’re comparing me with Dipshit Dwayne, that’s not much of a compliment.”
She looked him right in the eye. “I wasn’t.” And she leaned over and kissed him.
They were leaving the next day. Toni hadn’t been allowed to so much as pack her own toothbrush. Her daughter and her mother had done everything.
“Now, I want you to have a nap,” Linda told Toni, “because we are going out tonight.”
“We are? Where?”
“Dwayne wants us to go to the casino. He’s got a new song he wrote especially for you.”
She shuddered. “I’m not sure I can go back there.”
“We kind of promised we’d go,” Tiffany said. She threw her arms around Toni, but carefully. “I am so sorry, Mom. I never should have come here without telling you.”
She hugged back. Also carefully. “But it turned out to be a good thing. You got to know your father and we helped him out of a very big jam.”
“I think he’s really sorry, too. That’s why he wants us there tonight.”
Her mother leaned forward. “And wait until you see the new Sunny.” She fanned herself.
Toni looked at her. “He’s gorgeous or you’re having a hot flash?”
Her mom continued to fan herself. “Actually, both.”‘
Luke had flown back that morning to get back to work, and both Linda and Tiffany had promised him they’d keep an eye on Toni.
Apart from a little weakness and some pain at the wound site, Toni felt pretty good. Her mother and daughter made her stay in bed all afternoon so they could go to the casino that night.
Her mom did her makeup since it hurt too much to lift her arm and they helped her dress.
The lounge didn’t look any different than it had before two people had been murdered and one of the cast turned out to be the killer.
A Reserved sign sat on one of the prime tables and the server who showed them to it said, “Dwayne’s real excited you’re here. He wrote a song specially for you, isn’t that sweet?”
Since he’d nearly got her killed and her daughter orphaned, she wasn’t sure a song was going to cut it, but she smiled politely and let Tiffany help her into a chair. Not that she needed help, but it was so nice to have her daughter treat her so well she was kind of milking it.
Toni was surprised to see Loretta in the audience. Not only did Grant Forstman’s widow come over and say hello and tell her that she’d be ordering more of that amazing face cream real soon, but she sent a round of drinks to the table.
The show was familiar but not. During the Broadway number she realized that Forstman’s girlfriend wasn’t there. She kind of missed watching her count her steps. “What happened to Suzie?” she asked her mom. She hoped Loretta hadn’t fired the girl.
Linda leaned close. “She got a better offer.”
“From another casino?” Toni couldn’t imagine.
“From another big shot. Guy from Atlanta.”
Toni chuckled. “Good for her.”
When the familiar theme music came for Sunny and the Three Chers, she stiffened. It was going to be tough to sit through this part of the show and not remember…
And then she forgot all about Brent Hodgkin when the most gorgeous blonde Toni had ever seen strode onto the stage. S/he looked slightly familiar and she couldn’t figure out where she’d seen the female impersonator before. The Three Chers tottered on behind and as they broke into their first song, she noted that Sunny had the tiniest hint of a Scandinavian accent. And that Loretta was clapping so hard her fake nails were in danger of flying off her fingertips.
“That’s Eric,” she whispered to her mom. “He’s Loretta’s personal trainer.”
“Training her to do what exactly?”
“Shh. He’s a hell of an entertainer. And he’s got every single person in the audience, the men and the women, completely in love.” From that moment on she let herself relax and enjoy, not the show that had been, but the show that was going on right in front of her.
When the wild applause for the new Sunny and the Three Chers had died down, the MC gave a longer than normal intro for Dwayne.
It was so glowing she suspected money had changed hands.
And then her ex-husband walked into the spotlight. He wore black relieved only with the silver buckle on his belt and the rhinestones on the piping of his dress shirt. Even his cowboy hat was black.
He cozied up to the mic as though it were a lover and said, “This is the song I wrote for an amazing woman, a lady who will always own a piece of my heart. We’ve been through a lot together, darlin’, and I want you to know how much you mean to me.”
He glanced around at the audience, then back to their table.
“There are moments that change a man forever. And this song is the true story of one of those moments.”
He strummed a little, warming up, he said, “This goes out to Toni and it’s called, “I Saved Your Life Tonight.”
There was a choking sound at their table. She wasn’t sure if it was coming from her, from Linda, or the two of them were doing a gagging duet.
“I Saved Your Life Tonight” was a simple ballad about a man who loved and lost a woman, a woman who was the mother of his child. She came back into his life and he almost lost her again when another man tried to harm her. But, in the nick of time, the singer hero, i.e. Dwayne, rushed to the rescue. The end of the song told the world that even though their time was past, he’d always be her man, “Because I saved your life tonight.”
When he finished, she caught a woman at another table dabbing her eyes with a tissue. Linda gulped her margarita down, probably to drown out her own commentary on the song in Tiffany’s hearing.
Afterward, Dwayne swaggered up to their table, a big smile on his face.
“Hi, Dad,” Tiffany said.
“How’s my gorgeous girl?” he asked, giving her a one-armed hug.
“Fine.”
“And how are you feeling, Toni?” He reached over and patted her shoulder. Luckily, not on the side where she’d been shot.
“I’m fine.”
He shook his head, playing to the table, and then turned to Tiffany. “I tell you, facing a killer to save your mom was one of the toughest moments of my life. But every man needs to know what he’s made of. He needs to know that he can dig deep and when someone he loves is in trouble, he can step up and be a hero.”
Did he think she had amnesia? She recalled him standing there with a stunned look on his face while Brent nearly killed her. It was only after Brent tottered to his feet and turned the gun in Dwayne’s direction that he’d finally bashed the guy over the head with his guitar. And, according to Luke, he’d then gone screaming out of the house to save his own skin.
He must have assumed her inability to speak was from gratitude. He turned to her. “I’m so happy I was there to save your life.”
She thought about how he’d got all of them into this mess, and how he was the one who’d nearly got them killed.