I laughed and wiped tears from the corners of my eyes. “I’ve just missed you is all. I’ve been so stupid.”
She pulled me over the threshold and into her warm embrace. “You’ve been dealing with your pain in your own way. I just waited until you decided you were ready to come back.”
“How did you know I’d come?” I asked, leaning back and searching her face.
“I didn’t, but I prayed you would.”
I gave her a tight hug, then took a breath and smiled. “Enough nonsense. What can I do to help you with dinner?”
Neely Kate arrived soon after, and we helped Maeve finish preparing dinner. Then the three of us sat around the table and talked for several hours, making up for lost time. But Maeve didn’t mention Mason at all. In some ways, it was a relief, but it didn’t seem fair for her to have to hold back on my account.
“Maeve, you can talk about Mason if you’d like,” I said, then lifted my hand when she started to speak. “No. Just listen.” I took a breath. “We both agreed that going our separate ways was the best option, and I’ll confess part of the reason I’ve stayed away from you is because any reminder of him was painful. I’m in a better place now, and I want you in my life. I’ve missed you. But Mason is your son—your only remaining family member—and I don’t want you to censor yourself around me. You can talk about him as much or as little as you want. I just want you to know that I’m a big girl, and I can handle it.”
She leaned over the table and covered my hand with her own. “Rose, you would be perfectly within your rights if you didn’t want to talk about him.”
“I know. And I appreciate you considering my feelings, but I still care about him too. Maybe it will help to know how he’s doing. If he’s really okay.”
She looked into my face. “You really want to know?”
I nodded, my eyes blurring with tears. “Yeah.”
Sitting back in her seat, she studied me. “He’s thrown himself into his new position with the state’s attorney general. They have him working on a special case, and he’s loving every minute. But I can tell he’s lonely, if nothing else than from the fact that he’s working so much. Even more than when he was an assistant DA in Little Rock and here in Fenton County.”
“Has he moved on?” I asked, my tongue feeling heavy. “Has he dated anyone else?”
She held my gaze. “The truth?”
He had. My stomach plummeted to my toes. I regretted asking the question, but for some reason I needed to know. I nodded. “Yeah.”
“He’s been on a couple of dates that I know of.”
I stared at her in shocked silence. The knowledge hurt worse than I’d expected.
Neely Kate gave me a sympathetic glance. “Are you okay?”
Maeve looked worried. “I shouldn’t have told you.”
I shook my head, wiping away a tear falling down my cheek. “No. I needed to know. I think I’ve been waiting in limbo for him to change his mind and come back. Now . . . now I know it’s okay to move on.”
“Rose, I’m so sorry,” she said as her own eyes filled with tears.
“Well,” I said, forcing a smile, “I’m not. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it, and the truth is that I wouldn’t change a thing. I saved Mason’s life. I stopped J.R. Simmons. That has to be enough.”
Maeve didn’t look entirely convinced, but she flashed me a smile. “After this discussion, I think we all need cheesecake.”
“Not me,” Neely Kate said, pushing back her chair. “I’m going to head home, but Rose, you should stay.”
I gave her a worried glance. “Are you sure?”
She grinned. “There are a lot of perks to gaining an older brother, but there are a few drawbacks as well. Like the fact he makes me check in with him every six hours or so while he’s out of town.” She winked at me. “Thanks for the save about being in the bathroom this afternoon.”
My eyes widened as I realized I’d forgotten to tell her about Joe’s call.
She laughed. “It’s good. But now he’s calling me Princess Porcelain.” But the light in her eyes told me that she liked having a big brother to tease and annoy her.
Maeve beamed. “I’m so happy Joe finally came to his senses and realized what a gift it was to find a half-sister he never knew about.” She turned to me. “And I know you might have had a thing or two to do with that.”
Shaking my head, I laughed. “Someone had to shake some sense into him.”
Neely Kate gave Maeve a hug goodbye, then scooped up a drowsy Muffy and took her home.
Maeve and I had a slice of cheesecake, and after I helped her clean up the kitchen, she walked me to the door. We stood there for a moment, and then she took my hands and looked into my eyes.
“I love you like a daughter, Rose Anne Gardner, and you were the best thing to happen to Mason in ages. But I understand if you change your mind and decide it’s too painful to see me.”
I shook my head. “Sorry, Maeve, you’re stuck with me.” My voice stuck in my throat. “I need you more than you know.”
“I need you too.” She pulled me into a warm hug.
“Thank you for being truthful with me,” I said.
“I think we’ve had too many secrets for too long.”
While I agreed with her in principle, I seemed to be jumping back into more of them.
I was less than a mile away from home when my phone rang. The number was the one Trixie had called me from earlier.
“Trixie?”
“Yeah,” she said in a soft voice.
“What happened this afternoon?”
“I couldn’t make it.”
“I was worried.”
She released a short laugh and then began to cough. When she caught her breath, she said, “That’s funny.”
“I was. I know Buck’s not nice to you. I was worried he’d found out about our meeting.”
“What do you know about Buck?”
“Honestly, not much, but it doesn’t take a fool to realize he’s trouble with a capital T.”
She hesitated. “Let’s just say I got tied up.”
I hoped she didn’t mean literally. “How can I help you, Trixie?”
“Who says I want help?”
“Because you hardly know me, yet you’ve called me twice. I’ll try to help, but I need to know what you need.”
“I can’t talk about this on the phone. Meet me at One Eyed Joes. I’m headed there now.”
I cringed. I wasn’t sure that was a good idea given what had happened at lunch. But it was too late to ask her to meet me somewhere else. She’d already hung up.
I drove for ten more seconds, trying to make a decision, but who was I kidding. Of course I was going. The only question was whether or not to include Neely Kate, but after her earlier performance, I made the executive decision for her to sit this one out. I considered texting her to let her know, but she’d be ticked. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission had been my philosophy for the last year. No point in switching things up now.
Chapter 18
One Eyed Joes was hopping when I walked through the door. If it was this busy on a Thursday night, what was it like on the weekends?
I spotted Trixie right away. She sat at the bar, smoking a cigarette with one hand and holding a tumbler in the other. She was dressed more sedately than the last time I’d seen her, but that wasn’t saying much. While she wasn’t wearing a sequined tube top, she had on a halter shirt with a deep V, a short skirt, and four-inch spike heels. I wondered again about her profession.
The stool next to her was occupied by a middle-aged man covered in tattoos, and when Trixie saw me approach, she gave him a rough shove. “Beat it.”
He growled at her, and for a moment I thought he might hit her, but he wandered over to a group of men at the other end of the bar. One look at her made me realize that somebody else had hit her. She was good with makeup, but I could see the hint of a bruise under her eye. I took his seat, inwardly cringing
that it was warm.
“Is that from Buck?” I asked, lifting a finger to point in the general direction of her face.
“He found out I called you earlier.” She pinched her lips together and shifted her gaze to the four couples who were doing a line dance on the dance floor. “I need a drink.”
I gave her a hard stare. “Looks like you have one.”
She gulped down the quarter inch of amber liquid in her tumbler, then slammed the glass onto the counter with enough force I was surprised she didn’t break it. “And now I don’t.”
And now I was good and irritated. “If you’re insinuating that I’m gonna buy you another drink, you’ve got another think comin’.”
The bartender caught my eye and moseyed on over to me. “What can I get you?”
I glanced around the room. This didn’t seem like a wine kind of place. In fact, I had to wonder if they stocked any wine at all. “I’ll take a bottle of beer.”
“And I want a whiskey,” Trixie said with a slur. Great, she was already drunk. Was she even going to tell me why she’d called?
“She’s on her own tab,” I told the bartender.
“That’s okay,” he said with a wink. “Yours is taken care of.”
“By who?” I asked.
The bartended tilted his head sideways, and when I turned my attention to the opposite end of the bar, I found myself staring into the amused face of Buck Reynolds.
“You set me up,” I said to Trixie, trying to decide if I should be ticked or scared. Probably both.
She gave me an apologetic look. “After he found out I called you earlier . . . he made me.”
Before or after he’d given her that black eye?
“Did Buck kill Rayna?”
Tears filled her eyes. “Rayna was my best friend.”
That didn’t answer my question. I lowered my voice. “Do you need help?”
She cast an anxious glance at Buck before turning back to me, her eyes now hard. “Buck’s waitin’ for ya, and he doesn’t like to be kept waitin’.”
The bartender handed me an open bottle, and I hopped off the stool and headed over to Buck’s side of the bar. If I’d learned one thing last winter, it was this: if you find yourself in a dangerous situation, one you can’t leave, take charge of it. Buck may have called this meeting, but I could still gain the upper hand.
I walked over to him with a confident strut, reminding myself that I had a full arsenal. My loaded gun was in my purse, along with my Taser—loaded with a new cartridge and my full can of pepper spray. I could handle this. But now I was cursing myself for not contacting Jed.
No one knew I was here.
I stopped next to Buck. He’d turned in his stool and leaned his forearm on the bar. “Well, aren’t you like a cold glass of water on a hot day?”
I shot him a glare. “What do you want, Mr. Reynolds?”
He laughed. “Mr. Reynolds? Do I look like an old fart to you?”
I could play this two ways—nice or sassy—and right now I was feeling pretty cranky. I decided I could take the nice approach with the next Fenton County lowlife I encountered.
If there was a next time . . .
Who the heck was I kidding?
I put my hand on my hip. His features were strong, but there was a bit of droopiness under his eyes, plus some crow’s-feet in the corners. I’d guess him to be in his early forties, but I decided to goad him. “As a matter of fact, you do. So what do you want, gramps?”
His jaw tensed, but the surprise in his eyes was quickly replaced by amusement. “You’re a funny one . . . Rose Gardner.”
I tried not to show my shock. I’d definitely given them my fake name at Jaspers. “Aren’t you the clever one,” I said, slipping into my Lady persona without even thinking about it. Something else I’d learned while masquerading as the Lady in Black was that attitude mattered, particularly with dangerous men like this one. “You obviously went to a lot of trouble to bring me here—beating up your girlfriend and all—so why don’t you just cut to the chase?”
“I want that necklace.”
“You and everyone’s brother.”
His eyes narrowed to dark slits. “It’s mine.”
“Well, congratulations,” I said with a hint of sass. “I’m not sure what you want me to do about it.”
“I know Raddy hired you and your friend to look for it. And I know you two have been known to get results. So when you find it, you’re gonna skip the middleman and bring it straight to me. Got it?”
“So you’re gonna pay us the five hundred dollars Raddy promised us upon delivery?”
He laughed, but it wasn’t a pleasant sound. “Yeah. Sure.”
We were far more likely to win the bucking bronco event at the Fenton County Rodeo than we were to get our money from Buck. But that was beside the point.
“I’m gonna need that necklace by tomorrow night,” he said.
“I’m very well aware of the deadline.”
“How’d you get mixed up with Skeeter Malcolm?”
I should have expected that question. That’s probably why I was here. It occurred to me that I hadn’t just used my pseudonym with Buck; I’d given it to Hugh Wagner too. Were the Wagners mixed up in this? “Coincidence. Same place. Same time.”
“To take down J.R. Simmons.”
“That’s right. It was all in the news.”
“Funny how Malcolm got involved.”
I gave a noncommittal shrug.
“Rumor has it you were the Lady in Black.”
I laughed and then took a swig of my beer. “I heard she was a sophisticated business woman from Louisiana.”
Rather than answer, he picked up his drink and took a sip. “You’re an interesting woman, Rose Gardner.”
I set my bottle on the bar. “I think I’ll be going now. I would say it was a pleasure, Mr. Reynolds, but that would be a lie.”
I turned around and headed toward the door.
“We’re not finished here,” he called after me, his voice carrying over the noise.
“I say we are.” I kept walking toward the door, my heart beating wildly in my chest. I expected him to have someone stop me, but I reached the door and walked out. Moments later, I got into my truck, turned it on, and instantly locked the doors. No one had stopped me. No one else had even called out my name. What in the world was Buck Reynolds up to? Why had he arranged for me to come meet him? Had I given him what he wanted to know? What had he gained by seeing me in person rather than talking to me on the phone?
Against my better judgment, I called James. If Buck was asking around about him, I had a feeling he should know.
“Rose,” he said when he answered, his tone hard to read.
“Something happened I think you should know about.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. But someone was asking about me working with you last winter.”
“Who?”
“Buck Reynolds.”
He was silent for several seconds. “He asked you when you saw him last night?”
“No. Tonight. Just now.”
“What were you doing hanging out with Buck Reynolds?”
I released a long sigh. “Trixie called me. She said she needed my help and asked me to meet her at One Eyed Joes.”
“You went back there after what happened this afternoon?”
Of course Jed had told him, but it didn’t sit right that James was now getting half his information about me secondhand. “I didn’t bring Neely Kate this time.”
He paused, and when he responded, his voice was hard. “Jed’s sittin’ across from me, so who the hell was your backup?”
I understood his concern, but I wasn’t interested in a lecture. “Do you want to hear what happened or not?”
“Did he hurt you?”
“What? No.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“No. Not directly. Now shut up and let me tell you what happened.” When he didn’t interrupt, I c
ontinued. “When I saw Trixie with Buck last night, I could tell she was scared of him, so I asked the bartender to slip her a note.”
“And what did this note say?”
“I told her to call me if she needed help. I left my number, but she didn’t have my real name. I used the fake name that I used when Neely Kate and I went to the pawn shop.”
“So Trixie called you and asked you to meet her at the bar.”
“She called me around lunchtime and asked me to meet her at One Eyed Joes—that’s why Neely Kate and I were there, but Trixie never showed. She said Buck found out.” I told him about her black eye, the way Buck had announced his presence, and how he’d known my real name and that Neely Kate and I were looking for the necklace. “He told me to bring the necklace to him when we found it, and then he wanted to know how I knew you.”
“He said my name.”
“Yes.”
He waited a beat, then asked, “So what did you tell him?”
“That we only worked together because we both had our own reasons for taking down J.R. He asked if I was Lady, but I laughed it off as ridiculous and then left.”
“He let you?”
“He said we weren’t finished, but I walked out anyway, and he didn’t stop me.”
“Where are you now?”
“On my way home.”
“Is anyone following you?”
“No. I’ve been lookin’.” I’d learned my lesson with Jed earlier in the day. “Was Jed followin’ me all day or just to One Eyed Joes?”
“Neither. He saw you pull into the lot. Figured if you were hanging out in a trucker bar, you might need backup. And he was right. So let’s talk about why you chose to go there alone tonight.”
“After what happened this afternoon, I didn’t want to bring Neely Kate.”
“Good call. So why didn’t you call Jed?”
“Come on, James. Isn’t he tired of playing babysitter?”
“It doesn’t matter if he is or not. His job is to do what I tell him to do.”
“You don’t have to send anyone at all. I did just fine on my own tonight.”
“You got lucky, and you damned well know it.”
Family Jewels: Rose Gardner Investigations #1 Page 19