Family Jewels: Rose Gardner Investigations #1

by Denise Grover Swank

“The Bunny Ranch is a strip club, which is watched over by the sheriff’s department. I treat my dancers better than most places. They get guaranteed wages, and I offer health benefits. I’m pretty much the only place in the state to offer that.”

  “They’re still sleepin’ with customers for money,” Kip said. “Prostitution.”

  “What they do when they leave the club is their own damn business. We recommend that they don’t for their own safety, but we don’t stop them either. And we sure as hell don’t take a cut.” James’ eyes turned hard. “So no, Wagner. It’s not do as I say. I don’t condone prostitution, and I won’t allow anyone to run a prostitution network in this county.”

  “Then how the hell am I supposed to make money?”

  “I have several opportunities for men who’ve proved themselves loyal to me. I’d be more than happy to take a meeting, Wagner, but you have to prove I can trust you. After this stunt, you’re back at square one. But I’m willing to revisit this again if you choose to prove yourself.”

  Kip looked genuinely shocked.

  “Any more questions, Mr. Wagner?” I asked. “Anything else you’d like to discuss?”

  “No,” he snapped, but he seemed less angry than when he’d first walked in.

  “You’re not falling for his bullshit, are you, Wagner?” Buck asked in disgust.

  “Mr. Reynolds, what Mr. Wagner and Mr. Malcolm discuss is between them. If you would like to bring your own matter to the table, feel free.”

  “Fine. I want my damn necklace.”

  I crossed over and stood in front of him, staring down into his arrogant face. “I told you that you would get it when we’re done.”

  He lifted his eyes to mine. “What’s to stop me from takin’ it right now and walkin’ out?”

  Neely Kate picked up one of Jed’s guns from the chair and aimed it at Buck. “How about this big ol’ gun?” She cocked her head to the side. “I don’t miss; ask anyone in this room who’s seen me shoot. And unlike Lady, I have no problem takin’ care of the trash when it needs to be taken out.”

  Buck’s face turned red, but he didn’t budge from his chair.

  “Mr. Reynolds,” I said. “How many men are supporting your takeover? Five? Ten?”

  He glared at me.

  “I know all about your coup attempt—storm the pool hall and eliminate Skeeter and Jed—but it’s a fool’s plan.”

  He jerked upright, his mouth dropping open before he managed to shake off his surprise. “How the hell would you know that?”

  “Are you serious? First off, it’s going to be so obvious who’s responsible that even the Henryetta Police Department could figure it out. Sure, you might be king, but for how long? A few days? Since it’s the Henryetta PD, your reign might take a week or two, but it hardly seems worth a lifetime in prison. It would be hard to rule there, and even harder to enjoy the fruits of your labor.”

  “I’ve got a plan,” he said with a smirk. “And I’ve got an inside man at the sheriff’s office.”

  I laughed. “I have several. And, I assure you, mine are higher placed than yours.”

  He pointed his finger at me. “I told you that you’re Malcolm’s bitch.”

  My gaze turned cold. “I warned you.”

  He grinned, comfortable in his conviction that I didn’t have the power to follow through on my threat.

  “Neely Kate,” I said. “Give me the necklace.”

  She gave it to me, and I held the gaudy necklace up, pretending to examine it. “What did Raddy say these stones were? White sapphires?”

  “That’s right.” Buck sounded more amused than angry.

  I cocked my head. “I don’t know much about white sapphires. Are they as hard as diamonds?” I asked, surveying the room for a reaction. “Anyone know? How easy is it to smash a sapphire?” I shot a glance at James. “Do any of your men happen to have a sledgehammer?”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” Buck growled.

  I turned my cold gaze to his. “Try me.” I set the necklace on the table behind me. “You broke rule number one, Mr. Reynolds, and if you do it again, I will crush every stone in this necklace and have you removed from the premises. And I suspect you won’t get far because you won’t get your weapons back.”

  The fury in his eyes told me he didn’t like his options, but he kept his mouth shut.

  “I don’t know how you came to the belief that women are beneath you, Mr. Reynolds, but you are sadly mistaken. I saw Trixie’s face. You are a lowlife piece of scum.”

  “That’s no concern of yours.” His hands, resting on the table, were clenched into fists.

  I was close enough that he could lunge across the table and grab me. My ability to keep a cool façade rested in the certainty that the two men behind me would rip Buck Reynolds apart if he so much as laid a hand on me.

  “I’m making it my concern, Mr. Reynolds,” I said, leaning over the table as I looked into his heartless eyes. “The well-being of the people in this county is my utmost concern, and you have proven that you have little regard for human life.” I stood up straighter and took a step back. “Yes, I worked with Skeeter Malcolm last winter, but I joined forces with him to eliminate an evil threat. We had a common purpose—to take down J.R. Simmons. I won’t think twice about joining forces with him again to present a united force against you. And I assure you that we will win.”

  “Who the hell are you?” he asked. “What kind of power do you think you have?”

  “She’s like Harry freaking Potter,” Neely Kate said. “Daniel Crocker tried to kill her twice, and both times she took him out and became stronger than before. Then she took out J.R. Simmons when no one else could. Trust me. You don’t want to test her patience.” Neely Kate curled her upper lip in disgust. “You, Buck Reynolds, are no Daniel Crocker.”

  Buck looked like he was beginning to have second thoughts, but it was equally obvious he didn’t want to let on that he’d been thwarted by a woman.

  I decided it was time to finish this thing. “I’m weary of the constant upheaval in this county. You may not like Skeeter Malcolm, but frankly, I don’t care. I’m not too fond of him myself right now. But he’s the best ruler this county has had in years. I don’t condone criminal activities, but I’m not naive enough to think they’re going away anytime soon. So I’d rather have a levelheaded man with a business mentality overlooking the county than a hothead who beats women and thinks Fenton County is his own personal Wild West. But I assure you, should Skeeter Malcolm abuse his power, I’ll take up arms against him too.” I grabbed the necklace and let it dangle in front of him. “You will slink back to the hole you crawled from, and you will end all attempts to take over this county. If I hear you’ve renewed your attempts, we will be enemies, Mr. Reynolds.” I leaned forward. “And that is something you do not want.”

  I took it as a good sign when he remained silent.

  I held his gaze. “I need you to agree to my terms.”

  His eyes bugged out and his head jutted forward. “You want what?”

  “You will neither interfere with Mr. Malcolm’s rule, nor will you provide support to anyone who intends to overthrow him.”

  He snorted. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  I walked over to the chair and picked up James’ biggest handgun, before I set the necklace on the table in front of James and Jed and turned on the safety. The two men watched me with expressionless faces, but I saw a twinkle in James’ eyes as I lifted his gun over my head, ready to smash the butt of the handle against the center stone.

  “All right!” Buck shouted. “I agree!”

  Picking up the necklace, I turned around to face him. “I want to hear you say the words.”

  “Fine. I won’t make a run for Malcolm’s throne, and I won’t help anyone who is.”

  I hid my relief and remained aloof. “And you won’t use this necklace to aid in any takeover attempts.”

  “I won’t.”

  I paused. “And you won’t hit Trixi
e.”

  He hesitated, then said, “Fine. I won’t hit her.”

  I dropped the necklace on the table, then put my hand on his shoulder and forced a vision of whether he would attack James. The vision quickly filled my head.

  I saw Kip sitting across the table from me—Buck—in One Eyed Joes.

  “You really gonna let it go?” Kip asked. “They weren’t lyin’ about her killin’ Daniel Crocker, and rumor has it she pulled the trigger on the gun that killed J.R. Simmons. His son just took the credit. I’m not sure it’s smart to mess with her.”

  “We’ll let it go for now. Lady freakin’ scares me, but her friend scares me even more. I won’t be able to screw Trixie for a week. It feels like my balls are about to fall off.”

  The vision lasted a second or two, but when I opened my eyes and said, “You’re not gonna screw Trixie for a week or your balls will fall off,” the look in his eyes told me I’d just scared him even more.

  He cast a glance over to Neely Kate, then said in a panicked tone, “Fine! I won’t touch her!”

  Turning toward James, I tried to control my expression. They were scared of me? “Do you have anything you’d like to address, Mr. Malcolm?”

  His face remained impassive, but the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth told me he was fighting a grin. “No. I think you’ve covered it all.”

  I pivoted back to the troublemakers on the other side. “We’re done here. Don’t make me call you back. I won’t be so lenient next time.”

  Buck snatched up the necklace, and the men beat a hasty retreat to the door. Before they left, Hugh glanced back at me and winked.

  When the door closed behind them, I let myself relax slightly, even though I was far from finished. It was time to deal with James.

  I shifted and took a few steps so I was standing in front of James, the table between us, my heels echoing in the empty space. “No argument about handing the necklace over to Buck Reynolds?”

  “I’m not happy about it, but you handled it well. The look on his face when he thought you were going to smash it would have been enough to make it worthwhile.” He held my gaze. “You forced a vision.”

  “I had to be sure he’d honor the agreement.”

  “And will he?”

  “For the time being. He’s scared of me and Neely Kate.”

  “It was pretty effective when you told him you didn’t work for Skeeter,” Jed said with a grin. “That you’d only joined forces with him.”

  “I meant every word.”

  Jed’s grin faded.

  I turned back to James. “You were going to make me look like a fool, James Malcolm.”

  He stood. “I never would have let that happen.”

  “You deceived me.”

  The emotion in his eyes shuttered closed.

  I pressed on. “You’ve come to me with information about your world for months now, and I never once thought of using it for my own personal gain behind your back. I never strung you along trying to get information.”

  He clenched his fists at his sides. “Rose, goddamnit, that’s not how it was.”

  I put a hand on my hip. “Then how was it? Because here’s how it looks to me—you found out that I was looking for the necklace, and once you realized how much it might be worth, you decided you wanted it for yourself. And when you found out it belonged to Buck Reynolds . . . well, that’s quite the trophy, isn’t it? Tell me if I’ve gotten any of this wrong.”

  He remained silent.

  “So you let me and Neely Kate do all the grunt work, but you sent Jed to follow us around in case we actually happened to find it.”

  His jaw set with anger. “That’s not true. He was there to protect you.”

  “Well, then he was there for dual purposes. Lucky you. You got a twofer.”

  “He was never going to take it from you.”

  “But he wasn’t going to let me turn it over to Raddy either, was he?”

  Silence.

  Dammit. He wasn’t even trying to lie to deny it.

  “I understand why you wanted it. If you’d told me your reasoning, I probably would have agreed with you. But what I can’t stomach is that you played along with this meeting after I called it. You decided to play me the fool and use it to your advantage.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “You practically admitted that you were going to call them to task for their misdeeds. You were going to use this meeting to mete out punishment!”

  He pointed his finger at me, shouting, “I run this goddamned county! Do you know what would happen if a man like Buck Reynolds was in charge? And we both know what he planned to do with that necklace once it was back in his possession. I can’t let men get away with undermining me, or this aggression will never end.”

  “Seems to me that I brokered a truce.”

  He shook his head. “It won’t last. It’s temporary at best.”

  “At least I tried.” I took a step toward him. “James, I know your job’s not easy. I know you have to maintain this tough exterior or you’re a sitting duck. I get it. But I thought I proved to you last winter that I could negotiate deals for you. That we were partners.”

  “We are.”

  I shook my head, close to tears. “Not tonight. You used me to get them here.”

  “I had to do it this way. You never would have approved.”

  “We could have reached an agreement together.”

  He must have seen the pain on my face. “You said you didn’t use the information you got from me for personal gain,” he said, his temper running hot. “When we both know good and well that you were using it to help that damn traitor prosecutor who ran off and abandoned you as soon as he was in the clear.”

  Tears stung my eyes. “The difference, Skeeter Malcolm, is that you knew from day one why I was helping you. I never once hid that fact from you. You used me, and I have never been so disappointed by you.”

  His eyes turned hard. “I don’t know why you’re so surprised. You know I’m a lowlife criminal, only slightly higher on the scumbag rung than Reynolds. You knew I couldn’t be trusted.”

  “And that’s the saddest part of all.” My voice broke. “You’ve proven yourself trustworthy so many times, James. I trusted you with my life. I trusted you in nearly every conceivable way . . . and you betrayed that.”

  A war waged in his eyes. “What do you want from me?” he finally said. “You want me to apologize? Don’t hold your breath. You knew who I was going into this. You knew, yet you were fool enough to trust me. So don’t go blaming me for your own poor judgment, Rose. The only person to blame here is yourself.”

  My mouth dropped open. “You truly believe that?”

  His war of emotions continued in earnest, but then his eyes turned cold. “I can’t believe you don’t.”

  He was lying. I knew that. And I knew I was ripping his heart out, but he’d hurt me too. I wasn’t going to stand there and let him hurt me more. “I think we’re done here.”

  “I guess we are.”

  When I stomped off to the back door, I could hear Neely Kate’s footfalls behind me. I turned around one last time and saw James still standing behind the table, still wearing that damn impassive face.

  Chapter 32

  After Neely Kate and I went home, I took a long hot shower and had a good cry. Then I changed into my pajamas and found Neely Kate downstairs, already cleaned up.

  “I made us both a cup of tea,” she said from the couch. She was curled up in front of two mugs. “But maybe you’d rather go to bed.”

  “No. I’m too keyed up,” I said, joining her. “Did you hear anything more from Joe?” She’d called him after we left the industrial park and told him to pick up Homer at our office.

  “He was overseeing Homer’s interrogation. He’s already confessed to killing Rayna and holding us hostage. Joe was furious we didn’t tell him sooner. He’s coming over as soon as he finishes some preliminary stuff with Homer.”

  Great
.

  “What happened with Miss Mable?” I asked. “How did you get all muddy and wet?”

  “It’s a long story, but the bottom line is that she finally confessed she’d hidden it in a bag in the pigsty. But she wouldn’t tell us where, so we had to search high and low. Jed was the one who finally found it.”

  “Then how’d you get it?”

  “He gave me his coat, and his phone was in his jacket pocket. It dinged, so I pulled it out to give it to him, but then I saw Skeeter’s text. It said you’d set up the meeting and you still believed you were giving the necklace to Reynolds. Jed had already given me the necklace, so I dropped his phone in the pigs’ water trough, got in his car, and left him there in the mud.”

  “How’d you know where to go?”

  “Jed had set up the location. He’d already told me.”

  “And Jed?”

  She shrugged. “I figured he’d call one of his boys somehow.”

  “You know he’s gonna come get his car back at some point.”

  “I’m not stopping him. It’s parked out front with the keys in the ignition,” she said with a shrug, then grinned. “You were awesome tonight.”

  “I was pissed.”

  “Well, it worked in your favor.”

  I laughed. “I can’t believe you compared me to Harry Potter.”

  “If the analogy fits . . .” She grinned. “But I want to be Hermione. Not Ron.”

  “Of course.”

  We leaned back against the sofa in silence for several moments before she said, “I’m sorry about Skeeter.”

  My throat burned, but I swallowed the lump. “Don’t be. I should have expected it, right?”

  “I don’t know, Rose. He’s changed. Anyone can see that, and I know it’s because of you.” She gave me a leery look. “You said there was nothing between you, but lately you two have had major chemistry.”

  I closed my eyes, deciding to confess. “We kissed . . . the night after I met Raddy at the fertilizer plant, but James pulled away. He told me he’d never be the man I need. A guy with a steady job, a house, and kids. I told him he had no idea what I needed, but he was probably right. Maybe he did this to drive me away from him. For my own good.”