I Can't Make You Love Me, but I Can Make You Leave

by Dixie Cash

  “Yeah,” Edwina said, squaring her shoulders.

  Mike’s eyes grew wide. “Whoa! Ho—hold on, man.”

  “Why did you do it, Mike?” Debbie Sue said. “Why did you kill Roxie? And what’s with the bandage on your hand? Did she bite you or something?”

  “Yeah,” Edwina said again. “She was a pain in the ass, but to kill her?”

  Mike struggled in his chair, pulled at his restraints. “Dammit, I didn’t kill anybody. Here, look at my hand, see for yourself. She didn’t bite me. See for yourself.”

  Buddy looked from the two women on the small couch to Vic and shrugged.

  Vic approached Mike. He went behind him and with a single motion freed him. “You just try something, sucker. I wish you would.”

  “Hold your hand out,” Buddy ordered.

  Mike raised his arm and held his hand in front of him. “See?”

  Debbie Sue rose unsteadily from her seat and went to where he sat. She grabbed the corner of the bandage and yanked it off in one clean movement. Mike yelped.

  Debbie Sue peered down. Buddy moved in for a look and Edwina pressed her face between their shoulders. On Mike’s hand, in bold black letters two inches wide, with a small heart dotting the letter i, was the name Roxie. “What the hell is that?”

  “That’s pretty gutsy,” Edwina said, “getting a married woman’s name tattooed on your hand, right under her husband’s nose. I’m surprised you weren’t the one killed.”

  “You’re not just a murderer, you’re an asshole!” Debbie Sue punched Mike’s shoulder with her fist. “Bob Denman was good to you. And to Roxie, too, for that matter.”

  “I didn’t want to do this,” Mike said. “It was her idea.” He shook his head, a mournful frown on his face. “You don’t know how she was, what it was like to be around her all the time. A person couldn’t tell her no.”

  “That won’t wash, friend,” Vic said. “Sitting for a tattoo takes time and it can hurt like hell, especially on the back of the hand. You could have said no.”

  “You don’t understand,” Mike said, shaking his head. “It’s temporary ink. You know that tattoo dude, Matt? We spent the afternoon at his place. You know, the tatt den out on the Interstate. He had some bodacious weed and we got stoned. When my head cleared I had this.” He held up his hand for all to see. “I slapped a bandage on it so that Bob wouldn’t see it at the show.”

  “You stabbed a woman to death because you got tatted up with her name?” Vic asked. “Sheesh. And I’ve been called barbaric.”

  Mike looked up at Vic and leaned away from him.

  Valetta Rose sniffled. “Mike—”

  “Shut up, Rosie! I told you’d I’d take care of this!”

  “No,” she yelled back. “This has gone on long enough.” Sobbing now, she turned to Debbie Sue and Edwina. “I did it. I killed Roxie. But it was an accident.”

  Her shoulders began to shake and wails came from her mouth. A waterfall of tears spilled down her cheeks. “She promised me so much and then she started getting nervous. She didn’t want anyone to find out she’d had an affair with a woman. That kind of news might not hurt her in the pop music culture, but it would never work in country.”

  “No, no. She’s lying,” Mike shouted.

  “You were sleeping with Roxie and Mike?” Debbie Sue asked.

  “Well, Jesus Christ,” Edwina said, propping a fist on her hip. “And I thought I’d been around the block.”

  “I’m not lying,” Valetta Rose said. “My blood’s at the scene if it can be found with all of Roxie’s. I—I touched her and she stabbed my hand with the nail file.” She looked up at Buddy. “If you’ll cut these bands, I’ll show you.”

  Vic moved behind her and cut the plastic that bound her. She spat on the top of her hand and began rubbing off a heavy skin concealer that covered a reddened puncture wound.

  “We had a fight after she stabbed me,” Valetta Rose said between sobs. “I fell on top of her and somehow the file must have gotten stuck into her neck. When I saw what had happened, I panicked and ran.”

  Debbie Sue shook her head in disbelief. “Holy shit. This is even more bizarre than I imagined.” She stared at Mike. “You’re innocent, man. Why go down with her? You could face accessory to murder charges for aiding and abetting a murderer. Tell him, Buddy.”

  Now Mike’s eyes showed a glimmer of wetness. “I’m only guilty of one thing,” he said softly. “And that’s of being a big brother protecting my little sister.”

  Edwina’s face twisted into a frown and a scrunched-up nose. “What?”

  Debbie Sue stepped back a couple of steps and dropped to the couch. “I don’t remember hearing anything about y’all being brother and sister.”

  “We didn’t tell anybody,” Mike said. “Not even Bob. Family members traveling together on the road are generally frowned on.”

  “Mike thought it was a great opportunity for me,” Valetta Rose said, taking her brother’s hand in hers. “He didn’t want to ruin any chance I might have to further my career as a makeup artist to the stars.”

  “Rosie and I even slept in the same bedroom one night to throw them off,” Mike said, then laughed bitterly.

  Valetta Rose looked at him with tenderness. “As I remember it, Mike, you did that to keep me from sleeping with Roxie again.”

  Mike hung his head. “I was only trying to protect you from that viper.”

  “I did go into her room,” Valetta Rose said to her captors, “but it was to talk to her so she wouldn’t be so mad at everyone. She threatened to ruin Mike and Eddie in Nashville in the music community.”

  “Could she do that?” Edwina asked.

  “What’s going to happen?” Valetta Rose asked Buddy. “Mike isn’t guilty of anything. Couldn’t you just let him go and take me back to Midland?”

  “No. Hell, no,” Mike said. “I’m not letting you go alone. Rosie. We’re family. We’re in this together.” Bringing both of his arms up, he pressed his wrists together and turned to Buddy. “I’ll need you to replace those cuffs.”

  Bob fell back into the plush cushion of the couch located in the town house living room, shaking his head in disbelief. “You mean to tell me that Valetta Rose and Mike weren’t sleeping together after all?”

  “Well, they were,” Debbie Sue said leaning toward him, “but not in the biblical sense.”

  “The biblical sense?” Bob echoed.

  “You know,” Edwina piped in, “screwing. They weren’t screwing.”

  “I know what it means. I guess I’m in shock. I didn’t see that coming. She talked about her brother in Nashville . . .” he paused to run his fingers through his hair. “And it was Mike. I heard Roxie having sex with someone when I got home from your house the other night. I assumed it was Mike, I could see Eddie on the couch asleep,” Bob said, still shaking his head.

  “Bless your heart,” Debbie Sue cried, “if I hadn’t just heard Valetta Rose confess to the murder, I’d think you did it for sure.”

  “It might have insulted my manhood, but I was past caring what Roxie did,” Bob said softly. “I thought I was past being surprised by her too, but I was wrong.”

  “You’re surprised?” Edwina stammered. “The last person I’d think was a lesbian was Roxie.”

  “She wasn’t lesbian, Ed, she was bi,” Debbie Sue explained.

  “Well I’m not buying that,” Edwina said. “If you have sex with a woman, and you’re a woman, you’re a lesbian.”

  Debbie Sue sighed. “In this case you’re neither one. You’re dead.”

  “True enough,” Edwina agreed.

  “Where—where is everyone now?” Debbie Sue’s mother asked tentatively.

  “Buddy and Vic took Mike and Valetta Rose to the police station. He said they’d get things cleared to take them back to Texas.”

  “Do you think there’ll be a problem doing that?” Bob asked.

  “When you’re a Texas Ranger you can do a lot of things,” Debbie Sue answered wi
th a measure of pride. “Valetta Rose being a minor should work in her—”

  “A what?” Bob shrieked.

  Debbie Sue looked around the room at the other faces. “She’s a minor. She’s only seventeen.”

  “Oh, my God!” Bob said. “That poor kid, I feel so responsible.”

  “None of it was your fault, Bob. Roxie’s death was an accident. You have nothing to feel guilty about.”

  “Oh, my God,” Bob said again, shaking his head and dropping his face into his palms.

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Bob,” Debbie Sue said.

  “I could tell she was young and she had this devoted, hero worship of Roxie going on, but I thought that’s all it was. Just hero worship. I should have asked more questions, demanded some accountability. I didn’t because I had stopped caring. And now look at this mess.”

  The room fell silent. Bob rose to his full height. “I’ll see to it that she gets the best defense attorney I can find. That kid’s never had a break. I’ll be damned if this turns out to be a continuation of what she’s had to endure in her past short lifetime.”

  Debbie Sue stood and put a hand on his shoulder. Bob looked at her. “Has anyone thought to get the news to Darla?”

  Debbie Sue exchanged glances with Edwina. “We thought you’d like to be the one to tell her.”

  Bob smiled for the first time. “You were right. If y’all will excuse me, I’ll try to get a call through to her now.” He left the room.

  Debbie Sue’s mother said, “Good heavens, Debbie Sue. Do you mean to tell me this is the kind of thing you two girls deal with in your detective agency?”

  “Mom,” Debbie Sue said, looping her arm around her mother’s shoulder, “you don’t want to know the things we’ve dealt with. Right, Ed?”

  Edwina didn’t answer. She was frowning and chewing on her bottom lip, obviously in deep thought.

  “Ed? Did you hear what I said?”

  “I heard. I’m just trying to figure out how we’re getting on that airplane with all this food, especially this apple pecan cobbler.”

  “At least you’ve still got your priorities in order, Ed.”

  Edwina grinned. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”

  Epilogue

  Debbie Sue and Buddy and Edwina and Vic returned to Texas with Mike and Valetta Rose in custody. Detective Finley took control of the siblings at the airport and thanked everyone for his contribution in finding Roxie’s killer.

  By now all of them had learned that Valetta Rose had led a tough life that contributed to her early maturity.

  Charges against Darla were dropped and she and Bob returned to Nashville, where they remarried. Later she resumed her comeback tour accompanied only by Bob. She played the best theater venues throughout the country to sold-out audiences and then she and Bob retired to their beloved Nashville.

  No jury trial took place. Following the advice of the attorney that Bob had retained for her, Valetta Rose claimed self-defense and a judge believed her. He released her and declared the incident “an unfortunate accident.”

  Mike and Valetta Rose quickly left Midland, headed for Mexico, where Mike got a job entertaining rich Americans on vacation in Cabo San Lucas. He met and married a wealthy widow who had traveled to the resort area to forget the passing of the “great love of her life” and to spend some of the fifty million dollars he had left her.

  With his new wife’s money, Mike helped Valetta Rose open an exclusive spa near the finest American hotels in Cabo. She developed her own line of cosmetics, selling it to millions of women on Telemundo Las Compras en Casa, Mexico’s answer to QVC, and earning a small fortune of her own.

  Everyone lived happily ever after.

  About the Author

  DIXIE CASH is Pam Cumbie and her sister, Jeffery McClanahan. They grew up in rural West Texas among “real life fictional characters” and 100 percent real cowboys and cowgirls. Some were relatives and some weren’t. Pam has always had a zany sense of humor and Jeffery has always had a dry wit. Surrounded by country western music, when they can stop laughing long enough, they work together creating hilarity on paper. Both live in Texas—Pam in the Fort Worth/Dallas Metroplex and Jeffery in a small town near Fort Worth.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  Also by Dixie Cash

  Our Red Hot Romance Is Leaving Me Blue

  Curing the Blues with a New Pair of Shoes

  Don’t Make Me Choose Between You and My Shoes

  I Gave You My Heart, but You Sold It Online

  My Heart May Be Broken, but My Hair Still Looks Great

  Since You’re Leaving Anyway, Take Out the Trash

  Credits

  Cover design by Amanda Kain

  Cover photograph by Helen Norman/Getty Images

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  I CAN’T MAKE YOU LOVE ME, BUT I CAN MAKE YOU LEAVE. Copyright © 2011 by Dixie Cash. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition April 2011 ISBN: 9780062078940

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Cash, Dixie.

  I can’t make you love me, but I can make you leave / by Dixie Cash.—1st ed.

  p. cm.—(Domestic equalizers ; 7)

  ISBN 978-0-06-191014-2 (pbk.)

  1. Beauty operators—Fiction. 2. Women country musicians—Fiction. 3. Texas—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3603.A864I14 2011

  813’.6—dc22

  2010029070

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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