I’d never seen Billi Jo cry like that before—not after her little brother’s funeral, not the next day, not even the following year. Never. The two of us belonged to a club that no one wanted a membership to. We were each responsible for the death of someone we loved. We understood each other’s pain.
Three bologna sandwiches, two marathon rounds of poker, and one hour of silence waiting for the sun to set later, and Billi Jo broke the spell. “I know what’ll make you feel better,” she said from her stomach-to-porch-floor position.
My eyes drifted from the orange and red sky to her as she pulled a joint from her cigarette pack. “That’ll make me hungry and tired.” I rested my back against the wood column and hugged my knees.
“What else ya got to do?” She knocked her bare feet together as she twirled the joint beneath her nose, sniffing it.
She had a point, but weed wasn’t my thing. “Where did you even get that?” I scowled.
“I make friends easily.” Billi Jo shrugged. “That guy, Joe, who used to hang out at Charlie’s bar all the time—I think he liked me.”
Kat rolled from her back onto her side and grabbed Billi Jo’s cigarette pack. “Everybody likes you, Billi Jo.”
It was true; it was impossible not to like Billi Jo, and she took full advantage of it.
Kat scowled when she peeked inside the box. “You smuggled this through the airport?”
“I kinda sorta forgot I had it on me.” She shrugged. “We left in such a hurry…”
“Kinda sorta, my ass.” Kat tipped the box and five more joints spilled into her hand.
I snatched the cigarette Billi Jo had abandoned off the bottom half of an empty beer and took a small puff. “Regular people bring back t-shirts, tattoos, or new husbands from Vegas; you bring back weed.”
“One souvenir’s as good as another.” She smirked and stuck the joint in her mouth. “Actually, that’s not true. Weed trumps all.” She swiped the lighter off the porch decking.
I snuffed out her half-used cigarette into our makeshift ashtray because really, I hated cigarettes and smoke. “You ever think about givin’ it up?”
“Nope.” She cupped her hand over the joint and prepared to light up. The rumble of Justice’s truck made her take her finger off the lighter and put her goods away.
I glared at Kat. “So, what’s this three-day rule, anyway? How did you know Justice would show today?”
“One day for him to get rid of his girlfriend, one for you to cool off, and one for you to miss each other.” While I considered the believability of her theory, she added, “And he may have mentioned he had to work overtime the last two days and only a half day on Saturday.”
“And you didn’t bother to mention any of that three days ago?”
Kat smirked. “You said you didn’t care what he did, remember?”
I still didn’t care. In fact, I was still irritated at his earlier stunt. How dare he lead me to believe he was going to kiss me and then make fun of me.
Justice edged around the corner of the porch, his eyes laser-beaming me. “You speakin’ to me yet?”
I walked to the bottom of the steps to meet him. “No.”
“Well, just listen, then; I wanted to let you know I’m goin’ out with my friends tonig—”
“So?”
He ignored my interruption. “I was only telling you because I thought ya’ll might wanna go to my house to do some laundry while I’m not there.”
I scowled at him. “Oh joy, Saturday night laundry. How old am I?”
He cocked his head sideways. “Seventeen goin’ on seven. Now back to the laundry—you left these in my dryer the other day.” The edges around his eyes crinkled as he handed me a bag.
I peeked in the bag at my freshly washed clothes, my striped bikini underwear right on top. How embarrassing—at least they weren’t granny panties.
“Here’s the hair conditioner you wanted, too.”
“Thanks.” I snatched the other bag out of his hand. Expecting to find honeysuckle scented conditioner, I held up the blue and white bottle. It read: Mane n’ Tail Conditioner for horses. “Justice!”
With a wide grin, he said, “I couldn’t resist.”
I opened my mouth to yell at him, but he spoke over me. “Now listen.” When I twisted my body away from him, he stepped closer and attempted to lock eyes with mine. “Listen,” he raised his voice an octave and moved his upper body to be in front of me. “Stay out of trouble while I’m gone. You seem to have this habit—”
“I don’t really take orders very well.” I looked past him out at the sinking sun; staring into those eyes was like staring at your favorite candy and knowing you could never taste it. “You should know that.”
“It’s not an order, just a request. One that would be very wise of you to take.”
I put my hands on my hips. “I’m not promisin’ anything.”
He gave a long sigh. “That’s what I was afraid of.” He tapped his index finger to his lips. “I didn’t want to have to do this…but you don’t leave me any choice.”
“What are—”
“Ladies,” he called past me to my friends, “would you like some ice-cold beer?”
They shot up attentively, and I glared at him.
“I just happen to have an extra case in my cooler.”
Needing no further information, Billi Jo sprinted toward the bed of his truck.
“Wait a minute,” he held up his hand to stop her, “there’s a catch. You have to promise to keep this one out of trouble.” He pointed down at me.
“Deal,” they chimed.
Justice shrugged at me, then fetched his cooler and carried it to the porch. “I would stay here and hang out with you lovely ladies, but Zach and Kyle said if I don’t get out tonight, they’re gonna kidnap me. They think I haven’t been comin’ around much because I’m depressed over the breakup.” He grinned.
“I wish Kyle would come and kidnap me,” Billi Jo piped up.
Justice winced. “Sorry, Billi Jo, Kyle is allergic to smoke.”
“Deal breaker.” She blew a heavy cloud of cigarette smoke in the air. “What about Zach?”
“I’ve got dibs on Zach,” Kat broke in, and we all laughed.
My friends had given up a lot of things to help me—dating was one of them. I knew it was a real stretch for Billi Jo. And even though Kat never mentioned it, I knew she missed the attention of guys. She had always treated dating as a recreational sport—kind of like bow hunting. Her technique was calculated and flawless as she set her sights on a target. She’d take down her prey effortlessly, before they ever knew what hit them—leaving them stunned, helpless, but always begging for more.
Billi Jo glared at Justice. “Um, I think your math is off. This is only half a case.”
He gave her a smug grin. “You’ll get the other twelve when I get back—if you keep up your end of the bargain.”
“Well, you’d better be plannin’ on makin’ it a short night, then,” Billi Jo threatened.
I folded my arms in front of me, unappreciative of the fact that my opinion didn’t count. Then Justice spoke only to me again. “I know you’re probably gettin’ bored here, but it’ll be over soon, and you’ll be free to go wherever you want. Until then, I feel it’s my responsibility to keep you safe…from yourself.” He raised his eyebrows. “Please be here when I get back.”
“Do I have a choice?” I glared toward the two happy guardsmen sitting on the porch with their ice-cold ammunition in their hands.
“Yes, you do.”
I fluttered my fingers at him to go away. “I’ll be right here on house arrest while you go celebrate your new freedom.”
He flashed his obnoxiously cute, uneven-dimple grin. “I’d rather be here with you, if that counts for anything.”
My heart stumbled, and I had to look away before I let myself fall for his words and the smooth, husky voice that delivered them. “Not really.”
“Be here when I get back?” he
pleaded.
“No worries,” I mumbled under my breath.
As I watched Justice walk away, I ached to stop him and confess that I’d rather be here with him, too. But I couldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair. Besides, how many times could I stand to set myself up for rejection?
“No worries,” I repeated and crossed my fingers behind my back like a seven-year-old.
Just in case.
29
BREAKING AND ENTERING
House arrest wasn’t so bad considering we had beer and a deck of cards. It was the idea of it that bugged me.
Shuffling the deck, Billi Jo asked, “So, how long ya think it’s gonna take for the chief to find some dirt on the Westfields? I’m ready to blow this joint.”
I picked up my cards as Billi Jo tossed them down on the porch floor. “He has to find proof, and since Winston is out of his jurisdiction, it complicates everything. The Westfields have family in the police department, anyway, so getting a search warrant without them finding out is out of the question. And their brother-in-law happens to be the bank president, so getting bank records would be like breaking into Fort Knox.”
Kat studied her hand. “Sounds like it could take a while.”
I nodded. “The chief said it probably would. And that’s the problem. Those postcards I sent out stirred the law up all over again. They’re following my sister and harassing her and Justice. I don’t have time to sit around and wait any longer. It’s only a matter of time before they follow him straight to us, and then we’re all in trouble.”
Billi Jo eyed me over her fan of cards. “Maybe there’s a way around—”
“I’m sure if there was,” Kat cut her off, “the chief would have thought of it by now.”
My mind started to race. Was there a way to remedy this sooner? Something so simple I hadn’t even considered it? Something that would end all of this sooner so Jamie and Justice didn’t have to have cops harassing them, so the chief didn’t have to put his career on the line, and so my friends didn’t have to risk getting in trouble. “He is trying to keep it legal,” I said out loud without meaning to.
“No.” Kat shook her head. “Whatever it is, no. We finally have an opportunity to have the law on our side. We need to lay low and wait it out.”
“There is no we, only I. You guys have risked enough for me. From now on, any investigative work is going to be done by me alone.”
Kat leaned back against a porch column. “We’ll see about that.”
“Think about it, though,” I continued. “If Team Westfield gets wind that the chief is looking for evidence against them, it’s over. They would destroy it, then hunt me down. I’m not sayin’ I’ve figured out how to find any evidence, I’m just sayin’ maybe it wouldn’t hurt to consider other options.”
“Funny, I see only two options: let your cop daddy do the job he’s trained to do, or get yourself thrown in prison.” Kat held out her arms and balanced them back and forth like a scale comparing the weight of a naked mole rat to a wildebeest.
“But what if it takes a long time? What if it doesn’t work anyway and the chief loses his job? Then I have to add his name to the growing list of people whose lives I’ve screwed up.” After everything everyone had done for me, the thought of it all falling apart before I could fix it made my stomach physically ache.
Billi Jo released a gust of smoke into the ozone layer. “Too bad we can’t just break into that bank and get their bank records out of the safe or vault or whatever.”
Sometimes Billi Jo’s simple thinking sparked my best ideas. “Yep, too bad.” I tried to hide the gleam in my eyes by staring down at the full house I lay down.
Billi Jo looked at my cards. “Damn, tonight is your lucky night.”
Yes it is. I stood up and opened the screen door. “Everybody ready for another beer?”
“Sure,” Kat answered.
Billi Jo raised her eyebrows. “You have to ask?”
After I was inside, I hurried to my bunk bed, grabbed a pair of socks, and pulled out my tennis shoes from under the bed. I went to the side window just out of their line of sight and eased it open. Swinging down effortlessly, I headed around the back of the house to the car. I was about to open the car door when I noticed the interior light was on, casting a glow on my friends’ smug faces.
“Aww, come on!” I kicked the tire.
Kat held up a beer. “Beer was in the cooler on the porch, genius.”
“You guys can’t—”
“It’s not up for discussion, and you’re outnumbered.” Kat crossed her arms in front of her chest. “We’re going with you.”
I sucked in a deep breath and exhaled.
Kat opened the door and pulled the driver’s seat up so I could slide into the back.
After I settled in, Kat put her fist out and said, “All for one and one for all.” Everyone voluntarily touched their fists together.
Kat turned the ignition and raised her eyebrows as she waited for me to explain. “Spill your plan.”
“Okay, here’s the backstory. When I used to work for the Westfields, I picked up my paychecks in their office—their barn office. I was there with Logan one day when some guy came to pick up a check that Logan’s dad had left for him. It was a big check—a $200,000 check—for a horse. They kept a separate farm account, like if you were purchasing horses or—”
“Land or a house.” Kat finished my sentence and pulled out of Justice’s driveway onto the main road.
I nodded eagerly. “Ms. Banard said that Richard Westfield wrote her a check for $350,000. Maybe they tried to pass it off as a farm purchase so their little business transaction would never seem out of place. If I’m lucky, there’s a carbon copy of that check in the checkbook—which they keep in their safe.”
Kat stared awestruck at me in the rearview mirror. “The grace of a buffalo, the mind of a lynx.”
I smiled. “I’m gonna take that as a compliment.”
“And the search warrant thing with the chief you mentioned won’t fly because the Westfields would destroy evidence before he finished filing the paperwork,” Kat added.
Billi Jo rubbed her hands together. “So you’re ready to add breaking and entering to your rap sheet?”
“I won’t have to because I don’t plan on gettin’ caught. I know my way around and I happen to know they don’t have an alarm system on their barn. Their alarm is the employees who live there full time.”
“You plan on throwing a smoke bomb in the barn to get them out?” Billi Jo asked.
“If we could go a little faster, I won’t have to. Besides, they always go out on the town on Saturday nights. And this, my friends…” I clasped my hands together, “happens to be Saturday night.”
Kat gunned it and Billi Jo’s eyes blazed with anticipation. “Justice is going to be sooo mad at us.”
“Not if we get back before he does,” I said.
A surge of adrenaline pulsed through my veins as we drove slightly past the Westfields’ property line. I directed Kat to an overgrown drive where she turned the lights off and pulled behind an abandoned barn. I grabbed the flashlight out of the glove box, and we bailed out of the car. Waving my friends in close for a huddle, I shined the flashlight in the direction of our course. “Listen, we have to move quickly in case the workers come back early…or the dogs start freaking out.”
“Dogs?” Billi Jo’s bug eyes darted around.
“Yeah, did I forget to mention they have three Doberman Pinschers?”
Kat glared at me. “Let’s just laugh in the face of danger, why don’t we?”
“It’s okay, those dogs like me.”
Billi Jo swallowed hard. “What about the rest of us?”
“That depends,” I couldn’t help myself, “on if you smell like food.”
“Okay, I’m safe.” She pulled a lighter and a joint from her cigarette pack. “I definitely will not be smellin’ like food.”
“Oh, put that away.” I pushed the lighter down. “I
don’t need to tack on an arson charge. I was kiddin’. They don’t have any dogs.”
Kat gave me a tight smile. “Instead of joking, shouldn’t you be nervous or something?”
I should’ve been, but my unnatural confidence when it came to breaking into things had taken over. Giving my friends a wicked grin, I motioned for them to follow me. Darting through the dark field and hiding behind trees and fence posts, we either looked like highly trained Navy Seals or Wile E. Coyote trying to sneak up on the Roadrunner. I had a suspicion it was the latter.
My heart beat smooth and steady as I checked the barn for humans, then led the way to the office. “First things first,” I whispered and held up my finger for them to wait there. I walked around to the medical supply cabinet, swiped a pair of rubber gloves, and returned. “I have to do this right.” I snapped on my gloves, then opened the closet door containing the safe.
“Sherlock,” Kat tapped her fingers on her crossed arms, “when you mentioned something about a safe, I assumed it would be some little ol’ lock box with a key, something small-time that the bobby pin bandit could actually master. How exactly do you plan on getting into that safe?” She gazed at the very large, very unbreakable safe. “Did you bring something we don’t know about—a stick of dynamite, maybe?”
I looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “’Course not; that would scare the horses.” I shoved the flashlight in her hand and pointed to where I wanted her to shine it. “Watch and learn, ye of little faith.” I rubbed my gloved hands together. For effect, I tapped on the safe and put my ear up to it to listen like they do in the old movies. After a minute of letting my friends sweat, I twisted the combination lock and swung open the door to the safe. Then I turned back to them and took a bow. “River Daniels, burglar extraordinaire.”
Two mouths gaped.
“Oh, I knew the combination.” I waved my hand at them. “I was in here with Logan once when he’d had a few too many beers. He blabbed that the combination was his birth date. Unless they’d changed it, I knew it’d be a piece of cake.”
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