Better Off Dead in Deadwood (50 page)

I hadn’t thought about Cooper as someone at risk of losing his job. I’d walked in those shoes for months and knew the constant stress that came with worries about the unemployment line. “You think his job is on the line?” I asked Harvey.

He shrugged. “He’s not the kind to flap his lips about it, but could be. Or the chief will call in that flannel-mouthed, highfalutin’ detective from Rapid again, which will really get Cooper all fired up.”

As much as Cooper drove me bugshit, I didn’t want him to lose his job. There was something about knowing he and his guns were nearby that brought a level of comfort, at least when I wasn’t in his crosshairs.

“Violet,” Aunt Zoe said. “We need to talk about this book you found.”

I wrinkled my nose at the flesh-covered book, thinking how many times I’d touched it without washing my hands afterward. Did Doc know it was flesh and hadn’t told me?

“I don’t want to talk about that thing right now. I have to go to work and focus on selling a house or hotel so I don’t lose
my
job.”

Harvey held out two more pieces of bacon for me. “I’ll take the kids to school.”

“Thanks,” I told him. “We’re not done talking about what’s going on at your ranch.”

He chuckled. “You’re starting to sound like Coop now.” He turned me around and gave me a shove. “Go get all fancied up and get your ass to work. We’ll save the world another day.”

When I pulled into the parking lot, Doc’s Camaro wasn’t there. He’d had to go back to Rapid City for work yesterday. Maybe he’d driven down there again this morning. I’d try calling him later on the new cell phone he’d bought for me while he’d been there. I needed to warn him about Addy and Layne. I had a feeling dinner tonight was
not
going to be all fun and laughs.

Maybe he’d put up with us until Christmas time. I’d always been a sucker for those romance books with mistletoe, red satin lingerie with white fur, and sex in front of a crackling fire.

Doc had a nice fireplace.

I smelled Mona’s jasmine perfume as soon as I stepped inside the back door of Calamity Jane Realty. Good! The office could use a solid dose of estrogen today. Much more testosterone and sports chatter and I’d need to grow me a pair of balls to scratch just to fit in.

“Violet,” Jerry called out as I passed his office doorway.

I backed up and looked inside. Mona stood over his shoulder, her cheeks seeming a bit flushed. Her peach sweater molded to her nicely, enhancing her figure. I needed to take her shopping with me to help pick out clothes that would make Doc putty in my hands.

“Did you hear about what happened at the opera house up in Lead?” Jerry asked.

I needed to step carefully, uncertain what Cooper had shared and if I’d get another foul for my part in the whole mess. “Yeah. It’s too bad.”

Mona was watching me closely, her lips pressed together. I avoided eye contact. The woman was too good at seeing through my smoke screens, just like Aunt Zoe.

“Detective Cooper was in here yesterday,” Jerry said.

“Oh, yeah?” Crap. Cooper could have told me that this morning. Instead he’d been too busy chewing my ass.

“He told me they had a solid lead on Jane’s murderer.”

No shit. Did that mean Cooper actually believed my story about Caly being the killer? “Good. Her murderer needs to be found and dealt with.”

I was ninety-nine-percent sure I hadn’t seen the last of Caly, and I was one hundred percent sure just the sight of her would scare the holy hell out of me.

“Zelda Britton called for you this morning,” Mona told me. “I left her number on your desk.”

“Thanks.” I needed to see if the Brittons were still interested in Wanda’s place. The idea of having a reunion with Prudence made me all fidgety inside, but the need to make money and keep my job left me little choice. However, I wasn’t touching anyone under any circumstances while under that roof.

“Your friend, Doc Nyce, stopped by earlier, too.” Mona winked at me. “He left you something on your desk.”

“Cool,” I said, figuring he’d forgotten some attachment for my fancy new phone. “Did you have anything else to tell me, Jerry?”

“Yeah. Get out there and sell that hotel. Oh, and close my door behind you.”

“Will do, coach,” I said, holding my hand up for an air high-five. With his arms at his sides, Jerry just frowned at me, so I shut him and Mona in his office and headed for my desk, feeling like I’d won the Idiot-of-the-Day award.

I dropped my purse on the floor next to my desk with a sigh. So much for being one of the boys this morning. Lucky for me, selling the hotel was once again a possibility after yesterday’s call from Tiffany. Her client had agreed to the extension, so she’d met me at the hotel in the afternoon to collect Cornelius’s check and sign off on the extension.

I glanced at Ray and Benjamin’s empty chairs. Where were they? Off making a multimillion dollar sale to some big name actor who was looking for a summer log mansion to use as a “cabin”?

A small black box tied with a purple ribbon sat on my desktop. It was too big for a ring, more like a bracelet box. What had Doc given me? I untied the ribbon and pulled off the lid, laughing aloud when I saw the fancy-wrapped soap in the bottom. I picked it up and sniffed. It smelled like chocolate and peanut butter. Yum.

A card was in the bottom of the box. I picked it up and read:

Boots,

Look what I found—edible soap. Feeling dirty?

My bed’s too dry without you.

Doc

I pocketed the card and put the soap back in the box while my heart picked petals from a daisy, playing the he-loves-me game.

My desk phone rang. I picked it up. “Calamity Jane Realty, this is Violet.”

“Hi, Violet, it’s Zelda Britton.”

“Zelda, I was just going to give you a call. We’ve been playing phone tag lately.”

“I’m sorry about that. I’ve been at a librarian’s conference for the last week and haven’t had much of a chance to talk to Zeke about the house until yesterday.”

“Librarian’s conference?” I fell into my chair.

“Yeah, it was a blast. There were lots of great workshops with some of my favorite authors, and the parties each night rocked. We librarians aren’t as prim and proper as most people think.”

Librarian!
It all clicked in place. Prudence wanted me to bring her “the librarian.” Zelda had been in the Carhart house when it was up for sale the first time.

I tuned back in as Zelda said something about Zeke’s uncle passing away. “I’m sorry,” I said, wondering how to switch from a family member’s death to selling her a house.

“Thanks. He was a wonderful man. That’s why I’m calling. He left Zeke some money, and we’ve decided we’re still
very
interested in the Carhart house.”

“In spite of its history?” I asked, wanting to be totally on the level with Zelda, whose friendly smile and kind eyes I’d liked right out of the gate.

“Even more so with its history. I think I told you that I’m really into ghosts, didn’t I?”

Good, because I had one who I suspected was asking for Zelda specifically. “You may have mentioned it,” I said. “When can you two come to town and take a look at the place again?”

“We were thinking about driving up there next week.”

“Perfect. Let’s get something on the calendar.”

Five minutes later, I hung up and gnawed on my knuckles. Was taking Zelda to Prudence a good idea? What did Prudence want with the librarian? What if Prudence hurt her? Could a ghost inflict pain? I’d have to ask Doc what he thought, see if he wanted to be around when I took Zelda there.

The bell over the front door dinged. I looked up and did a double take. Natalie limped toward me, wearing a
Deadwood Rocks
long-sleeve T-shirt and blue jeans, her cast gone. In one hand, she held my other purple cowboy boot. She looked as stunning as ever with her long brown hair curling around her face. Her eyes gave away nothing, her cards held close to her vest.

I stood, feeling my heart beating in my fingertips.

When she stopped in front of my desk, I opened my mouth to beg her not to beat me up with my own boot, but she held up her hand, silencing me.

“You should have told me from the start, Violet.”

My eyes watered. “I know. I’m so sorry, Nat. I was such a dipshit.”

She nodded once. I wasn’t sure if that was an acceptance of my apology or acknowledgment that I was indeed a dipshit. “You haven’t texted me for a few days.”

So she was getting my texts. The knot in my chest loosened, freed by a thread of hope. “I dropped my phone in a toilet Monday night.”

“I heard. I also heard you had some more fun with an albino.”

Who told her that? Only Doc, Cooper, Aunt Zoe, and I knew that I thought Caly was an albino. Oh, wait, Harvey knew. He must have talked to her.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Mostly.” I wasn’t sure I’d ever be
okay
again, not after all of the bizarre crap I’d experienced since moving to Deadwood.

“Good, because I still love your crazy ass and don’t want to see you hurt.” She gave me a crooked smile. “And as pissed as I was that after all of these years you didn’t trust in my love for you enough to come clean about Doc right away, I need you in my world.”

As pissed as I was
… Did that mean she wasn’t pissed anymore? “I’ve missed you so much, Natalie,” I whispered, blinking away tears. “I’m really sorry.”

“Enough with the sorry shit. You’re forgiven, but I reserve the right to punch you in the arm a few times just for the hell of it.”

“Deal.”

“And at the risk of sounding super corny, let me add that no man will ever come between us, Violet Lynn Parker. Not after all we’ve been through over the last three decades.”

“I love you, Nat.”

Her smile widened. “All right, that’s enough of this soap opera shit. Now, are you and Doc still …” she let it trail off.

I grimaced, not wanting to hurt her, but there’d be no more hiding Doc from her, from anyone … well, except for Tiffany, at least until Cornelius owned that damned hotel. I didn’t want any jealousy about my sleeping with her ex-boyfriend to screw up the sale. “Yes,” I told Natalie. “We’re still together.”

Her lips pursed. “You haven’t pushed him away yet. Interesting.”

Natalie knew my history with men and my tendency to slam on the brakes as soon as I passed the third date mark. Maybe that was why Doc had lasted so long, we had yet to have a real date.

“Doc doesn’t budge very easily.”

“I noticed that about him. So, are we talking about a long-term ‘wowing’ between the sheets for you here or is this the real thing?”

I glanced around to make sure Mona and Jerry weren’t behind me before whispering, “I think I’ve fallen in love with him.” Actually, there was no thinking about it. I loved him, and it scared the holy hell out of me.

Her eyebrows lifted. “No shit?”

“No shit.”

“That’s good. I’m glad things are going well for you in the man department, because I have something to tell you related to another member of the male sex that is going to fuck up your day.”

Cooper!
My gut clenched. Now what? Was he going to come drag me off to jail again?

“Guess who I just saw up at the Piggly Wiggly?” Natalie asked.

Zeb the zombie? “I don’t know, who?”

She held up my other purple boot and let it go. It clunked onto my desktop. “Rex Conner.”

I gasped, the wind knocked out of me. I clutched the edge of my desk. “No!”

She pulled out her phone and held it in front of my face, showing me his picture on the screen as proof. “In the stinking, rotten flesh.”

My blood boiled at the sight of Addy and Layne’s father, still as tall, blond, and handsome as ever. “What’s that son of a bitch doing here?”

“I don’t know.” She snarled down at Rex’s picture. “But I’m betting it has something to do with the results of his sperm donation ten years ago.”

“God damn it!” I dropped into my chair. “I’m going to end up in jail again.”

“You and me both, babe,” Natalie said. “After Cooper pries my fingers from around that piece of shit’s neck, maybe you and I can share a cell.”

The End … for now

Speed Dating with Ann Charles

I asked some of my wonderful friends in my Ann Charles’ Purple Door Saloon group on Facebook to come up with questions for me to answer in one sentence for the end of this book—speed-dating style.

Will you be going on a book signing tour following the release of this fourth Deadwood book?

I wish, but no; however, I will be in Deadwood in July 2013 for over a week, bugging my friends there, signing books wherever they’ll let me, eating frybread and steak until I burst, and trying to soak up as much of the Black Hills as I can.

Is the Historic Homestake Opera House a real place or a fictional building?

Yes, it’s a real operating Opera House in Lead with a wealth of wonderful history and architecture—and rumors of ghostly inhabitants.

How much time do you get to spend in the Black Hills/Deadwood doing research and absorbing the atmosphere each year?

Not nearly enough, but I hope to change that in the future and make some of my Black Hills friends really sick and tired of seeing my face.

Are any of the crazy antics in Violet’s life taken from your own life (like with her kids)?

Yes—I’m a sponge for all things wacky in the universe, I’m an A-#1 klutz, I’m a parent of adventurous children, and I thrive on laughter (especially at my own follies). Welcome to my world, aka Violet’s Deadwood!