Lingerie and Lariats (Rough & Ready#7) (16 page)

Jerry walked to the window, pushed the curtain aside, and looked out into the parking lot. His rental car was parked directly in front of the door to his room. It was getting dark. Later tonight he’d do what he’d been dying to since the moment he’d met Sheriff Cooper.

He moved away from the window and to the old bureau where he took his wallet and keys off the top and stuffed them into his pockets. His cell phone he left on the bureau. He knew law enforcement retraced a suspect’s cell phone signal history through the provider’s logs. If law enforcement wanted to retrace his steps, they’d think he’d been in Nogales while everything went down.

A loud knock caused him to give a hard smile. It had to be Luis. He walked the two steps to the door and opened it to find the man standing on the concrete walk. Jerry took a step back and let Luis into the motel room.

Luis closed the door behind him. “What job do you have for me?”

“I need to get to the woman who was with me at the café when we met with Juan,” Jerry said. “The bitch moved all of her money.”

“How do you plan to get it from her?” Luis asked.

“Renee is staying with the sheriff at his home,” Jerry said. “All we have to do is kill her and the money will be mine.”

Luis frowned. “How will you get the money if she’s dead?”

“I tricked her.” A feeling of satisfaction went through Jerry. “I had her sign multiple financial documents and slipped one in that amends her will. If she dies, her money comes to me. I’m her beneficiary.”

“Very good,” Luis said. “But how are you going to get past the sheriff and get to her without getting caught?”

Jerry smiled. He didn’t plan on getting caught. He would make it look like he was in Nogales the whole time. He planned to wear gloves so he didn’t leave prints as well as wear larger shoes than his own so that law enforcement would think the killer’s feet were bigger than his actual size. They couldn’t pin it on him if he was in Nogales and they didn’t get anything that pointed to him.

“I’ve got it all figured out.” Jerry acted casual as he watched for Luis’s reaction. “We’ll kill the sheriff and then there’ll be nothing between us and the woman.” He wanted the sheriff dead regardless. “That’s who I planned to have you kill when I talked to you about taking out a problem.”

“No way, man.” Luis shook his head. “If we kill someone like the sheriff it will bring law enforcement down hard on everyone. I’m not killing a cop.”

“When the job is done I’ll pay you fifty thousand,” Jerry said.

“No.” Luis didn’t waver.

“A hundred grand.” Jerry didn’t have the money but he didn’t plan on Luis coming out of this alive.

“Not worth it.” Luis stroked his goatee. “But I know the sheriff is not home on the last Thursday night of the month for a town hall meeting. That’s tomorrow. The woman should be alone. We can go then.”

Jerry studied Luis. “How do you know that?”

Luis shrugged. “Like I’ve told you before, we make it our business to keep tabs on ICE and Border Patrol officials, and of course the sheriff. We have all the sources we need for that.”

Jerry gave a slow nod. If it meant he could get Luis in on the plan, he’d agree to almost anything. He needed someone to take the fall.

And Luis would take the fall. When the sheriff was dead, Jerry would shoot Luis with the sheriff’s gun.

He didn’t need anyone that knew he was a part of it. What did he need Luis for? The man was no longer useful because he’d introduced Jerry to the people who mattered and he had all the information and contacts he needed to make his own deals. Luis had a criminal record so it would be easy for everything to be pinned on him.

Yes, he could wait to go after her instead of tonight. He’d change his plan and kill Luis before the sheriff got home after his meeting and then kill the sheriff.

Jerry stared into Luis’s eyes. “No one and I mean no one can be aware of this. Does anyone know we ever met?”

“I don’t need anyone to tell me how to do a secret job,” Luis said. “No one knows. No one will know.”

Jerry nodded. The plan was perfect. Tomorrow night he would take care of Renee and the sheriff. Permanently.

Chapter 18

Thursday, the day before Renee was scheduled to take a flight to Philadelphia, she and Dan went to his bedroom to make love. She was snuggled into the crook of his arm, their naked bodies warm and slick with perspiration, when he looked at his clock.

“Sorry, honey.” He kissed her forehead. “I need to get going to the town hall meeting.” He eased his arm from behind her and slid out of bed. He grabbed his Wrangler jeans off the chair beside the French doors.

She turned onto her side and propped her head up on her palm. “How late will you be?”

“With the drive to and from Nogales and the time the meeting will take it will be at least three hours,” he said as he pulled on his jeans then slid his belt through the loops. He made sure his holster was secure. “Unfortunately there’s a full slate tonight.” He shoved his arms through the sleeves of the shirt he’d picked up off the chair and buttoned it up. Then he stuffed his wallet into his back pocket and his keys into his front. His badge was on his belt and he slid his gun into its holster and his cell phone into a smaller holster. He pulled an over shirt on and left it unbuttoned so that his weapon was covered.

She scooted out of bed, grabbed her nightie, pulled it over her head, and watched him as he tugged on socks and his boots. “I’ll wait up for you.”

He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. “Get in bed by eight and get some rest. You have an early flight in the morning.”

“I can sleep on the plane,” she said, but knew he was right. There wasn’t anything she could do other than go ahead and pack and putter around a bit. She had to get up at four
AM
and she needed some sleep. If she was in bed by eight o’clock she’d get a good eight hours sleep.

He headed out of the room and she followed him down the stairs. When they reached the front door, he caught her by her shoulders and gave her another quick kiss. “Promise me you’ll get to bed soon.”

“I promise I’ll be in bed by eight.” She nodded and he took his hat off the rack then headed out the front door. She stepped onto the porch as she watched him go to his work SUV. It was twilight and would soon be dark. In a few moments he was driving down the road as she watched his vehicle disappear.

As he drove away a queer feeling settled in her belly. She felt as if something was desperately wrong. She held her palm to her abdomen as she turned and headed back into the house.

She couldn’t shake the feeling as she headed back upstairs. She went ahead and packed the few things she was taking with her. She still had most of her clothes in her home in Philadelphia.

With a smile she set the red panties aside that she’d worn the night he’d lassoed her. She planned to buy a whole new wardrobe of lingerie once she was in Philadelphia.

It didn’t take long to pack, so she straightened up the room and bathroom until it was time to slip into bed and turn off the light. It was still early. She stared up at the ceiling, thinking about Dan. She was going to miss him while she was gone. She missed him now and she hadn’t even left yet.

In spite of not being used to going to bed so early, she soon drifted off into a deep sleep.

Renee woke to an incessant pounding in her head. She hadn’t had a headache this bad in ages. She held her hand to her forehead and squinted as she looked at the bedside clock. She’d only been asleep for an hour. It was nine and Dan wouldn’t get home for another hour yet.

She slid out of bed and went into the master bathroom, straight for the medicine cabinet. The nightlight illuminated the bathroom so she could see fairly well. Thank goodness because light would have made her headache worse. No bottles of painkillers were in the cabinet.

With a grimace she tried to remember where she had seen some. In the guestroom’s bathroom down the hall, or downstairs in one of the cabinets.

She padded down the hall to the guestroom, glad moonlight was coming through the window at the end of the hallway so that she didn’t have to turn on a light. She made her way through the room to the bathroom and was glad it had a nightlight, too. A bottle of aspirin was on the top shelf. After she took a couple of tablets out of the bottle she swallowed them and chased them down with a palm full of water from the tap. She leaned against the sink for a moment and closed her eyes. Her head was killing her.

Just as she reached the door to the guestroom she heard the creak of the front door slowly opening. A prickling sensation flowed over her body, then she took a deep breath. It had to be Dan and he was just being quiet so that he wouldn’t wake her. She wondered why he didn’t turn on a downstairs light.

Something drew her to the bedroom window and she peeked through the curtains. Dan’s SUV wasn’t there. Only the truck was parked in front of the house.

Her heart beat faster. Someone was here and it wasn’t Dan.

Faintly she heard a step squeak, telling her that someone was halfway up the stairs. She heard a quiet whisper.

Her whole body started to shake and her skin prickled. Where was her cell phone? Downstairs where she’d left her purse.

With blood pounding through her veins, her gaze darted around the room. Where could she hide?

The step near the top of the stairs creaked.

She didn’t have time to do anything but dive under the bed. She peered through the space between the floor and the bedframe and saw a pair of shoes pause in the doorway. They were black running shoes, not cowboy boots like Dan wore. She saw the swoosh symbol that represented the brand of shoe.

A cry rose up inside her but she held it back, biting her lower lip. She tried not to breathe. Dust bunnies were scattered under the bed and the dust threatened to cause her to sneeze.

Her lungs burned from holding her breath and her chest ached with fear. She let her breath out in a slow, steady exhale then drew in a fresh gulp of air before clapping her hand over her mouth.

Could it be Jerry?

The shoes walked close enough that she could have reached out and touched them. The shoes looked like the feet were bigger than Jerry’s so it couldn’t be him. Could it?

“I checked the room across the hall,” came a muffled whisper from the doorway. “Looks like it’s the master bedroom. No one is there.”

Renee’s eyes widened as she looked toward the doorway and saw another pair of shoes. She’d been so concerned about the first man that she hadn’t heard the second person come up the stairs.

“Fuck,” the first man said beneath his breath.

Could that have been Jerry? She couldn’t tell.

“We need to search the house in case the woman is here,” the second man said. The prickling sensation on Renee’s arms increased. They were looking for her? “The woman could be hiding,” the second man continued. “She could have heard us coming up those fucking squeaky stairs.”

“Don’t count on it, Luis,” the first man said. His voice was so low and muffled she still couldn’t tell if it was Jerry.

The name that he’d said, though—Luis. The man from the diner?

“Look for her,” Luis said. “I bet the woman is here.”

The other man grunted as she saw Luis’s shoes walk out of the room.

Renee’s whole body was frozen as she kept completely still and prayed the man in the room wouldn’t look under the bed. His shoes moved out of sight and then she heard the closet doors opening and closing, then his shoes squeaking on tile as he searched the bathroom next.

She still had one hand over her mouth. If Dan came home now he could be walking into a trap. How could she let him know? If only she had her phone.

If she could get outside somehow, she could run down the road and hide in the bushes and flag him down. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was all she had.

But how would she get out of the house?

The wraparound porch. There was a deck outside of the master bedroom and stairs that led down to the porch below. All she needed was a chance to get to it.

The first man walked out of the room and she let out her breath. “Let’s check downstairs,” Luis said, his voice still low.

The stairs squeaked as two sets of shoes headed down.

When she was certain they were downstairs, she scrambled out from under the bed. Her nightie had hiked up to her waist but it slid back over her hips as she quietly went to the guestroom door.

Heart pounding, she peered out but couldn’t see anything. The moon had disappeared behind clouds and everything was dark and shadowy. She moved across the hall and into the master bedroom. Slowly, she made her way to the French doors. She looked through the single-paned glass with desperation.

A key always hung from a nail beside the door. She moved her hand up the doorframe, trying to feel what she couldn’t see. Her fingers brushed the key and she reached for it but she knocked the key off and it tumbled to the floor.

The clatter of the key against the wood floor sounded loud in the still night and she prayed the men hadn’t heard it hit. Her hands shook as she knelt to search for the key with her hands.

As she hurried to find the key, her shoulder hit the straight back chair beside the door. She went completely still as the chair made a scraping sound.

“What the hell was that?” came one of the men’s voices from downstairs. “Check it out.”

Frantic, she stood and for one moment her thoughts whirled as she tried to figure out what to do. She fixed on the chair and she picked it up. With all her strength she swung the chair at the door’s glass pane.

The window shattered with a loud crash. She dropped the chair and plunged through the opening, a shard scraping her skin and then glass biting into her bare feet as she went through onto the deck.

“It’s her,” Luis shouted.

He was right behind her.

Her entire body felt as if ice had been thrown over her. She grasped the handrail and in the darkness hurried down the stairs.

“Come back here, bitch.” Luis’s shoes pounded down the stairs behind her. When she reached the lower deck she ran down the stairs and bolted for the barn, praying she wouldn’t trip over something in the darkness.