Trouble With the Law (16 page)

“You cook?” he asked incredulously, then leaned over to pick his pants up off of the floor.  Trace looked at her with not an ounce of emotion in his eyes.  It was over just that quick for him.  Ronnie was an emotional mess inside.  She needed to get away from him for a few minutes to sort herself out.  Get back in control.

“Yeah, I took classes with Conner.”

“How nice,” he said, as he stood.  His movements were jerky as he stepped into his pants, shoved himself inside and zipped them.  “I learned to cook on kitchen detail in prison, so I’ll make us something.  Don’t expect more than shit on a shingle or oatmeal though.”

Ronnie cringed.  That was
an old timer’s term for chipped beef in gravy on bread.  Carb city, and disgusting to boot.  “Um, I saw some fish in the freezer earlier.  I’ll make us something when I come back down,” she insisted then crossed her arms over her bare chest.  “Unless you’re partial to eating shit.”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. 
“It’s been my mainstay for three years.  Doesn’t matter to me.”

Another
mattress of guilt plopped down on the bed she had made for herself.  She could still feel that hard pea underneath poking her in the ass when she laid on it.  She needed to find that pea and remove it.  It had been there for three years now.  It was time. 

Determination filled her. 
He might not ever forgive her, but Ronnie would make it up to Trace for causing him to spend time in jail he didn’t deserve.  She would find out who was involved in the conspiracy to send him to jail and expose them.  When Conner brought those files to her day after tomorrow, she would go through them with a fine-tooth comb.  There had to be some clue there.

Once she satisfied her conscience, Ronnie would get as far away from this emotionally damaged man as she could get. Trace Rooks was not the same man he’d been before he went to prison
.  And she didn’t hold out much hope now that he would ever get back there.  Even if she did clear his name.  He had lost too much.  It had been too long. 

“
On second thought, I’m not very hungry.  I’ll just see you in the morning,” she said and turned toward the stairs.

CHAPTER NINE

Ronnie was in the kitchen the next morning making herself some toast, when someone knocked at the front door, then rang the doorbell loudly.  A little fear shot through her.  She was alone in the house, and had no idea how to use the shotgun in the corner of the foyer by the door.  Trace wasn’t anywhere in the house when she woke up this morning.

“A bad guy wouldn’t knock, right?” she reasoned with herself, but then remembered Ray Brown and his men had knocked at that house yesterday.  She dropped her toast onto the saucer and wiped her hands on her shorts.  Taking a deep breath she headed toward the front door.  Her eyes snagged on the shotgun in the corner by the door. 

She might not know how to use it, but she could scare the crap out of whoever was outside with it.  When she picked it up, it was heavier than she imagined.  Tucking the gun stock into her armpit, she grabbed the knob, and threw the door open, then stepped back
and grabbed the barrel to point it at the door.

Her eyes met Seth Copeland’s surprised blue eyes.  He put his hands up and laughed.  “Don’t shoot, Annie.”  His eyes slid over her body to her toes then back to the gun.  He reached in and pushed the barrel toward the floor.  “Just a piece of advice…you have to put one finger on the trigger to make this thing work.”

Ronnie’s breath came out in a rush.  “I’d have to beat you to death with it, because I’m not sure where the trigger is,” she admitted.

“Where’s Trace?” he asked and his eyes darkened.

“I have no idea.  He was gone when I got up this morning.”

“Well, he called me earlier to tell me he wasn’t dead, so I guess that means he has to be around here somewhere.”

“They found his bike?” Ronnie asked, assuming that’s why he had done that.

“Yeah, and it’s all over the news.  They’re dragging the creek.
  I was down there when he called me.  Thank god, he called me, or I would have had to kill him again when I found him.”  Ronnie could hear the worry in his voice.

“Yeah, he came up with that plan on the way here last night.  Evidently the men at the ranch put a bug or something on the bike, so he figured that would make them think he was dead
.  He said it would buy us time to figure things out.”

“Good thinking,” Seth said as he stepped inside and shut the door.  He took the shotgun from her, and set it
back in the corner.  “And if you don’t figure things out, he has the opportunity to go off the grid.”

“Off the grid?” She repeated.

“Disappear,” Seth clarified.  “If you don’t figure things out, he’s done.  Between his parole violation, the fact he shot a federal officer, beat the crap out of another, then almost ran over two more at that ranch, he’s in deep shit.  Not to mention the other man he shot at my sister’s house.  And then there’s Ray Brown.  If he gets off, Trace is as good as dead.  Hell, his own daddy would probably put a bullet in him for screwing up his campaign funding at the ranch.”

Fear shot through
Ronnie, then confusion.  “When did all that happen?”

Seth’s eyebrows lifted. 
“You were with him, don’t you know?”

Her thoughts did a circle in her brain, then skidded to a stop.  “
All this happened when he saved me at the ranch?”

“All except for the one guy he shot at my sister’s house.  He owes my sister some drywall work, and a new front door, by the way.
  She was pretty pissed.”

Good Lord.  Trace was in more trouble than Ronnie realized. 
And it was her fault.  Again.  She groaned then turned to walk back toward the kitchen.  Seth followed her, as she walked inside and picked up the saucer to slide the toast off into the trash can.  “I’m going to help him figure this out, so he can get his life back.”

“He doesn’t have much of one these days.”  There was accusation behind his words that Ronnie couldn’t miss.

“I was trying to help him.”

“You helped him right into another prison sentence
.  Probably in the federal pen this time,” Seth said then sighed.  “This one he probably deserves for being so stupid.”

Ronnie rounded on him.  “So you think him saving my life was stupid?”

“No.  You going out there in the first place was stupid.  He was working with the feds out there.  They got him out of prison.  You should have just stayed out of it,” Seth said gruffly.

“How the hell was I supposed to know that?” Ronnie demanded taking a step closer.  “He wouldn’t talk to me when I went to see him in jail about Leigh Ann Baker’s disappearance.”

“That wasn’t your business, Veronica.”

Seth had a point.  It wasn’t her business.  But she had been trying to help both Joel and Trace.  She had stepped into a situation that had nothing to do with her.  And made things ten times worse for Trace Rooks.
  “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t fix things.  What you need to do is find a concrete way to help him.
  Trace needs help.”

“
It’s hard to help someone who doesn’t want your help.”  Trace would not talk to her, even when his mind was distracted by sex.  Something that wasn’t happening again.  Ronnie was the one who had been distracted.  She needed to step back from Trace Rooks and her attraction to him, or she wouldn’t be able to help him.  She decided that last night while she tossed and turned all night.

“
Let’s face it, he has no reason to trust you.  To talk to you.  Giving you information before didn’t do a damned thing but put him in jail.” Seth said. 

R
onnie sighed, then said, “I’m trying to make up for that.  Conner Lucas is helping me.  He’s bringing the files from his trial out here tomorrow.  We’re going to find out who set him up.  He said something about his father being involved.”  Something Seth said a minute ago poked her in the brain.  “Wait a minute.  You said Trace messed up Leland’s campaign funding out at that ranch.  He’s involved out there?”

“He’s a silent partner in that ranch.”

“Really?” Ronnie said with a laugh.

“Yep.  He’s knee deep in that shit out there.  Human trafficking, drugs, you name it.”

The same things that Dave Logan had told her.  Well, not that Leland was involved in the ranch.  “Do the feds have evidence that Leland was involved?”

“Not now.  Trace blew their operation to hell.  They had to do the takedown early, and only got evidence on Ray Brown.  And he’s on the loose.  The rest of the guys they arrested were minor players.
  They don’t know anything.”

So that meant to bring Leland down, Ronnie had to prove he set Trace up at the first trial.
  He had probably been just as slick then, and it was going to take some deep digging to prove his involvement there.  Or they had to get evidence that he was involved at the ranch.  But if the feds couldn’t get it, she highly doubted they could.  If the agents raked the guys they caught over the coals, it was not likely they would talk either.  They were probably too scared to go against Leland.

“His mother knows it all, but she doesn’t have to talk, because she’s married to Leland. 
The feds have tried to talk to her, but so far she’s kept her mouth shut.  She’s divorcing Leland now, so I’m sure if Leland pissed her off enough she would.  That would be a big break in the ranch situation at least.  I don’t think Allison would have sat back and watched him put her son in jail.”

Maybe if she knew Leland had done that she would be mad enough to talk.  Ronnie was going to find the proof, then she was going to talk to Allison Rooks.
  She couldn’t wait until Conner brought those files.  Maybe she would call him and see if he could get them together sooner than tomorrow.  “I’m going to do everything I can to help, Seth.  I know I did wrong by Trace and I want to fix things.”

“Why?”
Seth asked leaning back against the granite counter top to cross his arms.

“Why what?” she asked.

“Why do you want to help him?  You’re the Shark Lady.  You don’t have a conscience, remember?  D.A.s hide under their tables, and judges quake in their robes when you step into a courtroom.”

Ronnie snorted.  “That’s bullshit.  I just do my job.  And I didn’t do a very good job in Trace’s case.
  I want to make up for it.”

“Ah, I see.”

“See what?”

“Your ego is bruised because you lost a case,” Seth said with a chuckle.

“I didn’t lose,” Ronnie countered angrily.

“Sure you did.  You
may have lost on purpose, but you still lost.”

He had a point
.  And it burned.  At the time, her reason for working out that plea deal seemed reasonable.  She’d never looked at it like losing.  She was just doing what she had to do.  Now that she knew the full ramifications of that decision, not so much.  “I was up for a promotion, and Carl Duncan and Seemus Nichols put pressure on me to work with Judge Jennings and the prosecutor on a plea deal,” she explained. 

Those two men are where she would start her investigation when she got the files from Trace’s trial.  There was a reason for that pressure.  She’d start there and work her way backwards
to Judge Jennings then Leland.  If she lost her job in the process, Ronnie was well-established enough now that she could open her own practice.  Somehow she didn’t think the other partner in the firm, Joe Timmons, would back them if what she suspected turned out to be true.  He was straight-laced and ethical.

His eyes narrowed.  “Now, that’s the Shark Lady I know and despise,” he said sarcastically.

Ronnie enjoyed the fact that she was feared in legal circles.  She took pride in her reputation.  It gave her leverage to get things done when nobody else could.  But Seth Copeland made her sound cold and calculating.  No conscience?  Was that how everyone saw her?  Had she taken the Shark Lady persona too far? 

Being a woman in a man’s world,
Ronnie had to be hard to be taken seriously, but she was a woman too.  And although nobody evidently realized it, she had feelings.  “Just help me help him, Seth.  Whatever you can do would be appreciated.  I really do feel bad about what happened to him and want to fix things.”  Ronnie walked to the phone on the wall and picked it up.  “I’m going to see if I can speed things along.  Why don’t you go see if you can find Trace?” she suggested as she dialed Conner’s number.  “Make sure he isn’t lost in the woods or something.  I haven’t seen him this morning.”

Seth sighed.  “
Trace is one of my best friends, but I’m walking a fine line here helping him, Ronnie.”

Ronnie
snorted then rolled her eyes.  What did this man want, a Boy Scout Badge?  She was damned sure if he was in a similar situation, Trace wouldn’t hesitate to help him.  “Just help him.  Use your pole for balance to walk it, if you have to.”

“I think you have one of those too,”
Seth grumbled as he turned and walked away.

A lot of men thought that. 
But none of them would ever find out. 

Including
Seth Copeland.

***

Trace walked out of the woods and saw Seth’s personal truck parked near the front of the house.  Seth walked around the side of the house and Trace waved.  They met halfway, and shook hands.  “Well, look who’s back from the dead,” Seth said sarcastically. 

Trace could hear the tinge of anger behind his
friend’s words.  He should have called him before this morning to tell him what the plan was.  They found the bike last night, and Trace knew his buddy was probably upset until he found out he was actually alive.

“I don’t know.  That would
almost be preferable to being cooped up in that house with Ronnie Winters,” Trace replied with a dry laugh.

“Yeah, I don’t envy you there
.” Seth glanced back at the house warily.  “Why don’t you just leave her here, and we’ll find you somewhere else to hide out?”

“
Maybe when Ray is captured.  She should be safe then, as long as Leland doesn’t know she was at that ranch.  And if I keep her close she can’t tell anyone I’m alive.”

“
If you stay here, they’ll probably find you.  With Ronnie getting everyone and his brother involved in this mess it’s pretty much a certainty someone will catch wind of it,” Seth said with a shake his head.  “But it’s your funeral, man.”

Trace knew that.  Staying here
, letting Ronnie get all those people involved, made him a sitting duck.  Why Ronnie couldn’t get that Trace didn’t know. 

“I need your help.”
  Trace had one more thing to worry about too.  Those girls.

Seth groaned.  “Those four words always get me into trouble.”

“And they probably will this time too.  We need to come up with a plan to intercept that shipment of women at the drop off point tomorrow night.  And figure out what to do with them.”

“What shipment of women?” Seth asked sharply.

“The one that was supposed to arrive at the Diamond Bar ranch tomorrow night.  The Coyote won’t have anywhere to take them now.  He’ll kill them if we don’t intercede.”