Trouble With the Law (30 page)

“Yes.  I’m sorry, but your partner was taking bribes from Leland and he was up to his neck in that drug operation, as far as I can tell.
  I need to subpoena his personal financials to verify it.  I can’t do that until I get all my ducks in a row and go to the prosecutor.”

Sean was dead and couldn’t defend himself.  It would be just as easy for someone to set him up as it had been for them to send Trace to jail.  “I don’t believe that.”

“Was he short on money?  Any financial trouble?”

“They had a lot of medical bills, because their daughter was born too early.  She was in the hospital a long time.  They didn’t think she was going to make it.  But Sean worked extra duty shifts for money.”

“Don’t you think that would get old?  Especially if he was undercover and barely had time with his family as it was?”

“It was
rough for him.”  But Sean was his best friend.  He was not a bad cop either.  He loved his job, and he loved his family.  He would never jeopardize that for a dollar.  Sean Collins was the most ethical man he knew.  And he would never have set Trace up for any amount of money.  “It wasn’t him.”

Ronnie’s lips twisted, then she said.  “What about Seth Copeland?  Wasn’t he involved in that operation too?”

“He was, and he wouldn’t have done that either.”  He was less sure about Seth, but still sure.  “Seth isn’t that kind of man either.  He would never do that.  Besides, he wasn’t even there the night Sean died. He was off sick with the flu.”

“Convenient,”
Ronnie said suggestively.  “What if he didn’t have the flu?  Maybe he just couldn’t face what he’d done to two men who called him friend.  He couldn’t face watching one of them die that night, because of him.”

“I think you’re wrong,” he said, and even he could hear
the lack of conviction behind his words.  No, it wasn’t Seth either.  “What did you find?”

“There are regular payments to an S.C. from Leland’s campaign funds that Lou Ellen found.
  They were right behind payments to B. D…like they were connected.  I remember Darryl Bates that drug dealer you were trying to take down.  I went through all of the records from his drug arrests.  They called him Big D.  Isn’t that right?”

Trace’s stomach seesawed and he covered it with his hand. 
“His real name is Darryl Bates, but they called him Big D, yeah,” Trace confirmed.

One night during their investigation, Big D had left the gang’s warehouse hideout in a tuxedo.  The other members of the gang laughed
and said he thought he was high class now, because he knew a Senator.  After he and Sean did a little digging, they found out that Senator was Trace’s father.  Trace knew his father was scum, but he didn’t think he was a drug dealer. 

Like a fool he had gone to Leland to warn him about Darryl Bates.  Leland had blown him off and told him
Darryl was just a businessman, a campaign contributor.  Shortly after that, Sean was dead and Trace was in custody for murdering his partner.  The night he was killed, Sean told him he had something big to show him, but they never got to talk.  They were called into Big D’s office and the whole investigation went to hell. 

“Well, Big D got a huge payment after he was arrested in that drug bust.  Right before his deposition was taken for your trial.
  Right before your sentencing there was a sizeable payment to Earl Jennings’ campaign fund.”

“Judge Jennings?” he asked incredulously.
  That could explain why the charges were dropped against Big D and the rest of the thugs who were arrested with Darryl, while he was sent to prison for three years.  They had all testified against Trace, said he was the one who had ratted out his partner to them, and helped Big D run the drug ring.  Judge Jennings approved their plea deals for that testimony.

“Yes.  And another to our firm for
contract negotiations
according to the time and billing records Conner pulled at the office.  The entire fee was paid out to Seemus Nichols.  I sure didn’t see a penny of it.”

“You got paid, didn’t you?”

“I was asked to represent you pro bono, and I did.  I didn’t get a nickel from the firm for my time on your case.”

“You’re fucking kidding me!”  Trace had spent his three years in prison building up his case against Ronnie Winters. 
He’d imagined her sitting back counting the money Leland had given her, or fucking him, while they laughed at him.

She shook her head. 
“I’m not kidding.  I was trying to get partner, so what better way to do that than representing the son of one of our big clients who needed my help?  I was told appreciation for my help would be reflected in my bonus at the end of the year,” she said with a laugh.  “That never happened.  It was the same as it had been the year before.”

“But you were given your partnership.”

“Junior partner,” she clarified.  “I was hoping to skip up the food chain, but they only let me up one rung.  I’d have gotten that anyway in a year or so.”

Trace was so stunned, he could barely ask, “What else did you find?”

“Payments from Leland’s personal account to certain prison accounts that coincided with your time in isolation.”

“He fucking paid those convicts to try and kill me!?!” Trace shouted incredulously.

“Oh, he did a lot more than that.  This is just scratching the surface of what we found,”
Ronnie said with a snort.

“What
else?”  Trace wanted to know all of it.

“Are you staying?” she asked with a lifted brow.  “I’m not wasting my breath telling you more, if you plan to run.”

Hell yeah, he was staying, but he knew telling her that might make her clam up again.  No way was he leaving now.  Now that he knew the extent of his father’s involvement, the extent of his treachery, he was not going to rest until he saw him pay for it.  Even if that meant going back to prison.  “Tell me all of it and I’ll decide.”

“
A week before each payment to them there were large chunks of money withdrawn in cash.  Your mother had no idea where the money went.  I suspect it was withdrawn for drug buys.  Two weeks after the withdrawals were made, there were larger deposits.”

“Maybe
Sean was working extra duty on Leland’s protection detail and just didn’t tell me, because he knew how I felt about my father.”

“We need
Leland’s calendars and notes and Sean’s bank records to verify this one way or another.  I think those would be the key to breaking this wide open.”

“
I can get Set—um, someone, to get the bank records from Carrie, Sean’s wife.  Leland keeps his calendars and logs at home in his office.”

“I know.
  Your mother told me that,” Ronnie said.

“How the hell do you think we’re going to get our hands on them then?”
  Leland had a security detail and cameras everywhere at his compound.  The mansion was a veritable fortress.  Trace ought to know, he’d grown up there.  Had been a prisoner there for eighteen years of his life.  His mother had been longer.  There wasn’t a damned thing they did in that house that Leland didn’t know about.

She hesitated a moment, then swallowed, before she said,
“We’re going to your father’s campaign party Saturday night.  Well you’re not.  You’re dead.  Lou Ellen, your mother and I are going.”

“Like hell you are!”
Trace shouted and Ronnie flinched and took a step back.

“It’s the only way we can end this, Trace.  We need those books
.  Your mother is going to sneak into his office, while Lou Ellen and I distract him.  He will probably be glad to see her, because she has planned his parties for years.  This is the first one he’s had to do on his own.  She’s going to call and offer to help him, and maybe hint at the possibility of a reconciliation.”

“I’m not letting ya’ll do that.  It’s dangerous.  He has security people on staff, and if they catch you, there’s no telling what will happen.”

“They won’t catch us,” Ronnie replied confidently.  “I’m going to ask Dave to be my date for the night…just in case.  And maybe a couple of his guys can get in with the catering crew if Allison recommends them.”

“Leland might know about the ranch incident, Ronnie. 
He might know that Conner pulled those files for you.  If he does, you’ll be serving yourself up on a platter to him.”

“
I’m with you.  If he knew, he would have acted by now, so I’ll take that chance.  I need to do this.”

Trace saw the determination in her eyes, heard it in her voice.  He was not going to be able to talk her out of doing this. 
He grabbed her shoulders.  “Why do you need to do it?  That’s my question.”

Ronnie dragged her eyes away and stared off into the woods.  “Because I owe it to you and myself to fix things.
  And I owe the partners in my firm a lesson.  You owe Leland a lesson.”

“You don’t owe me a damned thing.  From what you’ve told me.  I was wrong.  None of this was your fault.” 

Trace realized that now.  He had given her forgiveness when there was nothing to forgive.  Ronnie Winters had been an uninformed pawn, not a player, in what happened to him.  She was as innocent as he was.

She laughed.  “I’ve tried to tell you that, and I’m finally glad you believe me.  But I am going to finish what I started here.  Those men deserve to be
served justice.  After we get those books, we’ll have enough proof to do that.  I’ll take that to the feds, and tell them my story about being held hostage at that ranch.  You’ll be a free man then.  And my conscience will be satisfied.”

It was Trace’s turn to laugh.  “You know, I have a hard time believing that the Shark Lady actually has one of those.  I’m sure I’m not the only one
who thinks that way.”

“No, people have no idea that I really do have a heart
, because it suits my purpose that they don’t know.  I do what I do because I fight for what I believe in.  People I believe in,” she said with a defensive undertone to her voice.  She met his eyes.  “No matter what you or anyone else thinks, I care about more than how much money I make defending those people.”

Trace’s heart jerked in his chest.  Ronnie Winters believe
d in him, she cared about him.  And he cared about her too, that’s why he said, “I’m going with you.  I’m going to stand guard outside the house in case something happens.  I can’t sit here not knowing.” 

Three
women he cared about would be inside that house, risking their lives for him.  On a fool’s mission to clear his name, and in the process take down a man who needed to be taken down a long time ago.  He wanted to make sure they were safe.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Saturday afternoon, Trace sat on the bed in Ronnie’s room while she wiggled into the cocktail dress that she’d borrowed from Lou Ellen. 
They had dropped his mother off at the airport yesterday, and she’d flown to Dallas.  Like she expected, Leland jumped on her offer of help even though he was shocked she had made it.  Trace was worried as shit about her being there alone until they got to Dallas later tonight.

Trace felt useless in their grand plan.  He was driving the van, staking out the mansion outside the gates, but he knew if anything went down inside he was not going to be able to help them.  That worried the shit out of him
too.  Thank goodness Dave was going to be inside with them.  He had confidence that man would protect them, but he still worried.  His stomach was a boiling cauldron of worry, his nerves tied in knots. 

“
That dress is pretty tight.  You think you’re going to be able to conceal that can of mace under there?” he asked as his eyes drank in all the smooth creamy skin the short black dress left bare.  The mace was the best he could come up with as far as self-protection for her went.  Ronnie couldn’t shoot, and he didn’t have enough time to teach her.  He found the mace in the gun cabinet.  He had no idea why the Lucas family would have it at the lodge, but he was thankful he found it.  It gave him a small measure of comfort.

“Yes, Trace.  I’m putting it in my bra.  It’s small enough.”

He wished Lou Ellen had a longer dress for her.  Maybe one with long sleeves and a turtleneck.  This dress had a soft draped neck, but that drape didn’t stop until well past her sternum.  Half of her damned breasts were exposed.  It was too damned short for her too.  When she bent over to pick up her high heels he could almost see her round ass, and the top of her black thigh-high stockings.    His palms itched to grab her and feel that smooth skin again.  It had been almost a week now, and he was having withdrawals.

Trace dragged his eyes away, and huffed a breath.  He needed to focus on the task at hand.  Making sure these women made it out of this tonight unscathed.
  “I have a bad feeling,” he said.  The feeling he’d come to despise when he was a cop.  Something bad was going to happen, he just didn’t know what.

“
Stop worrying.  Everything will be fine,” she assured him, bending her long leg to slip on one heel.  She balanced then put on her other shoe. 

His eyes traveled up her long legs past her slim waist, and skidded to a stop at her beautiful breasts.  “You look good enough to eat,” he said, wishing he could forget about tonight, and make love to her all night instead.

Ronnie groaned and turned toward the mirror.  “And if we had time, I’d love to be eaten,” she said.  God he loved to hear that sound.  It made him harder than he already was.  “But we don’t,” she added as she twisted her gorgeous auburn hair up into a knot and secured it with a rhinestone-studded clip.  His tongue tingled to lick that long neck, to suck her plump red lips.  Ronnie clipped on matching earrings, then turned toward him.  “Let’s get this show on the road, handsome,” she said with a broad smile that did strange things to his insides.

Trace
stood to walk over to her, slid his arms around her waist and pulled her to him.  Her eyes were on level with his, her red lips at the perfect height to kiss.  He made an exploratory dip of his lips to hers, and she pulled back a little. 

“Kiss me
, Red,” he whispered, as he leaned in to make another pass over her lips.

“I thought you didn’t like to kiss,’ she mumbled when he nipped her lower lip.

“I like to kiss you,” he said nuzzling his nose with hers in an Eskimo kiss.

Ronnie sighed, and slid her arms around his neck.  Her fingers twirled in the hair at his nape as she
tilted her head to seal her lips to his.  A warm wave floated through him, as he absorbed her soft moan into his mouth.  There was not a woman he had met in his life who fit more perfectly in his arms than this one.  It was too bad she wouldn’t fit more perfectly in his life.  Ronnie Winters was a high-class city girl.  When this was all over, if he wasn’t in prison, Trace was going to find some peace in the country.  From here on out, he wanted simple and easy.  Ronnie Winters definitely wasn’t that.

There was no middle ground for them.
  And no future.  He’d told her that from the get go, but for different reasons.  Those reasons were gone now, but others had replaced them.  Ronnie deserved better than a broken down ex-cop who wanted to be a cowboy.  Ranching was a hard way of life.  A way of life she wasn’t suited to.  She was champagne and power suits.  Trace wanted his faded Levis and a cold beer at the end of a hard day.   

He wasn’t the type of man she needed either.  His background and record would hurt her career.  She needed a man who was above reproach.  On the right side of the law.

Ronnie would find that man one day.  Maybe that man would be Conner Lucas.  Or even Dave Logan.  That thought made him hold her a little tighter to him, kiss her a little deeper.

Before he let her go though,
if he got another chance, he was going to do what he could to make sure she remembered him.  His hands slipped to her butt and he inched the skirt of her dress up so he could touch her warm skin.  Trace was seriously considering taking that chance right then, no matter if they were late getting to Dallas.

Lou Ellen evidently had other ideas.  She knocked loudly at the door, then shouted, “C’mon ya’ll.  We’re going to be late!”

Trace dragged his lips from Ronnie’s and rested his forehead to hers.  His heart was beating so fast he felt like it would break out of his chest.  He took a deep breath.  “Promise me something, Red.”

“What?” she asked softly, as she pushed away from him.

He met her eyes directly.  “Promise you won’t take any chances tonight.  Whatever you do, do not let Leland know you are on to him.”

“I told you not to worry
,” she said with a smile that turned wobbly at the edges.

“And I told you I had a bad feeling.
  Don’t take any chances.”

“Dave will be with me,” she reminded him.  She patted the valley between her breasts.  “And I have the mace.”

“Ya’ll watch out for my Mama and Lou Ellen too.”  Lou Ellen had a big mouth.  It wouldn’t surprise Trace if she took the opportunity to tell Leland off.  She hated Leland almost as much as Trace did.

“We will.  Don’t you do anything stupid either like trying to crash the gate.  Dave wasn’t happy you’re going at all, but I convinced him we need a lookout.  Someone to keep the
car running outside, in case we need to make a fast getaway.”

“There better not be a reason you need to make a getaway,” Trace growled as fear made his heart skip a beat.

She stepped toward him, put her hand in the center of his chest then leaned in to kiss him.  “We’ll be careful, I promise.”

Lou Ellen knocked again
a little louder, and Trace shook his head as he walked to the door and opened it.  “Keep your drawers on, Aunt Lou,” he said with a grin.

“Wipe your smart mouth.  You look like a
rodeo clown,” she said with a shake of her head, her lips twitching.

Trace wiped the back of his hand over his mouth and looked at his wrist which was smeared with red lipstick.  Heat rushed up his neck.

“That’s right, bad ass.  It’s definitely not your shade.  Now you two stop necking and get your asses in gear so we can get to that party.”  With another shake of her piled up bottle-blond hair, Lou Ellen headed back down the hall.  Trace glanced at Ronnie and she was grinning from ear-to-ear.  He grinned too, and followed her to the dresser.  She snatched a tissue from the box there and handed it to him, then took one for herself.

“You’re a bad influence on me,” Trace said as he wiped the lipstick smudges from around his mouth.

She shrugged.  “You’re the one who kissed me.  Evidently you like bad girls,” she said then met his eyes in the mirror.  “Bad ass,” she said with a roll of her eyes.  She thought on that a minute then smiled.  “I think Lou Ellen has that exactly right.”

He winked at her in the mirror
, as he snuck his hand behind her back to squeeze her ass.  “I think you know exactly how I feel about bad girls.”

Ronnie
elbowed him.  “Be good or I’m going to call Lou Ellen,” she threatened.

“She doesn’t scare me,” Trace growled giving her
butt another squeeze.

“Well, she scares me,” Ronnie said with a laugh, stepping around him.  “Let’s go.”

Two hours into the five hour drive to Dallas, Trace’s phone rang.  He dug it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen.  He saw it was Conner Lucas and handed it to Ronnie who was in the passenger seat of Lou Ellen’s Cadillac
beside him.  Lou Ellen had let him drive, so she could nap in the back seat.  They were going to pick up Dave Logan on the way to the party.  Trace was taking his van.

Ronnie looked at the phone
, smiled then answered it quickly.  “Where are you?”

“I’m on a forced vacation
thanks to you,” Conner said grumpily.

“So, Dave called you…good.”

“Yeah, he called me,” Conner replied.  “Do you realize how many cases I’m juggling, Vee?  This is not going to work for long.”

“
I promise we’ll have it settled soon,” she said with a glance at Trace whose pleasant expression had flattened into a frown when he saw who was calling.

“You better, or you’ll be representing me in front of the bar for negligence
, and helping me find another job.”  He grunted then said, “You may have to do that anyway once they corner me about pulling those files.”

“What did you tell the office?” she asked.

“I told them my aunt was sick and I needed to go out of town for a few weeks to help take care of her.”

“Your mother is an only child,” she reminded him with a laugh.

“They don’t know that.  And my father’s brother is as close to an aunt as a guy can get.  You know he’s almost done with his operations.”

Ronnie held back a laugh.  His father’s brother was a cross-dresser and the butt of many a Lucas family joke. 
“Don’t go anywhere too obvious, Conner.  They could find you.  You need to keep your head down until we finish with this.”

“I’m really taking a vacation.”
  He didn’t sound happy about that at all.

“You need a vacation anyway,” Ronnie said seriously.  Conner was a worse workaholic than she was.  He hadn’t taken a vacation since he joined the firm three years ago.  At least she had taken
a weekend away after the Longmire case closed.  When this mess was over she would probably take another one.  Maybe a week this time.  Hell, maybe two weeks.  Lord knew she was going to need one.

“Look I just called to tell you I had a thought on my way out of town.  I
forgot to pull the physical evidence they had against Trace for his trial.  I know it wasn’t much, but I thought we might find something.  I realized that fingerprints weren’t done on it back then.”

“It was still there?” Ronnie asked in amazement.

“The drugs weren’t but the zip lock bag and the money bands were there.”

“Who did you send it to?  Not to the lab the firm uses, I hope.”

“Hell no, I’m not stupid.  Dave Logan knew a forensic guy, so I dropped it off there on my way out of town.  I also dropped off the coroner’s report for reevaluation.  They’re putting a rush on it and I told them to call Dave with the results.”

“Are they running any
prints they find through AFIS?”  That was a national database of all fingerprints across the United States.

“I told them to do that, but ask Dave.
”  Conner sounded distracted now.  He let out a breath, then a low whistle.  “Wow…I need to let you go, Vee,” he said.

Her heart rate kicked up a notch.  “What’s wrong?” she asked quickly.

“I just saw someone I think I need to meet.  Maybe this vacation thing won’t be so bad after all.  Bye,” he said and the line disconnected.  Ronnie shook her head and handed the phone back to Trace.

“What?” he asked giving her a couple of anxious glares.

“Conner is safely vacationing.  On his way out of town he picked up the physical evidence from your trial to have it looked at again.”

“The drugs and money they found in my locker
at the station?” Trace asked darkly.

“Yeah.  They destroyed the drugs, and disposed of the cash, but the bag and money bands were still in cold storage at the courthouse.  Conner dropped them off to be checked for fingerprints.  I should have done that back then, but we both knew that evidence was planted there.
  I was more worried about trying to read through all those depositions and cross examine the drug dealers who were testifying against you.”

“None of that would have mattered,” Trace said and she saw his hands tighten on the wheel.  “I’m glad now you suggested I take that plea.  If I hadn’t, I probably would still be in there.”

“We’re having the coroner’s report looked at again too.  I think he may have been paid off as well.”