You're Busting My Nuptials (Tizzy/Ridge Trilogy Book 2) (14 page)

“Negative Jesus, Positive Jesus?” Synola repeated. “I thought Jesus was just Jesus.”

“Oh, not at all, Synola.” Mr. E pumped his fist in the air, raised his voice, and accentuated some of the syllables like a TV evangelist. “NE-gative Jesus says if you don’t live right you’re headed for hell fire and DAM-nation to spend perpetuity with demons. Have you ever thought about how long eternity lasts, Synola?”

She gave a silent wag of her head.

“When you’ve been in hell for a million years, you’re still not finished.” Then he spread his hands, palms up, in front of his body, and spoke softly. “Whereas, POS-itive Jesus says we’ll be forgiven for our sins, live in mansions, and walk on streets of gold. Not to mention, we’ll never grow old.”

Mr. E laid the remaining papers next to his Bible, then took Tizzy and Synola’s hands in his and bowed his head. “
Father God, let Positive Jesus accompany Tizzy and her friends as they continue their search for Ridge. Cast out evil, let Positive Jesus fill them with good. Turn away the demons, bring on the angels, and if they return to those sinful strip clubs, let Positive Jesus be their leader. In Positive Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”

Mr. E dropped their hands, and picked up his things. He turned toward the door and shook the Bible in the air.
“Trust in the Lord, Tizzy. I’ll continue to pray for you, and the safe return of your young man.”

As the door closed behind him, Tizzy looked at Jinx and Synola. They both shrugged.

“He is one strange dude,” Jinx said.

Synola raised her hands toward heaven. “POS-itively.”

By the time Tizzy and her duo left, morning began to fade. The crew hired to search the lake called to say they were on their way to the location. Tizzy, Jinx, and Synola went to meet them.

Howard Benson arrived with a twenty-one-foot rescue/dive boat and one scuba diver. Jinx offered to dive as well, but Tizzy decided he would be more help staying with her.

“A lot of area to cover here, Ms. Donovan, and only six hours of daylight left,” Howard said.

“Please, call me Tizzy. Just do as much as you can today and start again in the morning. I don’t care how long the search takes.”

Howard, tall and distinguished, looked like a banker. “To be clear, we’re trying to find a body, right?”

Tizzy swallowed hard and spoke around the knot in her throat. “I’m not sure what I’m looking for.”

Howard pulled his brows together. “Okay, we’ll get started. No reason for you to stay unless you want to. If we find anything, I’ll give you a call.”

Her chest tightened and the blood drained from her face. Even though she didn’t believe Ridge was dead, she’d felt compelled to drag the lake. Something was there. She could feel it. Almost as if the place called to her.

Jinx and Synola moved to her side and then Jinx asked, “You sure about this?”

“No, but from the minute I made the Big Eddy connection, I’ve believed something is here for me to find, so I have to follow that feeling.”

Synola put her arm around Tizzy’s shoulders. “There’s nothing you can do here, so let’s go see Ramona. That will help pass the time and get your mind off this place for a while.”

Half an hour later, Tizzy pulled to the curb a block away from four forty-four Rosemont. She turned to face Jinx. “Is this a good place for you to get out?”

“Yeah, I’ll walk from here. I don’t want Ramona to see me or she’ll get upset. Once the coast is clear, I’ll come in the back.”

Tizzy left Jinx behind and a few minutes later pulled into Ramona’s driveway. When she and Synola reached the front door, she lightly tapped and the gnome repeated its Tim McGraw warning.

“Thank Positive Jesus Rayann’s not here,” Synola said.

Tizzy knocked.

“Who is it?” Ramona asked, from the other side.

“Tizzy and Synola.”

Ramona flung the door open and pulled Tizzy into the room. “Omigod! Omigod! Omigod! Tizzy, have you found them?”

“No, not yet, but we’re still looking. How are you doing?”

“I need a few things from the store.”

Tizzy broke free of Ramona’s bear hug and put her arm around her. “I’ll take you. While we’re gone, would it be okay if Synola looked in Gwynn’s room? There could be a phone number or name of who booked her for the party.”

Ramona hesitated a moment. “I’m not sure. Gwynn doesn’t even like for me to go in her room.”

“I understand, but we might come across something to help us find her.”

Ramona jerked her head, widened her eyes, and started to pace again. “You’re right, you’re right. You could find something that would help. Okay. Okay.”

Tizzy latched onto her arm and stopped her march. “You get your list and we’ll go.”

~~*~~

After Tizzy and Ramona drove away, Synola let Jinx in the back door. He pulled out rubber gloves and handed a pair to her. “At some point, the Rangers will probably process this room, so we don’t want our prints to show up.”

“They’d only be able to identify them if they’re in the system, right?”

“Yeah, or worked for the government.” Jinx started to open dresser drawers.

Gwynn’s small room was papered in pink roses and edged with a scalloped border of trailing ivy. The satin bed-cover was bright fuchsia and the only thing in the room that looked like it’d been purchased in this century. On each side of the bed were square tables, the tops covered with fashion magazines, nail polish, and romance novels. On the opposite wall was a five drawer chest, scuffed and scarred, with two of the pulls missing. On top of it was an old lamp with a faded, fringed shade and a jewelry box. A computer was tucked away on a small corner desk.

Synola moved to one of the bedside tables and opened the drawer. “Nothing,” she mumbled.

Jinx rummaged through the closet. “Looks like mostly junk in here.”

Synola sat on the bed and bounced. The springs squeaked beneath her weight. Jinx flashed a wicked smile. She jumped up, checked out the other bedside table and came up empty again. “I don’t know why she wouldn’t want Ramona coming in here,” Synola said. “There’s certainly nothing worth stealing unless she has money hidden under the mattress.”

The minute the words rolled off her tongue, Jinx’s eyes lit up. He walked to the bed, stuck his hand between the mattresses and felt around. “Bingo,” he said, and pulled out a small journal. He produced a large baggie from his jeans pocket, and dropped the book inside.

“Wow, you came prepared,” she said. “You’ve done this before?”

“Yeah, a time or two.”

Suddenly, glass shattered and a thump sounded on the wall next to Synola. Jinx grabbed her, jerked her to the floor, and fell on top of her.

“What the hell?” she said, squirming to get free of him. “You’d better get off me or Negative Jesus is gonna pay a visit to your nuts.”

“Shut-up.” He clamped his hand over her mouth. “Someone’s shooting at us.”

She pushed his hand away. “What? I didn’t hear a gunshot.”

“They’re using a silencer. You think the window broke spontaneously? Stay down, and call Tizzy. Tell her not to come back until she hears from us.” He took a gun from his ankle holster and slid off Synola onto the floor.

Synola rolled to her stomach, made the call, then watched Jinx belly-crawl to the window. He took a quick glance outside. Another bullet zinged by him, shattering more glass.

“Don’t just lay there,” she said, “shoot the bastard.”

“I’d rather not. I don’t have a silencer. Gunshots will bring the cops. I don’t think we want that.”

“Then what are we gonna do?”

“Nothing.”

“Whut? Are you crazy?”

Jinx raised his head and took another quick look. “Ah-oh.”

“Ah-oh? Whataya mean, ah-oh?”

“They’re crossing the street. Two of them. Big guys, dark glasses, baseball caps.”

“What the hell?”

Jinx rolled to her. “C’mon, follow me, but stay down.”

“Where are we going?”

“To set an ambush.”

Synola followed behind Jinx as he inched down the hallway.

He grabbed an old metal candlestick from a small table, handed it to her, and opened the hall closet. They both came to their feet. He pushed the coats to one side, kicked some shoes out of the way, and pulled her in and shut the door. “You take one and I’ll take the other,” he said.

“What the hell do you mean,
you take one and I’ll take the other?”

“Sugar, you’ve got a candlestick, so use the damn thing.”

Synola began to whisper.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m calling on Jesus to help get us out of here.”

Jinx pulled her close and held her there. “Which one, negative or positive?”

“I don’t give a crap, just so one of ’em shows up.”

Jinx pressed her body closer and planted a soft kiss on her lips. “You’ll be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Synola took a ragged breath. “Damn, I must be ovulating, because I’m hot for you right now.”

He leaned his head away from her. “Really, Synola? You pick the middle of a possible gunfight to tell me you’re turned on? That is the worse come-on line I’ve ever heard.”

“Jinx . . .”

He put his hand to her mouth again. “Shhh, they’re coming in.”

Thirty minutes later, Tizzy and Ramona came through the front door. Jinx was gone and Synola was back in Gwynn’s room sweeping up broken window glass.

“Omigod, omigod, omigod! What happened to my gnome? This is bad. This is so bad,” Ramona shrieked.

Tizzy put her arm around the woman’s shoulders. “Sit down here on the couch. I’ll get you some water. You’ll be okay. I’ll replace the gnome.” Tizzy went into the kitchen, and in a few minutes, returned with a glass.

Once Ramona had settled, Tizzy joined Synola. “Oh my God! Are you alright?”

“Calm down. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m just fine.” Synola swept broken glass.

“Tizzy threw her arms around her. “Good grief, Synola. You can’t call me and say people are shooting at you and expect me to be calm. What happened here?”

Synola pulled away and started to sweep and talk, darting like a hummingbird in a flower garden. “Well, someone was shooting at us through the window, then they were coming across the street, Jinx had a gun, I grabbed a candlestick, we got in the closet,” she said, taking a quick breath. “They came to the door, the gnome scared them, they shot it, then we heard the sirens and the guys left, I’m cleaning up the glass, Jinx is gone.”

Tizzy looked like a deer caught in headlights. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. Nothing’s wrong with me. You wanted to know what happened and I told you.”

“Did y’all find anything? Did you get a look at the shooters?”

“No, they had on caps and sunglasses and yeah we found a journal, Jinx has it, the cops’ showing up was a stroke of luck, I don’t know what we would have done if those guys had come inside the house,” Synola strung her words together like a cheap strand of pearls.

Tizzy eyed her from head to toe. “Why are you talking so fast?”

“Someone was shooting at us! I’m a little wired right now.”

“I’m sorry. I feel terrible. This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have asked you and Rayann to help me. I’ve put you in danger, first with the clowns and now this.”

“I wanted to help. Besides, it hasn’t been
all
bad.”

“Uh-huh. Well, I’ll call someone to fix the windows. Ramona told me she has a friend who lives close by. I’ve convinced her to stay with her for a while. I don’t think she’ll be safe here.”

“Okay, I’ll be done in a minute, Jinx said pick him up in the same place we dropped him off. What are we going to do next, go back to the lake?”

“I’ll call a cab for Ramona. After we talk to Jinx, we’ll decide our next move.” Tizzy turned to go. When she reached the doorway, she stopped and spoke over her shoulder. “Oh, and Synola—you’ve got your sweater on backwards.”

An hour later, Tizzy, Jinx and Synola sat in a corner booth at Poncho Panda Restaurant on the outskirts of Tyler. Tizzy picked at her nachos with one hand and removed sweater fuzz from Jinx’s hair with the other. He was having a hard time keeping his eyes off Synola.

“Gee, I bet y’all were uncomfortable in the closet, given how much you dislike each other.” Tizzy said.

“We had no choice. The bad guys were coming. We had to hide somewhere. Thank God, the cops showed up. Talk about luck.” Synola gushed.

“That wasn’t a coincidence,” Tizzy said. “I called them.”

Jinx jerked his head up. “What? Why? I thought we agreed no police.”

“We did, but y’all were in trouble. Besides, I didn’t call them to Ramona’s address; I gave them a house number down the block. Told them I thought I’d heard a scream.”

“Damn, Tizzy, they can trace your number.”

“No, the store had a display of throw-away phones by the register. They were charged up and ready so I bought one of them,” she said, displaying the purchase.