Boss and Ace’s trip to see Bruce got zero new leads. Under a bit of pressure from the men, he confessed every transgression he was guilty of while married to Mackenzie but did not order the hit on her. Ace had been very persuasive and since he had no information on the hitman, Ace convinced him to sign his divorce papers instead. They were now being delivered to Bruce’s lawyer this week. This was good news.
They also questioned him about his evil girlfriend, Suzy Star. Bruce admitted he was still seeing her, and they had argued over all the bad press she had been giving on Mazy. He stated that since Mazy was his paycheck it was hurting him too. For some reason he thought that would stop the woman; it didn’t. He never had any intention of leaving Mazy for her and had no idea why Suzy hated her so much. Now Bruce was too terrified of her to break up with her. The guy was a total pansy.
Doc and Georgie were digging into Suzy Star as she was still a top suspect. I was interested to see if she made the kind of bank required to hire The Russian. Gage had pulled up a video of one of her nasty broadcasts and showed me the comments under it. Maya Midnight fans, the Night Lurkers, had been lighting Suzy up for the jealous hateful bitch she was. People were starting to wake up to the fact she clearly just had an ax to grind, versus giving them real news.
After Suzy and Bruce, I was out of suspects. Someone putting a hit on you was a seriously personal offense. Mackenzie said she didn’t have any other issues that she knew of. We talked to Albert and Lucas who had both traveled with her and they never had anyone be anything more than a crazy fan. They would look into the strangest two but neither thought those fans had any real money.
The Davenports were unpleasant, but it didn’t wash that they would go this far. Still, I was having the boys dig into them too. Daphne had called her father, who called John about the fight at the bar. John told me he instructed Mr. Davenport to get his daughter married and settled so she would stop poaching. Sarah had just shook her head and told me Daphne had it coming.
Now Wolf and I were deep into the Parker and Hendrix properties staring down at some footprints. He looked up at me from where he was squatting down next to them. “Did the police even try?” he asked full of disdain.
“Man, this is a fairly small town. We have three cops, and they don’t exactly have a lot of crime around here. At most, it’s the same country drama they see all the time. That’s why they like us here. Every time we help them pull someone in, they are busy for months finishing their part. I heard they are hiring now, you should apply.”
“Fuck no. You know I’m not a cop person. I was just saying we should train them a bit better. They lost the blood trail as soon as it wasn’t obvious. One of them should be out here now, learning.”
“I know them, and I’ll suggest it. Let’s find the next one,” I said, blowing out a sigh.
We continued to find footprints, not all obvious to the untrained eye. Wolf had an uncanny way of spotting something out of place. He could spot a broken twig or leaves crushed in places a normal person would need to bend over and search for. I had the luck of just finding footprints like an unseen force just led me to them. Together we were the ultimate tracking team.
“Here,” Wolf said, and I walked over to the dirt spot he stood at. I looked down at a single tire track and around again for the others. “This is a specialized tire for a modified bike. I don’t even own a set of these tires for my hog. These cost some serious cake.”
I took pictures, and we made a cast because I wanted to make sure I had something clear to compare once we found the bike. Wolf put an orange marker next to it so we could easily find it again. There was no cell coverage out there to take our GPS coordinates. We had been out here for hours, and it was getting dark, so we went back to the cabin. Mazy said it was there they were first shot at. We hid the four-wheelers we rode out there in a spot they were completely camouflaged.
Once inside, we closed all the window blinds. Mazy’s pops had blinds made specifically for the cabin that could black out the windows. Blaze had added cameras strategically around the cabin so we could see someone coming but they couldn’t see us inside. We sat down to have one of the beers we had packed, and I pulled out a deck of cards.
“How much further back does your property go?” he asked and started shuffling.
“We could search for at least one more day.” He nodded. “I think it was three men. Our friend has two whack job buddies he always has with him.”
“I thought the same. If we find one we should be able to find all,” Wolf noted.
“I’ll have Doc get me pictures of the three of them.”
“How’s everything else going?” he asked, eyeing me over his cards.
“The way it was always supposed to. How about you, anyone special?”
“Nope. I still like to try the different flavors and haven’t decided which one is my favorite yet.”
I laughed, “You are going to go down so hard.”
“Thanks for supporting the brotherhood. When Boss goes to collect all your balls he won’t need to cut them off. He can just go collect them from your women.”
“I will be photographing your entire downfall.”
“I’ll put the photos in our wedding book,” Wolf said with a chuckle.
The rest of the night went on like that. We got drunk and played cards. I was glad he was distracting me from not being able to check in on Mazy. It was driving me crazy to know I couldn’t call for two days and not know if she was wreaking havoc upon the farm.
Duck had been gone two days without the ability to communicate and it was torture. I was required to check in with Gage instead. It wasn’t difficult, since I had been spending all my time with Kayla, Kristen, and Chelsea at Kayla’s theater. I just missed my man that I wasn’t fully committed to.
It was time to give up the ghost and give in to him. When he called me yesterday morning, I was so excited and that was reflected right back at me. I could hear his smile as we just talked about mundane day to day stuff. He would be back tomorrow evening sometime since their journey led them out of state.
“I miss you,” he said softly, and I could hear Wolf make gagging noises in the background.
“Same. Tell Wolf I said hi. And for you, I just found a new nightgown with tags on it.”
“Really?” he breathed.
“Down boy. You can’t just leave him there.”
“I wouldn’t bet on that. I would withstand the wrath I would face for it. Send me a picture,” he ordered.
Once again I could hear Wolf, “Please don’t. Whatever it is, don't do it. We got shit to do.”
I laughed, “Give me ten minutes.”
“Okay, beautiful, I’ll be waiting for it. Text me hourly, and I’ll call you later.”
My voice softened, “Okay. Bye, Cowboy.”
Gage knocked on my door a little later to give me a ride to the theater. He was grinning at me when I opened the door.
“Hey, let me grab my stuff.” I checked my phone one more time before shoving it in my purse. I had texted Duck a picture, as promised, and he had just responded with a dog panting. Another GIF popped up of a cowboy riding a horse at full speed, and I laughed.
“Aww, you kids are adorable,” Gage teased. “He looks at his phone the same way when you're apart.”
I knew he was messing with me, but I couldn’t help but ask, “Really?”
“Yup. I ain’t got shit more to say. I was like you once,” he hedged.
As we headed toward a big GMC Sierra, I tilted my head. “This is what you drive?” I asked.
“One thing.”
“What else do you got?”
“I have a Bugatti that was customized to look similar to the Batmobile,” he said, saying the last part softly. I burst out laughing. “I also have a bike, an Escalade, some outdoor toys, and a minivan.”
I buckled my seatbelt, still laughing when I asked, “A minivan?”
“Every home needs one,” he replied, completely not embarrassed by it. But he was shy about his Batmobile, which was way cool. Gage was a complicated man and full of surprises.
“I never considered the things one might need a minivan for. Why does every house need one?” I asked.
He groaned, “Well, we don’t need one anymore because we bought a bus. If we all want to go somewhere together, we need a vehicle with the space. I was the only one secure enough in my manhood to make the purchase. I had Ace paint the outside of it like the A-Team.”
“Ah, I see now. I have yet to ride in the bus and will put it on my list. Now, tell me more about when you were like me. Was it with Lucy?” I badgered.
I could tell he rolled his eyes, but he answered. “As a teenager no, as an adult, she was the only woman I was that way with.” I found that interesting and very telling all at the same time.
“Duck is the only one I was ever like that with,” I confessed.
“He is the same. I don’t even think he had another girlfriend after you.”
Wow. I always thought he probably dated and had a few long-term women. We had been apart a long time. I always avoided thinking about him with other women. My heart fluttered to think that maybe, just maybe, he was really waiting for me all this time. If I was the one who had to watch him get married, I would have lost it. Even though he had hurt me several times, I still loved him. My marriage was plastered everywhere which had to have gutted him. Not going to lie, it made me sad knowing I had wounded him like that. I had to work on letting go of the heavy regret I carried for marrying Bruce.
“You know, you’re actually a good guy, and I like talking with you.” I thought I saw his cheeks get a little pink. “You just blushed,” I accused, ruining the moment.
“No, I didn’t,” he scoffed as he pulled into the parking lot.
“Yes, you did. There’s a teddy bear hiding under that pain in the ass exterior,” I told him and elbowed him.
“Jesus. I’m not talking to you anymore,” he huffed. He threw an arm out as I went to open my door. “Wait until I come around for you.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because your man isn’t here. You haven’t bitched about the last two days so don’t start now. I can either be your body armor or Duck will have you wearing a SWAT uniform everywhere, your choice.”
I choked, “You do that to be my armor?” How did they do it? They just block you from bullets, with their own body. It was pure insanity. Weren’t they scared to get shot too?
“Girl, we are gentlemen, but shit, I wouldn’t go this over the top unless you were my woman or one of the men’s.”
“Are you wearing a vest?” I inquired, now paranoid. These boys were becoming family to me. My friends were dating and married to them. I wanted them completely protected.
“No,” he said and got out, coming around to my side. He waited until my arms were loaded with all my stuff and then he opened the door. We walked toward the theater with him on my exposed side.
“Can you start wearing one please?”
“No.”
Suddenly Mr. Talkative was down to one-word answers. “And why not?”
He sighed huge, “I’ve been shot, stabbed, kidnapped, held hostage, tortured, and branded. Getting shot wouldn’t be that big of a deal.”
“Uh, what? Yes it would, I don’t care how many times you have done it. Does Luciana know you don’t wear one?” I didn’t know his mom or if he had one, so I had to use the only weapon I had.
“She spends most of her time ignoring me, so I would say no, and she doesn’t have room to talk anyway,” he shot back with a little sass. I didn’t have a chance to respond because the girls were talking when we got in there and I was sucked in. “I’m covering the back door today. Albert is inside and Lucas is at the front door.” He walked away after that.
Lucy was actually sitting behind the desk with Kayla, Kristen, and Chelsea today.
“Damn, Sista, you get around,” I greeted.
“I had a show in Colorado that was postponed, so I came back,” she replied.
“Yay! I’m so glad,” I said super excitedly. I was about to start bugging her about Gage when Rachel was allowed in by Lucas. “Hey, sis. I didn’t know you were coming.” At some point I wanted to get Rachel alone and drill her. I wanted to get caught up with her. The other women had already adopted her.
“Hi, y’all. Yeah, Chelsea told me about it, and I just dropped off my spawn to my aunt. I needed adult time because teenagers suck the life blood out of you,” Rachel whined.
We were all sitting around eating lunch when Lucy started talking about the cabin. “I want to go back there. The woman still has a lot to say, I think. She was struggling to get me a message at all. I want to bring some tools out there to help me communicate better.”
“Pops has tons of files on the case we could go through. I just need to find them,” I told her, and she nodded excitedly. “I’m sure there’s info in there that could help us connect with her.”
“Oh, the Zach Lane thing,” Rachel said, now knowing exactly what we were talking about. “It sucks; he was a really nice guy. We used to study together since we had the same advanced classes. My mom felt bad because his dad used to beat him and preferred him to have dinner at our house. She would have adopted him if she could. We should divide the info and have meetings like your Pops did. It would be a lot of fresh eyes looking at the case,” she suggested. “My mom would help, I’m sure of it.”
“I love that. I’m in.” I looked around our crew, “Anyone else want in?” Every single head nodded. “Okay, it may be a few weeks, but when I find it, we will all get a basic case file to read first, then we will divide Pops’ notebooks.”
Ellen and Jean showed up not too long after we established our investigation plan. We went back to focusing on the theater planning. They helped us finish up voting on advertising ideas and themes for opening night. Once Kayla got all the upcoming shows booked solid, we would rent a billboard and send out mailings to residents from our town and several surrounding towns.
We were almost completely done with everything else here and were planning to start working on Chelsea’s store. Ace had up all her shelving and built all her furniture. We still needed to paint and hang up decorations. Anything big that needed to be done, the guys would come by and do for us. Chelsea had been working her butt off on inventory. The goal was to have her and Kristen’s store both up and running by the theater’s opening night. With the amount of hands-on deck we had; I knew we could do it. They all promised to help with my bed and breakfast once it was my turn.
My phone started ringing from somewhere in my purse. The problem was, I couldn’t find my purse, so I was walking around following the sound. We had moved areas several times, and I was trying to remember where I last set it. The phone had stopped before I found it under a chair we were sitting in earlier. It scared the crap out of me when I picked it and it rang again. The screen read, Jenny.
I, of course, picked it right up. She never called twice in a row unless it was an emergency. Her phone was breaking up and I could barely hear her. “Jen, Jen, can you hear me?”
I kept hearing a clip of her voice then static, voice, static, ugh. A car accident happened outside right in front of the store making it worse. My head whipped around at the sound of metal crunching metal. It was a bad accident with both cars crushed. I saw Lucas run to the accident to check on the people. There were several other people helping him get to the people in the cars. Albert was talking to the girls in the other room.
“Jen,” I called again because I couldn’t hear anything.
“Hey,” static, “Surprise,” static, “I’m,” static, “Bunny’s,” she said.
I was so confused, and it occurred to me, Bunny’s Bakery was a block down. She came to surprise me. I didn’t think twice and ran out the front door, hauling my ass down to the bakery. It had been too long without my girl, and I was thrilled. From time-to-time Jen would just pop up out of nowhere for visits. I loved her spontaneity.
There were several things that didn’t occur to me that should have. One was it didn’t sound like her at all, but in my excitement and with the static, I thought it was just bad reception. She was in Europe recently and it screws up her phone every time she comes home. The second thing I didn’t think about was Lucas was very distracted and Albert was in another room. Nobody knew where I was going. The third was that my purse that held all my weapons was left under a chair. My only thought was to get Jen and bring her back here.