Agnes and the Hitman (13 page)

“I talked to Joey,
I
got shot at twice, and I got you an air conditioner. Why are you going to lose the house?”

“Shot at?” Lisa Livia said.

“This morning while Evie and Brenda were here?” Agnes said. “Because I heard shots then.”

“They missed. Why are you going to lose the house?”

Then the other shoe dropped. “You got me an air conditioner?” Agnes swallowed hard. “You got me an
air conditioner?”

He looked taken aback. “Well, you were having trouble with the central air unit you had—”

“It’s too small for the house,” Agnes said.

“—so I checked it before I left and you needed another one. It’s no big deal, Agnes.”

“Oh, my God,” Agnes said. “You got shot at and you still got me an air conditioner.”

“Agnes, it’s an air conditioner, not a kidney,” Shane said, and she wanted to say,
It’s better than a kidney, after all that, you still remembered me?
but all she said was, “Thank you very much. I’ll pay you back.”

“No, you won’t,” Shane said. “Think of it as room and board. What’s for dinner?”

“Joey brought me a tenderloin last night and I put it to marinade this morning,” Agnes said. “That’s easy and then we’ll have sandwiches from the leftovers for a while.”

“That’s worth an air conditioner,” Shane said.

“I’ll do more,” Agnes said.

“You’re easy, Agnes,” Shane said.

You have no idea. Take me.
“An air conditioner. My God.”

“So what happened with the house?”

“That’s what I have to talk to Taylor about first.”

“If you tell me, I’ll fix it,” he said, and she almost told him, just because he was there, and because he bought her an air conditioner, and because he could do anything, she was pretty sure. “It’s nothing I can’t handle,” she lied.

“I’ll go put the air conditioner in,” he said, nodded to Lisa Livia, and went out the back door.

Agnes turned to start dinner and caught sight of Lisa Livia watching her with her arms folded. “What?”

“Finally, something good is happening to you.”

“Yes,” Agnes said firmly. “I got an air conditioner.”

“That’s not all you’re getting,” Lisa Livia said. “And that fathead Taylor is toast. Couldn’t happen to a shallower guy, either.”

“Don’t get all starry-eyed on me,” Agnes said, heading for the refrigerator. “Shane is not staying.”

“I know, that’s the beauty of it. He gives you an air conditioner, evicts that airhead from your life, gives you great sex, and then leaves. My God. The perfect man.”

“Are you staying for dinner?” Agnes asked with studied politeness.

“No,” Lisa Livia said. “He might decide to take you before dessert. I wouldn’t want to be in the way. I’ll come back tomorrow for leftovers after I’ve rummaged around on the
Brenda Belle
to see if Brenda’s got anything incriminating packed away. She’s about as smart with money in general as you are, so outside of scamming you for this house, I doubt she’s much ahead of you on anything.”

“I’m smart with money,” Agnes said.

“You’re an idiot with money,” Lisa Livia said. “So is Brenda or she wouldn’t be in this cash bind now. You’re the genius with words; I’m the genius with money. We should do something together with that. But not tonight. Tonight you’re going to be playing footsie with the hotsie.”

“You’re disgusting,” Agnes said, trying not to grin.

“Yeah, but I’m going to save your butt,” Lisa Livia said. “I’m not kidding about that Venus. I want it.” She took one more look at the basement door and left, and Agnes sighed.

That made two people who were going to save her butt. The place was filling up with people who wanted to save her.

She tried to feel exasperated about that, but she grinned instead. Then she went to make dinner.

At ten minutes to ten, he stood up to walk down to the dock and realized that Rhett wasn’t collapsed beside him anymore. He whistled and then, since that never worked anyway, he went around to the front of the house to find the dog and saw that the front door was open.
Fuck.

He took out his Glock and moved silently into the hall and heard Agnes say, her voice tight, “You’re
dead,
I saw you die!”

“I just need to get the dog, lady,” somebody pleaded, and Shane relaxed a little as the voice cracked. A kid.

He edged closer to the door and saw the kid from the back, his jacket shabby, a Confederate Army cap on his head, a gun in his hand. Not good. And his hand was shaking. Even worse. An amateur.

“You are
not
getting my dog,” Agnes said. She was behind the counter, unarmed but looking plenty outraged, with Rhett in the open space beside the counter, looking unconcerned. And there were knives and frying pans all within her reach, so it could turn into a major mess fast.

Shane moved up silently behind the kid. Agnes put her hand out to the counter, and Shane saw that it was shaking just as he heard a boat out on the water. Wilson.
Enough,
he thought, and grabbed the kid by the neck and smacked his head into the doorframe.

The kid said, “Urp,” and dropped the gun and Shane shoved the swinging door to the basement open, lowered the stunned kid by the back of his shirt into the hole.

Then he pocketed the gun and grabbed the kitchen table and shoved it across the basement doorway just as he heard Taylor’s Cobra rumble across the creaking bridge.

“My meeting is here,” he said to Agnes, nodding out toward the dock. “And your fiancé finally got here. Keep that table across the door and don’t tell anybody the kid is down there. We’ll find out from him what’s going on after we get done with these guys.”

“Okay,” Agnes said, looking a little rattled, but determined.

“That’s my girl,” Shane said, and went out the back door, remembering too late that she wasn’t.

He had to get out of Keyes.

Agnes watched through the open back door as Shane walked out to the dock, calm as anything in spite of having just disarmed somebody and dropped him in a basement. They just didn’t make guys like him anymore, she thought, and then Taylor came into the kitchen carrying a large box that was heavy from the way he huffed as he put it down on the table Shane had just shoved across the basement door. He didn’t seem to notice that the table had been moved. Well, he hadn’t been in the house enough to really know where the furniture went.

Keep your temper, Agnes.

“What’s he still doing here?” Taylor said, jerking his head toward the dock, and she looked back out to where Shane was silhouetted against the last of the sun.

He looked wonderful out there, although it was a little disconcerting that he held his business meetings on her dock at night. Kind of made her wonder what kind of business he was in.

“I don’t like it that he’s living here,” Taylor said.

I do.

“I mean it, Agnes,” Taylor said. “He has to go.”

“He brought me an air conditioner. He can stay forever as far as I’m concerned.”
Not to mention he just saved me from another damn dognapper.
Agnes turned her back on the window and looked at Taylor in the dim light of the kitchen. He seemed indistinct, fuzzy, and not just because the light was dim. She flipped on the overhead light, and he still seemed not quite there, a little too blond, a little too round at the corners.

Maybe it was because Shane had such sharp edges.

“Well, if you’ve got him out here, I don’t see why you needed me,” Taylor said.

“We need to talk,” Agnes said, trying to decide whether to break the engagement and then tell him that Brenda was swindling them, or tell him she thought they were being conned and then dump him.

“Not now,” Taylor said, opening the flaps on the box. “I’m in a hurry. Look at this.” He pulled out a plate.

Agnes pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and came around the counter to squint at it. It was a plain white plate, cheap pottery with a thin glaze, nothing to make a snob like Taylor get excited. “So?”

“Aren’t they the greatest?”

Agnes looked at him in disbelief. “Taylor, you wouldn’t feed Rhett off this plate. Are you telling me this is what you want to use for the catering here?”

“God, no,” Taylor said, and then recovered. “I thought you could use this as the china for the wedding. Save some money.”

Agnes took it. “It’s not china at all; it’s pottery.” She turned it over. “Incredibly cheap pottery. I can’t believe you’re not spitting on this.”

“I told you, it’s for the wedding.”

“No.” She handed it back. “It’s not. Take it back. Listen, we have a problem.”

He looked floored. “I can’t take it back. Agnes, you’ll save a fortune. Look at it again. Look at the bowls.” He pushed the box toward her. “They’re a nice shape and ...”

He kept talking, and Agnes tuned him out and looked in the box and saw the receipt stuck down the side. She reached in and pulled it out to see just how cheap this junk was. If it was more than $ 1
.98
for the whole damn box, he’d been ripped off good.

She unfolded the paper and saw scrawled at the bottom of the Visa slip a signature:
Brenda Dupres.

“Brenda sent you out here with this,” she said as her throat closed. “What’s going on? Why are you working with Brenda?
What is this?”

“Uh,” Taylor said.

Agnes felt herself flush, heat rising with her temper. There was a plan here, Lisa Livia had been right—Brenda was up to something— except that LL had missed that Taylor was part of it and this horrible thin, ugly pottery with a cheap thin grainy glaze was part of it, she was supposed to use this horrible junk instead of the lush creamy china Maria deserved, and Brenda would have made sure somehow that Evie found out, Brenda had
asked
about the china that morning, and then Brenda would have looked at Evie and said, “The country club has beautiful china. ...”

Brenda was trying to swindle her out of Two Rivers and Taylor was helping her. Agnes put her hand on the table, furious that he’d
lied to her—

Steady, Agnes.

—incredulous that he could be
that fucking stupid.
“Agnes?”

Agnes took a deep breath, controlling her anger with everything she had.

What was he getting out of it? He was going to lose the house, too, the dimwit. What had Brenda promised him? “Agnes, what’s wrong?”

You fucking moronic lying bastard, you sold us both out. Angry language makes us angrier, Agnes.

Agnes took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice steady. “You sold us out to Brenda.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Taylor said, his eyes shifting left.

“You
lie.”

Taylor
took a step back. “Agnes!”

Physical exercise is often a good way of defusing anger, Agnes, just walk away now.

Agnes gritted her teeth. “I don’t know what promises Brenda made you, you
treacherous idiot,
but if I lose this house,
you lose this house.”

Taylor
drew himself up. “There’s no need for insults, Agnes.”
Running, Agnes, weight lifting, swimming ...

“There’s
every need,
you
dumbass.
You’re screwing
both
of us and you don’t seem to
see that!” Bowling, assault, battery ...

“Agnes!”
He shook his head. “You’re really out of line. Last night, trying to break off our engagement, and now accusing me of betraying you ...”

Defenestration, castration ...

“I have to tell you, Agnes,
I’m not pleased.”

“Shot put,”
Agnes snapped, and shoved the hall door open with her shoulder and picked up the plate and slung it into the hall, where it smashed beautifully on the black-and-white-tiled floor.