Bare-Naked Lola (A Lola Cruz Mystery) (30 page)

I thought back to my first meeting with Victoria. Did she know about my black belt? For the life of me, I couldn’t remember, but I didn’t think it had been mentioned. There’d been a lot of talk about my curves and physique, but not much about my skill set as a detective.

I stood even with Larry. He was frozen, his mouth open, his eyes glistening. I had a feeling that Victoria’s words had hit home with him. He’d never get to role-play—or do anything—with Jennifer again. The idea had taken hold. He trembled, ready to go into a tailspin.

I put my hand on his shoulder. “Larry?”

Victoria heaved out a put-upon sigh, as if Larry’s anguish was seriously cramping her style. “Please,” she said. “It’s not like you would have lived happily ever after. I know you couldn’t stand this place, but it was where Jennifer belonged.”

“I-I was learning to like it,” he said, his lower lip quivering.

She quirked a sardonic smile at his matador getup. “Is that why you came tonight? To fit into her world? Since you can’t have her anymore?”

Dios mío
, did the woman have no shame?
¡Qué bruja!

Larry’s entire body suddenly trembled. I stared at him as his pasty skin took on a tinged red hue, creeping up his legs, his torso, his neck, and concentrating on his cheeks.

“Okay there, Larry, just relax,” Victoria said, patting the air with her empty hand. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

But Larry was too far gone. I took a step to the left as his foot scraped against the ground.
Ay caramba.
He wasn’t the matador after all. He was the bull.

Before I could high-kick the gun out of Victoria’s hand, he charged.

Chapter Thirty-Two

The gun went off, the loud
pop pop
of two shots sounding almost like booms. Deafening in the small storage building. I careened backward, my weak ankle buckling under me, and fell against Jack, who pushed me upright. I zeroed in on Victoria and Larry. He had her up against one of the shelves. Cardboard boxes filled with Victoria and Jennifer’s special steroid concoction crashed to the ground.

Victoria craned her head as another carton hit the floor. “Damn it, Larry,” she said, hissing through her teeth.

Jack and I glanced at each other. Instantly, we went into action. With super stealth, he circled around behind the shelf. Adrenaline kicked in. My ankle throbbed, but the pain was dulled by my survival skills.

Larry was summoning up gumption I hadn’t known was in him. His hands encircled her wrists, but she clutched the gun, grunting and struggling as she tried to angle the barrel downward to point at his head.

Victoria was strong, but Larry was stronger. He pushed her arm down and away.

I took a page out of Jack’s spy book, but moved at lightning speed. It didn’t matter. She caught my eye, her neck strained, blood vessels popping under her skin. Slowly, she fought Larry until the gun was trained on…me.

Shit. No more time to waste. I ducked, trying to stay out of the line of fire. Another booming
pop
sounded. “
¡Hija de la chingada!
What are you trying to do?”

“I still have four left,” she said with a hiss, struggling against Larry to move her wrist and retrain the gun.

“No,” I said. “I do.” And I lunged. In one quick move, I snatched the gun from her hand and yanked the handcuffs from the holster clip on her outer thigh.

“Coming over,” I yelled, tossing the cuffs to Jack. We were synchronicity. He snatched them from the air and without even a second of hesitation, he snapped them onto her right wrist.

I slipped the gun into the back waistband of my skirt and grabbed her cuffed wrist, edging Larry out of the way and jerking her forearm until she had to turn her back on me.

Larry twisted her left arm down and around, locking it behind her back. As I slapped the other handcuff on her, the doorframe splintered with a loud
crack
and the door flung open. Manny rushed in.

I stared at him, then at the gun he had drawn. Where had he hidden
that
? My gaze slipped down his black leather-clad legs hitching at…aah, an ankle holster. Nicely played,
Señor
Camacho. Nicely played. “How’d you know we were here?”

“Craig couldn’t find you.” He met my gaze, his eyes dark and intense. “I asked myself, where would Dolores go? Easy. To the most remote place on the property, probably alone. And here you are.”

“Not alone,” Jack ground out. I could almost hear his fists clench. Having Manny know me that well wasn’t his idea of a good boss/employee relationship. Couldn’t say I blamed him.

“So I see,” Manny said. “
Buen trabajo, Sargenta
. You, too, Callaghan,” he offered stiffly.

I took the compliment, but Jack glared. Manny would become best buddies just as soon as Sarah and I did…which would be never. We each had our baggage. The only difference was that mine was my boss and I’d never slept with him or been engaged to him.

I shoved Victoria toward Manny. “Meet Jennifer Wallace’s murderer.” She glanced back at me, and I added, “Guess you won’t be able to role-play after all.”

She blinked slowly. Not a single bit of remorse flitted through her eyes.

I thought about her poor deluded husband, Lance.
Pobrecito
. He’d certainly been duped. Victoria had said he’d been the reason they’d come to Camacho & Associates in the first place. Unless…

I’d assumed Lance wasn’t involved, but what if Craig was innocent and Lance wasn’t? What if
he’d
been the one we’d seen carrying off boxes of the protein powder steroid?

“Your husband,” I said. I bent down and slipped my fingers into my knee sock, fishing for the list of
Cuerpo y Alma
members who matched Jennifer’s Facebook friends. I felt the heat of Manny’s stare. And Jack staring
him
down. Oh boy.

I turned my back, quickly scanning the list. No names had shown up on my part of the list, but what about the members Lucy had compared? I glanced at the names on her list. Lance. Lance. Lance. Nothing yet.

And then suddenly two names magnified. There they were in black and white. It was no surprise they’d been her Facebook friends, but seeing them on the
Cuerpo y Alma
list? That was a whole ’nother thing.

They froze on my lips as my gaze drifted over Manny’s shoulder. Two men stood there, both of them staring at Victoria, utter horror and disbelief on their faces.

One was in costume, painted blue and white like a die-hard Royals fan. The other was in plain clothes.

Steve Madrino and Lance Wolfe.

Chapter Thirty-Three

I hadn’t been able to see the man carrying boxes out of the storage building. It could have been either of them. Behind the two men, I saw a figure moving across the lawn. It was like a bad B-movie moment. Hair whipped in the wind, breasts bounced up and down, and the tail of a rope dragged across the ground.

Selma.

She ran across the grass, skates still on her feet. Closer. Closer.

Manny took hold of Victoria’s handcuffs. He didn’t know about the accomplice. He headed toward the men to lead Victoria out of the building.

That’s when I saw it.

The slightest movement. The touch of his thumb to his ring finger. Lance Wolfe’s heart was breaking at the sight of his wife and the knowledge of what she’d done, while Steve stood still as a mountain lion on the hunt, ready to pounce.

“Selma!” I yelled.

Manny stopped.

The most obvious person.

Victoria was right. It had been a pretty slick operation. They made the steroid powder and Steve Madrino, the team’s trainer, had administered it to the players. He’d had tub after tub after tub of the stuff in his training room.

The most obvious suspect.

Steve turned. Perfect. I sprinted forward, did a hop-skip, and thrust a high kick to his chest. My ankle nearly exploded from the impact, but he lost his balance and stumbled back.

Lance grabbed for him, and Selma airplaned her arms as she tried to stop, nearly losing her balance on the soft earth.

“Your rope, Selma!”

Bless her naked heart. She didn’t ask questions, she just undid the knot of the rope around her waist, throwing it to me just as Steve regained his balance and started running.

Larry took off after him, his matador cape flying behind him. Hopping on one foot, I threw Jack the rope. He ran, and not twenty seconds later, Larry had tackled his brother and Jack had hog-tied Steve, Victoria’s partner-in-crime, with Selma’s pull-toy rope.

All in a day’s work.

Chapter Thirty-Four

“So Steve wrote the notes to try to scare Jennifer back into cooperating,” I muttered, fitting the last few puzzle pieces together.

I hobbled across the parking lot, leaning against Jack’s arm for support. I glanced up at him. Would we ever have normal dates that didn’t include near-death experiences?

“
¿Cómo estás,
Callaghan
?
”
Mi amor
, I added in my head, finally believing we had a chance.

He squeezed my shoulder. “Doing okay. Gotta love the hazards of your job. But your ankle?” He peered down at the knot under my pink and black knee socks.

“It’s not so bad.” I was sure my mother or grandmother would have some old-world Mexican homeopathic remedy for it and I’d be good as new in no time.

A smile played on his lips. “You’re a tough one, Cruz.”

“Just call me Xena. And you wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“No, I don’t think I would.” He put his finger on the bridge of my fake school girl glasses, pushing them back into place. “Now, about that role-playing later…” he said, his suggestive grin widening.

My nerves zinged, but before I could answer by jumping up and down and clapping in true schoolgirl fashion, Manny appeared out of the shadows. “Nice kick,
Sargenta
. Took him down easy.”

Jack tensed beside me, releasing his supportive hold on me, and I cursed Manny and his impeccable timing.

But I liked the hard-won compliment. “
Gracias
.”

Craig had called the police. The fact that Sadie Metcalf leaned against her sporty car meant that Manny had probably called her. Their love-hate relationship was still a mystery, but one to be thought about at another time.

I spotted Lucy and Zac sauntering across the parking lot. More of her balloons had popped, and judging from the lightness of his step and the curve of his lips, he was ready to go home and pop the rest. So he’d adjusted. A while ago, I wanted to kill him for telling Jack I was here, but Jack had helped me solve this case. He had my back. And he wanted to role-play. Zac was forgiven.

Reilly and Neil stood next to a thirty-something dark-haired man. He was neat and tidy in khakis and a Polo shirt. Next to him stood a rumpled man with a bad comb-over.
Hijo de su madre
. Detective Bennett and my old friend Detective Seavers.

Bennett watched me. He ran his finger under his shirt collar, clearly
un poquito
hot and bothered as I closed the distance between us. Meanwhile, Seavers’s bushy unibrow pulled together as he gave me a good once-over. “You again?” He notched his chin toward Jack. “And your
friend.
”

“Solved another case for you,” I said, hopping the last few steps to alleviate the shooting pain in my ankle. I felt my cleavage jiggling and under the downturned parking lights, I was pretty sure my tight white shirt didn’t leave much to the imagination.

“So I hear,” he said.

A breeze kicked up my skirt. I pushed it down, but not before anyone who was curious got a glimpse of my sheer thong and bare behind.

Bennett cupped one hand behind his neck and quickly turned away. Manny’s entire face darkened, his eyes smoldering. Sadie scowled.

So plenty of people were curious. But only Jack was entitled to the whole shebang.

I patted Neil’s shoulder as I passed him. He had a lovesick-puppy expression on his linebacker face and only had eyes for Reilly.

And Seavers? He was made of steel. He didn’t flinch. Didn’t blush. Wasn’t fazed at all by my skimpy clothing, my belly button ring, or the quick glimpse of my bare skin. He cleared his throat. “You’ll go that last mile to close a case, won’t you, Ms. Cruz?”

Reilly silently clapped, cheering me on. She threw me a thumbs-up sign, then snuggled close to Neil.

I thought about what Seavers had said. Would I go that last mile? That had been the big question. How far was I willing to go for my job? What
were
my boundaries?

I answered Seavers, but my words were mostly for Jack. He had to know, once and for all, that there were some lines I wouldn’t cross. “I used to think so, Detective,
pero
my mother taught me well. There are some things I won’t do and some lines I won’t cross.”

Jack had folded his arms over his bare chest, his expression a mix of a wolf ready to protect his mate and a lion ready to devour her.

Which meant he was ready to devour
me
.

Turns out my costume wasn’t too far off the mark. I was a good Catholic girl who pushed the boundaries, yes. But unless Jack Callaghan was in the picture, and the setting was
muy privado
, I kept my clothes on.

Acknowledgments

I like to say that Lola Cruz is my alter ego—if I were a twenty-nine-year-old smokin’ hot Latina detective. She lives in my head, and thanks to my husband’s family and culture, she comes alive on the pages of the Lola Cruz novels. So thank you to Carlos for his love, support, and for bringing such a rich culture into my life.

As always, a big thanks goes to Holly Root, Lola’s first and loudest cheerleader; to Libby Murphy for her tireless—and, at times, laborious—editing; to Stacy Abrams and Suzanne Johnson; to Danielle Barclay for all that is to come; to the Lit Girls; to Lyn Bement for her teaching moments, her Spanish expertise, and attention to accent marks; and to the real Selma Mann, an inspiration and a great sport. Thanks to Heather Howland for her artistic vision and to Liz Pelletier and the Entangled team for…
everything
!