Home Is Where Your Boots Are (17 page)

I slumped back against Fae Lynn, the air leavi
ng my body. Cash was involved, a
nd involved in the most Cash way possible. The kind where it was easier to say yes instead of no. I took note that Big Jim hadn’t mentioned Spencer. Pleased with his storytelling, he laid the final nail in the coffin.

“If it hadn’t been for you and your supposed golden pussy, we’d still all be in the clear.”

I saw a nice Ralph Lauren shade of crimson and snapped.

“Let me tell you something, you sorry sonuvabitch. I did not have my weak-ass fiancé cheat on me and have to come home to a world of chaos, just to have you take me out of it. Don’t you know who I am? I don’t give a rat’s ass if you have been selling body parts and killing people. I’ll kick your ass into next Tuesday. I have a lot of pent-up rage and latent animosity and repressed
pissed-offedness
,
and I’m not above using it on you.”

I was ranting and raving when the door burst open and Cash stepped in. Then, obviously taken aback by what he saw, he stepped back and eyed the situation.

“Jim,” he nodded shakily, “what’s going on?”

“You tell me, son. I was coming to meet you and these two girls were snooping in my office.” Cash looked down at us and sighed.

“How much do they know?”

“All,” Big Jim answered with a sweaty twist of his mouth. “No thanks to you and your big mouth. I told you to stay away from her.” Cash looked my way. I refused to meet his eye. Big Jim sighed.

“We’re going to have to kill them. We’ll make it look like they were burglarizing the place
,
and I came in and shot them in self defense.” First of all, like anyone would believe the two of us were burglarizing anything. Good grief. Fae Lynn and I exchanged an overt eye roll. Cash looked away from me and turned to Big Jim.

“You’re right.”

You’re right! You’re right? Are you kidding me? Cash was going to let me die? He was going to be a damned
accessory to my murder? That sorry piece of shit. I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for him. Probably. I felt Fae Lynn bristle beside me.

Cash pulled out his own gun
, and leveled it at Big Jim.

“You’re right, someone may have to die. But not them.” Oh NOW he got all noble and shit.
How do you like that? Big Jim trained his gun on me
,
and I tried not to flinch. Of all the times to be without a gun. Out of everyone in the room, I was probably the best shot. I
had
to get myself a pistol. If I lived.

As Fae Lynn and I sat trying not to shake, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Spencer Locke step into the room and point his gun at Big Jim. Okay, so two guns on him, one on me. The odds were in my favor.

“Put the gun down and put your hands in the air,” Spencer instructed coolly.

“Who the fuck are you?” Big Jim asked wildly, not complying.

“Drop the gun.” Spencer quickly flipped open a black wallet to reveal a shiny silver piece.

“FBI.”

My heart fluttered in relief.

My relief was replaced with irritation as I took in his cool-as-cucumber stance and not-a-strand-out-of-place hair and perfectly pressed blue collared shirt. Ugh. Damn Yankee didn’t even give me the time to save myself. I caught his eye and he raised the side of his mouth up.

“Put the gun down,” Spencer repeated a third time
,
while Fae and I watched. Big Jim started to gesture upward and Spencer fired, hitting the mayor in the arm. As he dropped to the ground, Cash ran over and retrieved his gun. Clicking the safety off, he tossed it aside and stood guard. Spencer knelt beside me and looked into my eyes. Then he rolled his own.

“You are nuts. You’re my worst nightmare come to life.” He didn’t give me time to respond disdainfully or defensively.

He pulled back and shook his head, moving over to Big Jim, who was currently muttering and bleeding. Fae Lynn and I stood and tried not to clutch each other or our pearls while Spencer swiftly and smoothly pulled his shirt off and ripped a makeshift tourniquet. He tied off Big Jim’s arm to compress the wound as he took out his handcuffs and began to Mirandize him.

Cash sat in a chair with his head down in his hands. I tried to feel sorry for him. It didn’t happen.

Uniformed officers started to file into the room and follow Spencer’s orders. A stretcher wheeled out Big Jim and Cash followed it, anchored by two officers. Spencer came back over to me and Fae Lynn.

“You alright?” he asked. We nodded.

“So who are you, really?” I asked.

“I’m an attorney,” he told me.

“Oh,” I silently contemplated that statement.

“Who also used to work undercover for the FBI. So when this started going down, they asked me to lead the task force. It just so happens that your friend Cash Stetson has a semblance of a conscience and turned himself in with a full confession. He plea-bargained down by helping us with the investigation. He’s been gathering evidence and taping conversations for a few months.” I remembered his visit to my office and the odd apology.

“Did you really come to my office to apologize for kissing me?” He didn’t grin.

“I came to
plant a bug
. The two of you seem to have a
knack for discovering things, a
nd I needed to keep track of you. To make sure Cash stayed hooked up. He got a little jumpy when you came back to town.” I remembered the tossing of my green Italian paperweight from Neiman’s. I made a note to remove whatever fancy
surveillance
device he’d attached to it. I did not need a man being privy to the things Fae and I discussed.

“I would not have apologized for kissing you,” he told me shortly. “I don’t typically apologize for that.”

“But you just did it to shut me up?”

“I did the best I could with what I had to work with at the time.” My eyes narrowed. “I’d do it again,” he told me, a slight trace of humor twitching his lips.

“We saw you,” Fae informed him without warning, “At the hospital. What were you doing there?”

“Gathering evidence. Covertly. I was meeting your husband there. He was bringing me Cash’s keys so I wouldn’t actually have to break and enter. Until we discovered you already had them.” I tried to hide a smile.

“So we were one step ahead of you?” He didn’t meet my smirk.

“Not really. Tina’s death threw us off, but this meeting was already set up. I just needed to make sure we had everything in place. And we had to get Cash out of jail.”

“He didn’t kill her?” I asked, affirming, “Scotty didn’t seem totally sure.”

“He wasn’t sure. Until I showed up. I was Cash’s alibi. We’d met to discuss the logistics of this meeting.”

“So you were coming here to do the takedown?” I asked. He finally smiled ruefully and laughed curtly at my use of jargon.

“I was. I didn’t expect to get a handle on this locat
ion across the police scanner, w
ith your names coming over loud and clear.” I winked at Fae.

“Was that why you were digging in your pocket?” she asked.

“I figured if it could go through to Amanda, she’d get out the all call. Glad to know that 911 function works.”

“Yes, thankfully your cell phone works,” Spencer interrupted our proud moment with a touch of sarcasm. Kiss him, punch him. I wasn’t sure.

“We could have handled ourselves,” I retorted, irritation winning out over lust. He lifted a thick brown eyebrow
,
and I noticed a tiny scar slicing through the heavy brown. Lust swayed the scales of Lady Justice.

Another thought occurred to me.

“So you really
are
an attorney?” I asked for affirmation. “But you’re really not Charlie’s nephew? You ought to be glad about that.”

“I really am an attorney. The FBI will pay for night school. This was just a favor,” he corrected. “And I actually am Charlie’s nephew. And I am here for the indefinite future,” he promised.

Sheriff Clay, along with a few solid, rough-looking guys in blue FBI windbreakers, had ushered Fae Lynn and me outside so we couldn’t screw up any more of their evidence gathering than we already had. They’d parked us on the back of someone’s tailgate
,
and Brooks’ finest, notably minus Danny Muggs, were standing guard while the federal agents took our statements.

Mama, Tally, and Nonnie tumbled out of Mama’s Cadillac in the middle of the street in front of the courthouse. Poppa Joe and Daddy made a slower, less dramatic entrance from the opposite side of the street.  Grace and Fae Lynn’s daddy, Lloyd, rushed up to us while we were sitting on the back of a tailgate.

The call I’d managed to make on my phone had gone straight to Fae Lynn’s contemporary at the dispatch office.

Amanda Kingsley had called out the troops
,
and they were there to mix with “real” law enforcement. I’d bought us time. See, I had it covered.  Scotty had arrived on the
scene shortly after Spencer. A
fter he’d checked
to make sure we were okay,
he bega
n to yell at Fae Lynn. He only stopped after Sheriff Clay
dragged
him away.

Our people chattered all at once
,
and we tried to fill them in. I watched Spencer come out of the glass doors of the brick building as Daddy pulled me close for a hug. I was giving Grace the run-down on how Fae Lynn and I had kept ourselves alive when Spencer came over and informed us we were free to leave.

I hopped off the tailgate to leave, and as my head came up
,
I locked eyes with Cash.

Then, like a two-by-four right between the eyes, it hit me.

The boy that I’d been semi-pining over for the last seven years
was the worst kind of coward.
He hadn’t even had the decency to actually cheat on me. For all that time
,
he’d let me think the worst; made me question my worth. Made me wonder whether I was good enough.

He’d been lying to me. Maybe always. He’d put me and my best friend in danger. Granted, he had come clean and was probably the only reason that this bust had occurred, but that is a rational and logical thought I didn’t have the patience to
pursue
at the moment. 

He’d freakin’
married
someone because it was easier than actually confessing his real sins.

I ran the list of grievances through in my head again as the steam coming from my ears attracted the attention of Mama, Nonnie, Grace and Tally.

“Uh-oh,” Mama and Nonnie said in unison.

“What?” Spencer asked, clueless. I turned to Tally.

“Give me your purse,” I snapped, reaching for her vintage Botega tote. She held it up high out of reach

“Nope. You’re not using my new lip gloss. This stuff was specially designed for my lips at Bliss, and they ship it special to me,” she explained, holding the bag out of my reach.

“I don’t want your damn lip gloss!” I exploded, yanking the bag out of her grip and digging through it. I pulled out the snub-nosed pearl handled pistol Poppa Joe had sent with her when she had headed off to New York. I spun around and stalked toward Cash. His hands were cuffed behind him
,
and he stood with his head down, flanked by two of
Brooks’ police officers
. Cash’s head came up at the sight of my turquoise and lipstick red-flamed two-inch heeled boots with copper plated toes. His eyes filled with hope as he looked at me.

“Step back, guys,” I said coolly. Not sure what to do about Lilly Atkins waving a gun toward Cash Stetson, as this was a new, although not unlikely, turn of events, they complied. I calmly leveled the gun at Cash. The hope in his eyes extinguished and was replaced with apprehension as sweat popped out on his already moist upper lip.

“Lil’,” he started. I waved the gun and he stopped. I rolled my eyes.

“Why’d you even come to me? Why even get a divorce? Why involve me?” I spit out, waving the gun at him. He looked blankly at me.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged as best he could with his hands cuffed behind his back.

“You don’t know? You don’t know! You almost get me killed and the best you can do is ‘I don’t know
’
!” I did a little foot stomp in my bright shiny boots. “Is it true? All the money? The gambling?” I asked him pointedly. He knew me too well to attempt to pretend he didn’t know what I was talking about. Instead of answering
,
he hung his head. Enough
un
said.

“Look at me,” I barked, forcing him to face me as I faced some of my own demons by confronting him. “I felt sorry for you,” I told him, laughing ironically. “I felt sorry for you, but now I just. I just. I just. Well, I don’t know what I feel now, but I’ll
tell you it’s not good.”

I wanted my pound of flesh, but I wanted answers more.

“The gambling? And Tina? You didn’t cheat on me?” I asked him.

His jaw set.

“No.”

“Then why’d you marry her? Why didn’t you say something?”

“Because by then it was easier t
o say yes than it was to say no,
”
he confirmed.

“To
marriage
?”

He looked at me, anguish filling his eyes, then broke the gaze by looking down, answering my question. He set his jaw harder and refused to meet my eyes. “You’re. You’re. You’re… Ugh! I can’t think of anything bad enough to call you!” I stomped my foot for effect. I saw that in a movie once. I felt slightly better. I could feel Tally and Fae Lynn move beside me.

“Pathetic comes to mind.” Tally offered. I cocked my head considering. Pathetic he was.

“Pitiful maybe?” Fae Lynn offered. That too.

“You could give him grace,” I heard my daddy say from the unsolicited conversation days back. “Everyone’s been giving it to you.” They had. Undeserved. Unwarranted. Totally necessary. But there next to the brick of Brooks’ most important building, unlike
the Big Guy
and his infinite supply, I had none. So before God could get ahold of my ass, I shot him.

His big toe, actually. The left one. I took aim and pulled the trigger. I’m not Poppa Joe’s granddaughter for nothing. Melee and pandemonium ensued thereafter. The sheriff took the gun, Fae Lynn and Tally started congratulating me, Mama hugged me with pursed lips, Nonnie went over to lecture Cash, who was writhing on the ground like a whupped puppy, Scotty started yelling at Fae Lynn. My daddy stood back, not disappointed, but not all that impressed either. Spencer Locke crashed through the crowd.

“What
is
wrong with you?!” I worked on working up some righteous indignation, but before I could let him have it, Fae Lynn intercepted.

“There is nothing at all wrong with her. Back the fuck off.”
She linked her arm through mine,
protecting me from any attempt he might have made to touch me. His normally dream boat face was rearranged in comic incredulity.

“She just shot someone. They’re going to put you in jail,” he addressed me. I heard tinkling laughter surround us. Poor Spencer, apparently Charlie had yet to apprise him of the true nature of small-town justice. The sheriff’s big belly led the way through everyone as he gently handed the gun back to Tally with a wink. Tally stowed it back in her designer bag.

“Son, I don’t know what you may or may not have been drinkin’ tonight, but I sure ‘nough did not see Miss Lilly Atkins shoot anyone.” Spencer’s eyes darted around the crowd.

“Nope. ‘Sides, sugar, if my sissy were to actually pull the trigger, she damn sure wouldn’t shoot a guy in the toe,” Tally drawled with a toss of her once-insured mane.

“No sir, she was raised to be a better shot than that,” Nonnie chimed in. I watched everyone happily, cleverly, and without room for argument, cover my sins.

“
If
Lilly had shot him, which
no one saw her do,
so be it. Cash has been overdue for consequences for quite some time,” my mama informed Spencer.

Oh shit. More mercy I didn’t merit. Sometimes, after you’ve been thrown over by a sonuvabitch, you just need to go where everybody knows your pain. So you pack your bags, head for your mama, lose yourself, find your boots, shoot your favorite ex-boyfriend in the foot. And then discover those who raised you are better than a whole team of Harvard-graduated defense lawyers. Or something like that.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my daddy step closer and felt my mama’s cool hand on my arm.

“Besides,” Mama’s sweet, steely drawl pierced Spencer sharply, causing him to give her his full attention warily, “In the words of the great Harper Lee, the sonuvabitch had it coming to him.”

The End

(for now)