Nailed (Marked For Love #1) (14 page)

I gave him my sweetest smile. "I have to get back to work."

"So do I," John said.

"Leaving so soon," I threw the comment over my shoulder as I turned the corner.

"Not hardly," John said, following me.

Wynn was hard on his heels.

I pasted a sneer on my face and spun around, ending up right in his face, ready to bluff him into thinking he was a tiny little blip on the radar of my life, that I had no fear of him. "Then why don't you make yourself useful, and go find my sister!"

He pulled back, his eyes narrowed. "Don't push me, woman."

"Woman?
What
? I 'won't like you when you're angry'." Common sense dictated I shut the hell up and stop letting him know how much he'd gotten to me, but damn, it was hard.

From behind me came the sound of Tara snickering. "Don't let him get you all het up, Bonnie."

"You are some piece of work, lady. I've killed men for less."

"I bet you have."

"That's enough!" Wynn stepped between us, pushing John back a step or two while he gave me a warning look. "This isn't accomplishing anything. John, get those steaks upstairs while I set up the grill. Julie, go get cleaned up for dinner."

I cringed the minute my real name came out of his mouth, knowing Tara, who'd followed me begging for an update, had heard. With a sigh I turned toward her. She made a lip-zipping motion with her hand and gave me a reassuring smile. "Thanks, Tara."

"Maybe I can help," she offered.

"No!" Wynn insisted. "We're not dragging anyone else into this."

"Why not?" I countered looking pointedly at John.

"Julie," Wynn warned with a shake of his head.

"She already knows a little bit." From the corner of my eye I spotted JoJo bearing down on us, and I was in no mood for a confrontation with her after the night I'd had.

"How much did you tell her?"

"Not much."

JoJo was getting closer and the last thing I wanted was a reprimand for my two days of slacking.

"Tara, how's your kitchen sink?" I asked.

To give her credit, Tara was quick on her feet. "Bad. Real bad. And you promised to fix it today."

"Later guys." I followed Tara inside her apartment and closed the door behind me, shutting out Wynn and John, and JoJo. "Your sinks not really clogged up, is it?"

"No way. I just said that." She sat on the couch with her legs crisscrossed, and I followed suit, choosing a bent cane rocker. She leaned forward, eyes wide, and whispered, "Has he really killed people?"

I didn't have the balls to actually say it, so I nodded instead. "And he's not going anywhere anytime soon."

"That's not good!?"

"No, not at all. He says he won't leave until Wynn finishes the job."

"What exactly is the job?"

"To find something. Something small that I apparently brought from Arizona with me, but we've checked everything and we can't find it."

"Does the cat have a collar?" she asked.

"I checked it. Nothing."

"How well did you know your sister?"

"Apparently,
not
very well."

We both chuckled, then she continued, "If you were your sister, where would you have hidden it?"

Karen was a doctor. Which made her a problem solver though not necessarily a creative one. "If it was in the envelope with the photos, then it's long gone. Other than that or a cat collar, which he doesn't have, I have no fucking clue."

We chatted a bit longer and she promised to think on it.

"I better get." I opened the door and stepped into the late afternoon heat, my mind going in at least fifty different directions.

Tony was over closing up 8-A for the day. Wynn and John were upstairs doing God knows what to some steaks and each other. JoJo's Cadillac was gone, her day of beggaring the boss with her online purchases over. Jeanette was in the pool with her kids again.

I leaned against the gate, my arms propped on the top bar, my chin propped on my arms, watching them and letting the sun bake my skin through my work shirt. Joey was seven and Angel was almost nine. Jeanette was quiet, kept to herself and kept a keen eye on her kids. She never dated, never socialized, didn't even go to church. Not that skipping church made her a bad person, but church and the bar were the two highlights of life in Cielo. She worked part time for a local insurance agent while Darcy babysat. She lived frugally, though there wasn't much above frugal in Cielo.

I'd never thought much about her, beyond the few facts I knew, but after hearing about Tara, I found myself wondering where she'd come from and what had brought her here.

A door slammed behind me. I turned and looked up at the second floor, tracking John as he came down the stairs and joined me.

"Kill Wynn yet?"

My quip didn't even get a chuckle. More like a harrumph...or something. "He's marinating the steaks."

"You know if you'd smile you'd look like him." If anything his lips thinned. I scooted away just the tiniest bit.

"Who's that?" he asked, nodding toward the pool.

"Jeanette. She lives here."
Duh, Julie.

He rubbed his jaw, stood with me a few minutes longer and then turned and went back upstairs as Mrs. Hollis's son opened the gate and joined Jeanette in the pool. He was thin but no one would ever call him scrawny; the legs sticking out of his oversized swimsuit a far cry from the toothpicks you might imagine.

Around sundown he'd take off on his BMX bike and not come back until nearly midnight. What the hell he found to get into around here at night I didn't even want to know. His pale skin was a testament to spending too much time inside, in his room, probably surfing porn sites and eating Doritos and maybe lifting weights. I guess what mother didn't know suited her just fine.

***

Uncomfortable would be a nice way of describing dinner with Wynn and John. After a dozen or more covert looks between the two brothers, I finally threw my fork across my half-eaten steak and sat back, arms crossed, pinning both men to their chairs with my best no-bullshit look. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Wynn said with an easy smile. "Now finish your dinner. I slaved all day over that."

"I don't suppose you figured out a solution to our little dilemma?"

They both shook their heads.

"Are you leaving soon?" I asked, turning my attention to John.

This time they both gave each other that look again.

"I'm not sure," John said.

"Well, what are you sure of?"

"Your neighbor—"

"Shut up, John!" Wynn stood and grabbed the tea pitcher off the counter, refilling all our glasses.

"What's the story on that girl, Tara?" John finally asked between bites of his baked potato.

"Don't know. But I bet I can get you a date with her, if you're nice."

"What about that woman at the pool?"

"Jeanette? She's a single mom." I didn't like his questions at all. I didn't like where this was going even if I had no clue.

"The old man across the way? The big guy coming out of the downstairs apartment early this morning?" he asked, referring to Brad.

"I. Don't. Know. I've made it my business to stay the hell out of other people's business, if you know what I mean." I gave him a pointed look.

A look he returned in kind.

"That's not what I heard. Wynn says you know everything about everyone around here. Says you make the people around here your business." He steepled his fingers and rested his chin on them.

"Did you—"

"No!" Wynn finally sat back down, his face a suspicious shade of red.

"Relax, hotshot. I know that woman from somewhere. The one at the pool." He sounded so calm, so sure.

I almost wanted to run downstairs and tell Jeanette to pack her bags, load up her kids and get the hell out of Cielo. Because if someone like
him
knew someone like
her
it wasn't going to end well.

Chapter Twenty-Two

"You scared her," Wynn said after he'd reluctantly let Julie leave. John didn't respond. "You'll be lucky if she doesn't tell that poor woman."

"Don't be naive." John sat with his feet propped on the coffee table, tapping at the keys on his laptop.

"Did you get any more information from Dad?"

"Didn't hear from him today. Didn't contact him either because someone doesn't want him to know I'm here. Remember?"

"The clock is ticking, and we've got to find that information, John. If you're not gonna help, then fucking leave already."

Finally, his brother looked up at him.
Good, he had his attention.

"Not my job. My job is clean up. My job involves long distances and great aim. Did you search her apartment?" John asked, referring to Julie.

Wynn caught the verbal jab about distance and chose to ignore it. "Yeah, we did that the first night—"

"
You
. Not
we
. How do you know she's not hiding something?"

"I know."

"Because you're banging her? That's fantastic, Wynn."

"Don't hold it against me that you're an asexual bastard who'd rather jack off than have a real relationship."

John didn't date, hadn't had a steady girlfriend in years, and Mom had long lamented the fact that he would be the last to give her any grandchildren—if he did at all. Women were a means to an end where he was concerned.

"I'd rather jack off than fuck my client's quarry."

"I hate to break it to you, but that's because you're not human."

"I have some things to do." Red-faced, he lurched to his feet, grabbed his keys off the table and slammed out of the apartment, leaving Wynn alone.

With a quiet chuckle, Wynn headed to Julie's, hoping he could calm her down.

Chapter Twenty-Three

I'd spent the following day avoiding Wynn and in turn, John, tired of sparring with him, tired of not knowing what we were looking for.

And just flat out tired.

I'd even skipped dinner with Wynn, a ritual I'd come to love over the last couple of weeks, in favor of a Lean Cuisine, which had left me cranky and unsatisfied.

Hands in my pockets, I walked the few short blocks to the convenience store, kicking up dirt with the toes of my shoes as I went. Hopefully, a sugar fix would settle me down, or something.

There was more traffic than usual and after two police cars and a sedan went whizzing past me, I turned, trying to gauge what I had missed. They were too far away now, their license plate lost in a swirl of dust. I didn't hear sirens, their lights hadn't been flashing, but in my gut I knew something wasn't right.  

Stretching my legs had turned into an exercise in frustration. I couldn't relax. I couldn't unwind. Inside the store I wandered the aisles, using the selection of candy as an almost ritualistic way to calm myself when two men came inside.

Men like them, like men like John, just didn't come to a place like Cielo, Texas, without bringing trouble along for the ride. They were dressed in suits, but not custom made like John's, their shiny shoes covered with a coat of dust, both of them sporting aviator sunglasses and a little extra bulk under their jackets. They could have almost been twins with their matching haircuts and twinkie suits.

They spent a few minutes chatting with Frank up at the counter, then headed my way. I snatched up a bag of Skittles, prepared to step around them, but they were too quick. They had me trapped me in the aisle between them.

I knew what they were even before the spoke. Hell, I'd known when they hit the door. Some things you just didn't need spelled out for you.

"I'm Agent Ross and this is Agent Montgomery," the shorter one said as he handed me a card.

"How's it going?" I took the card, running my finger over the embossed logo of the FBI before shoving it in my pocket. No, I had no inclination to pour all my woes out to these two, not when I was in possession of more than a few fake IDs, a wad of cash, and two missing sisters. "You here on vacation?"

"No," Agent Ross said.  

"We're looking for this woman." Agent Montgomery pulled a photo out of jacket pocket and shoved it in my face.

It was Jeanette, younger, blonder, less worn down looking, a smile on her face as she crossed a street in some unknown city.

"Doesn't ring a bell, sorry."

"We got a tip she was here in Cielo. At the apartment complex Frank says you work at."

"So why aren't you out doing surveillance or whatever?" I moved a little further down the rack and picked up an oversized Snickers bar, angling to get around them. I didn't ask what they wanted her for. I didn't care, hoping that if I gave them very little information, they'd leave town as quickly as they'd come. And if my suspicions were right, all due to a phone call from Johnny boy.

"We are." That was Montgomery. I had a feeling he was the mean one, the one who'd play bad cop. He had thin lips and wore a perpetual frown.

Not so twin-like, I know.

"If you have any contact with her," Ross said, "please call us."

Yeah. Right. Stay tuned guys.
"Will do." I headed for the counter, paid and stepped outside where a dark blue sedan was parked.

I walked around the driver's side, glancing at the trunk on my way by. It had a rental car sticker on the corner. I didn't know enough about the FBI to know if they were legit, or if they ever rented cars, but anyone could fake a business card and a badge.

I took my time getting back to the complex, waiting to see if they'd pass me then circling back to the resident's parking lot.

The goons were sitting across the street under the oak tree. One of them toasted me with a soda can and being ballsier than the average dumbass, I walked over and tapped on the window.

Ross rolled it down and slipped his sunglasses off his nose. "Think of something?"

"Yeah—" I held out the Snickers, "—thought you might need this."

Trouble had come to Cielo.

***

Going to Wynn's in a complete female frenzy was out of the question, as was heading for Jeanette's, so I did the next best thing and headed for Tara's, rapping furiously on her front door.