The Crown Jewels (52 page)

Like Ruby. Like Crit. Hell, like all three of my brothers. I didn’t understand why everyone I loved was still single. They were all wonderful people, if not a little twisted, in their own ways.

Now that I was with Beau, I wanted everyone to be as deliriously happy as I was.

Norma brought over two sweet teas and the smell of peach pie made my mouth water. I had been craving sweets something awful lately, and nothing seemed to be sweet enough.

“I’m having dessert first, Norma. Can I have slice of your peach pie, please?”

She laughed and nodded.

“You’re a grown woman now, Georgia! All married and settled down. I reckon you can do as you damned well please!”

“I suppose I am, Norma,” I said, laughing with her, as she walked away.

Two slices of pie later, and Ruby still hadn’t showed up. I had texted her and called her, but she hadn’t responded at all. Her phone rang and rang until going to voice mail. It wasn’t like her not to answer, she kept that damned phone practically glued to her hip.

But Ruby had been doing a lot of things lately that weren’t like her. Like going out with that rich fella the other day. Once again, I wondered why she was single. She didn’t seem to be interested in any of the men around town that showed an interest in her, and then out of the blue she decides to go out with some stranger.

I mean, I guess I get it. He’s rich. That’s attractive. But he seemed so shallow and arrogant, and I picked that up just by looking at him. I had been waiting all week to hear how everything went on her date. And now she was late.

In all the time I had known her, she had never stood me up like this. When I started to feel the beginning of a knot in my stomach, I called her one last time, paid my bill, and got in my car to drive to her house.

CRIT

“That dinner was amazing,” I said, as Lora and their youngest son, Finn, cleared the dishes off of the table. “Thank you.”

“Oh, Crit, you are welcome here for dinner anytime! I miss your face. You’re so close and we still never see you.”

“I’ll make a point to stop by more often, Lora. Of course, I’ll end up gaining twenty pounds if I keep eating your delicious food.”

“Oh, stop!” she said. “You look like you could use a few anyway. You eating over there?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“He’s not a kid, Lora. He’s a grown ass man. He knows how to take care of himself,” Hank said.

“Well, I know that, Hank. But not all men know how to take care of themselves,” she replied, with a wink. “You’d be lost without me, and you know it.”

“That’s true, darlin’.”

I laughed at the two of them, and couldn’t help but think of my parents again. I’d probably never stop missing them, their easy laughter, the way they loved each other so strongly.

Hank’s phone rang and he walked into the other room to answer it, leaving me alone with Lora.

“Crit, you don’t have a lady friend?” she asked, as she began washing the dishes. I took a drink of my beer, Ruby’s pretty face flashing in my mind. For the life of me, I couldn't remember why I was keeping her a secret in the first place.

“I’ve been spending some time with Ruby, actually,” I replied. It felt good to say her name out loud.

“Ruby Rae? Oh, I just love that girl. I can see you two together,” she replied, nodding enthusiastically. “She’s a good girl, Crit.”

“She sure is,” I said. I sat another few minutes in silence, listening to the rise and fall of Hank’s voice in the other room, but I was unable to make out what he was saying. It felt good to tell someone about Ruby finally. I smiled to myself, thinking about our future together. As soon as I left her, I planned on calling her. I needed her near me tonight. The thought of spending another night without her in my arms was something I didn’t want to endure.

When Hank came back in, his eyes were lit up with excitement.

“Well, hot damn, Crit,” he said. “You might just catch a break here after all.”

“What are you talking about?”
“That was my friend from New York. Turns out, after digging around a bit, he found out that Lincoln LaCroix isn’t just being investigated by the IRS, but he’s about to be charged. It’s privileged information, but apparently they are raiding his office and apartment in New York right now.”

“Now? Seriously?”

“That’s what he said. He’s got a friend in the IRS, and when he started asking about it, the guy told him that Lincoln’s shit is hitting the fan.”

“That’s amazing. I wonder how this will effect the loan on the farm?”

“I have no idea. Might be best to contact Barnard Johnson, keep him in the loop.”

“I suppose so.”

“Is Lincoln still in town?” Hank asked.

“I don’t know.”

My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out.

“It’s Georgia,” I said, when I saw the caller ID.

“What’s up, sis?” I answered.

“Something’s wrong, Crit!” she hollered. She was crying, her voice frantic. My heart began pounding violently in my chest. “It’s Ruby! And her dad! He’s been shot!”

“What! Shot!” I jumped up from my chair. “Where are you? What are you talking about, Georgia?”

“I’m at Ruby’s trailer. She was supposed to have dinner with me,” she said, between sobs. “She didn’t show, so I drove over here. When I got here there was an ambulance and cops everywhere. The neighbor’s said they saw a man force Ruby into a car and drive away. When they came next door, they found her father lying in a pool of blood.”

“Fuck! Oh, my god!” The blood drained from my face, and I felt sick. What the hell was I supposed to do?

“Who took her? What kind of car?”

When she answered, I knew right away what I was dealing with.

“A black Mercedes! Crit, what do I do?”

RUBY

The slap woke me up.

“Wake up, bitch!”

As soon as I opened my eyes, throbbing pain tore through my skull. I moaned and grabbed my head, as I took in my surroundings.

“Where am I?” I asked, as I turned my head and looked straight into the barrel of Lincoln’s gun.

“The parking garage of the Four Seasons.”

“My father…” I whispered. Everything came rushing back to me, and my heart seized with fear.

“He’ll be fine. If not, you can thank me later.”

“You bastard!” I seethed. “Why are you doing this?”

“I’m in a bit of a pickle, you could say,” he replied, a sickly smile spreading across his face. “I need a little leverage.”

“What are you talking about, Lincoln?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied, waving the gun around. “Just do as I say, and you won’t get hurt.”

“Lincoln, please. Just let me go. I won’t tell anyone. Just let me get back to my father. He’s fragile, Lincoln. He’ll just lay there and bleed out. Please, Lincoln. Please.” I was begging, my voice high with desperation. “He’s all I’ve got!”

“He’s not fragile, he’s a drunk. Big difference. Probably been drinking himself to death for a long time anyway. You’re probably better off without him. Stay here.” He got out of the car and ran around to my side and opened the door. With the gun still pointing at my face, he gestured to me.

“Get out. We’re going up to my room.”

“Lincoln, please, I swear I won’t tell anyone, please let me go?” I asked, frozen in my seat.

“Shut the fuck up. Your begging is beginning to annoy me. Get out. Now.”

I followed his instructions, slowly pulling myself out of the car. He pushed me in front of him, covering the gun with his jacket and digging it into my ribs painfully.

“Move. Slowly. And don’t try anything, or you’ll never see your precious Daddy again. Or anyone else for that matter.”

He led me to an elevator, and I was dismayed to see it empty when the doors opened. The doors shut behind us, and whisked us up to the floor of his room.

He towered over me, his gun dugging painfully into my ribs as he pushed me out of the elevator. The hallway was empty.

When we reached the door of his suite, he dug in his pocket for his wallet, and fished the key out of it. I waited silently, watching for some chance to escape, some opportunity for a miracle that would get me out of this mess and let me get back to my father.

The thought of him lying there bleeding and alone was killing me. If anything happened to him, I didn’t know what I would do.

Lincoln’s hands were shaking, and he dropped the card key as he tried to insert it into the door lock. He reached down to get it, and just as I was on the verge of taking a chance and kneeing him in the face, a door opened down the hall.

I turned and saw a man and a woman emerge from the room. When they turned towards us, our eyes met. Lee Haggard and Eva Montgomery looked like a couple of deer caught in headlights as they gazed down the hallway at me. I had never been so happy to see either of them in my life.

Lincoln glanced at them quickly, put the key in the slot, and pushed me into his room, locking the door behind us before I could say anything.

As I looked around the hotel suite, littered with empty bottles of booze, what looked like the remnants of lines of cocaine on the glass coffee table, and several guns and boxes of ammunition stacked neatly in the corner, I knew the only thing that would save me was indeed a miracle.

And now, it appeared the only chance I had at that miracle would come in the form of a womanizing hell-raiser with the most scandalous reputation in all of Sugar Hill.

Save me, Lee
, I prayed silently.

If he didn’t act soon, I was dead.

Crit

The cops wouldn’t let me inside Ruby’s house, so we met back up at the Haggard’s house. I called Georgia, Seth and Jesse and had them meet me there.

“We’ve got to spread out and search this entire town!” I roared. My heart was throbbing, adrenaline soared through my veins, and I was on the verge of losing it completely, but I forced myself into organizing everyone else so we could find Ruby as fast as possible.

I’d die if anything happened to her. This was all my fault. If only I had kept my cool around LaCroix, none of this would have happened. If only I had kept Ruby close to me, none of this would have happened. It was a horrible chain of events and I blamed nobody but myself.

“Call everyone you know,” I barked to the crowd standing in the Haggard’s living room. Hank had gathered all the farm hands from both of our farms, and his entire extended family. “Get your friends and family to help you. They can’t have gone far. Someone has to have seen something. Ruby needs us, we can’t let her down.”

Georgia’s eyes met mine, and my heart broke as I saw the tears falling down my little sister’s face.

“We’re going to find her, y’all. We have to. And Mr. Rust is going to be okay, too. They took him to the best hospital in Houston. We just have to focus. Call me if you see or hear anything at all, right away! Go, go!” I demanded.

The crowd broke up, as my family surrounded me. Beau put his arms around Georgia, and I watched as she cried in his arms. I turned away quickly. As far as I was concerned, there wasn’t time for tears.

“I gotta go,” I said, heading for the door.

“Where are you going to search?” Beau asked.

“I have no idea,” I said. “Everywhere.”

“Let us come with you,” Georgia said. “Please, Crit?”

“Sure, George,” I replied. “Why don’t you two search the area around Sugar Hill lake?” I said to Seth and Jesse.

“Will do,” Seth replied, as they turned away.

Georgia, Beau and I walked out of the house together, and headed to my truck. We passed Hank, as he stood on the porch.

“We’re gonna find her, son,” he said, putting his arm on my shoulder. “Don’t you worry. I’m putting out feelers everywhere. Somebody will spot them. I’m going to call Lee and get him searching, too.”

“I sure hope you’re right, sir,” I replied. There was nothing that was going to keep me from finding Ruby.
If only I knew where to start
, I thought.

We turned to walk away as Hank began dialing. When I heard his voice after Lee answered, I stopped in my tracks.

“Lee! Slow down! Where are you?”

LEE

“Was that Ruby Rae?” Eva asked.

“I think it was,” I replied, heading down the hallway before Eva put an arm on my hand.

“Stop, Lee,” she whispered.

“Why? Something’s not right, and for fuck’s sake, she looked like she was covered in blood!”

“I agree. Which is why I told you to stop! We should call the police.”

“The police? Who? Your husband?” I asked.

“Oh,” she said, the color draining from her face. “Fuck.”

“Right.”

“Well, you can’t just bust in there, what if she’s in danger?”