Asking For Trouble (10 page)

Lifting her up, he sat her on the counter
and spread her thighs, then walked between them and pulled her
against him, without ever breaking the mind blowing kiss. Jazzie
wrapped her legs around his waist and held him tightly to her. He
smoothed his hands up her sides to right below her breasts. "Oh,
god, Beau...I want you so bad," she whimpered as he dragged his
mouth from hers and kissed his way down her neck.

"Only me...say it, baby," he whispered hotly
against her throat. He was a selfish bastard, she was his. No
matter if he wanted a relationship or not, he wasn't going to let
anyone else have her.

Beau licked a spot behind hr ear, then
nipped her earlobe with his teeth, and Jazzie moaned, "Oh,
Beau..."

"Say it," he demanded fiercely, then pulled
back from her and looked into her luminous passion-glazed brown
eyes. "You're mine..." he said, then leaned in claimed her full
kips in another hot kiss.

A tremor moved through her body, and she
pulled back from him, then eased her legs from around his waist,
and dropped her chin to her chest. She pushed gently, but firmly
against his chest, and said in a trembling voice, "Let me
down..."

Beau put a finger under her chin and lift it
to look into her eyes, then claimed her mouth again, kissing her
roughly. Jazzie was pushing against his chest, and trying to pull
away, but he held her tight, until she finally moaned into his
mouth, and relaxed and kissed him back.

"Jazz, where are the grit--whoa,
shit
!" Carlos said then ran over to them, and grabbed the
back of Beau's t-shirt and threw him to the side, then pushed him,
and asked dangerously, "What the fuck are you doing to my sister,
man? In my parents house!"

"Carlos mind your own damned business!"
Jazzie shouted then hopped down off the counter and went to stand
in front of him, glaring up at him, daring him to continue. Beau
was impressed with her gumption, because Carlos Ramos was not a
small man, his muscles actually had muscles, and he was obviously
angry.

"You are disrespecting mama and papa,
Jasmine--and so is he!" Carlos shouted and pointed his finger at
Beau, then tried to move around Jazzie again. She sidestepped and
stayed nose to chest with him.

"Look, Mr.
I'm
Having Too Much Fun
Shopping for the Cow
, who the hell are you to judge
me
...or him?" Jazzie asked him hitching a thumb back toward
Beau.

"My
cows
are not like
you
..."
Carlos said sullenly, then added angrily with a finger pointed at
her nose, "And you better not be giving
anything
away for
free!"

Beau shook his head in confusion trying to
figure out what the hell they were talking about. Shopping for
cows?

"Carlos, I'm almost twenty-seven years old,
so I'll give away whatever the hell I please, free or otherwise.
It's not any of your business! I'm sick of you, Raffie, Chichi and
Joe acting like roosters in a henhouse, strutting around doing what
the hell you want, but telling me what I will and won't do!"

Jazzie Ramos was fucking gorgeous when she
was mad...and turned on. Color ran high on her cheekbones, her eyes
sparkled and her luscious lips were swollen from his kisses. Her
full breasts heaved and pitched under her tight white tank top with
each agitated breath she took. Beau fought the urge to go over
there and channel that anger into passion again.

"I'll tell papa," Carlos threatened with a
twist of his lips.

Jazzie's face flushed, her eyebrow lifted
and her head jerked back, then her chocolate brown eyes filled with
fire. She wore the look that a Texas woman got on her face when she
was about to kick some ass. It clearly said 'Ah hell no, he didn't
just go there,' and any man in Texas knew to run like hell when he
saw that look. Evidently, Carlos hadn't learned that lesson yet,
because he just stood there challenging her with his eyes.

She took a step toward Carlos, then pointed
a finger at him and narrowed her eyes, before she said, 'You tell
papa and I'll make sure he knows about you getting arrested trying
to sneak into Maria Ramirez's bedroom when you were eighteen.
Remember that? Remember me taking all the money I made working that
summer to bail your ass out? I'm sure he'd be a little upset you
never told him,
and
swore me to secrecy too! Corrupting your
little sister, making her go to that nasty jail--"

"I get it!" Carlos yelled and huffed out a
breath, then pointed a finger at Beau again and growled, "Keep your
fucking hands off my sister!"

Beau had no idea how sibling dynamics in a
family worked, because he hadn't had any siblings, until about a
year ago, but Jazzie was obviously an expert at it. She'd wrangled
Carlos into a box and tied a neat bow around it in the span of a
few seconds. Beau wanted to laugh, but he could only stand there in
stunned amazement.

Carlos huffed out a breath, then he turned
and walked to the counter and picked up the grits, and got a
serving spoon, then he told her sharply, "I came in here to get the
grits, and tell you that everyone is at the table and wants to talk
about Frankie--if that's still something that interests you."
Without another word, he slammed back out of the swinging kitchen
doors and left them standing there.

Now, Beau did chuckle, and Jazzie looked at
him with the remnants of her anger clearly in her eyes. With her
hands still on her hips, she swung her head around and asked him,
"What's so damned funny?"

"You are...has anyone told you how beautiful
you are when you're mad?" Beau asked her sincerely, then he
whistled and told her reverently, "You were brilliant,
sweetheart."

A sly sexy smile cocked up one side of her
full mouth, and she said, "No, can't say that they have...scary has
been bandied about once or twice by my brothers though."

"That I can understand, and I can laugh
because I wasn't on the receiving end of that sassy mouth of
yours...this time," he told her ruefully then walked over and gave
her a hug. "Let's go see what they found out about Frankie," he
told her then grabbed her hand and laced his fingers with hers.

She pulled her hand out of his and stepped
back, then looked up at him with sadness in her eyes. "Don't make
statements like holding my hand in front of other people, or
kissing me, or touching me, you'll give people the wrong
idea...skip the affection, let's just keep it to sex, just like you
want it." she told him, then walked through the swinging doors,
leaving Beau standing there stunned.

CHAPTER FOUR

Jazzie took a seat at the table in between
Chase and Dave Logan, and looked down the table at her pale mother
and asked, "Mama are you feeling better?"

"No, I won't feel better until your brother
is back home," her mother told her and looked down at her
plate.

Logan cleared his throat and then said,
"Well, let's talk about what I found out so far."

When the kitchen door swung open and Beau
walked through it, Jazzie followed him with her eyes, until he took
a seat in between Carlos and her mother, then dragged her gaze back
to Logan's ruggedly handsome face.

He looked down into Jazzie's eyes and told
her, "The call to your cell phone appears to have originated from
somewhere near San Antonio. We haven't pinpointed an exact location
yet, but we're close and we contacted someone there to help us,
once we do."

"That's not far from Austin and that
company...that worries me," Jazzie told him.

"I agree, he should have tried to get
farther away, but he's there, so we're going to have to find him
fast, before they do...the good thing is I have resources there to
help us. We just need him to call back again," Logan told her, then
reached in his pocket for her phone and handed it to her. "If he
calls again, let me know right away, and try to keep him talking,
see if you can get him to meet us somewhere."

"Okay," she said and put the phone down on
the table. "Have you talked to his roommate? I think the guy knows
a lot more than we do..."

Logan dragged his eyes from hers and sighed.
"Yeah, we found him...but not before they did. He's dead, and the
Austin police and the FBI are investigating. The FBI wants to talk
to your brother, so they're also looking for him."

Panic screamed through Jazzie's system and
her body started trembling, and tears blurred her vision. Chase
slid his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

She took a deep shuddering breath, and then
asked in a broken whisper, "Oh, my god, you really think that
company is trying to kill him..."

Logan shrugged, then said sympathetically,
"I'm sorry, but what your brother has stepped off in could get him
killed...and like I said yesterday, your family is in danger too.
He's a loose end for them, and criminals don't like leaving those
around."

"Have you run his bank accounts, credit
cards or ATM card yet?" Beau asked shortly from across the table,
then he looked at Jazzie with flat vacant eyes, "Does he have money
that you know of Jasmine?"

"Not to my knowledge, just his
paycheck...this was his first job out of college, and he's only
been there about six months, so he probably hasn't saved much," she
said.

"No, we haven't run them yet, but I'll get
my guys on it," Logan said then shot a glance at the man standing
in the corner by the front door and gave him a nod. The man quietly
left through the front door, closing it behind him. Logan looked
over at Beau and told him, "I'm sure the feds have already done
that though, I'll call my contact and see..." then glanced at
Jazzie and asked, "Is there anyone in San Antonio that you know of
that Frankie associates with?"

"There was as girl he dated in college that
was from San Antonio, but other than that, I can't think of
anyone," Jazzie told him then looked at her mother, "Mama do you
know of anyone he might know there?"

"My cousin Connie lives there, but we
haven't spoken in years, and I don't think that she ever even met
Frankie...so no, I can't think of anyone. I need to call your papa
and tell him what's going on here," she said then pushed up from
the table and held onto the edge until she was steady. Jazzie got
up and went to help her, but Beau was faster and got up to hold her
arm. Jazzie took her other arm, and they walked her to the kitchen,
then left her sitting in the chair by the built-in desk on the
wall.

When they walked back into the dining room
and sat back down, Beau looked at Logan and told him gruffly, "If
his roommate Charlie was helping him and they were close, you may
want to see who he knew in San Antonio too...they'll probably be
following that trail too."

Logan looked up at him surprised, then
grinned and said, "That's something I hadn't considered...good
idea, man. I'll have to do a background and interviews, but that
might pan out."

Chase leaned over and gave Jazzie a kiss on
the cheek, and another squeeze, then he said, "I'm sorry, but I've
gotta head out, darlin'."

Jazzie looked up at him and smiled softly,
"Thanks for everything, Chase..."

"I'll call you later and see how things are
going. I'll head back down tomorrow, if you need me," he told her,
then pushed his chair back and stood.

Jazzie stood up too and put her arms around
his waist and hugged him, then mumbled against his chest, "You've
done enough, we'll be fine...Dave will take care of us. You go take
care of your business," then stepped back and looked up at him.

He sighed, then grabbed her hand and said,
"God, I don't want to leave..."

Jazzie pulled on his hand and started
walking toward the front door. "Get the hell out of here," she told
him with a chuckle, then swung open the door and dragged him out on
the front porch, and closed it behind them.

She dragged him across the yard toward his
truck, then they stopped at the driver's door, and he hugged her to
him again and kissed her hair. "I really appreciate all that you've
done, Dave is great..." she told him again.

Jazzie heard the front door open again and
looked through the cab of the truck to see Beau heading across the
yard to his truck with his hands tucked in his pockets, his
shoulders slumped. He didn't look in their direction at all, he
just got in his truck and cranked it, and her heart fell to her
toes. He was exhausted and was supposed to get some rest before he
headed back to Lubbock, but he was leaving.

She pulled away from Chase then nodded
toward Beau and said, "I need to go catch him," then took off
running across the yard, hoping he wouldn't pull out before she
could get there.

She was halfway across the yard when she saw
a black sedan with dark tinted windows barreling down the street
toward the house. She stopped and put her hands on her hips, trying
to see who it was, because nobody ever drove that fast in their
quiet residential neighborhood. There were too many kids that
played there.

Suddenly, the car swerved up onto the
sidewalk heading directly toward her. Jazzie stood frozen a moment,
then turned and took off running to get out of the way. The car
screeched to a stop behind her, and she looked over her shoulder to
see three rough-looking middle eastern men pile out of the car, and
jog toward her. She took off toward the house screaming.