Hell, Yeah (22 page)

“That was fun,” Travis said when they were back in the truck and headed north again.

“That was very expensive,” she said.

“You don’t have to pay me back. It was worth every dime to see Josie’s face when she realized you weren’t a bag lady shoplifter.”

Cathy slapped his shoulder playfully. “I got to admit, I did feel like Julia Roberts when she went shopping in
Pretty Woman
, but I will pay you as soon as we get home and there will be no discussion about it.”

“Never saw that. My sisters think it’s a classic. Tell me why it made you think of that movie.”

“Julia is a hooker and Richard Gere has hired her to stay with him. He gives her money and sends her shopping for something nice to wear to dinner that evening. She was wearing thigh-high plastic boots with a pin holding up the zipper and a short skirt with a skimpy top and she really looked like a hooker. But this shop clerk treated her like dirt and she went back to the hotel in tears.”

“Did she wear that getup to dinner with him that night then?”

“No, the hotel concierge took pity on her and made a phone call. She looked fabulous by the time Richard Gere came home from making millions that night.”

“And Josie made you feel like that?” Travis frowned.

“At first.”

“I’m glad I didn’t know. I would have had her manager ring up the sale and put it on his commission,” Travis said.

Cathy smiled. He was willing to rescue her, take up for her, finance her pretty things until she could pay him back, and deal out revenge to anyone who hurt her feelings. It would be so easy to fall in love with a man like Travis, but Alaska was a long way from Mingus, Texas.

Green’s Oil Company was located on a side street in Mena, Arkansas, in a brick building that had originally been a bank. It had been painted soft yellow and the logo was engraved in a huge plate glass window overlooking the sidewalk.

“You ready for this?” Travis asked when she hesitated at the door.

“Oh, yeah, I’m more than ready.” She opened the door and marched inside with Travis right behind her.

“Is that you, Cathy O’Dell? Good Lord, girl, you sure do look fine. And who’s that behind you? You get him off a Marlboro ad?” Tina Green came from behind her desk to hug Cathy. Tina barely came up to Cathy’s shoulder. She wore high-heeled shoes and a black and white polka-dotted dress that stopped at her knees. Neither did much for her overweight figure, but her eyes were bright and her smile genuine.

Cathy motioned toward Travis. “This is Travis Henry. Travis, this is Tina. Her uncle owns the company and we were pretty good friends while I was here.”

Travis extended his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Me too. But we were only friends after the lunch break. No one messed with Cathy in the morning. Now tell me, what you are doing in Mena? I didn’t figure you’d ever come back this way again.” She kept his hand a second longer than necessary.

Cathy smiled. “I still growl before noon and no one messes with me before my third cup of coffee. We were passing through and I thought I’d stop in.”

“Through to where? You look like you just came off a western wear runway, girl. The beer joint business must be really good,” Tina said.

“The Honky Tonk has been very good to me. How are things around here?”

“Same as ever. Uncle Mark misses you. Had to hire two people to do your job. Brad hit on both of them the first week but I put a bug in their innocent little ears. He’s not speaking to me for it but who gives a shit. He never was my favorite cousin anyway. Now if you’d have married him, you might be my favorite. I heard through the grapevine that Uncle Mark has given him six months to settle down and stop causing problems, and you know what kind I’m talking about.”

“So he’s still here?”

“God, yes. I’d rather he was in the cemetery but you know how it is with family. Uncle Mark told his momma he’d take care of him when she died. Blood is thicker than common sense. Have a seat or else let me take you both to dinner.”

Cathy shook her head. “Can’t stay long enough for either. Come see me in Mingus and we’ll talk all night. Is Brad in his office?”

“No, he’s in the conference room with Uncle Mark.” Tina frowned. “You sure you want to go up there?”

“Yes, I am. And I meant it about driving down to Mingus to see me. Bring your friends and you can dance all night with the pretty cowboys and sleep in my apartment.” Cathy headed for the stairs.

“No elevators?” Travis followed.

“Had one but it broke down and Tina said we should use the stairs for exercise. When Mark gets too old to run up and down them, he’ll have the elevator fixed. Don’t fuss about it. Brad did enough of that to last a lifetime,” she said.

He touched Cathy’s arm. “Don’t ever compare me to that fool. Don’t even say my name in the same sentence with his. I hope he does something really stupid so I can beat the shit out of him. I’ll even pay the assault fine just to get to do it.”

She stopped halfway up the steps. “You’d do that?”

“Oh, yes, and enjoy every minute. I’d write the check in his blood.”

“Well, thank you, Travis. But I can take care of him all by myself and then it will really be over.” She stopped and kissed him hard on the lips and then wrapped her arms around his neck for a second softer kiss.

“For that kind of treatment I might just whip his ass for the fun of it,” Travis said when she broke away.

“Let me take care of it. I need to,” she whispered.

He reached for her hand and squeezed slightly. “I’m here if you need me.”

A door to the left of the stairs opened at the same Cathy and Travis got to the top. Drillers, roughnecks, and engineers, along with Mark and Brad, pushed out into the hallway. They all stopped in their tracks and stared slack jawed at the six foot woman in front of them.

Mark opened his arms. “Well, I’ll be danged, if it ain’t Cathy O’Dell.”

She walked into them for the hug but kept her eyes on Brad’s face. It had gone a dull shade of ashy gray and his eyes darted around the hall like a cornered one-legged chicken at a coyote convention. Travis blocked the stairs and the oil men kept him from getting back into the conference room or he would have made a quick excuse and took off to hide until she left town.

Evidently he’d been expecting to see her in totally different circumstances and surroundings. Every single dime of the money spent on the outfit was worth it when he scanned her from boots to hat.

“What brings you to Mena? I thought you were runnin’ a beer joint in Texas,” Mark said.

She stepped back out of his embrace. “I am. And doin’ a little moonlightin’ for Amos Lambert. I hear you faxed him my resume.”

Mark’s grin smoothed out part of the wrinkles in his face. “I told you if you wanted to get back into the business to call me.” He turned to a pair of lingering engineers. “You boys shoulda been here when Cathy worked for me. She never made a mistake. Had an audit once and the IRS couldn’t find a penny in the wrong place. She’s worth her weight in gold. If I’d been a smart man she wouldn’t have ever left me. And if my nephew had been smart he would have never lost her.”

“Why did she leave?” One of the men flirted with his eyes.

“She and Brad got crossways. They were engaged and broke it off. She said she couldn’t work with him. I offered to fire him but she’d have none of it. So she went to Mingus, Texas, to her cousin’s place and hasn’t been back until right now,” Mark said.

“Good God!” Brad exclaimed.

“It’s the truth.” Mark chuckled.

“I’d like you to meet Travis Henry,” Cathy said.

“I know Travis. I tried to steal him from Amos a couple of years ago. How are you, son?”

“Doin’ pretty good, sir. Y’all still finding oil up here?”

“You almost went to work here?” Cathy asked.

“No, he didn’t. He wouldn’t leave Amos for anything. I just saw him at an oil convention in Dallas and made an offer. He refused and that was that, and yes, son, we are still making a profit,” Mark said. “Got time for lunch? I’ll take you two out and see if I can steal both of you away from Amos.”

“No, we’re just passing through. Brad? A minute please. In your office? In private?” she asked.

“Well, it’s good to see y’all,” Mark said.

“Thanks. If you’re ever in Mingus stop by the Honky Tonk. I’ll make you the best martini you’ve ever had,” Cathy said.

“I remember your martinis. You boys should’ve been around the last Christmas party she was here. Not only could she keep an immaculate set of books, she’s the best damn bartender in four states. And one of her martinis would make you slap your granny, it’s so good. Darlin’, just talkin’ about them makes me thirsty. I might show up there sometime. Come on, boys. Let’s go get some lunch. Brad, I guess you’re on your own today since the lady wants to talk,” Mark said.

“It’s good to see you, Cathy, but I’ve made plans to have lunch with someone else,” he said icily.

She stepped up so close to him that her hat brim brushed his hair. “Change them. We are going to talk.”

“Looks like she’s a handful,” one of the oil men said to Travis.

“She can be,” he said.

“You want to go with us to eat while she and Brad have a visit?” Mark asked.

Travis shook his head. “Naw, I reckon I’ll stay here. When she gets finished we need to be going on home. We got a beer joint and an oil company to run.”

“You ready?” Cathy asked Brad.

She was glad that Travis had insisted on the outfit because she felt like King Kong on cocaine. She would have beat the shit out of him in her gray sweats and bare feet, but the intimidation in his eyes when she looked over Mark’s shoulder was worth every cent she’d spent on the outfit.

“Sure!” he said with too much bravado.

His office was right beside the conference room. He slung the door open and stood to one side. She walked right in and hiked a hip on his desk. He was as bad as a fussy old maid in an eighty-year-old house. Chairs were made to sit in. Nothing touched his immaculately clean desk except his blotter, phone, and whatever else he happened to be working on. No extra papers. No pictures. No dust.

She took off her hat and set it on his desk blotter and pulled up a knee to prop a boot heel on his chair. “Sorry I didn’t think to bring some dirt from the Big Cypress Bayou so you could have a little taste of home.”

He gave her a go-to-hell look and slammed the door.

Travis sat down on the top step and waited. If Cathy needed him he’d gladly kick the door down and throw the son-of-a-bitch out the window. If he heard so much as a gasp from Cathy, Brad would need a new door and possibly a casket.

Brad took two menacing steps toward Cathy. “Get off my desk and get your feet out of my chair.”

She smiled. “Oscar and Duroc send their love. They said to tell you that they don’t want your hundred dollars and if you want to buy them a beer, they are in New Orleans until deer season next year. Guess you were expectin’ to see them today instead of me? Nice little fishin’ shack you got down there on the Big Cypress. Right cozy. Is that your retirement condo?”

“Are you crazy? I don’t know anyone named Oscar or Duroc.” Brad’s voice sounded hollow.

“Ah, they’d be hurt to hear you say that. They had such respect for their shirttail kin.” She stood up and in a few easy strides was face-to-face with him.

He raised a hand to push her back.

She grabbed it mid-air. “Don’t you dare.”

“You can’t prove a damn thing. I was right here and I have a perfectly good alibi,” he growled.

“You got that right.”

“So what are you doing here?”

“Making sure you understand that I’m not afraid of you or your shirttail kin and to make sure you will leave me alone the rest of my life. I don’t want to see you, smell you, or any of your relatives.”

“And if you do?” he asked through clenched teeth.

“Don’t test me to find out, darlin’.” Cathy moved so close that he leaned back.

Brad circled around her and sat down in his chair like a king on his throne. He shoved her hat off on the floor and gave her a daring look. “Why’d you lie to me and say you were married to that country bumpkin? I suppose now you’re goin’ to tell me that cowboy out there is your husband?”

That was the straw that put the proverbial camel on the ground. Her boots hit the top of his desk with thud as she bounced up on top of it and started kicking. Blotter, telephone and a folder of papers scattered all over the office. He was standing up to protest when she planted the bottom of a boot in his chest and sent him flying backwards on the floor. He was gasping for breath when he looked up to see her straddling him. She openhanded slapped him across the face.

He drew back and she grabbed his hand. It was arm wrestling in the air and he lost quickly. She held on to his fingers even after she’d pinned them on the ground. “Don’t you ever make trouble for me again or the next time I’ll fill you full of shotgun holes and watch you bleed out. Do you understand me? You can settle down with whatever woman you can find to please your Uncle Mark, but it damn sure won’t be me.”

He gripped her hand with all the force he could muster and tried to break her fingers. “I will kill you instead of marrying you,” he growled.

She shook free of his hand, reached back, and grabbed his thigh. “Two inches higher and you and Duroc can sing in the same choir. Is it over?”

“Okay, okay. I’ll leave you alone,” Brad said.

“I’ve got pictures and dirty clothes for evidence. I’ve got Oscar and Duroc’s names. I know where to find them and they’ll squeal like little girls if we ever walk into the courtroom. That is if it ever gets that far. You remember my bouncer, Tinker? Well, darlin’, we might just bypass the law and order thing and go straight for vengeance. And if he gets tired of knockin’ heads together Travis will step in for him. I’m tired of this and it’s over.” She moved up an inch and squeezed as hard as she could. He reached down and tried to pry her hand from his leg but she hung on like a bulldog with a soup bone.

He wanted to toss her cold dead body out the window. But Mark would never ever believe she committed suicide or that she fell by accident. Neither would that big bruiser of a cowboy waiting on the steps and Brad had no doubt if she screamed the lock on the office door wouldn’t keep him out in the hall.

“Okay,” he whispered.

She crawled off him and picked up her hat. “Appreciate your Uncle Mark. He’s the only good thing in your life. Settle down and be a real man. Don’t hit on your wife and don’t mess around on her.”

“Go to hell. I was a fool ever to get mixed up with you anyway.” Brad righted himself and brushed at his suit. He combed his hair with his fingertips and looked around with a bewildered look on his face.

“One more thing. If you think you’re going continue this war, check your computer in the morning before you make another move. I’m sending some pictures and a complete report of everything I can remember so you’ll know exactly what happened out there. If I see a shadow that looks like you it will all go straight to Mark. Your resume won’t be worth anything but toilet paper,” she said.

“Get out of here. I never want to see you again,” he hissed.

“That’s exactly what I want to hear. You should put a better door on the fishing shack. Word on the street is that you won’t ever find a decent job if he fires you but you can always share your fishing cabin with the rats and roaches, not to mention Oscar and Duroc. And pray that I have a long and happy life. Because if my cousin, Daisy, or Tinker smells the faintest hint of foul play at my death, Mark gets the files. Good-bye.” Cathy settled her hat on her head.

“I really thought you were special. Guess I was wrong,” he said.

She slapped him hard. “Don’t try to play on my sympathy. I don’t give a damn about you. That’s for knocking my brand new hat to the floor. Tell Mark that you fell and hit your face on the desk.” She left him holding his nose.