Outlaw Justice (Decorah Security Series, Book #13): A Paranormal Romantic Suspense Novella (6 page)

“There you are.”

Leah stood, and they hugged.

Candy gave her a critical inspection. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“You really scared me with that call.”

“I scared myself. I mean, I had to take off. Then I didn’t know where to go from there.”

“What happened?” her friend asked in a sympathetic voice as she joined Leah at the table.

“Life with Warren has been getting—rough. He hit me a couple of times.”

The other woman shifted in her seat. “Why?”

“I’m not even sure. I didn’t have to do much to set him off.

Candy reached over and laid a comforting hand on Leah. “Oh you poor thing. What are you going to do?”

Leah closed her eyes for a moment, fighting tears. Her friend’s support meant a lot. “I thought I could stay with you while I figured it out.”

“Of course. That’s a good idea. Let’s get out of here now.”

Leah glanced toward the back of the restaurant, but Steve had vanished. Should she get up and go out front without him?

“Come on,” Candy urged, standing up.

Leah pushed back her chair uncertainly. This wasn’t going exactly the way she’d expected. Candy was rushing her, but maybe she was thinking it was best for Leah to get out of sight quickly.

“Probably you’re short of cash.”

“Uh huh.”

Her friend put some money on the table, then took her arm and led her toward the door. Again she glanced back to where Steve had been but didn’t see him.

Candy propelled her toward the entrance. Taken by surprise, she followed along.

As they stepped outside, two large, rough men converged on them, one from either side of the door. Leah didn’t recognize them, but she knew the type—men Warren hired for guard duty.

A look of triumph on her face, Candy ducked out of the way as the men closed in on Leah.

“Candy?”

“Warren’s been frantic. Thanks for letting me know where you were.”

Leah fought the sick feeling rising in her throat. She’d been so willing to trust her oldest friend. Now that looked like a bad miscalculation. “What are you doing?”

The woman who was supposed to be her friend raised her chin. “Bringing you back where you belong.”

“Why?”

“Because it was naughty of you to run away like that,” she said in a voice that reminded her of the honey in the baklava—with flies stuck in the syrup.

One of the men stepped forward, hooked his arm around Leah’s and tugged. She looked wildly up and down the sunlit street. At this time in the afternoon, she saw no one nearby. Would anyone hear if she screamed?

Knowing she was in a world of trouble if these guys brought her back to Warren, she pressed her feet against the sidewalk. For all the good that did. She could only slow her forward momentum as the man with his hand on her arm pulled her toward a car that stood at the curb.

“Come on,” the guy growled.

Leah stamped on his foot, and she was rewarded with a grunt of surprise. Too bad Leah wasn’t wearing Candy’s high heels so she could have done more damage.

“You little bitch,” he muttered as he shifted her in front of him where she had less chance of mounting another attack. The other guy opened the car door, and Leah reached for the metal frame, bracing her outstretched arms.

“Hold it right there,” a voice rang out.

Steve had come around the corner, the gun in his hand.

The two men and Candy froze.

Leah let go of the car, ducked under her captor’s arm and started toward Steve.

“Get her purse,” he said.

“What?”

“Candy’s purse.”

Leah pulled it from the brunette’s hand, resisting the impulse to kick her so-called friend in the butt, then moved to Steve’s side. “Walk back toward our car,” he said.

With her heart almost blocking her windpipe, she did as he asked, walking rapidly down the street, looking back to see that he was following, but walking backwards.

When they reached the car, he handed her the keys. “You drive. I’ll keep them covered.”

She slid behind the wheel and turned on the ignition, then waited for him to get into the passenger seat. When he was beside her, he rolled down the window, pointing the gun back toward the trio on the sidewalk.

“Go.”

She pulled away from the curb and headed down the block.

“Take the first right, then the next right, then a left.”

She did as he asked, gripping the wheel to keep her hands from shaking.

“How, how did you get there so fast?” she asked.

“I slipped out and came around to the front entrance. I saw Candy come in and those guys take up positions near the door.

“Thank God.” She kept driving. “Now what should I do?”

He looked around the residential neighborhood of row houses. “Pull over.”

When she did, he waited a moment to make sure the bad guys weren’t in sight, then asked her to switch places with him.

oOo

Behind the wheel again, Steve glanced at Leah, who looked pale and shaken. He wanted to take her in his arms and reassure her that she was safe, but this was no time to let down his guard. Instead, he drove back to the bar where they’d been hiding out.

After collecting their luggage from the trunk, he led her up the stairs to their room. As soon as the door closed behind them, she reached for him, and he felt her shaking as he folded her close.

“I thought Candy was my friend,” she said in a broken voice. “My last real friend.”

“Obviously, that’s what she wanted you to think. Or it could be that Warren has some hold on her.”

“Maybe,” she whispered.

Steve ached to keep holding her, but he knew that they didn’t have a lot of time to figure out their next moves. Which meant he had to take the shortcut route.

“I think I can find out,” he said, hating that he had only one option if he wanted information quickly. When she gave him a questioning look, he went on. “You remember the way I saw that Warren was abusing you?”

“Because you wrapped your hand around something of mine that was important to me. My locket.”

“Yeah.” He clenched his teeth, then fought to relax his jaw. “I’m sure there’s something in Candy’s purse that will be similar. But . . .”

“What?”

“I don’t usually do this in front of anyone else. Well, I never do it in front of anyone else,” he amended.

“Why not?”

“You saw the tail end of it when you came back from the bathroom. I’m probably going to look like I’m having a seizure.”

She kept her gaze steady. “I could leave.”

“No,” he answered immediately. “I don’t want you on your own—especially when I’m out of commission.”

Without getting into further discussion, he went into the bathroom and returned with a towel, which he wrapped around the purse. Then he straightened the covers, plumped up one of the limp pillows and lay down on the bed.

Leah sat down beside him. He glanced at her, then at the little package he’d set on his stomach. Anticipation mixed with trepidation as he pushed aside the towel and reached inside the purse.

At first nothing happened as he moved his fingers through the objects inside—feeling a lipstick, an emery board, a comb. Then his hand brushed against a folded rectangle, her wallet. As he made contact with the leather, he was instantly somewhere else—somewhere he’d rather not be. Like the last time he’d done this, he was in an upscale bedroom, but this time it looked like a hotel room. Candy and Warren were standing beside a bed, passionately kissing while he lowered the zipper at the back of her dress, and she kneaded her fingers into his butt.

It was like watching a scene from a porn movie, a parody of a warm and loving relationship.

Disgusted, Steve tried to pull away. For a few seconds the ugly scene kept its claws in him, and he was forced to watch the torrid action until he could wrench himself away. When his eyes blinked open, he was back in the downscale bedroom, breathing hard. Leah was leaning over him, her eyes filled with concern and her hand on his arm.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Yeah. What did I look like?”

“Like you were seeing something that made you sick, and you were trying to get away.”

“That’s a good description.”

She waited for him to continue, and he knew there was no easy way to tell her what he’d seen, so he simply blurted out, “Candy and Warren are having an affair.”

She caught her breath. “How do you know?”

“I saw them in a bedroom.”

“Not my bedroom,” she said immediately. “I mean, how could they? I never get out of the house.”

“Maybe a hotel.”

“What was she wearing?”

“A long green dress.”

“What was he wearing?”

“Khaki slacks. A light blue knit shirt.”

Her gaze turned inward. “I remember when he put on that outfit. He said he was going to a business meeting.”

Steve reached out and laid a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not sure whether I’m angrier at him—or her. She kept pretending to be my friend, and all the time she was sneaking around behind my back.” She grimaced. “Lately, Warren was much less interested in me . . . sexually. I figured he was . . . fucking someone else,” she added, putting it in the crudest possible terms. Still, the wounded look on her face tore at him.

He dropped the purse on the floor and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly as he ran his hands up and down her back.

He could feel her struggling for control.

“It’s okay,” he soothed.

“Yeah,” she muttered. “Now I really can get on with my life.” She raised her head. “If he doesn’t have me killed first.”

Steve felt his features harden. “You said you thought he was into something that was stressing him out. But it wasn’t the affair. He knew he had that under control. I’m going over to his house and get something on him.”

“Like what?”

“I’ll know it when I find it.”

Her hand tightened on his arm. “No! That’s too dangerous.”

“I’m not going to just lie here and let him keep messing with you.”

She sat up and slicked her hair back with her hand. “If you’re going, then I’m going with you.”

“No,” he said automatically.

“You said you didn’t want to leave me here.”

“Going over there is dangerous.”

“But I can help you. In the first place, I can tell you the layout of the house. And what if I go up to the front door and tell him I’ve come home—that I know I made a mistake and I’m sorry. I mean, there’s no way he can know you saw him with Candy.”

Steve sat up, too, thinking it over before nodding.

“So you agree that’s a good plan?”

“I was agreeing about the affair. But Warren’s thugs saw me at the restaurant.”

“I could say I decided you’re too dangerous.”

He didn’t like it. Instead of arguing, he said, “Tell me about the house. If you go to the front door, where would be the best place for me to get in?”

“There’s a sunroom built across the back. It’s only one story high. Do you think you could get to the roof and in a second-story window?”

“Maybe. Are they locked?”

“I leave one in the bedroom unlocked because sometimes I open it for fresh air. As you face the back of the house, the bedroom is on the right.”

“How would I climb up?”

“There’s a storage shed at one side of the family room. If you move a patio chair over, you should be able to get to the shed roof, then to the next roof. His office is up there.”

“I don’t like putting you in danger. What happens when I finish searching upstairs?”

“I say I want to go up to the bedroom, then I meet you in the office.”

“There are too many things that could go wrong.”

“You’re bringing your gun, right?”

He nodded, still not liking it.

“Then we should go before you over think this.”

“Will Warren be alone?”

“Unfortunately not. He’s always got a couple of tough guys in the house.” She laughed. “Unlike his wife, they have the option of quitting. So they change pretty frequently.”

“The guys who came to Greektown with Candy?”

“No, that would have been a dead giveaway. I guess he hired someone else for that.”

“Uh huh.”

She pictured his current security men. “The ones he’s got now are both bodybuilder types, but Carlton has long blond hair he wears tied at the back of his neck. Jimmy is dark, a little shorter, and he’s got a scar running down one side of his face.”

“Okay.”

She stood up “Enough talk. Coming?”

He gave her a hard look, aware that she wasn’t going to back down, probably because she had to prove to herself that she wasn’t afraid of Pendelton. Or at least too afraid to confront him.

He followed her to the door, then down the steps to the car. He knew the approximate location of the house, but he asked Leah for the address and punched it into the GPS.

“What are you waiting for?” she asked as he sat without moving.

“I might need backup.”

He put in a call to Decorah Security.

“The situation hasn’t changed,” Frank told him.

“Actually it has,” he answered, telling his boss about the attempted abduction in the afternoon.

“I see what you mean,” Frank said, then made a few suggestions. When Steve hung up, he was feeling somewhat better about the evening’s activities.

They headed for the northern suburbs of the city, where the houses were large and set on spacious lots. The sun had set before they arrived in the upscale area.

When they were within a few blocks of their destination, Steve slowed, taking a look at the neighborhood. Every house had a two- or three-car garage, and there were no vehicles parked at the curbs.

“We’re going to stand out like zombie invaders from a horror movie.”

She made a clucking sound. “I told you I was friends with some of the Junior League ladies. I know Nita Martin, is on vacation with her husband—in the Bahamas. We can park in her driveway.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

First they drove past Pendelton’s, where almost every window blazed with lights.

“You’re sure he’s not having a party?”

“He likes it bright at night.”

After drifting past, Steve let Leah direct him to the Martin house. It wasn’t anywhere as bright as Pendelton’s, but it wasn’t totally dark, either.

“You’re sure they’re gone?”

“Pull in the driveway, and I’ll ring the bell and see.”