Thirty-Four and a Half Predicaments Bonus Chapters: Rose Gardner Mystery (6 page)

“I suspect she’s stuck there until Monday. I can’t see Judge Berger holding an arraignment over the weekend. But I’ll let them know I’m her attorney and petition for her to be placed in solitary confinement for her own safety.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“I’ll let you know when I have news.”

After ending the call, I turned back to look at Neely Kate. “Hale’s takin’ her case. But she’s not safe in there. He’s working to get her out ASAP.”

Fear filled her eyes, followed closely by resolve. “I’m paying a trip to Carter Hale myself. I want him to know that he’s gonna answer to me personally if anything happens to her.”

I nodded. “Don’t be breathin’ a word to anyone I arranged this. Especially not the bail. I know she doesn’t have any money. She wouldn’t take any from me when I offered, and God knows, she wouldn’t accept this either. But she can’t stay in there.”

“Okay.” She swallowed, her anger all burned up and replaced with fear. The fear had changed, though—she was afraid for Rose now, not afraid of me. “Thank you.”

I gave her a brisk nod and Jed walked her out the door.

When he returned about five minutes later, he found me pulling money out of a safe I had hidden in the floor.

“Where the hell are
you
goin’?” Jed asked.

I grabbed a bag out of the cabinet behind me and put my stash inside it. “I’m not stayin’ here like a sitting duck. I’m goin’ to take the bastard down myself.”

“What bastard?”

I grabbed my gun out of my desk drawer and slid back the chamber. “J.R. Simmons.”

“Skeeter.”

I added the gun to the stash and slung the bag over my shoulder. “You want to know where I was for six years? I wasn’t in Memphis like I told everyone. I was J.R. Simmons’ lackey. I was learning at the foot of the master until he sent me back here to build my empire, but I never escaped his clutches. When I used to leave for days at a time and put you in charge, I was working for him. But five years ago he asked me to do something so heinous, I refused to consider it. I quit. I was stupid enough to think he’d let me go, but he’s been plotting and planning all this time. Now he’s ready to unveil his scheme. But Rose is caught in her own web with J.R. Simmons and it has nothing to do with me.”

“You think the older Simmons framed you for the murders and the younger one is helping him do it?”

“I wouldn’t put it past either of them, but here’s what I know: The sheriff’s department is comin’ for me. I wouldn’t be surprised if they pulled into the parking lot any minute. Because J.R. Simmons plays the long game, and he plans to make me bleed until there’s not one drop of blood left. He’ll destroy everything and everyone I care about and I guaran-damn-tee you you’re on his list too. So go hide out at our safe house and wait for me to contact you.”

I grabbed my coat off the hook on the wall and headed for the back door.

“Skeeter!”

I looked back to face him.

His uninjured hand was clenched at his side and his eyes were hard. “This here is our county and our turf. We’re not going to let someone steal what we rightfully earned.”

I gave him a grin. “Damn straight we’re not. We’ve built our business from the ground up and some suit with a stick up his ass isn’t gonna get the best of us Fenton County hardscrabble boys.”

He nodded gruffly.

“See you in a few days,” I said, then bolted out the door.

I skipped my own car in the parking lot and headed for an older pickup I didn’t recognize. The sheriff’s deputies would be looking for my car. A stolen truck wouldn’t last me long, but long enough to get out of the county.

After I got it hotwired, I grabbed a cowboy hat off the seat and crammed it on my head, then drove out of the parking lot. As I headed toward Little Rock, a swarm of sheriff’s cars rushed toward me, heading in the opposite direction. My heart slammed into my ribs, but they sped past, pulling into the pool hall parking lot several hundred feet behind me.

My cell phone rang and I answered it without looking at the screen, expecting Jed to respond. “Yeah.”

“James.”

Icy cold fear washed through my veins, quickly followed by the heat of rage. “J.R.”

“I warned you that you’d regret crossing me.”

“Don’t mess with me, J.R. I’m not the kid you took in years ago. I fight back now.”

He laughed. “You think you can fight, but in reality you’re a man who’s about to learn a painful lesson.” Then he chuckled. “And I’m going to enjoy watching you learn it. I’m taking you down, boy.”

Not if I got to him first.