Trouble In Dixie (30 page)

"I feel like a fish in a bowl, with ya'll
just sitting over there watching me," Katie told them with a
giggle, then said, "Why don't ya'll go to a hotel and get some
sleep."

"Tommy would kill us...he made us promise to
stay with you until he came back," Karlie told her flatly.

Katie huffed out a frustrated breath. "He's
a mess...I'm fine, really, ya'll go get something to eat, and get
some sleep."

Gabe went to stand up and Karlie put a hand
at his middle, then told her, "We'll go out to the ranch and watch
Dixie, so he can come up here and spend some time with you."

"That's a great idea, sis...thanks," she
told her.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

When cloning became legal, Tommy was
definitely going to sign up for that program, he thought. So far,
since he got up this morning, he'd cooked breakfast for Dixie,
cleaned up the kitchen, swept and mopped the floors in there,
cleaned up his bedroom, and now he was on his hands and knees
scrubbing the toilet in the downstairs bath. Since he'd fired
Cookie, and hadn't hired anyone else yet, all this was on him, and
he wanted to make sure the house was clean when he brought Katie
home.

Jud was up to his eyeballs in chores down at
the barn, and Tommy felt bad about dumping all that on him, even
though he at least had some hands to help him down there. Dixie was
in her room, cleaning it up, and making her bed, in between playing
with her dolls and toys. He was definitely going to have to make
finding another housekeeper and cook a priority, as soon as he knew
for sure that Katie was out of the woods. Right now, this was as
much as he could focus on.

When he got home last night, and picked up
Dixie from Jud and Elaina's, it had taken him two hours to convince
her that Katie was okay, and the babies were okay. Jud said she'd
been crying on and off all afternoon, and wouldn't eat, so he'd
driven twenty five miles to town to treat her to a hamburger and
shake from the Tastee Freeze last night. The drive had given them
time to talk, and him time to convince her that Katie was going to
be fine...and try and convince himself of that at the same
time.

When the doorbell rang downstairs, he huffed
a frustrated breath, then threw the toilet brush in the bowl and
got to his feet. It rang again before he got to the bottom of the
stairs, and he yelled, "Just a minute!" then hurried to answer
it.

His eyes played tricks on him a minute,
until his brain processed it wasn't Katie on his doorstep, but her
twin sister, Karlie. At the bottom of the steps, he saw Gabe Kelley
standing there patiently. Panic seized him and he felt the blood
drain from his face, then he asked fearfully, "Did something happen
with Katie?"

Karlie smiled and put her hand on his
shoulder then said, "No, she's fine, Tommy...stop worrying," then
she walked past him into the house. He held the door open and
stepped back as Gabe walked up the steps and came inside too.
Shutting the door, he turned to face them. "What's up then?"

"We've come to watch Dixie so you can go to
the hospital and spend some time with Katie...she wants you there,"
Karlie told him, then added with a snort and a grin, "Nice
gloves...yellow rubber suits you."

He looked down at his hands and flushed,
he'd forgotten to take them off before he ran to the door. "Um...I
was doing a little cleaning," he said and took them off.

"Where's your housekeeper?" Karlie asked
him.

"I fired her," he said with chagrin. "She
was spying on us, and reporting to my former mother-in-law."

"No shit!" Karlie hooted then slapped her
thigh.

"Yeah, that's what caused the problem with
Katie. Edith, my former mother-in-law, decided that us living here
together was disrespecting her daughter's memory, and setting a bad
example for Dixie, so she sued for custody," he told her
darkly.

"I woulda kicked her ass, before I sent her
on her way," Karlie said and shook her head. "That's
unbelievable...and it explains why Katie wound up back in
Bowie...she wouldn't talk about it."

"Katie did kick her ass," he said with a
chuckle, then added, "And I made her walk from here to Dumas, or
wherever the hell she was going."

"Good--she deserved it!" Karlie said with a
smile, then asked, "So what happened with the custody suit?"

"Edith dropped it, after Katie told her she
was leaving...and I haven't heard from her since."

Katie huffed out a breath then mumbled,
"That bitch..."

"Yes, she is...she hadn't seen Dixie in ten
years...since she was born. Then when Katie showed up, she came out
of the woodwork when Cookie ratted us out."

"Ten years? Wow, how the hell could she
think she could get custody then?" Gabe piped up and asked, then
commented, "Seems strange she'd have been concerned about her at
all."

"This isn't about Dixie...Edith thinks I
killed Maggie, because I chose to save Dixie over her when I had to
make the choice. She's determined that I'm going to live the rest
of my life alone, because of it...and you'd be surprised what she
can do. She's got money, and power where she lives, and nobody
crosses her."

"Well that sucks..." Karlie said then asked,
"What is she gonna do when Katie comes here to recuperate?"

"Probably file for custody again, if she
finds out..." Tommy told her morosely.

"It's obvious you two love each other, why
the hell don't you get married?" Gabe asked him with a twist of his
lips.

Tommy walked to the kitchen and sat down at
the breakfast bar, then ran a hand through his hair and responded,
"Because I asked her and she turned me down."

"Why? Wouldn't that solve that woman's
issue? Get her off your back?"

"Hell no, she's not giving up...that would
probably make her more determined to take Dixie from me, but at
this point though, I don't give a damn. I'll fight her to the
death, if I have to. I just need to hire a better attorney. Right
now, though your sister is all I'm concerned about."

Gabe stepped forward and told him, "I've got
some contacts, and I'll check around to see if I can get some
recommendations for you."

"Thanks, Gabe...I appreciate the input. I
need all the help I can get, this woman is a viper."

Karlie clapped her hands, and snatched the
gloves from him and put them on, then said, "Okay, Mr. Clean, it's
time for you to get cleaned up and get to the hospital...don't
worry about anything here, we've got it handled." Karlie grinned at
him, then shoved him off the stool and toward the stairs.

Tommy made it to the hospital within the
hour and hurried up to the second floor. He was anxious to see
Katie and make sure she was okay. When he got off the elevator his
phone rang in his pocket, and he stopped to answer it.

"Yeah?" he said when he saw it was from the
Rockin' D. He figured it was Jud calling him with a question or
problem.

"You're right, she is a world class
bitch..." Karlie told him with an edge of anger in her voice.

"Who?" Tommy asked her in confusion.

"Edith Preston...she showed up right after
you left."

"
What!?!
" he yelled and the nurse
behind the desk a few feet away held a finger up in front of her
lips to shush him. He mouthed 'sorry', then pushed the elevator
button, so he could go back downstairs.

"She's a piece of work, Tommy..." Karlie
told him then huffed out a breath and finished, "She thought I was
Katie, so I didn't correct her...we had words. I hope you don't
mind," she said with a chuckle.

Tommy groaned, then said, "What did she
say?"

Karlie snorted, then told him, "First she
pointed her damned bony finger at me, and I grabbed it and resisted
shoving it up her nose..."

Tommy tamped down the anger that was setting
his blood boiling, and asked again shortly, "Just tell me what she
said."

"She said that nobody crosses her, and that
I had by coming back here, and she was going to make me and you pay
for it."

"Oh, god...I was hoping to buy some time,"
he told her, and looked up at the elevator numbers to see why the
damned car wasn't there yet.

"Time for what? And why are you so afraid of
that witch?" Karlie asked him curiously.

"Time to get another attorney and see if I
could get her rights concerning Dixie terminated...I was trying to
get the money together. Now, she's going to sue me again in that
damned podunk county, and she'll probably take Dixie away from
me."

When the car still didn't come down from the
eighth floor, he huffed out a breath, then headed for Katie's
room.

Karlie huffed a breath, then told him, "Talk
to Katie...she's sitting on a mountain of cash right now, and I'm
sure she'd help."

"I don't want her fucking money...that's
hers," Tommy hissed into the phone.

"You need to lose the attitude, Tommy, and
let someone help you. You can't do this alone...that woman is a
barracuda. All of us will help, we love Dixie, and Katie loves
you...let her help."

Tommy had been independent a long time, had
taken care of Dixie and himself alone for long time, and he was not
going to leech off of Katie, now. Somehow, he'd figure out a way to
work this out on his own. If he had to sell his whole damned herd,
he'd do it to keep his little girl. She was the most important
thing in his life, had been for ten years...well, except for Katie
and the babies, now. They were all his life, and he wasn't going to
let that vindictive bitch take them away from him.

Something occurred to Tommy and he said, "I
just want to know how she knew you were there...her showing up
right after you show up and I leave is just too damned coincidental
in my mind. Cookie's not there, so it wasn't because she called
her."

Karlie hesitated, then said, "Well, we
wondered the same thing...um, you know Gabe used to be a Private
Investigator in Phoenix right?"

"No, I didn't know that..." Tommy said
wondering where she was going with this.

"Yeah, he was and a Phoenix detective before
that....he was looking around and noticed the security cameras you
had in the house, so he went looking and found your control
room."

"Yeah, my dad installed cameras out in the
barns about eight years ago to watch the pregnant mares at night,
while the contractor was here he suggested installing them in and
around the house for security...what about it?"

"When he found the room, he didn't touch a
thing, and the camera angles were being shifted remotely...he
thinks someone has hacked your system."

"Holy,
fuck
!" Tommy shouted and felt
like the blood in his veins was going to shoot from the top of his
head like a geyser. That explained a lot to him, and Tommy felt
like an idiot...he also felt exposed, violated and angry as
hell.

He was standing outside of Katie's room
talking, and the nurse who was sitting behind the desk turned red,
then shoved up to stand and pinned him with her eyes. Before she
could make it around the desk, Tommy pushed the door to Katie's
room open and went inside.

"She's old and I don't think she's tech
savvy, she had to hire someone to do that...is there any way Gabe
can find out who's doing it?" Tommy asked then looked over at Katie
who was listening intently, and gave her a tight smile.

"He said he has a friend in Phoenix, who
could probably do that...what she's doing is illegal, and if we can
tie it back to her, you've got her by the balls," Karlie told
him.

"I want her by the throat, that's what I
want," he said angrily, then glanced at Katie again. He didn't want
to upset her, so he had to end this call now, before she caught on.
"Look, Karlie, put Gabe on it, and let me know if you find out
anything."

"Sure will...give Katie a kiss for me," she
said, then hung up. He put his phone back in his pocket and forced
a bright smile as he walked over to the bed, then leaned down to
give her a kiss. "You look beautiful today, sugar," he told her
with a grin.

"Nice try, spill it, Tommy..." she told him
with a look on her face that told him he wasn't going to keep her
in the dark on this.

He sighed and told her reluctantly, "Edith
went out to the ranch, right after I left...she thought Karlie was
you," then dragged a chair from over by the window, so he could sit
and hold her hand.

"Ugh, what did that hag want?" Katie asked
and her face turned red.

"She thought you'd double-crossed her, and
she was there to tell you that she was going to make both of us
pay...same old crap."

"I need you to go to the police impound yard
where they took what's left of my truck, and get my backpack for
me," she told him in firmly.

Tommy looked at her curiously, because she'd
changed direction so fast. "Sure, I'll do that...you need it now?"
He would do anything for her, but he wondered why having her
backpack was all of a sudden so important to her.

Pulling out his phone again, he called his
friend with the Amarillo P.D. and found out where her truck had
been taken, and if they'd removed her belongings, or if they were
still in the wreckage. His friend told him that her truck had
probably been cleared, and her belongings given to the department
for safe keeping. Tommy called the station downtown and found out
they did have her backpack, then got directions before he hung
up.