You're Busting My Nuptials (Tizzy/Ridge Trilogy Book 2) (34 page)

Dick interrupted. “She offered big money, a thousand for each of us. It sounded harmless enough, so we helped her. But then she disappeared and never paid us, so we started looking for her, and then Tawny went missing, two guys tried to kill us and Tawny turned up dead. That’s when we decided it must not have been a prank.”

“Take us into custody,” Harry said. “We need police protection. We don’t know those guys or why they’re trying to kill us.”

“Let me make sure I understand this.” Jinx wagged his finger back and forth between the two men “You two knuckle-heads are stupid enough to think someone would pay you one thousand
each for a prank?”

They both nodded.

“Damn, it’s true. There is one born every minute. Somewhere a village is looking for the two of you.” Jinx shook his head.

“You never dealt with anyone but Gwynn and Tawny? They never mentioned anyone else being in on the deal? Never said where the money was coming from?” Ridge asked.

“No,” they answered in unison.

“Did you put the bug on my car?” Tizzy asked.

“What kind of bug? We don’t like bugs,” Harry said.

“What about the bombs? Did you blow up my car?”

Both clowns widened their eyes. “Bombs? What bombs?”

“Wipe those smiles off your faces,” Bubba demanded.

“We’re not smiling. They’re painted on,” Harry said.

“I know that, you moron. Wipe the damn make-up off. I can’t stand to look at you and besides, my wife hates clowns.”

Within a few minutes, a patrol car was at the end of the street and Earl Dean took Dick and Harry into custody, cuffed them and drove away.

“Two down, two to go,” Tizzy said. “Now all we have to do is find the guys in the suits.”

Ridge frowned at her. “Do you ever listen to a thing I say?
Jesus.”

By the time they got back to the baseball field, the crowd was beginning to thin. They only had a few more contestants to go. Tizzy checked the bleachers and waved to Gracie again.

No sign of the Men in Black, so Tizzy relaxed a little. She turned to face the others. “Why
do
you think the suit men were after Dick and Harry?”

“They don’t know anything, but the suits don’t know that. Better just to get rid of everybody involved. They’ve already killed Tawny and Gwynn, add the potty guys, and case closed,” Jinx said

“So you think it’s over?” Tizzy asked, her voice full of hope.

“We still need an answer to why they took Ridge in the first place. If Dumb and Dumber didn’t plant the bug or blow up the cars, then the suits must have.”

Tizzy checked the stands again and her heart dropped to her stomach. Om sat alone. “Oh no,” she gasped. “Gracie and Nana are gone.”

Ridge snapped his head toward the bleachers and took off like a race horse coming out of the gate. Tizzy and the rest struggled to catch up to him.

“Where’s Gracie?” He shouted to Om.

“Calm down. She went to the potty.”

“Where? Which one?” Tizzy screamed.

“I’m not sure. I think to the bakery. She didn’t want to use one of those blue—.”

Before Om could finish his sentence Ridge and Tizzy were racing down the street toward Sweet Thangs.

“Oh God, please don’t let them have my baby,” Tizzy cried.

“We’ll find her,” Ridge said over his shoulder.

When they turned the corner onto Main Street, Tizzy saw the men. One held Nana and the other struggled to take Gracie from her arms.

Nana screamed. “Poke his eye balls, Gracie! Kick his guy balls! Bite him!”

Gracie followed Nana’s directions. She pointed her princess wand and thrust hard, first into one eye, then the other. The man screamed with pain, threw his hands over his face and released her.

The man holding Nana let her go, grabbed Gracie and slung her under his arm like a rag-doll. He lumbered off down the street. A car pulled from a parking space and made its way toward the suit.

From the ground Nana was still repeating her instructions. Gracie tried to use her wand again, but the big man grabbed it from her and tossed it away.

The sight of Gracie kicking and screaming gave Tizzy a shot of adrenaline. She lifted the hem of her skirt, tucked it into her belt and ran past Ridge.

The car pulled alongside the big man, and Freddy the Freeloader got out and opened the back door. Gracie twisted and turned then clamped her teeth into her captor’s ear. He let out a yelp and Gracie kicked away from him, but he grabbed her hair and pulled her back.

Gracie let out a blood curdling scream.

Nana, back on her feet, ran to help Gracie. When she got to the car, she swung her purse hard and connected with the man’s crotch. He doubled over in pain holding his ear with one hand and his privates with the other.

When Freddy tried to get back in the driver’s seat, Nana slapped at him and he took off running.

“Take care of Gracie,” Tizzy yelled to Nana as she ran past in pursuit of Freddy. Tizzy glanced over her shoulder. Ridge was a short distance behind, followed by Jinx, Synola, Rayann, Col
ton, and all the security guys.

Up ahead were the railroad tracks. Beyond them, a small housing addition bordering dense woods. Tizzy couldn’t let the clown get that far, or he’d have a better chance of escape. She stopped, drew her gun and yelled. “Stop or I’ll shoot!”

The warning didn’t slow the guy down. Tizzy took off again. She engaged the safety on her weapon, stuck it in her belt and ran harder. Just before they reached the railway, Tizzy caught up to him. She leaped into the air and tackled the guy, slamming him to the ground. They wrestled for a minute before Tizzy pulled her gun and stuck it in the clowns face.

“You think you can take my baby? I’ll kill you before I let that happen,” she said, ripping the mask free.

“Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod,” the clown said.

“Ramona?” Tizzy gasped.

Ridge hauled Tizzy off her, took the gun and pointed it toward the woman.

Eyes wide and wild, Ramona said, “Remember me, Detective Cooper? You should. You ruined my life.”

Ridge drew his lips into a hard line. “No, I don’t remember you.”

“Ten years ago, you put my fiancé in prison and he died there. Luca Galati. You remember him?”

Ridge narrowed his eyes in confusion, then answered, “Yeah. He murdered an entire family. Is that what this has been about? Revenge? If so, why didn’t you just kill me?”

“You locked him in a cell and he wasted away. He suffered. I suffered. You deserved the same.” Ramona gritted her teeth. “Imagine my surprise, when I opened up the newspaper and saw your wedding announcement. You lived in Philly. I lived in Baltimore and we both ended up living a few miles apart in Texas. “An evil smile spread across her face. “That was not a coincidence! That was fate!”

Tizzy took a quick breath. “You never planned to take him anywhere? You were going to let him die in the crate?”

Ramona barked a laugh. “Yes, but you messed everything up when you found him. Then you hired all the security. Imagine my surprise when I got the call you were at the airport? Since plan A didn’t work, I went with plan B. You took someone I loved and I wanted you to know how that feels,” she said to Ridge.

Tizzy thought of Gwynn and Horace. “You killed your own sister. What’s wrong with you?”

“She was going to dump me in Philly and move to Dallas. I couldn’t let her do that.”

“No, she wasn’t. She called the deal off. She couldn’t bear the guilt of leaving you.”

Ramona shook her head. “I thought getting rid of Tawny would end it. But Gwynn was still getting calls from the realtor. She was determined to leave me.”

Tizzy sighed. “He was calling to find out where to return her deposit. You killed her for nothing and now you’ll have to live with that.”

Ramona’s eyes went wide. “Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod. Is that true?”

“Yes,” Ridge said.

Ramona wagged her head slowly. “It can’t be. She was taking money from our safety deposit box. I read her journal. She was going to dump me in Baltimore.”

“No, she wasn’t,” Tizzy said. “She couldn’t do it. She loved you.”

Ramona burst into tears. “Ohmigod, Ohmigod, Ohmigod.”

Earl Dean’s patrol car rolled to a stop next to the tracks. He got out and took the two men and Ramona into custody and drove away.

Gracie ran to Tizzy. “What a brave girl you are,” Tizzy said, planting kisses all over her face.

Ridge hugged them both.

“I did what Nana said.” Gracie thrust her fingers forward into blank space. “I poked him.” She snapped her leg out. “I kicked him.” She made a chomping sound and clicked her teeth together. “And I bit him.”

Tizzy began to cry. “Yes, you did.”

Gracie squeezed Tizzy’s cheeks together. “Don’t cry, Momma.”

“They’re happy tears, because you’re okay.”

Synola stepped forward. “I told you that Galati guy was the one.”

“I guess we were all right about some aspect of the case,” Jinx said. “Ramona was the contractor. She got Gwynn to drug Ridge. Gwynn got the two potty guys to help. Ramona wanted Tawny out of the picture because she was taking Gwynn away from her.”

“And she killed her sister and Horace for nothing,” Synola said. “What a waste. She really is nuts.”

Ridge took the pink gun from his wife. “Really, Tizzy? You brought your gun after I told you not to.
Jesus.
You never listen to a thing I say.”

The End

List of Ingredients:

1 yellow or white cake mix

2 cups sour cream

2 cups sugar

2 cups flaked coconut

1 cup (8 oz.) Cool whip

Directions:

Mix together sour cream, sugar, and coconut
—set 1 cup of mixture aside.

Bake the cake according to package directions.

When done, cool for ten minutes in pans, then split each layer horizontally (now, you should have 4 layers).

Ice the cake between each layer with the sour cream, sugar, coconut mixture.

Fold the Cool Whip into the 1 cup reserved sour cream, sugar, coconut mixture, and frost outside of cake, and then sprinkle with coconut.

Refrigerate any leftovers. (And there won’t be many or any, depending on your family.)

Ann Everett frequently performs laugh-out-loud presentations for businesses, corporations, and non-profit organizations. She embraces her small town upbringing and thinks Texans are some of the funniest people on earth.

An award winning author, she’s also a member of Northeast Texas Writers’ Organization and a top ten reviewer on thenextbigwriter.com

When Ann’s not writing, she spends her days listening in on people’s conversations at the local Wal-Mart, beauty shop, Goodwill, and numerous other gathering spots. She draws from that research to pen her mystery and romance novels full of southern sass and Texas twang.

Five things you won’t know about Ann by reading her bio.

1. She’s been married to the same man since dirt.

2. She loves shopping at GoodWill.

3. A really sharp pencil makes her happy.

4. She hates talking on the telephone.

5. She’s thankful wrinkles aren’t painful.

Hey y
’all,

If you liked
You’re Busting My Nuptials,
please go to Amazon, or your other favorite online retailers and leave a review. I will appreciate it very much!

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I always love hearing from my readers. Email me at:
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www.anneverett.com
.

The first chapter of
Tied with a Bow and No Place to Go
is provided at the end of the book.

Thanks so much,

Ann Everett

Tied With a Bow and No Place to Go

Chapter One

Jay Roy Hobbs held the county record for talking women out of their panties. At least that’s what Tizzy Cooper had heard. Rumor said ladies ignored his lack of good looks and fell for his quick wit. Now, staring at him through binoculars, she wasn’t so sure humor was his main appeal.