Western Romance Collection: Rugged Cowboys Part 76

They were seated and a thirty-something who looked like they'd made poor life decisions came to ask what they wanted to drink. Water, they both answered. A minute later, breadsticks came with the drinks. Erin picked one up and slowly started making her way through the basket.

"How are you liking Los Angeles?"

"Oh, you know. It's a big city. They're all pretty similar, when all you have to go on is a field office and a hotel."

"I suppose that's probably true, when you get to enough of them. I wouldn't know."

"Then you should have recommended someplace."

"Nah," she said, waving the suggestion away with the half-eaten breadstick in her hand. "Where's the fun in that?"

"So you're doing all this for my benefit, then?"

"Of course!" She smiled. "I care for your education, Roy. Think of this as a pre-test. Then, over the next few days, you learn about the city, and we see whether or not you're as knowledgeable as the locals on the spots."

"I don't think that I'm going to learn that much in only a few days."

"That's because you didn't have someone tutoring you all those other times."

"And you're planning on being my... what, tutor? In food-related matters?"

"Well, that and detective-work, of course. But I think we should start with where you're closest to success."

Roy's lips pinched together in annoyance that might have been feigned. "You're right. I'm sorry. I should've known better."

"That's the spirit. Grovel just a bit."

"Groveling isn't my thing," he said. His voice was mild, but his expression had changed, just a little bit. As if he wanted to show her that he was a little bit dangerous. Compared to Craig, Roy Schafer was a kitten, and she wasn't sure that she minded it one bit.

She'd already gotten herself into a spot that she shouldn't have gotten herself into. Now that she was hip-deep in trouble, the suggestion to leave it alone, to go home and watch a pack of hyenas pretending to be people rip apart another woman on the basis of female sisterhood.

For what seemed like the hundredth time, Erin wanted to tell Roy what she'd done. Wanted to get some feedback on what she was supposed to do next. It was a dangerous game that she was playing, and explaining how she got the information she was hoping to get, when it was finally time to cash out, would be hard. It would make it that much less awkward if she were able to get him in on the game plan now, before the trouble had come up.

Would it make the evidence that they got inadmissible? She wasn't sure. But that wasn't what she was concerned about right now. Undercover agents worked on cases like this all the time. All she was doing was working undercover.

But undercover cops had someone pulling their strings, someone who could pull them out of the situation if things got too dangerous, and here she was, walking the tight-rope without a safety net.

"Roy, I need to tell you something, and I need this to stay between us."

"Okay," he said, sitting back and looking for the waitress who hadn't taken their order yet. "I can promise that. Probably."

"Well, probably will have to be good enough." She let out a breath. "I may have made contact with Hutchinson."

"I a.s.sumed you would," he said, rubbing his nose. "What have you got?"

"Nothing yet. The guy's scary, though. I wouldn't put it past him. He admitted to knowing my sister, though he says he hasn't heard from her since she left Minnesota."

"Okay. We can work with that. What's the cover?"

"I'd-" Erin let out a breath and tried to still her heart beating. "I'd rather not say."

"That's fine. I'm not your dad. But stay safe, and the minute that there's trouble, you call me, alright?"

"Okay," she said, making a mental note to save his number again. She might not forget this time.

"I'll text you to check in once a day. If I don't hear from you within an hour or two, we bring the hammer down. Fair?"

"Fair enough," she said. The waitress was coming up, finally, her wide hips swishing as she walked with a hurry that suggested that she just realized how long they'd been sitting there, the breadstick basket still empty.

"Oh, look at that," the waitress murmured. "You're out of breadsticks. Well, I'll get you some more of those, but could I take your order while I'm at it?"

Erin let out a breath. Not the best Italian place she'd been. But it was a learning experience, just like it was going to be digging into the muck that was Craig Hutchinson.

Eighteen.

Waking up late had always come hard for her. But when Erin avoided sleep long enough, it was an unhappy necessity that she had to deal with in spite of her best intentions to sleep as little as necessary and never past the sunrise.

She opened her eyes slowly, and closed them again. The sun had somehow found a way through the blinds that managed to fall square across her eyes, and after a night's rest it was blindingly bright.

She rolled away from it and pushed herself out of bed, still letting her eyes stay shut a minute. She knew the layout well enough not to worry about it. She reached for where her phone should be, but she must have knocked it to the floor. Erin opened her eyes just enough to reach down and grab it.

As she'd hoped a message. As usual, though, nothing to be sure who it was from. She cursed herself again that she'd forgotten to put Roy's number back in. It would be as easy, even now, as going back to the call log and adding the most recent call. Unless she'd gotten one after midnight last night, which she doubted, and even then, the log had timestamps.

Doing anything today?

She thought forward. No, nothing. Unless she wanted to schedule some last-minute piano lessons. She'd always wanted to learn, never put in the least bit of effort. Maybe today would be the day. Maybe it wouldn't.

She punched in that she didn't have any plans at all and dropped the phone on the bed, where it lay as she went off to get dressed.

She was just pulling on a pair of slacks as her phone buzzed. That would be Craig, she knew. Roy didn't seem to prefer to text, but more than that, he wasn't quick about answering them when he did send any.

She picked the phone back up and turned it over to read the message.

I'll be there in 5, be ready to go.

She shrugged. Alright. That was enough time, if she needed to be out the door. She reached down to pull on socks and then slipped her feet into a comfortable pair of flats.

The knock came at the door after 3 minutes. She opened it halfway without undoing the chain, already knowing what she'd find.

"You ready to go?"

"You said five minutes."

"I lied," Craig answered, letting the tiniest hint of a smile cross his otherwise surly face.

"I'm ready anyways, let me grab my wallet."

"You won't need it."

"Fine, then I won't take it."

Erin shrugged and pocketed her keys, undid the chain latch on the door and went outside, locking the door behind.

Whatever was going on, she was intrigued enough already that she wasn't going to argue. Maybe that was a risk, she thought. Maybe there was going to be tons of trouble any minute now, and she needed to have someplace to carry her backup.

But she already knew better than to think that she was going to use it on Craig. Not unless something very drastic changed, and she knew that it wasn't going to, in spite of her better judgment.

He took her back down to the motorcycle and got on, kicked it to life, and handed the helmet off to her. Erin put it on, still unsure how to feel about the tightness that was almost too much. Just a little bit too tight for comfort. But then again, when it came to protecting her head, maybe that was a desirable trait. She didn't know much about helmets, after all.

Craig tested her grip around his waist before he took off. It was still strange the second time, being pressed up against him with her whole body. He carried her weight, and she let him shift her to the left as they turned. It was made all that much more strange because she knew that she couldn't trust him as far as she could throw him, but when she was on the back of that bike her life was completely in his hands.

All it would take would be one or two bad turns and she'd be as good as dead, and yet she knew instinctively that if he was going to kill her-and the jury was still very much out on that subject-then it wouldn't be with incompetent or dangerous driving.

Erin watched a car carefully as they started to pull up. She could tell instinctively that it wanted to get over, and she could tell just as instinctively that it wasn't looking for two people on the back of a motorcycle about to pull up beside.

Just as she thought it, she felt Craig pull a little off the throttle and the car sailed harmlessly by them. She let out a little breath that she'd been holding and started to relax until she heard the bike roar to life below them.

Craig tugged the bike to the left and brought them up along the driver's side, taking a hand off the handlebars just long enough to rap on the window and make a vulgar gesture at the woman driving, who looked about ready to spill her coffee in her lap.

Then they pulled on past and slipped back into the center of the lane. They were leaving the city, even leaving the metro area, she realized. What sort of road trip was he taking her on? It would be an even bigger change of pattern to kill her out here, so in some ways it felt strangely safer out here, even as they became more and more isolated. He got them onto the interstate for a few miles, her grip getting that much tighter around his waist as the wind whipped at them both hard.

He pulled off into a bar that looked like they had more need for cops than the rest of the county, and the bike shuddered below them and expired as he turned it off, just the next in a long line of bikes.

"Not too b.u.mpy," Craig said, as if he were making a general statement instead of asking her. She wasn't sure if that was intentional or not, but knowing him, he wasn't worried about her answer either way.

"No," she said, pulling the helmet off and trying not to think about what it had done to her still-damp hair.

"Come on."

Craig took her inside behind himself. There wasn't anyone at the door to stop them, but she got the impression that the wrong sort of person rarely walked into an establishment like this, and the few times that they did, it didn't take long for them to figure out the mistake and get the h.e.l.l out before there was trouble.

Of course, that was part of the appeal for the men-and they were almost all men, save a few women who looked like they peed standing up-who came here. No outside interference. And as much as they probably had need for cops, she doubted that any, whether from the city or county boys, or even the staties, ever stepped inside the place. She might have been the first in years, and she was going to do her best not to stand out.

The clothes she was wearing weren't going to make it easy, but the company she came in with, she hoped, might be enough to get her free and clear out of trouble.

She had to hope, because otherwise things were going to get ugly.

Craig settled into a booth and let his eyes drift across the room, where they settled onto a couple of toughs playing billiards. Erin slid in across from him and waited to figure out what the h.e.l.l was going on.

She didn't have to wait long, because a minute later, a familiar face turned around and made its way over to their table.

Nineteen.

"Hey, Craig," the guy said as he slid into her side of the booth whether she wanted him to or not. Well, there had been plenty of things that she'd had no choice in, the past few years, and this wasn't going to be the thing that ruined her.

"Who's the chickadee?"

"Don't be cra.s.s," Craig said mildly. If it were someone else, Erin might have thought that he was letting it go. But she knew that wasn't what was happening. Rather, Craig was relying on the fact that he wouldn't have to say it a second time. If he did, she knew, there would be trouble.

The man beside her had been one of the faces on that sheet of men who had dated the previous victims. She wasn't about to a.s.sume that the both of them were all she needed to find. Two people didn't just meet each other and set off on a whirlwind murdering adventure like that. And the prosthetic work that would have been necessary to make Craig fit perfectly with the other two was prohibitive.

"Okay, well, are you going to introduce me to your friend, Hutchinson?"

"What, like we're friends?" Craig's face darkened. "Do you have the money, or don't you?"

Erin had to fight to keep her face straight. Maybe this was all set up to intimidate her, or maybe it wasn't, but she had stumbled into something that she wouldn't have been remotely privy to if they knew what she did for work.

"Relax, man. I got the money."

"Good."

The man slipped a fat yellow envelope across the table. Roy opened the top flap and looked inside. If he had any doubts that everything he wanted was in there, he didn't show it, and he didn't bother to count it.

She waited for the pa.s.s back, whatever it would be. Instead, the killer beside her waited a minute before asking, in his most nervous voice, "we good?"

"Yeah, we're good. Go on, now."

The broad-faced man got up and took a few hurried steps toward the door. Craig caught his arm.

"You try to conduct business when I'm here to relax again, and we're going to have trouble. You feel me?"

"Sorry, man. Won't happen again."

"You got it?"

"I got it!"

Craig let him go, and he pulled hard as he started to move away. Erin let out a breath and closed her eyes a moment, trying to relax herself.

"Sorry about that."

"What was that all about?"

"Oh, I did some work on his bike. It was making a mean bit of engine noise. Turned out he needed a complete rebuild."

"So he paid in cash?"