Chapter Nine
Ruby sat in the passenger seat of Owen’s SUV while he drove back to his place. And while they both processed what had just happened at the Barber’s house.
They’d stayed in San Antonio for another four hours after Francine had ordered them out, and they’d had lunch and worked while they’d waited for an update from Detective Heather Lawrence, who had interviewed Francine.
And the interview had, well, tanked.
Despite what Francine had said to Owen and her, the woman had no proof whatsoever that Marlie had used her credit card to buy the mask. However, Marlie had apparently been in Francine’s office several months ago, and Francine figured that’s when the theft had happened.
It could all be a crock.
Francine could be guilty as sin and was using the accusation against Marlie to deflect guilt from herself.
Ruby studied the details of the order for the mask that the cops had gotten from the retailer, and so far it was providing absolutely no useful information. The mask had indeed been ordered online with Francine’s credit card. The buyer had used an email address that was no longer in use, and the techs hadn’t been able to trace the IP address for it.
Francine didn’t seem stupid, so if she had truly planned on using the mask to kill, why risk it being shipped to her house? The buyer had used a temporary email addy, maybe to cover their tracks, so it made sense to do some further covering by sending the purchase to a rental box. One that could have been closed immediately after the item arrived. And as for payment, Francine could have set up an alias account through one of the online paying sources.
So, a lot of this wasn’t making sense.
“If Marlie did do the order,” Ruby commented, “she would have gotten an email to let her know the date and maybe even a time estimate when the mask would be delivered. She could have made sure she was at the Barber’s to get it. But that would have been a risk,” Ruby tacked onto that.
“Yeah, because the package could have come early, and the housekeeper or someone else would have gotten it,” Owen spelled out. He muttered some frustrated profanity under his breath. “No matter who ordered it, the mask alone can’t be used to arrest either Marlie or Francine.”
Ruby knew that, and it was why she silently did her own round of frustrated profanity. Because there could be more than one mask, others bought from possibly other retailers who wouldn’t share info about orders. Or, heck, even made locally. Privately. With a big enough payment to keep the creator of it silent.
Added to the unknowns and the frustrations, the killer behind the mask might not be either Marlie or Francine. Or Alice.
Heck, it could be Brynn herself.
Three years was a long time to work out a plan to exact revenge. And get away with it. Once the hit list was finished, Brynn could simply vanish again.
Not a comforting thought.
“Francine has a history with the San Antonio cop who interviewed her,” Ruby relayed to Owen. “Detective Heather Lawrence and Francine are friends.”
“Yeah,” Owen said. “I looked into Heather’s background when I was searching for any help Trent might have gotten from the police. Francine and Heather met about ten years ago when they were on a fundraising committee. They had almost nothing in common, but Francine probably thought it was beneficial for her to stay in close enough contact with someone from SAPD.”
Ruby had done the same research, and Heather was a big red flag since she’d been McKinney’s partner at the time of Brynn’s attack. And it made Ruby wonder if Heather was on the killer’s hit list.
She looked up from her tablet as Owen took the final turn toward Outlaw Ridge. Of course, she knew that’s where he was driving, but in hindsight, she realized she probably should have chosen a place less…intimate than his own home. His headquarters building, for instance.
Or even hers.
Because of this blasted heat simmering between them, she should probably put some space between Owen and her. But space wasn’t going to happen as long as they were working nonstop together on this investigation. Which meant somehow she would just have to squelch the heat.
She glanced at him.
Mentally cursed some more.
No heat squelching right now. Just the opposite.
It had been years since she’d been attracted to a man. Why the heck did it have to be Owen, the outlaw ?
That word, outlaw, was still floating through her mind when they passed a massive estate far back on the side of the road. She had noticed it on earlier drives into town, but she took a closer look now. This was rural Texas where people often built lavish estates, but this one stuck out because of its sheer size. There was a black wrought iron fence surrounding the acres and acres of pastures where impressive-looking horses were grazing.
“The Salvetti family lives there,” Owen said, no doubt following her gaze.
She instantly recognized the surname and not in a good way. Because they were purported to be mafia. Ironic that they’d chosen a place like Outlaw Ridge to make their home.
Owen drove through town, but when he took the turn onto his street, she saw something she definitely didn’t want to see. The three thugs from the earlier baseball bat attack got out of a van and moved to the sidewalk outside Owen’s driveway. He wouldn’t be able to pull into his garage unless they moved.
And they weren’t alone.
There were two more thuggy-looking guys with them and one woman, a petite redhead. The woman didn’t look as if she was happy about being there either. In fact, one of the newbie thugs had his arm crooked possessively around her neck. Ruby was betting the woman was unwilling bait to try to goad Owen into a fight.
The men weren’t carrying baseball bats this time. Probably too obvious in broad daylight, and it would have prompted Owen’s neighbors to call it in. No signs of guns or knives either, but that didn’t mean they weren’t carrying some kind of weapon.
“Deckert, call the sheriff,” Owen instructed his phone app. “He’ll probably want to get a cruiser out here to make an arrest. But tell him not to come for at least fifteen minutes.”
With that chore done, Owen slammed on his brakes, stopping what had to be less than an inch from the goons. The moment he killed the engine of the SUV, he got out to face them.
So did Ruby.
“You didn’t file a restraining order against us,” Rocco Culpepper, the bruised face abuser, taunted, “so we have a right to be here.”
Owen made a sound to indicate he didn’t quite agree with that. “And what about you?” he said, directing his question to the woman. “Are you here by choice as well?”
She glanced at the men and gave a shaky nod that wasn’t the least bit convincing. So, yeah, she was bait.
“All right,” Owen continued. “Move so I can park my SUV and then we can chat. I’m assuming that’s why you’re here?” He volleyed glances at the five men. “To chat. Maybe to say how sorry you are for coming to my place last night?”
“Fuck, no,” Rocco snapped. “We’re here to help you…listen to reason.” He slid a look at Ruby to let her know he included her in on this reasoning attempt.
“And how do you plan on doing that?” Owen asked.
“You’ll soon find out.” Rocco flashed an oily smile. “I see you have your whore with you. You two seem kinda old to be fucking her, don’t you think? I mean, she’s pretty enough for an old bitch, but still, you’re both old.”
Owen looked at Ruby, and they both sighed. “He really sucks at goading,” Ruby remarked.
“He does indeed. For instance, now here’s a goad. When you kicked that one in the balls, did you feel a dick of any sizeable sort?” Owen asked her, tipping his head to the one whose ass she’d kicked.
“No,” Ruby replied. “In fact, I’m not sure there were actually balls there. More like little, teeny tiny marbles.”
The guy growled, and he bolted forward, only to have two of his comrades hold him back. The two with broken noses.
Owen laughed and motioned to his own nose. “Man, that looks painful. Do your two new buddies know that a woman did that to you? A woman you outweighed and outsized royally kicked your ass and taught you a lesson.”
He added another laugh, and he made it seem as if he was enjoying this way too much. But Ruby could hear the hot, dangerous edge in his tone, and she could feel it coming off him wave after wave. These thugs were playing with a very badass fire.
“Did you know you’re associating with cowards?” Owen asked, addressing the newbies. “Little dicks, marble ball cowards. They attacked a woman,” he added, glancing at the redhead. “Well, actually, two women since he put his ex-girlfriend in the hospital.”
The redhead made a soft gasp and tried to wiggle away from her captor. But he held on.
“Ma’am, are you interested in leaving?” Owen asked her.
She gave the slightest of nods, and her eyes were watering with tears now.
Owen smiled, lifted his gaze to her thug. “Let her go.” The smile faded, and there was pure ice in his voice.
“Why don’t you make me?” the thug snapped.
Ruby figured Owen was going to wait until one of the goons threw the first punch, so she decided to hurry that along. She reached out to the woman, took her by the hand and gave her a gentle pull. The thug tightened his grip, causing the redhead to really start fighting to get loose. Ruby gave her a fierce yank, breaking her free and pushing the woman behind Owen and her.
Then, all hell broke loose.
The captor thug lunged at them, prompting the other newbies to do the same. Ruby took the one on the left. Owen handled the one of the right. She went with another throat punch and a kick to the balls. Hey, it was a classic for a reason. Because it worked.
Newbie thug dropped, clutching his marble balls and whimpering. He landed on the ground, right on her feet, and as Ruby stepped back, the pain exploded in her jaw. One of the broken nose guys had punched her.
Holy hell.
He had some strength behind his fist because along with seeing more of those stars, she tasted blood in her mouth.
Owen cursed, seemingly ready to move over to help her, but the other two brothers went after him. Ruby didn’t mind. In fact, she wanted to dole out a little payback to the one who had just given her a hell of a bruise.
Ruby ducked another punch, damn near tripping over busted balls. Then, she had to move fast to stop from being tackled as broken nose rushed at her. Cursing him and the pain in her jaw, she decided to put an end to this.
She rammed the heel of her hand into his broken nose, and she didn’t pull back. Ruby landed a second blow. Then, a third. Blood flew from what was left of his face, and he joined his comrade on the ground.
In the distance, she heard a police siren. It wouldn’t be long now before the cops arrived, but she didn’t want them coming in to save the day. Ruby wanted to do that herself. This might have started out as Owen’s fight, but it was now hers.
Pissed now and fueled with the motherload of hot, raging adrenaline, Ruby turned to help Owen. He was doling out some payback of his own to one of them. He was landing punch after punch in the guy’s face. However, Rocco, the one who’d no doubt orchestrated this dog and pony show was running away.
For a moment, Ruby thought the dirtbag was going to his van to grab a weapon. But no. He was flat-out running.
Saving his own cowardly ass.
She turned to go after him, but one of the thugs on the ground grabbed her by the ankle. And the SOB attempted to bite her.
What the hell?
That only fueled her anger more, and Ruby stooped down and gave him a right hook to the jaw. Because that felt good, she gave him another and another until he finally scampered away from her.
Ruby whirled around, looking for Rocco, ready to go after him. But he was nowhere in sight. He’d escaped, and in the pit of her stomach, she knew that they hadn’t seen the last of him.
No, he’d be back, ready to come after Owen and her again.