The Crush Part 37

"What did he say, Wick?"

He expelled a breath and ran his hand around the back of his neck. "I need a ma.s.sage."

"It wouldn't be good for your wound."

"Just my shoulders. I've got a crick in my neck from sleeping under that tree last night. How 'bout some ma.s.sage therapy for your favorite patient?"

"More bad news?"

"Not really. Where'd you get the saddle?"

"It was a prize."

"For barrel racing?"

"You know about my barrel racing?" Reading his guilty

expression, she said, "Of course you know. Yes, I won the saddle for barrel racing."

"Good-looking saddle. But don't those silver studs make for an uncomfortable ride?"

"Wick, if Oren's news wasn't that bad, why are you stalling?"

"Okay," he said curtly. "I'll tell you what we talked about. But I want you to know up front that it wasn't my idea."

"I'm not going to like it, am I?"

"I seriously doubt that you are."

She looked at him expectantly, but still he hesitated.

"For heaven's sake, how bad can it be?"

"Oren thinks we should pretend to be lovers." He bobbed his head for additional punctuation.

She stared at him for several moments, then began to laugh. "That's it? That's the brilliant plan to snare Lozada?"

He took offense at her laughter. "What's the matter with it?"

"Nothing. As every dime novelist and C-movie producer will attest." She laughed harder, but he didn't join in. "Come on, Wick. Don't you think that idea is a trifle cliched? We try and make Lozada jealous. He devises some horrible punishment, and when he attempts it, we nab him. Is that the gist of this grand scheme?"

"Basically," he said stiffly.

She shook her head in disbelief. "Lord help us."

"I'm glad you can laugh, Rennie, because I can't.

Lozada's disappeared. His Mercedes is in the parking garage, so he's using an unknown means of transportation.

He hasn't been spotted in his favorite restaurants, hasn't been seen at his place in Trinity Tower since last

night. The concierge told Oren that the homeowners' a.s.sociation has asked him to vacate."

"Then maybe he just moved out."

"And maybe that bobcat you dropped this morning will resurrect tonight." He got up and began to roam the living room aimlessly. "Lozada wouldn't have complied with an eviction request from his neighbors. That place is one of his status symbols, like his hand-tailored suits and that hundred-thousand-dollar set of wheels.

"Being asked to leave would be the worst kind of affront and would make him mad as h.e.l.l. And who's he going to blame for being undesirable to Fort Worth's elite?

You guessed it. Me. Us. He's p.i.s.sed at us for vanis.h.i.+ng, especially if he knows we're together. He's p.i.s.sed at us for making news and getting him kicked him out of his building.

Now n.o.body knows where he is. And all of that makes me real nervous."

When she was certain his outburst was over, she apologized.

"I didn't mean to make light of the situation, Wick.

I know how serious it is. I only have to think about Grace to be reminded. But let's be reasonable. Lozada wouldn't fall for a corny charade like that."

He came to stand directly in front of her, forcing her to tilt her head back to look at him. "Okay then, let's hear your idea. I a.s.sume you have a workable alternate plan.

You said you came here to think of a way to get him out of your life. Has the fresh country air stimulated the gray matter?"

She lowered her head. "You don't need to be insulting."

"Considering your recent laughter, I can't believe you have the gall to look me in the eye--in the fly, rather--and say that."

He headed for the kitchen. Rennie went after him. By the time she got there he was downing a bottle of water.

"You're limping. Does your back hurt?"

"And then some."

"You said it didn't."

"I lied."

"Not for the first time."

They stared at each other in hostile silence. She was the first to break it. "All right, what are we supposed to do?

Hold hands on the corner of Fourth and Main? Gaze at each other over candlelight dinners? Slow-dance till dawn?

What?"

"Don't forget mauling," he said. "I could maul you some more."

Heat rushed to her face, but she remained where she was. To stalk away angrily would only give the incident the importance she had told him it didn't have.

Swearing softly, he set the bottle of water on the counter and rubbed his tired eyes. "I'm sorry. You're always making me say things that make me feel like s.h.i.+t after

I say them."

"It's all right. I should never have used that term for what..."

He lowered his hand from his eyes and looked at her.

"Forwhat. . .What?"

'You weren't mauling me."

He fixed her with one of those immobilizing gazes until she willed herself to look away. 'You'd better tell me more about Oren's plan."

"Uh, yeah." He shook his head as though to remind himself what they'd been talking about. "He said we might get Lozada on a stalking charge. If we can put him away for that, even for a while, we'd have more time to build a case

against him for the murder of Sally Horton and the attack on me. But--"

"I was afraid there would be one."

"No one else has heard these calls you claim he made."

She was about to object when he held up his hands, palms out. "Bear with me. I'm thinking like our DA's office. I can hear some fresh-out-of-law-school ADA asking for the evidence of these calls, and we have none. True?"

"True. But I have that note that came with the roses."

"It didn't contain a threat."

"He broke into my house."

"Oren and two other cops saw you and Lozada in a clinch."

"I was afraid if I resisted I'd wind up like Sally Horton."

"There was no sign of forced entry at your house, Rennie."

"There was no sign of forced entry when you broke in either."

He was taken aback. "You know about that?"

"I guessed, and Wesley confirmed it with a stony silence."

"Oren didn't tell me you knew." He hung his head and rubbed the back of his neck again. "It's a wonder you didn't let me bleed out."

"I didn't know about the illegal search until after I'd saved your life."

His head came up quickly. She smiled wryly to let him know she was kidding. He returned the smile. "Lucky for me."

"Getting back to the stalking angle," she said, "how effectual is it if I can't prove Lozada's been hara.s.sing me?"

"We'd have a better chance of getting a charge to stick

if something happened in another locale. The allegation would have stronger legs if he followed you somewhere."

"Like here."

He shook his head. "He could say you had invited him.

It would be his word against yours."

'Then where?"

"My place in Galveston. He sure as h.e.l.l wouldn't be on any guest list of mine. How soon can you be packed?"

Chapter 26.

Oren answered on the first ring. Wick told him they had decided to go along with his plan.

"Dr. Newton is okay with it?"

"No," Wick said. "No more than I am. It's hackneyed and Lozada would have to be a moron to fall for it."