Western Romance Collection: Rugged Cowboys Part 78

"No, I definitely know you. You were here yesterday, right? You talked to Craig."

"You're-" he stiffened a little. "Look, I don't want any trouble, okay? Just go on, leave. I'm not looking for anything."

"Well maybe I am, you think about that?"

"It ain't going to happen, chickie. That man would kill me if he even saw me talkin' to you."

"Really, that much, huh?"

"So you need to buzz off, and you need to buzz off quick before one of the Angels see me, you feel me?"

"Angels?"

"Who the f.u.c.k are you? Some kind of reporter or something? Digging for a story? You a cop?"

"Just looking to find out who I've been seeing."

"Well why don't you ask him, then, and get the h.e.l.l out of here?"

"You and I both know he won't tell it to me straight. You come over here, have a beer with me-" The guy on the other side of the table sent the cue ball into the side pocket, and now it was flat-nose's turn.

"I wish I could help you, alright? But I can't."

"You at least got a name?"

"Why?"

"Just in case Craig asks who I've been talkin' to."

"f.u.c.k you."

"I just don't want to keep calling you 'hey you,' if we run into each other."

"I already said I wasn't going to tell you. Ain't gonna get myself into trouble giving out my name."

The guy across the table, leaning on his cue and waiting for flat-nose to make his shot spoke up. "His name's Ryan. Satisfied? Now take your f.u.c.kin' shot, a.s.shole."

The way that flat-nose's face twisted up in annoyance told her that she hadn't just been played, unless they'd rehea.r.s.ed it. He gave the tall guy a look and then started to line up his shot. He sent the nine into the corner pocket and Erin left them to play. She had to finish these fries before they got cold.

The ride home was longer than she would have liked, with too many questions to answer. Either they were better actors than she thought, or she'd gotten his real name. None of the names from the dating sites were 'Ryan,' so it was something new to go on.

She put her foot down harder. Speed limits were mostly a suggestion, this far out, anyways. Just don't go too far over. She whipped past something on the side of the road and immediately regretted it.

A motorcycle. A very familiar motorcycle, in fact. She swerved over four lanes and pulled off to the side of the road a ways up, trying to put her Jeep where n.o.body would pay it special attention, and then she got out the pa.s.senger side. No reason to risk getting hit by a d.a.m.n car for this.

Then she went back. That was Craig's bike, no doubt about it. She thought for a minute before she kept going. This was a dangerous road she was headed out on, and no mistake. The man was dangerous and now, if she was lucky, she was finally about to find something out about him without his express permission.

The bike seemed abandoned, initially. n.o.body would pull off to the side of the road like this. It looked fine from the outside. Two full tires, and she didn't figure him for the kind of guy who ran out of gas on the side of the road.

There was a place nearby where the trees spread just about enough for someone to go on through, and the gra.s.s kinked down where someone had stepped through, more than just once. She sucked in a breath and hoped to h.e.l.l that she hadn't come at just the wrong time.

It was a tight squeeze, but it would have been tighter for Craig and he made it through. She stepped on through and found herself facing another path. It widened enough that she didn't have to go through sideways, which was a blessing all by itself.

Erin kept herself low. Any minute now, someone could come around the bend in the path, and the wall of trees were just a bit too thick to duck off to the side and try to let them slip by. If you were going to have someplace you didn't want people going, then there were worse ways to separate it from the street.

She heard the voices before she was close enough to know what they were saying. They weren't making any effort to speak in hushed tones, though, that was sure enough.

The path started up a hill, and around the base of the hill the trees started to spread out. She stepped off and went tree-to-tree. The way she'd hoped to have done it before, but there wasn't much opportunity up until now.

She peeked over the ridge-line of the hill and saw a dozen-odd men, most of them heavily tattooed, and not a one of them weighing less than two hundred pounds. Most looked like they could crush a baseball in one hand, and might do it if you disrespected their momma.

"My brother's none of your concern, Lee."

"Well, I just don't want to walk into nothin'."

"I ain't gonna compromise this club just for some family s.h.i.+t, you know that. I got that cop on the line specifically so I could get that monkey off our back. You got me?"

Twenty-Two.

Erin slipped back into the Jeep. What the h.e.l.l was he talking about? She was there to get what off his back? Something told her that she already could guess. He knew, in fact was intimately acquainted with the fact, that she was a police officer.

Which meant that he was letting her think that she was getting away with something. Why? The only reason that made sense was that he also knew why she was getting acquainted with him. The pieces fit into place better than she liked.

He was just going to go up the line of the previous killers and introduce her to them, was that how it worked? The entire idea seemed strange. But more than that, it made no sense. Why? What was he trying to protect by driving her attention towards them?

A few serial killers in their midst would eventually drop the law hammer on them. So maybe that was it. She was the release valve for the guys who were drawing too much heat. Well, if that was all it was-was that a bad thing?

Why not just tell her straight out? Informants weren't unheard of. Even the ones that just came in and said "hey, I'm part of such-and-such gang."

But instead they'd gone for the long game, some sort of big charade where he pretended not to know anyone in a gang and slowly introduced her to all these men. His brothers, he'd said. Then what was the speech he'd given her the other day? A bunch of bulls.h.i.+t?

Craig Hutchinson seemed at all times like the kind of guy who would bulls.h.i.+t her. Yet, in that moment, he'd seemed more serious than anything. As if for the first time she was getting a look behind the curtain.

He said he wouldn't let anything happen to his brothers, and she believed him. Even after she'd heard him tell someone that she was there specifically to bring his brothers in.

Which meant there was something more to it. Something that he was leaving out, either with the others in that little club he'd been talking to, or leaving something out with her.

She had heard them talked about before, and it wasn't unheard-of for motorcycle gangs to call their other members brothers. They might be his family, too, in that sense. But none of it made sense, not really. She needed to get someone else's eyes on this.

Her fingers were shaking enough to make it hard to dial Roy's number. He answered quickly. "Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, holding the phone up in front of her face with the speakerphone on. "But I've got some information for you."

"Shoot."

"Hutchinson. He knows who's been doing your murders. But I think there's something else going on."

"That's absurd, Erin. What could possibly be bigger than repeated serial murders?"

"For you? Probably nothing. Probably you'd be willing to overlook whatever it is, once you get the killers. But he's definitely made me. Made me from the beginning."

"Are you in danger?"

"Not sure."

"So what comes next?"

She paused a minute before answering. "Not sure. I don't like being used."

"I wouldn't either."

"If he thinks that I'm going to go in and just do whatever he says, then-"

"Then what?"

"Then I guess I'll let him."

"What?"

"It's my sister. I don't like being played. But if his play is to give me my sister's killer on a silver platter, then I accept."

"You sure there's nothing else to it? No trap?"

"I don't know anything but what I told you. I met one of your guys. Hold off until we get more info, but he was calling himself 'Ryan' this time. I think he was the second guy, the one who did the Maine job."

"We have him down as a... 'Spencer Gold.'"

"Well, you always knew those names were fake, right?"

"Nothing else to call him until now. 'Ryan,' huh? Got a last name?"

"I couldn't push him any harder for it without being suspicious."

"Alright. I understand. I think you've earned yourself dinner tonight, know anyplace good?"

"Sure. I'll pick this time."

"Good choice."

Erin wasn't in any sort of mood for dinner. Not yet. It was early, though, and a few hours would do a h.e.l.l of a lot for her mood after the morning she'd had. A few hours, a nap, and some idea of what the h.e.l.l was going on around her.

Ryan was one of the brothers that the guy had been talking about, right? It was the only thing that made any sense. But why? He'd been real defensive about his name, too. He was trying to keep a low profile, far as she could tell, and tattoos had turned that all around.

The monkey on their back...

She pulled onto her street. Only a four-mile shot down the road now, and she'd be able to go lay down and maybe try to sort this s.h.i.+t out.

There were too many questions to be sure what the right answers were. The important ones were all the most questionable.

Why her? There are a thousand cops in this city. Ten thousand maybe. There's no reason to go straight to her, not when they could have gone to any of them. Maybe Craig didn't get word that he was involved in the murder plot until it was too late, and now he was using her to clean up the mess because it was convenient.

But that didn't sit right. He had been pulling the strings since the beginning. Waiting for her to message him, and he'd answered in minutes. Like he knew it was going to come.

The threat of reprisal was very real, as well. It was all well and good to sell your family up the river, but it didn't sit that well with them after the fact. Maybe his whole plan was to get her to move, and then get revenge right after he got what he wanted. It would tie the whole package up nice and tidy, and he'd already demonstrated that he could get into her place any time he liked.

She shut her eyes. That meant they were playing a dangerous game. She needed to be more careful with her moves. Before, she'd thought that she was the cat, and he was the mouse. Now it seemed more like they were both playing games with the other. Now that she saw that it wasn't a one-sided game, it changed things.

Was this how Craig had seen everything from the beginning? She shuddered. That wasn't good. How much had he known would happen, and how much was just rolling with the punches?

Erin forced herself not to ask too many questions like that. There was no reason to do it, and it was just going to upset her. No reason to get herself riled up just yet.

Not when she had plenty of time left to look into all those questions. This wasn't about a race, and it wasn't about a finish line. Now she understood it more like a dance. In the end, she was going to get what she wanted. The only question was the state she got there in.

So she slipped into her bed and shut her eyes. It was easier to think after she slept. It was a d.a.m.n shame that she hadn't had enough time to do much of it before. But now she needed to be at the top of her game, because when he made his move, there wasn't going to be any backup.

Twenty-Three.

Erin woke up to the sound of something at her door. A scratching noise. Her hand reached automatically for the gun by her bedside. She clicked the safety off as she stepped up. If she was someone's p.a.w.n, then that meant that there was an opponent. As soon as they noticed what was happening, they were going to come after her.

The door came open a little way before encountering the chain. Erin crouched down in the little hall that the apartment tried to pa.s.s off as a kitchen and trained her weapon on the door. When the chain shattered under the weight of someone putting their shoulder into it, she waited half an instant to see who it was before she fired.

The explosion in her hand was loud enough to make her head dance around and her vision go wonky for half a second. Her ears rang. She took another shot and the guy tripped over his own feet. Erin turned him over. Poor Ryan, the guy never saw it coming. Erin didn't feel particularly bad about it.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed Roy first.

"I've got a situation here."

"What's wrong?"

"There's a dead body in my kitchen."

"Are you okay?"

"Our friend Ryan tried to break in. I defended myself."

Roy paused on the other end of the line a minute before answering. "Okay, we can take care of this. You called 9-1-1 yet?"