Texas Orchids (The Devil's Horn Ranch Series) Page 9

  “But you still have to move it.” He looks at me. “You planning on doing it all by yourself?”

  Katherine smiles at me and runs a finger down my arm. “Maddox was nice enough to ask a few ranch hands to do it.” She cups my chin and turns my face to hers. “You are the nicest cowboy I’ve ever met.” She plants a kiss on me.

  “I can’t be there to help either,” I say. “I’ve got meetings that day.”

  Victor shrugs. “I guess if the guys at the ranch don’t mind.” He taps his glass against mine. “Looks like we dodged moving duty.” He kisses Andie’s temple, and she looks at me in disgust. “Not that I didn’t want to help, but if the grunts will do it, all the better.”

  What he doesn’t know is Andie isn’t moving out at all. She’s keeping her apartment and her furniture. This could be over in a matter of days or weeks, but we were fully prepared to go along with moving her for real if he’d insisted on helping.

  “Ready to play?” Katherine says, holding up the game.

  Victor laughs. “I thought you were kidding about Trivial Pursuit. People still play this?”

  “Unless you have something else in mind.”

  He looks at Andie. “Babe?”

  “If y’all are okay with it, I’m good.”

  Katherine goes to the kitchen, which appears to be farthest from the living room and bedrooms. “This looks like a good place to set up.”

  Victor takes a seat on the couch. “Nah, let’s play here. More comfortable than those hard chairs.”

  That’s unfortunate. Katherine was hoping to rummage through some of his personal things while Andie and I distracted him in the kitchen.

  “Whatever floats your boat,” Katherine says, rolling with the punches. After a few minutes, she proclaims she has to use the bathroom.

  Victor points to a door off the kitchen. “It’s right there.”

  The three of us share a look. This isn’t good. We all expected the bathroom to be back by the bedrooms.

  “Thanks,” Katherine says, popping off the couch. When she returns, she picks up her glass and mine. “Looks like we could all use a refill. Andie, want to bring in yours?”

  Andie grabs her glass and Victor’s, and they disappear into the kitchen. I wish I knew what they were saying. I know Katherine is plotting something. When they return with the drinks, I hope Victor doesn’t notice the lighter color of their watered-down wine.

  After an agonizing hour of watching Victor’s hand on Andie’s thigh, Katherine says she has to use the bathroom again.

  “Oh, gosh,” Andie says. “I really need to pee, too. Like badly. Victor, is there another bathroom I can use?”

  He points. “Down the hall, second door on the left. Don’t judge me if there’s toothpaste in the sink. I wasn’t expecting anyone to use it.”

  Andie flashes me a look before going down the hall. What is she doing?

  My heart is pounding. Does Katherine want her to snoop? I’m both pissed and scared at the same time. I should do something to distract Victor so he isn’t aware of how long she’s taking. “How long have you been in the landscape business?”

  “I’ve never done anything else.”

  “How many guys are on your crew?”

  “Five.”

  “Do you enjoy it?”

  “Not the maintenance so much. That gets old. I like the jobs where I’m hired to do a complete redo or plant a new house.”

  “Kind of like a blank canvas,” I say.

  “Exactly. You’re from New York? What do you do there?”

  “I was a bartender at my aunt’s restaurant.”

  His eyebrows shoot up. “Bartender to rancher. Kind of a big change.”

  “You can say that again.”

  Katherine returns as if she hasn’t a care in the world. “What are you two discussing?”

  “Our occupations.”

  She takes her time coming back to the couch. She’s looking at his bookshelves. I know what she’s thinking. Where are the pictures? Everyone has family pictures somewhere. But his shelves are full of landscaping books and sports memorabilia. She turns. “You’re the quintessential bachelor, aren’t you? No photos. No mementos. I’m a writer. A researcher. I pick up on things others might not pick up on, but I’m not getting a vibe about you. Exactly who is Victor James?”

  What the fuck is she doing? I’m about ready to stand up and fetch Andie. Take her through the bathroom window if I have to.

  He eyes her suspiciously. Duh. I would too. Then he laughs. “What you see is what you get. Everything you need to know about me is right there. I’m a landscaper and a Pats fan. End of story. What’s with the twenty questions anyway?”

  I rise. “Yeah, Melina. You didn’t know that much about me until our third date.” I laugh awkwardly, then grab our drinks. “Come on, Victor, let’s get a refill. You can show me your junk food. I’m starving.”

  As he gets out chips and salsa, I pour him another large drink and me one that’s almost all Coke. I peek through the sliding glass doors. The sun is just setting. “Nice yard.”

  “You’re full of shit, McBride,” he says. “It’s not nice at all, but you know what they say, you rarely take what you do for a living back home. I should spruce it up, but it’s a rental. I don’t need to sink my money into something that’s not mine.”

  “How long have you lived here?” Katherine asks.

  “Not long.” He moves away. “I’d better go check on Andie.”

  “I’ll do it,” Katherine says. “You know how girls like to use the bathroom together.” She giggles like she’s had way too much to drink.

  “Your girlfriend asks a lot of questions,” he says. He gets out his wallet, extracts a ten-dollar bill, and tosses it on the counter. “I’ll bet you she can’t go twenty minutes without asking me another one.”

  I laugh even though I want to puke. I fish in my pocket and pull out a ten. “You’re on.”

  He leaves his wallet on the counter and returns to the living room. The women appear.

  “Everything okay?” Victor asks.

  Andie nods. “A little too much wine, I think. I could probably use some fresh air. Can you take me outside, Victor?”

  “Sure. Grab your drinks. We can all sit on the porch and enjoy the sunset.”

  It’s not what Katherine was hoping for. She wanted time in the house without him.

  Andie goes to the end of the raised porch and looks at the sky. Victor walks up behind her and traps her against the railing, encapsulating her in his arms. My nostrils flare. I want nothing more than to rip him away from her and throw him to the ground, and not just because of who he is or what he might be, but because I want to be the one whose arms are around her.

  I’ve wanted it since the day I set eyes on her at the funeral. I wake in the night, wishing she was already living in the guesthouse. Not because she’s getting away from a killer, but because she wants to be near me.

  We had a moment the other day at the house. We’ve had several if I’m being honest. But maybe it’s only me wanting to protect her. Maybe it’s me remembering the fifteen-year-old girl screaming as the gun went off.

  Then again, there’s the way she looks at me and how she touched my back when she patched me up. She was going to break it off with Victor before she knew about any of this. That has to mean something.

  She’s watching me out of the corner of her eye. Does she wish it was me behind her? At this point, I’m not sure she would care who it was as long as it wasn’t him.

  I give her a nod of encouragement.

  She smiles and turns away, looking at the yard. She flinches suddenly.

  “What’s wrong?” Victor asks.

  “Nothing. Got a chill.”

  She turns around, and he hugs her. She looks at me over his shoulder, and there is terror in her eyes.

  “This wine is going right through me,” Katherine says. “I’ll be back in a jiff.”

  This is her opportunity to find whatever sh
e thinks she’s going to find here. I only hope she has enough time. It takes, what, three minutes for a girl to pee?

  “We should go back in,” Victor says.

  “No!” Andie says a bit too boisterously. “Can we wait until the sun is down? It’s so pretty. Viv and I used to watch sunsets together out on the ridge.”

  He wipes a wisp of her hair off her face. “Sure.”

  She turns back around. I’m a few feet away. She is not looking at the sunset. She’s trying to get my attention with her eyes, but I don’t know what she’s telling me. Victor still has his arms wrapped around her. She brings a hand to her chest, hiding it from him, and points down and to the side. I look where she wants me to, and my heart falls. Part of what looks like might be a grave is sticking out from under the decking. Weeds are sprouting on top of it, but it’s clearly different from the grassy earth around it. It’s old, but not that old.

  Many things go through my head, the first of which is that I should grab Andie and run out the door with her. Part of me is scratching my head. He’s a landscaper; surely there are better places and better ways he could have done it. Another part of me is oddly happy. As soon as we show Katherine, this will all be over. Yet another part is thinking that now Andie won’t have to move into the guesthouse, and that makes me sad.

  I go for the stairs, hoping to get a better look before it gets too dark. Victor stops me. “Best to stay up here. I have a massive fire ant problem. Been meaning to take care of it.”

  Sure he has.

  Katherine appears in the doorway, but I can’t get a read on her. Did she find what she was looking for? Before I can get her to come out to see the grave, Victor corrals us back inside. “Feeling better?” he asks Andie.

  “A little, but no more wine for me. Why don’t we finish the game and call it a night?”

  “Lightweight, huh?” Katherine jokes. “We’ll have to do it again soon. Next Saturday? We can go to Andie’s new place for a housewarming party.”

  I cringe. I don’t want Victor on the ranch, let alone in the house she’ll be living in. Behind Victor’s back, I make the cutthroat sign; Katherine doesn’t know about the grave out back. But she ignores me.

  We finish the game and get up to leave. Victor hands me my ten and his. “I don’t want your money,” I say too harshly.

  “Take it. A bet is a bet.”

  Katherine raises a brow. “Something you want to share with us?”

  “Just a friendly wager between men,” Victor says.

  I hesitate on the way out. I don’t want to leave Andie with him for even a second. I don’t care if we blow our cover.

  “It’s dark,” I say. “Melina and I will walk you to your truck.”

  “I think I can walk my girl to her car,” he says, following us out. “Catch you two later.”

  Katherine drags me along. “Come on,” she whispers firmly.

  “Stop,” I say when we’re out of earshot. “We have to go back. There’s a fucking grave in his backyard.”

  She looks at me strangely. “You saw a grave right out in the middle of his yard?”

  “No. It was mostly under the porch, but I know what I saw. Andie saw it too.”

  “I think you two might be paranoid. Despite what you’ve seen in the movies, people rarely bury their victims in a backyard, especially if it’s a rental. It’s probably a dog.”

  “Katherine, a woman is missing, and we saw a grave in the yard of a suspect. Are you fucking kidding? If you’re not going to do anything, I’m going back—”

  “Calm down. He’ll hear you.”

  I glance back. He’s kissing her, and I feel sick. I can’t even begin to imagine what she must feel, having to kiss him.

  He may be the murderer, but in all my life, I have never wanted to kill someone so badly.

  Chapter Twelve

  Andie

  I follow Maddox back to the ranch, barely able to keep my truck on the road because I’m shaking so hard. I hope Victor didn’t notice.

  Maddox parks and runs over to open the hay barn door for me.

  I storm out of my truck and over to Katherine. “Why aren’t you taking the cavalry over to his house to arrest him? Didn’t Maddox tell you about the grave?”

  “He did, and I’ll tell you what I told him. It might not be her.”

  I huff in frustration. “What if it’s someone else? What if he’s a serial killer?”

  “That’s not what I meant. It could be an animal. If we rush over there and blow our cover, he could run, and who knows how long it will take us to find him again.”

  Maddox seems as upset as I am. “We have to keep up this charade?” I ask. “I have to pretend to like the guy with a grave in his backyard that may or may not contain the remains of a missing woman?”

  “Yes.”

  “He kissed me,” I say in disgust. “Do you even know what it feels like to have a person like that touch you?”

  “I do.”

  Maddox steps forward. “But you’re trained for this, Katherine. She’s not.” He turns to me. “You’re not going back to your apartment. I don’t care what story we have to come up with, you’re staying at the ranch.”

  “Busted pipe,” Katherine says. “You can tell Victor your upstairs neighbor had a busted pipe and your floors got wet so you decided to move out immediately. You came over with what you needed early in the morning and will send the ranch hands back on Thursday to move your furniture into storage.”

  “So we’re really having him here next weekend?” I say.

  “It’s the best way for us to figure out what’s in the grave,” she says. “We’ve been watching him. His daily routine is erratic. He goes home for lunch almost every day, but at different times. We can’t risk him finding anyone in his backyard with the grave half dug up. We need to get in and out without him knowing we’ve been there, and the best way to do that is to know he’s going to be here for several hours.”

  Maddox says to me, “Did you find anything in Victor’s room?” I shake my head. “What about you?” he asks Katherine.

  “I found something in his wallet.” She pulls up a picture on her phone of a photo. It’s old and weathered and had been folded and unfolded so many times, it’s starting to tear.

  “Who do you think it is? A victim?”

  “Perhaps, though she doesn’t look like the missing woman or Andie, if that’s his MO. She’s young. Still in her teens by the looks of it. I can’t be sure, because it’s old, but see here? It might only be a shadow on her face, but it could also be a bruise. I’ll send it to my people, see what they can come up with. Andie, are you going to be okay? Can I send Special Agent Watkins to your apartment to get any of your belongings?”

  “I’d rather go myself.”

  “I’ll take her,” Maddox says.

  Katherine nods. “I’ll park outside Victor’s house, so we’ll know if he tries to leave. Call me when you’re back.”

  We cross to Maddox’s truck, and he opens the door for me. I slide in and slump, exhausted.

  “You don’t have to do this, you know,” he says. “Say the word, and we’ll call the whole thing off. They can get someone else to do the dirty work.”

  “I have to do it. Victor doesn’t trust people easily.”

  “But he kissed you.” He slams the door harder than he needs to, then runs around and gets in.

  “As long as that’s all he does, I can deal with it.”

  “He hasn’t tried anything else?”

  “No, which surprises me. He’s actually quite, I don’t know, gentlemanly. He hasn’t ever pushed me to do more than I’m comfortable with. Doesn’t that seem odd for a criminal?”

  “Or he’s waiting to get you right where he wants you. Or maybe it’s not about sex for him. Could be he has some strange fetish about women who look like you and the missing woman. Maybe you look like his dead mother or something.”

  I gaze out the window as we leave the ranch. “I’m not sure you’re helping.�
�

  “Sorry.” He puts his hand on mine, and I feel something I haven’t felt all day: safe.

  He leaves his hand on me longer than a friendly pat. When he finally moves it, I realize how much I miss it. The warmth. The security. The feeling I had inside when he was touching me.

  We are quiet most of the way. I wonder what he’s thinking. Is he thinking about the touch? Or maybe he’s still focused on the grave and what could be in it. I shudder to think that poor six-year-old’s mother could have been discarded in such a way.

  At my apartment, I pull out my suitcases and stuff them with as many clothes as will fit. I get my laptop and a few books and put them in a box. Maddox hands me pictures. One is of Vivian. Another is Granddad and me at Devil’s Horn Ranch when I was younger. The last is of my mother.

  “Is this your mom? Wow, you look a lot alike. She’s beautiful.” Though he’s speaking about my mother, he’s looking at me.

  I feel warmth and avert my eyes. “Thanks.” I touch the photo, missing her still, then I put the pictures down. “You forget I’m not really moving. These can stay.”

  “You forget Victor thinks you are, and he’s coming to your new place next week. It has to look like you live there.”

  I sit heavily on the couch and look around my living room, wondering what else I should bring. “At least he’s never been in my apartment. He has no idea what I have. I won’t need much more than those photos.” I get up and go to the kitchen, perusing my supply of pots and pans. “How’s the guesthouse set up for cooking? I haven’t been in it for years.”

  “Pretty sure you could cook a full gourmet meal with what’s there.” He laughs. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you said last week about cooking for me.”

  “It would be my pleasure. It gets old cooking for one. Speaking of food, I should take over anything that’s still good and throw out the rest.”

  We pack food into plastic bags and put them with my other things.

  “Is this it?” he asks. “Are we ready?”

  I wonder how long it will be before I come back. I pick up the box, add a few bags to my forearms and pull a suitcase behind me.