Against the Odds (22 page)

“Where are you going?” Joe asked as she started for the
door.

“Ginny’s in KinderCare.” A preschool for gifted kids her little
girl loved. “I’m going down to Alex’s office. If he isn’t there, Annie or one of
the guys will know what’s going on.”

Joe plucked the keys to the Suburban out of her hand. “Come on,
I’ll drive you.”

Rebecca didn’t argue. Joe was a rock, a man she could depend
on. After the terrible years with Jeremy, she had told herself depending on
another man was the last thing she wanted. But Joe was...well, Joe was
different.

Last night they’d had dinner together at the local Pizza Hut,
all three of them. It was the closest she had ever come to feeling like part of
a family.

It was dangerous to let her feelings deepen so fast. She didn’t
know Joe that well and she had Ginny to consider.

Still, when Joe reached for her, she didn’t hesitate, just let
his strong fingers wrap around her hand as he led her out the door.

Twenty-Four

“T
hanks for letting me come along,” Rina
said as Alex drove the car toward the tattoo parlor.

“I didn’t exactly let you, but I feel better keeping you with
me.”

She studied his handsome profile. With a face any Renaissance
sculptor would love and those sky-blue eyes, she was amazed he could look so
completely male. There was nothing soft about Alex Justice, not in his features,
not in his iron-hard body. Just sitting next to him made her wish he hadn’t let
her sleep in that morning.

“You don’t trust Ben and Jake?” she asked, forcing her thoughts
back where they belonged.

A smile flickered at the corner of his mouth. “I trust them
with my life. With my woman? Not so much.” He grinned and his dimples popped
out, making her stomach contract. Though he was only teasing, a little coil of
warmth spun through her.

Did he really think of her as his woman? He had never said
anything like that to her before.

And was that what she wanted? To be Alex Justice’s woman?

She was, she supposed. She just wasn’t sure how long it would
last.

“The shop’s up ahead on the right.”

She spotted the sign, Living Color, above a narrow brick
building wedged between a sleazy bar and a beauty salon advertising cheap
haircuts.

Alex grabbed the photo Castillo had printed and they headed for
the shop, Rina staying close by his side. He shoved open the door and guided her
inside and a strong, soapy smell hit her. Three black vinyl chairs lined the
wall but only one was in use.

“I’m looking for Leon Crutch,” Alex said to a barrel-chested
man carefully inking a heart-shape design on a client’s shoulder. “That
you?”

A cigarette dangled from the man’s thin lips, a thread of smoke
curling up beside his ear. He wore a faded tank top, baggy tan shorts and Jesus
sandals. He tipped his shaved head toward the ceiling, making the earring glint
in his ear.

“Upstairs.” His hard gaze ran over Alex’s clean-cut appearance
in his brand-new jeans and navy blue, souvenir T-shirt. He still wore the
Italian loafers he’d worn to dinner at the Grill last night. “You got an
appointment?”

Sabrina bit back a laugh as she tried to imagine where Alex
would put a tattoo. Certainly no place it would show.

“Maybe later,” he said. “For now, I just want to talk to
him.”

“Take the stairs at the back of the building. Apartment five,
down at the end.”

“Thanks.” Alex led her in that direction and she could feel the
man in the chair and the tattoo artist watching her as they passed through the
shop. It was well lit, though the windows were painted black. There was clutter
on the counters at each station, and she could see stacks of tattoo needles in a
drawer that stood partially open.

They made their way out through the rear of the shop and up the
stairs. Alex rapped on the apartment door and a couple of seconds later, it
swung open.

“Leon Crutch?”

“Who wants to know?”

“I’m Alex Justice. I’m a private investigator.” He flipped open
his wallet, showing his badge, stuffed the wallet back into the pocket of his
jeans. Behind his back beneath the T-shirt, he was carrying his pistol stuffed
into the waistband. “I’d like to ask you a couple of questions.”

Crutch hesitated a moment, gave her a long, slow perusal, must
have figured Alex wasn’t there to cause him any trouble if he had brought her
along and stepped back to let them into his living room. The apartment was
surprisingly clean, the walls lined with grotesque, wildly colorful contemporary
art that mirrored his taste in tattoos.

“What can I do for you?”

Alex handed Crutch the photo of the dead man’s arm. “This man
was shot and killed last night.”

“The guy at the minimart?”

“That’s him.”

“Yeah, I caught it on the news.”

Alex pointed at the design on the arm. “Looks like your work.
I’m hoping you can give me a name.”

Leon studied the photo. “I did the tat. You can see my initials
right here—” He pointed out the
L
and the
C
camouflaged in the design. “Problem is, that pattern
isn’t completely exclusive. You look at the flash art on the wall downstairs,
you’ll see some different variations. My designs are all unique, but still, this
is a popular style.”

Crutch tried to pass Alex the photo. Alex pushed it back in his
direction. “Take another look. Anything in the picture that jumps out at
you?”

Crutch stared down at the photo and something moved across his
features. Even with her untrained eye, Rina could tell he recognized
something.

“The cops’ll be following up on this.” Alex pointed to the
photo. “As you said, your initials are in the pattern. No way for you to skate.
Who is he?”

Leon ran his tongue over his lips. “I’m pretty sure it’s a guy
named Luis Catano. I recognize that little scar near the elbow, just to the
right of the skull. I had to work around it.”

“What else?”

“Catano runs with a bad bunch down in the barrio. He heard
about my work through a buddy of his. I did the tat, and that’s the last I’ve
seen of him. That’s all I know.”

Alex studied Crutch’s face, seemed satisfied the man was
telling the truth. “I’ll have to tell the police. They may have some
questions.”

“Not a problem. All I did was the tat, man.”

Alex nodded. “Thanks for the help, Leon.”

They left the shop, and on the way back to his office, Alex
called Detective Murphy. He was using one of the throwaways he’d bought in the
souvenir shop that morning.

“According to the guy who did the tat,” he told Murphy, “the
shooter is a guy named Luis Catano.”

Murphy’s voice came back over the hands-free. “Name rings a
bell. I’ll check it out.”

“Let me know what you find out.” Alex ended the call and turned
the car toward the office, where he was meeting Ben and Jake to strategize and
plan.

Rina suppressed a shiver. Whatever plan they came up with, she
prayed that it would work.

* * *

It was hot. It was always hot in Houston. Ginny’s blouse
was sticking to her chest and her hands were sweaty. Still, she liked it better
here than when they’d lived with her dad.

She tried not to think of him and wonder if he ever missed her,
thought of Joe instead and rushed out onto the playground with the other kids.
She headed straight for the jungle gym, wiped her sweaty hands on her blouse,
grabbed one of the bars and started swinging, reaching out to pull herself along
from bar to bar.

She wished she was wearing jeans instead of a stupid skirt.
Then she could swing up high and catch the bars at the top. But her mother
insisted she dress like a
little lady.

Yuck.
She didn’t want to be a
little lady.
She wanted to run and jump and climb, do
handstands in the grass. She was as fast as any of the boys her age, but she
felt silly racing them in a skirt with blue ruffles around the hem.

With a sigh, she let go of the bars and wandered over beneath a
big leafy tree at the edge of the playground, plopped down on the concrete bench
underneath. She loved sports. She even liked to watch football and basketball on
TV. She and Joe talked about the games all the time. She didn’t know what was
wrong with that. Lots of girls liked to play sports. She didn’t know why her
mother didn’t understand.

“Hello, Ginny. You’re looking very pretty today.”

She turned at the sound of a man’s soft voice coming from the
other side of the chain-link fence around the playground. She liked to wear
jeans, but she also liked it when someone said she looked pretty.

She stood up from the bench and smoothed her ruffled skirt.
“Thank you.” Through the fence she saw a thin man with light brown hair and blue
eyes. He had on nice clothes, tan slacks and a pullover shirt. There was a funny
little brown spot on his neck shaped like a heart. “How did you know my
name?”

“I’m a friend of your uncle Alex. He said to say hello.”

She brightened. “He did? Uncle Alex is my very favorite
uncle.”

The man smiled. He had a nice, friendly smile. “I bet he is,”
the man said.

“He’s been working hard lately so we haven’t got to see him
very much.”

“That’s too bad. I bet he really misses you.”

Ginny nodded. “I miss him, too.” The buzzer sounded, signaling
recess was over. “I have to go back inside.”

“That’s okay. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again. Tell
your uncle I said hello.”

She saw the kids racing back toward the classroom and worried
she would be late.

“What’s your name, mister?” she asked.

But when she turned to look at him, the man was already
gone.

* * *

The mid-June heat was cranking up, the humidity building
along with it. Still dressed in the clothes he’d bought in the gift shop that
morning, Alex guided Sabrina into the Atlas Security office, the air conditioner
pleasantly humming, knocking his body temperature down a couple of degrees.

Seated behind the reception desk, Annie tipped her head toward
the beautiful blonde rushing toward him. “You got company.”

“Alex! My God, are you all right? I saw the news. I’ve been
calling you for hours. Why aren’t you picking up? Joe and I stopped by your
house. We thought we might find you there but—”

“Take it easy. Everything’s okay.” He gave his sister a hug,
kept his arm around her as he drew Sabrina in front of him.

“You remember my sister, Becca? She came with me to the
hospital.”

Sabrina smiled at her warmly. “Of course I do. It’s nice to see
you, Rebecca. You were very kind that day.”

“And this is Joe McCauley, the guy who convinced me to come to
Houston.” Alex grinned. “He’s a pain in the ass, but he’s a good man to have on
your side when you need him.”

“Hey, Peaceman. Heard the news on TV. Glad to see you’re still
breathing.”

Alex reached out and the men shook hands. “Good to see you,
Mac.”

“I’m glad you’re all having a nice little meet and greet,”
Becca said, “but I want to know what’s going on. Alex, why did someone try to
kill you last night?”

“Actually, they were trying to get to Sabrina. I just happened
to be in the way.”

“What?” His sister turned toward the little redhead at his
side.

“Alex saved my life last night.” Sabrina managed to smile. “He
was amazing.”

Why it pleased him so much to hear her say that, Alex couldn’t
say. “I’m her personal security,” he said. “That’s my job.”

Annie spoke up from behind them. “And since you’re finally in
the office, hotshot, here’s your messages. Quite a few since your phone isn’t
working.”

Alex rattled off the number of the disposable. “You can reach
me there for the next few days.” He shuffled through the messages, found one
from Sheriff Dickens that could be important.

“You holdin’ up okay, honey?” Annie asked Sabrina.

“I’m all right. Last night was pretty bad. I’ve never seen a
man killed before.”

“Maybe not,” Alex said, his gaze swinging toward her. “But
she’s tougher than she looks. She beat the crap out of one of the bastards with
her purse.”

Annie laughed. “Atta girl!”

“Alex took on all three of those men at once. He was like some
kind of James Bond or something. You should have seen him.”

One of his sister’s eyebrows cocked up. “That’s all well and
good, Agent 007, but you might not be so lucky next time.”

“Look, sis, I’m fine and so is Sabrina. But we need to find out
who’s behind these attacks.”

Rebecca’s eyes widened. “You aren’t saying the shooting is
related to Sabrina’s car accident?”

“That’s right, and the helo crash. The chopper was meant to go
down.”

“Oh, my God, why didn’t you tell me?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been busy. At the moment,
I’m here to talk to Ben and Jake, try to figure our next move.” He wrote his
cell number on a piece of scratch paper on Annie’s desk and handed it to his
sister, looked over at his brawny friend. “Take her home, Joe. Make sure she’s
okay.”

Joe flashed a smile and gave a nod of his dark head. “You got
it.”

Becca kissed Alex’s cheek. “Be careful, big brother, okay?”

“I’m always careful.”

She reached down and squeezed Sabrina’s hand. “Take care of
him.”

Something moved across Sabrina’s features. Alex wished he knew
what it was. He flicked a glance at Joe, who settled a big hand at Becca’s waist
and guided her out the door. When she looked at his friend, there was a trust in
his sister’s eyes Alex had never seen before.

“Peaceman?” Sabrina’s russet eyebrows went up.

“Justice of the peace. That was my call sign when I was flying
jets. Joe and Sol are the only ones who still call me that.”

“
Peaceman.
I think I like it.”

Hearing footsteps, he turned to see Ben walking toward him.
“How’d it go?”

“We got the shooter’s name,” Alex said.

“Who was he?”

“According to the guy who did the tat, name’s Luis Catano. Runs
with a bad bunch from the barrio.”

Apparently following the conversation, Sol stuck his head out
his office door. “Luis Catano. I’m on it. I’ll let you know what I find.”

Everyone wanted to help. Clearly Sabrina was in grave danger.
They needed to know who was responsible for this latest attack and figure a way
to stop him.

From the corner of his eye, Alex spotted Jake shoving through
the front door. He was relieved to see Sage beside him.

“Why don’t you two get a cup of coffee and talk for a while,”
Alex said to Sabrina, “give me a chance to fill these guys in on what we’ve
learned.” Alex bent his head and very softly kissed her. “I think more clearly
when you’re not around.”

She looked up at him in surprise. She hadn’t expected a show of
affection in his office in front of his friends. Clearly, she still didn’t trust
his feelings for her. It irritated him a little.