Here Comes Trouble (40 page)

He grabbed for his cell phone from the night
stand and dialed her number. On the fifth ring, it went to her
voice mail and he just listened to her voice, soaked it up, then
prayed that she would make it to Chase's okay.

Hanging up, he dialed Chase's cell
phone.

"Yeah?" his brother said shortly.

"You at your house?" Joel asked
hopefully.

"No, I got a call and had to run out to a
rig," he told Joel in a frustrated tone. He imagined it had to be a
big problem for them to be able to drag his brother away from his
wife and week-old son. "Something wrong?" Chase asked.

"Yeah, Larry Sims is the murderer, his brother
was the shooter in the woods and he's dead, but Larry is still on
the loose. I'm worried about Terri, she left here about a hour ago
to head to your house and now she's not answering her
phone."

"That's weird, I just tried calling Jenny too
and she didn't answer. I know mama is there with her...fuck, I'm
going home. I'm at least an hour away though," Chase told him with
fear evident in his voice.

"I'll meet you there," Joel told him and hung
up.

"We have a problem," he told the officer. "My
sister-in-law isn't answering her phone at home either, and that's
strange. She has a new baby and my mama is there with
her."

He gave the officer Chase's address and asked
him to send units over to the house and look for a big red pickup
truck on the way there. He was desperate, even if he sounded stupid
he didn't care. All the women he cared about could be in danger.
That bastard was a loose cannon, just flat out crazy, and there was
no telling what he'd do.

"What are you driving Ronnie?" he asked hoping
she'd say a truck or van.

She snorted, "Mercedes
convertible."

He reached for his keys off the nightstand and
tossed them to her. "Can you drive a truck?"

"I was raised in Texas honey, if I can't drive
a truck I'd be shit outta luck, wouldn't I?" she told him with a
half-smile. "I just
choose
to drive something
less...masculine."

"Push me to my damned gun cabinet in the
office," he told her and she got behind the chair and followed his
directions to get to his office. Joel opened his desk drawer and
pulled out the key then with a shaky hand opened the gun
safe.

"Holy shit, Joel...what are you preparing for
the zombie apocalypse?" she asked with a laugh.

"Trouble seems to be a constant companion
around here lately. We're out in the boonies and it takes too long
for help to arrive, so I bought a few guns," he told her and pulled
down two rifles, a shot gun and a Glock pistol. He handed the guns
to her, then piled ammunition on his lap for all of them, before
taking them back.

"Let's go," he told her with determination.
Nobody was going to hurt his family. Larry Sims was a dead man.
They passed Dylan near the front door and he handed him a rifle.
Dylan looked at it like a snake, and Joel snorted then said, "It's
a gun...you put a bullet in it, point and shoot. Think you can
manage that greenhorn?"

"I can outshoot you on your best day and my
worst, boss. Question is what the hell are we shooting?"

"A skunk," Joel told him. "Ronnie go grab that
white sack off the kitchen table. I need a pain pill, then we're
good to go," he told her and she teetered on her heels toward the
kitchen.

"Really, Joel...what's going on?" Dylan asked
him and Joel glanced up at him.

"Terri's in trouble, and my sister-in-law and
mama might be too. The guy you found this morning isn't who I
thought was out there."

Dylan's eyebrows drew together over his eyes
and his jaw clenched. "Let's go skunk hunting then."

Ronnie came back in the room and handed him a
pill and a glass of water. "This nursing shit isn't for me, you
definitely need Terri back," she told him huffing for air. "You
wouldn't like my bedside manner."

"I couldn't imagine. Your patients would
probably off themselves to get away from you," he told her then
popped the pill and washed it down. He went to hand her the glass,
but her lethal glare had him handing it to Dylan
instead.

Dylan laughed then sat it down on the table in
the foyer. Ronnie got behind the wheelchair and roughly shoved him
through the front door. She started down the ramp with him facing
forward.

"Stop!" Joel yelled grabbing the arms of the
chair. She stopped just in the nick of time, before he pitched
forward out of the chair.

"Dylan, push the damned chair backwards down
the ramp. Fuck, this is a pain in the ass," he griped as he spun
the chair around and Dylan got behind it to ease the chair down the
ramp.

"Maybe you should drive," he told Dylan as he
stopped the chair by the passenger door of the truck, and helped
Joel up.

"Well I can't shoot, so if you want someone to
help you do that, I need to drive," Ronnie told him and wobbled
over the uneven dirt around the front of the truck. She opened the
door and got into the driver's seat, so it looked like she was
going to be driving.

After Dylan put the ammunition and guns in the
truck, Joel put his good leg on the running board of the truck,
then with Dylan's help, he hefted himself into the front seat.
Dylan got in the back seat, then Ronnie cranked the truck, and
slammed the gearshift into drive, before hitting the gas so hard he
was thrown into the door. Joel cursed then stretched the seatbelt
over his chest and put the tab in the buckle. If he was going to
die, it wasn't going to be because he was thrown through the
windshield by an attorney who had missed her calling as a race car
driver.

They were about thirty minutes from Chase's
house when a white van swerved toward the centerline barely missing
them as it passed. Joel had caught a glimpse of the driver, and she
looked a helluva lot like his mother.

"Turn around!" Joel shouted and grabbed the
dashboard as Ronnie whipped the wheel around and the backend of the
truck fishtailed. "Holy shit, woman!" he yelled as his head hit the
side window again. She went off the road, almost into a ditch then
pulled back onto the blacktop.

"I didn't say I could drive a truck
well
, I said I could drive one!" Ronnie shouted back at him
and hit the gas throwing him against the back of the
seat.

"Follow that van, I think that was mama
driving it," he told her.

"Sure it's not the pain meds," Dylan asked in
a lazy drawl from the backseat.

"I'm positive," he told him hoping that
himself. If he was seeing things it was going to cost them time
they didn't have. Joel pulled his cell phone from his pocket and
tried Terri's number again.

This time the call connected, before it even
rang a full time, and the line was open, but nobody said hello. He
held the phone closer to his ear and thought heard voices, one of
them sounded like Larry and his heart stopped. He reached over and
turned off the radio and listened closer.

"Joel is never going to agree to sign that
paper, even if you kill us all!" Terri shouted.

"If I kill him too, I won't need the paper
signed, will I? I can get all my loose ends tied up at once and get
the fuck out of this godforsaken town. I've waited a week in this
shit hole to get my hands on you, so I could do that."

When Joel heard a baby cry, he wanted to jump
through that phone and kill that bastard with his bare hands. He
needed to call Chase and he needed to call the police, but he
wasn't going to disconnect the line and lose them.

"Ronnie give me your cell, hurry," he told her
and she flipped open her purse with one hand and shoved the phone
across the seat to him.

Joel dialed his brother and waited. "Chase he
has them all," he said in a strangled voice. I have the line open
with Terri's cell, he doesn't know it."

"I'll call the police," Chase said and hung
up.

Even though he was damned scared what he might
hear next, Joel took a deep breath and put his phone back to his
ear to listen.

"You don't need all of us. Joel will sign that
paper if I tell him to. Let everyone out and just take me," Terri
begged him. "You kill four people and a baby they're not gonna stop
until they find you."

"Shut the fuck up, nobody gets left anywhere,"
he said and slapped her. Joel heard her groan and flinched feeling
it himself. "I bet old Jack Rhodes, would pay big bucks to keep his
wife, and grandson alive," he told her with a brittle laugh. "This
whole thing has gone to hell, and I have to figure out how to get
the money I need. If Joel had just died like he was supposed to
instead of Annie Oakley up there killing my brother, I'd be in the
Alps by now."

Joel groaned knowing Larry was smarter than
that. He knew that even though Joel's daddy might have millions,
billions, Jack Rhodes did not cave in to threats. That meant Larry
would be back to plan A, killing all of them, if Joel didn't do
something. The problem was, he didn't know what he could
do.

"Get that gun away from my head," Terri told
him. "We hit a bump and it could go off," Terri told him. He heard
something clank, then there were scuffling noises, and a few
grunts. The van swerved and a gunshot went off, there was a scream
and then the baby started wailing.

Joel's heart shot up to his throat and he
picked up the rifle from the floor, made sure it was loaded and
ready. Rolling down his window, he used the side mirror to steady
the barrel and leveled it at the van door. The van swerved again to
the right this time, and the wheels slid off into the ditch. The
van pitched on its side then stopped.

"Slow down, Ronnie...get ready, Dylan, you're
gonna have to rush the van."

The back door of the van flew open and Jenny
hopped out then ran up the side of the ditch and down the street
like crazy with the baby clutched to her chest.

Ronnie stopped the truck twenty yards back
from the van, and Dylan opened the door and took off running. Larry
appeared at the back door of the van with a gun in his hand. He
crouched down and leveled it at Jenny's back. Joel aimed for the
center of his chest and pulled the trigger then watched as fire
flew from the end of the rifle.

A surprised look came over Larry's face and he
glanced toward the truck. His eyes met Joel's and his hand flew to
his chest where a bright red stain quickly spread. His gun dropped
to the ground then he fell face first out of the van door into the
ditch. The driver's door of the van opened and his mother dragged
herself out then slid down to the ground. He watched Dylan climb
into the back of the van.

When Terri still didn't show up at the door of
the van, Joel thought about the gunshot he'd heard and his gut
heaved. Damn Terri's soul for trying to be a hero, if she had just
waited. Fear, anger and frustration shot through Joel and his eyes
burned. He was gonna lose it any second if Dylan didn't tell him
Terri was okay.

Looking at Ronnie, he told her in a choked
voice, " Pull the truck up let me see if mama's okay." She still
hadn't gotten up from the ground, and she was holding her
arm.

Ronnie eased the truck forward, but she ducked
down in the seat. She was as quiet as he'd ever seen her, and her
face was pale. Dylan finally showed at the back door of the van and
he had Terri in his arms. She wasn't moving and a wail worked
itself from Joel's toes up to his mouth and he threw open the door
and started to slide to the ground.

Fuck his leg, if Terri was dead he was done
anyway.

"Hold up, man--she's just passed out," Dylan
told him. "I was checking to see if she was shot, and she's
not."

Relief paralyzed him and Joel sank down to sit
on the running board of the truck. He buried his head in his hands
and hot tears of relief spilled down his face.

"Think your mama got shot though, you better
go see," he said and stepped down from the van with Terri in his
arms, carefully avoiding the pool of blood surrounding
Larry.

"Bring Terri here and I'll hold her, you go
check on mama...please," he choked out.

Dylan walked over to him and eased Terri down
onto his lap, then walked toward the front of the van. Joel hugged
her to him kissing all over her face and pleading for her to wake
up, but she stayed still and limp against him. Panic seized him and
he kept talking to her trying to get her to come around.

Jenny walked up beside him and her voice
trembled as she said, "Hold the baby too, Joel...I want to look at
your mother." He held out his other arm and she gently laid Caleb
there.

The baby was sucking his thumb and looking up
at Joel like he wanted to memorize his every feature. Adoration and
trust shone from his blue eyes. One day Joel wanted a baby just
like Caleb.

Karen hadn't wanted kids, she was too selfish
for that. Joel had never thought about it before one way or
another, he hadn't been around babies much. The more time he spent
with his nephew though, the more he wanted to have that one
day.

Terri looked at him that way sometimes. He
didn't deserve her adoration, and he certainly didn't deserve her
trust. All he'd done since he met her was cause her grief. He
was
the stubborn hardheaded ass she'd accused him of being,
and he was amazed that she loved him anyway. If she would let him,
Joel would spend the rest of his life making sure he deserved it
from here on out.