Looking For Trouble (22 page)

"Ray got in Wade's face and put his finger
in his chest--said stuff he knew would piss Wade off!"

"Wade is the only one who can control his
temper, and he's the only one that can let someone egg him into a
fight, darlin'...he's gonna be here a while, you should go
home."

Jess folded her arms over her chest and told
him belligerently, "I'm not going anywhere, until you let him
go."

"Then you're going to be here for days most
likely, sugar. This is serious, he hurt that guy pretty bad, and
he's pressing charges."

Her shoulders slumped in defeat and she
asked him, "Can I talk to Wade?"

Cole hesitated for a minute, then huffed out
a breath and told her, "Yeah, give me a minute, and I'll put him in
the interview room," then he looked at Jazzie and Travis sitting in
the chairs against the wall and added, "Only you though."

Jess nodded and thanked him, then went to
sit beside Jazzie again and grabbed her hand, "Oh, Lord, Jazz, what
am I going to do?"

"We'll figure something out, after you talk
to him. He needs an attorney, that's for sure. You need to find out
how his money is, and what he can afford, then we'll find the best
lawyer we can...and you'll need cash for his bail, probably. You
should ask Cole when they'll set bail, and how much he thinks it
might be."

Jess looked at her curiously, then asked,
"How the hell do you know all that?" Jess had never had any run-ins
with the law and she was clueless.

Jazzie snorted then smiled. "I have five
brothers, remember? This isn't my first rodeo at a police station,"
she told her with a chuckle.

Travis piped up and told her, "I have a
little money, Jess...just let me know how much you need...I'll get
a loan if I need to."

"No way--I'll figure something else out.
You've done enough, Trav. In fact, it's time for you to think about
going home."

He shook his head and told her, "Not until
you get Wade out, and not until I call and ream out that damned man
at the record company, and tell them never to send Ray Turner
sniffing around you again. I have other options, so don't worry,
something will shake loose."

Jess groaned and told Travis, "I'm just
worried about Wade right now...I think he's got most of his money
sunk into building that house. He may not be able to afford an
attorney to get him out of this mess."

Travis narrowed his eyes, and told her, "I'm
going to the hospital tomorrow and shake that bastard up
some...threaten him with embezzlement charges, and see what
happens."

"But we don't have any proof, Travis..."

"He doesn't know that. Don't worry,
Jess...we'll work this out," Travis told her, but she could see the
worry in his own eyes.

Jess looked up when Cole walked through the
door she assumed led to the cells, with Wade's arm in his grasp.
Wade locked eyes with her and his were vacant and flat, and she
whimpered then followed behind them to a room on the other side of
the booking area.

Cole opened the door then shoved Wade inside
and turned to her. "You have fifteen minutes, Jess."

She nodded then walked inside and sat down
at the table across from Wade, who wouldn't look at her. When the
door shut, she stood up and walked around the table to put her arms
around Wade's shoulders, then put her hand on his face and made him
look at her. "You need to answer some questions, so I can help you
get out of here," she said in a shaky voice.

Wade sighed, then asked, "What do you need
to know?"

"I need to know how to get to your money to
pay your bail, and hire an attorney," she told him then knelt down
by his chair.

"I don't have any money right now, other
than my paycheck from Cassie and Luke. I put everything in a
construction account to build the house. I have a few investments,
but they're not liquid," he told her flatly.

If he was in jail, she wouldn't want or need
a house...so the house wasn't a priority right now...getting Wade
out this mess was. Whatever was in the construction account, they
could use to hire him a lawyer. "I'm going to talk to the
contractor, and put the house on hold for now," she told him then
added, "I'll see if he'll release the funds...he's not far into
building yet."

"He's ordered the materials, Jess...we're
pushing him to finish it fast," he told her morosely.

"Surely, they can store them, we can pay him
for the materials, and just get the rest out," she suggested
hopefully.

"You can try, but there won't be a lot left,
I'm sure. We signed a contract with him, and there are penalties,
on both sides, him if he doesn't finish on time, and us if we
cancel."

Jess gnawed on her lip then stood up and
told him, "I'm going to sell the three new songs I wrote then...and
write a few more, if I can."

Wade vaulted up out of the chair and his
face was so red it almost glowed, as he grated through his teeth,
"You are not--
not
--going to sell those songs to get me out
of here! You got that?"

Jess nodded and her lips wobbled as she told
him in a broken whisper, "They don't mean anything, if Angel and I
don't have you, baby..."

"I don't care, Jess, those are
your
songs, and
you
are the one that's gonna sing them, not some
other country singer they don't mean a damned thing to," he said
forcefully then pulled her into his arms and kissed her hair.
"We'll figure something out, sugar...don't worry."

That was what Travis had told her too, but
how could she not worry? He was in jail for assault, which could be
serious, depending on what happened at the hospital with Ray, and
Ray as vindictive and money grubbing as he was would probably sue
him for the injuries too. Maybe Ray was the key to the puzzle
here...maybe
she
needed to go see him, and try to work
things out.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Jess pulled Wade's truck into an open spot
in front of the hospital, then shut off the engine. She just sat
there a minute, trying to get her thoughts together, about what she
wanted to say to Ray, what she could say to get him to drop the
charges against Wade. She'd spent the last two days trying to get
the contractor to release the building money, and he said there was
less than a thousand dollars that was available in there.

He said it would take him a little time to
get even that released to her, but he would put the house on hold,
until she told him to continue. And Wade was still in the Bowie
jail, because the judge was on a fishing trip somewhere, and
couldn't set bail, until he came back. If he had a damned attorney,
he could press the issue, but she had no money to hire one. Wade
hadn't even had arraignment yet and it had been three days! They
were going to release Ray from the hospital today, and she had to
talk to him, before that happened. She had no idea how to contact
him, if he left town.

So, Jess decided to come to the hospital
this morning, and had brought Angel with her, because nobody knew
she was here, she hadn't told anyone. They would have tried to stop
her, and she knew this was the only way she could fix things.

She went around the truck and got Angel out
of the car seat, and then went through the double doors at the
front of the hospital and directly to the information desk. Once
she found out where Ray was, she made her way to the elevator and
up to the third floor. The nurse at the desk pointed her to his
room. Standing outside the door, Jess took a deep breath, then
walked inside.

Ray was dressed and sitting in a chair by
the window, his face a big purple mess, and his arm in a sling. His
eyebrows raised and he grimaced, when he saw her. "Well, well...if
it isn't the woman of the hour...your boyfriend still in jail?
Guess so, or you wouldn't be here, would you?" Ray asked with a
nasty chuckle.

"I came to talk to you Ray, and see if we
could work this out. You shouldn't have come to the bar, and you
know it...shouldn't have pushed his buttons," she said in a hard
tone.

"It's a free country, darlin'...and I had
every right to be there, you invited me there," he said in a oily
tone.

"Travis didn't know it was you they were
sending...neither did I," she told him bouncing Angel on her hip
when she started fussing.

"Who's brat?" he asked curiously.

"She's not a brat, she's my daughter," Jess
told him angrily. "What's it gonna take for you to leave me the
hell alone, Ray? To leave Wade alone?"

"His kid?" Ray asked, his eyes glittering
strangely.

"That's none of your business...I'm not here
to get reacquainted. I just want to know what it's going to take to
get you to back off. Travis called your company and told them we're
not interested in them, if we have to deal with you."

"Well, he can call them right back and tell
them you're ready to sign, and I'm your representative, cause
that
is what it's going to take, sugar. That and the rights
to those songs you sang at the bar the other night."

Jess sucked in a sharp breath as her stomach
churned at the thought. "Not happening, Ray...we're through. I
don't want to have anything to do with you."

"So you say...but here you are trying to get
me
to work something out with
you
, so you can save
your boyfriend...I think you need to reevaluate your approach,
Jess," he told her then leaned back in his chair and tried to smile
smugly, then flinched.

Jess swallowed down the bile that surged up
in her throat, because he was right. She was here to get him to
agree to drop the charges against Wade. "Okay, if you drop the
charges, I'll sign the contract, but you're not getting the rights
to the songs."

"If you do both, I won't sue that fucker for
everything he has, either, and I could you know. I was just there
doing my job, and he attacked me...hurt me pretty badly. I even had
a concussion that could cause me problems later, and this arm is
gonna need a lot of physical therapy, and who knows if it'll ever
be right again, not to mention the dental surgery I'm going to need
to fix my mouth..."

"All right...get the damned paperwork drawn
up, but I want it in writing that you're not going to sue him, and
I'm having an attorney look it over, so it better be tight. Call
and have them release him...
now
," she told him.

"I'm not stupid, sugar...you sign the
papers, and I'll get him released."

Jess huffed out a breath then told him, "If
he's not out by tomorrow, the deal is off, and I'll sell those
songs and get him out myself, and sue you for the money you stole
from me...I have the books."

"Those books don't have shit in them, I
know, because I did them...so that dog won't hunt," he told her
with an evil grin, and then flinched again.

"I'll hire an accountant and an attorney to
get the proof, so don't mess with me, Ray. I'm not the naive
teenager I was when I let you do that to me," she told him and
pinned him with her eyes.

"You're still pretty stupid...you got
yourself knocked up, and hooked up with a broken down rodeo rider,"
he said then threw his head back and laughed.

How the hell did he know that Wade was a
rodeo rider, if he hadn't purposely set out to cause all this
trouble? He shouldn't have even known she was
with
Wade, or
who he was. Evidently, Ray had been doing some research on them, if
he knew that. She didn't trust this man as far as she could throw
him, and this was why.

He was sneaky, and was just plain evil...he
did things behind her back to corner her, make her do what he
wanted her to do. He'd been trying to get her back for three years,
since she'd kicked him to the curb, and now he had...at least
partially. She would
never
let this asshole touch her again,
at least she had control over that.

"How did you know Wade was a bronc rider?"
she asked him and watched his face for a reaction, even though the
swelling and bruising made it hard to read him.

"I know a lot of things about Wade Roberts,
and you, darlin'. I do my homework. I'm good at my job,
remember?"

Jess gasped and fear poured through her, but
she held it back and told him through gritted teeth, "I remember
you're a sneaky asshole, that's what I remember. You did all this
on purpose, didn't you?"

"I didn't do a damned thing, your boyfriend
is the one who beat me up...now you are gonna have to pay for it,
aren't you? Too bad you hooked up with a hot head," he said then
laughed again.

"Better than hooking up with a sneaky
bastard like you. God, how the hell could I have been so blind for
so long?" Jess shook her head, then Angel started whining, and
sucking her fist, and she put her on her shoulder, then gave him a
final glare. "I'm not blind now, Ray, my eyes are wide open...so
you better not try to screw me, or you're gonna be sorry," she
pointed her finger at him and told him.

"You'll never be as smart as me, sugar...so
you better be on your toes," he said smugly.

Jess growled in frustration, then turned
toward the door and said over her shoulder, "
You
better be
on your toes this time, Ray...and get that damned paperwork done.
If he's not out by tomorrow
morning
, the deal is off," then
she walked through the door and to the elevator.