Page 55 of Stilettos & Whiskey
I grimaced at the drool hanging from his chin. “Who is your boss?”
“Raul Garza.”
I stiffened. “An old guy with facial tattoos?”
Jesse wiped away the drool. “Yeah. Mean sonovabitch. He was an enforcer for the Zetos brothers until he got sick. All he ever talked about was getting revenge on the people who put him in prison.” Jesse barfed again and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Do you know where he got his money?” Grandpa asked.
“Yeah, some crazy dude named Ichabod was always bragging about having an Aztec statue made of pure gold. Raul beat the location out of him.”
Lucas handcuffed Jesse. “How are Roger and his family involved?”
“They’re just muscle, but the entire family wants her dead too,” Jesse answered.
I blew out a long breath. “Evidently, I dumped Roger for a chick and then changed my mind because I missed his big dick.”
“You’d need a magnifying glass to find Roger’s,” Lucas scoffed.
Logan jogged up. “Apache Junction Police Department has a barricade situation at Superstition Springs Mall, and their commander wants to borrow Julie to force the suspect to surrender.”
“What? Are you kidding me? Who blabbed?”
Logan backed up a step. “Roger did and they can smell you.”
“From two blocks away?” I screeched.
“Yes, from two blocks away. You’re upwind of them,” Logan replied and took another step back. “The standoff has been going on for three hours. Commander Tolbert wants to end it quickly and without bloodshed.”
“One good whiff of you and he’ll surrender,” Lucas chortled.
I rammed my elbow into his stomach. “What about the poor people inside the mall?”
“They’ve been evacuated,” Logan said.
Grandpa patted my back. “Lose the scary face, squirt, or they might be tempted to shoot you.”
“I earned my scary face; do you hear me? I earned it!”
Devon hugged me gingerly. “Yes, you did, but Roger is in custody now.”
“That’s true, but we still need to catch Papa Garza and that sneaky attorney.”
Lucas gave me another candy bar. “We’ll get them too.”
“You must really hate me.” I held up the candy bar. “If I eat this, I’ll puke again.”
Grandpa snatched it out of my hand. “Tell Commander Tolbert she’d be glad to help.”
“No, I’m not and how do you plan on getting me there?” I just had to ask. Twenty minutes later, I was being driven to the mall on top of an older, open-cab fire truck.
The guys had a good laugh when they noticed the driver was wearing a hazmat suit.
The Channel Five news chopper got a swell shot of me on top of the fire truck surrounded by heavily armed men wearing gas masks. Yippee-ki-yay! I had just becomebreakingnews.
My highly amused family escorted me to the rooftop of the mall. I stood in front of the fresh air intake vent for three minutes and poof. The suspect surrendered.
I gave them my Debbie Sunshine smile. “How do you plan on getting me home?”
