Page 45 of Texas Hold Em'
“Miss Hart,” he purred, “I need you to kill the one you’re sleeping with. You do that for me? And I will take you at your word. I will bring my force to that landfill and I will put down every single one of those fucking dogs like the mutts they are. You will be free to get on an airplane, and I will be free to run this city as I fucking see fit. And there is one more condition.”
My heart hammered wildly in my chest.
One more thing? Ontopof murdering Tex?
“What is it?” I whispered.
Bates straightened. “Never set foot in Reno again.”
My head spun.
Caroline grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the study door while Bates turned away and looked out the window.
“Wait,” I said, pulling free of Caroline. Bates looked over his shoulder at me. “If I kill Tex, how am I supposed to convince the others to trust me?”
“You’re a smart woman,” Bates said. “I trust you’ll figure it out.”
Caroline pulled me back toward the door.
“Oh, and Miss Hart?” Bates grinned and ran his tongue over his teeth. “If you fail, I’ll save a bullet for you.”
Caroline clicked her tongue and dragged me back out into the hall. I stumbled across the marble floors as her much longer legs covered more ground than mine. “I wish I could be there to see the look on that dumb bastard’s face when you stab him in the back.” She grinned. “He’s never going to see it coming.”
CHAPTER 19
JAMESON
Iwas about to head back home, hoping I’d find Carrie there with a hand on her hip as she asked me where the hell I’d gone off to.
But as I turned a corner, I spotted her.
Relief flooded through me even though I could tell as I took the speed off my bike and approached her that something was wrong.
She sat on the curb across the street from the police station. She had her knees drawn up and her elbows resting on them while she buried her face in her hands and her fingers in her hair. Her hair was a mess actually. It looked as though she’d been running her hands through it for hours. One foot tapped anxiously on the pavement, and she looked up from her hands when she heard my bike coming.
I pulled over in front of the Chevelle, which she’d parked at the curb about eight feet from where she sat.
I got off the motorcycle and hung my helmet on the handlebars.
Carrie hid her face from me as I walked over and sat down beside her.
“You okay?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Where did you go?” I asked.
Either she didn’t hear me or she chose not to hear me because sheacted as though I hadn’t spoken. She looked back up and gazed longingly across the street at the police department. I saw heartbreak in her blue eyes and I knew the weight of her burden. Like me, she’d made decisions that compromised her career as a Ranger. Like me, she very well might have to walk away from her job at the end of this.
It was obvious how much it was eating her up inside.
“I fucked up,” Carrie whispered. “I… I think I fucked up really bad, Jameson.”
I couldn’t recall a time where she’d called me by my first name.
Tears glistened in her eyes and she shook her head as if to dispel them. Her hands balled into fists and she pressed her knuckles into her thighs, punishing herself with pain. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I thought… ugh. I don’t know what I thought. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“What are you talking about?”
