Thirty-Five and a Half Conspiracies
Page 47

I shook my head in amazement. “If I didn’t know better, I never would have guessed it was you. Not in a million years. You look like one of those butt-kickin’ women in the movies.”
She grinned. “See? No one’s gonna mess with me.”
On the contrary, Mick Gentry’s men might want to mess with her, but not in the way she was suggesting. She looked super sexy. In fact, I suspected most of the men would be watching her instead of me.
Maybe that was a good thing.
“I wish I could find some way of concealing my appearance without this hat.” I picked it up off the bed. “It’s so cumbersome.”
“What about a mask?”
“That seems too superhero-y, don’t you think?” I tossed the hat on the bed next to my black dress. “Besides, I’ve told them all I wear the veil because I have a scar. I can’t very well start parading around without it.”
“True …” She jutted out her hip and studied my face. “Let me give it some thought. Maybe we can come up with something different for next time.”
With any luck, we’d be meeting with J.R. next time, and I suspected I’d want the veil to hide from him. A wig and some makeup wouldn’t fool J.R. Simmons.
She looked me up and down, taking in my jeans and sweater. “Aren’t you gonna get dressed?”
“No. I wouldn’t put it past Joe to pull me over. If he or some other deputy does, it would be easy for them to put this all together. I’ll change behind the Sinclair station.”
Her eyes widened.
“But you’ll be fine. You can just wear a hat and your coat, and no one will think a thing about it.”
She nodded. “Yeah, that’s smart.”
I shrugged, trying to act nonchalant even though I was practically buzzing with nervous energy. “I’ve done this a time or two. You ready?”
“Almost.” I followed her down the hall to the front bedroom. She slipped through the open door and strapped on a gun holster over her shoulder, then put on her regular coat and slung a sleek black leather coat over her forearm.
“Where’d you get that?”
“This coat?” She shrugged as she stooped over her purse and pulled out the gun from her closet, which she put into her holster. “I bought it online.”
“I was talkin’ about the holster, but now that you mention it, none of these clothes seem like you.”
She grinned and grabbed another gun from her bag—this one the older weapon from the safe. “I bought them last week.”
“Is this the new you? Are you reinventing yourself?”
“No.” She slipped the second gun into the waistline of her pants at the small of her back and turned to look at me, cold fury in her eyes. “This is me waiting for you to let me help the Lady in Black.”
“You’ve been planning this?”
She snorted. “Please. I’m insulted you would think I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have done anything dangerous while I was pregnant, but now I can take all kinds of risks.” She brushed past me and headed down the stairs.
I followed behind, wondering if that was what this was really about. Was she taking unnecessary risks because she’d lost her babies and had been told there was no hope of her carrying any more?
But there wasn’t time to think about it. I grabbed my truck keys, and we took off toward the Sinclair station, both of us unusually quiet.
Jed was waiting for us when I pulled up, sitting in the driver’s seat of his car with a deep scowl on his face. He was out of the car before I pulled to a full stop. He yanked my door open with his uninjured arm.
“What the hell, Rose? You think I’m not enough backup? You went and hired someone else?”
I glanced back at Neely Kate. She had already shed her hat and replaced her coat with the leather one. A huge grin spread across her face as she climbed out the passenger door.
“Jed, it’s Neely Kate,” I said as I slid out of the truck. Without waiting to gauge his reaction, I opened the back door and dug into the bag holding my Lady in Black clothes.
She walked around the front of the truck, stopped next to me, and struck a saucy pose. “Hey, Jed.”
“What?” His voice was loud enough to wake the dead, and I thanked my lucky stars we were out in the middle of nowhere. “Why in the hell would you bring her?”
“Look, I tried to get her to stay behind, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.” I pulled my sweater over my head and tossed it onto the seat.
A moment of panic filled Jed’s eyes as he took in my nearly naked torso, but he switched his gaze to her, his face hard. “Then let me say it: No.”
Neely Kate cocked her head. “I’m goin’, Jed. And you can’t stop me.”
“The hell I can’t!”
“I’ll just follow you,” she said in a smug tone. “Rose knows I’m dead serious.”
I sighed, stepping out of my jeans and into my dress. “I tried my best to talk her out of it, Jed. She’s bound and determined to go.”
Jed glared at my best friend. “No. I’m scared enough putting Rose at risk.”
“I know how to shoot better than most of my cousins, and I know how to fight.” She turned to me and made a face. “And that fight with Tabitha doesn’t count. She’s a girl.” She put her hand on her hip. “I broke my cousin Witt’s nose and Alan Jackson’s collar bone.”