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Ridge kissed her forehead. “You have nothing to apologize for. Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out, okay?”
She nodded. “When he shows back up, I think I’m going to kick his ass this time,” she vowed.
Ridge laughed. “I think you could probably take him.”
San Antonio, Texas
Early Wednesday Morning
Eighteen hoursafter Corbett and Stella left the house, they returned. He parked her in her spot in the garage and told her goodnight before going inside. Taking a bottle of water out of the refrigerator, he downed it, and then he leaned his head against the wall for a minute.
He hated to quote Ayden, but it was good to be home. He went down the hall to the bathroom and took out the blue contact lenses. His poor eyes were inflamed and red from having the contacts in so long again. He washed his eyes out with cool water, and then he took everything out of his pockets and stored the items on the bathroom counter before stripping down to his shorts. It was hot. This type of heat so early in the year meant a long, scorching Texas summer.
Corbett grabbed his cell phone from the counter and took it with him down the hall. He set it on the table, next to his real phone. The one he’d taken with him today was for work. It was listed under the name Caleb Corbett, in case anyone checked, and the contacts were just that, contacts he’d made in the business so far. Most of them belonged to the biker club he’d been working to infiltrate, Sons of Satan. He had a feeling that today he had. While he and Ayden were in the mechanics’ bay, he’d seen two motorcycles with the Sons of Satan emblem on them. He had suspected all along that they were connected to someone or something more powerful than a motorcycle club. And he’d been right.
He scooped up his real phone, turned it on, and went to the couch. While he waited for the screen to light up, he flipped on the news. The anchor was talking about another murder that had happened in the city. It had been the result of a domestic dispute. The man had beaten his wife to death with his bare hands. Corbett hoped that Ridge wasn’t watching. Things like that pushed his friend over the edge.
The phone buzzed in his hand, showing that he had four missed calls and three voicemails. One of those calls was from Ridge, speak of the devil. Corbett put the phone on speaker and dialed his voicemail. The first one was from Gomez. He had left it about two hours before. He wanted Corbett to check in, no matter what time he got home. The next was from Ridge. Raven had gotten a strange letter from Hank, and she was worried, again. Poor girl. It was obvious she was trying to go about her own life in a positive way. Her brother’s negativity kept getting in the way of that. He would call him back in the morning. He listened to the third voicemail, and that was the one that made him get up and go put his clothes back on.
It was from Naomi. She said she didn’t know who else to call. She’d been arrested, and she needed his help. When he came back out from the bedroom and picked up the remote to turn off the television, there was news of two kilos of cocaine that had gone missing from the San Antonio courthouse. They flashed a picture of Ayden on the screen behind the anchor’s head. Corbett turned the volume up and listened.
“Today was supposed to begin the trial of Christopher Ayden Styles,” the anchor reported. “He is allegedly a general in the Aryan Brotherhood and was facing charges of drug trafficking. Before his trial began Tuesday morning, it was discovered that two kilos of cocaine that had been stored in the evidence vault at the courthouse was missing. It was also discovered that a key witness in the case was missing as well. The charges were dropped against Mr. Styles, but we have received accounts that an arrest has been made in the case of the missing drugs. A Naomi Ward was taken into custody after evidence was discovered leading authorities to believe she had taken the cocaine. Miss Ward is an attorney often used by the members of the Aryan Brotherhood, and Eyewitness News has discovered that she has a brother who is serving a sentence for drug sales and trafficking at Dominguez State Prison.”
They flashed a mug shot of a skinny white kid with a shaved head and coke-bottle glasses. He had Naomi’s eyes.
“Fuck!” Corbett said out loud to the empty house as he flipped off the television and grabbed his keys off the table.
Pendale, Texas
Early Wednesday Morning
Naomi sat on the couch,wrapped in a blanket, staring at the wall. She had watched as the police tore apart her car, and then again as they had torn apart her new home. She looked around and gave a disgusted little laugh as she realized that, now, she didn’t have to unpack. They had done that for her, going through every one of the cardboard boxes she had sitting in her house and garage. They hadn’t found anything, and they wouldn’t.
Ayden had set her up; she was certain of it. But she also knew him well enough to know the cocaine was probably already back out on the streets. Far be it for him to waste the product. They had her on tape, and it had been good enough for them to arrest her, even though she was innocent, and the guilty party was out in the world, free to cause more trouble.
Her attorney, a friend that she’d gone to law school with, had told her not to worry. The woman had convinced the judge to grant bail and release Naomi on her own recognizance. She reassured her that, without the cocaine in her possession, they really couldn’t prove anything. Naomi knew she was right. She wouldn’t likely be convicted of this, but how much damage would it do to her life in the interim? All she had to do was glance around this room she sat in to know that the damage had already begun.
Before the tears could come again, there was a knock on her door. It was three o’clock in the morning.This can’t be anything good, she thought. She sat where she was, hoping that whoever it was would go away.
There was another knock, this one louder and more urgent. “Naomi! It’s Corbett, open up!”
She sighed and pushed herself off the couch. With the blanket still held tight around her shoulders, she went over and pulled open the door. Corbett’s face looked like he was ready to scold her, but then he saw hers. Instead, he pushed his way inside, kicked the door closed behind him, and took her in his arms.
The tears came then, and for the next half hour, he held her while she cried.
After a while, Corbett realized Naomi had stopped crying. He pulled back and looked down at her. She had fallen asleep, and she looked at peace. He didn’t have the heart to wake her, so instead he leaned back into the couch, propped his feet up on a cardboard box that sat in front of them, and continued to hold her until he fell asleep himself.
Stockdale, Texas
Wednesday Morning
Vincent and Armandosat in the bakery. As he picked at a croissant, Vincent watched Raven go about her daily routine. He wished her boss wasn’t here today. He detested that nosy woman. She kept trying to talk to him to find out where he was from and what he was doing in town. He had brushed her off, but the woman was relentless. If she wasn’t careful, she would find herself at the bottom of a well.
Vincent was restless. He was tired of the sleazy little hotel he slept in at night. He wanted things to move quicker. “So, Pablo said things went well with his meeting with the white devils yesterday?”
“Yes, sir. I have the cash, and it’s the appropriate amount,” Armando confirmed.
Vincent smiled. “That’s magnificent. I will meet with my father’s man tomorrow to make the payment, and the rest we shall use in the purchase of a home. I am ready for a home, Armando.” He looked over towards the counter where the lovely auburn-haired woman stood smiling and talking to a customer. “And a family of my own.”
