Free Lingerie and Lariats (Rough & Ready#7) by Cheyenne McCray Page B

room at the bed and breakfast.” She looked embarrassed. “He made me sleep on the floor.”
    The fury inside Dan increased and he gritted his teeth. “Then what happened?”
    Renee told him about the trip to Nogales and Jerry’s explanation that he’d bought a load of Mexican furniture and accessories. “I had a strange feeling that he wasn’t telling the truth, but I don’t know why he would lie.”
    Dan was certain he did know but didn’t say so to Renee.
    She went on, telling him about Jerry’s breakfast meeting with two men and described them when Dan asked her to. She gave a description that matched the ones for two suspected drug dealers who were rumored to have ties to the cartel. He kept that suspicion to himself.
    When she said she thought their names might be Luis and Juan, that sealed it for Dan. The description and the names matched the men Dan suspected.
    Renee explained how she had been in the restroom when two women came in, talking about the men and that was how she had learned their names.
    “Jerry is planning on getting some kind of revenge on someone,” she said. “That’s what one of the women said. I think her name was Mercedes, by the way. The other woman was Carla.” She took a deep breath as Dan made mental notes. “Mercedes said that Luis might be taking care of a problem and if he did it would be a good payday.”
    Did Nelson order a hit on someone? “What else did they say?”
    “Not much.” She frowned. “Maybe he’s trying to destroy someone financially. I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s threatened to do that to people in the past. Oh,” she added. “The woman also said that Luis’s contact from the east was going to make a buy. They didn’t say what kind.”
    A hit and a buy. Nelson was obviously working on a drug deal. Dan kept his thoughts to himself. “What else happened?”
    “I decided I needed to get out of there and get to the bank before he did,” she said. “Over seventy-five thousand dollars was missing from the accounts out of close to half a million,” she said.
    Dan frowned “That’s a chunk of change to be missing.”
    “Yes, but at least the rest was there,” she said. “It could have been much worse.” She explained how she had closed out the accounts and had opened a new one and put all of the funds in there.
    Smart girl , Dan thought. “I take it Nelson found you at the bank after you made the transactions.”
    “Yes,” she said. “Jerry told me he had made some kind of buy that he had to pay for and was going to make me put the accounts the way they were. He threatened to kill me then created a big scene and that’s when the teller called the police. When they showed up he was argumentative and he refused to let go of me.” She rubbed one of her arms. “So the police arrested him. He was still yelling threats at me even as the police took him.”
    “Nelson threatened to kill you?” Fury made Dan’s skin hot.
    Renee nodded. “No one heard him say it. But then in front of the officers he did threaten to make me sorry.”
    Dan ground his teeth. The only one who was going to be sorry was Nelson.
    Their sandwiches were served and they dug into their meals. Renee seemed exceptionally hungry. Every time Dan looked at the bruise on her face and thought about how Nelson had treated her, his blood boiled even more.
    “It won’t be long until he’s back on the street,” Dan said. “Nelson will probably be looking for you, so I think you’d better stay somewhere safe. You can stay with me.” Dan held up his hand when he saw that she looked like she was going to argue. “Unless you have a problem with that. And don’t say it’s because you don’t want to inconvenience me, because you’re not going to. I’ll feel a lot better if I can keep an eye on you.”
    She looked at him then gave a nod. “Thank you.”
    He glanced at his watch. “If you’re finished with lunch, I’ll take you out to my place. If you don’t mind being