Secrets That Kill: A Shelby Nichols Adventure

  “I’m good,” Ramos replied. He glanced at me, and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “I’m really good.”

  I smiled back, hoping he didn’t notice that my lips were trembling.

  The drive to the rental house gave me time to get my emotions under control. For just a moment, I’d had a small hope that maybe Ramos would give up going after Carson and let Fitch handle it. I thought the gift of his brother’s life might change that, or at least make him think about it. But it never even crossed his mind. Not once.

  Too much had happened to Ramos to change him, and I needed to accept that. If it got out that Ramos had a brother, would it put Javier at risk? I knew Ramos had to have enemies. Would Javier become a target? Had I done the right thing? I guess it all depended on how Ramos handled it.

  I glanced at Ramos, opening my mind to his thoughts. He was still in shock that Javier was alive. Ramos’ yearning to see Javier nearly overwhelmed me. He wondered what he looked like, calculating that he was now twenty-seven years old. What kind of life did he lead? Had he finished school and gone to college?

  Ramos surmised that Fitch must have stepped in and taken care of Javier and their mother until she died a few months later. If so, he owed Fitch a great deal more than he’d ever dreamed. Once Carson was out of the way, he’d have a long talk with Fitch and find out everything he could about Javier, and if there was any way he could help him, he’d do it. Whatever Javier needed, Ramos would be the big brother Javier had lost all those years ago.

  Hearing those thoughts quieted my doubts. Ramos may be a killer, but he still cared about his brother. I hoped it was enough to keep Javier safe.

  We entered a nice residential neighborhood not far from the resorts, and Ramos pulled into a driveway. “According to Jackie,” he explained, “this is a three bedroom house with two master bedroom suites. That means you can have one all to yourself. The best thing about it is the price. For the cost of one night at The Ritz-Carlton, we get five nights here.” He smiled widely, clearly in a good mood. “It even has a swimming pool.” He was thinking that would make me feel better for not getting home sooner.

  “It will help,” I said, unable to hide my discontent.

  A woman got out of a car parked across the street, and came toward us with a big smile. “Alejandro Ramos?” She had beautiful long brown hair and eyes, straight white teeth, and her accent was perfect. She was thinking how hot Ramos was and disappointed he had a wife.

  I blinked in surprise, but gladly played along as she introduced herself and opened the house to give us a brief tour. I may not have any claim on Ramos, but thoughts of him with her made me a little nauseated. How crazy was that?

  The house was bigger on the inside than it looked, and had a nice open feel with vaulted ceilings over the cozy living room and kitchen-dining area. Two large bedrooms were located on the third floor with their own bathrooms, and the third bedroom was on the main floor across the hall from a bathroom and laundry room. All of the bedrooms had their own wall-mounted flat screen TVs. Just off the kitchen was a small computer room with internet access and printer. Between the kitchen and dining rooms, a sliding door opened onto a deck with a hot tub and swimming pool that took up most of the backyard. I had to admit it was pretty fantastic.

  A sick pang went through me to realize that my family would have been much more comfortable in a home like this than at the resort hotel where we’d stayed, and all for about the same price. Why hadn’t I checked out vacation houses? Sometimes I really wished there was such a thing as a ‘do over.’

  The woman handed Ramos the house keys and her card with instructions to call her if we needed anything and strutted away, casting an alluring smile at him over her shoulder. Ramos enjoyed the sway of her hips and the way she’d smiled at him with a clear invitation. And now he had her number… The tapping of my foot caught his attention, and he turned to me with a guilty flush. “Um…which room do you want?” he asked.

  “I’ll take the best upstairs bedroom,” I answered curtly, even though the rooms were pretty much the same.

  “That’s what I thought you’d say. I’ll take the other one, and Nick can stay down here.”

  My smile didn’t quite reach my eyes, and I really wanted to tell him he wasn’t thinking that at all, but I had no claim on him, so I shouldn’t be upset. It was stupid of me to even be thinking that way. I had a husband of my own…which reminded me. “Um…I should probably give Chris a call.”

  “Oh, yeah,” he agreed. “While you’re at it, I’ll run to the store for some groceries.” He was thinking I needed some privacy for this and was more than willing to disappear for a while, especially since he’d basically promised Chris he’d have me home by now. He didn’t really want to talk to Chris and explain why. That could be awkward. He was happy to let me break it to him and not be around in case Chris wanted to talk to him again. “I’ll be back soon. Be sure and lock the door after I leave.”

  He bolted out, shutting the door behind him before I could call him a coward like I wanted to. Annoyed, I grabbed my bag and hiked up the stairs to my room. Dropping my bag on the bed, I opened the curtains over the window to watch Ramos back out of the driveway and take off down the street.

  “Damn!” I yelled in frustration, finding it hard to believe that if I hadn’t nearly fainted, and dropped my dark glasses for Fitch to find and return, we’d be on the plane for home by now. It was crazy to think how that one little thing had changed everything else. And now I had to make this call to Chris. Of course, if we hadn’t talked to Fitch, Ramos wouldn’t know his brother was alive, so looking at it that way, maybe it wasn’t so bad.

  Only…how was I going to explain all of this to Chris so he wouldn’t be upset? I sighed. I was the coward. It couldn’t be half as bad as I thought. Chris would understand. He was a great guy. And if he didn’t, he could always fly back out here and stay with me. This place was great, and there was plenty of room…that was a good compromise, right?

  I picked up my phone before I chickened out and placed the call. “Hi honey,” I said in my usual cheerful voice.

  “Hey,” he answered, relief in his tone. “I’m glad you called. I was beginning to think something had happened.”

  “Actually…it has.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “Oh…it’s nothing really. Except that I have to stay a couple more days, but that’s not too bad. I should be home by the weekend for sure. I hope you’re not too upset. I know I am, but it couldn’t be helped. You know I’d be there if I could. It’s just…things happen, and sometimes it’s out of my control…”

  “Shelby,” he interrupted, his voice a low rumble. “What’s going on?”

  “Um…well, I got a call from Detective Fitch,” I explained, grabbing on to the first excuse I could think of. “He needed my help with something, and one thing led to another, and now it looks like I have to help Uncle Joey and Ramos take care of some business here, but like I said, it won’t take long at all.”

  “Really? Are you serious?” His tone had gone up a whole octave. He wasn’t taking this very well.

  “Look, if you want, you can come and stay with me. I’ve got my own suite and everything. It could be fun.” I heard Chris sigh and could imagine how his eyes were shut and he was rubbing his forehead. I grimaced, realizing he’d probably been doing that a lot lately.

  “You know I can’t do that,” he said. “Not when I’ve just taken two weeks off work. I can’t clear my schedule that quickly.”

  “Oh, right,” I said. “Bummer.”

  “Bummer? I’ll tell you what’s a bummer. I’ve got reservations for dinner and tickets to a play tonight, all because I wanted to surprise you with something fun. Remember that?”

  “You do? Oh Chris, I feel horrible.” Hot remorse washed over me. “But you have to know I’d rather be there with you than stuck here.”

  “I don’t get it. What’s so important that you can’t come home? Tell me so I can un
derstand.”

  Now it was my turn to sigh. How much could I tell Chris about Ramos’ secret? I had to tell him something so he’d understand better. Maybe keeping it vague would work.

  “Okay, I’ll tell you as much as I can, but keep in mind that it’s pretty complicated. Detective Fitch called this morning and needed me to identify the body, so I went to the morgue and dropped my dark glasses. When Fitch brought them out to the car, he recognized Ramos from when he knew him fifteen years ago. Fitch told Ramos that Carson was the person responsible for something that happened back then, and now Ramos and Fitch need my help to bring Carson to justice.” I paused for breath, hoping Chris wouldn’t ask too many questions.

  “What? That doesn’t make any sense. What body? You already talked to Fitch about Warren.”

  “Oh…it wasn’t his body. It was the guy who killed Warren, you know, the guy with the snake tattoos. When we went to the restaurant last night to get the thumb-drive, tattoo guy tried to shoot us, and Ramos shot back and accidentally killed him. Um…in self-defense.”

  “You went to the restaurant with Ramos?” Chris asked, his voice tightening with tension. “Yesterday, you told me you weren’t going to go.”

  “Huh…I did?” I swallowed, realizing he was right. “Well, it worked out okay. I mean we got the thumb-drive and were on our way to the airport this morning when Detective Fitch asked me to identify the body. If Fitch hadn’t seen Ramos in the car, I’d be on my way home by now. But unfortunately he did, and now I have to stay and help them catch Carson.”

  Chris huffed. “You and Ramos are helping Detective Fitch catch Carson. That doesn’t sound like something Ramos would do.”

  “You’re right. Normally, it’s not. But like I said, they knew each other a long time ago and Fitch has been trying to catch Carson all these years, and now with our help, he can. See? It makes perfect sense.”

  “No…actually…it doesn’t,” Chris said. “But besides that, why do they need your help? What can you do…unless...oh no.” Chris caught his breath. “Does Ramos know about you? Did you tell him you could read minds?” I didn’t answer right away and Chris moaned. “Shelby…what have you gotten yourself into now?”

  It was a relief to answer that question and not the first one. “To tell you the truth, I’m not really sure. All I know is Uncle Joey’s sending Nick Berardini to crack the thumb-drive, and we’re going to use the information from that to get Carson. And…I might have to play poker.”

  “Poker? What has that got to do with anything?”

  “Well…it looks like Carson has some kind of professional poker games going on, and Ramos thinks we might be able to use my mind reading abilities to back Carson into a corner and catch him or something. You did want me to learn how to play poker didn’t you? So now I will. That’s good, right?”

  “No! I never wanted you to learn poker. Look…this is getting out of hand.” He paused to rein in his frustration. “Is Ramos there? I think I’d better talk to him.”

  “Ah…no. He skipped out to get some groceries, and then he’s got to pick up Nick from the airport. Jackie got us a nice vacation rental home for a few days, so we have a kitchen and everything. It made me mad to think we could have stayed in a place like this for about the same amount of money as the hotel. It would have been so much better, but what do you do?” When Chris didn’t answer, I continued. “I can call you back when he gets here if you want.”

  “Yeah…sure…fine.”

  “Chris, I’m really sorry about this. I wish I were on my way home. Are you sure you can’t come? I can call my mom and see if she can watch out for Savannah and Josh for a couple of days. I really do have my own suite.”

  “I’ll check my schedule tomorrow and see how it looks.”

  “Really? That would be great!” I said, bouncing on the bed.

  “Don’t get your hopes up.” His warning hit me like a bucket of ice water. “In the meantime, I really need to talk to Ramos. Got that? As soon as he gets back, call me.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. Sensing that he was kind of disgusted with me, I needed to keep him on the phone until he wasn’t so angry. “How are the kids? Is everything okay at home?”

  “Yeah. Everything’s fine.”

  “Will Savannah and Josh be okay on their own while you’re at work?”

  “Of course,” he said. “It’s not like they’re little kids or anything, I mean Josh will be a freshman in high school for Pete’s sake.”

  “You’re right. I’m sure they’ll be fine,” I quickly agreed. “Hey, do you think you can change the play tickets to Saturday night? I’ll make sure I’m home by then, and I’d really like to go.”

  He huffed. “You don’t even know what play it is.”

  “I don’t really care about that. All that matters to me is being with you. Heck, we could go to a baseball game or a soccer match, and I’d love every minute of it if it meant spending time with you.”

  “Hmm…maybe I’ll get season tickets and take you up on that.”

  I chuckled and relief loosened the knot in my chest. “Sounds good to me.”

  He sighed. “You know I don’t like this. Not one bit.”

  “I know.”

  “I’d ask you to tell me what happened last night at the restaurant, but I’m not sure I can take it right now. It makes me want to call Manetto and tell him off, but that probably wouldn’t be a good idea either. I just feel so helpless, and I don’t like it.”

  “I promise I’ll be fine. Ramos and Detective Fitch won’t let anything happen to me.” I knew I was stretching it about Fitch, but if Chris thought Fitch was involved, I knew he’d feel better.

  “I still want to talk to Ramos when he gets back.”

  “Yeah…I’ll tell him.”

  “Okay.” He let out his breath on a deep sigh. “The kids are hungry. I guess I’d better get us some dinner.”

  “Oh, sure,” I said, a pang of guilt rolling over me. “I’ve got some coupons on the fridge if you want to use them.”

  “Yeah, I see them,” he answered. “Don’t worry, I got this.”

  “I know. I’m just a little homesick. Tell the kids I love them, okay?”

  “Sure. Just call me later,” he said.

  “I will. I love you.”

  “Love you too,” he answered, and we disconnected.

  Chapter 8

  I flopped back on the bed, feeling bad about this whole mess, but glad that I’d gotten through to Chris. He wasn’t real happy about me staying and would probably use this to get me to do whatever he wanted for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t ever be able to object to anything because he could always say, “Remember Orlando…and how you stayed there with Ramos?” I’d probably feel guilty enough to cave in every time.

  I did feel bad, but maybe not as bad as I’d sounded. I was sad not to be with Chris, but as I glanced around the luxurious room and checked out the bathroom with the jetted tub, I remembered the hot tub and swimming pool in the backyard. Yeah, I was sad, but since I was stuck here, and it wasn’t costing me a thing, I might as well enjoy myself. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been away from my husband and kids for this long. It was a little weird not having to be responsible for anyone else; weird and kind of nice. Did that make me a bad person?

  I glanced down at my clothes. Since I was staying for a few more days, I’d need more things to wear, but that could wait until I found out what the plan was for taking down Carson. If it got too complicated, I might need to buy a dress and heels and maybe some other nice stuff.

  I wandered into the bedroom across the hall for a closer look. It was nice, but didn’t have the jetted tub like mine. Still, I didn’t think Ramos would care. A prickle of unease ran down my spine, and I checked my door knob, sighing with relief to find it had a lock. Not that I was worried about Ramos…or Nick, it was still nice to know I could lock my door.

  Downstairs, I roamed into the kitchen and opened the fridge. It was empty, and I wished Ramos woul
d have waited for me to go shopping with him. I needed a diet soda something fierce. I was also looking forward to cooking. After two weeks of eating out, I was tired of it and ready to cook up something nice and healthy. Ramos hadn’t seemed too concerned about picking up supplies, so maybe he could cook as well. That was one thing Chris didn’t do, and the times he had tried were disastrous, so I always did the cooking. But seriously, I didn’t mind…much.

  I didn’t know how long Ramos was going to be, so I rolled up my pants and sat in the shade by the pool with my feet dangling over the edge. The yard was private and fenced in on all sides with lots of flowering hibiscus bushes, ferns, and tall trees for shade. It was pleasant, but starting to get hot. The water was calling to me for a swim, but I didn’t want to have to re-do my hair and make-up. I could wait until later tonight with the pool light on and the starry black sky as a backdrop. Just imagining it brought a smile to my lips.

  The sliding doors opened, and Ramos popped his head out. “Hey, do you want to help me put the groceries away?”

  “Sure,” I said. “As long as you got me some Diet Coke.”

  He grinned. “You know I did.”

  As we put the groceries away, I was impressed with all the fruits and vegetables Ramos got, as well as the eggs, pasta, and fine cuts of meat. It looked like he really did know how to cook.

  “So, how did your talk go with Chris?” he asked.

  “It went about like I expected. He’s not too happy that I’m still here, and I think he’s a little confused about why. Mostly because I had to tell him we were helping Fitch catch Carson, since I couldn’t explain the real reason. I figured if Chris thought Fitch was involved, he wouldn’t think my part would be dangerous, although he had a hard time believing you would work with a cop, and he didn’t get the poker thing at all.”

  Ramos shook his head and grunted, thinking that it was no wonder Chris was confused. That was a lot to take in. “So what did he say?”

  “He wants to talk to you.”