Page 44 of Playing for Keeps
“Hey Lance. Ah, I’m just tying up some loose ends on an investigation,” Mike said.
“What investigation? I haven’t seen Wimbley in almost two years and I have no idea whose car this is,” Del said.
“Let me see that,” Lance said before taking the papers from Del’s hand.
“You’re going down now, Greer,” Mal taunted.
“I’m calling our attorney,” Lance said.
“I’m going to ask you to come with me, Del,” Mike said.
“Am I being arrested?” he asked.
Mike immediately shook his head. “No. Right now we just want to talk about your interactions with Wimbley. You can grab your jacket and ride with me over to your place. I’ll have one of my deputies pick up your truck, if you want to give me your keys so they won’t have to impound it.”
Because if people in town saw that his truck was being impounded, they would assume he was in trouble. Again.
“He’s not going anywhere with you,” Lance announced. “And you, you little prick, don’t you ever get tired of creating stories?”
Del moved to his right, blocking Lance from Mal. He dug into his pocket and pulled out his keys. After removing the key to the truck, he handed it over to Mike.
“Lance will drive me to my place,” Del stated evenly. “And you will get the hell out of my bar. Now,” he said to Mal. “And don’t come back.”
Mal laughed but he didn’t move. “Gladly,” he said. “But you don’t have to worry about me coming back because there’ll be nothing to come back to.”
Three hours later, Del stood in his living room amid the holiday decorations and Rylan’s burgundy sweater which she’d left hanging over the back of the couch. Lance stood with his arms folded near the fireplace while Noah, Jeret, Rock and Ethan were either sitting or standing somewhere in the room as well.
“What the hell do we have to do for people in this town to believe we’ve changed?” Rock asked. “I mean, damn. We graduate from high school without any of us serving jail time. We head off to college or the military and all of us went into damn good careers. Now we’re back running a great restaurant and giving back to the community and it’s still not enough. What the hell do they want from us? Blood?”
“They want us gone,” Ethan said solemnly. “Bastards.”
“Well that’s just too damn bad,” Noah stated evenly. “We belong here just as much as Mal Penning with his sniveling spoiled ass!”
Lance nodded. “We should’ve beat him into the concrete when we had the chance.”
Jeret sighed. “That was fifteen years ago.”
“And it wouldn’t have stopped him from becoming the bitch-ass monster he is now,” Del told them.
He ran a hand down the back of his head and sighed. Renaldo Wimbley was found in a motel in Denton, which was located just about an hour and a half west of Providence. He’d been holed up there since the end of October when he’d dropped his Lamborghini off at Kent Automotive to be serviced. Mike figured Wimbley knew Del was back in Providence and was planning to make a move on him using his car breaking down as a cover. But he never came back to get the car because someone had entered the motel room one night while Wimbley slept and shot him ten times in the face.
“Can’t believe Mr. Will pointed him in your direction,” Jeret said. “I’d think he knew you were a better man than that, especially since you’ve been dating Rylan.”
Del’s jaw clenched at those words because that’s precisely what he was trying to figure out. He wanted answers and he only knew one way to get them.
Rylan had just stepped out of her car and was heading back into the shop to finish up some paperwork she’d left when Camy called about them doing more shopping. She’d only meant to go to the one store that they’d forgotten to go to last night but ended up staying out for over three hours. Now, she was crossing the parking lot with quick steps as the Lamborghini was being towed by a truck with the sheriff’s department logo on the side.
“What’s going on?” she asked her father who was standing at the front door of the shop, a deep scowl on his face.
“Did you know that car belonged to a drug kingpin?” Will asked in return.
Stunned, Rylan stared at her father and then back to the car. “No. I mean, I don’t usually ask for occupation when they bring in their cars. He gave me a name, cell phone number and email address. That’s all we needed for our forms.”
Will was shaking his head. “Now we can kiss any money coming in from that direction good-bye. The car’s being impounded by the cops because the drug dealer turned up dead over in Denton.”
“What? Oh my goodness,” Rylan said.
She would’ve never imagined that this would be the result of her dealings with Lamborghini Guy. He’d seemed like a normal man when he’d come in and dropped the car off, even though Rylan had briefly wondered why he wasn’t taking a car like that to a specialty dealer. She wasn’t about to turn away the huge profit they’d expected to make from working on it, so she hadn’t asked him that question. But now it was gone.
