Page 65 of Homicide in Water Creek

“It’s you who doesn’t seem to understand. The land is for sale. We just haven’t agreed on a price, and there’s always a price.”

“Even if there were, I couldn’t sell the ranch without Jackson’s agreement. We each own half.”

Parenti waved a hand in the air as if it were a minor problem. “He’s an old man. Before long, you’ll own it all.”

“Are you threatening my granddaddy?” she asked, pushing herself up from the wheelchair to face him.

“What a spicy little thing you are. My son was right about that.”

“Your son?” she asked, her jaw dropping. Was Chinos his kid? How had that not landed on their radar? They believed that when Chinos had used the term ‘daddy’ it was code for Parenti.

“Oh, did that take you by surprise? What’s the saying, ‘son of another mother’?”

“Not even close,” she muttered with an eye roll.

“Jordan is the result of an interesting one-night stand. I happened to be lucky that she was married, and she convinced her husband that Jordan was his. Of course, once he was old enough, I swooped in to claim him as my own.”

“Once it was convenient for you,” Jacks translated. “Once you could use him to your advantage. Did you set up the car accident as well?”

“I’m not a monster,” he said, walking behind his desk and sitting down. He motioned for her to take a seat again. “That was pure luck. It’s easy enough to fake a few details here, plant a few corpses there, and voila, all his problems disappeared. He’s been learning the family business since.”

“Not well, it seems,” she muttered, sitting down again.

“He’s a little rough around the edges, but we’ll get there with him. The problem is, people like you never make it easy. You act like that land makes you happy, even though we all know money gives you freedom. Why not take it and enjoy life instead of spending the rest of your life on a work farm? Let’s start at six million for both ranches. That’s more than fair.”

Shaking her head, she refused to acknowledge the offer. “What are you going to do with the land? You can’t build a casino there. It’s cropland, nothing else.”

He leaned over his desk and folded his hands. “That’s where you’re wrong, my darling. It’s what’s beneath the crops that I’m after. People just don’t appreciate how much copper and tellurium are in the ground in Northern Wisconsin.”

He thought he was going to buy their land and mine it for minerals. Not on her watch, but Jacks would play along because she couldn’t see any other way out of this. She’d have to ‘give’ him what he wanted if she hoped to see King and her granddaddy again.

“And you think I’ll sell you those mineral rights for six million dollars? That’s laughable and insulting.”

“Oh, so the little businesswoman has come out to play, has she?”

Jacks ground her teeth at his condescending tone. Men like Parenti are what’s wrong with this world. She wanted nothing more than to take him out of it. The problem was that there was no way to reach the gun in her boot without him seeing her. She had no illusions that he didn’t have a gun handy, either on or in his desk.

“It’s like you said, there’s always a price,” she said, wheeling the wheelchair toward his desk. “So let’s find it.”

The smile creeping across his face told her she had convinced him she was ready to play.

Your ball, asshole.

King had passed frantic over two hours ago. Now he was numb, yet going out of his mind as he searched the traffic cameras. It was his last-ditch effort to find the woman he loved before he stormed The Crimson Clam Casino and searched it top to bottom. He had no question that Palatino Parenti was behind this, but he couldn’t prove it. All he could do was follow the evidence, and he had very little of it right now.

“There,” Maverick said, clicking to freeze the frame.

“What about it?” King asked, glancing at his deputy. “It’s a black sedan.”

“It’s the same black sedan I saw in town earlier while on patrol. I noticed it because the window tinting was too dark on all the windows. If I had been in my squad car, I would have pulled them over, but it disappeared before I could get to it. I meant to run the plate when I got back to the station, but by then all hell had broken loose.”

“Run the plate now.” Maverick nodded as King clicked the mouse again, watching the car. “It’s heading northwest, but once it hits the highway, it could go anywhere.”

“This is just my opinion, but if this plate is tied to Parenti, I say we head straight for the casino.”

“It’s a thought,” King agreed, his gaze flicking to his office, where Jackson and Keene sat waiting. He’d pulled them off the ranch, afraid Chinos might return for them. Besides, the minute they knew where Jacks was, they’d need manpower. He was tempted to call in help from other counties, but he didn’t yet know what he was dealing with beyond a kidnapping.

“It comes back to an LLC,” Maverick said. “I’ll need to do some digging to see whether that LLC is tied to Parenti.”