Page 11 of Calling His Bluff
He finished his coffee and rose from the table. “I’ll find out what I can about these two. You think they are acting alone?” She nodded. “Anyone else you have to fear?” She gave him an impatient look he didn’t quite buy. “So this was from the Armstrong twins?”
Reaching into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. He saw recognition register on her expression as he read the note.Do you feel lucky, Josephine?
She opened her mouth, but closed it. “Thanks for not lying, but it would help if you’d be honest with me,” Jack said. “I know someone gave you this note since you’ve been here. I don’t believe it’s from the Armstrongs, do you?”
She swallowed before meeting his gaze. “I don’t know who it was from. It was shoved under my door. Maybe it’s just a joke.”
His chuckle held no humor. “Keep telling yourself that. I’ll find the Armstrongs, but if there is someone else after you…” She said nothing—just as he had expected. “In the meantime, keep the doors locked and bolted. If you go out, call me. You have my number.” He saw her bristle but didn’t give her a chance to put her annoyance into words as he turned to go.
“I didn’t ask for your help,” she called after him.
He stopped and turned at the top of the stairs. “No, you didn’t.” With that he left.
* * * * * * * * * *
CHAPTER 6
Josephine swore all the way down the stairs. Jack, with his long-legged stride, was gone by the time she reached the door. Setting the lock and deadbolt, she started to go back upstairs but stopped. The door into the shop was closed. Had she locked it? She couldn’t remember. She tried the door, it swung open.
No sound came from the dark shop. She turned on a light. She thought she heard the soft rustle of fabric and looked toward the rack of dresses.
She froze, listening so hard it hurt.
No one was in the shop. She was letting Jack get to her. While she had reason to fear the Armstrong twins, they’d seemed to go out of their way to make her aware of their presence in town. Why was that?
If they’d come here to hurt her, that wasn’t a very smart strategy.
But if they just wanted to scare her…
Angry that they had, she walked through the shop with new eyes. She could leave and let the Realtor try to sell it. Or she could dig her heels in and stay to show everyone she couldn’t be bullied. Nor sit around waiting for Jack Rawlins to save her.
She knew what her great Aunt Clara would do.
Looking around the space, Josephine smiled as she cupped the silver dollar in her pocket. She was Clara’s blood and she had been taught by the best. Jack wasn’t going to like it, butthat made the idea even more appealing. The more he tried to protect her, the more uneasy she was becoming.
Wouldn’t she be a fool to trust Jack Rawlins?
Her heart said one thing, her common sense another. But she had to admit, she did appreciate the locks he’d put on the alley door and that he was trying to find the Armstrongs.
But that also made her uncomfortable. She’d learned to take care of herself after her week at her great Aunt Clara’s, since the divorce had been a nightmare and her once divorced parents a furious mess, and she’d definitely been alone at the all-girls boarding school.
Pushing those thoughts away, she wondered how long it would take for word to spread about her upcoming poker parties.
Not long,she thought after she called to tell the waiter from the pub about them. News circulated quickly in a small town she knew.
It wouldn’t be long before whoever she might have to fear would make themselves known.
-#-
Jack couldn’t help feeling anxious about Josephine. Now that he thought about it, telling her to stay put and call him if she left the apartment had definitely been a mistake. What were the chances she would do just the opposite? He could almost bet on it.
Once in his rig, he pulled out his phone. He worried there was more to know about the Armstrongs. It only took him a few minutes to run both of their names through the database. He didn’t like what he found. Both had records of petty crimes going back for years, but it was their violent history that worried him the most.
These weren’t just two men mad about losing money in a poker game, and he suspected Josephine knew it. So why wasn’t she more worried? Because she thought she could handle them?
What the Armstrong twins weren’t, though, were the types to con Aunt Clara into leaving her niece a bridal shop in Wild Rose Point, Oregon, to flush her out. They didn’t seem to have the patience to pull something like that off. They also weren’t the types to leave the note.Do you feel lucky, Josephine?
The last owner of Seaside Vows before Josephine was Clara Bodine of Black Butte, Montana. He’d already checked. But it was the owner before the aunt that stopped him. WPS Inc. He tried to track it down only to run into more LLCs. Whoever had actually owned the bridal shop, it hadn’t been the Armstrongs.
