Our Red Hot Romance Is Leaving Me Blue Read Free Page A

Give us directions to your house and we’ll come out and look around. We can talk then.”
    “Sure thing,” Justin said. “What time works for you?”
    “We’ll be done by three. We could meet you there around four.”
    “Four o’clock is great,” Justin said. “I live about eighteen miles out, on the Odessa Highway. On the right side of the road.”
    Debbie Sue was shocked at herself for volunteering to show up at this guy’s house when she really didn’t know him. He had just announced he had killed his wife, forgodsake, and he hadn’t disclosed the circumstances. The chill she had felt earlier was starting to creep back. “Even with cheap land, if you’re an Odessa firefighter, why don’t you live in Odessa or somewhere in Ector County?”
    “I work three on and three off. I can live anywhere I want to on my days off. On my days on, I stay at the fire station.”
    “Right,” Debbie Sue said, somewhat mollified.
    “Listen, ma’am, I can’t thank you enough,” Justin said.
    Debbie Sue was having a hard time believing he was a killer. She would talk to Buddy about it this evening. If this potential new client had been a suspect in a crime of any kind, Buddy would remember it.
    But just in case Mr. Justin Sadler had done what he had just claimed and had somehow managed to escape detection, she said in her firmest, no-nonsense voice, “You need to know one thing, Justin. My husband is Texas Ranger James Russell Overstreet, Jr., and Cabell County is part of his territory.”
    “Yes, ma’am, I remember when Buddy was sheriff.”
    Not to be deterred, Debbie Sue continued, “And Edwina’s husband is a retired Navy SEAL. You hurt either one of us and between the two of them they’ll pound your head sohard you’ll have to unzip your pants to blow out your birthday candles. If you live to see another birthday. Do we have an understanding?”
    A frown of puzzlement formed a crease between Justin’s brows. His gaze switched between her and Edwina for several seconds. “Oh, yes, ma’am. Absolutely.”

two
    D ebbie Sue, alongside Edwina, watched the Domestic Equalizers’ new client climb into his pickup and drive away. Then she and her partner walked back into the salon. Edwina began busying herself with permanent rods, dividing them into groups by size and color, a task Debbie Sue knew was a stalling tactic. Waiting for Edwina’s gripe to surface, Debbie Sue found a task of her own. She started straightening the objects that sat on her workstation. After several minutes, she could no longer stand the silence. “Okay, out with it. I know you’re thinking something.”
    Edwina dropped a permanent rod into her tray and crossed her long arms over her flat chest, which was never a good sign. “We’ve never worked for a wife killer before. If he says he killed her, why didn’t we ask him how? And when? Andwhy? How come we’ve never heard anything about it? And how come you told him we’d meet him at his house?”
    Good questions, all. “I’m almost positive Rachel Sadler died in a car accident. Hearing Justin say he had killed her had me so stunned I lost my train of thought. Meeting at his house just fell out of my mouth before I gave it thorough consideration.” Debbie Sue’s concern for her and Edwina’s safety loomed in her mind, but unwilling to admit going to a wife killer’s house might be a mistake, she planted a fist on her hip in her own show of defiance. “Why shouldn’t we go to his house? We couldn’t stand out there in the parking lot all day.”
    “But you don’t like him. You don’t want to do this.”
    Debbie Sue raised a palm in protest. “Whoa. I never said I didn’t like him.”
    “That last remark you made to him wasn’t exactly an invitation for a good time. Hon, you’re easier to read than a newspaper. You do not like him and you don’t trust him.”
    “Dammit, Ed, I don’t know how I feel about him.” Debbie Sue gave a deep sigh. “In the short time we