“I don’t have time for this nonsense.” I reached for the door handle again.
“Rose, wait.” His voice was softer, and his hand was gentler as he reached for me. “I keep forgetting that you’re not like everyone else I know.”
I sat with my back to the seat, looking out the windshield, waiting.
“You’re right. I’m used to getting what I want through fear and intimidation. It just doesn’t work with you.” He leaned closer, lowering his voice. “So what do you want?”
I turned my head toward him, narrowing my eyes. “You’re serious.”
“As a heart attack.”
I shook my head. “You don’t have a stinkin’ thing that I want.”
“Are you sure about that?” He watched me again, his eyes twinkling with the promise that he knew something I didn’t.
I remembered our phone call the day before. “That’s the second time you’ve said that. What are you getting at?”
“You want Deveraux’s safety.”
My temper erupted. “You’re threatening him now? Will you never learn?”
“Not me. Someone else.”
My head felt fuzzy. “Who?” I managed to say.
“I’m not sure yet. But I think his fate is tied to mine. So tell me your vision.”
“Why do you think Mason’s safety has anything to do with you?”
“Call it a hunch, but I got where I am by following hunches.”
Mason was in danger. I tried to get myself under control so I could find out more. “Honestly, there’s not a lot I can tell you about the vision. You and Jed were in your office. He said Rogers was turning, and you said he needed to be taught a lesson.”
He stroked his chin with the tip of his finger. “Rogers, huh? That’s not a huge surprise. I knew he was on the fence.”
“What’s that mean, anyway?”
“He’s decided to side with someone else instead of giving his allegiance to me. The question is to who?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. It wasn’t in the vision.”
“Then force one of me now. Focus on what you saw, and maybe you can find out more.”
Groaning, I grabbed his hand and squeezed, focusing on my memory of the vision. The same images repeated themselves, and it ended exactly where it had ended before.
“That’s it?” Skeeter asked, getting angry.
“Don’t shoot the messenger, Skeeter,” I said, irritated.
“Try something else.”
Instead of focusing on the previous vision, I concentrated on Rogers and who he was siding with . . . and got the same exact vision I’d experienced the first two times.
“Try it again,” he huffed out.
“I’m not a Magic Eight-Ball. You can’t keep making me have visions until you get something you like.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Hey, here’s an idea: Find out from Rogers himself.”
He considered this for a moment. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“Now who’s threatening Mason?”
“I told you I don’t know. But as soon as I find out, I’ll let you know.”
“You mean like how you hustled to get my money back after I gave you information about the bank robbers?”
“The deal was that I got your money back. I lived up to my end.”
Maybe so, but he hadn’t exactly been in a hurry. I needed more reassurance than his vague response. What proof had he offered me that some unknown force was out to get Mason? How did I know I wasn’t being duped? “I want you to promise to leave Mason alone too.”
“What?”
“Stop messin’ with him.”
He laughed. “That’s it?”
“No, it’s just a start. You have to promise me you won’t hurt him.” Then I added while ticking off my demands with my fingers, “And you can’t get anyone else to do it either. And you have to look into who might be after Mason and take care of it.”
“You’re serious.”
I gave him a grim smile. “As a heart attack.”
“That’s all you want?” he asked, shaking his head. “Don’t you want money?”
“Mason is worth all the money in the world to me and more. I don’t want a dime. Only his guaranteed safety. You have to tell me the minute you know something about who’s after him.”
“Hell, I already told you I would.” He waved his hand as though I’d asked him to do the simplest task. “Why are we going over this again?”
“You have to promise.”
His amusement fell away. “You know I’m not a man of my word, Lady.”
My eyes bore into his. “But you are, Skeeter. You just haven’t admitted it to yourself yet.”
Uncertainty flickered in his eyes. “I won’t touch a hair on his head.” When I started to protest, he added, sounding angry, “And I won’t let anyone else do it, including whoever is out to get him, too. You’re right. I’d rather this arrangement be based on mutual need. That way you’ll be more inclined to help and not withhold information from me.”
“Fine.”
I’d just made yet another deal with the devil.
I reached for the door handle again. “I’ve gotta go.”