Skirt Steak (Grade-A Beefcakes 5)

He nodded.

“Tommy couldn’t get the cash, so he got the stupid, and desperate, idea of searching for drugs in Dr. Metzger’s office. When that didn’t pan out, the guys got pissed, put the heat on Tommy. When they learned his sister worked there, they got the idea of the fake prescriptions. A perfect way to get pills. Tommy could sell them and get the cash to pay the guys back.”

“A drug dealer. Jesus, Tommy’s a little fuck,” Porter murmured.

“They threatened Jill,” I said, my words sharp. Cutting. When I heard that, when the guy with the busted nose had said that, I’d had to leave the interrogation. I’d had to have a deputy sit with the asshole while I cooled off.

“What do you mean they threatened her?” Porter’s voice went deep and deadly.

“Told her she had to get the scripts or they’d kill Tommy. They’d kill her.”

“What the fuck?” Porter said, spinning on his heel and pacing.

“From what Tommy said, she refused to do it, and he was pissed. You ready for this?”

He stopped looked my way.

“The text Tommy showed us, she wasn’t telling Tommy the cops were after him. She was talking about the two fuckers who threatened her.”

“She told him to run,” Porter added.

I nodded. “Yeah, because she’d decided she wouldn’t do what they wanted. Why the fuck did you think she would do something like that?”

“Because she’s fucking the sheriff and the DA.”

“Jesus, you believed Tommy?”

He shook his head. “I told you what happened back east. I’d been in a relationship and the woman had only been with me to get her off, and I don’t mean sexually. She’d been up for tax evasion and other stupid shit and she used me, fucked me so that I could keep her out of jail. Turns out, she stayed out of jail and I got fired. Pretty much got kicked out of working in the state.”

“Sienna?” I remembered this story, knew she was why he hadn’t dated much. One night stands, but nothing real, not until Jill.

“Sierra,” he corrected.

“Sierra’s long gone, dude. That was years ago. I never met the woman, but Jill’s nothing like her.”

He sighed. “I know, but between being burned in the past and Tommy’s words, I blew it.”

My cell rang and I pulled it from my pocket.

“Hey, Parker,” I said.

“She’s gone.”

I glanced at Porter. “Who’s gone?”

Porter came around the counter, stood beside me. I lowered my cell, hit the speaker button.

“Jill, you idiot,” Parker yelled. “She’s gone.”

“Where?”

“Gone! She texted and said she was fine but had to leave town.”

“Oh shit,” Porter murmured. He put his hands on the back of his neck, elbows out and exhaled. “That’s what she was talking about earlier. She’d already decided to leave and wasn’t going to tell us.”

“And you thought she was talking about stealing scripts.”

“Who’s stealing prescriptions?” Parker asked. “Jill wouldn’t do that.”