“If you’re gonna play with the big dogs, Lady, you’re gonna have to roll around in shit.” His face was hard enough to match his words.

“Skeeter,” Jed cautioned.

“What? She jumped feet first into this mess. She’s gonna have to accept the consequences.”

I swallowed the bile in my throat. “Did they know I was Lady?” I hoped to God Jed was right—otherwise there was no way my plan with J.R. would pan out.

“No.” Skeeter walked toward the grungy kitchen. “They only knew they’d kidnapped Rose Gardner, the girlfriend of Mason Deveraux.”

That calmed me down a bit, but it reminded me of my need to warn Mason. “I have to call him and tell him that I think he’s going to be killed tonight. I have to tell him I’m okay. He’s bound to be sick with worry.”

Skeeter pulled his flask out of his coat pocket and took a swig. “No.”

“Why not?”

“We need to let this play out. Jed got their phones, and we’ll wait until they get the call to carry out their order.”

“And what was that?”

He took another swig, then said matter-of-factly, “To kill you.”

“What?”

“They were gonna video it and send it to your boyfriend in a text.” He walked closer and handed me the flask. “No one says shit to anyone until I know who gave this order.”

My legs started to buckle, so I sat in the kitchen chair Skeeter had vacated and took a big swig from the flask. I promptly began to choke as the liquor burned a path to my belly. It wasn’t Skeeter’s good stuff that usually went down as smooth as honey.

“There wasn’t anyone left to tell you who’s behind it?” Jed asked.

“No. There was only one, and he was already close to meetin’ his maker. My attempts at persuasion only helped him get there sooner.”

“I knew one of them,” Jed said. “Cody Channing. Last I heard he was working for Crocker. He never pledged his loyalty to you. Maybe he sided with Gentry.”

Skeeter grunted in response.

“Their plan doesn’t make sense,” Jed countered. “What could they possibly stand to gain by killing her?”

“It could only be to make Mason suffer,” I said, then took another drink, prepared for the burn this time. “I can’t even imagine how he’d react if he saw that.”

“Sounds like J.R. Simmons, all right,” Jed murmured.

Skeeter pulled another kitchen chair into the living room and sat in front of me, gently taking the flask from my shaking hand. “I need you tell me everything you remember. Start with how you got to the restaurant.”

I looked up at Jed, then back at Skeeter. “Mason took me out to dinner, and he asked Deputy Miller to come with us.”

Skeeter gave me a wicked look. “I had no idea you and the former county prosecutor were into threesomes. Otherwise, I might have requested an invitation.”

A blush rose to my face. “You know good and well that’s not why we asked him. Mason thought it would be prudent to have a bodyguard given the fact that everything’s so unsettled.”

“You mean dangerous.”

“So Randy sat a couple of tables away while we ate. We were there a long time, almost two hours by the time Mason proposed and we called his mother and Neely Kate.”

Jed’s mouth opened in surprise.

“That’s right, Jed,” Skeeter said dryly. “Congratulations are in order.”

“I don’t know what business it is of yours,” I retorted.

Skeeter was out of his chair in a flash, leaning over me with so much rage I shrank back from him. “The very fact we’re in this goddamned safe house right now is proof enough that it’s my goddamned business!”

“Skeeter.” Jed’s calm voice of reason interrupted.

Skeeter threw the chair across the room and stalked out the front door.

I sat there in shock, wondering what I’d done wrong. He was used to me back-talking him, so that couldn’t have set him off.

“He knows how close they came to killing you,” Jed said softly, perching on the edge of the nasty sofa. “When I got there, they were discussing how they were gonna do it.”

“What were they gonna do?” I asked, unsure whether I really wanted to know.

“Let’s just say it tracks with your theory about someone wanting to make Deveraux suffer.”

It was surreal to talk about my attempted murder. While this wasn’t the first time I had found myself in this type of situation, I sure hoped it would be the last.

“I almost missed it, Rose. They dragged you out the back while I was checking out the front of the restaurant, watching Deveraux’s car. If I hadn’t turned back at the last second …” He took a deep breath. “I still wasn’t sure it was you, but I knew it was sketchy as hell for a guy to toss a woman wrapped in a blanket into the backseat of a car. I called Merv to come take over for me and followed.”

I grabbed his good hand and squeezed it, swallowing my fear. “Thank you. You saved me. I couldn’t believe what you did when they brought you into that room.”

“There was no way in hell I was lettin’ them hurt you.” He glanced back at the door, then lowered his voice. “There’s a reason Skeeter assigned me to watch over you, you know.”

“Why?”

“I had a little sister, and our momma always put me in charge of watching over her. She was a lot younger than me, but she was the sweetest little thing, and everybody loved her. She often tagged along with me and my friends, Skeeter included, but none of them minded.”