Tex perked up. “She is? Where is she? Where’s my Sable? I want to see her. I want to touch her. What I wouldn’t give to run my fingers through her silky hair and kiss those lips.”
“Oh yeah, you want to run your fingers through my hair before or after you blow another hole in my head?”
A breath snagged in my throat. Sable’s gaze landed on mine. The heat in her eyes sent a barb straight to my heart.
“Somebody’s got issues,” Roan whispered so that only I could hear him.
I would have to agree with him.
“Where is she?” Tex asked.
“Right here, you big lout.” To me, she said, “Want to see what he did to me?”
Not really.
But before I could even part my lips to answer, Sable whipped around and proceeded to show me that hole in the back of her skull.
Don’t worry, it wasn’t gruesome. It was just a hole where there should havenotbeen one.
“This fat sucker killed me and then made it look like a suicide. So.” Sable walked her fingers over his head. “What’s he want?”
Zelda gaped at Sable. I think even she was rendered speechless. She blinked, seeming to gather her thoughts, and then said to Tex, “Sable is so happy to see you. She’s missed you so much and looks down on you from heaven.”
Sable pointed a finger at Zelda. “You say one more lie and I’m outta here. If I wasn’t mostly at peace and hadn’t found myself a new man in the big house, I would be haunting his butt day and night.”
Sweat poured down Tex’s forehead. “Tell her, tell her I miss her.”
“Liar,” Sable said.
Then Tex added, “But there’s something I need to know.”
“Here it comes,” Sable said.
“My sweet, sweet dead wife had a vast sum that she hid from me. I need it bad. There are bills to pay.”
“Hussies to buy furs for,” Sable bit out.
“Sable hid jewelry that’s been in her family for years. Her mother is asking for it. It needs to go to someone on Sable’s side of the family. I can’t do anything with it, and I just want to do what’s right and return it to her mother.”
“What a crock of crap,” Sable snapped. “Big fatso here just wants to go pawn the stuff or make my poor mother pay for it. That’s what he wants. He doesn’t give one monkey’s butt about providing for Mama. If he wants the jewels, he’s gonna have to tell me something.”
Zelda’s mouth quirked. I don’t think she was used to dealing with such strong-minded spirits. “What’s that, oh, Sable? What is the one request you have for your husband?”
“Tell him I want my picture in every room of our house.”
“Sable would like for you to honor her by placing a picture of her in every room of your home,” Zelda said to Tex.
Tex hedged but then agreed. “Whatever she wants.”
Sable cackled. “Good. Now he’ll have to look at my face every day and remember what he did to me. Okay, so tell him the jewels are buried in the backyard.”
Zelda blinked. “Where?”
“That’s what he’s got to figure out.” Sable ran her fingers over Tex’s hair. “This sucker wants those jewels so bad, he’s gonna have to dig up twenty acres to find them.” She leaned over and shouted in his ear, “You think I’m so stupid that I’d believe that you were gonna actually give the jewels to my mother? I know that you’re planning to keep them for yourself. So knock yourself out, Tex. Dig up all twenty acres at the main house and see if you find the jewels. Go for it.”
“Has she told you?” Tex asked Zelda. “You have to let me know.”
Zelda inhaled before telling him the truth.
