Guns and Rosa: Texas Hearts, #2

By Emily Josephine

When an unknown person kills her evil boss, she's finally free to pursue a better life.
Her new boss, a godly man full of kindness and compassion, falls for her instantly.
But her past, as well as the unknown killer – who  is intent on quenching the soul-parching thirst for revenge – threaten to destroy everything…

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Rosa Manriquez wants nothing more than to extricate herself from her career as a topless dancer in Dallas, Texas. It's not easy, working for a boss who has beat up – and worse – his "girls" who have tried to leave their jobs in the past. But when Rosa discovers the body of Eddie, her boss, one afternoon at the club where she's been working for years, she gets her out.

 

And inadvertently gets tangled up in the mystery surrounding Eddie's death.

 

After a few days of searching, Rosa finds a housekeeping job with a motel in south Fort Worth. She also finds herself strongly attracted to her new boss, a Zimbabwe native named George Marima. The attraction is mutual, and after he hears God whisper to him that Rosa is to be his wife, he decides to ignore the boss-dating-employee taboo and asks Rosa on a date.

 

But nothing about their blossoming relationship is easy. First, he is thrown for a loop when he finally finds out what she used to do for a living. When he finally gets past that, Gil comes on the scene. Gil is Eddie's cousin, and having witnessed Rosa fleeing from the scene of the murder he believes she is the prime suspect, and confronts her about it. George and Rosa have developed strong feelings for each other, but Gil's appearance reminds Rosa of who she used to be – and convinces her that she can never be good enough for a kind, godly man like George.

 

As they work through their personal struggles, so must Tina, a single mother of three who used to work for George until he fired her. She is growing more and more desperate to find a job, and in her desperation makes choices that cause her to risk losing her children.

 

In the meantime, Gil decides to take the murder matter into his own hands. What he discovers and brings to George and Rosa shocks them…but not nearly as much as when the killer shows up at a motel staff meeting, threatening to shatter the lives – and love – of everyone there.

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This contemporary romance is a sweet, clean romance with a hint Christian fiction. That said – WARNING - it does contain occasional mild profanity to make the rougher characters more realistic. It's a full-length novel melding the modern world, old-fashioned romance, and suspense with the themes of redemption and purity. It is the sequel to "The Envelope", and the second book in the "Texas Hearts" series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emily Josephine
• Release date: Apr 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215754856

Book preview

Guns And Rosa

Texas Hearts Book Two

A Christian romantic suspense novel

by

Emily Josephine

Copyright © 2013 by Emily Josephine.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

NOTE: While this novel is a sequel to The Envelope, a reading of that book is not essential to following the plot line of this one.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

LICENSE NOTE

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite online e-book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Author’s Preface (IMPORTANT – Please Read!).

Though technically the second book in my Texas Hearts series, I am now marketing the novel in your hand, Guns and Rosa , as the first one. Why? The original first book, The Envelope , has turned a lot of readers off because at the time that I penned that novel, I was deep into the charismatic Christian culture. By the time I decided to turn that novel into a series, I had backed far away from the charismatic Christian segment of the body. Therefore, starting with the novel that you are currently reading, and continuing to the end of this series, while the stories are still told from a faith perspective, they don’t push the charismatic agenda.

Sheila and Hank Johnson were the protagonists in The Envelope, and are mentioned occasionally in this book and given minor roles in the next. But you don’t need to read their romance in order to enjoy the stories in the rest of this series.

On the other hand, if you wouldn’t mind reading a story that contains elements from the charismatic Christian church, The Envelope is still available and is free.

With that cleared up, let’s go on to the good stuff – the actual story!

Chapter One: August 1998.

The irony of her situation did not escape Rosa Manriquez. She had just left a wedding reception in north Fort Worth for a newlywed couple headed straight back to Zimbabwe to do missionary work, perhaps indefinitely. Rosa, on the other hand, was headed for her job as a topless dancer in a Dallas adult night club.

If she could go back ten years and make a different choice, she would. But now, she was stuck there. At least, until she started looking too old for the part. At thirty-five years of age, she was hoping that time may be coming up soon.

She turned up the air conditioning in her blue 1988 Camaro as she entered highway 183. With her past, she was an unlikely candidate for marriage. She would not let a man who would be good enough to marry, hook himself to her for life. It would not be fair to him. But if by some miracle she ever did marry, she decided she would not do it in the heat of the summer. At least her friends, Sheila and Hank Johnson, would be returning to the southern part of Africa, which was now – in late August, 1998 – in the winter season.

The traffic in front of her was practically standing still. She put on her brakes, eyeing the rearview mirror carefully as she did so to make sure the car behind her was slowing down, too. Not that she could do anything to keep an idiot driver from rear-ending her, but she didn’t need an accident on top of this slowdown. Her boss, Eddie E., did not like it when his girls were late.

The driver behind her must have been another woman, for she did not run up to Rosa’s rear fender and suddenly slam on her brakes like most male drivers seemed wont to do. As much as Rosa liked men, she couldn’t stand the way they drove.

Satisfied that the person behind her – who did indeed appear to be a woman – was driving safely, she turned her attention to what was going on in front of her. If there was something going on at Texas Stadium, it would be the other side of the freeway at a standstill, not her east-bound side. The west-bound traffic was going slowly, but was not completely stopped, like all three lanes on the east-bound side seemed to be.

Rosa let out an exasperated sigh and banged her hand on her steering wheel, careful not to hit the horn. Even in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Saturday afternoon traffic usually went fairly smoothly. What could be going on? When they finally started moving, it was at a snail’s pace that took her fifteen minutes to go three miles. The culprit ended up being a car on the side of the road with its front jacked up. No accident, no barriers in the road, just somebody changing a tire.

Biting back a Spanish expletive, she glanced at the time on the clock dashboard once traffic was moving again. Five-fifty. She would still make it – barring any other traffic mishaps.

The thought did not bring her much relief. By being on time, she would escape a big chewing-out, and perhaps slap in the face, by Eddie, but she would not escape the degrading feeling of being violated all night, as she had experienced most nights for the past ten years. After her first year in the business, she learned to medicate the feelings with alcohol, an occasional high, and men.

With considerable emotional and mental struggle, she had recently been able to give up all three. She was more than ready for a change in her life, and, after attending church services with Sheila for a few weeks, had found the strength and motivation to do so. She had learned that God had better things planned for her life, she had done what she could to begin straightening it up.

It was hard, and she met with temptation every night. But she was doing her part.

To get free from her job, however, would require a miracle.

As she turned off 183 toward Harry Hines Boulevard, she marveled that Hank and Sheila, former schoolteachers-turned-missionaries, would even allow her to be at their wedding. They knew what she did for a living, did not know why she continued on. She dared not tell them – or anybody else – the truth.

Girls who left the employ of Eddie E. without his express permission mysteriously disappeared.

Whether this rumor was true or not, it seemed to fit his nefarious character, as well as Rosa’s personal experience. Twice in the past ten years, a dancer did not show up for work. The first time this happened, a few days later, Rosa questioned Eddie about it. He told her to drop it, and when she persisted, he slapped her face so hard he bruised her, pinned her up against the wall and told her again – in a violently threatening manner – to drop it, or else.

She asked no questions the second time a dancer suddenly disappeared.

While very little about life scared or intimidated Rosa anymore, her boss did, so her plan was to remain under his employ until one of three things happened: one, the police arrested him; two, Eddie let her go; or three, God did something else to get her out of that hellhole.

Since Eddie seemed to be especially careful to overtly stay within the confines of the law, the first option seemed impossible. The second one did not seem to be imminent.

That left it up to God. Rosa knew He was capable; she had seen Him instantly heal her brother, Miguel, of one of the deadliest cancers around, cancer of the liver. For the moment, all she had faith for was that God would keep her from temptation that night, and that Eddie’s bouncer, Gil, would keep her safe from would-be rapists. Her boss’ cousin, Gil was a tall, burly white man who had done well on that account so far.

Rosa finally drove into the small parking lot of the ugly, windowless, gray building adorned only with a neon-light sign that flashed, XXX Night Club. The main area inside the club had a small, square bar that was well worn, with numerous chips and scratches in its wooden sides. The cushions in the old stools had holes in them big enough so that you could see the filling poking out.

Between the bar and the small stage were about fifteen tables, in a similarly dilapidated condition as the bar. The men who came to that place cared nothing for décor or appearances; they only wanted to fulfill some impossible fantasy without having to actually have a relationship with a woman. Eddie only replaced a table or chair if it completely broke. For that reason, about a third of the chairs were newer than the rest, and two tables were in much better shape than the others.

Besides the public area was the small entryway inside the front door with a counter where you had to pay the entrance fee; the dressing room right behind the stage; and Eddie’s office at the back of the place, on the opposite side of the dressing room.

It was, in short, as ugly a place to look at for Rosa as her actual job was to do.

As the club would not be open to the public for about another hour, the front door was locked so she had to go in through the side door. There was a back door, too, but to go through it meant to go through a musty, cluttered storage room piled high with boxes and broken chairs.

It was an accident waiting to happen. In fact, the newest dancer, a twenty-year-old named Lisa, had recently gone in through the back and narrowly escaped being hit on the head by a falling box.

Anyway, the side door led straight into the dressing room, where Eddie rarely made an appearance. So on days when Rosa wanted to avoid him for as long as possible, she could go in there first and bide her time until she needed to go out into the public area of the club.

This evening, though, the door that opened from the dressing room onto the small stage was open. Rosa went to close it, but a familiar and unsavory odor hit her nose when she got to it. Having worked in this part of Dallas for so long, she had smelled it a couple of times before when a fight between either gang members or drug dealers broke out.

Gunpowder. Somebody had recently – probably just before she got there – fired a gun.

Slowly and cautiously, Rosa opened the door wider, looking all around as she did so. The lights were dim, and it was difficult to interpret all the shadows. Gingerly, she took a few steps forward.

Then she stepped back with a gasp.

Eddie E. and Lisa lay in the middle of the dance floor, dead.

Rosa looked around wildly, suddenly feeling more vulnerable than she ever had before in her life. Who had done it? Were they still here?

She wished she had a gun, or a knife. Pepper spray. Anything to defend herself, in case the murderer was still there. Long ago she had learned karate, but she was rusty in the art and it would do her little good if the killer was a big person, like Gil. He could be hiding in the dark shadows or underneath the bar.

Rosa’s heart began pounding in her chest. She knew her best defense was to run away, but what if the victims might still be alive? She had to be certain they were not before she left them.

Her heart pounded as she slowly approached the bodies. The blood stains on their clothes and on the floor confirmed that they had, indeed, been shot. Eddie appeared to have been shot in the chest; Lisa, in the head. The blood was still bright red.

The reality of the situation hit Rosa and she cried, Oh, no, Lisa!

She kneeled down and examined both bodies carefully. Neither of their chests moved. Rosa dared not to touch the bodies to check for either temperature or pulse. She knew better than to leave her fingerprints anywhere near the body of a murder victim. Regardless, the location of the bullet holes and stillness of their bodies was enough indication that they had not survived the attack.

She took a deep breath to calm the nausea welling up in her gut. Lisa did not deserve to die. Like Rosa, she had made some foolish, bad choices – the worst one being to agree to work for Eddie – but she had had her whole life ahead of her to make a drastic turnaround. Rosa did not know the girl well, but had spoken with her enough to know that she had once had dreams, and had finally been driven to work at the nightclub by a series of circumstance that made even tough Rosa’s hair stand on end when she heard them.

Rosa slowly got back up on her feet. Her entire body felt numb, as though a megadose of Novocain had been pumped through her veins.

Suddenly, she heard a crashing noise and a door slam. Startled, she whirled around. The killer. That must be the killer. Whoever it was had run through the storage room and knocked over a box or two, and gone out the back door.

Rosa felt all the blood drain from her face. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she ran for the front door, fumbling around in her purse for her cell phone. Right now, the only place she could feel safe was in her car, driving to anywhere else. Scanning the parking lot, she could see no sign of anybody else. She ran for her car, got in, and shoved the key in the ignition as she slammed the door.

Breathless, she turned the key while hitting 9-1-1 on her phone. Somehow, she managed to catch enough breath to tell the operator what she had just seen, and where she was. I am leaving the parking lot of the club right now, she told the operator. I will be back in ten minutes to meet the police. I am alone, and I don’t feel safe.

She hung up, then found her way back to Harry Hines, and drove for five minutes one way, then made a U-turn and returned to the nightclub. It was a long enough span for her heart rate to slow down and her breathing to return to normal. When she pulled into the parking lot, she was relieved to find two police cars and an ambulance already there.

She felt some trepidation as she parked her car and got out of it. She knew that she might be considered a suspect, despite having been the one to call 9-1-1, despite having given her name.

One police officer stood just outside the front door, arms crossed, watching as Rosa approached the yellow tape a female cop was wrapping around the place.

My name is Rosa Manriquez, she said, stopping when the man put his hand out and shook his head in warning. I am the one who called 9-1-1.

The man frowned, dropped his arms, and walked toward her. You found the bodies?

Yes, sir. Rosa did her best to look and sound confident, although her stomach was beginning to churn and her legs suddenly felt like jelly.

Not a good day for you, is it, ma’am? The officer still frowned, but his tone was edged with a hint of sympathy. Mind if I ask you some questions?

No, sir. In truth, the only part of the ordeal she dreaded was admitting to the cop that she was one of the club dancers. She followed him over to the side of the building, feeling a little more at ease. When he asked her to tell him the whole story, she did so, thinking carefully so as not to leave out any details. The policeman took notes and occasionally asked for clarification.

When she concluded, he asked, Any idea who might have done it?

Rosa hesitated. The fact was, any one of Eddie’s employees, including herself, had plenty of motive to take him out. She supposed that Gil, the bouncer who also happened to be Eddie’s cousin, could even have had a falling-out with their boss. Then there were the numerous other lowlifes that Eddie had had conflict with over the past few years, guys who had nothing to do with the nightclub but were neighborhood drug dealers, drug users, and pimps who had tried to harass Eddie or one of his employees.

Finally, she responded as honestly as she could. I can’t think of any one person who might dare to cross Eddie. For what it’s worth, she added, I don’t think Lisa – that’s the girl – was the target.

Wrong place, wrong time? the cop queried, jotting down another note.

Rosa nodded, then looked over at the front entrance as paramedics pushed out two stretchers, carrying the bodies, which were both fully covered with a sheet.

She shuddered and looked away, exhaling loudly.

Miss Manriquez, the officer said, a small smile now playing at his lips, that’s all I need. Thank you for your cooperation. Please call us if you think of anything else you might have missed in your description tonight. And may I suggest you go home and get a good night’s sleep.

Rosa nodded, attempting a weak smile, and walked with leaden legs to her car. She had seen bloody fights between drunk men, had her naked body manhandled by multiple ugly men at the same time while she danced, seen people threaten each other with knives and guns, and seen women beat up by a man.

She thought she had seen all the depravity of humanity there was to see. Until this evening.

Once again, she started her Camaro, imagining the e-mail she might send to Sheila: Guess what happened to me on your wedding day? Well, her friend in Zimbabwe would eventually learn about it, but certainly not for a couple of weeks. Sheila and Hank deserved at least a little time to themselves, to believe that all was bliss in the world.

Rosa flipped on one of the local Latino radio stations as she got back on to Harry Hines. She hoped that listening to music on her way back to Fort Worth, where she lived in an apartment in the eastern area of the city, would push back the thoughts and images floating around her head. She knew the picture of Eddie and Lisa lying dead on the floor would not soon leave her memory.

A love