Cut and Run by Jeff Abbott

tried
     to kill her and for me not to go home.’
    ‘Where did she want you to go?’
    ‘She wanted to meet me at the Neiman’s at the Galleria. At five.’ It was already past seven.
    ‘Where you been this afternoon? What the hell were these errands?’
    ‘I went over to the Platinum Club. They got new dancers, girls we ought to have.’
    ‘You spent the afternoon ogling tits while your girlfriend stole five million from me,’ Paul said, giving the finger a little
     twist. Wondering if the snapping bone would sound like a twig or louder, like a pencil.
    ‘Uhhh,’ Frank moaned. ‘Jason, the bartender at Platinum … he’ll tell you I was there. And I talked to two of the girls that
     we want to recruit for Topaz. Ginger and Anita. They’ll vouch for me.’
    Paul let go of his hand, turned to a muscular man with dyed-blond hair standing near the door. ‘Gary, call the Platinum. See
     if his story checks out.’ Gary stepped out of the office.
    ‘I need that cash, Frank,’ Paul said. ‘We got a deal going down late tonight, and now I got to call them and postpone. How
     do you think that looks to a man like Kiko?’ He glanced over at Bucks. ‘Get a couple of guys over to Neiman’s, have them walk
     the Galleria. And keep a guy watching Eve and Frank’s place.’
    ‘I’ll take care of that,’ Bucks said. ‘Personally.’
    Paul cocked his head. ‘Frank here could be right and you’re lying to me.’
    Bucks blinked. ‘I’m not. I’m here, Eve isn’t. This isn’t complicated.’
    ‘You tried to strangle her and nearly pulled a gun on her last night,’ Frank said. ‘She’s given her life to this family and
     you dare to touch her …’
    ‘She tried to call off the exchange, Frank,’ Bucks said. ‘Told Paul there were cops watching. Well, that was a lie. There
     weren’t any cops there.’
    Frank swallowed. Bucks gave him a thin trap of a smile.
    ‘Where else would she go, Frank?’ Paul went to the wall of Frank’s office. He ran a finger along the three platinum records:
     ‘Baby, You’re My Groove’; ‘Boogie City’; ‘When You Walk Away.’ He took down ‘Baby’ and shattered the framed record on the
     corner of Frank’s desk.
    ‘Oh, God, not my disks!’ Frank stood in horror.
    Paul picked up a jagged shard and turned back to Frank. ‘Tell me where she is, Frank.’
    ‘Jesus, Paul!’ Frank screamed. ‘This is me, please!’
    ‘This is you between me and five million,’ Paul said. ‘Where would she go?’
    Frank swallowed. ‘Not to our house. She won’t come to the club or any of our hangouts.’
    ‘She got a place she goes when she’s stressed?’
    ‘What, you think she went for a spa treatment?’ Bucks said. Paul shot him a look and he went silent.
    ‘If she took the money,’ Frank said slowly, ‘she won’t be staying in town. If he’s framed her’ – he nodded toward Bucks –
     ‘she’s probably gonna go back to Detroit. Where people have sense.’
    ‘Be very careful, old man,’ Bucks said.
    ‘Paul. Get real. You think Eve took that money? Seriously?’ Frank pleaded.
    ‘You been skimming club money from me, way more than’s acceptable. I know you have.’
    Bucks said, ‘Hasn’t there been a big outbreak of initiative around here?’
    ‘So,’ Paul said, ‘it’s not a big jump to Eve deciding to take a lump payment and retire.’
    ‘She would have taken me with her. She didn’t,’ Frank said.
    ‘So you say. She’s been bitching about the way I fart ever since Dad got hurt. She doesn’t like how I’m running things. She
     knows she’s gonna be retired. You’ve screwed the pooch big time, Frank. So she takes the money and runs.’ Paul leaned down
     close to his face, ran the tip of the jagged vinyl along Frank’s eyebrows. ‘Where’s the money you took?’
    ‘I stashed it in an account in a bank in Katy,’ Frank said. Katy was a distant suburb west of Houston, a nice quiet town,
     known for good schools, football, and big