A Cowboy to Keep

by Karen Rock

  Jack considered Ben’s words. There was logic to them. As a bounty hunter, his time was valuable and it didn’t pay to chase after ghosts. Yet for him this had never been about the money, and his gut said he should stay. Smiley was here and possibly his brother’s murderer.

  Dani snared his eye. Was he being persuaded by other feelings?

  “Larry, Diane. What’s your opinion?”

  Diane knotted the end of her skirt tie. “Well. Ben is cutting his trip short to come home, so I suppose there’s no need.”

  Larry stared out the window. “Your time is valuable. Wouldn’t want you to waste it here.”

  “And those are your only objections? That you don’t want to put me out?”

  Larry nodded, but Jack noticed the stiffness in his shoulders, the way Diane’s mouth trembled before she pressed her lips together.

  “Then if it’s all the same to you, I’ll stick around.”

  “I wouldn’t want the guests to see you searching the area, not when they’ve already been through a fire, robberies and now an arrest,” Ben said. “Many of them are repeat customers. Income my folks rely on.”

  “I’m very discreet.”

  “Nevertheless...”

  “He’s fitting in just fine, Ben,” Dani spoke up. She came around the computer to join him. “The staff and guests like him a lot. It’d be more upsetting for him to abruptly leave. Besides, Tanya’s also missing and we need Jack to help us look for her.”

  Dani moved her gaze to his. She’d always told him to loosen up, stop scaring people with his antisocial ways. How far he’d come, for her to think of him this way. And she trusted him to find her friend.

  Ben sipped his coffee then lowered it. “Good point. Thanks, Dani. Mom. Dad? It’s your business. Your call.”

  “You mentioned you might have trouble getting a flight last minute,” Diane said, joining the group. “If Jack wouldn’t mind, it’d put us at ease to know he was around until you’re here.”

  Ben’s tense face relaxed and he smiled. “I admit, it’d make me feel better, too, to know someone was there until I get home. Jack, I’m relying on you.”

  “I’ll hold down the fort and hopefully find Smiley, as well.” Although with his leads drying up, he had to admit that Ben had a point about moving on. But he wanted to settle things with Dani before he left. He couldn’t make her promises, but he didn’t want to go without saying what was in his heart...figure out some path forward.

  “Let’s hope, and—” Ben said, then the screen froze.

  Larry reached forward and tapped on the keyboard. “Shoot. Lost the connection.”

  Jack met Dani’s eyes, knowing there was one connection he had to make soon...before his time ran out.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  THE NEXT EVENING, Jack and Dani parked in front of a honky-tonk. She stared straight at the neon sign that flashed the words Rusty Roof. She was as silent as she’d been the entire ride over to Shawnee...as closed off as she’d looked since he mentioned the anonymous tip he’d received today about a Smiley sighting here. The caller had seen one of his downtown fliers and phoned.

  Jack scanned the fields surrounding this ramshackle, one-story bar on Shawnee’s outskirts, wondering if his bounty lurked here, knowing it was a long shot. Trees, sky, scrub brush. Darkness falling like velvet. Already a few pale stars. Cars and pickups swerved into the gravel parking lot and couples, dressed to the nines in ten-gallon hats and swinging skirts headed inside for line-dancing night, according to a marquee.

  “Why would Smiley come here? Isn’t that a risk?” Dani asked, her voice sounding dry.

  “Could be any reason.” He shrugged. “Maybe he planned to meet someone.”

  Her fingers shredded a napkin in her lap and she made a choking sound.

  “I can drive you back if you’re not feeling well,” he offered, concern growing. She’d been through a lot these past few days. He’d seen Dani angry, amused, blustering, worried, excited, reckless, headstrong and downright goofy—his favorite side of her, besides the passionate one that tortured him every moment of every day...and night—but never this stone-cold silent.

  If this information panned out, he could be wrapping up the case soon, and he didn’t intend to leave without figuring things out with Dani. Yet she seemed as distant as the North Star.

  “It’s okay.” She shook back her bangs and the light illuminated her face. Red, then green. Red again. She heaved in a big breath, as if making some decision, slapped her hands on her jeans-clad legs and opened the truck door.

  “Hey,” he called, and she whirled, her boots already on his running board. “You could stay here. I just need to look around and ask a few questions. It won’t take me long. Maybe fifteen minutes, then we can do something fun, like rappel down into Spark Canyon,” he said, only half kidding, since he actually needed to do that.

  “And miss the line dancing?”

  Relieved to see a little of her good humor return, he couldn’t help but tease, “Are you any good?”

  “Just try to keep up.” Her hair looked perfect, every curl shiny and in place, and her lips were a glossy pink. He could tell from here that she’d taste like strawberries. She settled her white hat and hopped out.

  Line dancing. Well. He’d been to enough weddings to know a few steps. He hustled after Dani and caught up to her at the door.

  She paused, looking so pale he wondered if her head was bothering her. A couple cut around her. A stocky man held open the door and swept his arm wide, ushering him and Dani inside.

  A few steps in, Dani turned slowly, her eyes scanning the room. He paid the bouncer the cover charge and joined her.

  “Looking for someone?”

  “What?” She seemed to jump a little at the question. “Hey. There’s Ray.” She waved at a mustached man pouring shots of whiskey behind the long, crowded wooden bar that ran the length of the honky-tonk.

  Tim McGraw’s “Indian Outlaw” pulsed through the steaming room, where lines of dancers decked out in plaid, jeans, rhinestones and spurs stomped forward, sideways and back, twirling, kicking and clapping along to the tune.

  He spotted Jori Lynn and Blake on the dance floor, neither seeming to follow any recognizable pattern, more or less making it up as they went, laughing wildly. The fresh smell of ale tickled his nose and a powerful thirst developed for a beer. If he wasn’t working, he’d grab one.

  Dani took his hand and pulled him through the whooping, hollering partiers and stopped behind an empty bar stool. A patron vacated an adjacent spot and they slid into their seats.

  Cupping her hands around her mouth, she yelled, “Ray!” The bartender peered over, his sudden smile lifting his otherwise hangdog face. He slapped a bar towel over one shoulder and hurried to join them.

  “Howdy, Dani. Haven’t seen you in a while. How’ve you been?”

  “Good.” She pushed her hat back and leaned her elbows on the bar. “Can we talk to you somewhere in private?”

  His eyes, magnified by his large-framed glasses, landed on Jack’s face. Stayed.

  “Ray? Earth to Ray,” Dani prompted, and a hint of her old spunk returned to her voice.

  “Sure.” He tore his gaze off Jack and led them down a short hall, past restrooms and a coin phone, and into an office. “What can I do for you?” Ray asked a moment later. He settled into a chair behind a desk so neat even the paperclips appeared to be sorted in size order. A mounted elk head dominated the small space that smelled of peppermint schnapps and old paper.

  “Ray, this is Jack. Jack, Ray, the owner. Jack’s a bounty hunter looking for Smiley.”

  Jack thrust out a hand. “I appreciate your time.”

  Ray shook it, looking dazed. “Terrill? Is he in trouble?”

  “Jumped his bond,” Jack said. An overhead f
an stirred the muggy air and lifted the hair wisps on the edge of Ray’s bald patch. “I got a tip he was seen here yesterday. Can you confirm?”

  Ray nodded slowly. “He didn’t talk much. Mostly stayed to himself.”

  “Was he alone?”

  “Yeah. He came in just before closing. I would have kicked him out but he had me pouring steady. Plus...he looked like he needed a drink.”

  “Did he say anything to you?”

  “Not me. Someone called him, and he had a good amount to say to whoever it was, but I didn’t listen. I respect my customers’ privacy,” Ray pronounced in a holier-than-everyone voice.

  Jack tamped down his frustration. The road to hell was paved with good intentions. “Well. I appreciate your time, sir.”

  Ray lurched to his feet. “If he stops by again, I’ll be sure to call right away.”

  Jack slid his card across the desk. “Thank you.”

  Ray walked them back out to the rowdy throng and clapped Jack on the back. “Sorry I couldn’t do much for you. Drinks are on the house. Have a good evening.”

  Tipping his hat, Jack said, “Sure enough,” and watched Ray go back to his spot behind the bar and lean over to take more orders.

  Jack felt the muscles in his jaw tighten. Another promising lead...another dead end.

  “Are you okay?” Dani shouted in his ear, her hand on his arm. “Ready to get out of here?”

  He started to nod, then looked down at her, at her bright face, her lively eyes, and found that he didn’t want to go, despite the frustrating night.

  He wanted to forget it all, the dead ends, the near misses, and just lose himself in Dani, for once.

  “How about a dance?”

  “Here?”

  “I think it’s kind of what they do.”

  She looked over her shoulder at the door, then back to the dance floor, hesitating.

  “You said something about me trying to keep up...” He took her hand and tugged her toward the dance floor’s edge. He rubbed her hand against his chest. Just barely. Just enough to make the color flare in her cheeks, to make her eyes turn dewy.

  “I don’t think—” she protested, but he slung an arm around her waist and twirled her fast for the fun of it. He let himself imagine her lips on his again. He wanted to kiss her. Badly.

  “You can outdance me, in linedancing?” he finished for her, lifting one eyebrow. His arms were around her, his face was in her hair and there was no place for the rest of her to go but against him. “That wouldn’t be hard to do, seeing I only know two steps. Forward and back.”

  Dani’s hair caught fire beneath the rotating lights. Her eyes were green-gold and shining, and his arms were sure of her. As they lined up with the other dancers, she laughed up at him, slightly breathless. “I might have been exaggerating my own, er, talents.”

  And she wasn’t kidding. Over the next twenty minutes she stepped on his toes enough times to make them lose feeling, maybe permanently, bumped into his side when she forgot to stop or flat-out slammed against him when she went in the completely opposite direction as the crowd.

  After another rib-fracturing hit, he threw up his hands and shouted, “You win,” when Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine” squealed to an end.

  “What?” She pulled off her hat, and the sight of her squished-down hair plastered against her forehead and her cheeks so red he could barely count her freckles anymore, made something give in him, something that he’d been holding back, something he’d given to her the moment he’d seen her and had been lying to himself about ever since.

  His heart.

  No more wasting time.

  No more hesitating.

  Hitting yet another dead end with Ray drove home the realization that the trail he followed was tenuous, lonely and might never end. He wouldn’t give up on getting justice for his brother, but maybe he shouldn’t give up on himself, either. He didn’t want to walk life alone anymore. Looking into Dani’s sparkling eyes, he no longer felt like the prime suspect responsible for his brother’s death. Maybe he didn’t belong on that list at all.

  “I said you’re terrible.”

  Her mouth curved in a sassy smile. “I tried to warn you.” Her voice was like Big Sky, bright and clear. Her face a field of freckles.

  He thought, I don’t want to let you go.

  “Let’s get some air.”

  As they strolled around back, across trampled grass, he found himself breathing deep. Darkness had settled down like a black mantle over the valley.

  “Phew.” Dani waved her hat in front of her face and scooted up on a picnic table with a tilted umbrella top. “I’m glad we took a break. The wind feels great.” She held her hand up against the steady breeze driving across the overgrown fields that encircled this small, cleared area.

  “Thought you said I’d have trouble keeping up.”

  She arched a brow. “Saw you stumble more than once.”

  “Yeah. When you creamed me.”

  She laughed. “So that’s how you talk to a lady.”

  He settled an arm around her back. “How should I talk to you?”

  Their gazes clung for a moment, searching, as she seemed to grasp what he intended to say.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t talk at all.”

  “Look. I know I’ve said a lot of dumb stuff, the most idiotic being when I told you I couldn’t make any promises.”

  “What do you mean?” A note of fear entered her voice and she edged away so that he felt the loss of her, as though she’d pulled away some of his skin.

  He angled his knees to face her. “I mean that I may never find Smiley. I may never find Jesse’s killer, but what I found instead is something I should know better than to lose. You.”

  “Oh. Jack. No.” She put a hand on his chest and leaned back.

  Doubt settled inside. He could feel its weight there, as though he had slipped it inside his own mind, a knot. Had he read her wrong? Was he alone in his feelings? “Dani, I—”

  “Please stop, Jack.”

  “Why?”

  Her mouth moved silently and then she blurted, “Because I’ve got a confession to make.”

  * * *

  A RISING TIDE of fear rose in Dani’s throat, pulling at her words, threatening to wash them away before she could speak.

  And she’d stayed quiet too long.

  Had Jack been about to say he loved her? He looked ready to make promises. If so, she couldn’t let him speak until she told him everything.

  Please still want me.

  Jack was a man of principles, and he’d put his faith in her, maybe even given her his heart. She knew she could trust a man like that, and he deserved the truth.

  So no more delays.

  No more excuses.

  Dani’s stomach muscles tightened in anticipation.

  “There’s someone else I hoped to see here besides Smiley. Someone I wanted you to meet, though I was afraid.”

  Jack tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

  “Kevin. My ex-boyfriend. He’s a bouncer here.”

  “Why did you want me to meet your old boyfriend?”

  She felt the answer right in the back of her throat, like a bomb sitting at the base of her tongue. Keeping it in made her eyes water.

  “Because then you would have known who I am.”

  Doubt slid across his face. “And who are you?”

  Her life caught in her throat.

  Tell him.

  She dragged in a shaky breath and blurted, “I’m wanted as an accessory to a felony robbery in Oklahoma that Kevin committed six years ago. He never gave my correct name as the getaway driver and he did his time. He told me that in return for keeping my name out of it, he’d look me up when he got out. Call
in a favor, which he did when he showed up at the ranch a few days ago.”

  Jack’s face seemed to shut down. He rubbed his jaw as if she’d just landed an upper cut. “And you’ve been in contact with him all these years?”

  “No. No. I left the competition world, my home, to come here after the robbery. I thought I’d keep him from finding my family—being a threat to them...”

  “I see,” he said quietly. She felt her hopes for them dim as the light faded from his eyes, and she struggled to breathe. “I never intended to drive the car.”

  “Did he force you?”

  She hung her head. “No.” With that simple question, Jack struck at the heart of the matter. No matter which way she sliced it, she’d participated in a crime she hadn’t paid for. “I was caught off guard and didn’t think.”

  He squinted into the night. “Does Ray know his history?”

  The wind moved through her thin T-shirt and she wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing goose bumps. “I don’t know. Kevin’s required to report it on his job application.” She rubbed her temples. “He swore he was changed. Had turned over a new leaf. Maybe it was easier to just...”

  Jack seemed to stiffen. “Not have to deal with him.”

  She nearly groaned out loud at Jack’s laser-sharp way of seeing straight through to the truth. How he made her see it, too. “Yes.”

  “Do Larry and Diane know about your outstanding charge?” He slid off his hat and continued, his voice remote, as if he spoke to a stranger.

  All of a sudden she wanted to touch him, to run her hand over his where it rested on his thigh just inches from her. To feel it close around hers, strong and reassuring. But the distance could have been a million miles.

  “You’re the first person I’ve ever told. The only other person that knows, besides Kevin.”

  “The timing of all of this—” his nostrils flared with the force of his exhale “—the fact that Smiley came here... Is there any way Kevin could be connected to the robberies at the ranch, the fire...Smiley?”

  She pressed her fingers to her mouth. A creeping terror rose from a place beyond thoughts. “No. He said he moved to Colorado to support his sister. His mother died and he’s her guardian now.”