How to Catch a Bad Boy

by Cat Schield

  “Lani Li. I called and spoke with Sheriff Battle when I landed.” She glanced at the deputy’s name tag. “Deputy Vesta, didn’t the sheriff get ahold of you? You have the wrong man.”

  “I don’t think so,” the deputy said, jerking his thumb at Asher. “He’s trying to get away.” His vehement glare suggested that there was something personal in his dislike of Asher.

  “Look, I wasn’t trying to escape.” He tipped his head to one side, showing a bloody gash on his temple. “The bastard bashed me on the head and dumped me in the trunk.”

  “You weren’t in the trunk when we pulled up.” The state trooper pointed out.

  “Because the car had finally stopped and I figured it was safe for me to get out.”

  “The man you’re looking for is Billy Holmes,” Lani put in, tearing her gaze from Asher’s wound. She hoped it wasn’t as serious as it looked.

  “Don’t know anything about that,” the trooper said. “We received a BOLO from Maverick County that this guy was skipping town.”

  Lani glanced at the car the police cruisers had surrounded. Its open trunk seemed to substantiate Asher’s claim.

  “He wasn’t skipping town because he’s innocent,” Lani fumed. “You need to go after Billy Holmes. I ran into him in there. He’s getting away.”

  The trooper glanced toward the door leading into the terminal. “Who’s this Billy Holmes character?”

  The deputy started dragging his prisoner toward the police car. “Let’s go.”

  “Can’t you wait just a second,” Asher protested, resisting. “I have something to tell Lani.”

  Heartsick, she moved to go after them, but the trooper caught her arm, keeping her in place. She glanced around the police officer, trying to keep Asher in sight.

  “Let me go with him.”

  Was that her voice sounding so desperate and anxious? Suddenly it had become crucial that Asher hear that she loved him.

  “They’re taking him back to Royal. You can see him at the sheriff’s station.”

  “Please,” she pleaded with the cop. “There’s something he needs to know.”

  “Fine. Make it quick.”

  The Maverick County deputy was already urging Asher into the back of his patrol car when Lani drew near. The deputy had his hand on the door and was about to slam it shut when she spoke up.

  “Wait.” Irrational panic had seized her and wouldn’t let go. “Just give me a second with him.”

  To her dismay he just smirked at her and started to close the door. A fraction of a second remained for her to confess the three words that had been hiding in her heart. Terrified, where she’d been bold moments earlier, Lani locked eyes with Asher and sucked in a breath for courage. But as she began to speak, Asher clearly had something on his mind as well and there wasn’t time for both.

  As the car door swung on its hinges, an instant before glass and metal blocked their words, their overlapping messages reached their targets.

  “I love you.”

  “I got Billy’s laptop.”

  Thirteen

  Asher lay on his back staring at the damn jail ceiling once again. His head was throbbing beneath the hastily applied bandage on his temple. He’d stopped pacing an hour ago and resigned himself to spending the night. At least this time he wasn’t worried about being stuck here indefinitely. He’d been told that they’d found Billy’s laptop where he’d hidden it and the forensics team was combing the hard drive in search of the accounts where the funds had been sent. Thanks to Lani, a clear picture had formed of Billy’s notorious past, stemming from his mother’s affair with Rusty that suggested a reason for him to destroy the Edmond family’s reputations and set up Asher to take the fall for the missing festival funds.

  Unfortunately, in the midst of the wild and completely out-of-control scene at the airport, Billy had escaped into the crowds and it appeared as if he’d vanished into thin air. No doubt he had several different identifications to go with his aliases and with the festival funds squirreled away, he had the means to go just about anywhere.

  But none of that mattered anymore. What preoccupied Asher was that he was stuck in here while Lani was out there doing who knew what. He was on pins and needles waiting to be released. And after he was set free, then what? He and Lani hadn’t sorted out their problems. Before leaving for Las Vegas, she’d made it clear that she still didn’t trust him.

  As the hours passed without any word from her, he grew almost frantic with worry. Over and over his mind replayed those moments before Deputy Vesta had shut him into the back of the patrol car. Once again Asher had screwed up. While Lani was confessing her love, he’d been bragging about securing Billy’s laptop. She was sure to think that he was only worried about saving his own ass, not that he’d done it for her so that she could find the missing money and solve the case.

  And now she was avoiding him, no doubt guessing that he didn’t love her in return. Would she ever give him the chance to explain? Or was it already too late? Maybe she wasn’t busy with the authorities. Maybe she’d already gone back to Dallas, putting him in her rearview mirror once again.

  Nor could he blame her for leaving him to rot. Hell, if he’d confessed his love to her only to discover she was solely focused on saving her firm, he’d be pretty messed up too. Hopefully she would give him another chance. He would shower her with I love you’s from now until eternity if she would just show up.

  The door leading to the rest of the police station opened and Asher’s heart gave a painful wrench. He was on his feet and across the small cell before realizing his visitor wasn’t Lani, but the stocky deputy who despised him.

  “Hello, Deputy Vesta,” he said in his most droll tone. “I thought you’d forgotten all about me.”

  Vesta shot him a disgusted look. “Someone’s here to see you.”

  Asher grabbed the bars and held on as relief washed over him. His head spun as Lani slowly advanced into the room. Strands of dark hair framed her exhausted features and her shoulders slumped as if burdened by an enormous weight. She looked as if the news she’d come to share was so bad she couldn’t bear to speak it.

  “What is it?” he demanded. His stomach knotted. “What’s happening?”

  “You look like hell,” she said, stopping halfway toward him.

  Her unwillingness to meet his gaze coupled with her delay in coming to see him made his heart plummet. Either she’d been unable to convince the authorities that Billy was the true thief or her part of the case was concluded and this was goodbye.

  “Well I’ve been locked up in jail for...” without his watch or a clock to gauge the time, he’d lost track of how long he’d been in this cell “...a while now,” he concluded wearily, wondering how he could possibly convince her they had a future if he remained locked up. “You, on the other hand, look glorious.”

  Her lips flattened into an unhappy line. “I’m tired and in desperate need of a shower so...”

  More than anything he needed to touch her, to crush her in his arms and deliver his heart into her keeping. But this time he knew he needed more than his easy charm. She needed—deserved—the honest message of his heart.

  “About what happened at the airport,” he began.

  “Billy got away.” She shook her head. “We’re not sure if he’s actually Rusty’s son, but it’s clear that he believes that’s the case and that he wanted Rusty—your whole family, really—to pay for abandoning him and his mother.”

  Asher could care less about Billy Holmes or the damned case. All he knew was that his future happiness was slipping through his fingers. He needed to be clearer, to make her understand how mad he was at himself for screwing up again. Hopefully it wasn’t too late to make her understand that he regretted not speaking from his heart. It was what she’d done in that tense, chaotic moment. Would she believe him now?

  “I don’
t care about that right now,” he insisted, wishing she’d stop staring at his chest and see his earnest expression. He blustered on, “I want to explain about what happened when you said I love you and I told you I got Billy’s laptop. What I was really trying to say was that I love you too.”

  After flicking her gaze to his face, she took a single step closer. Her bowed head and tightly clenched hands gave her a look of uncharacteristic uncertainty and Asher took that as his chance to spill all of it.

  “I’ve loved you since the first time you called me frat boy,” he rushed on, baring all his fear and regret, his joy and hope. He needed his sincerity to reach her, to encourage her to give him—them—a chance.

  He stretched out his arms as another slow, shuffling step brought her almost within reach. She continued to remain silent, but her willingness to hear him out gave him hope.

  “From here on out, I’m at your command,” he declared, the words tumbling out of him. She’d given him this chance and he would not fail. “Whatever you need. Whoever you need me to be. I’m that guy. I swear you will never be disappointed in me ever again.”

  She’d moved near enough that he could wrap his fingers around her jacket lapels and pull her forward.

  “I love you,” he murmured, putting his whole heart into the phrase.

  Lani caught his wrists as he tugged her toward him, but to keep her balance rather than to resist him. Still, it was pretty obvious that more kept them apart than the steel metal grid between them.

  “I love you just the way you are,” she whispered, lifting her gaze to his at last.

  The amount of anguish in her mink-brown eyes made Asher catch his breath. Throat tight, he cupped her cheek and cursed the mess he’d made of things. If only he’d been able to find the courage years ago to give her his heart.

  “But I’m already different because of you,” he said. “Being with you that summer five years ago changed me. Oh, I resisted. I was still an arrogant ass, asking you to give up on your dream when I wasn’t ready to grow up and take responsibilities for the decisions I’d made.” He shook his head in disgust. “Looking back, I was so stupid to persist in trying to win Rusty’s approval, too caught up in my resentment when I couldn’t.”

  “We both had a lot of growing up to do.” Her smile was both sad and filled with regret. “With grad school ahead of me, I wasn’t ready to be in a serious relationship. I didn’t think I could have it all. A successful career and you.”

  Optimistic that she hadn’t barred her heart to him, the knot in his chest eased slightly. “Maybe I’m reading this wrong,” he teased, “but I’m not sensing you thought being with me was gonna be a picnic.”

  “Oh, it would’ve been a picnic, all right,” she muttered with a quiet snort. “Including fire ants and an unexpected thunderstorm.”

  “You’re not wrong.” He accepted the accuracy of her claim with a wry smirk. “Being with me won’t be without its surprises.”

  When it came to consistency and predictability, he would not be her ideal choice. They approached things in completely opposite ways. She was methodical. He was spontaneous. Yet they both loved a challenge and never let fear stop them from engaging in thrilling adventures.

  “At least it will never be dull.” She thrust her knuckles into his stomach. The jab didn’t hurt, but her message was clear. Don’t make me regret this.

  “I swear I won’t,” he murmured, pressing his face into the gap between the bars, but finding her lips remained out of reach. “I don’t suppose there’s any way you could get me out of here so we could seal our new partnership with a kiss.”

  “Oh,” she said with a playful lilt in her voice. “Did I forget to mention that you’re free to go?”

  The news shot through him like a lightning bolt. “This is the second-best news I’ve had all day.”

  Her left eyebrow lifted. “And the best news?”

  “Deputy Vesta promised me meat loaf for dinner.”

  As her eyes blazed, Asher was really glad to have the protection of the cell bars between them. A second later, however, before she could voice the murder flashing in her eyes, the aforementioned deputy reentered the room and unlocked the cell door.

  “See if you can stay out of trouble this time,” Vesta grumbled, looking as if he’d tasted something really bad.

  With a cheeky smile for the deputy, Asher grabbed Lani’s hand and pulled her toward freedom. This time, his incarceration had only been a few hours, but while waiting for Lani to come visit him, it had felt like an eternity.

  He intended on making a beeline for the front door, but Lani resisted. When he looked back at her, she shook her head.

  “We need to get that off first,” she said, indicating the monitoring device on his ankle. “You are officially no longer a suspect in the theft of the festival funds.”

  Asher wrapped his arms around Lani and swept her off her feet. As he whirled her in a tight circle, she wrapped her arms around his neck and laughed merrily in his ear. Nothing had ever felt as good as her body pressed up against his, her breath warm on his neck, her joy filling him with giddy delight.

  When he set Lani back on her feet and dipped his head to hers, she rose up on tiptoe to meet him half way. Her lips parted on a groan and he sent his tongue dancing forward to meet hers. They clung together, the fierce, thrilling kiss making his head swim. His throat tightened on a rush of joy. This woman in his arms was all the contentment that had been missing from his life.

  “I take back what I said earlier,” he declared, breaking off the kiss. “This is the second-best news I’ve heard all day.”

  As he spoke, he towed her toward the room where the electronic device had been attached a month earlier. Half an hour later he emerged into the humid evening and sucked in a breath of fresh air.

  “We have to celebrate my freedom,” he said. “Where should we go? New York? Buenos Aires? Tahiti?”

  “How about we go back to Elegance Ranch and start figuring out how this new partnership of ours is going to work.”

  “When you say partnership...” He held his breath, wondering what she had in mind. Did she mean a business partnership? Or a personal one?

  “I’ve been thinking about hiring an associate and I could use someone like you with the sort of connections that could bring in a better paying clientele.” Her fingers tightened on his as she added, “It doesn’t pay well, but if you work really hard, we might be able to grow the business.”

  “I appreciate your willingness to mentor me,” he teased, drawing her toward the parking lot, eager to get her alone and show her without words just how much he adored her. “And I am grateful for your faith in me, but...”

  “But?” she prompted, doubt creeping into her tone.

  “But...” They reached her SUV and she reached into her pocket for the keys. “I have a little different take on our partnership,” Drawing her into his arms, he lowered his forehead to hers. “One that involves rings and vows and kids. To summarize, it’s us living happily-ever-after.”

  Lani chewed on her lower lip for several suspenseful seconds before her lashes lifted and she met his gaze. “Are you sure you’re ready to take on that sort of partnership?”

  “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. Someone needs to keep me in line. And I think you’ll agree that no one is better at it than you.” He grew serious as he stared into her eyes, willing her to see the fervent truth of his love. “And then there’s the part where I adore you and can’t bear to live without you. I want us to have kids and be a happy family.”

  The words came faster and faster as her muscles tensed. She seemed reluctant to take him seriously and his breath grew ragged as a tight band around his chest kept his lungs from fully expanding.

  “I know this may seem like it’s coming too soon. What can I say to convince you I can’t live without you?” A lightbulb went off in his
head and he dropped to one knee before her. Taking her hand in his, he offered her solemn sincerity. “Lani Li, I offer you my heart. Will you accept?”

  To his dismay, she began to laugh.

  “What’s so funny? I’m trying to be all romantic.”

  “This is you being romantic?” She twisted her features into a skeptical expression, but a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth hinted at a smile.

  “Give me a chance,” he rasped. “Marry me.”

  For several heartbeats the only sound between them was the harsh, irregular pattern of their breathing. As he waited out the silence, Asher knew this wasn’t the moment that would make or break them. He wasn’t going to give up if she said no. She was too important to him to so readily accept defeat. He would fight for her. Fight for the amazing future they would have. But when her words came, it became clear that any battle she intended to wage would be at his side.

  “Yes. I’ll marry you.”

  Relief slammed into him. Leaping to his feet, he banded one arm around her waist and startled her with a quick spin and a dip. “At last you’ll be mine.”

  “I’ve always been yours,” she gasped. “Now, can I please get up?”

  He set her back on her feet, but kept her in his arms. Setting aside all levity, he cupped the side of her face. “I’m done with running away because I’m too scared to face rejection. I intend to stay put and put in the effort.”

  “I love you, Asher Davidson Edmond.” She framed his face with her palms and set fire to his blood with her earnest gaze. “I’m sorry I didn’t give us a chance five years ago. I was afraid to choose you over my career because I didn’t trust what we had could be enough. I never even considered fighting to have both. I know now that my life isn’t fulfilling without you in it. Let’s make a life together. With kids and a successful business.” A brilliant smile bloomed. “We can have it all.”

  “We absolutely can.” He brought his lips to hers. “And we will.”