by Tina Leonard
“Yeah, I know. Better me than the dog, I guess.”
She put the bowls on the floor. Saint cut open the puppy kibble and poured some in, while Cameron filled one bowl with water. “He’s so pretty. All that dark gold fur is lovely.”
“Look at those paws. He’s going to be the size of a small elephant.”
Lucky tucked into his bowl hungrily, and she rubbed his back, letting him know that he was safe now. “How fortunate for Lucky that you’re well-versed in large animals.”
“I guess.”
She smiled at his obvious reluctance. “You don’t like change much, do you?”
He put his hat on a hat rack on the wall, washed his hands at the sink. “Had enough of that in the military. Peace and quiet and no excitement is my new love.”
All those rows of shirts and perfectly stacked towels told her he craved order. “Speaking of peace and quiet, I think I figured out why Judy swore Ivy to secrecy.”
“Didn’t work. Personally, I’d prefer my madams to be a bit more discreet.”
Cameron followed Saint into the den, where he retrieved his whiskey. “Is Ivy a madam?”
He shrugged. “There are some who say she’s running more than a honky-tonk.”
Lucky scrambled after her, hanging right at her heels. “Let’s go outside, you. I’m going to take Lucky for a potty break.”
“Out back would be safest at this hour,” he said grudgingly. “Come on, animal.”
He scooped Lucky up and carried him to the back door, holding it open for Cameron. “You realize he’s going to do all kinds of doggy mess on my floor?”
“Not if you take him out often. And be patient with him. He’s trying very hard to be a good boy.” Cameron took the puppy and set him on the ground. Lucky sat close to her feet, as if he wasn’t sure going too far away from her was a good idea. Clearly, peeing wasn’t as high on his priority list as being protected by his new humans.
“So back to your thoughts on Ivy.”
She looked at him. “I think Steel doesn’t know about Judy. Ivy told us figuring we wouldn’t keep it to ourselves.”
Saint frowned. “How could she not tell Steel?”
“She just wouldn’t. That’s Judy’s way. She thinks she can handle everything herself.”
He picked Lucky up and moved him away from Cameron, encouraging him onto a grassy spot. Lucky ran right back to Cameron, settled at her feet. Looked up at Saint with some disgust.
“Why would Ivy care if Steel knows about Judy’s health issues?”
Cameron sank onto a bench, looked up at the moon peeping through the trees. “My guess is because it gives Ivy one more advantage over Judy. And control over Hell is what drives them both. That and Steel are the prizes, which Judy has had a lock on so far.”
Saint joined her on the bench, keeping a good foot between them—which Lucky quickly and eagerly laid claim to, before lying down to thoughtfully chew his tail.
“Ivy and Steel are never going to happen,” Saint said.
“I know that, and you know that, but Ivy is a determined woman selling the wilder side of life.”
“Sex.”
“It’s what Judy fears most,” Cameron said, nodding. “That someone might seem sexier and more desirable to Steel than her.”
“The battle of the big-haired beauty queens,” Saint murmured.
She looked at Saint. “Beauty queens?”
He nodded. “They’ve both won their share of crowns. It was a toss-up as to which of them would win Miss Texas. In the end, neither of them did, but they came damn close, no small feat in Texas. Especially for small-town girls.”
Cameron shook her head. “Anyway, it’s absolutely vital the four of us sit on Ivy’s news blast. She’s not going to tell anybody else.”
He looked at her. “Are we sure about that?”
“What good would it do her? We were supposed to go rushing back, throw Judy’s offer back in her face, and go all mushy over her secret, which would hurt Judy. Ivy is just using us.”
“We still have to tell Judy that Ivy wasn’t interested in playing ball.”
“Yes.” Cameron looked over at him, studying him in the moonlight, thinking he was so deliciously sexy it was hard not to kiss him again. “That won’t surprise Judy, though. Judy was using us, too, and she’d be the first to admit it, though she wouldn’t call it that. She wanted us to get Ivy over to the good side of Hell. We just didn’t manage to convince Ivy to go along with the plan.”
“Yeah, the bad blood between them is pretty thick. So: What are we going to do about Judy?”
“Well,” Cameron said carefully, “what we’re not going to do is let on that we know—she’d be too hurt. Though it’s going to be hard.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m devastated that Judy’s going through this alone.”
“Her choice. We have to respect that. Hey, Lucky did his business!”
Cameron smiled. “He’s a smart boy.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
She followed Saint inside. “He’s going to grow on you. Anyway, you fellows need to drive me home. I’ll leave you to get better acquainted.”
Saint hesitated. “It’s still early.”
“Not when I have to get up for six A.M. training.” She smiled at him. “I can’t be late—Judy’s very vigilant. And I don’t have to tell you that Rory runs a tight bull riding center.”
“No one breeds them like the judge.” Saint shifted, reached for his keys on the kitchen counter. Stopped when his phone rang in his pocket. “Hold on a minute,” he said to Cameron as she picked up a wriggling Lucky for one last kiss. “Hi, Steel. Yeah, we went out there. No, Ivy doesn’t want to be part of the parade or any charitable function that might benefit Hell.” He hesitated for a moment, listening, and Cameron drank him in with her eyes. “Aw, hell, Steel. Call Declan.” He listened a few more seconds. “All right. Swing by and pick me up.”
He hung up. “Okay. We have a problem. I’m going to leave the choice of solution to you.”
“I’m listening.”
“Steel’s on his way here. There’s been a bit of trouble out at the Honky-tonk.”
“Trouble?”
Saint winced. “A dead guy, actually. Steel doesn’t know how he met his maker, but the fact is, the guy’s in Hell and Ivy swears he has no ID on him. Steel wants me to go with him.”
Cameron nodded. “For backup.”
“Once trouble gets started out there, sometimes it lights a fire under more trouble. The coroner’s on the way, too, and Steel’s got his deputies going, but he said he’ll feel better if he’s got an Outlaw with him. He doesn’t want to call Trace, now that Trace is married and trying to start a family, and he can’t find Declan. He and Harper have wisely gone off the grid, is my guess, until we have a better plan than the one we went out to Ivy’s with tonight.”
“I see.” Cameron waited. “And here I am, sort of a loose end you’re trying to get wrapped up.”
Saint shrugged. “You can ride out there with us, you can stay here, or you can borrow my truck to drive back to the Honeysuckle Bungalow.”
Saint’s truck was a huge, camo-painted beast that was perfect for not being seen in a dense stand of trees, say if one was hunting—but would stick out like crazy at the Honeysuckle Bungalow. Judy would notice in a flash, and so would everyone else in town. That option was definitely out.
“I know you have to get to bed early.”
She nodded. “I’ll go with you.”
“What about Lucky?”
Cameron looked at her new, soft friend. “You’d be too afraid to be left alone your first night here, wouldn’t you, little guy?”
Saint waited for her answer.
“I should stay here.”
“But your curiosity will kill you.”
She nodded. “Pretty much.”
“I figured. Let me get a box for Little Rascal to ride in.”
Saint went off for a second, came back with a towel-lin
ed box just right for Lucky to feel cozy in. “He might as well get used to riding in a vehicle. I don’t have any need of a dog who just lies in my bed and watches classic movies.”
Cameron smiled. “You’re sure you don’t mind?”
“Oh, I mind. I just have a funny feeling that the cow has already left the barn on that one.” He grinned, heart-stoppingly sexy, and Cameron reminded herself that keeping distance was key. No staring, no drooling—and definitely no more spontaneous kisses.
“I hear the sheriff’s cruiser. Let’s go see what trouble we can stir up,” Saint said.
As far as Cameron was concerned, trouble had already been stirred up.
—
If Steel was surprised to see Cameron getting into the cruiser with a stray puppy, he didn’t show it.
“Ladies up front,” Steel said. “You and the mutt take up space in the back, Saint.”
“Good thing I brought this box along, young man.” Saint belted the box in, and the puppy lay down in the towel-and-T-shirt nest. “Where are your deputies?”
“Following behind.” Steel pulled out so fast that Saint’s gaze automatically bounced to Cameron to make sure her seat belt was securely fastened. “Damn Ivy. This is her second stiff in ten years.”
“The second one?” Cameron looked at the sheriff, and Saint admired her in the glow from the cruiser’s dash. She had the straightest nose, and the sweetest set of lips. How he wished he could figure out a good excuse to kiss that mouth again—but then again, he didn’t need a girlfriend, so that was out. Kissing led to a girlfriend, and a girlfriend meant problems, and time he didn’t have to spend away from the training center. Plus, this woman was red-hot and oozing a sexiness that made every inch of him scream with desire—a distraction he didn’t need, especially now with Trace spending a lot more time away from the training center with his new bride, working on that family thing.
Me? I got a dog.
“Look at the crowd,” Saint said, leaning up between the seats as they approached the Honky-tonk. “Holy smoke, Cameron and I were just here a few hours ago and it wasn’t this crowded. What’d she do, run a two-for-one sale?”
Steel peered out the window. “I don’t know, but Judy would have a fit if she could see how much traffic Ivy gets. Judy’s trying to grow Hell honestly. Ivy’s got her beat cold.”
Cameron glanced back at Saint. She was worried about Judy, and Saint was too. But Steel didn’t act like a man who’d received bad news about his girl. Saint swallowed hard, shrugged at Cameron. She turned back around to look out at all the people milling around in the parking lot. The music was loud and fun, and some couples were dancing or making out under the trees, lost in their own sexy world, seemingly oblivious to the fact that some poor soul had met his maker. The lanterns and lights illuminated the darkness, but not obtrusively so. There was an ambulance and the coroner’s car parked right in front, and a pack of people stood around a black-covered body on the ground.
“Oh, hell. Poor bastard. The last place I’d want to die is the Honky-tonk,” Saint said.
“I don’t know,” Steel said. “Depends on the kind of fun you’re looking for. Me, I’m just happy to sit in front of the TV or grill out with the missus.”
Cameron glanced back again, her eyes wide and distressed. Shit, this wasn’t going to be easy. He didn’t know how they were all going to act normal around Judy, when all they wanted to do was help her.
“Let’s get this done.” Steel opened the door, peered back in at Cameron in the front seat. “You sure you’re okay with this?”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
Saint got out, and Cameron took the puppy from him. “I’ll hold the pooch, you back Steel up.”
Saint nodded, told himself he wasn’t taking two steps away from Cameron tonight. There were too many people here, too many strangers. He was bothered by the whole setup. It wasn’t like Ivy attracted the highest-quality customers, although he supposed that wasn’t fair—she did get a fair amount of the college crowd, which drove in from the city for a wild time outside the city limits; the sheriff could probably throw a rock and hit five MIPs—minors-in-possession—without any trouble. Ivy wasn’t worried about anybody busting her; she was too far out in the county to be bothered by troublesome laws that got in the way of making money.
“On second thought,” Cameron said, “I’m going to leave you right here in your comfy box, Lucky. A honky-tonk is no place for a sweet pup like you, especially after your busy day. You stay right here and protect the sheriff’s cruiser.” She put the dog down in the box, and he settled nicely into a corner, burying his nose under the towel.
“Let’s go,” Saint said, and Steel locked up his cruiser.
They went toward the crowd. Saint glanced around for the deputies; he didn’t see that they’d arrived yet. He’d have felt a whole helluva lot better if Steel had waited for them, but on the other hand, Frick and Frack were a bit green. And Saint supposed the sheriff had brought him along to serve the same purpose, anyway. He glanced at Cameron as they edged through the crowd gathered around the coroner and the body, and she gave him a small smile. In spite of the unpleasant circumstances at the Honky-tonk, he liked having Cameron with him.
“What have we got, Cartwright?” Steel asked the coroner.
Jerry Cartwright lifted the dark plastic. “Male, thirty years of age, approximately. It’ll take an autopsy to know for sure, but my first guess is he took something he shouldn’t have.” He pointed to the vomit around the body. “No wedding ring, but that doesn’t mean anything necessarily. We’ll have to run his plates to locate his next of kin.” He glanced toward the overflowing parking lot, and the cars and trucks parked across the two-lane road in front of the Honky-tonk. “It’s gonna be a bear’s ass to find out which vehicle is his.”
Great. It wasn’t necessarily Ivy’s fault if someone had overdosed on her property, and though this wasn’t the first time it had happened, it was the first time it had resulted in a death, if that was the cause. But her business definitely brought in characters looking for a walk on the wild side. “I guess I’ll go find Ivy and tell her, if you want to stay here to watch the body get loaded up.”
“Cartwright’s got it handled. I’ll go with you. I want a word with Ivy myself.”
Saint, Steel, and Cameron moved through the crowd and went into the Honky-tonk. Most of the patrons weren’t too concerned about a stiff outside; they were too focused on the good time they were having and the possibility of that good time leading to a better time later. Couples danced, some making out furiously, practically undressing each other on the floor. He pressed close to Cameron. “I’ll feel better if you stay right by my side.”
She nodded. “I’ve got your back. No worries.”
He raised a brow. She winked at him, and he turned to follow Steel deeper into Ivy’s lair.
The lady of the establishment seemed completely unconcerned about the poor devil who’d met his maker. She stood at the bar, conducting a sing-along, which died the second she saw Steel.
“Well, helloooo, Sheriff,” she said, her voice a throaty invitation.
She’d changed for the nighttime festivities. Her luxurious two-toned hair slithered over her shoulders and down her back in a sexy wash of silver over mahogany. Her silver dress, painted right onto her body, shimmered under the chandeliers. The dress stopped at heart-attack length, and with the sky-high sparkling silver shoes showing off shell-shaped hot-pink toenails and dancer’s legs, Saint froze a little in the face of all that firepower.
It was like watching a beautiful silver snake hypnotize its victims.
“Ivy,” Steel said, “this is the second dead body at your place. I’ve warned you about keeping tighter tabs on your clientele.”
“In ten years,” Ivy reminded him, her voice soft. “You’re not still upset about that little murder thing, are you, Steel?” She wound a hand around his biceps. Saint stepped closer, and Ivy removed her hand for a second. “Let
me buy you a drink, Sheriff.”
“No thank you, Ivy.” Steel drew himself up. “Next unfortunate incident out here, I’ll close you down.”
Ivy smiled. “And then what would Hell do for revenue, Steel?”
Saint blinked. She had a point, not that any of them wanted to admit it.
“How will the town pay for clean water and utilities and infrastructure?” Ivy slowly cocked her head, wearing a dangerous smile. “With kissing booths?”
Steel didn’t say anything. Saint glanced toward the sheriff in surprise. It looked like he’d gone still, transfixed. Saint decided to step in. “Kissing booths could be lucrative, Ivy. Our offer still stands.”
She laughed. “As you can see, we have all the kissing we need right here.” Her bare arm drew a languid circle around the room. “Ask our darling Cameron if she thinks my establishment is too dangerous to visit.” Ivy smiled. “She’s been out here many times, and nothing’s ever happened to her. Has it, Cameron?”
Saint felt all the air leave him. That was a direct violation of Judy’s rules, and Ivy knew it. By the darkening of Cameron’s freckles and the distress in her big eyes, he knew Ivy had just spilled her secret on purpose, in front of Steel.
And it was a doozy of a secret. Judy would kick Cameron off the team if she found out—and Ivy damn well knew it.
Chapter 6
Cameron glared at Ivy, who knew that she was getting her in a whole lot of trouble. The only possible purpose that ratting her out seemed to serve was to get the spotlight off the dead body. Then another possible motive occurred to her.
If Judy kicked Cameron off the team, there’d be one less rider. With Ava trying to start a family, Judy’s team would be almost back to its starting point—while Ivy’s honky-tonk was well established and quite popular. Cameron met Saint’s curious gaze.
“I’m sorry. I like to dance,” Cameron said, knowing she sounded defensive.
He didn’t look happy.
“It’s just dancing.”
“It’s against Judy’s first rule.” His frown deepened.
Ivy laughed merrily. “I say rules are made to be broken. Anyway, give the girl a break. She’s what, twenty-four years old?”