He leaned back in his chair. “That was only a few practice rounds. I have a feeling you’re a different person when you’re actually competing.”
How could he know so much about her when he’d been working for her for less than a week? And she’d done her best to avoid him the last couple of days, too. “I’m sure you’ve been to more rodeos than you’d want to count. You don’t really want to waste your day at another one, do you?”
He smiled at her, a slow smile that was full of promise. “I’ve never been to a rodeo where you’ve competed. Believe me, I’d remember that.”
She shrugged helplessly. “I can’t stop you, I guess. But I think you’re going to be bored.”
His smile turned enigmatic. “Believe me, Shea, that’s the last thing I’m worried about.”
“I’m leaving in a half hour,” she said abruptly, reaching for the coffeepot. “If you’re ready, you can follow me there. The town is a little over an hour’s drive away.”
“Is someone else going?” His sharp words made her turn around to face him again. But his eyes were merely questioning. She didn’t see a trace of the hardness that had filled his voice.
“I’m going alone. Why?”
He quirked an eyebrow at her. “Why don’t I just go in your truck? It seems silly to take two vehicles.”
“If you drive there yourself, you can leave when you like,” she pointed out, ignoring the panic that was beginning to swell inside her. “You won’t be tied down to my schedule.”
“I don’t mind. It’s my day off, remember?” His smile was open and guileless.
It would be all right, she told herself, trying to calm her panic. Paolo was already safely stowed in the hidden compartment in the horse trailer. She usually had the children ride in the cab of the truck with her, but because of Jesse’s presence on the ranch, she’d told Miguel to hide Paolo. She’d planned on stopping, once they were away from Cameron, to let the boy ride in the truck with her.
But he would be safe and comfortable in the small compartment. He even had a tiny window, concealed among the metal grill work on the side of the trailer Paolo would be fine. And once they got to the rodeo, she could think of a way to get rid of Jesse temporarily while she reunited Paolo with his family.
She shrugged. “Suit yourself.” She set the coffee cup down on the table, disturbed to find that it rattled. “If you’re not in the truck when I’m ready to go, I’m leaving without you.”
“I’ll be there.”
He was, too. By the time she brought Demon out of the barn and loaded him into the trailer hitched to the pickup, Jesse was lounging in the cab of the truck. As she was securing Demon in the trailer, she took a chance and opened the door that hid Paolo. His anxious eyes smiled when he saw her. She whispered a few words of reassurance, then closed the door again.
Paolo would be fine, she thought sadly. He was only eight, but already he’d seen far too much in his short life. Riding in a hidden compartment in a truck would hold no fears for the boy. On the contrary, it would seem like a luxury to him, after what he’d been through in San Rafael.
She slammed the door of the truck harder than necessary as she slid into the seat next to Jesse. He sat up in the seat and nodded toward the mug of coffee steaming in her cup-holder.
“I thought you might need more of that.”
“Thank you,” she said, looking at him for the first time, feeling her anger dissipate like the clouds in a Utah sky. “How did you know?”
His mouth quirked up in a half smile, the same one that regularly made her heart do back flips. “I’m a fast learner. It didn’t take long to realize that your attitude toward life depended on how much coffee you had in the morning. And you didn’t have much today.”
She couldn’t stop the smile that curved her lips. “I’m always nervous the morning of a rodeo.” Lately, it had been for reasons other than her race. “I usually try to sneak out of the house before Maria can yell at me for not eating enough.”
“You mean I should have smuggled out some pancakes, too?” His voice was light and teasing, and when she glanced over at him, she saw that his face was alight with laughter.
It softened the hard planes of his cheeks and made his hazel eyes devastating pools of green. A relaxed and laughing Jesse was a dangerous man, she realized, as the impact hit her square in the chest. He was hazardous to her good intentions.
“The coffee was perfect,” she reassured him.
They talked the rest of the way to Panguitch, and she had to admit that she enjoyed Jesse’s company. The disturbing intensity that seemed so much a part of Jesse on the Red Rock was gone, replaced by a relaxed and comfortable attitude. By the time they reached the outskirts of the small town and began to slow down in the rodeo traffic, Shea was almost sorry the comfortable intimacy was going to end.
“Is all this traffic headed for the rodeo?” he asked, incredulous.
“Of course.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “You’ve been to rodeos before, haven’t you?”
He was silent for a moment. “All right, I’ll confess. This is my first one.”
“You’ve never been to a rodeo before?” She heard the astonishment in her voice, and didn’t bother to hide it. “I thought you’d been working on ranches for several years.”
“I have been. But I never saw the point in watching a rodeo on my day off. Why pay good money to go and watch cowboys get bucked off a horse when it happened to me all week long?”
Shea’s lips quivered. “I’ve never thought about it quite that way before.”
He grinned at her. “I found more interesting things to do on my days off. And none of them involved flying through the air to land on my backside.”
“Don’t let anyone hear that kind of heresy. You’ll be hounded out of Utah by an angry mob.”
“I’ll have to trust you to keep my secret, then.”
They were stopped in a line of traffic waiting to get into the fairgrounds, and she turned to look at him. That was a mistake, she realized immediately. His laughing eyes held her mesmerized, and she couldn’t look away. For a moment, the Jesse she saw was a tender man, one who could care about her and make her laugh. He was also a man who could make her forget her obligations, she realized with a jerk of guilt.
She’d given barely a thought to Paolo, hidden in the horse trailer. Guiltily she looked back out the windshield, willing herself to forget about Jesse and the way she was drowning in his eyes. She had to think of a way to get rid of Jesse long enough to connect Paolo with his family.
Jesse noticed the change in Shea immediately. One moment she was laughing, open, her eyes inviting him to share the joke. The next moment she sat straight and tense in the truck, her hands clenching the steering wheel, her mouth a taut line in her face.
What had happened? Had she seen someone outside the truck? He scanned the crowds of people, but couldn’t tell if anyone was paying attention to them. He had almost convinced himself that her trip to the rodeo today was innocent, made strictly for her own pleasure. But something or someone had just reminded her otherwise.
“Something wrong?” he asked casually.
She shook her head, jerkily. “No. I’m just anxious to get inside and get settled. I don’t like to keep Demon in the trailer for too long. He gets antsy.”
And now she was antsy, too. He wondered why. “It looks like the traffic is moving again.”
“It won’t be long,” she muttered.
He wondered if she was reminding him or herself. “How long before you race?”
“A couple of hours. The barrel racers generally go first, and I always allow extra time. But we’ll have to keep moving once we get inside.”
After another few minutes they were past the gate. The attendant gave them a stall assignment and directed them toward the unloading area. Shea pulled the truck to a stop, slid out, and hurried to open the door to the trailer.
“Could you do me a favor?” she asked in a low voice.
“What’s that?”
“Take Demon out and walk him over to his stall. After you find out where it is, walk him around for a few minutes. I need to hand in my registration form to the rodeo officials, and...” A red flush colored her cheeks. “I drank a lot of coffee, but I don’t want to make Demon wait. Would you mind?”
She’d managed to back him into a very tidy corner, he thought with angry admiration. How could he refuse to take care of her horse while she saw to the necessities of nature? All of his suspicions came swarming back. He pushed the camaraderie of the trip to the rodeo out of his mind. Clearly, there was more on Shea’s agenda today than a barrel race in a rodeo.
“I’ll take care of him for you.”
She backed Demon out of the trailer, and murmured a few words to him. The huge black horse snorted once and tossed his head, almost, Jesse thought, as if he understood every word she said and was answering her. Shea ran her hand down the horse’s back, then handed him the lead rope.
“I’ll meet you at the stall in a few minutes.”
“We’ll be there.”
He looked back over his shoulder as he led the horse away, but Shea had disappeared into the trailer again. He lingered as long as possible, but she didn’t come out of the trailer. Once he was out of sight, he trotted along as fast as he could without drawing attention.
“Sorry, fella,” he said when he reached Demon’s assigned stall. “She’ll walk you around a little later. Right now I have to find out what she’s up to.”
He raced back to the trailer, but Shea was gone. She’d left the gate open, but the trailer itself was empty. Spinning around, he scanned the crowd for her bright blond head, but he couldn’t pick her out of the masses of people. The sun blazed down at him, forcing him to squint, making it harder to distinguish one person from another.
Jesse began to push through the people, murmuring, “Excuse me. Pardon me,” as he hurried through the crowd. He lingered by the rest rooms for a while, but Shea didn’t appear. She wasn’t near the registration booth, either.
Jesse’s frustration churned as he searched for her. She could have gone anywhere, done anything by now. He had no idea what she could be up to at a rodeo, but she was up to something. He was sure of that.
Shea was going to have to come up with a different profession, he thought savagely. He was able to read her much too easily. Then he thought uneasily of his first few days on the ranch. He hadn’t been able to read her so easily then. What had happened in the last few days to make it possible for him to read her like a book?
That was something he didn’t want to think about. Not now, not ever. All he wanted to do was find Shea and catch her in some illegal act. Then he could arrest her and get out of Cameron. He needed to get away from Shea. He’d enjoyed himself too much this morning on the ride to the rodeo. He’d allowed himself to let down too many barriers. And that was dangerous.
Just then he spotted Shea. She was crouched on the ground, in front of a little boy and his parents. She held a stick of cotton candy behind her back with one hand, and with the other she was giving the child a hug. When she leaned back and presented the boy with the bright pink cotton candy, his face lit with awe and excitement.
She stood up, embraced the two adults, then bent to kiss the boy again. As she turned away, he saw tears on her face. Jesse’s heart stopped in his chest, then it began to thunder again.
What the hell was going on?
Chapter 6
“Are you all right?”
The words seemed to tumble out of his mouth on their own as he hurried toward Shea. The couple standing behind her gave him a wary look and drew the child closer to them. Ignoring them, he saw nothing but the tears swimming in Shea’s eyes.
She gave him a blinding smile and nodded. “I’m fine. I just got some dust in my eyes.”
Turning back to the couple behind her, she said something in a low voice. He saw the woman smile, the man nod, then the family walked away. She watched them go for a moment, then turned back to him.
“Did you get Demon settled into his stall?”
Her voice was steady and even, but he felt the strain quivering through it. And as she started toward him, he saw her glance at the family one more time as they disappeared into the crowds.
“He’s fine.” Jesse watched the emotions play across her face and wondered who the family was. And what they had done to make her cry.
“I have to hand in my registration form,” she said, walking in the opposite direction from the family. “Do you want to come with me, or wait with Demon?”
“I’ll come with you.” He paused and glanced over at her. “Were you on your way there when you ran into your friends?”
“Mmm,” she murmured. She didn’t look at him, but he felt her stiffen. Even her hair seemed to vibrate with the tension. “Little Paul had never had cotton candy before. That seemed more important than a registration form.”
He narrowed his eyes as he watched her, but he didn’t say anything more. He suspected that the tears in her eyes were inspired by something more important than giving a kid his first taste of cotton candy, but he wasn’t about to probe.
Shea McAllister’s personal life was none of his business, he reminded himself emphatically. Not what she did at the rodeo, not how many kids she cried over. The only thing he was concerned about was her illegal activities. And as long as he stuck to her like a burr today, she wouldn’t have a chance to conduct any of those.
After she handed her registration form to the woman at the makeshift booth, they strolled back toward the stall area and Demon. The closer they got, the more she relaxed. By the time they reached the stall and Demon stuck his head out, demanding attention, all the tension he’d felt when he’d found her with the boy and his family had disappeared.
“Did you walk him?” she said, glancing over at him. The only emotion in her face now was curiosity.
He shook his head. “I wasn’t sure what you wanted me to do with him. And I wasn’t sure how he’d react to a stranger in the middle of these crowds.”
“Demon knows what the crowds mean,” she murmured, scratching the big horse’s nose. “Don’t you, fella?”
The horse tossed his head as if he was answering her, and she snapped a lead rope onto his halter. “Come on, let’s start our warm-up.”
Shea led Demon out of the stall and began walking him, murmuring to him in a low voice. All her attention was focused on the horse. It was as if the peculiar scene with the family had never happened. And as he leaned back against a stall and watched her with her horse, it was as if he didn’t exist, either.
It wasn’t personal, he realized. Shea was simply getting herself and Demon ready to race. As he watched, he could almost see her close in on herself, narrowing her focus to exclude anything but the race from her mind. She vibrated with intensity and determination, with the will to do her best. Her passion for what she was doing was etched in every line of her face.
Once again he felt a surge of admiration for her, an admiration he tried to erase from his mind. It would be easier, and far more efficient, if he could think of her as nothing more than a criminal. But Shea was turning out to be the most complicated criminal he had ever pursued.
She had managed to hide her tracks well. If they hadn’t been given information by an informant who knew her well, no one would ever have known about her smuggling. She managed to convey an air of innocence which was completely at odds with what she was doing.
And he seriously doubted if anyone he’d arrested had ever cried because they’d been able to give a child his first taste of cotton candy.
“Sorry,” she called over to him, interrupting his thoughts. “I didn’t mean to ignore you. Demon and I have a ritual we go through before each race.”
“It’s okay,” he said, watching her as he leaned back against the stall. “I invited myself along, so you’re not responsible for entertaining me.”
“I didn’t think I was.” Sh
e gave him a grin that made his heart roll in his chest. “I just wanted to explain what we were doing. Demon and I are going to head to the ring now. I like to warm up for a while before the race.”
“Good luck.”
She gave him another grin as she tucked a hat onto her head. “Luck has nothing to do with it, Coulton.”
Her jeans hugged her slender hips, and the fringe on the shirt she wore brushed the curve of her breasts every time she moved. Heat flashed through him suddenly, and he wanted to taste her again, to savor the curve of her mouth clinging to his. He wanted to feel the firmness of her breasts pressed against his chest, and the long length of her legs twined with his.
Instead he crossed his arms over his chest to hide the trembling of his hands, and said, “Then break a leg.”
She laughed, a low, throaty chuckle that made his blood surge. “Thanks, Jesse.” She raised one hand in a casual salute, then she turned and led the huge black horse away.
He had a serious problem.
For a moment he considered letting another agent take over the case, but he knew he couldn’t do that. He was trapped. He’d gone to too much trouble to get this job, to make his background realistic. If he disappeared now and someone else showed up looking for a job, Shea would be suspicious. No, he was stuck with the case. So he’d better get his hormones under control and concentrate on what he had to do.
When he thought he could walk out in public without embarrassing himself, he strolled to the stands. Swinging up into the bleachers, he spotted Shea immediately. She and a number of other women were trotting their horses around the ring, slowly circling the course.
Shea was easy to find. Her bright blue shirt stood out in the ring, but it wasn’t her shirt that made her so visible. She was a picture of intensity. The grin was gone from her mouth and her eyes. Instead, she studied everything from the dust on the ground to the placement of the barrels to the distance between the barrels and the boundaries of the ring. Some of the other riders were talking and laughing together, but Shea didn’t look at any of her competitors. She sat ramrod straight in her saddle, her competitiveness a fierce flame burning inside her.
The Fugitive Bride Page 8