by Quint, Suzie
Josh Turner started singing about how he loved his woman so.
Maddie gripped the gun harder but the barrel only wobbled more. She had never understood why Laurel had stayed with Derek so long, but she was starting to. Zach was so sincere sounding, his face so earnest. Here she barely knew him and she wanted to believe him. How much worse had it been for Laurel who had already been in love when she’d found out what a jerk Derek really was?
“Look, Maddie, I don’t know who hurt you.” Zach took a cautious step forward. His hands were lower but still held in a way that denied any threat. “But it wasn’t me.”
“I know that,” Maddie said, her voice shaking as badly as her hands. Even her insides felt as though they were quivering. “But you’re just like him. One woman’s not enough. You take a woman’s heart and you break it into little pieces.”
“That’s not what’s happening here. Rachel’s my sister.”
“Sure, she is.” Just how stupid did he think she was?
“Maddie, give me the gun.”
“Stop right there. I don’t want to shoot you. I just want to go home.”
“That’s fine. I won’t stop you, but you can’t step out the door with a gun drawn.”
When someone knocked insistently on the door at her back, Maddie’s hands clenched, her finger tightening on the trigger. The explosion sounded like a cannon going off in the room and the sharp smell of gunpowder filled the air. The bullet spun Zach around. He fell against the bed, and slid down until he was sitting on the floor beside it, facing away from her.
“Oh my God!” The gun fell from her numb fingers and bounced across the floor.
*
The air in the room seemed suddenly thin as Zach tried to breathe through the pain. His eyes slipped in and out of focus as he struggled to ground himself. Pain shot through his wounded arm as hands turned him roughly around. His legs sprawled loosely in front of him, like a puppet with its strings cut. His left hand clutched his right arm midway up from the elbow. Rachel’s dark eyes looked bigger than they should. It was the haircut, he thought, irrelevantly. That damned man’s cut emphasized her eyes and made her look deceptively feminine.
Maddie was there beside his sister, her face white with shock. “Oh, God! Zach, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to— I didn’t want to—”
Poor kid. He turned his face towards her. “I know.”
Maddie’s eyes filled with tears but she held them back.
Rachel shoved her roughly aside. “Zach!” she said harshly, demanding his attention.
He forced his lungs to function. A deep breath helped clear his brain, but the pain made him lash out. “Shit. Are you happy now, Rach?”
“Good God, Zach. You’ve been shot!” his sister, the rocket scientist, said.
“Yeah. I noticed,” he said dryly.
Rachel pried his fingers from his arm. Maddie looked like she wanted to look away but couldn’t. She gasped. Zach looked down and saw blood soaking his sleeve. Maddie made a hitching noise in her throat. Zach looked back at her and saw her gag, obviously trying not to throw up over the damage she’d caused. Since he was directly in the line of fire, he appreciated the effort.
Zach looked back at the wound. In spite of the pain, he felt detached. “It ain’t that bad. I think it done went clean through.”
Rachel shook her head, “Zachariah—” Her lips tightening in what looked like disgust. “How come you’re the only one of my brothers who ever gets shot?”
“He—he’s been shot before?” Maddie asked then shrank back when Rachel shot her a look that would have flash-froze a lake. A rush of protective instincts washed over Zach.
“Maddie, c’mere.”
It took her a few seconds to meet his eyes. She looked like a pup who’d chewed up the furniture and knew she was going to get a whipping.
“Come on. C’mere,” Zach coaxed, holding out his uninjured arm to encourage her. When she got there, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her tight against his side.
Rachel didn’t miss his display of forgiveness. Her eyes flashed at the way Zach held Maddie, but she turned her attention back to his wounded arm without comment. She wiggled two fingers into the hole in his sleeve and pulled. The bloody fabric resisted for a moment then ripped open under the pressure, giving her a better look at the wound.
Zach hissed in a breath through clenched teeth as she poked at his arm.
“You’re right. Looks like it went through clean.” Rachel looked at him with exasperation. “Why the hell can’t you ever stay outta trouble?”
Her lack of tenderness or pity would normally have pissed him off, but he was having trouble with any emotion stronger than annoyance. Must be the shock. In any case, tenderness and pity weren’t Rachel’s strong suits. “I don’t get in any more trouble than any of the other boys. And you ain’t my mamma, so stop acting like the barnyard hen.”
Rachel sat back on her heels, crisis obviously over as far as she was concerned. “Well, what do you want to do about it?”
“Get it properly dressed for starters.”
Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “I meant about her.”
“Oh.” He paused for a half a beat. “Rachel, this is Maddie. Maddie, this is my sister Rachel. She’s not always the bitch she’s acting like tonight.”
Rachel didn’t let his wound stop her from retaliating. She punched him in his shoulder, her vexation plain in the effort she put into it.
“Ow!” Zach flinched even before the pain hit. A second later, it stole his breath as he went blind from it for several long moments.
Through the ringing in his ears, he barely heard Rachel say, “Stay here. I’ll go get the medical kit from the office.” She pushed herself to her feet. “You—Maddie. Can you get him up on the bed without wanting to shoot him again?”
Maddie flushed, plainly embarrassed by the jab. Zach’s anger at his sister flared. What right did she have pointing fingers? If she’d kept her nose out of his business, he’d be getting laid now instead of bleeding all over the bedspread he was leaning against.
“Rachel.” He put a note of threat in his voice. A warning that she needed to mind her manners.
She heeded him enough to not say anything more.
When she scooped up the gun, Maddie made a sound deep in her throat that sounded like a strangled objection, then Rachel was out in the hall, calming the neighboring guests, telling them everything was under control.
“Don’t worry. She won’t turn you in.” He hoped he was right.
“The gun’s stolen.” The statement was barely whispered.
“What?”
“Well, not stolen exactly.” Below worried eyes, she bit her lip. “Missing. But if the police identify it …”
God, how much trouble was she in? “Who else have you shot with it?” It was a stupid question, meant to lighten the mood, but the tears welling her eyes told him he’d failed.
“No one. I swear. Oh, God, Zach—”
“Hey,” he tilted her chin up. “None of that. I don’t need you guilt ridden over this.”
“But I shot you.”
Like he hadn’t noticed.
“Yeah, well … yeah.” He took a deep, shaky breath. “I think you’d best not still be here when Rach gets back. Can you give me a hand up?”
Maddie scrambled to her feet, taking the arm he held out to her, and heaved him onto his feet. He stood just long enough to make sure the bed would be under him before he sat.
“Shouldn’t you lie down?” Maddie asked.
“Would you want to be lying defenseless while Rachel worked on you?”
Maddie emitted a bark of near-hysterical laughter. “No. No, I wouldn’t.”
A wash of pain made him light-headed for a moment. When his eyes focused again, she looked so lost and defenseless he couldn’t stand it. “What am I going to do with you, Maddie?”
She swallowed but her voice was thick with fear. “Are you going to turn me in?”
&nb
sp; Zach shifted on the bed. Pain shot up his arm, delaying his response.
She closed her eyes as though she couldn’t look at him. “I really didn’t mean to shoot you. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. Please don’t turn me in for shooting you.”
He hated that she was begging him, and when she opened her eyes, her vulnerability twisted his heart. “Do you really have a babysitter waiting for you?”
“I do.”
He didn’t believe she’d intended to shoot him. She’d been frightened into it by Rachel’s untimely arrival, but the fact remained that she felt threatened enough to carry a gun. What had her so scared?
“You’re really in a lot of trouble, ain’tcha?” he asked, not really expecting an answer.
They both seemed to be stuck on the obvious. Maybe it was the shock. Whatever it was, he could practically see her defenses crumble. She looked at him in confusion, as though she couldn’t believe he wasn’t going to hang her from the highest yardarm and use her for target practice. She finally nodded. Zach was afraid she’d bolt if he said the wrong thing.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
He could practically see the lump in her throat. “I need a job.” Her words emerged in a bare whisper.
He remembered her comment in the bar. “Bartending?”
“There’s good money in it,” she said softly as though just as afraid to say the wrong thing as he was.
His sister could make that happen. “I’ll talk to Rachel.”
He saw comprehension dawn in her eyes. She must have seen Rachel when she’d walked through the hotel lobby. “Oh, crap. She works for the concierge, doesn’t she?”
Zach’s chuckle was a little breathless. The wound wasn’t serious, but it still hurt. “She is the concierge. That’s how come I stay here when I’m in town. Free room.”
Maddie’s face fell. “She’ll never let them hire me then.”
“Why not?” Zach held his wounded arm, trying to find a position where it would hurt less.
“For starters, how about I just shot her brother?”
“Oh, hell, you just did what she’s wanted to do since she was eight.”
“It’s not funny, Zach.”
But she looked a little less frightened, and Zach liked that. Could he get her to stop focusing on having shot him? “It will be when our kids ask how we met.”
She pulled back in surprise. “You must be kidding!”
He lifted his arm to pull her back to him, but a stab of fresh pain forced him to arrest the motion. Zach fell back on the bed and closed his eyes. He realized he couldn’t stop her from walking out the door if she decided to, so he played the only card in his arsenal. “I promise not to press charges if you’ll see me again.”
“Are you crazy? You want to see me again?” He didn’t open his eyes, but her disbelief was plain in her voice.
“Wanna take you dancing.” And hold her close and make love to her. Maybe he was a little bit crazy. Maybe getting shot had scrambled his brains. Then he looked at her and knew there was nothing crazy about wanting her.
Maddie’s laugh was edged with hysteria.
Rachel would be back any minute, and she could blow any chance he had right out of the water. “You probably oughta go before Rachel gets back. It’s gonna take a bit of work to get her over her mad.”
“Okay.” Maddie picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. The way she hefted it, she obviously missed the weight of the gun.
“Maddie.”
“Yes.”
“Would you write your phone number down and put it in my pocket?”
She found a tablet and a pen in the nightstand drawer, both emblazoned with the hotel’s name. With trembling fingers, she wrote down her number, no name, ripped the sheet off and folded it in fourths. When she bent over to tuck it into the breast pocket of Zach’s shirt, her scent filled his nostrils. His good arm caught her around the back of her neck. He pulled her lips down onto his. The iPod was playing “No Rush” again, but that wasn’t the message he wanted to send. Her lips seemed to melt under his. She made him think of ripe strawberries and cream.
Zach finally ended the kiss, but his hand remained on her neck. He licked his lips, trying to capture the lingering flavor of her. “You best go and take care of that little one of yours,” he said before releasing her completely.
He watched her walk away, closing the door gently behind her. His hand went to his pocket. The paper with her number crinkled softly.
Chapter Four
“But she shot you!” Rachel argued, setting her toast down on the edge of her plate.
“That was your fault,” Zach said, unable to understand why she didn’t understand that. He cut awkwardly into his biscuits and gravy then stabbed the bite, not trusting his ability to balance anything on a utensil held in his left hand. Forking it into his mouth, he watched Rachel sit up straighter, her eyes narrowing.
It would take some doing to get his sister to use her influence to get Maddie a job in the bar. Sitting over breakfast in the hotel dining room was a perfect place to work on her. Rachel would never let both barrels loose on him in front of her coworkers.
That would be unprofessional.
“What do you mean, my fault? You can’t go blaming me for this.”
“Hey, she hadn’t even thought of shooting me ‘til you called my room.”
Rachel sat back in her chair, her eyes still narrow with suspicion. “What’s that got to do with it?”
The pretty brunette waitress slid up to their table. “Refill?”
Rachel clamped her mouth shut and frowned, but the girl was watching to be sure she didn’t overfill Zach’s cup and didn’t see it. As she tipped the coffee carafe back up, she lifted her eyes to meet his. Not shy, this girl. In her sultry look, Zach saw she knew he’d been checking her out while she poured and that she had no problem with that. Rachel thanked the girl in a tone that was disapproving in its correctness.
Zach glanced at his watch. Ten in the morning. The dining room closed between : and :. As concierge, Rachel had special privileges, but they should have been getting their own refills.
Somehow he didn’t think the waitress had stayed over her shift to make points with his sister.
He watched appreciatively as the girl sashayed away.
Nice.
“Zachariah!”
“What?” He pulled his attention back.
“I said, how is me calling your room cause for this girl to go and shoot you?”
“Well, what would you think if you were with a man and some woman calls his hotel room and starts raggin’ on him? You’d think he was some kinda slime, cheatin’ on his woman. Just like Maddie did.”
“But I wouldn’t have gone and shot him.”
“I ain’t taking that bet. You think Sol’d take that bet? Or Jake maybe? Hell, I’ll bet even Daddy wouldn’t even take that bet.” Zach’s fork stopped on its way to his mouth. “Face it, girl. You’re a born-shooter if I ever saw one.”
“I’d never shoot a man, just because he was scum.”
“You’ll never have to,” Zach said around a mouthful of biscuit. “That kinda scum ain’t dumb enough to piss you off that bad. That don’t mean they ain’t out there, pulling that crap on other women.”
Rachel sat back and looked at him for several long moments. The sadness on her face almost made Zach wonder if he knew her as well as he thought he did. He dismissed the idea though when her face took on the annoyed cast he was so used to. “She’s one of your damaged strays, ain’t she?”
Zach hid his smile behind his coffee cup. As hard as Rachel worked to talk like a city girl, she still fell into the old East Texas ways when family came around. “What do you mean?” he asked innocently.
“You know what I mean. All your life, you’ve been a soft touch for the bird with the broken wing, or the pups someone dumped on the side of the road, or the kitten old man Hazlett’s dog chewed up. You’re the one who oughta have gone to vet
school.”
“There wasn’t enough money when I finished school. You know that.”
“You’d’ve had the money if you hadn’t spent what you earned on the oil rigs keeping the ranch afloat.”
“And if Daddy’d lost the ranch? We wouldn’t need a vet. Jacob’ll be a good vet. He’s got the calling. ’Sides, could you see me spending eight more years in school?”
Rachel shook her head. “If I don’t get your chewed up kitten a job here, you’ll just figure out another way to help her, won’t you? So I guess it might as well be here. At least when she shoots you again, I’ll be around to bandage you up.”
Zach took another sip from his coffee cup, careful not to meet Rachel’s gaze. “By the way, she wants her gun back.”
“Oh, good God.” Rachel rolled her eyes. “Just make sure she doesn’t have any bullets for it, okay?”
*
Zach thumbed Maddie’s number into his phone, hoping she hadn’t fake-numbered him. The air seemed to grow thin as he listened to the ring.
Suddenly, Maddie was answering. She sounded distracted, but she’d answered. Zach breathed easy again. “Mornin’,” he said. “When do you wanna start work?”
“Zach?”
He had her attention now.
“Good mornin’, sweet Maddie. Didn’t wake you, did I?”
“No such luck.”
“Damn. Sounds like something I’d like to do.”
She made a disparaging noise. “Am I going to have to shoot you again?”
Zach threw back his head and laughed. “I sure hope so, darlin’.”
“Are you serious about the job?” She sounded hopeful but afraid of being disappointed.
“Yeah. It happens that the day bartender is pregnant and her doctor’s threatening to put her on bed rest ‘til the baby’s born, so they need someone in training right away. Rach’s going to put in a good word for you. You’ll still have to meet the bar manager, but unless you shoot her, too, you’re pretty much in.”
“Since I don’t have a gun at the moment, I can promise I won’t shoot her. When do they want me there?”
“Can you make it this afternoon? About two?”