Don't Mess with Texas

by Christie Craig

  That’s when LeAnn finally figured it out herself. Nikki was the woman Tony thought had killed her ex-husband. LeAnn looked at the accused and decided she didn’t believe it. And seeing as how she’d spent her entire life meeting strangers, she had a knack at reading people—distinguishing the good from the bad. It was part of basic survival. And LeAnn knew that Nikki wasn’t bad. Tony’s gaze landed on LeAnn again. Emotion tightened her chest. “I’m… I need to get back.” She walked away.

  “LeAnn.” Tony’s voice stopped her. She turned around. He touched his cheek. “You have… something.”

  “Bird shit,” she said before she could stop herself. Then for some unknown reason, she continued, “It’s supposed to be good luck.”

  Feeling her face heat with embarrassment, she met Nikki’s gaze. “I hope things go okay.” As she darted off to the restroom, one thing was clearer than before: she couldn’t—wouldn’t—do next Sunday. She wasn’t emotionally capable of dealing with Tony yet.

  And perhaps it was time to see a lawyer to get things settled so she didn’t have to face him ever again.

  Nikki saw the way the detective watched the nurse leave. Then she saw the way the PI—her PI—was watching the cop. If she wasn’t so worried about Ellen, if she hadn’t found her ex-husband dead in her trunk, if she hadn’t been poisoned, she might have started wondering about the strange way everyone was behaving. But the hint of curiosity vanished when sirens echoed from outside the double doors leading out of the emergency room.

  Nikki turned toward the sound.

  Dallas caught her arm. “Let them see to her first.”

  Trying to think straight, she swallowed a deep gulp of air. “Oh God. Her family needs to be called. I don’t have their home number.”

  “They’ve already been called,” Detective O’Connor said, but he didn’t look away from the nurse disappearing down the hall.

  A few nurses ran out the double doors and Nikki’s heart tightened for her best friend. She took a step closer to the door leading to the ambulance.

  Dallas caught her arm again. “Why don’t we—”

  “I want to make sure she’s okay,” Nikki said.

  “Tony can find out and let us know. Right?” Dallas looked at the detective.

  “Yeah,” his brother said.

  Nikki stared at Dallas’s face and then at the detective’s serious expression. She got a terrible feeling. “How bad’s Ellen? Do you know something you’re not telling me?”

  Dallas appeared to flinch, and the detective cleared his throat and answered, “All we know is that it’s serious.”

  “Define serious.” Fear bounced around her completely empty stomach then crawled up her throat and crowded her tonsils. “How serious?” When neither man answered, a vision of Ellen fluttering around the gallery filled Nikki’s mind. Ellen—so filled with life, so upbeat, so positive, so caring. Ellen—the single parent to her little girl.

  “Get back in the room!” A nurse ran to the unmanned desk and picked up a phone. She punched a few numbers and then started spouting out orders.

  Dallas gave Nikki’s arm a pull. Nikki stepped back. Three doctors sprinted down the hall to meet the arriving patient.

  A gurney, surrounded by a crowd of people, came barreling through the doors. They all talked at the same time, calling out heart rate, blood pressure, O negative blood, stat.

  Nikki stared, hoping to see Ellen. Just a quick glance to know she was okay. Just a tiny sign that told Nikki this wasn’t as bad as the detective made it sound.

  Dallas tried again to nudge Nikki back to her cubicle, but she yanked free. She had a mission and its name was Ellen. Finally, a small clearing appeared through the haze of the ER crew. But all Nikki could see was Ellen’s arm. A very limp arm hanging down with blood dripping from the fingertips.

  “No!” Nikki bolted for the gurney. Dallas caught her around her stomach and pulled her back a couple of steps. She yanked free, and took one step when a large male hand caught her arm and another hand moved down her lower back and she was swooped off her feet.

  “Put me down!” She felt a cool breeze on her backside and realized Dallas’s palm pressed against her bare bottom. She put a hand on his chest and looked into his dark blue eyes so he would know she was serious. “Put me down.”

  “Sorry.” Ignoring her order, he carried her into the curtained-off room and carefully placed her in the hospital bed beside her purse.

  Shaking, not so much from anger—though there was some of that, too—but mostly out of concern for Ellen, she stared up at him. Her gaze shot to the open slit in the curtain. She considered making a run for it, a run back to check on Ellen.

  “Don’t do it.” From the way he stood at the end of the bed, feet planted slightly apart, and determination etched onto his face, he looked capable of catching her.

  That’s when logic wiggled its way into her mind. She couldn’t come between Ellen and her doctors—couldn’t slow down whatever treatment Ellen needed.

  Her insides started to shake again. “She’s my friend,” Nikki said around that knot in her throat and swatted a tear that rolled down her cheek.

  “I know. And that’s why you need to let the doctors do their thing. You understand?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand. I don’t understand why any of this is happening. Who would want to hurt Ellen?”

  “We’ll figure it out,” he said calmly.

  She bit down on her lip to stop herself from crying. Crying doesn’t solve anything. Crying is for the weak. How many times had her mom told her that the first six years of her life? Enough that at twenty-seven, it was still tattooed on her memory.

  She felt Dallas’s gaze on her and for some odd reason she remembered his hand against her backside. Taking a deep breath, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and, reaching behind her to make sure the back of the robe was securely tied, she stood up.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Looking for something.” She didn’t glance at him as she opened the little cabinet beside the bed. Hadn’t the nurse put the bag of her stuff in here?

  “What are you looking for?” His voice came out soft, as if he was dealing with a child or someone who wasn’t in their right mind.

  And yes, she accepted that, for a second there, she’d lost it. But for good reason. She’d wanted to make sure Ellen was okay. “Just… something.”

  “What?”

  She turned around and stared at him. “My underwear.” She wasn’t sure why she’d had to remove them, but she recalled being told by the nurse that she had to remove everything. Now that she wasn’t trying to throw up her heart, she realized that didn’t make sense. She hadn’t been here for a pap smear, so why had she needed to remove her underwear?

  “I… have them,” a male voice said at the opening of the curtain, and Detective O’Connor entered the small space.

  Nikki looked at the detective and then at Dallas.

  She recalled at some point thinking these two men looked alike. Now that they were standing shoulder to shoulder, she realized just how much they resembled each other. Not that the detective gave her the stomach flutters like Dallas did. Now she wondered if her recently hired PI—whose job was to prove her innocence—was somehow related to the detective whose job seemed to be to find her guilty.

  Her mind went back to the problem at hand—her lack of panties—and she recalled what the detective had said.

  “Why do you have my underwear?” she asked.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  A KNOT FORMED in Dallas’s stomach at the look on Nikki’s face. His gaze shot to his brother, hoping Tony handled this well.

  “Why do you have my underwear?” Nikki repeated when Tony didn’t answer.

  A few more seconds of silence ticked by. Dallas cleared his throat. “Evidence,” he said.

  “I thought you’d run,” Tony answered.

  Dallas wished he’d had a chance to explain without Tony’
s presence.

  “Evidence?” she asked and then, shutting her eyes for a second, she muttered, “Oh yeah.”

  It was as if she’d forgotten she was suspected of killing her husband. How she could forget it for even a second was beyond Dallas. Then he recalled how upset she was about her friend. He didn’t want to downplay that situation, but he worried that she didn’t realize how serious her own problems were.

  “He can only keep them if you agree to let him have them,” Dallas explained.

  Tony shot Dallas a frown. “I could get a court order and force you to comply.”

  “Just explaining her rights.” Dallas looked back at her and continued. “However, I recommend you let him have them. If there is no blood splatter on the clothes, it’ll corroborate your story.”

  Nikki stared down as if considering her options.

  “Or I could obtain a court order,” Tony said. “Place you under arrest and wait for the test results. The choice is yours.”

  Her gaze shot back to his brother. “So if I cooperate, you’re not going to arrest me?”

  “Correct,” Tony said. “Of course, the investigation is still open, and if the evidence comes back—”

  “Just say yes,” Dallas said, stopping his brother from scaring Nikki more than he had. Couldn’t Tony see the woman was at her wits’ end?

  An ER doctor, a tall, exhausted-looking brunette, popped in behind the curtain and looked at Tony. “I’m Dr. Rodriguez. You wanted an update on the stabbing victim’s condition?”

  “Yes. Thank you.” Tony started to step out of the room.

  “No,” Nikki said. “Please, I need to know, too. She’s my friend.”

  From the look on the doctor’s face, Dallas worried it was bad news. But either way, Nikki deserved the truth. “She has a right to know,” he said.

  Fifteen minutes later, alone, worried and still sitting in the hospital bed, still hearing the words the doctor had confided in Tony, They’re doing all they can, and It’s critical, Nikki nipped at her lips and waited to hear news about Ellen’s emergency surgery. A new nurse had come in and put a bandage on her wrist, scolding her about leaving her bed, but they’d decided she didn’t need another IV.

  Alone again, Nikki saw the curtain shift to the side ever so slightly. She sat up higher as a nose appeared, followed by an eye in the slit as if the person didn’t want to make a commitment to enter. It was the nurse Nikki had run into while calling Nana. The one the bird had pooped on. And, if Nikki remembered correctly, she thought the detective had called her LeAnn.

  After giving the small area a glance, the nurse stepped inside the curtain. “I come bearing gifts.” She held out some folded scrubs. “Dallas called and asked if I could get you something else to wear besides a hospital gown to leave the hospital. It’s not Valentino, but they’re comfy.”

  “Thanks.” Nikki inwardly softened at the thought of Dallas taking care of her needs, and she took the thin cotton uniform from the woman. “It’s LeAnn, right?

  “Yeah.” She nodded. The room went quiet and LeAnn continued, “He also told me about your friend. I’m really sorry. Dr. Peters is the surgeon working on her and, believe me, he’s the best we’ve got.”

  “I hope so.” Nikki bit down on her lip again, found it sore, and inwardly scolded herself for doing it.

  “I also heard about… your ex-husband. And that they think you were poisoned.”

  “Yeah,” Nikki said. “It’s been an all around crappy day.”

  “No shit,” LeAnn said, and half-smiled. “I guess you were right, huh?”

  “About what?” Nikki asked. Since she was feeling as if she was in a place where everything went wrong, if she was actually right about something she wanted to know what.

  “You said you could top my bad day… earlier, by the picnic table.”

  Nikki sort of remembered them talking about that. Hadn’t LeAnn said something about—

  “If it makes you feel any better,” LeAnn continued, “I know he can come across as a hard-ass sometimes, but my husband is good at his job. He’ll take care of you.”

  Nikki tried to wrap her mind around exactly what LeAnn was saying. “Dallas is your husband?”

  “Oh, no. Tony is… was… soon to be was… my husband.”

  Nikka was curious about the whole is/was dialogue, but didn’t feel comfortable enough to ask, so instead she asked for clarification. “Tony being… the detective?”

  “Right,” LeAnn said.

  Nikki remembered something else she was curious about. “And that would make Dallas your…?”

  “Brother-in-law.”

  “So they’re brothers.” Okay, Nikki shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was. Dallas seemed eager to prove her innocent, while his brother seemed almost as eager to find her guilty. Or at least he suspected her of being guilty. She wondered if she could trust Dallas to help her when it appeared his brother was rooting for, and was the captain of, the other team.

  She bit down on her lip, unsure what to say. Nikki didn’t want to tell LeAnn that she was right—her husband was a hard-ass—or that she wasn’t sure he was so eager to help her. Nor did she want to tell her that she was really happy Dallas wasn’t her husband. Nikki didn’t want to analyze her reasons for being so happy about his unattached status, either.

  Then again, she’d already admitted to having a slight case of lust going on. However, she’d be stupid to even consider letting it go anywhere. And Nikki Hunt wasn’t stupid. She might be weak on occasion. But—

  “Hey?” A familiar male voice boomed from the curtain’s entrance and when Nikki’s eyes landed on all six feet plus of Dallas O’Connor, she was reminded of how weak she was. There was just something about a pair of wide shoulders and strong arms that said lean on me. Nikki knew she’d have to be careful not to do too much leaning.

  He glanced at LeAnn and then at the folded scrubs Nikki held to her chest. “You found something for her to wear. Good.” His half smile came off tender, and Nikki took another swipe at her sore bottom lip with her teeth.

  “They aren’t much better than a gown,” LeAnn said. “But at least she won’t be mooning anyone again.” LeAnn cast a chastising look in Dallas’s direction.

  Nikki gulped. “Did I…?”

  “No.” Dallas frowned at his sister-in-law.

  Nikki didn’t know him well enough to swear it, but her gut said when his eyebrow twitched like that, he was probably lying. She was in the process of sticking that little piece of information into her memory for future use when voices exploded from the other side of the curtain.

  “If Jack Leon is dead, I’ll celebrate later. For now I want to see Nikki!”

  Nikki’s heart clutched at her grandmother’s words. The curtain to Nikki’s cubical was yanked back. Standing behind Dallas was Nana. Nana, all suited up in what looked like a dress from the eighteen hundreds. Nana with a cowboy hat hung down her back and fury in her eyes. It took a second for Nikki to remember that her grandmother was playing Annie Oakley at the local theater. And standing behind Nana was her contributing cast, four of the Ol’ Timers group, all in western garb, and behind them was one very unhappy, hard-ass detective.

  “You all can’t be back here.” A nurse popped into the scene and her eyes widened, right along with Dallas’s and LeAnn’s, at the garb of the Ol’ Timers. But Nikki didn’t flinch because Nana and this bunch were always up to something.

  “Costume party?” the nurse asked.

  “Dress rehearsal,” Nana’s friend Benny answered.

  Nana, aka Annie Oakley, ignored the nurse and barreled past Dallas. “My gosh. What happened?”

  The warm, aged hands of her grandmother came to rest on Nikki’s face. The hands that had tenderly cared for Nikki since she’d been a child.

  The warm loving touch on both her cheeks, along with the fear in her grandmother’s expression, had Nikki’s eyes growing moist. Damn it, she wanted to be the one taking care of Nana, not the other way around.


  “I…” She tried to talk, but then had to swallow the need to cry.

  Nana leaned in. “That piece of shit cop right there insinuated you killed your ex-husband. Then he said they thought you might have been poisoned. And now Ellen? What the hell is going on?”

  “Some of you cowboys are going to have to saddle up and leave,” the nurse said.

  “Oh, goodness, Nikki, are you okay?”

  Nikki opened her mouth to answer Nana, but her throat tightened and she couldn’t talk.

  “Nikki’s fine, ma’am.” Dallas took a step closer, and rested his hand on Nana’s shoulder.

  Nana looked first at Dallas’s hand then his face. She did a double take to Detective O’Connor, and then settled her eyes back on Dallas. “I don’t know you from Adam, young man, but I already don’t like you just because you look too much like that bastard.” She pointed to Dallas’s brother.

  Dallas’s eyes rounded and his mouth went slack. Detective O’Connor cleared his throat, and looked about ready to read Nana the riot act or her Miranda rights—or maybe both—but then his gaze fell on LeAnn and his expression shot from anger to longing.

  “I… need… to go.” LeAnn swung around and ran face first into the curtain and fought with the thin material for a few long seconds before she finally managed to pull it over her head and disappear.

  Everyone’s eyes went back to Detective O’Connor. His scowl returned. “I didn’t say she’d killed anyone.”

  “And I didn’t say you said it,” Nana said. “I said you insinuated it.”

  “And I said you can’t all be back here.” The nurse’s voice grew louder. Another nurse stopped and peered in. “Rodeo in town?”

  “Dress rehearsal,” Nana said.

  “I suggested we change clothes,” said Helen, who had been Nana’s best friend for as long as Nikki could remember. Helen met Nikki’s gaze. “But your grandma was too worried about you.”

  “Took me fifteen minutes to lace up this western garb. I didn’t have another fifteen to get out of it.” Nana gave Nikki’s hand a squeeze and then looked back at the detective.