Something About a Lawman

by Em Petrova

  If they were smart, anyway.

  She went right up to the trailer, catching sight of a fresh weal on the side of one bull. A brand over a brand.

  A guy eyed her from about ten paces away, and she kept him in her radar as she tried to see the second bull’s brand. It wouldn’t move enough for her to get a good look without boarding the trailer. Far too dangerous. She didn’t want to be crushed in a small space by thousands of pounds of flesh.

  “Back off, asshole,” she heard Roshannon say.

  Just as she spotted the fresh brand on the next rump.

  She looked up at the guy. He slid his eyes down and to the side as he turned slightly away.

  Shadiness? Check, motherfucker.

  She started toward him. “Hey, these your animals?”

  He took a big step back, not forward like a man selling cattle would do if asked. Wait—was he sporting a ball cap with a brand on it—same as the newly scorched ones of the cattle she’d seen?

  “You need to open the trailer and let me have a look at them.” Command sounded in her tone.

  Behind her, she caught a low thump and a grunt of pain. Either someone had just gotten kicked by a rogue hoof or Roshannon was involved in a fight. Let’s hope it’s this cattle thief’s cronies. AND that Aiden doesn’t get another black eye.

  “What do you know about those double-branded cattle?” Roshannon barked.

  A scuffling noise as the man he questioned obviously tried to make a run for it.

  “On your knees, hands up.”

  A thud.

  She had her sights trained on the man before her, the one looking right and left as if searching for escape. “Get on your knees,” she called to the man.

  “Your woman’s got a… great ass,” the man Roshannon was handling said. Several thumps and grunts followed, and the man in front of her took off.

  She lunged forward, relying on her speed and years of chasing greased pigs at the county fair as a kid. She threw herself at him and struck with a body-shaking blow. They fell to the ground, rolling. He jerked a shoulder back, bashing her own. Pain ricocheted up into her neck.

  She had enough experience under her silver belt buckle to use her wits. She ground a knee into his spine and used her weight to pin him as she got her handcuffs around one of his wrists.

  He fought. He was strong, she’d give him that, and mad. But she was madder.

  “Jesus Christ!” Roshannon’s deep tone reached her just as she managed to hook the guy’s second wrist into the cuffs.

  She sat atop him, breathing hard. Her hat had been knocked off in the fall and her hair dangled into one eye. Aiden’s gray gaze met hers.

  “Hell, Amaryllis.”

  “At least two stolen animals in that trailer over there.” She jerked her head and fresh pain hit the muscles of her neck. She’d definitely be sore later. The man she was sitting on was no lightweight and that jerk of his shoulder had been the equivalent of being hit by a smart car at least.

  On the ground a few yards away lay the guy Roshannon had cuffed, his hat fallen off, his face scraped and what Amaryllis figured was a black eye from Roshannon’s fist after the comment about her ass.

  “Hey, I’ve been a bad boy too. Cuff me!” called a cowboy to her left where a group was gathering.

  Amaryllis pushed off the guy and he groaned.

  Aiden moved so fast that he was a blur. He went from a crouch to a full stand and twisted at the same second. He took two steps toward the group of guys, who were talking among themselves about who would get cuffed next by the pretty cowgirl.

  “Shut your mouths and show some respect,” Aiden ordered.

  “Let’s get these two into the truck fast in case there are others. We don’t want them to find out what happened to their buddy.” Amaryllis spoke close to his ear.

  He gave a stiff nod, which was better than she could do. Her neck was really hurting. He bent and gripped the guy she’d just caught by the scruff and hauled him to his feet.

  “Hey, what’d he do? Is hitting on you against the law, sweetheart?” one guy called.

  Amaryllis flashed her ID, which silenced the group. “He’s wanted for questioning. That’s all you need to know.” She stomped up to the other guy and nudged him in the leg with the toe of her boot. “Get up.”

  Without the use of his hands, he struggled, and Amaryllis had to assist him. She passed him off to the guard who was looking at her with a bit more respect now.

  Aiden shoved his guy forward into a walk. While he and the guard whisked the men out of sight, she got the trailer open and shooed the cattle out. Sure enough, two fit the description of Owens’ stolen cows. Judging by the crisscross of two lines, the original brand was Owens’ too. He’d be happy to get a few of his animals back, and the others might be somewhere around here.

  She waved at a cowboy working the auction to help her get the animals corralled into a safe place while she made a call. “Latchaw, send Owens up here with a trailer to collect two of his cattle.”

  “You found them? Holy shit.”

  “Yeah, and we’re sending two guys to the local station for questioning. If Aiden lets them live that long.” When he’d looked at the man Amaryllis had struggled with, his expression had scared even her. Cold, calculating fury. The gray of his eyes turned to steel. She didn’t want to be on the receiving end of his anger, but she sure as hell wanted to hear him unleash it on that asshole.

  She got off the phone with Latchaw and spoke to the market inspector. She ordered him to have every single animal unloaded for her to look at before the auction began.

  Then she headed off to find her partner, feeling stiff as hell but satisfied. Aiden had the guys at the truck. One in the back seat cuffed to a length of chain connected to the door. And the other at the tailgate with a similar bit of chain.

  She cocked her brow in question.

  “Tire chains. For bad weather. Guess you don’t have them in Texas.”

  “Seems like they come in handy.”

  They stared at each other. While she was dusty from her roll in the dirt, feeling disheveled and bruised, Roshannon managed to look like he’d just stepped off the pages of Cowboy Magazine.

  “You got your man, Amaryllis.” Aiden’s voice was rougher than usual but when she looked at his face, he was wearing a smile.

  She circled the truck to speak to both guys they had in custody. “Some women like diamonds and pearls. But I love seeing my metal cuffs on the wrists of a rustler. So shiny.” She shot each of them a wink and heard Aiden’s low rumble of amusement.

  * * * * *

  Aiden didn’t know if he’d recover anytime soon over the jolt to his heart when he’d seen Amaryllis and the rustler hit the ground rolling. She was tiny, and this guy wasn’t a tanked-up Marine, but he had some weight on him and he hadn’t held back in their fall.

  She’d been steamrollered and Aiden’d seen her head knocked aside. She hadn’t blinked an eye before she’d gotten the man down in the dirt, her knee in his back.

  What Aiden wouldn’t give to have her sitting atop him. Damn.

  Part of him was seething that she hadn’t waited for his backup before calling out the guy. He’d tried to run, and that had to mean he was guilty of some crime, even if it wasn’t stealing cattle.

  And part of Aiden was proud as hell of her.

  Maybe he’d tell her that right after he got done telling her off for not playing by the rules. There had to be order to making an arrest, but she was impulsive. Reckless, even.

  She wouldn’t listen to him. He didn’t think she knew how to think before she acted. Twice now he’d seen her take careless steps. One of these times she’d end up in trouble for it. He just hoped to hell he was there to protect her when it happened.

  Speaking of protection… He wasn’t so sure she wasn’t a walking victim with a bulls-eye on her back. She attracted attention wherever she went. Men couldn’t keep their damn grubby eyeballs off her. Hell, the guy he’d knocked around had m
uttered about taking her sweet little ass for his own as she walked away. And then there were the ones who’d asked her to cuff them.

  Fuck. Aiden wanted to sink his fist into an eye socket or two right now.

  The local sheriff had their suspect in the back seat of his cruiser. He approached Aiden and Amaryllis. “We got this, Roshannon, Ms. Long. We’ll be in touch with you later. Will you be sticking around town? Be happy to spot you a beer.” He was an older guy who was buddies with Judd and often exchanged favors with him. Aiden had no doubt his brother would be hearing about this—and Amaryllis’s role in catching the guy.

  “Thank you, Sheriff Mead, but we’ll be heading back to Crossroads.” Her casual stance, arms crossed, exuded that air of confidence that had Aiden’s cock sitting up and begging every time.

  But he still wanted to turn her over his knee and paddle her ass for scaring the fuck out of him.

  “Thank you for your help, Sheriff. We’ll be by the station later to ask him some questions,” Aiden said.

  The sheriff took his leave with a parting, “Say hello to Judd for me.”

  “Will do.” Aiden tugged his hat brim in farewell.

  He and Amaryllis watched the sheriff drive away.

  Aiden rounded on her and caught her by the arm. She gasped, eyes wide. “Dammit, you should have waited for me.”

  She tugged free and moved her hand to her neck. Pain creased her brow before she dropped her hand.

  “You’re hurt.”

  “Am not. Why should I have waited for you anyway? I’ve done this a time or two hundred, Roshannon.”

  He kept getting flashes of her rolling under that fucker, and he was getting riled again. He really needed to punch something now.

  “We have ways of doing things around here, Amar—”

  She cut him off. “And I have ways of doing things of my own. Just because I didn’t consult a notebook before taking action doesn’t mean I did it wrong. I got the job done. Isn’t that the objective?”

  He dragged in a full breath and counted to ten before releasing it. “There is a reason that rules are put into place. So people don’t get hurt.”

  “I’m not hurt. Are you hurt? Oh yeah, your knuckles are bleeding. Why did you punch that guy, anyway?”

  He ground his molars together, burning to grab her and silence that sassy mouth of hers with a kiss. “Shutting someone up is different than apprehending a suspect alone when he outweighs you by a hundred pounds.”

  “I didn’t find it a problem.” She examined her fingernails and rubbed at one perfect oval-shaped nail with her forefinger. “Oh, I did get a small chip in my clear coat. Guess I’d better head over to the beauty shop and get a mani. Maybe put on a pretty dress and pantyhose too.”

  “I know what you’re doing, Amaryllis. You know damn well we’re not having this discussion because you’re female. If they’d sent me a male partner who acted this way, barging into houses unasked and unannounced and hurling themselves at big guys—”

  She spun and walked away from him, unwilling to listen to a laundry list of her supposed broken rules. If he wanted to play some boring game of chess, let him. She wasn’t here to be nice—she was here to catch cattle thieves.

  Her long strides ate up the distance between Aiden and the cattle. One by one, she inspected them before letting them go to auction. After a few cows, she felt Aiden at her side, checking along with her. He didn’t speak and she had nothing to say.

  When they were finished, they watched the auction. It went long into the evening. By then, Owens showed up to collect his stolen bulls. Which meant standing around talking specifics for an hour or so. By the time they wrapped up, she was ready to call it quits for the day.

  “Think it’s worth sticking around for day two of the auction?” she asked Aiden. She didn’t exactly like the silence or tension between them. He’d hardly spoken a word or glanced her direction since telling her off for breaking the rules.

  “That rustler might not be the only one in town. Coulda gotten wind of what went down here today and will run scared. But maybe not. He could be arriving tomorrow. We need to stay in town and be here bright and early in the morning.”

  “I agree.”

  “At least we agree on somethin’.”

  So, he was going to be stubborn about things. She’d had a hell of a long day with him, and for a first day on the job together, they’d argued a lot. But it would soon be over. They’d get rooms in town and she could sink into a hot bath and soak her sore neck muscles and the bruise she felt rising on her hip. Plus, she was starving.

  “Let’s get outta here.” He twitched his head in the direction of the parking lot.

  They grabbed a bite to eat at the pizza joint, and she was so hungry that she wasn’t even embarrassed to pig out. “I can see why you had that big platter this morning.”

  A man of few words, he only nodded and tucked into his third slice of deep dish pepperoni. After their meal, they stopped at the only two motels in town and learned they had no vacancies because of the auction. “We’ve got one more option,” he said, hopping behind the wheel.

  They drove a short distance up the road and down a long lane to a bed and breakfast. She offered to go check on the rooms, but he jumped out and practically ran into the quaint home with cabin-like details. She couldn’t ignore the feeling he wanted to get rid of her for the night, and quick. Well, the feeling was mutual. He was arrogant. He had a stick up his ass when it came to rules. And his beard had grown in entirely too much during the course of the day, leaving him looking dastardly and sexy as hell.

  She rubbed at the sore spot on her neck but as soon as he yanked the door open, she dropped her hand to her lap. She didn’t want him to know she was feeling like she’d been run over by a bull.

  His face was grim, mouth set. He didn’t get into the truck, though, so it must not be a complete fail.

  “What’s the verdict?” she asked.

  “They have space.”

  “Oh good.”

  “But only one room.”

  Her high hopes for that hot bath bottomed out somewhere in the dust on the soles of her boots. “What does that mean for us then?”

  His gray gaze settled on her, and that deep electric tingle took up residence in her belly. How odd to think that she’d only met him in person this morning. A lot had happened in one day, and she felt as if she’d known him months.

  “Could mean a couple things. One, you take the room and I’ll sleep in the truck.”

  She twisted her lips. As much as she wanted to relax alone for the night, she didn’t want to think of Aiden out here alone in the uncomfortable truck.

  “What’s the other option?”

  His gaze speared her to the seat. “We share the room.”

  “Is there only one bed?” she hazarded.

  He gave a brief businesslike nod like he was making a deal with the devil. It amused her that he was so rattled by the thought of sharing a room with her.

  “Is there a sofa or something one of us can sleep on?”

  He lifted a shoulder in a shrug, looking as uncomfortable as a cat in a cattle stampede. “Dunno. We’ll find out if we take the room.”

  “Okay then. Let’s go. I’ll pay.”

  “Not necessary. The department puts us up for the nights we’re on the road.”

  “All right.” She got out of the truck. Neither of them had luggage and that meant Amaryllis was going to have to wash her underthings in the sink. Wait—scratch that. Where would she hang them to dry if they were sharing a room? She couldn’t exactly leave her panties hanging on the shower rod for Aiden to see.

  She pushed out a sigh. She’d been in stickier situations in her years but today was up there on her list of the more difficult ones. But she’d live through it, same as she persevered through everything in life.

  She wasn’t afraid of a grumpy ex-military lawman who needed a shave and had beat up a man who’d made a comment about her ass.

  Sh
e was more afraid of how her body reacted to him.

  * * * * *

  When Aiden opened the door of the room, once glance told him it was the worst case. One bed. A pair of wing-back faux leather chairs with a small table between them in one corner. Maybe a child could scoot those chairs together and find a night’s sleep on their combined cushions, but not him.

  She stepped past him and blew out a breath. “I’ll take the floor.”

  He bit off a groan. The woman was driving him crazy with her need to man up. He had nothing against strong women. In fact, he preferred them to whiny princesses. But did she really believe he’d let a woman sleep on the floor while he sacked out in comfort?

  “I’m sorry I didn’t think to tell you to bring a bag.” Actually, he figured she’d know better than to head out with no essentials. He always kept a backpack with a spare change of clothes, a toothbrush and a razor.

  “I carry one in my truck back home. Guess I’m a bit out of my element here.” She went over to the window and pushed aside the curtain. He’d never stayed in this particular place but figured the window must face over the back of the B&B and a big deck.

  The days were long at this time of year, but the sun was setting and shadows laying across the land. She turned from the window and met his stare.

  Her arms were folded over her sumptuous breasts, and he wondered what the hell she wore to bed. She didn’t look like a woman who’d don a nightgown but probably fell into bed in much less.

  Great. Now his cock was stirring again. Just what he needed—for her to wake up in the night to spot his dick tenting the covers.

  “Should be extra blankets in the closet. Pillows too.” He tipped his head toward the closet he spoke of.

  She dropped her arms to her sides, looking way more defeated than any woman who’d ever been alone with him in a bedroom. Damn if that didn’t irritate the hell out of him.

  “Why don’t you take a turn at the bathroom first. I want to write some things down.”

  “Then I’ll stay and help you.”

  “You gonna hold the pen with me?” He gave her a crooked smile.