Trusting Drew: Burlap and Barbed Wire

by Shirley Penick

  She hung her robe on the back of the door next to his, and then turned with her hands on her hips, her lovely tits still swaying with the movement. “Well what are you waiting for? Get in the shower, Drew.”

  He chuckled and complied. They managed to get each other somewhat clean, and had a lot of fun doing it. He left before she had a chance to use all the various beauty products. When she finally came out of the bathroom, all rosy and sexy he wanted to pull her back into bed, but they’d run out of time. He’d found a picture of Bubba Pamper and had texted it to both his brothers, and Mr. Clark, so he could make copies for the others.

  He went over and kissed Lily hard, just as a knock came on their door. He opened it and let in the female portion of his family, gave Lily a wave, and joined his brothers in the hall.

  They all began firing questions at him. “I’ll explain it all in five minutes, but I’ll start by saying it was Lily’s dad that figured it out.”

  Adam said, “Of course it was. I copied dad on what you sent and all I got back was a text saying, ‘Obviously, makes perfect sense’.”

  Drew chuckled.

  When he got to the meeting and explained all, the police and security called it a lucky break, but Drew knew it was more than that. It was an expertise that came with age, and knowledge of the key players. But regardless of how they got it, everyone was relieved to have a place to look.

  Now all they had to do was find a way to get real evidence, rather than what they had, which was circumstantial at best. At worst it was pure speculation. They talked about the best way to handle it and decided they didn’t have enough to bring the guy in for questioning, so they would begin with surveillance, and once they saw anything they could use as evidence, they would snap him up.

  Drew was a little disappointed that the guy was going to be left out there to continue to threaten the girls, but at least now that they knew who to watch they wouldn’t be spread so thin. They needed to guard the three girls and keep a watch on Baby Pooper himself and his associates.

  When they got back to Drew’s room the girls had Lily all dolled up for the interview portion of the pageant. Lily had clued the girls in on who the ‘bad guy’ was and they were all laughing about Bubba Pamper aka Baby Pooper.

  The girls and their entourage would be kept in a room offstage, so they couldn’t hear the other contestant’s interviews. Once they had given their interview they went to another room to wait until everyone had finished and then there would be a meal served. The girls would have a lot of down time waiting both before and after their interview. Lily had planned on reading but now that she had Drew’s family to chat with, that would be much more fun.

  Chapter 26

  It was time for Lily’s interview, she was excited to be able to tell all about why she had joined the pageant, and why she had chosen to champion her cause, and charity. Drew smiled at her enthusiasm as he walked out of the room by her side.

  A pageant aide was standing outside the door. “Ms. Montana?”

  Lily smiled at the woman. “That’s me.”

  “Here is a bottle of water for you to have a drink before you get to the stage, then this nice gentleman can hold it for you.”

  “Oh, thanks so much, I am feeling a bit parched.” Lily took the bottle and started to unscrew the lid, when Drew grabbed it out of her hand.

  “Wait.” He squeezed the bottle and water shot out of a tiny hole.

  The pageant aide looked surprised. “Why is it leaking?”

  Drew didn’t answer. “Where did you get this?”

  “Oh, her sponsor gave it to me. He wanted to give one to all his girls. I have the other two here for the other contestants.”

  Lily and Drew exchanged a look. “Which two women?”

  She looked at a note. “Let me check to make sure. Yes, just as I thought, Ms. New Mexico and Ms. Utah.”

  Drew’s heart sped up. Maybe he had the evidence they needed right there in his hand. “Do you know who the man was, could you pick him out?”

  “Oh, that’s easy, he’s sitting in the center of about row ten. I saw him sit there right after he gave me the bottles.”

  “Can you point him out to me?” Drew asked.

  “Sure, that guy right there with the blue suit and string tie.”

  Drew spoke into the radio that he’d been given to keep in touch with security. “We’ve got some evidence on the suspect, at the contestant’s room.” He looked at the aide whose eyes had widened as he spoke. “Would you be willing to tell the police what happened?”

  “Um sure, is something wrong?”

  “Possibly.”

  The aide’s eyes widened. “Did I do something wrong?”

  Lily put her hand on the woman’s arm. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong, but you can help by telling the police what happened.”

  Drew heard the announcement that they would be taking a short break and saw the guy grin, and then cover his mouth with his hand, he obviously thought something had happened to Lily.

  As soon as the security and police converged on them, Drew handed them the water bottle he held, and explained what had happened. He signaled his family to move into the auditorium but stay towards the back in case the guy figured out what was going on.

  He conferred with the others and they decided how they wanted to handle it, and split off into multiple directions. The New York City police took all three water bottles to have a tox screen run on them, as well as fingerprints on the two no one had touched. All three bottles did have tiny holes in them that a syringe might have made.

  Drew got in position in the back of the auditorium. The hotel security walked out from backstage with the pageant aide, his hand was gripping her upper arm and they marched down the stairs on stage left. Bubba Pamper looked toward them and then got up quickly hurrying down the opposite side of his row.

  There was a police officer at the end of the row and he called out for him to halt, but Baby Pooper sprayed what looked like mace into the officer’s eyes and kept moving. Cade had been further up in the auditorium and began following the guy as he sprayed everyone he got near.

  There was practically a cloud of mace in the air. Summer walked in the back of the auditorium and Drew about had heart failure since she was in the man’s direct path. But Cade pulled his rope seemingly out of thin air and spun it at the man. Cade caught the perp around the elbows which caused him to drop the mace.

  Summer flipped toward him and swept his feet out from under him. Drew was right on her tail and he grabbed a spare power cord, lying next to the other cables and cords running between the stage and TV cameras, and hog tied the man with it in seconds.

  The three exchanged high fives, and Cade said with a smirk, “Team Roping at its finest.”

  The rest of the security and police officer team surrounded them to take the man in custody. Even without knowing what might be in the tainted water bottles, he’d maced a half dozen people, several of which were police officers and the dumb ass had also gotten the Federal agent. So, he was going to jail, which would give them plenty of time to find evidence for the rest of the crimes.

  As they were hauling him out Lily walked up, and Baby Pooper sputtered, “What are you? A fucking cat, with nine lives? Just what does it take to take you down? That damn Ronald couldn’t manage it, and the snake failed, and…”

  The dumb ass finally realized what he’d just said and clamped his mouth shut tight, but the damage was done. He’d just blurted out his guilt in front of a dozen witnesses, including a TV camera that had kept recording during his entire, aborted, flight for freedom.

  Drew shook his head, the guy really sucked at being a criminal. He caught Mr. Clark’s eye and could read the same thought in his gaze. Drew saluted Mr. Clark and then pulled Lily into his arms. “I think you’re safe now.”

  Lily laid her head on his shoulder and then looked up. “But you’re going to stay with me until the end, right?”

  “Absolutely, nowhere else I’d rather b
e than protecting my favorite beauty queen.”

  Lily was thrilled that the danger was finally over. They’d given everyone an hour to reconvene to finish the interviews, during which they aired out the room. After her interview was over, the pageant officials allowed her and Drew to go to the police department to give their statements, rather than sit cloistered in the other contestant room.

  The pageant officials had not mentioned to any of the other contestants anything that had gone on in the auditorium, other than to alert the other bodyguards that the threat had been neutralized and the man taken into custody. They’d told the contestants that the delay was due to an air circulation problem.

  Lily gave her statement with as much detail as she could remember, and she had to repeat several times what the guy had shouted at her as he was being escorted outside. But now it was done, and they had the evening off, so the whole Kipling family and her’s gathered in the revolving restaurant of the Marriot Marquess to celebrate. And celebrate they did, with good food and plenty of drinks.

  There was still two days of competition before the big finale on Sunday night, where they would crown the winner. Lily was beginning to hope that she would not win, which was counter-productive, and she tried to push the thought away. But in her heart of hearts she knew she just wanted to be done with it all.

  She shook herself out of her thoughts and reengaged with the celebration in the revolving restaurant. But before she could even say a word her phone buzzed. It was her sister who sent her a clip of the capture of Baby Pooper. Lily laughed as she watched it and heard Cade say something about team roping. When she looked up just about everyone else had their phone out, probably watching the same clip.

  Except Drew, who was texting. When she lifted an eyebrow at him.

  He said quietly, “My best friend is giving me holy hell, for not calling him to help.”

  Lily chuckled, then said to the group, “I think this calls for a toast. To the best team ropers in the country.”

  When they all drank she said, “You know every male in the country is going to want a rope now, and every girl is going to want to learn Summer’s moves.” She looked at Drew. “I can’t imagine how many kids are going to be grabbing every cord in the house to try to hog tie everything from the dog to their siblings.”

  Howard said, “You Kipling’s have single-handedly created a generation of monsters.”

  Cade shook his head. “Nope, just a few cowboys. Maybe we’ll get some country music created in our honor.”

  Chase rolled his eyes at his twin. “You are a certifiable nut case.”

  “If I’m one, then so are you.” The joshing began in earnest then.

  Lily tuned them out and took Drew’s hand into hers to hold under the table. Drew seemed content to let his siblings tease each other while he held Lily’s hand.

  When it got to be late enough to escape the merriment, Lily said, “I’m going to bed. There’s still a lot more things to do this weekend and I need my beauty sleep.”

  Drew and her parents got up to leave too, while the rest of the Kipling’s waived them off. Lily saw her dad stop by the Maître D and told him to put their tab on his credit card, as long as they wanted to party.

  Drew spoke up as they left the restaurant. “You didn’t need to do that, Mr. Smith.”

  Her dad put his arm around Drew. “You and your family saved my little girl and I appreciate it. It’s the least I could do to say thanks. Maybe I’ll send down a new pony or two for your string.”

  When Drew started to deny the need her father looked him in the eye and said, “My daughter’s wellbeing is much more precious than a couple of horses. You didn’t know her from Adam, and that didn’t stop any of you from coming to her aid. And before you say anything, I know that’s just the cowboy way, but it still doesn’t change the facts.”

  “Very well, thanks. I think Adam was going to be asking you about a couple of new horses. How about you let us buy a couple and you can throw in an extra?”

  Howard laughed. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

  Chapter 27

  Lily hoped the rest of the pageant would pass by peacefully. She and Drew continued to sleep in his bed, even though it was now safe for her to return to her own. She had a nightmare where she was a cat, and there was a big pile of baby poop that kept trying to smother her, but after she and Drew laughed about the dream she settled into a peaceful sleep.

  The only real concern she had was what would happen after the pageant was over. If she won, she would have to continue down the path toward the international contest. If she lost she could return home and get back out on the ranch with her horse.

  But if she was honest with herself, which she always tried to be, where she really wanted to go was back to the Rockin’ K to be near Drew. The problem was they really hadn’t known each other that long and she wondered if she was rushing her fences. So, as she walked through the rest of the competitions she thought about it, a lot.

  The final night of the pageant, the part that would be shown all across America and possibly even other countries arrived. Lily and the Kipling girls had gone out during a short break to find a new dress for Lily to wear. Since New York was one of the shopping capitals of the world, it wasn’t hard to find something, they even had a seamstress on staff that could make any alterations needed.

  Lily and the girls were all together for the final dressing and primping session. Summer had given her a heavier night time look that was kind of mysterious and sexy. It wasn’t really for the pageant, but she wanted to wow Drew. Summer had been on board with the idea and had gone all out.

  When she was ready, she let the rest of the girls go into Drew’s room to witness his reaction. It was all she’d hoped it would be. He’d turned to see her walk into the room, his jaw dropped, his pupils dilated, and he almost dropped his phone, but Chase caught it in time.

  The girls all grinned at her and she sauntered over to Drew, put one finger under his chin and shut his mouth. That seemed to shake him out of his stupor, because he muttered, “Lily, you are stunning.”

  She smiled up at him. “Well, thank you, kind sir.”

  “No, I mean it. You’re… words fail me. You’re always beautiful, but tonight there’s just something…”

  He stammered to a halt and his ears turned pink, when he saw everyone watching him, Lily blushed herself and then stepped up and gave him a light kiss. “I couldn’t ask for a better compliment. Just ignore the uninvited spectators.”

  “Hey, we were to, invited.” Cade whined.

  Lily laughed and stepped back. “All right, let’s get this show on the road.”

  She took Drew’s arm and led the way down the hall. She whispered, “Don’t worry, we won’t have any company when you take the dress off of me.”

  He whispered back, “I can hardly wait.”

  “Me, too.” She thought about the look she’d seen in his eyes and knew that even if she won the pageant, it wouldn’t compare to the thrill of his expression when she’d walked into the room.

  They met her parents at the prearranged location and her mom and dad fussed over her.

  “Lily-bug you look so beautiful, you are going to put the other girls to shame.”

  “Oh daddy, you’re biased.”

  Elaine said, “Nonsense, you do look amazing, sweetheart.”

  “Thanks mom. Summer went to town.”

  Summer shook her head. “Just enhancing the beauty already there.”

  Lily laughed. “Okay, I can see I’m outnumbered in this, so I’ll just bask in everyone’s adoration.”

  They all laughed and continued on their trek to the final area. Her mom and dad and all Drew’s family planned to sit together to watch the final taping of the show. Summer and Drew were allowed backstage with her, but no one else.

  Lily knew, that now that the fear was gone, she would have been fine by herself, but she didn’t mind Summer being there to make sure everything was perfect. And having her guy
with her made it better all the way around. Wait, her guy?

  She realized that she thought of Drew that way, but she had no idea if he thought about her the same. She wasn’t sure she was brave enough to come right out and ask him. She’d never been the one to instigate a romance. But this with Drew seemed bigger than a simple romance, and that kind of scared her even more.

  With the last few minutes of the pageant bearing down on her, she didn’t have any time to think about it. She had to put her whole mind to the next couple of hours as they completed the final competition. There would be plenty of slack time in between events, where they would insert the commercials and the previously taped segments. But she still needed to keep her brain on the pageant and not on the hunky cowboy cop, that she wasn’t quite sure she wanted to live without.

  Drew was glad they were letting him stay with Lily. Sure, the menace had been removed, but he still wanted to be near her, if only just to spend the time together. Their return to the real world was fast approaching and he wasn’t all that excited about it. He’d never felt the kinship with another woman like he did with Lily.

  She seemed to know what he was feeling and wanting, even before he did. Her presence calmed him when he was tense, and uplifted him when he was down. They were like two puzzle pieces that fit together. He’d always thought people that said things like that were idiots. Never believing that he needed anyone to complete him. But she’d proven him wrong. Drew felt more together when he was with her.

  He didn’t want to walk away from her tomorrow when they got on the plane, but they hadn’t known each other long enough to do anything differently. He stood in the prep room and watched Summer flit around Lily, smoothing a single hair, pulling the dress down in back, fluffing on a bit of powder and touching up her lipstick. The last of which made Drew want to kiss those lips and mess them up again.

  Suddenly his phone buzzed with an incoming text, from the police sargent that had taken Bubba Pamper into custody. He turned away from the room to read it. It said, “Beware, person of interest is watching the clock, with glee on his face. Suspect something else might be planned.”