Looking For Trouble (23 page)

***

When Cole came to Wade's cell with keys in
his hand, surprise, then hope welled up inside of him. He got up
stiffly off the cot where he'd slept for the last four nights, and
walked to the door of the cell. "What's up?"

"You're outta here jailbird," Cole told him
then opened the door.

"How's that?" Wade asked him suspiciously.
He hadn't paid the astronomical bail the judge had set for him,
because of his past scrapes with the law...mostly bar fights,
because he'd had one too many beers, and was bored, and some cowboy
decided to try him, because he was a rodeo rider. After a while, he
figured out wearing that gold belt buckle in public wasn't such a
good idea, and that it had been the cause of most of those fights.
Evidently, some guys took that as a challenge. He hadn't had
another bar fight, since he stopped wearing it, until now.

"I don't know," Cole said shaking his head,
"I can't figure it out either...Ray Turner called this morning and
dropped the charges...said it was all a misunderstanding."

Fear, then anger pushed up inside of Wade
and he groaned, "Jess..."

God, he hoped she hadn't done something
stupid. He told her not to sell the songs, so it sounded like she'd
done something worse, instead. That had to be it, because Wade knew
the bastard wouldn't have done this without a reason.

"What?" Cole asked as he opened the cell
door to let him out.

"Jess had to have done something for that
bastard to drop the charges...and it scares the hell out of me what
that might be," Wade told him, then walked in front of him to the
hall door.

"You need to stay away from him,
Wade...whatever she did. I don't want to have to throw you in here
again," Cole said sternly.

"We'll see..." Wade told him, then huffed
out a frustrated sigh. He walked through the barred door to the
desk and picked up his stuff that was waiting for him in a plastic
bag, then walked out the front door.

He saw his truck parked at the back of the
lot, and Jess behind the wheel. She smiled widely when she saw him,
and waved. Wade didn't wave back, because he wasn't feeling very
congenial right now. He wanted answers, and the beautiful blond in
his truck was going to give them to him.

Pulling the handle, he hopped up into the
passenger seat, then slammed the door and threw the plastic bag on
the floor. Jess leaned over to kiss him and he held up his hands
and told her, "I need a shower to get rid of this jail funk."

"I don't give a damn," she said then shoved
his hands to the side to kiss him, then hug his neck.

Wade felt her tears wet the side of his
face, and pushed her back from him. "Stop the waterworks,
darlin'...tell me what the hell you did to get me out of there," he
told her gruffly, pinning her teary green eyes with his.

She pulled back from him and cranked the
truck, then put it in gear. "We'll talk about that later. Let's go
home," she said then gave him what he recognized as a forced
smile.

Angel cooed from the back seat, and he
looked back there and smiled at her. Next to her mama, she was the
best thing he'd seen in four days. "Hey baby girl, did you miss
daddy?"

"Damned right she did, almost as much as I
did," Jess told him then gave him a wobbly smile. "I'm so glad
you're out, baby...we need you."

"I just want to know what you did to get me
with you...it's probably not something I'm going to be happy
about," Wade growled and his stomach lurched when he saw Jess's
face turn white, and her lips pinch. Nope, he wasn't going to like
this at all, he could see that.

They drove in silence, and when she pulled
the truck up in front of the Double B and he told her, "I would
carry Angel, but I'm filthy..."

"I've got her, sugar...you just go shower,
so you'll feel better. We'll be in there in a minute."

"Thanks..." Wade said grimly, then headed
for the bunkhouse.

The hot steam of the shower felt like
heaven, and he inhaled deeply, hoping to clear out the smell of the
jail from his nasal passage too. Wade never wanted to have that
experience again...it was definitely a deterrent to him getting in
another fight. As badly as that asshole had deserved a whooping, it
wasn't worth it, because he had a bad feeling that Jess had paid
for it in the end.

He scrubbed up quickly, then wrapped a towel
around him and walked down the hall to his bedroom. Dressing
quickly, he headed up front to get those answers he wanted, but
didn't really want to hear, from Jess. When he walked into the
kitchen, she had breakfast on the table, and he knew that was just
another delay tactic on her part. It wasn't going to work. "Okay,
tell me what you did," he said sitting down at the table and piling
a plate up with eggs and grits, then grabbing a couple of pieces of
toast.

Jess leaned over the table and set a cup of
coffee down by his plate, but she didn't answer him. She just
walked back to the stove and pulled the skillet off and took it to
the sink and started washing it.

The eggs stuck in Wade's throat, as her
silence lengthened, so he took a sip of the scalding coffee, then
grated, "
Now
, Jess--tell me what the fuck you did," then put
his fork down on his plate.

He saw a tremor pass through her, and she
wiped her hands on a dish towel, then slowly turned around to face
him. "Don't get pissed..." she told him and her face got pale
again.

"You know I'm going to be pissed--just
fucking tell me!" he shouted and Angel who was in her car seat on
the end of the long table started whimpering, so he lowered his
voice and demanded in a fierce whisper, "
Tell me!"

"I went to see Ray at the hospital...and we
worked out a deal," she hedged.

Wade clenched his fists on the table, and
said in a low fierce tone, "What kind of deal?"

"I signed a two-year contract with the
label, and he's going to represent me..."

"Holy shit!" he shouted then scraped the
bench on the floor to stand up and slam his fists on the table.
"What else, Jess--what else?" He knew there was more, because he
could see it in her face.

She gnawed on her lip and twisted her hands
in the dish towel, then tears filled her eyes and she told him, "I
gave him, well the company, the rights to the new songs..."

Wade ran around the table and grabbed her
shoulders, then groaned, "I told you not to sell those songs! And
why the hell would you do business with that moron when he screwed
you so bad before?"

Her chin dropped to her chest and she said
in a shaky voice, "I had to, Wade...it was the only way he'd drop
the charges."

"I'd rather have stayed in jail! Where the
hell was Travis in all this?" he asked incredulously.

"Travis doesn't know yet..." she admitted
softly, then added, "He's gonna be mad at me too, but I don't
care."

"Mad doesn't begin to cover it, sugar. You
sold yourself
and
your songs to that bastard," Wade said in
disgust, then took his hands off her and shoved a hand through his
hair.

"It's only two years, Wade...I can handle it
for two years," she said with desperation in her tone, then added,
"I did it for five years, two more won't kill me."

"But it'll kill
me
, Jess. I don't
want you anywhere near that bastard. How much is that contract
worth?"

"Including the rights, probably a hundred
fifty thousand dollars or so," she said and shook her head. "It
depends on how the songs do..."

"You know those songs are golden...it could
be millions you gave up."

"You're worth it, darlin'...I don't care
about the money," she told him, then put her hand on his shoulder,
"All I care about is you, Wade...and Angel."

"I've got figure out some way to buy out
that contract, before those songs are recorded," he said
frantically. Wade knew that once she recorded them, he'd never be
able to get her out of it. He needed to talk to a lawyer too, one
who handled recording artists, to see if there was some loophole in
the contract, or some other way to get her out of it.

"No! You don't have to do that, Wade...just
let it be," she yelled then grabbed his arm. "Let's just build our
house, and move on...we'll get past this, darlin'."

Anger at her naivety moved through him and
he looked down into her pleading eyes and told her, "You really
think it's gonna stop there, Jess? He's going to keep finding ways
to control you...did you even have someone look over that contract
before you signed it?"

Her face flushed and she hesitated then told
him, "There wasn't time...I read it though, and didn't see anything
wrong."

"Where'd you get your law degree, Jess? Why
do you think they have attorneys, sugar? You never,
never
sign a contract without getting legal advice...especially one like
that."

Her green eyes narrowed, and her face got
redder, then she pushed away from him and said snippily, "I'm not
stupid, Wade...everyone thinks I am, but I'm not. I did what I did,
because I had to, and it's done...I'm the one that has to live with
it. You could at least say thank you."

Wade took a step toward her then told her,
"You're wrong there, Jess...Angel and I have to live with it too."
He waved a hand toward Angel in the car seat, and added, "We have
to sit back and watch you being taken advantage of, and see money
that should go to you and Angel go to a sneaky asshole,
instead."

"I'm done explaining...I'm going to bathe
and change, Angel," she huffed then picked up the car seat and
walked to the bathroom, and went inside, locking the door behind
her.

Wade shook his head then went back and
finished his cold breakfast and coffee, before going to the sofa
and plopping down to think. He glanced at the coffee table and saw
his new issue of
ProRodeo
sitting there, and picked it to
thumb through it. The same faces he'd competed against nine months
ago taunted him from the pages, with stories of their glory rides.
Those stories used to be about
him
, and it was really odd to
live vicariously through the other professional cowboys on the
pages of that magazine.

The more he read, the more regret filled
him. He'd have more money, probably enough to buy out that damned
contract for Jess, if he hadn't quit when he had, because he'd gone
out on the top of his game. Quitting when he was the number one
ranked saddle bronc rider on the circuit, was a bitter pill to
swallow...but the doctors had scared him.

An ad in the middle of the magazine caught
his eye, and he read through it. There was a PRCA charity rodeo for
pro riders in Dallas coming up in a couple of weeks. The entry was
five thousand dollars, but the purse for the saddle bronc
competition was over a hundred thousand. He could come up with the
entry, and his card was still active, he hadn't officially canceled
it, even though he'd technically retired. Winning that event sure
would solve a lot of problems, but it could create a lot too...if
he had an accident. But he wasn't borrowing that trouble by
thinking about it.

Reading to the bottom of the page, Wade saw
the entry deadline was in two days. He had two days to come up with
the entry fee, his credit card had room...he didn't even need to
consider the risk, it was worth it to him to be able to get Jess
off the hook with Ray Turner and that damned record company.

There was no doubt in his mind, he could win
the competition, Wade never doubted his ability in the arena. He
was that damned good...or had been...but he shoved the thought of
being a has been out of his head and rounded up his confidence. He
wasn't
a 'has been', he was still a force to be reckoned
with on the back of a bronco.

He knew if Jess found out about his back,
she'd give him hell, so he wasn't going to tell her. Although most
of the other cowboys on the circuit knew about his injury and
sketchy prognosis, nobody here knew. He didn't tell Luke when he'd
hired him, because if he had, he was afraid he
wouldn't
hire
him. He didn't tell Sabrina, because she would've told Luke. Wade
had to do this, for Jess and for Angel, and to make sure that
bastard was out of their lives for good. When he went to town
later, he'd call and register.

Excitement filled him at the prospect of
riding again, no matter that this was an all or nothing thing for
him, and it could have long-lasting repercussions. Wade was all
in...just like he always was when he rode.

Thursday night, Wade had kept Angel, while
Jess went to work at the bar, and they'd had a nice night, just
cuddling on the couch watching a rodeo event on satellite. Wade was
scoping out what the competition was likely to look like next
weekend. He was a little nervous, because some of the new guys
looked pretty damned good, one in particular, Cam Jessup.

That was one he was going to have to watch
out for...maybe the guy wouldn't enter, but he didn't hold out much
hope there. The purse was too big, for the top names on the circuit
to pass up. They'd be in Dallas, and they would be there to win,
just like he planned to be. He hadn't told Jess yet that he'd
entered, because he wasn't sure how she was going to react to it.
It didn't matter, now...he was entered, and he was going. He was
going to tell her soon...he just had to find the right moment, so
it went down easier.