Royal Trouble (14 page)

Grabbing her purse off of the seat, Leigh Ann opened her car door.  Out here in the boonies, it was unlikely anyone would pass to help her either.  The only one she had to rely on to get back to civilization was going to be herself.  Being in control of the situation, or somewhat in control of her destination, sent a little thrill through Leigh Ann.  This situation represented something in her life that she had to handle on her own.  And that is exactly what she was going to do.

A farmer around here would know the area.  If she could find one, he could tell her exactly where she was so she could get help.  Scanning the horizon, she saw a huge house set way back off of the road a mile or so in the distance, and decided to walk there.

With a sigh, Leigh Ann started walking.  It took over an hour for Leigh Ann to reach the gravel road leading up to what she realized when she got closer was a massive mansion.  The gravel drive that led up to it was at least another half-mile long. 

At the car, she had thought the house was only a mile away, but her feet told her differently now.  The new cowboy boots, which were comfortable walking around the office, were not so good for walking two miles in the hot sun. The blisters on her heels were having babies, and she could barely walk.  Limping over to a large rock at the other side of the driveway, she sat down and tugged on her left boot, which felt like it was glued to her foot.  The suction released and she almost toppled over backward as the boot came off. 

Wiggling her swollen toes to get some feeling back, Leigh Ann sighed.  Sweat trickled down between her breasts.  She pressed her tank top to her skin to soak it up, before she tugged her other boot off and sat it down beside the rock.

She lifted one of her throbbing feet to prop it on her knee to massage it, and noticed someone on horseback in the field to her left.  The man rode through a herd of expensive looking horses, and didn't seem to notice her.  Shading her eyes she estimated he was probably at least a quarter mile away.  Considering the tall grass and heat, hopping the fence to go over to his location would probably take her just as long as it had taken her to get to the driveway from her car.  She needed help faster than that.

Leigh Ann stood to walk carefully over to the fence, then waved her arms frantically to get the man's attention.  When he didn't stop, or even seem to notice her, she walked a little closer to the fence and waved her arms again.  His horse stutter-stepped, then stopped and he raised his hand to shade his eyes to look in her direction.  Shortly after, he nudged the horse to move lazily toward her. 

She was relieved that he noticed her, but the man certainly didn't seem to be in a hurry to get there.  She wished he would hurry, because the sun was practically baking her now.  After what seemed like an hour, but was only ten minutes or so, the cowboy pulled his horse to a stop at the fence.  Pushing his hat back with his wrist, he leaned forward to rest his forearm on the saddle horn and stare at her. 

His dark eyes moved down her body to her toes then swung back upward.  The ruggedly handsome, thirty-something cowboy didn't appear to be impressed with her.  He also didn't appear to be happy to be interrupted from his work.  "What are you doing out here, ma'am?" he asked flatly, his deep rich voice vibrating through her. 

Leigh Ann shaded her eyes again to look up at him, way up.  Not only was he tall, the black horse he was riding was huge, so he towered over her.  A little dose of unease shot through her.  He looked dangerous and edgy.

Adding to the effect was a thin white scar on the left side of his face, which stood in stark contrast to his dark tan.  It ran from his cheek, over his jaw and stopped right past the bottom of his ear.  It wasn't grossly unattractive or anything, the scar gave his nearly pretty face character, made him look rough, mysterious.  It told her that this ruggedly handsome man wasn't a man to be messed with.

"Well?" he asked impatiently, adjusting the brim of his hat down so it covered his eyes again.  It shaded the scar she had been rudely staring at, which told her he obviously realized she had been doing that.  The leather of the saddle groaned as he sat back up looking like he was going to leave.

Leigh Ann figured if she wanted his help, she'd better tell him quickly what her problem was.  "M-my car br-broke down," she said nervously, flicking a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of her Mustang.

"And that's my problem, how?" he asked gruffly.

"It's not your problem...but I would appreciate some help, if you have a minute."

"I don't have a minute," he informed and swung his horse as if to ride away.

"Don't go!" she yelled. 

He stopped then swung the horse back toward her.  "Ma'am I don't have time for this, I have a horse that needs my attention."

"I need your help," she said stiffening her shoulders.  "It won't take but a minute for you to help me.  I-I have sixty dollars, I'll pay you to take a look at it and let me know what you think is wrong," she offered.

A smile flickered on his face, or she thought it did.  It faded so fast, she could have imagined it.  He huffed out a breath, then told her, "I don't have a truck, and the ranch truck is out in the field."

"Ride your horse," she suggested.

"You gonna walk back?" he asked.  One side of his mouth cocked up making a dimple appear in his right cheek.

"Um, I guess I'll have to," she told him with a groan looking at her red, blistered feet.

After a sigh, he said, "Gate's back there," he pointed toward the house.  "Stay there, I'll come and get you."

Leigh Ann walked back to the rock and picked up her boots, then sat on the rock to wait.  She hoped like hell he wasn't going to suggest she get up on that huge horse.  Leigh Ann was terrified of horses, since her incident with the pony as a child.  She'd rather walk than get up there with him. 

Her feet throbbed painfully, so when she saw him riding slowly toward her down the drive, she waffled on that decision.  He looked pretty competent up there, and she wouldn't be riding alone. 

The big cowboy stopped his huge horse beside her and reached his hand down to her, then pulled his boot out of the stirrup.  "I'll pull you up, just put your foot in the stirrup," he instructed.

Leigh Ann looked up and blinked twice, as a feeling of deja vu floated through her.  In slow motion, she saw herself grab Roxanne's hand, felt herself go airborne as her older sister yanked her up onto the pony, before she saw the ground on the other side of the horse coming up to meet her quickly.  Eight stitches later, her vow to never get near another horse was born. 

"Um, maybe I'll walk, but thanks," she told him sweetly.

"Suit yourself, lady, but I don't have time to wait for you to decide.  You either ride, or face the cactus needles on that road in your bare feet.  I don't think those boots are going back on your feet."

Leigh Ann looked down and saw he was right.  In the few minutes since she'd removed her boots, her feet and ankles had swollen to double their size.  The horse turned his head toward her and their eyes met.  With mental waves, she sent him a plea not to kill her then dragged her eyes back to the cowboy.  Reaching up, she took his hand, bent her knee and stuffed her foot into the stirrup.

The cowboy lifted her, she pushed up and he pulled her the rest of the way up.  He grabbed her waist with his large hands, grunted then hefted her in front of him on the saddle.  One of his arms went around her like a steel band and he gathered the reins with is other hand. 

Leigh Ann wiggled a little to get comfortable and the cowboy groaned.  "Sit still!"

"Yes, sir," she squeaked, her muscles tensing.  She sat perfectly still, not wanting to do anything to make him lose his grip on her.  He started them forward again, and led the horse out onto the highway.  The sound of the horse's shod hooves echoed through her skull, as she pictured herself landing on that hard pavement and the horse putting one of those hooves on her head.  The muscles at the back of her neck tensed even more, and she gripped the saddle horn with white knuckles.

The horse shied sideways and he yelled at her again.  "Relax! The damned horse can tell when you're scared!"

Relax
?
Sit still
?  She was on a big horse that scared her more than the man she was riding with.  How the hell could she relax? 

"Haven't you ever ridden before?" the cowboy hissed near her ear.

"Um, once," she replied.  "That didn't go very well."

"Just lean back against me and relax," he instructed, loosening his arm around her waist, which made her feel a helluva lot less secure up on top of the beast of a horse.  Leigh Ann sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

Maybe if she made small talk, she would forget she was up on top of a two thousand pound beast.  "What's your name?"  When he didn't respond for a full minute, she didn't think he was going to.

"Trace Rooks," he finally said.

"Thank you for helping me, Trace.  I'm Leigh Ann Baker," she told him.

"I thought you looked familiar," he said and his arm tightened around her again.

She tried to look back at his face again, but his arm around her prevented it.  "Do I know you then?"

"No, but I know you.  In prison, the Miss Texas pageant is a pretty big event.  Guys get killed for talking during it."

Every muscle in Leigh Ann's body locked up, as fear shot through her. 
Prison
?  Another man with a similar background to the cowboy holding her up on this horse had made her life a living hell for an entire year. 

She knew all about the fixation those men had with the pageant.  Had been personally educated on it through the letters the man who stalked her had sent after she won the Miss Texas pageant.  Her stalker, Redmond Jones, Red to his inmate buddies, and to the law who had finally tracked him down and arrested him for kidnapping another woman.

She had never met the man, but had seen a photo.  His creepy light-colored eyes, almost white they were so light, were forever burned into her memory, but she had tried to forget everything else about him.  Wanted to forget. 

The restraining order she had against him, the fact that he had received a three year sentence for abducting the other woman, had given her a measure of comfort.  He was out of jail now, had been for a year, and a piece of paper couldn't stop a bullet, or stop him from kidnapping and assaulting her like he had that other woman.  The yellow rose she had received before she left Dallas told Leigh Ann she wasn't off of his radar, and he hadn't learned a lesson from his incarceration.  The only reason she wasn't freaking out now, was because she knew he didn't know where she was.

Her attention shifted back to the man holding her as he walked the horse slowly down the road toward her car. His being in prison could explain the bulging muscles in this man's arms and chest, she imagined.  This man's body was solid as a rock, and his attitude just as hard.  She remembered Red's picture again, and his similar rock hard muscles.  He was built like a bull with mounds of muscle that pulled his skin tight over them in the dirty white tank top he had been wearing when the photo was taken.

Was that all they had to do in prison?  Work out and get their jollies from television shows?  Had she just stepped out of the frying pan into the fire by asking this man to help her?  Would she end up naked and tied to a tree in those woods on the other side of the fence?  Fear shot through her and squeaked, "You were in prison?"

"Yep, for two years," he told her as if saying he had spent two years at Texas A & M studying business.

"What did you do?"  The question flew off of her tongue before she could stop it.

"Hired the wrong female attorney," he said with a short derisive laugh.  "She said I needed to cop a plea, so that's what I did."

"You didn't do anything wrong then?" she asked, her shoulders relaxing a little.

"Oh, I did plenty wrong, just not what they caught me doing.  My daddy thought I needed a lesson, so he had his judge friend up the charges."

"I see," she replied primly, then clamped her mouth firmly shut.  If his own father thought he was trouble, how could she think anything less?  But he was helping her, and seemed to be pretty sane.  He didn't give her the creeps like just seeing the picture of Red had done.  That hard look was missing from this man's dark eyes.  That had to mean something.  Leigh Ann relaxed a little more against him. They rode in silence to her car, until he swung down off the horse and reached up to help her down. 

He walked to the car and patted the hood.  "Pop the latch, so I can open it."

Leigh Ann limped to the car, opened the door, then leaned inside to release the hood latch.  Thinking that keeping an eye on him was a darned good idea, she limped back around the front of the car to stand beside him, while he leaned underneath the hood.  He pulled and tugged on something, wiggled wires here and there, then leaned even deeper into the engine compartment.  But he didn't say a word.

"See anything?" she asked a few minutes later.

"You have a busted radiator hose for sure, and the block may be cracked from overheating.  It looks like there's water in your oil."

Leigh Ann groaned, because that sounded expensive.  And expensive car repairs were exactly what she didn't need right now. 

Trace Rooks swung out from under the hood to stand up wiping his hands on his blue jeans.  "Your car isn't going anywhere unless you have it towed," he told her bluntly.  "You have a cell phone, or do you need to use the phone at the ranch?"

"I have a cell," she said weakly, the heat and despair of her situation getting to her.  Leigh Ann had a cell, but what she didn't have was anyone to call for help. Patting her purse, she flipped open the flap to dig for her phone. 

"I don't have all day, darlin'," he said, the pretended patience in his voice running thin.  "My boss is gonna kick my ass if I don't get that horse cut from the herd and loaded.  It has to be on a flight tonight."

Looking up at him she said, "It must be in the car."

Quickly walking around the car, Leigh Ann got inside and checked the console, on the floorboard, and in the pockets behind the seats, before she finally found it under the seat.  Relief washed through her as she held it up to him.  "I can call someone, thanks for your help...you go on back to work, I don't want to get you in trouble."