Searching For Love (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) (Carson Hill Ranch series: Book 2) (6 page)

“Amy! Slow down! You’re doing almost a hundred miles an hour!” Carey called out nervously.

“It’s okay, Carey, I have this. This is nothing for me,” she answered calmly, checking her mirror before crossing the centerline to pass someone in her lane. She moved back over and kept going, the wind rushing past the windows making a dull roar that followed them.

Within only minutes, a police car pulled out behind them, lights and sirens blaring. Carey began to sweat, aware for the first time that he couldn’t actually remember Amy’s last name from her paperwork. Amy pulled over and reached into her purse for her wallet, appearing as calm as if she were simply looking for a pack of gum.

“Hi, Officer,” Amy began, flipping through her wallet for her identification.

“I hope you have a really good explanation for the way you’re driving, missy,” the older deputy said with a drawling sneer.

“I do, sir. My name is Officer Amy McDade, Detroit PD,” she said, handing over her badge. “This passenger is Carey Carson, of the Carson Hill Ranch outside Hale, Texas. There’s been a shooting and attempted home invasion at his family’s ranch, and the only family member on the premises is a minor child, aged sixteen, in the care of some of the family’s ranch staff. The local sheriff’s department has already been on the scene but the shooter wasn’t apprehended. We have reason to believe he may be hiding on the property, and because the motive for the shooting was revenge, we need to get there in a hurry.”

The officer took her badge and looked it over, holding it up to the light, alternating between looking at the badge and the driver’s license, and looking at Amy’s sweet face. Carey sat still, his mouth open in shock.

“Lemme call this in,” the officer said, moseying back to his squad car. He returned only a few minutes later, handing the badge and ID through the open driver’s window. “If you’ll put on your hazard lights, ma’am, I’m to escort you to the county line, where the Cangor County sheriff’s deputy will take over. We’ll get you to Hale in no time.”

The officer returned to his car and put on his lights and siren, then flew around their parked truck, waving her on. Amy pulled back out onto the highway and followed the officer as closely as she dared.

“You’re supposed to be asleep, you know,” Amy said playfully after spotting Carey in the rear view mirror.

“Are you kidding? How am I supposed to sleep at a time like this? Why didn’t you tell me you’re a cop?” Carey asked in succession, surprised at every new piece of information he slowly learned about this woman.

“Was that information you needed?” She asked, a smile still playing at the corners of her mouth. “It just never came up, what with all the kissing and the touching and the tongues in each other’s mouths.”

“But tell me this…if you’re some bad-assed big city cop—pardon my expression, sorry—why are you out here trying to build your confidence up? It’s the cows that should have been afraid of you, not the other way around, right?”

Amy was quiet for a long pause, staring straight ahead at the yellow dotted lines on the road as they disappeared under the wheels of the truck. She finally got up the nerve to explain something she had told very few people. “Because I was shot, and now I’m pretty much worthless as a patrol officer. I work at a desk all day, despite being one of the most highly trained and highly decorated women on the police force. I needed to get out of my comfort level and do something risky, something I’ve never tried before.

“I tried skydiving but I didn’t really have to do anything there except fall. I’ve tried scuba diving but unless I wanted to actually get in a giant tank filled with sharks, it was just a swim during a gorgeous vacation. I have to try something new that will make me feel like I can do anything, just so I can get back to doing the thing I used to love. Now, go to sleep, you’re taking over in six hours.”

Carey did as he was told but instead of closing his eyes, he stared at the back of Amy’s neck as she drove, watching the way one sweaty curl had escaped from her ponytail and was plastered to the back of her neck. He wanted to reach out his hand and free that sprig of hair, then caress the skin that ran down into her shirt collar, disappearing down her back, following that hand with his mouth…

When he awoke hours later, Carey sat up with a start and looked around at the landscape. He stretched as best he could in the cramped back seat, then climbed over into the front and buckled himself into the passenger seat.

“Hi, Sleeping Beauty,” Amy said with a smirk. “I never pegged you for a snorer.”

“I don’t snore,” he
retorted, “that’s my alarm system. I’m simply letting everyone know not to bother me because I’m asleep. Where are we?”

“Well, I don’t know a lot about this part of the country, so you’ll have to check the GPS. I do know we’re on our eleventh cop, so we’re at least eleven jurisdictions from where we started out. Are you ready to drive for a little bit? We can swap when you’re good and awake.”

“Yeah, that’ll be fine. Amy…thanks.” He ducked his head, suddenly embarrassed.

“You’re welcome,” she answered with a sweet smile. “But for what?”

“For all of this. For offering to come along, for arranging our very own police escort…you’re pretty amazing, you know that, right?” Carey looked over at her with a sincere look of appreciation, one arm resting on the seat back between them and playing with a strand of hair that had fallen out from under her hat at some point during the long drive.

“I don’t know about amazing. How about competent? I’m competent, I can admit to that.” She smirked at him without taking her eyes off the road.

“You’re not giving yourself enough credit. We’ll meet in the middle with incredible, "how’s that?”

“That’s not a compromise!” Amy said, laughing and swatting at Carey playfully. “There’s no way that incredible is the halfway point. How about ‘semi-mediocre’?”

“Nope, not good enough. I’m the one giving compliments around here, so I get to have the majority vote. And I say that ‘celestial status’ is up on the list, along with extremely kind, very quick thinking, and stunningly beautiful.”

Amy didn’t speak for a moment, watching the squad car in front of her intently. Finally, she spoke, but when she did, her voice was somewhat hoarse with emotion. “Thank you, Carey, for what you said.”

“You don’t have to thank me, it’s the truth,” he replied, rubbing the back of her neck with his hand. She rolled her shoulders under his soft touch and stretched her back forward. “Are you ready for me to drive?”

“Sure,” she answered, engaging the cruise control and checking the mirrors. “Slide over here.” Carey looked around nervously before taking off his seat belt and sliding across the bench seat toward her. “Hold the wheel, don’t touch the brake but be ready to hit it if necessary.” Carey held the steering wheel as Amy unbuckled her seatbelt, then used her feet to push against the seat and slide over into the back seat directly behind her. Carey slid into place and buckled up as Amy came back over the seat on the passenger side.

“That was a pretty slick move, Officer McDade. How’d you learn to do that? Is that a cop thing?” he asked, watching her get comfortable in what had been his seat only seconds before. She shrugged her shoulders before responding.

“I’ve had years of defensive driving training, but that particular move is just something that my brothers and I would do if we needed to take turns. We used to deliver products all over Michigan for my dad’s company, and the route could get pretty tedious if you didn’t have someone to trade off with.” Amy reached her arm across the seat back that had held Carey’s arm before. “Weren’t you sitting somewhere like this, maybe?” she asked, toying with Carey’s shaggy hair, running her nails gently up his scalp and causing him to lean into her hand.

“Something like that, maybe a little bit to my left. Yup, that’s what I was doing,” he answered, smiling at Amy without taking his eyes off the road.

“I don’t know,” she argued in a smooth voice. “I think maybe you were over here, right?” Amy demonstrated by moving closer to Carey, close enough to breathe heavily on his neck before placing her lips against his shivering skin. She moved up his neck to his ear, where she bit down gently on his earlobe before soothing it by sucking it into her mouth.

“I would love to tell you not to stop,” Carey began, forgetting to finish his sentence as Amy bit down gently on the muscle that ran on the outside of his neck.

“Yes? You were saying something about me stopping?” she asked innocently enough.

“Um…no, no I wasn’t.”

“I’m pretty sure I heard you say the word ‘stop’,” she said with a laugh, a seductive sound that was almost as maddening as what she was physically doing to him.

“No, that must have been some other guy. Don’t stop,” Carey half-begged, gripping the steering wheel so hard with both hands that his knuckles turned white.

“Actually, I think I should sit over here and behave myself,” Amy suggested, sitting up and sliding back to her side of the truck. “That policeman won’t be too happy with you if he looks in his rearview mirror.”

“Me? I’m just sitting here, innocently driving a truck over a hundred miles an hour. You’re the incredible vixen sucking on my neck.”

“It’s just so suckable,” she shot back with a satisfied giggle as Carey struggled to keep his composure. “But truthfully, I shouldn’t distract you when you’re driving. It’s not very responsible of either of us. Tell me about your ranch instead.”

Amy kept Carey talking, partly to keep him awake and focused, but also because she was genuinely interested in life out west. She was shocked by some of the things ranching required, like homeschooling because the town was so far away, and Carey learning to shoot a gun at only seven years old. Other things made the farm seem so natural and normal, mostly the way he talked about his life like it was so commonplace.

“But what about you, Miss Big City Policewoman? You must have more than enough excitement to last you a lifetime.” Carey kept his eyes focused on the squad car in front of him so he wouldn’t have to look at the speedometer.

“Well, it used to be exciting. I’m kind of gun-shy now, I’m afraid. I am spooked too easily, I’m too cautious.” Amy looked straight ahead, not focusing on anything in particular as her mind wandered to her job.

“How can being cautious be a bad thing when you’re an armed policeman? Doesn’t being alert and careful mean everything in that line of work?”

“Yes, but you can be too careful. I reached the point that I’d call for back up just to check out a simple domestic dispute or a shoplifting. It wasn’t fair to my partner to be saddled with someone who couldn’t evaluate the situation and determine the level of risk. So I took myself off the street and agreed to work the desk. But I’ve been at that job so long, now I’m afraid I’ll never go back.”

It was Carey’s turn to ask the questions without being rude or prying. “And the cattle drive was supposed to cure you? That’s a pretty tall order for some very large, not very bright animals, don’t you think?” he asked.

“Not cure me, exactly, but make me realize that I am capable and strong, that I can make decisions on my feet and assess a situation in the right frame of mind.”

“Wow. Now I feel bad for letting you talk me into coming to the ranch. Maybe you needed a few more days on the drive, and you could have gotten your head back where you want it.”

“I don’t think that would have done it,” Amy admitted sadly. “The drive was kind of a last-ditch effort to figure out my next career move. If I didn’t come back to work as a whole new person, I was going to put in for a transfer or start looking for another jurisdiction. Maybe that gun shot came at just the right time in my career…I’d already proven I’m tough and I’m capable, and that may have been what I needed on my résumé to get my foot in the door somewhere else, somewhere a little less…intense.” Amy looked out the window and was quiet after that, a fact that Carey couldn’t help but think had less to do with talking herself out and more to do with a heavy weight pressing down on her.

“Then you know I do need you on this trip, and I don’t just mean for the driving. We’re walking straight into the lion’s mouth on this, what with Mack possibly hiding out somewhere on the ranch.”

Amy went into full-on investigative mode without even realizing it. “Do you have any idea of why he’d be out there for revenge? What prompted him to start shooting up the place?”

Carey told Amy the long story of two of Mack’s girls showing up on the ranch and seeking shelter. He even told her where the girls were at that moment, how far from the property they would be, who knew about their whereabouts, and such. Amy nodded as Carey talked, taking it all in.

“So your dad just gave them a cabin to stay in, and hired a counselor to look after them? He’s either a saint or he has an interest in getting those girls away from Mack for some reason.”

Carey bristled slightly, not sure what Amy meant but had the impression that she insinuated Bernard’s involvement went beyond just helping out. “What are you saying about my dad, exactly?”

“I’m saying he’s putting himself and his entire family and staff at risk by taking in two females with a history of drug addiction and criminal activity. And judging by the very circumstances we’re speeding into, I’d say he either didn’t know the full extent of his actions, or he had a reason to act in the first place.”

Carey chewed that over thoughtfully, fighting the urge to let his anger boil up at the callous way Amy assessed people she’d never even met. “You’ve met my father, even if it was only for a few minutes at a time. There’s not an evil, hard-hearted bone in his body. Two pitiful, frightened girls—still practically kids—showed up on his doorstep after having walked almost forty miles to warn his family of a threat, and he gave them food, shelter, and assistance. I don’t want to meet the man who wouldn’t do exactly the same thing.”