Their Ex's Redrock Dawn (Texas Alpha Biker) (17 page)

“Zeb, honey.”

Carly stiffened against him. It was Tula.

“Sorry I had to act like I wasn’t happy to see you, Zebbie, but I didn’t know you worked for the pageant, honey. What are you doing for them?”

Zeb dropped his arm across Carly’s back, and he held her tightly to him. “Kicked me to the curb, Tula. That was shit,” he growled.

“Zeb, I told you I’m sorry. But if you are working for the pageant, don’t you want to help your wife win?”

Zeb felt his heart actually hurt, and he clenched his eyes, while Carly hugged him tighter.

“Wife in fucking name only, Tula, and let this be your word I’m getting papers and divorcing your ass. Don’t call me the fuck again. And one more word you better listen to: Shaw’s fucking married and he’s bad, really bad. Get away from him.”

Zeb thumbed the call closed on Tula’s screech. Carly tilted her head back, with her eyes liquid silver. “I had to warn her,” he muttered, looking down on her, asking for understanding.

“You had to,” she agreed, then she kissed his jaw to make him feel better he thought, but he didn’t feel better.

Thirty minutes later, they were in a bar and dance club on the highway called Kickin Rodeo, where Walkinghorse had picked to meet them. Zeb wanted to sit next to Carly, he wanted to hold her or at least touch her hand, but he couldn’t in the local bar they were in.

The lost look in her eyes told him she needed it bad, but they had to get through this mess, then he could go out with her in a damn bar if he wanted to. They sat in a booth in the back across from each other, and he’d gotten them two bottles of beer, which Carly sipped at.

“Cell records will tell us a lot,” he said.

Carly nodded. “I wonder how you catch something like this. It’s not like he’s just going to come out and confess he’s been trying to hurt me.”

Zeb noticed she had a hard time saying “kill,” and he didn’t blame her. “That’s the trick, baby. Hopefully this Walkinghorse has a fucking clue.”

Carly looked wistfully at his hand on the tabletop, and he knew she wanted to touch him. “I know Justice, Zeb. He must be very good to be a federal marshal so young. Well, late twenties, which is young.”

Federal marshal? Zeb liked that sound of that; he hadn’t known what kind of lawman Vincent was setting them up with.

“That’s him.” Carly nodded, and Zeb looked that way.

Walkinghorse had on a cowboy hat, a sheriff’s shirt with jeans, and a badge hanging off his belt, with a slow, prowling swagger that looked like he seriously took no shit. The tan cowboy hat came sweeping off as Walkinghorse stopped by a cute strawberry blond, who did not look happy to see the dude. It was strange to see an Indian with a buzz cut, but it gave Walkinghorse an edged look.

“That’s Angel,” Carly muttered. “I didn’t see her before.”

Zeb watched Walkinghorse’s hand reach out to clasp Angel’s upper arm. Angel shook it off and said something that Zeb took as “leave me the fuck alone,” then she whirled away.

“Who is Angel?” Zeb asked, watching Walkinghorse scan the redhead’s retreat to the poolroom.

“WTSF helped her and her brother. She was managing Rusty’s gift shop after she’d apprenticed there. But I think her brother James has fallen back into a bad gang again.”

“Can’t make them all drink the water,” Zeb muttered.

Carly looked at him. “Yes, just be there if they ask for help again.”

Walkinghorse arrived at their table, and Carly scooted over for him to sit on her side. “Ma’am,” Justice said to Carly.

Carly laughed. “You better call me Carly, Justice, or I’m going to start calling you Mr. Walkinghorse. Justice, this is Zeb Andersen.”

Zeb took Justice’s hand across the table, and they shook. “I got some background on you two,” Justice said. “Crazy meeting, but I am glad you’re there for her.”

Zeb nodded as their hands released. Carly put her hand on Justice’s shoulder. “Before we get to my mess, what’s up with Angel?”

Justice frowned, with his light brown eyes moving across the room. “She’s putting herself out there and I don’t like it,” he muttered.

Carly’s hand dropped. “She brought in two girls off the reservation last month. Is this how she’s doing it? She said they came to her.”

Justice sat back and put his hat on the table. “She’s lying. She hunts them down. See that black-haired girl with the short, mean-looking Indian over against the wall? That girl’s sunglasses aren’t covering the sunlight in here, but a black eye would be my guess.”

Zeb felt the instant urge inside him to go deal with that messed-up action, and he realized the pull this work had for Carly.

“We’ll keep an eye on Angel,” Carly stated firmly.

Justice nodded, then sighed. “I traced Shaw’s cell records off the number Vincent gave me, and they tell an interesting story.” Justice leaned forward and pulled some papers out of his back pocket, then spread them out on the table. He pointed to different circled phone numbers. “These are calls to Tula Andersen’s cell, which we are now tracing and should have back by tomorrow, and these”—Justice pointed to five red circles—“are in the last two days, to a place called Mercenary Inc.”

Zeb saw that Shaw was calling Tula constantly, which meant he had his head so far up her ass it wasn’t funny. But he got a chill over the Mercenary Inc. calls. Only one reason a civilian called a mercenary, and that was to do something he was too chicken shit to do himself.

“Mercenary Inc. I don’t get it,” Carly said, looking at Justice. Zeb could tell the marshal had no desire to clue her in.

“Carly,” Zeb said, getting her eyes. “Trying to hire a man to do something bad,” he muttered.

Her gray eyes widened, then she looked down at the table, and Zeb could have cursed out loud that he couldn’t be over there to hold her.

“Good news is Vincent knows the owner of Merc Inc. very well, and the dude’s not into murder for hire, so he’s on our side, and this gives us an in.”

Zeb sat straighter—he could feel a plan falling in place. “Shaw make any definite contact yet?”

Justice shook his head. “Just initial, but now we can put Shaw with a wired undercover and get him on audio ordering and hopefully paying for what he’s trying to do. That will get him in jail for a long time.”

“I wanna be the contact,” Zeb said, immediately hearing Carly’s sound of surprise. “Wire me—I’ll go talk to him, get what you need.”

“Zeb,” Carly said, sounding uncertain.

But Justice said, “Be hard to find someone around here Shaw doesn’t know.”

“He doesn’t know me,” Zeb said firmly.

––––––––

C
arly couldn’t stand to listen to the plans about Zeb pretending to be a contract killer her husband was going to hire to get rid of her. Instead, she excused herself to go to the ladies’ room, but she actually went into the poolroom. They’d told Justice all about Rick’s pretending to be a judge, telling contestants he was a champion bull rider, about the insurance policy, and the money missing from her bank accounts.

Justice was going to go to the banks and insurance company to get those signatures so they could build a better case of fraud, forgery, and motive for attempted murder.

Her life!

But she couldn’t do any more about that than she was doing, and she did know that helping others always lightened the burdens on her life. Besides, once a WTSF girl, always a WTSF girl, and Carly was their surrogate mom if they’d let her be.

Carly came up behind Angel, she was a beautiful young woman with long light red hair, who at the moment was dressed like a boy. Angel had on a backwards baseball cap, sunglasses, a ripped tee shirt over a jeans jacket, high-tops, and baggy jeans one size too big. Talk about hiding beauty.

“Hey there,” Carly said, stroking her fingers once through Angel’s hair.

Angel barely turned to look at her, as she muttered, “Saw you with that hot biker dude.”

“He’s a new trainer at WTSF,” Carly lied, moving to lean on the pool table with Angel, who was staring at the young Indian girl with sunglasses.

“Why do they always pick the losers,” Angel muttered under her breath.

Carly shoulder-bumped her. “Usually because there are no parents or guardians around to pay attention.”

Even from the side, Carly saw the pain flash in Angel’s eyes. “Well, I’m not giving up,” Angel said fiercely.

Carly had the feeling Angel was talking about more than the girl; maybe she was talking about her brother too. “You know better than most it can be hard to get them to think straight.”

Angel turned her gaze to Carly. “Rusty slammed me over the head with it. Tough love can work.”

Carly squeezed Angel’s hand. “As long as you’re not getting in the middle of that fist, Angel.”

Angel’s eyes jerked away. “I’m careful,” she muttered.

Carly sighed. “Angel, I’m only telling you this because I care, Vincent cares, we all care. But if Vincent finds out you’ve been doing this, and he—”

“Can’t stop me just like Walkinghorse can’t stop me and you can’t,” Angel said angrily, standing and starting away.

“Angel,” Carly called, but Angel went straight to the Indian girl and knocked off her sunglasses. The Indian girl screeched, trying to hide her two black eyes, while Angel glared at the short, mean-looking Indian coming to his feet.

Zeb hadn’t seen many men move as fast as Justice did going after the mess that Angel was getting herself into. When he arrived at Justice’s side, he saw Justice had just managed to block a swing at Angel.

“Arrest him!” Angel exclaimed. “He swung at me! I’ll file charges!”

Justice had a time wrestling the short Indian down, as Zeb glared at his buddies, daring them to move, while motioning Carly to stay back. He was very glad she followed his command, because he didn’t need her in the middle of Angel trying to drag away the Indian girl with two black eyes.

Justice just got the guy handcuffed and had straightened with his boot in the guy’s back, when he growled, “Angel let her go, now!”

Angel looked at him as if he’d slapped her, and she spun away.

“Do
not
move,” Justice shouted, pointing to the girl, her handcuffed boyfriend, and his buddies.

Then Justice sprinted out of the bar after Angel, and Zeb caught their words as he held the bar door open, looking both ways at the group inside not moving and the two outside yelling.

“He’ll beat her worse!” Angel yelled.

Justice stood with his hand gripped on the back of his neck, as he uttered, “You can’t force them to do what you want.”

“I had her,” Angel declared. “If you’ll just haul him off, I know I can convince her.”

“You don’t have her, honey,” Justice said. “You used other people to try to get her, but
you
did not do it. You
used
me.”

“You could just haul him off,” Angel whispered. “He’ll beat her.”

Justice swore, and Zeb thought the man didn’t show that side of himself out in public much because of his professional life. Justice’s hand swung out, and he pointed at Angel. “
You
owe me.”

“Thank you!” Angel exclaimed, and by the look on her face alone Zeb knew how she had her hooks into one federal marshal. Then she rushed back into the bar.

Justice came slower and he stopped by Zeb, muttering, “Angel’s brother just got sent up for three years on his first drug trafficking charge. She’s—” He shook his head and walked back into the bar.

Later, Zeb and Carly drove to the lake house slowly, on the back roads Carly was guiding him through. Zeb had hold of her, while she sat against him without her seatbelt. That was the reason he went slowly.

Carly’s head was on his shoulder. “I didn’t know Angel’s brother got in that much trouble that quick. It’s so sad. Rusty will be upset, but I knew Rusty had to let him go for not showing up, and one time he didn’t bring her taxi back for two days, then it was trashed.”

Carly had explained to Zeb about Angel’s brother being one of the first tries at having a young man’s version of what WTSF did for girls. Zeb thought that young men might need a much tougher version, and even more like a military version, to kick their ass to the right side of things.

When they reached the lake house, Carly kicked off her heels and she asked him if stir-fry and rice was good for dinner.

He watched her hips swaying as her bare feet moved through the great room, and he said, “I’ll cook, you go relax. After dinner you pick the hot tub.” The place had two hot tubs, one by the pool and one in the amazing boulder grotto that was lakeside. “And sweetness, find me some swimming trunks.”

Carly turned around, looking at him in surprise with her pink lips parted. “Um,” she mumbled, looking as if she was processing, then she smiled. “You cook?”

He slung off his leather vest. “Enough to pop those premade meals you have filling your freezer into the microwave.”

Her smile got even bigger, watching him prowl toward her.

“Cool,” she whispered, right before he caught her up to drop his mouth over her smiling lips. The kiss was instant heat as he pulled her hard against him and she gave him the sweep of her tongue. When she lifted her warm lips from his, her voice was low and seductive, as she said, “Hot tub by the lake, ranger. I’ll find something for you to wear.”

That evening under the stars and after dinner, Zeb hooked Carly’s hips with a strong arm to hold them where he wanted them, while his other hand was cupped inside the front of Carly’s bikini bottoms. The hot tub water bubbling on high jets around them hid most of what he was doing, except for the way he’d popped her buoyantly full breasts out of the tiny cups of her pink and lime green bikini top.

“Ranger,” Carly warned, with her eyelashes spiked from wetness and her hair slicked back, giving her a very sexy look that emphasized her eyes. The colored lights in the grotto, right next to the big black lake of water, made Carly’s bare breasts look light blue and her hard-jutting nipples look even darker blue.

“You owe me,” he warned, while doing a curl-and-flick motion with two of his fingers that brought a sweet moan from Carly’s lips. She clutched his shoulders, while pressing into his fingers flicking her soft pussy off. “This is the first payment,” he growled, feeling the quivers run through her body.