Love Under Two Private Dicks Part 17

Wow, there must be something going on that's real important for him to lie like that. And he was lying. Billy J always got a little twitch around his left eye when he told a fib. Right now that particular muscle looked as if it was hooked up to his daddy's car battery, it was popping so fast and so hard.

"You must think I'm dumber 'n dirt, Billy J. Cooper, if you think I believe any of that bull you just tossed." Still, just because he was a miserable excuse for a human being didn't mean she ought to lower herself to his level.

So she folded her hands in front of her and nodded once. "Fine. I accept your apology. But I'm not ever going to 'take you back.' Not ever." Okay, so I'm not as mature as I think I am. "In case your vision has gone fuzzy, I'm still the 'fat and frumpy b.i.t.c.h' you dumped. So you just go on home and have yourself a nice life."

She turned and barely took one step when she felt a painful pressure on her arm. Billy J had grabbed her, and his grip hurt. She heard the sound of chairs sc.r.a.ping, but poor, dumb Billy J was too focused on his own needs to register that sound for what it was.

"Now you just wait one d.a.m.n minute there, Emily Anne. You will too take me back. And what's more..."

Emily Anne didn't even think about what happened next. He had hold of her left arm, a hot and punishing grip that spiked her temper like nothing else could have done.

She made a fist with her right hand, pulled back her arm and let him have it. He deflected her blow at the last moment but she'd hit his face. And while there wasn't any blood, his cussing let her know she'd hurt him right back.

And then he let her go. Of course, he had no choice but to let her go, because he was suddenly dangling from the grip of Colt Evan's one hand fisted in his shirtfront.

"Son, we don't take to having our women treated with disrespect here in l.u.s.ty." Colt turned his attention to her. "Are you all right, Emily Anne?"

"I'm fine, Colt. Thank you."

"Someone ought to call Adam." Mr. Parker had been one of the chair sc.r.a.pers. He stood just a few feet away, hands on hips, a surly look on his sweet face. "That boy needs a trip to the woodshed."

"Already done, Mr. Parker, sir," Cody Harper called out. "And here he comes, now."

Emily Anne looked up and saw l.u.s.ty's sheriff, Adam Kendall, making quick tracks down the sidewalk toward the restaurant.

"You put me down, a.s.shole! You're strangling me!" Billy J still didn't seem to understand the mess he was in. Emily Anne wished she wasn't so petty as to be enjoying this moment more than a little bit. But she was. Her right hand began to gently rub her left forearm, and she realized she was subconsciously trying to rub the sting of his grip away.

"I ain't strangling you, boy," Colt said.

"I ain't no boy, I'm a man. Now put me down!" Billy J sounded like a ten-year-old getting ready to slide into full tantrum mode.

Adam Kendall came through the door and Billy J's eyes lit on him in an instant. "Sheriff, arrest this man! Look! He's a.s.saulting me!"

Adam's eyes landed on Emily Anne, sending her a sympathetic look. Then he turned his attention on Colt and Billy J.

"What have you got there, Colt?"

"Some young boy who doesn't know better than to come in here ogling and disrespecting our women, Adam. Then when Emily Anne told him to git, he grabbed hold of her arm and gave her a good jerk." Colt's affable good-ole-boy demeanor vanished. "She's already got a bruise forming there."

Emily Anne looked down at her arm the same instant that Adam reached her, gently cupping her elbow to have a look for himself. He hissed in a breath at what he saw.

Red outlined the imprint of where Billy J's fingers had gripped her, and sure enough, she could see the bruise beginning to form.

Embarra.s.sment swamped her. Yes, she wanted Billy J gone, but she didn't want to be either the cause or the center of a full-blown scene.

Huh. Maybe there's more of my momma in me than I knew.

"It's nothing, Adam. Really. I'm fine."

Adam ran his thumb over the imprint of a thumb and fingers. When he looked up and met her gaze she realized that he was very, very angry.

"Emily Anne, this is going to be one h.e.l.l of a bruise, sweetheart. That's not fine. That's a.s.sault." He turned his head to look at Billy J. "I've half a mind to just hold him till your men get back from Divine."

"Adam, please..." One thing Emily Anne knew without a doubt. Billy J. Cooper was not worth either Connor or Mel getting in trouble over.

Adam sighed and let go of her arm. He nodded toward Billy J and Colt lowered him to the floor, but didn't let him go.

"Who is he to you?" Adam asked her.

"A mistake from my past," she said. Conscious that whether she wanted it or not she was indeed the center of a scene, Emily Anne soldiered on. Her face had turned beet red, but there was no help for it. "Up until a few months ago he was my boyfriend. He dumped me, and I moved on." Forgetting about the witnesses she looked at Billy J and scowled. "Lately, though, he's been pestering my momma to tell him where I was. I asked her not to, Adam. I told her I didn't want anything more to do with him. Not ever." She looked over at Billy J. He was slow but not completely clueless. He finally seemed to get that he was in a bit of trouble here.

More than a bit, if she understood the men who lived in this town. They really didn't take to anyone mistreating any of the women who lived here, period.

She put her attention back on Billy J. "You shouldn't have hounded my mother and she shouldn't have told you where I was."

"Dried up old b.i.t.c.h wouldn't tell me a d.a.m.n thing. I had to pump Linda Sue Powers, if you know what I mean, to find out where you were. h.e.l.l, she wasn't even a good lay."

Emily Anne revised her opinion of Billy J. Apparently, he was clueless. She was glad to hear her mother hadn't betrayed her trust, though.

"Boy, you need to learn some manners." Colt gave him a shake that made his head bob.

"He does, indeed. But that's a discussion for down the street." Adam reached behind and pulled out a pair of handcuffs from his belt and slapped them on Billy J before he could even think of a protest.

"You can't arrest me! I didn't do anything!"

"Are you denying that you put a hand on Emily Anne?" Adam asked. "When everyone here saw you do it?"

That seemed to stop Billy J, but only for a moment. He shook his head, and then put his full focus on Adam Kendall. Emily Anne watched as his sly and charming smile-the one he'd always used to get his a.s.s out of trouble-spread across his face.

"C'mon, Sheriff. You know how these females are. I know you don't know Emily Anne all that well. Heck, she's little more than a stranger in town herself. But believe me when I tell you she's been leading me on for a long time. Just look at her! I suppose y'all can't blame her chasing after a man, she must be desperate, you know what I mean? So what do you say you remove these cuffs and let me take the b.i.t.c.h someplace private where I can explain things to her?"

His cajoling question was met with absolute silence. Emily Anne felt shame flood her. She couldn't prevent her eyes from drifting down to the floor.

How could I ever have thought this loser was the best I could do?

"Adam, I believe we have all heard quite enough." Kelsey Benedict had emerged from the kitchen. She followed up her words by approaching Emily Anne and slipping her arm around her. Miz Bernice came to stand on the other side of her, and she slipped her arm around her, too. The message was clear, and even if Billy J didn't get it, Emily Anne did. She was one of them. She belonged.

"Please remove that odious little boy from my daughter-in-law's restaurant," Bernice Benedict said. "He's not fit to be in polite company."

"Yes, ma'am," Adam said. He stopped long enough to duck his head and catch Emily Anne's attention. "Sweetheart? I want you to go on over to the clinic and let Doc have a look at that arm. Make sure it's only bruised-which is bad enough-and not actually damaged in any way."

"I'll see that our Emily Anne is taken care of, Adam," Kelsey said. "You can count on it."

Adam nodded. "Good. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take this trash outta here."

Cody Harper came over and joined the group surrounding her-a group that had become larger and more supportive than her mind could take in.

Cody wore a huge smile on his face. "Hey, Sheriff, I just spoke to Connor Talbot. He and Mel are about fifteen minutes out."

"Who the h.e.l.l are they?"

Billy J's question sounded petulant, his response to the snickers that had just rippled through the restaurant with Cody's announcement.

Adam chuckled, and Emily Anne thought he might have actually been enjoying the moment a little too much himself. "Son, those two men might just end up being your worst nightmare come to life."

Chapter 17.

"I want to see what's in that shed."

They were less than a half an hour from home when Connor's words broke the silence they'd been traveling in. Mel nodded his head, because he was in complete agreement with Connor. Bruce Smith had acted completely spooked. From the safety of an old Texas oak tree across the road and to the north some six hundred yards from his house, they'd watched him-Connor through the scope of a very wicked-looking sniper rifle, and Mel through his high-resolution binoculars-as he'd come out of his house and headed straight for the third shed built in an arc behind the house.

"He didn't hesitate, he went to that one particular shed, and it sure as h.e.l.l didn't take him long to pick out the right keys to open the d.a.m.n locks-all seven of them." Mel shook his head. "I couldn't see if the keys were marked or not, so that might not have been a clue."

"Not," Connor said. "I was able to get a look at that key ring. The keys were a.s.sorted shapes and sizes, but I couldn't see any colored markings on them. Had to have been fifty keys there, easy, and he was able to pick out the right ones without hesitating."

Mel shot him a quick look. "I have got to have me a go with that rifle of yours. That must be one h.e.l.l of a powerful scope you have there."

Connor didn't open his eyes, he just grinned. "She's a beauty. You can put your hands on her anytime, partner."

They'd been on the go since very early in the morning. After their meeting in Divine they'd decided to drive past the property Smith lived on. They'd seen the tree and the way the FM road had undulated, and had decided to just see how the vantage point worked.

Mel hadn't actually believed they'd see anything at all. Instead, they'd gotten one h.e.l.l of a bonus.

Something important was in that shed. He just knew it.

This was the part of working with Connor Talbot he liked best. The man's mind never shut off, and could follow more twists and turns than most. There was no one Mel wanted by his side or at his back more than this man.

"Bruce Smith is a man with secrets, and his biggest one is inside that particular shed," Connor said.

"I don't know if he sensed us out there today, or if he's just starting to turn paranoid," Mel said. "He stopped and looked around, as if he could sense us."

"He did the same thing earlier in town when I was waiting to snap his picture. His lips were moving the whole time on both occasions," Connor said, "which could mean he was talking to himself. Well, unless he had an imaginary friend there that he was talking to, that is."

Mel shot a glance over at his partner. "I caught that, too. Didn't realize he did it in town. I wonder if anyone else has noticed the habit, or if it's something new?" He put his gaze back on the road. "What I'd like to do is get some sort of audio surveillance set up. If his mouth is moving, he might be talking to himself. If he is talking to himself, he might confess to murder."

"Would that hold up in a court of law?" Connor asked.

"No, but it might serve as grounds for a warrant to conduct a search and seizure."

That's all they really needed, sufficient grounds to get that warrant.

"You think that we'll find the evidence we're looking for in that shed," Connor said.

"I do, yes. And I'll bet you a couple of hundred those other sheds are empty."

"Do I look like a sucker to you?"

"Of course not." Mel laughed.

"Good. Because I've worked hard on presenting the appearance of an intelligent hard-a.s.s and I would hate to think my efforts were wasted."

"And here I thought that look was natural and not practiced." Mel shot a glance over to Connor. "Unlike our Mr. Smith. He doesn't look natural at all. "

"I know. So I guess the first order of business is to verify that Bruce Smith is indeed Ralph Baxter. I'll run the picture I took through my program, but again, we need something that will hold up in a court of law. Any thoughts as to how we do that?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Ethan said the guy comes in to The Dancing Pony a couple of times a week, remember?"

Connor opened his eyes. He ran a hand through his hair, something he did whenever he was ticked with himself. "Well, h.e.l.l. Of course. Fingerprints. We can lift them from Smith's place, most likely, but we need a proper evidentiary trail. Ethan serves him then gets the gla.s.s or bottle or whatever the h.e.l.l it is for us, with witnesses, and we run the prints."

"I like it when we can use the simple ways, you know?" Mel said. "Sometimes, it's the simple things that trip these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds up."

Connor's cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the display and frowned. "Cody Harper," he said to Mel. Then he answered the call.

"Hey, Harper. How goes it?"

Mel couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but when Connor swore and sat bolt upright in his seat he felt his stomach churn.

"Well son of a b.i.t.c.h. Look, we're about fifteen minutes out. You're sure she's all right?" Connor listened a moment and then nodded. "Okay, thanks. We'll head over to the clinic, first. See if you can persuade Adam to keep the little b.a.s.t.a.r.d there until we arrive." Connor smiled, and then he laughed. "Yeah, he sounds like he got more than his share of stupid. Thanks, Harper."

He hung up the phone and turned to look at Mel. Because Connor had laughed, Mel knew that whatever had happened wasn't too serious. But he also knew it involved their woman, and her having to go to the clinic. No matter how Mel cut it, that just simply wasn't good.

"Start talking."

Connor nodded, and did just that.

"Quit beating yourself up over this," Kelsey Benedict said. Standing beside her as she sat on an exam table in one of the clinic rooms, Kelsey ran her hand lightly down Emily Anne's arm. "My Auntie May used to say you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you finally find your prince. Clearly, Billy J was just another one of life's frogs."

Emily Anne burst out laughing. Judging by the smile on Doctor Robert Jessop's face, he thought Kelsey's comment was funny, too.

Kelsey had insisted on bringing her to the clinic. She wanted to see for herself that Emily Anne was uninjured-and, she said, that she wasn't feeling guilty over what had happened.

"Seriously, it's not your fault he tracked you down and then humiliated himself in front of my customers. No one-and I mean no one at all-thinks any less of you for what happened today."

Doctor David Jessop came into the exam room and put the x-ray they'd just taken up on the viewer, and turned on the light behind it.

Robert narrowed his eyes as he examined the test results, and then nodded. "Good." He flashed a quick grin. "Nothing broken, just as we thought. It never hurts to confirm our beliefs, though. Sometimes you can end up with a hairline fracture that will give you h.e.l.l later on."

"Just from having my arm grabbed and squeezed?"