Here Comes Trouble (28 page)

"Good guess," Joel told her in a slightly awed
voice. She was good, worth every penny his daddy was paying her,
every penny he was going to give back to his daddy.

"There were abrasions on her heels from
dragging. I figure he dragged her across the yard from the
bunkhouse to the house, so he could put her in your room. She
wasn't dead at that point, but probably unconscious. He removed her
clothes then strangled her to death in your bed. The coroner
estimated the time of death to be between three a.m. and five a.m.
at which time you were with Miss Cassidy, is that
correct?"

"We got back to the ranch around five o'clock
or so, but yeah I was with her until at least six," Joel confirmed,
then added with a dark chuckle, "Sounds like I need a new
bed."

"Sounds like your partner needs a good
attorney."

"If you can find him," Joel reminded
her.

Ronnie walked back around the table to face
him. "I don't give a damn about him, solving this case isn't my
job. Proving your innocence is...and I've done that. I'm going to
talk to the D.A. and see if I can get this travesty corrected right
away, before his office gets sued for defamation. I'm sure when the
test on the skin under her fingernails comes back, it will match up
with your law partner. She didn't go down without a fight," she
told him.

"I hope she clawed his fucking eyes out," Joel
told her and shook his head. "I still can't figure out why he would
do it...they'd been having an affair for five years."

"Maybe he was tired of her..." Ronnie
speculated.

"I don't know...she was going to be getting a
lot of money from me, and she was with him, so he would share in
her windfall. Larry is very money-driven...everything he does is
rooted in making money, even his gambling."

"He have a gambling problem?" Ronnie asked
with a tilt of her head.

"I never could nail him on it, but the
accountant who examined the books when we were negotiating a
settlement said there was some creative accounting going
on."

"Did you settle with him yet?" she
asked.

"No, we're still negotiating it. I called him
on the discrepancies in the accounting, and told him to explain
them."

"Better watch your back, sugar," she told him
and concern flashed in her eyes.

"You think he'll try to kill me
too?"

"Stranger things have happened, just keep your
eyes open. Now, I'm going to get you out of this hell hole. I'll be
back in an hour to give you a ride home."

"Thanks...I appreciate everything you've
done."

"You'll get a bill, trust me," she told him
with a wink.

"I'll bet I will, and I'll gladly pay it," he
told her with a grin.

Ronnie shook her head and told him with a
cringe, "God, you look like hell in prison orange, and that beard
looks like it has something nesting in it."

"Thanks, darlin', glad you like the new look,"
he smiled wider.

She gave a mock shudder and gathered up her
papers and stuffed them back in her briefcase. "I'll get them to
give you a razor and your clothes back, while I'm gone."

"No razors allowed," he told her with a
chuckle. "They don't want me to off myself before they can fry
me."

"Shit, guess you'll just have to shave when
you get home then...and shower," Ronnie teased and held her
nose.

"Glad you're so worried about my personal
hygiene...have I told you that you look amazing today?"

"No, but feel free to elaborate, not many men
have the balls to say that to me," she told him and gave him a
narrow-eyed look.

"You look fabulous, and if I didn't have
things nesting in this beard," he scrubbed his hand over the
scruff, "I'd kiss you."

"Try it and you die, sucker. I draw the line
there," she said in a low lethal voice he was sure made most men
quake in their boots.

"You don't scare me," he replied with a wink
and a grin.

"Then I'm not doing my job properly," she said
with an intense glare. After a minute her lips twitched then she
burst out laughing. "I'm going--get ready for me to bust you outta
this joint." Ronnie slapped her cheeks until the smile disappeared,
then leaned down and picked up her briefcase.

"I'll be ready, trust me," Joel said and
stood.

She walked to the door and knocked, and the
guard let her out, then came inside. Joel turned around and he
cuffed him, hopefully for the last time.

***

Terri climbed the white wooden fence
surrounding the large outdoor arena beside the barn and sat on the
top rail then took a deep breath. After she left Curly, she'd
wandered around a little while to get her head right, and calm
down. That didn't happen though, she ran smack dab into the middle
of the CSI folks that had evidently been notified that Karen had
been staying out at the bunkhouse.

They were towing her car, and hauling out
brown paper sacks filled with who knew what. She wished this whole
nightmare would just end. Her brother was coming this evening, and
she didn't want to have to explain this crap to him. He would
probably be pissed that she was even here with all that going on.
Hell, he might even decide to head back to Henrietta. It had taken
her too much finagling to get him and his friends out here to let
that happen. And the ranch needed the money. Not that she should
care about that now, she did.

So, no Terri wouldn't be telling her brother
what had happened. The CSI people were wrapping things up, one van
had left already, and the others looked like they were loading
equipment, so they'd be gone long before he got there. Thank
goodness.

Terri shook her head to clear it and turned
her attention to the arena where Dylan was getting up for another
ride. His body was tense as he sat on the edge of the holding chute
trying to time it just right to get on the angry beast's back.
Blaze and Jonas, two of the cowboys she didn't know very well, were
helping control the animal so he could climb on board. From
watching a couple of his earlier rides, Terri knew that wasn't an
easy task. The bull was wild and antsy, and Dylan was lucky to have
the help getting on his back.

Two other ranch hands were waiting in the
arena to make sure he could get off the bull once his ride was
over. Matt waited on horseback near the rail inside the arena, and
Sheedy was on the other side on foot with a feed sack in his hands
that he would wave to distract the bull once Dylan was thrown
off.

Terri held her breath as Dylan eased onto the
bull then slid up a little, before he raised his hand high over his
head and nodded at Blaze to open the gate. The bull shot out of
like a bolt of lightning and was bucking before he even cleared the
gate. Dylan's left knee clipped the bar of the gate and he
flinched, but he held on. Jonas had a stopwatch and an air horn,
timing him.

Dylan was totally focused on the bucking bull,
his toes pointed skyward as he hit the bull in the same place on
his shoulders with every downward motion. The hand he had in the
air circled with his movements, but stayed up as he moved with the
bull to stay seated.

This sport was really amazing. Terri had never
seen a rodeo before, but now she wanted to go to one. Hell, she
might even talk Dylan into letting her ride the mechanical bull
too. She knew from watching them practice that there were slow
speeds they could put it on. As edgy as she was feeling, maybe that
would help her get rid of some of the pent-up energy boiling inside
of her.

She jumped when the air horn blared announcing
he'd held on for eight seconds, and watched as Matt kicked his
horse toward the bull to help him off. He rode beside the wildly
bucking animal, and his horse didn't flinch when Dylan grabbed the
back of the saddle then slid off the bull's back, before dropping
to the ground and running toward the rail. Matt's horse ran
interference between Dylan and the bull until he had hopped over
the fence.

Suddenly the bull spun around and the enraged
animal's wild eyes met hers. As if in slow motion, he snorted and
bucked, then headed directly for her. She tried to scramble off the
rail, but her boot slipped and her heart stopped as she slid down
the inside of the fence. Strong arms grabbed her from behind and
she was swung up and away from the fence.

Joel sat her down on the ground, then sucked
in a few breaths. "Are you fucking crazy?" he asked, his voice
tight and his eyes glittering angrily.

Terri grabbed hold of the adrenaline and fear
pumping through her veins and channeled it into anger. "Yeah, I
think I am, I trusted you, didn't I?" she spat then brushed past
him and headed to go check on Dylan.

His knee probably needed to be treated. She
was going to do her job, and avoid Joel Rhodes. If she could do
that until Friday, she'd be in good shape.

"Hey, Dylan come here, honey," she shouted
when it looked like he was headed into the barn. "That was a really
good ride. I think I like watching bull riding," she told him with
a smile.

"I'm having fun. Didn't realize how much I
missed it," he admitted with a matching smile. "You ever been to
the rodeo?"

"Nope, but I'd love to go one day. Watching
you got me hooked, I think," she said with a wink.

"There's one in Amarillo tonight, if you're
interested?" he offered with a slow sexy smile and an answering
wink.

"Hell yeah, that sounds like fun." And that
would keep her out of Joel's orbit for the night. One night at a
time, she told herself. Four more and you're home free...home. "But
first, we need to go look at that knee of yours, and don't tell me
it's nothing. I saw you hit the gate," she said and held out her
hand to him. He'd blown off his injuries from several other rides,
and she'd let him, but this one she needed to take a look at...he
was limping.

"Aww, it's nothing," he protested and she gave
him a stern look, then he threw down his gloves and put his
callused hand in hers. "Lead the way, doc," he said.

"I'm not a doc, but I can fix you up anyway,"
she said with a smile then led him toward the first-aid station.
When they walked through the door she told him, "Take off your
pants, and slide up on the table."

"You won't have to ask me that twice,
darlin'," he said and his hands moved to his belt buckle. In a
split second, he had his jeans off and was standing there in black
compression type shorts that ended mid-thigh.

His firm muscular legs stretched them tight,
and Terri swallowed hard. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, she
thought, when his other problem became clearer now too. She
convinced herself it was just a cup to protect him, and dragged her
eyes away. Turning toward the cabinet, she pulled down supplies to
treat his knee. The other problem he'd have to cure himself with a
cold shower or whatever.

His knee was swelling and turning dark purple,
so she needed to get ice and an ace bandage on it fast. Trying to
fill the silence Terri asked, "So how long has it been since you've
ridden?"

When he didn't answer, she turned around with
the supplies and her breath caught in her chest. Dylan wasn't
sitting on the table anymore. Joel sat there instead, a dangerous
expression on his beard roughened face. His clothes, the same ones
he'd had on when he was arrested, were dirty and wrinkled, but he
didn't seem to care. Right now, she could almost believe he was a
killer. He looked that dark and angry.

"I have the same problem as Dylan...a pain
right here,
doc
," he said, his voice gravelly and sarcastic,
as he put his hand over his crotch and grabbed himself
crudely.

Terri threw the bandage and ice pack down on
the counter and spat, "Then you'll have to deal with it yourself. I
have a patient to treat,
get out
."

"I own this building, remember?" he told her
with an arrogant lift of his chin.

Anger punched Terri in the gut and almost took
her breath. Never, had a man infuriated her like Joel Rhodes. "But
you
don't
own
me
, remember?" she told him then
grabbed the bandage and ice pack. "I'll just go treat Dylan in the
barn."

Brushing past him, she got as far as the
doorway, then he jerked her backwards. "You're not going to the
fucking rodeo with him tonight," he grated near her ear.

"Says who?" she asked and pulled out of his
grasp.

"Your boss, you have things to do tonight,
you're on call twenty-four hours a day, remember?"

He had her there, that is exactly what her
contract stated. Two days off a week and twenty-four hour call
otherwise. Terri nodded then walked toward the barn, where she saw
Dylan still in his underwear with his jeans thrown over his arm.
Four more days, she reminded herself.

"I'm sorry about that," she apologized then
pointed at a stool over by a stall. "Just sit over there and I'll
wrap it up for you."

"Thanks, Terri," he told her with a little
edge to his tone. "Guess the boss thinks he has dibs on you, so I'd
better back off."