Honey Kisses (Romance on the Ranch Series #2) (16 page)

"Yes!" said Alligator when Annie
stepped away from the terminal.

Over the monitor they heard Kitty Puff saying,
"So, that's how we know the paying customers from the freeloaders. Also,
the raunchy ones who just want to cop a feel."

One of the other dancers stopped in the midst of
spraying her hair. "Be sure and warn her about Greasy Grover.

Kitty Puff laughed, "Oh, you can bet I
will. Come on, Honey Bee, I'll show you around some more."

Jackson moved his attention to the screen displaying
the dimly lit and smoky main room. Some patrons gave cat calls when the girls
entered and one yelled, "Hey, Honey Bee, you're sweeter'n honey and I know
you're savin' the best for last." Kitty Puff waved. "Give us a
minute, Dickey, then we'll come visit."

Jackson flexed his fists.

Alligator whispered, "Okay girls, you're
almost home." He looked at Jackson. "The plan is for them to go outside
for a smoke break, and then head down the street where our car will pick them
up."

Jackson watched the girls walk to the bar and
make small talk with the bartender. Kitty Puff made a smoking motion with her
fingers and the bartender nodded his understanding. This was it. They were
going to escape Sneak-a-Peek. They started toward the entrance.

Suddenly, Billy rushed over and grabbed Kitty
Puff's arm. Another beefy guy came up beside Annie. With an escort on either
side, the girls were walked back toward the hallway.

"Oh no! What's happening?" Jackson
sputtered.

"Don't panic, it could be nothing," Al
said without conviction.

On the dressing room monitor they watched, Kitty
Puff and Honey Bee enter with the thugs. Billy looked at the other dancers and
shouted, "Get out!"

With puzzled looks, the women hastened to obey.
After the door shut, Billy said, "We got orders to keep you here til the
boss shows up. Seems someone tampered with the computer and you're the only new
person 'round here. Somethin' happened right after Kitty Puff showed you how to
operate it. I ain't sayin' you done nothin'. I'm just sayin' the boss wants to
talk to you."

"Oh crap!" said Alligator, and picked
up a mic that linked to agents' ear sets. "We got trouble. Stand by for
orders."

Jackson had seen enough and when Alligator
leaned over to set the mic down, he jerked the van door open and jumped out. He
heard Alligator shout, "Jackson, don't be stupid!"

Running like the wind, Jackson headed straight
into the crowds streaming the sidewalk. As soon as he felt he wouldn't be seen,
he ducked into a dimly lit bar and went straight for the bathroom. Inside, he
ripped his coveralls off and punched speed dial on his cell phone.

Alligator answered, "Jackson, get your ass
back here before you get yourself or someone else killed."

Jackson retorted, "I'm only saying this
once. Call off your boys. If you don't, I'll make the biggest stink you ever
saw. I'll alert the whole neighborhood to something going down. I'm not leaving
it to you guys to save Annie. I know what I'm doing."

Alligator hesitated and Jackson held his breath.
Alligator finally said, "Okay."

Jackson wasn't dumb enough to trust Al, so after
he slipped out of the bar, he still hid among the crowds until he was directly
across the street from Sneak-a-Peek. He sure hoped Al took his empty threat
about making a stink seriously. He crossed the street in the midst of a raucous
group and reached the front door just as a scruffy looking man started toward
him from the curb. Jackson told the bouncer, "Sure hope yer girls ain't
skinny."

The bouncer grinned, "I'm sure we have one to
please you, sir."

Hastily, Jackson stepped inside the smoke filled
room that was beginning to get crowded. At the bar he ordered a mug of beer and
swigged it. Swiveling on his stool, he got his bearings. He honed in on the
hallway leading to the dressing room. Was Annie still there? His heart
hammered. Suddenly, Billy and his buff buddy exited the hallway with Annie and Kitty
Puff. Instead of heading into the club, however, they turned toward the back.

Jackson picked up his mug, shuffled through the
crowd, and came up behind them. "Hey, Honey Bee, I been lookin' ever-where
fer ya. I told ya I don't want ya dancin' no more. Whatcha got is strictly fer
me now."

The group turned and the goon next to Annie
said, "Go find your horse, cowboy."

Jackson acted the part of a drunk and sloshed
his mug toward the big man. "Now, that's right unfriendly…" Beer splashed
all over the jerk's jacket and the action took him by surprise. In a swift
movement, Jackson was up close and personal with the disagreeable man and had confiscated
his pistol from its shoulder harness. The female agent closed the gap between
Billy and did the same.

Jackson covertly held the gun against his
captive's side. "I'm the fastest gun in the West and I
always
get
my woman. Ain't that right, Honey Bee?"

"Y-yes. Th-that's right."

"Now, we're all gonna mosey across the room
to the entrance. I suggest you let the bartender know we're as happy as pups
with two tails, cause he's lookin' this way. Cleanin' your guts up ain't gonna
sit too well with him."

The thug made a dismissive motion toward the
bartender and forced a grin. When they started forward and an exotic dancer slinked
onstage to bass driven music, Kitty Puff said, "Billy, to make up for your
sorry ass attitude, I want you to yell out that drinks are on the house."

"Huh?"

"You heard me. If you don't yell it out,
I'm gonna shout that you're gay."

Billy yelled, "Drinks are on the
house!"

In the pandemonium, Jackson rushed his group
forward. A few paces short of the entrance, the scruffy, unshaven guy that
Jackson had seen when he'd entered the club, and another guy, came up alongside
them. "We've got your back. Just get the girls outside," the scruffy one
said. Jackson flashed his gun at the bouncer and the beefy man lifted his hands
in a submissive gesture, stepping sideways.

Outside the club Alligator was hunched over in a
lover's embrace with Acuff. As soon as they saw Jackson and Annie, they
sprinted forward. Several agents posing as loiterers sprang into action. A scuffling
ensued and Annie got separated from Jackson. Alligator and Acuff surrounded her
and pushed her toward a cab.

* * *

Annie tried to twist around but Alligator's huge
arms held her in a vise. She heard shouts and then gunshots. Officer Acuff had
the cab door open, and none too gently Al shoved her into the backseat before following
her in. Acuff jumped in beside the driver and Al shouted, "Go! Go!" A
bullet cracked the back window. The cab darted into traffic and Ann jerked
around. Jackson was lying on the ground. "No! she screamed, and grabbed
for her door handle. Al covered her hands with his thick ones and she fought with
all the strength she possessed.

"Annie! Annie! I've got officers on the scene.
They'll get him out!"

She heard Officer Acuff speaking into her cell
phone. "Target rescued. Husband down. Send standby ambulance to Sneak-a-Peek
Club."

"Please take me back to Jackson!" Ann
wailed. Of course, she knew they would not. She laid her head against
Alligator's chest and sobbed. During the ride to the safe house, Alligator kept
one arm around her while he issued commands over his cell phone. At the
bookstore, he told the agent posing as a cabbie to drop them at the back. Other
agents rushed them inside.

Endless minutes later, Ann sat numbly on the
couch shaking violently with fear for Jackson. Officer Acuff brought a blanket
and wrapped her in it. Ann looked at her with pleading eyes. Giving her a
sympathetic pat, Acuff gestured that she hadn't heard anything. Ann swiped her eyes
with tissues pressed into her palm by the female officer.

Finally, Al exited the surveillance room and Ann
held her breath. He said into his cell phone, "Roger that," and
dropped it into his pocket. He walked to the divan and sat next to her. She
thought she might throw up.

"He's in the emergency room. He was shot
twice."

She stifled a wail.

"One bullet went into his thigh…" He
paused. "The other into his chest."

"Oh, God! Oh, God!"

Al knelt in front of her and stilled her
twisting hands. "He's got the best trauma team in the city working on him
and he's a fighter."

Through sobs she said, "Please take me to
him. I have to be with him."

Eighteen hours later Ann was finally allowed to
sit beside Jackson in intensive care. He had endured eight hours of surgery to repair
his thigh muscle and damaged lung.

"Oh, Jackson," she said to his
unconscious mind. "If you can hear me in some part of yourself, I want you
to know how sorry I am to have gotten you into this mess and for stealing from
you. I should have come to you, but I was just so scared." She sniffed and
swiped her tears with the back of her hand. "I love you, Jackson. I want
you whole again and running your ranch. You deserve the life you've worked so
hard for. Please don't die."

Ann looked at all the machines hooked to her
husband and, unable to bear the agony of seeing him so helpless, placed her
head in her hands and silently wept.

Three days later she was still by his side
speaking words of encouragement and love, not knowing if they would make a
difference in the end.

Alligator had persuaded the doctors to allow her
to stay with Jackson and a cot had been brought into his room. At sunrise of
the fourth day, she heard him cough and was immediately by his side. His coughing
turned violent and the intensive care nurses rushed in and forced her out. The
doctor on duty ran inside and Ann endured a torturous hour of not knowing what
was happening.

Finally, the doctor exited the room and motioned
for her to follow him. She could barely breathe and her heart felt like it
might explode by the time he led her to a small waiting room.

His caring attitude meant a lot as he reached
for her hands, "I'm cautiously optimistic that Jackson will recover."

The joy that rushed through Ann made her so
lightheaded she almost fainted and the doctor assisted her to a chair. She
looked up at him. "I was so scared when he started that terrible
coughing."

"All that coughing was clearing his lungs
and he's breathing easier now. We should see rapid improvement. However, I'm
keeping him sedated a while longer. There were no broken bones, but his thigh muscle
was badly injured and I don't want to take a chance on him doing further damage
when he wakes up. He'll be agitated and violent movements could make things
worse."

For the next two days, Jackson's breathing
improved immensely and by the third day his prognosis was excellent. The doctor
intended to begin gradually waking him.

Alligator stood beside Jackson's bed and looked
down at Ann. "Are you sure you want to do this? You don't have to
leave."

"Yes, Al, I do. Now that I know he's going
to be okay. I can leave in peace."

"Annie, he loves you."

"Our marriage was based on a lie and I
won't hold him to it. I have to free him and now is the best time. If I stay
until he wakes up, his sense of honor will get in the way. I have to
leave."

After Al left, Ann sat beside Jackson and memorized
his face. Recollections of their first dance made her smile. Finally, bending and
grazing her lips across his, she said, "Goodbye, my love."

Ann waited on the next customer in line at
Dixie's Cuppa Joe. Somehow, Sarah and Sage had weaseled a promise out of her to
stay with them for awhile prior to returning to Las Vegas. Before she knew what
was happening, Dixie had her working at the coffee shop. "What can I get
for you today, Mrs. Doolittle?"

The sweet-faced old woman considered her
choices. "How about a Cream Filled Fluffy Puffy and a double-shot Mocha Madness.
I've decided to go for the gusto and order something different every day until
I've tried everything."

A commotion at the entrance made Ann glance up.
Her heart thumped and then raced. A patron was holding the door open for
Jackson while he limped in with a cane. Ann hadn't seen him for over six weeks
and, according to Alligator, he wasn't expected home for another three. By that
time, she would have returned to Las Vegas. She had a feeling Sarah, Sage, Al,
and Dixie, had set her up.

Looking gaunt and pale, he thanked the man who
held the door and glanced around until he spotted her. Their eyes met and she
quickly looked away. Everyone in the coffee shop was looking back and forth
between the two of them. Pink suffused her face and she hurried to accept the
money Mrs. Doolittle was holding out. She fumbled with the change and the
elderly woman said, "Don't worry about it, dear. I wouldn't be able to
make change either if I had a man looking at me the way Jackson's looking at
you." She patted Ann's hand.