Six Degrees of Desperation (Dirty Tricks) (6 page)

“Sorry, fellas, this one’s over.” Charli
stood and reached down a hand to help the blonde up.

The woman clasped Charli’s hand and shot to
her feet, her lips pulled back into a sneer as she yanked Charli
forward and slammed a fist into her belly. “Not yet, it ain’t.”

Doubled over, her hands clutching her belly,
Charli gasped. “Oh, you did not just do that.”

Blondie stood with her fists on her hips. “I
sure did and I’m gonna do it again.”

Her lips forming a thin line, Charli forced
her back straight, despite the pain in her midsection. “Not in this
lifetime.”

The other woman took a swing. Charli leaned
to the side just enough the woman’s arm sailed past her, her
momentum carrying her forward. Charli stuck out her foot, pressed a
hand to the woman’s shoulder and sent her flying into the arms of
the men around her. “Don’t fuck with me.”

The woman screeched like a wounded cat and
spun to face Charli. “You want some of this?” She wiggled her
fingers, urging Charli forward. “Come on.”

All Charli wanted was to get to where Connor
was and make sure he was okay, not lying comatose under a table. “I
don’t have time for this.”

When the woman came at her again, Charli
braced herself, and waited until the last minute, then ducked to
the right, raising her knee to Blondie’s belly, landing it hard in
her breadbasket.

The woman collapsed to the floor on her
hands and knees, coughing.

One end of the circle of men broke open and
a deputy sheriff shouldered his way into the middle. “What’s going
on here?”

The man Charli had landed on pointed. “That
bitch attacked me and then she tried to kill my girlfriend.”

Without waiting to hear Charli’s side of the
story, the deputy snapped a cuff to her wrist. “You’re coming with
me.”

“That man’s lying,” Charli cried out, but
her voice was lost in the cursing and yelling going on all around.
She yanked away from the deputy, determined to find Connor.

“Sorry, lady, but you have to come with me.”
The deputy dragged her toward the front door.

“No, I need to check on Connor. That baboon
could have killed him. He could be lying under a table dying. Let
me go!”

As she kicked, scratched and clawed her way
toward Connor, the deputy lost patience and slung her over his
shoulder, pushing his way through the thinning crowd near the front
entrance. Once outside, he dumped her into the back of his SUV,
clipped the other end of the cuff to the wire mesh separating the
front of the vehicle from the back.

“You can’t haul me in. I didn’t do
anything,” she called out.

“Tell it to the judge.” He shut the door and
left her sitting there and went back inside the saloon. A few
minutes later, he returned, leading a big man in a black suit with
a bloody nose, his hands zip-tied behind his back. The deputy
loaded the man into the other side of the SUV, then slid into the
driver seat and drove away from the Ugly Stick Saloon.

“Don’t leave! I need to go back in,” Charli
insisted.

“No can do," Deputy Dense said with a
southern drawl.

“But people are getting hurt. I could
help.”

Sirens screamed past them as more county
sheriff cars and the local volunteer fire department arrived with
the Emergency Medical Technicians and ambulances.

“Let the professionals handle it.”

“But—” She pulled against the manacle on her
wrist.

“Not listening.”

Charli sat in the back next to the big guy
with the bloody nose, who didn’t fit into the usual crowd at the
Ugly Stick Saloon. “Who are you?”

He stared straight ahead, without
answering.

“I get it. You’re one of the strong silent
types.” She huffed. “Good, didn’t wanna talk anyway.” She twisted
around trying to look over her shoulder as the SUV pulled off the
short road to the saloon onto the highway. “Where are you taking
us?”

“To Hole In The Wall. The jail in Temptation
is going to be too full to handle everyone.”

Red, blue and yellow lights flashed,
strobing the night with color all around the saloon. “You wouldn’t
have to fill up the jails if you’d just let us go.”

Charli was ignored again, by both the deputy
driver and the man sitting beside her, blood drying on his lip.

As the colored lights faded, all Charli
could see was the big Texas night sky filled to overflowing with
bright, beautiful stars. Her vision blurred with a wash of tears.
“I never got to tell him.” She sighed. “It’s just as well. He
wouldn’t understand.” She snorted softly, leaning her head onto her
arms. “I don’t even understand.”

Her silent seat partner harrumphed, the
first sound he’d made since he’d been shoved into the back of the
SUV.

Charli tipped her head on her arms and
stared across at him. “What would you do, if you thought you were
in love with someone, but that you might also be in love with
another?”

The big guy’s gaze shifted toward her for a
nanosecond, then back to the front again.

Charli sighed again. “I know, it all sounds
wishy-washy, but they both have great qualities. On the one hand,
Original Sin knows exactly what buttons to push to make me so hot,
I swear my hair lights on fire.”

Those dark eyes shifted toward her.
“T.M.I.,” he muttered.

“Ah, so you do have a voice.” Charli sat up
straight. “You’re a man, answer this—"

“No.” He cut her off before she got any
farther. “I don’t get involved when it’s not my business. And you,
little lady, are not my business.”

Her brows rose. “Just what is your
business?”

“I’m a bodyguard.”

Charli’s brows rose further, a smile lifting
the corners of her lips. “Did you lose something?”

His brows furrowed. “I shouldn’t be here. I
didn’t throw the first punch. I was only protecting my boss.”

“Yeah, yeah. Another sob story.” The deputy
glanced in the rearview mirror. “Cry to the judge.”

“He’s not very sympathetic, is he?” Charli
stuck out her tongue at the back of the deputy’s head.

“I saw that.”

“So what are you going to do, arrest me?”
Charli chuckled and turned back to the bodyguard. “Anyway, what
would you do if you fancied yourself in love with two people? One
the exciting, blood-stirring spontaneous type and the other, the
steady, you-can-bank-your-life-on-me type? Which would you
choose?”

“Not that it’s my business, but the bank.”
The deputy shot a glance at Charli in the mirror. "Likely he won’t
spend his nights carousing in a bar, picking fights.”

The bodyguard shook his head. “Nah, she
should choose the exciting, spontaneous one. Life’s too short to
end up bored out of your mind.”

Charli stared from the deputy to the
bodyguard and back. “You two are not helping. I have to decide,
tonight.”

“It all boils down to what you want out of
life," the bodyguard stated.

“Sadly, I want both.” But that wasn’t the
option she had to choose from. And given that by choosing one,
she’d be sealing her fate with the other. Most likely, she’d end up
with neither. Charli laid her face on her arms, knowing she had to
get this matter settled and soon—she wouldn’t sleep until she did.
The guilt and turmoil ate at her gut, twisting her insides into
knots.

When they arrived at the jail in Hole In The
Wall, Charli asked to use the phone. Her first and only call was to
Audrey, the one person in all her world she could count on to bail
her out. She tried the phone at the Ugly Stick Saloon. No answer.
Then she tried Audrey’s cell phone, which rang four times then went
to voicemail. Charli left a message and handed the phone to the
bodyguard. So much for being bailed out anytime soon. Hopefully,
Audrey would sort quickly through the disaster of the evening, the
sheriff's deputies and wreckage of the saloon.

Charli cringed at what she’d find the next
day when she returned with the rest of the staff to set everything
to rights before the next wave of rodeo contestants and locals
arrived that evening. Assuming she was sprung from jail by
then.

Focusing on the mess of the saloon helped
her to push the main source of her worries to the back of her mind,
if only for a moment.

The deputy led her to an empty jail cell and
locked the bars behind her. “The judge is on his way in to set
bail. Shouldn’t be long.”

“Good, I have a lot to do before this night
is over.” She sat on the inch-thick mattress on the single bunk and
stared at the empty cell across from hers, silently rehearsing the
speech she’d give Connor when she finally saw him. And no matter
what, she’d see him as soon as she was released from this hell
hole.

Another deputy appeared, leading the
bodyguard. He opened the door to the larger cell across from her
and motioned for him to enter. The man sat on a hard bench and
leaned back against the wall, his hands clasped between his knees.
“I didn’t sign on for this.”

“Yeah, you and me both.” Charli smiled
across the space between their cells. “Since we’re going to be
neighbors, what’s your name?”

“Race Bennett.”

“I’m Charli Sutton.” She smiled. “Nice to
meet you.”

He nodded. “Same.”

Charli clapped her hands on her bare knees,
the ruffles of her skirt sliding to either side. “So, Race, who’s
your boss?”

“James Stratton, of the Manhattan Stratton
dynasty.”

The name rang a bell, but Charli couldn’t
quite put her finger on it. “Should I know him?”

“He’s one of the wealthiest men in the
United States.”

Flashes of news reports zipped through
Charli’s head. “That Stratton?”

The bodyguard nodded. “The one and
only.”

“What the hell was he doing at the Ugly
Stick Saloon? Aren’t there classier joints for him to hang at?”

A smirk twisted the bodyguard’s mouth.
“Looking for his daughter.”

The bar scene flashed in her mind and
Charli’s brows furrowed. “Oh, that would be the guy with the
megaphone, yelling for Elizabeth somebody-or-other.”

“Stratton,” the bodyguard corrected.

“Didn’t she disappear a couple years back? I
thought she was dead.”

“He won’t give up as long as there’s not a
body.”

“Did he find her at the Ugly Stick?” Charli
couldn’t imagine finding anyone that important at the saloon.

“He’s convinced he did. I’m not so
sure.”

“Well, good luck to him.” Charli glanced up
as another deputy led a procession down the narrow aisle between
the jail cells. Behind him, three men in black suits marched in
sync.

When the deputy paused to open the door to
the same cell in which the bodyguard sat, he moved to the side,
giving Charli a clear view of the men.

The air left her lungs in a whoosh and she
nearly fell out of her seat. All three men wore identical black
suits and sported yellow roses on their lapels, their masks
removed, their faces bare, uncovered and clear to see. “You,” she
rasped.

On his way through the open cell door, the
lead man paused, his face flushing crimson.

The other two men pushed past him into the
cell, all looking so similar to the first, they had to be
related.

All the blood rushed from her head down to
her gut as Charli rose from her seat on the bed and stalked to the
bars, her fingers gripping the rungs. “Oh, my god, you’re the
ones.”

The man at the back of the line frowned, his
head dipping low, his gaze going anywhere but toward hers. “Don’t
know what you’re talking about, ma’am.” The way the tips of his
ears turned a ruddy red gave away his lie.

“The hell you don’t.” She leaned forward,
her cheeks pressing against the bars. “You’re the men who’ve been
in on the dirty tricks.”

Not one of the men acknowledged or denied
her statement, adding credence to her accusation.

Charli studied them, her eyes narrowed. “I
know you, don’t I?”

The one closest to her smiled. “Maybe.”

“You’re the O’Briens.” She pointed to the
first one. “You’re Gabe, Tanner, and Sean. I know your sister,
Molly, she applied to the Ugly Stick just last week.” Her face
heated as she asked, “Which one of you was the first…my original
sin? The one who showed up at Judge Stephens’s pool that night over
two weeks ago?”She cast a glance at Race, wishing she could conduct
this inquisition out of his presence.

The three men looked from one to the other
and finally, the one called Gabe shrugged. “We have no idea what
you’re talking about.” This time, they all glanced at her, with
open, blank gazes.

If they were lying, they’d figured out how
in the past minute, which led Charli to believe they were telling
the truth for the first time.

“Where’s the fourth guy? Is he another of
your brothers? Aren’t there four O’Brien men?” Leaning into the
bars, Charli felt as if she was the closest to learning the truth
than she’d ever been.

“Sorry, our youngest brother moved to NYC a
couple months ago.”

Charli’s heart sank and her grip tightened
on the bars, her lifeline in the sea of disappointment. “Then who
is he? Who’s the other man in the foursome?” She stared at each
man, moving her gaze down the line.

All three men clamped their lips tight.
“Sorry. It’s not our place to tell.”

Her jaw slackened, her anger rising. “Are
you kidding me?”

The bodyguard who’d been sitting silently on
the bench behind them stood. “Tell the lady what she wants to
know.”

“Or what?” Gabe O’Brien asked. “You’ll take
on all three of us?”

“Bring it.” Sean and Tanner shucked their
jackets, exposing broad shoulders and trim waists.

“Not worth it, Race.” Charli leaned against
the rails. “They’re not gonna tell and you’ll only get slapped with
more jail-time. I’m not worried about it. As far as I’m concerned,
I’m done with them. All of them. I’ve had enough lying and secrets
to last a lifetime.”