Tex's Revenge: Military Discipline, Book Two (3 page)

Tex frowned slightly. He was driving with one hand on the steering wheel, the back of his index and forefinger against his lips. His window was cracked a few inches and the wind streaming into the vehicle caught the longer strands of his dark hair and swept them back in a dashing sort of way. “Do you know what he does?” He asked, referring, presumably, to Savage.

“Hardly,” Zora snorted. It was sort of a lie, but not entirely a lie. She really didn't know what Savage did, especially not these days.

He glanced over at her. “Do you know what I do?”

“Kidnap people and lie to them, I'm sure for some wildly noble cause,” Zora muttered, fishing around in the bottom of the bag for the little crunchy bits with all the flavoring on them.

“If you know I'm lying, you obviously know more than you're letting on,” he deduced from her insightful reply.

“Why? Because I can tell you're not really a friend?” She jangled her cuffs. “Doesn't take a genius to work that out.”

Tex smirked unrepentantly. “Better to be safe than sorry. I don't want you running off.”

“Sure,” Zora shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat.”

He laughed. “You really don't care, do you?”

“Does that ruin the fantasy?” A little snark slipped into Zora's voice. “Would it be better if I begged you to let me go?”

He raised a brow at her, just one brow, a rather grim brow. “Let's not let a pleasant afternoon turn into something... less pleasant.”

“Is that a threat? Because if it is, it's got to be in the running for vaguest threat ever.”

“Zora...” Her name rumbled out of his throat in a threatening dark purr, which she blithely ignored.

“I'm just trembling in my boots at the idea of possible unpleasantness,” she chortled, tossing the empty packaging onto the floor. “I'm hungry,” she then declared.

“You just finished eating.”

“Well I'm still hungry,” she insisted, attempting to cross her arms over her chest, but failing on account of the fact that one shackled wrist was unavailable for full body pouting.

“We can stop at McDonald's.”

“I want proper food.”

“Do you really think you're in a position to be making demands?”

That question might have cowed a less experienced captive and made them think about their situation, but not Zora. “Sure, why not? You want me for something. I doubt it's to observe the effects of saturated fats on middle aged women.”

Tex shook his head at the road in an expression of frustration. She was probably being a lot more difficult than he wanted her to be. Good. She decided to add insult to injury by taunting him gently. “Oh I know,” she said brightly. “I could tell you that Savage is certain to come rescue me now that you've abducted me from my glamorous home. Would that help?”

He shot her a dark look. “Is it true?”

“Probably not,” she said. “I haven't heard from him in a long time. Not exactly his type anymore.” She poked a finger at the spare tire around her waist and had to keep from giggling at the confused expression on Tex's face. Whatever he'd thought she was, she wasn't turning out to be that at all. With any luck he'd come to the conclusion that she was a waste of time and drop her off somewhere along the road, hopefully alive.

“You wanted to help him though. When I told you he was in trouble, you were interested,” Tex kept probing.

“Sure,” she agreed. “What woman wouldn't help a dodgy man find her cheating ex?”

His brow furrowed all the more and Zora knew her plan was working.

“He cheated on you?”

“Oh yeah, ages ago with some girl he worked with.” Zora was starting to get into the swing of the story. It wasn't hard to conjure up feelings of abandonment and betrayal. “They're probably married with three kids by now.” She added a bitter laugh for good measure.

“Is that so?”

“Yep. It is so. Can we go to Red Lobster?”

He went with the change of subject. “A fan of seafood?”

“It's alright.”

Tex tried a charming smile. It worked for the most part. “How about somewhere a little more intimate?”

“No thanks,” Zora shook her head emphatically. “Not a fan of intimacy.”

“Now that I don't believe.” In spite of her carefully casual, one might even have said semi-detached facade, his suave chuckle still made her heart skip a beat.

* * *

Melissa wiped the bar down with a tatty rag, which, like the rest of Iron Horse, had seen better days. The patrons of the Iron Horse, the bar being named after the township, weren't exactly discerning types with minds for high hygiene. As long as they got a good draught in a glass that was more or less clear they didn't complain.

It had been a good day at the bar, all sorts of excitement had been taking place in the little town and she couldn't wait for the evening influx of patrons so she could share her observations and theories. It had just gone five o'clock according to the Mickey Mouse clock that sat on the wall above the dishwasher's station, so she wouldn't have long to wait by her estimation.

She was just done wiping when the bar door opened. Melissa first looked up eagerly, then her face fell slightly when she realized it wasn't one of her gossip pals, but her lips turned up at the corners once more when she saw that it was yet another handsome stranger. This one was quite different from the one she'd chatted up in the morning. He was very tall and broad with the sort of chiseled face she was only used to seeing in movies. Instead of wearing slick city clothes he was wearing a faded pair of jeans that accentuated his powerful hips and a casual checkered shirt that hung slightly open at the collar, though not quite enough to let Melissa get a good view of his chest, which seemed to be very well formed.

“Well hello,” Melissa smiled her broadest, most welcoming smile.

“Hello,” the man smiled back at her, then turned his gaze to the menu boards at the sides of the bar. “It's a little early, but I think I'll try the Iron Horse special brew,” he said with a flicker of a conspiratorial wink.

“Oh you won't regret it,” Melissa said, hustling for a bottle. “Mick brews it himself every year. His grandaddy was one of the finest bootleggers the region ever saw, so Mick knows his stuff.” She cracked the bottle and slid it across the bar to him, making sure his fingers brushed hers when he took it. Did he feel the same frisson of excitement at their touch? She hoped so.

The man seemed suitably impressed by the lineage of his brew, at least that was what Melissa took the slight cough and nod as he took a sip to mean. “We're getting a whole host of handsome visitors today,” she said, coyly letting him know that he was very handsome in her estimation.

“Oh yes?” The man smiled. “Do tell.”

Melissa was only too pleased to tell him all about her day. “Well there's yourself of course, and a fellow stopped by earlier this morning. Journalist from Texas.”

“Turned your head, did he?”

Melissa blushed. She didn't even know this man's name, but the way he was looking at her with a twinkle in his eye made her feel like they'd been the best of friends for a very long time. “Well I wouldn't say he turned my head, he was a pleasant man. Interested in our local celebrity.”

“Celebrities and journalists? Looks like I stumbled back into the city,” he quipped with a grin.

She waved her rag in a dismissive motion, sending bits of unmentionable things flying through the dusty air. “She's not really a celebrity, not any more anyway. Her name's Laura. Keeps to herself, likes a drink.”

The man nodded, seeming very interested in her story. “Reckon he was doing a piece on her?”

“Well she sure took off when she saw him.” Melissa's look was conspiratorial. “Come to think of it. I don't know if she really is a celebrity, or if he really is a journalist. He looked like a law man to me.”

“You can spot them, can't you?” The man was looking approving, appreciating her keen eye for detail. His approbation made her glow. A lot of the people in the town called her a gossip, but she was much more than a gossip, she was practically an amateur detective.

“Oh yeah,” Melissa nodded. “He was dressed pretty fancy, and he seemed like he had something going on. He was watching her out of the corner of his eye the whole time she was drinking, though he didn't say a word to her and when she went across the road to the general store I think he took a picture of her.”

“That's a mystery that is,” the man nodded over his beer.

“That's not the best part,” Melissa leaned forward over the bar eagerly. “He tried to talk to her when she was getting in her car and she just took off! She was screaming something, I didn't hear what, but she wasn't pleased to see him, that's for sure. He followed her pretty quick too. You can still see the marks on the road where they took off.” Her face crumpled from excitement into staid disapproval. “It's not safe driving like that. They're lucky the highway patrol weren't about. They come by every now again. We don't have our own police station here, but if we need an officer we can get one...”

At that point he interrupted her interesting diatribe on life in Iron Horse by sliding a fifty dollar tip over to her and saying that he'd enjoyed talking, but he'd best be on his way. Momentarily dazzled by the size of the gratuity, it wasn't until the man left that Melissa, who prided herself on knowing everyone else's business better than her own, came to the galling realization that she had no idea who the man was or what he was doing in Iron Horse.

“And they call me nosy,” she said, tutting to herself as she rubbed the bar down twice more with the same greasy rag for good measure.

* * *

 “How did you end up in Iron Horse?”

In a pretty seaside restaurant, Zora and Tex were playing a delicate verbal game of cat and mouse. He was trying to glean all the information he could, and she was trying to concoct something plausible without giving too much away. It was a difficult task made all the more difficult by the delicious Lobster Bisque she was devouring. After her insistence on a proper meal, he'd driven them to a little seaside town, to a restaurant he said was very good. It turned out that he was right, it was very good indeed, the sort of place that made one feel better just for being there. The lighting was low enough to encourage intimacy, but not so low that one couldn't see one's own food. The decor was tasteful and the whole place was filled with the tang of the sea and the sense of possibilities that scent always brings.

Zora was sitting amongst the other patrons, entirely unshackled and feeling the tingle of potential freedom. Of course he'd warned her not to try anything silly in the car, but she had disregarded that warning almost immediately. It was the perfect place to make an escape, a well heeled little town where people were sure to notice and come to the aid of a damsel in distress. She almost had a mind to start screaming and carrying on right there in the restaurant, but she really was hungry, not to mention curious. “Real estate prices are wonderful there,” she answered his question, smiling sweetly as he snorted.

“You're not the sort of woman who invests in real estate.”

“I'm not? What sort of woman am I, pray tell?” She was being playful, but he responded quite seriously.

“You're the sort of woman who gets involved with dangerous men. You're the sort of woman who doesn't know what's good for you,” Tex smiled a dark smile. “You're trouble. I'd even go so far as to say that you're your own worst enemy.”

“I'm the woman your mother told you about, in other words,” Zora laughed. Tex seemed to have a surprisingly comprehensive understanding of her for a man who clearly didn't know the first thing about her aside from the fact that she'd once known Savage intimately. “You think you know me so well, don't you?”

“Here's what I think,” he said, waggling a finger at her. “I think you and Savage still have a relationship.”

She rolled her eyes dramatically and pointed towards the stucco wall nearby. “I have a closer relationship with that wall than I do with Savage.”

He smirked. “You want me to believe that so badly, don't you?” He leaned back in his chair. “I asked you earlier what you thought I did. Now I'm going to tell you. I get the truth out of people,” he said, his voice soft but oh so chilling. “Some people give up their secrets eagerly, others need a little persuasion, but I always find the truth. Always.” His look was more than piercing, it was a look designed to shred her soul from the inside out. Zora wanted to look somewhere else, anywhere else, but she forced herself to hold his gaze. As he looked into her, he allowed her to look into him and what she saw behind the debonair charm and pleasant conversation was darkness and ruthlessness beyond anything she'd ever seen before. Even Savage looked warmer in his rages than this man did. This man was reptilian. He made her feel cold.

They stared at one another silently locked in an ocular stand-off until the waitress interrupted them by asking if they wanted dessert. Zora watched Tex's face change in an instant, the darkness in his gaze masked by the perfect emulation of good natured humor as he asked for a menu.

She pushed her chair back. “I'm going to the bathroom.”

“Don't be long.” He was smiling, but she only heard a threat. He didn't mean 'don't be long', he meant 'don't try to run away'. He knew she was going to try to escape but he couldn't stop her, not in front of the waitress and all the nice patrons with their nice clothes.

Zora made her way to the ladies room quickly and was relieved to see that there was a window, a nice big window not two feet above the ground. Committing to her plan, she wasted no time shimmying out of it and dropping into the bushes outside.

From the bushes she scampered across to the building next door. She didn't know what it was, but a window was propped open. Considering it a hint from fate, she climbed in that window and shut it behind her quickly and quietly. Only then did she turn around to see what private space she'd invaded.

It turned out to be a small hardware store, a mom and pop affair. A window covered with a blind faced towards the restaurant so she sneaked over to it and peeked out. As she'd suspected, Tex was already looking for her. He was standing outside the bathroom window, looking around vaguely. He didn't seem annoyed or even surprised, he had an almost serene expression as he started walking around the front of the restaurant, presumably to try and find her. With her heart pounding, Zora slid down the wall and crawled behind the counter. She'd escaped. Just like that. A little giggle of glee burst from her lips. The big bad man had been foiled!