“Wondering about the big date?” Dodge asked.
“How’d you know?”
“That you were wondering or about the date itself?”
Sarah wondered if Kevin had talked to Dodge about going out with Shiloh. For a fleeting moment she considered asking Dodge to talk to Kevin about being sexually responsible. “Both, I guess.”
Dodge grinned. “I overheard Lyle teasing him about it the other day. Kid’s nervous.”
“Why do you say that? He sure didn’t seem nervous when I dropped him off.”
Dodge lifted a shoulder in half shrug, let his eyes linger on her face. “He yelled at Lyle when he teased him. If he wasn’t nervous, he’d have ignored him.”
Sarah felt herself relax. It was good to talk to a man about her feelings. “He’s growing up so fast, both of them are. This whole dating thing…” She absently brushed her hair back from her face. “It scares me.”
“You’ve raised fine boys. They’ll have their ups and downs, but they love you. They don’t want to disappoint you. I can see that already.”
Sarah twisted in the seat to face him, waited until he looked at her. “Do you mean that, or are you just trying to make me feel better?” He moved his hand from the wheel and covered hers, but pulled it quickly away. Just that brief contact made her feel like she’d touched a live wire.
“They’re not angels, no boys are. But they’re grounded and responsible.”
She stared out the front windshield at the passing yellow lines. “Thanks.” Her throat tightened with emotion. Lately, she felt like all she ever did was disappoint her kids. It felt good to hear a compliment, especially from Dodge.
They pulled into the parking lot of Coasters at a quarter until nine. It sat right where Tommy had said, along a stretch of barren highway with nothing around but an old gas station that looked like it had closed sometime in the last century.
Coasters looked to Sarah like a mobile home in need of a power wash and a fresh coat of paint. An old screen door flopped open in the breeze at the main entrance and a set of double metal doors were on the side near the dumpster where Dodge parked. A smattering of cars littered the dirt lot, mostly old trucks and cars.
“Do you remember the plan?” He slid the gear shift into park and turned in the seat to face her.
Sarah sat up straight, recited the plan back like a student to a teacher. “We find a quiet table and order drinks. Keep our heads low and our eyes open.”
“I’m serious, Sarah. If Burwick recognizes you or gets spooked, I want you to get out of the line of fire.”
“Are you carrying a gun?”
“No, I just want you to get out of the way and keep yourself safe. I’m not locking the truck and we’re parked right by the side entrance. If something happens, you come out to the truck and lock yourself in.” He reached over, put a small key in a lock box between their feet on the floor and opened the heavy lid with a squeak. “I’ll give you the keys so you can get at this if you need it.” He lifted the corner of an old work rag to reveal the barrel of a shiny black gun.
“Are you nuts? I’m not using a gun, for God’s sake. I’d probably shoot myself.”
“It’s not loaded.” He closed the lid and secured the lock, handed her the key ring. “But if you need to flash it around to make someone go away, it’ll do the job.”
“Are you trying to scare me?”
“I want you to be prepared for anything.” Dodge reached over, gave her knee a quick squeeze. “Ready?”
She took a deep breath, let it out with a sigh and got out of the truck.
If the outside of Coasters needed a good scrubbing, the inside needed an insecticide bomb from a hazmat unit. Sarah didn’t want to touch anything, not a chair, a table top, a door handle and certainly not a glass. She’d landed as far from her suburban neighborhood back home as Dorothy in the Land of Oz.
Dodge surveyed the sparse crowd, didn’t see Burwick or anyone particularly interested in the two of them and led Sarah to a small table near the back. They had a good view of the interior and the hallway that led to the restrooms and the side entrance.
“Stay here and don’t talk to anyone,” he said. “I’ll get us a beer.”
“Make sure it’s in a bottle.”
The moment Dodge walked away, Sarah glanced around to get a look at the people. There were only two other women in the bar. One worked as a waitress, a heavy set woman in her fifties with long gray hair pulled back in a loose braid. The other woman was with her date and stood between a large table and an old foosball game with missing handles. She and her gentleman friend appeared drunk and used each other to prop themselves up under the guise of dancing to the crackling jute box music.
Most of the handful of men congregated near the bar, making small talk and love to their drinks. The two or three of the younger men wore biker attire and sported long braided hair and ponytails with bandanas wrapped around their heads.
In the middle of the bar stood Dodge, his backside framed in his not-too-tight jeans, his boot resting on the metal pole that ran along the base of the bar. He looked like a living, breathing movie poster. His talk of danger and guns had distracted her from her overwhelming desire for him. He drew her like a magnet. As if he’d felt her stare, he turned his head, caught her eye and winked. She felt her stomach drop at what he’d probably intended as a reassuring gesture.
He walked back to the table with his casual gait as if he hadn’t a care in the world. He slid into the seat opposite her, handed her a beer.
“It’s cold,”
“And in a bottle, as requested.” He clinked the neck of his bottle with hers and took a long swig.
She took a small sip, then another when it tasted good. “Do you see anything? Recognize anyone?”
“No.” He glanced around the room. “But it’s not quite nine.”
Sarah twisted her hair in her fingers and he scowled at her to stop. She picked the label from the bottle and he reached over to still her hands. When her feet began tapping the floor under the table, he gave her a gentle kick on the shin. And still no one came into the bar.
Dodge took the last sip from his beer, set it on the table. He looked at his watch. “It’s ten after nine. I’m going to take a look in the restroom, then pop outside.” He stood up and paused, looked down at Sarah. “Do you want another beer?”
She felt the weight of her half empty bottle in her palm. “No, thanks.”
She watched Dodge walk down the hallway and into the restroom. He came out a few seconds later and glanced her way before heading out the side entrance near where they’d parked.
She sipped at her beer and tried not to look anxious, sitting alone in a dimly lit bar with a bunch of strange men. When she saw two of the biker twins swagger toward her table, she fled down the hallway, bypassed the restroom, and exited the heavy metal side door where Dodge had disappeared.
The instant she’d cleared the door and it swung shut, Dodge pushed her against the wall and ducked his head, braced his weight against his elbow.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Burwick’s here.” He moved his face closer, whispered in her ear. “He got into the white Taurus a second ago.”
“Why are you pinning me against the wall?”
“Unless you want to pee on the side of the building or pretend to have a lovers quarrel, this is the only explanation I have for us standing out here.” He nuzzled her neck with his mouth.
Sarah braced her hands on his chest and tried to push him back. He didn’t budge. All she could feel under his soft cotton shirt was a hard wall of muscle. The feel of his breath on her neck made her shiver.
“Sweetheart, we’re trying to be inconspicuous here. If you act like I’m attacking you, you’ll cause a scene.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Sarah relaxed against the wall. “Can you hear what they’re saying?”
Even to her own ears, her voice sounded breathless with desire. Without thinking,
she moved her head to the side and gave him more of her neck to nuzzle. When she felt his hand on her waist, a distant stirring swirled in the pit of her stomach. It spread lower and her eyes drifted closed.
She opened her eyes when she felt Dodge pull away. He stared at her face, his smoldering eyes fluttered between her eyes and her mouth. At the sound of a car door, they both looked back to the parking lot where Burwick slipped out of the Taurus and walked toward a Mercedes.
“He’s leaving,” Sarah whispered.
The Taurus started its engine, catching them in the headlights. Dodge ducked his head and brushed his lips against her ear. “Kiss me,” he demanded and quickly turned to take her parted lips with a force that had her pushing against him. When the headlights starting backing away, Dodge gentled the kiss and Sarah relaxed against his body. He eased back to see if Burwick had pulled out of the parking lot just Sarah’s hips arched and she let out a quiet moan. He pushed her back into the wall.
“Burwick’s making a call from his car,” he said.
“Huh?”
She heard the crunch of gravel under the Mercedes tires. “Here we go again.” Dodge leaned down to take her mouth. She was ready for him this time and didn’t try to push him away, but welcomed the invasion. When he ran the tip of his tongue along her bottom lip she opened her mouth and whimpered.
###
Dodge heard the Mercedes pull into the street and the German engine kick up to full speed, but he couldn’t pull himself away from the body pressed against his while her tongue did wicked things to his mouth. The side door of the bar slammed against its hinges and Dodge and Sarah pulled breathlessly apart. The drunken couple stumbled past them. The man tried to gesture to Dodge with his head and only managed to head-butt his girlfriend. Dodge tipped his hat and grinned, then looked across the small alley to where Sarah stood motionless against the wall where he’d left her. She licked her swollen lips and yanked her shirt down from where his hands had inched it higher. She blinked at him as if she didn’t know who he was or where they were.
“We should try to follow Burwick.” He tried not to recall the feel of her body against his and the sweet way she’d tasted just moments ago as he led her to the truck. Dodge maneuvered out of the lot, but screeched to a halt at the road.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Why aren’t you going after him?”
He looked from left to right and back again before dropping his hands from the steering wheel and easing back in his seat. “I’m not even sure which way he went.” Dodge stared at the dashboard. He didn’t have to look at Sarah to know she’d turned a very bright shade of red.
###
“Oh.” When Dodge reached across to open the glove compartment and brushed against her knee, she flinched. Their eyes met for a moment before they both quickly looked away. “What are you doing?”
“I’m getting a pen to write down the tag number of the Taurus. I’ll get Tommy to ask the sheriff to run it through the system and see what he comes up with.” He threw the pen in the ash tray. “I should get you home.”
The first sound on the long ride home was the low voice of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” crackling over the radio. It felt like a hint from God and echoed her own thoughts. She stole a sideways glance at Dodge. The man sitting beside her in the eerie stillness of the truck cab, the same man who drove her crazy and who categorized women had kissed her silly and brought alive every long forgotten nerve ending in her body. He’d done it again; he’d turned her into a mindless pile of liquid yearning. But this time felt different. Kissing him face-to-face, body-to-body had made their connection much more personal. So many things she thought had died with Todd had awakened with Dodge. She wanted to rejoice and bang her head against the window at the same time.
When Dodge finally came to a stop in front of the cabin, Sarah reached for the door handle. “Let me know what you find out about the tag number.”
He nodded. “Don’t get your hopes up, it was probably a rental.”
“Well…we tried.” She took a fleeting look at his profile.
“We did.” He sat staring at the dash. “Will you tell Tommy I’m waiting?”
“You’re not coming in?” She didn’t know what she expected after the long and silent ride home, but she hadn’t thought he’d drop her and run. She jerked the door open and slammed it shut.
###
Dodge shook his head as he watched Sarah go into the garage and close the door behind her. Tommy came out moments later and slid into the seat beside him.
“Sarah said you saw Burwick, but didn’t get anything but a license number from the guy he met.”
Dodge backed the truck out slowly and caught Sarah’s bedroom light illuminate the window with a gilded glow. He thought of her, peeling off that barely-there shirt and slithering out of her tight jeans. He was hard as a rock again.
“Do you think you could get Darren to run the number?” he asked Tommy. “Tell him it’s about a claim?”
“Yeah, he’d probably run it.” Tommy rubbed his forehead and yawned. “So, what do you think?”
Dodge shrugged, tried to concentrate. “The fact that Burwick is handling the details himself makes me nervous. Whatever he’s planning will happen soon, I’m sure about that.”
“You still staying at Miguel’s?” Tommy motioned out the window as they passed the caretaker’s house and the truck found it’s bearings on the pavement.
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t you bunk up with Sarah? I’m sure she’d invite you in if you asked real nice.” Dodge only grunted. “What the hell are you holding out for anyway? If I had a chance at that…”
“The woman’s a distraction.” She’d proved it conclusively earlier.
“Seems like a worthwhile distraction.”
###
Dodge dropped off Tommy at his house and headed back to Miguel’s for another sleepless night. Sarah had gotten under his skin, and thanks to Burwick and her own bullheaded stubbornness, she’d seeped into his blood. The attraction had gnawed at him for weeks. He’d admired the sweet sway of her hips, her easy laugh and quick wit with the foolish notion that he could resist her charms. He didn’t turn back to her place, but veered eastward toward The Stand to see who was available to temper his need.
Stan looked up from behind the counter with a nod when Dodge entered and took a seat to scope the room. Barb Whitehead sat at the end of the bar, drunk as she always was about this time on a Saturday night. He couldn’t even stomach the thought of talking to her. Mandy Smith worked the register at the Co-op. She sat in a booth with two guys he didn’t recognize. He’d always thought Mandy attractive, if not a little young. Her daddy Stet was a three generation rancher known to drink too much a little too early in the day. Mandy had always been kind and pretty, but Dodge couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for wrestling her away from the two guys at her side. He scanned the bar again and ordered a beer.
He considered calling Jenna Sweeny in the morning and inviting himself up to Colorado Springs for the day. They’d always made room for each other when their paths had crossed. It was past time he made their paths cross. But he couldn’t leave the ranch unprotected for a whole day while he satisfied his needs. And just the thought of going to all that effort for someone he wasn’t interested in made him feel tired. He just needed to keep his distance from a certain sex-starved landowner.
Chapter 17
Dodge had just pulled the tractor into the barn when he saw Miguel, Kevin and Lyle head out to the water meter on the back side of the property to check the day’s levels. Now was the perfect time to confront little Miss Smarty Pants. He knew she was there. He’d been watching to see if her truck had left all morning. Hell, he’d been watching her since she’d slithered that sweet little body all over him in the barn, then cried in his arms and made him vow never to touch her again. And he was doing a pretty good job of it until he’d kissed her--as long as thinking about her constantly didn’t count. Of course, the guilt he felt
whenever Kevin scowled at him helped steel his resolve to leave Sarah alone.
His plan had worked fine until he’d come out from the store late yesterday afternoon, still frustrated after Tommy had confirmed that the car they’d seen with Burwick had been a rental, and found a copy of one of her books sitting on the passenger seat of his truck. He thought it odd that someone had tossed it in, but he’d just shrugged and gone on his way.
As he climbed into his truck and made his way toward her cabin, his mind reeled with images of Sarah draped over him like a blanket. He groaned aloud. Damn it. It’d been hard enough trying to sleep on Miguel’s uncomfortable couch, remembering the feel of her breasts and the taste of her lips. And then he’d picked up the book when he couldn’t fall asleep. He’d read the story all right. All night long. Then he’d taken a cold shower while his head spun with a whole slew of images playing like a movie in his head while he should have been sleeping.
###
Sarah stood at the kitchen sink washing Lyle and Kevin’s breakfast dishes. Although they’d both grumbled about having to get up early in the summer, they got up every morning and helped Miguel with his morning duties. They were learning first hand how to make a ranch run efficiently. As much as Sarah hated to admit it, she was jealous because they spent a good part of most days with Dodge.
She hadn’t heard from him in over a week, but not because he wasn’t around. She’d see his truck at the barn in the morning and all throughout the day. Kevin and Lyle would come home for lunch every afternoon with stories that began, “Dodge this” and “Dodge that.” She wanted nothing more than to plug her ears when they started talking about him. They were bonding, her sons and the man she’d hoped to bed. She knew they respected him. He was fair with them and expected them to carry their weight around the ranch while he pitched in and did a lot of the grunt work himself.
Sarah had wondered if Kevin would be able to be around Dodge after what he’d seen and yet they worked together every day as though nothing had ever happened. If only she could act as if nothing had happened. If only she could turn her mind off and stop obsessively wondering if he was thinking about her the way she was thinking about him. It had to stop.
Dodge the Bullet Page 18
