As she enjoyed her lemonade, her attention was drawn to the barrel sitting in the middle of the arena. It moved on its own, as if shaken by a small quake. From watching Brianna earlier, she knew the barrel was used as a centerpiece for entertainment, and it gave the bull riders a place to jump if nowhere else was safe, but there was no one in the arena. The round had yet to start. Brianna stood casually by the pens with her competitors, waiting to be called.
The barrel wobbled again. This time, everyone noticed. The crowd began pointing, and a bewildered murmur spread across the aisles. When the barrel moved a third time, it shook so hard it toppled over, and a little piglet ran out, squealing loudly, causing the crowd to laugh and cheer.
A knot formed in Dakota’s stomach as she noticed Jacob standing at the emergency exit near the back, fumbling nervously with his hat. Something on the other side caught his attention, and he opened the door, allowing a stampede of pigs to run into the arena, herded by Eddie and Owen. The three of them took off the moment the last pig was in.
Immediately, officials jumped into the arena to usher the pigs out, but it was uncontrollable chaos. Some of the audience continued to laugh. Others became hostile, objecting to the prank.
Brianna was one of them. The woman was red with fury. The Tyrell Clan may have released the pigs, but they’d also unleashed a dragon.
***
A bonfire lit up the night, a rival to the sun, which had just set. It was the end of the rodeo. There would be no more bull rides, no more pranks. There was only the fire, built a short walk from the stadium, close to the desert.
Brianna was off at a corporate tent talking business with a potential sponsor. It was supposed to be an easy contract. The sponsor would watch her ride, preferably to victory, and then they would make her a deal. According to Brianna, sponsorships for women were hard to come by. No one had faith in the sport, not where female bull riders were concerned. She’d been really excited about the deal, but after the pig incident, it was no longer guaranteed. By the time the pigs and the mess they made had been cleared out of the arena, there was no time to finish the women’s competition. They moved on to the men’s, cutting the women out.
Feeling angry on behalf of all the women bull riders, Dakota orbited the bonfire in search of Eddie, waving off the smoke and cinders. She found him doing card tricks for a group of fans, most of them as drunk as a pub filled with Scotsmen.
“What the hell did you do!” she yelled, forgetting to be small, forgetting to hide. She grabbed the deck of cards from his hand and threw it into the fire, much to the protest of the group. “Not everything is a game.”
Eddie didn’t flinch. If anything, he enjoyed her anger. “Why don’t we go somewhere more private?” he suggested, and he led her into the abyss of the desert, away from the cat calls that followed them.
“It was funny,” he defended, stopping beside a cactus. “It was just a windup.”
“It wasn’t funny for Brianna. She could lose a huge sponsorship deal because of your stupid windup. Why did you have to pull the prank while the women were competing? They have it hard enough as it is.”
“Wouldn’t it be sexist not to pull the prank while the women were competing?” he joked.
She wanted to shove him. “There are consequences to your actions, Eddie. You of all people should understand. You face scrutiny for being a shifter. One day, they may not let you ride, not professionally. Put yourself in Brianna’s shoes.”
“Boots, not shoes,” he corrected, but he frowned, her words clearly sinking in, troubling him. “I’ll apologize to her. I wasn’t thinking.”
“No, you weren’t.”
“I’ll fix it. Just don’t look at me like that,” he pleaded. “Don’t look at me the way my brother does. I’m better than this, I promise you. I can give a rat’s ass what everyone else thinks of me, but not you. I care what you think.”
“Why?” she demanded. “You barely know me.”
“Well, you’re beautiful, for starters,” he said, gently placing a hand on her cheek.
She needed to push his hand away. This was not what she’d come to West Texas for. She was meant to go unnoticed, not encourage a cowboy to chase after her.
“And?” she pressed, full of anticipation, ignoring her logic.
“And I feel drawn to you. Connected, like you’re the rope I can hold onto and steady myself with.”
She felt the same, even if it was a fleeting fantasy inspired by the wildness of the West, its heat a lust that burned beneath the skin. “And?”
“And in about two minutes, there’s gonna be fireworks to mark the end of the rodeo. That’s when I’m gonna kiss you.”
“You can’t kiss me then,” she said, moving his hand to her waist, pushing aside the fabric of her T-shirt so that he touched her bare skin.
“Fine. I’ll kiss you now.”
His lips claimed hers, fierce and hungry. She gave into the kiss like a starved beggar, deprived of joy for too long. The weight of his muscle against her was enormous, both pushing her down and holding her up. She wanted to tear off his clothes so she could see his muscle for herself, feel it against her as he took her in the desert sand, their moans of pleasure heard beneath the moonlight.
The fireworks began, a warning in the sky above, summoning her back into reality. “I can’t,” she said, pushing his kiss away. It was almost impossible to do.
“Why?” he asked patiently, trying to understand. Knowing she couldn’t resist him a second time, she marched away, back towards the bonfire. He followed. “Don’t walk away from this.”
“From what? A quick screw before you head on to the next rodeo?”
He threw his arms up. “A quick screw can be fun. Dakota, why are you running away?”
She stopped, but she refused to look at him. “It’s complicated.”
Eddie was an outlaw. She understood his need to escape, to be free to roam, live life by his own terms. She understood because she was an outlaw too, but he could never know. No one could ever know, and not just for her own sake. For the sake of her brother too.
* * *
Chapter Three
Her room was dim, absent of light. It was how Dakota felt. A life in hiding wasn’t whole. It had no joy. It was freedom, but it wasn’t sanctuary. It wasn’t happiness. There was no light, no matter how bright the sun shone.
“Maybe I should go back home,” she mused to herself, refusing to get out of bed, to face another day on the run. “If I go home, then the next time I meet a man like Eddie, I can kiss him all I want. We can have our fireworks.”
Except she didn’t want a man like Eddie. She wanted Eddie, the real him, not the imitation. She wanted the bear.
“Miss Dakota!” Brianna hollered from the living room, summoning her, too perky for the morning. Miss Dakota was her nickname. She hated it, but she was getting along well with Brianna, so she endured it.
Reluctantly, Dakota managed to roll out of bed and pull a pair of denim shorts on under her red tank top, the same she’d worn the first day at the rodeo, her possessions few.
“I’m awake,” she said, dragging herself out of the room. “Is this a fire drill?”
“You have a package,” Brianna told her, shaking a box excitedly. “It’s from Eddie.”
“Let’s hope it’s not porcelain,” she mumbled. “How early do they deliver here?”
“It’s almost noon,” Brianna revealed, pointing to the clock.
“Noon?” She’d finally gotten her sleep. She felt better, a lot more refreshed than she had sleeping on the bus, but she could have easily gone back to bed for a few hours.
“Chickling, a handsome cowboy has left you a package, and I’m pretty sure it ain’t dynamite. Aren’t ya going to open it?” Brianna asked.
Obliging her, Dakota sat on the couch and pulled open the top of the box. Inside was the blanket with the apples woven into it. Delighted, she lifted the fabric to her cheek. Made of wool, it scratched her, but it smelled wonder
ful, like summers on the orchard.
“Awe, wasn’t that just sweet of him,” Brianna sang. “You’ve got him hooked like a fish.”
Dakota dropped the blanket, eyeing Brianna carefully. “Why are you being so supportive?” she asked. “Yesterday, you wanted push the entire Tyrell Clan off a mountainside.”
Brianna waved her hand dismissively. “All is forgiven. I got the sponsorship. They called this morning. I sign the papers today.”
“That’s great,” Dakota said. “Congratulations.” She wasn’t the type to throw hugs around, but she was genuinely happy for Brianna.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. Now I can travel more, really get my name out there.” She patted Dakota’s knee. “Let’s go celebrate. There’s a bucket of beers waiting with our name on it.”
“Why does that sound literal?”
“Because it is. There’s a barbeque down at the gorge where a lot of the rodeo folk are camping out. No fans, just the crew.”
Dakota thought of how she’d left things with Eddie, and she curled into a ball on the couch. “Do I have to go?”
“No,” Brianna said. “But I know you want to.”
She smoothed down the corners of the blanket, unable to refuse. “Yeah. I do.”
***
The gorge was an area near the stadium not far from where the bonfire had been the night before. Rocky inclines stood in the distance, past a river that ran through the valley. There was a good distance between the campsite and the river, land covered in tumbleweed and sand, where cacti sprouted in jagged intervals.
Full of trailers, the campsite could be mistaken for a Western movie set, the actors sprawled around with cans of beer in their hand while smoke rose from a number of barbeques. While Brianna went to sign the papers for her sponsorship, Dakota walked around, hoping Eddie hadn’t left yet for the next stop on his rodeo tour.
He hadn’t. Near their trailers, the Tyrell Clan played a game of horseshoes. Eddie sat on a log, talking with Jacob as Owen took a shot. A fourth man stood beside them. He resembled Holden, with his dark hair and noble stature.
Colby, she thought. That must be Eddie’s cousin.
Eddie spotted her and called her over. “Come play, darling. We don’t bite, not unless you want us to.”
“I’ve never played before,” she said, joining them.
“Better late than never. I’ll show you.” Jumping up from the log, he grabbed the horseshoes out of Owen’s hand.
“I wasn’t finished,” Owen objected, but he winked at Dakota, not a bother on him. “Ladies first,” he said as he moved aside.
Eddie handed her a horseshoe, and he stood behind her, brushing her back as he guided her body how to move. “It’s like a Frisbee,” he instructed. “Just aim for the pole. The pole goes through the hole.”
“It’s nothing like a Frisbee,” Owen uttered nearby. “Eddie is the worst player in the clan. And the worst teacher. Don’t listen to anything he says. Just do what instinct tells you to do.”
With Eddie’s hands on her waist and his musk filling her senses, her instincts told her to turn around and lure him into his trailer for their own game of horseshoe.
“Thank you for the blanket,” she said as she aimed. “And for fixing things with Brianna. I figure you had something to do with the sponsorship.”
“I had nothing to do with it. Brianna earned it on her own. I just made sure it went ahead despite the pigs running amuck.”
“See, you can be gallant. Your brother was right to leave you in charge. You’ve got this.”
“Actually, I’ve got you,” he said, tightening his hold on her waist.
She threw three horseshoes and missed each time, but it was fun. When the last horseshoe flew out of her hand and nearly hit Jacob in the head, a giddiness took hold of her, and she laughed so hard her stomach hurt.
“Arrest her, Colby,” Jacob joked. “She ain’t playing fair.”
She instantly lost her humor. “Arrest me?”
“Colby’s a cop,” Eddie explained.
She swallowed, suddenly finding it hard to breathe. “A real one?” she asked, causing the group to burst out laughing.
“I’m a part-time officer, only on duty when we’re back at the ranch in New Mexico,” Colby said. “Don’t worry, I have no jurisdiction here. Jacob will have to take it up with the local police.”
Dakota forced a smile, her heart pounding, realizing just how dangerous a game she was playing. To take the focus off of her, she quickly changed the subject. “Where did Holden go?” she asked.
The group looked around uncomfortably. Running a hand through his hair, Eddie told her. “Shifters around these parts are disappearing. He went to figure out why.”
“What do you mean disappearing?”
“One day they’re throwing horseshoes. Then they’re gone.”
Worried, she thought of her friend back home. “Only these parts?”
“That we know of. You thinking of your shifter friends?”
“I only know one. She’s my best friend. Lillian. She’s a wolf.”
Eddie put his arm around her. “I wouldn’t worry. She’s probably safe.”
“She may be safe, but you aren’t,” a man bellowed behind them. It was the fat bookie who had thrown Eddie out of the beer tent the day they met. A gang of thugs accompanied him, brutes carrying chains. “I hope you have a ride to the hospital, because that’s where I’m going to put you.”
He was speaking to Eddie.
Their arrival caused a scene. Others in the campsite stopped what they were doing to watch, statues in the desert sun.
“You know you don’t want to mess with the Tyrell Clan,” Colby said, stepping forward, speaking with the authority of a cop and the audacity of a cowboy. “Be on your way, Girey. We don’t want no trouble.”
Girey sneered. “Trouble is what you’re gonna get. You don’t scare me. I know what you are, and I don’t care. Men rule over the wild. Bears like you should be locked up, especially after your little stunt yesterday. I had money riding on that competition. You cost me, and I expect you to pay up.”
A pair of strong hands pulled her away. It was Brianna. “We gotta go, chickling,” she said. “It’s about to get ugly.”
Dakota didn’t protest. There was nothing she could do to help Eddie. He had his clan for that. She would only be in the way, a liability.
They hurried to Brianna’s truck. As they pulled away, Dakota opened the window and looked back, seeing Girey and his men, and four angry bears.
* * *
Chapter Four
A full week had passed since the barbeque. Brianna was gone, out fulfilling the duties of her sponsorship, including numerous press calls, leaving Dakota alone in the apartment. When she had first arrived in West Texas, she would have been delighted to have the space to herself, but Dakota no longer wanted the shadows. She wanted the sun. She wanted Eddie.
She hadn’t heard from him. It worried her. There were too many people in her life she cared about who fell off the radar. First her brother. Now Eddie.
Dakota picked up her burner phone, hoping it would ring though no one knew her number. The one person who understood what she was going through was her brother. He was on the run too, a needle falling through a very large haystack. They’d parted at the bus station back home, deciding it better not to say where they were going, not even to each other.
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