Hot and Bothered

by Lori Foster

  The fear in her voice scared him—not for his life but for his heart. He refused to lose control because of some emotional vulnerability. “I won’t be a coward.”

  Shay’s eyes misted with tears, but she stood tall and planted her hands on her hips. “It’s not cowardly to be smart. It’s cowardly to hide from yourself and who you are and why you’re doing what you’re doing. You’re taking the biggest chance of your life for a man who doesn’t care about you and won’t care if you survive this. Gamblers are cowards—rolling the dice and letting Fate decide. They say it’s not their fault if they lose just like you’ll say it’s not your fault if you die. You are going to gamble out there and lose everything whether you live or die.”

  Her “everything” meant what they’d shared together. She was telling him something he wasn’t ready to hear. Shay was trying to control him by caring about him. Luke refused to let her, so he pushed her away where she knew she couldn’t push back. “OK, I’ll not ride tonight if you give up the investigation. Get in your car, drive back home, and sleep in your own safe bed tonight. Quit messing around with killers and bulls and crazy bullriders.”

  Shay was unnaturally still for a full minute, her gaze both tempted and regretful. Luke felt his heart twist painfully in his chest when she said, “I can’t do that. I have a job, a responsibility.”

  “And so do I.”

  Luke turned and walked away, over the rise where he’d parked his truck out of sight. She called to him at the top of the rise. Luke turned to see a tear burning a path down her cheek. He didn’t move.

  “What if I give you a better reason not to ride tonight?”

  “What’s the reason?”

  “I love you.”

  Even the summer breeze seemed to halt waiting for Luke’s answer. He could see she wasn’t breathing, and almost waited so she’d pass out and not see him walk away. But if he did that he wouldn’t be able to leave her lying there. He cared too much. Far too much. He’d already hurt her enough, and now because of him her perspective was skewed and she might be in more danger, from a killer. He had to end it now.

  “Get over it,” he said down to her as he disappeared over the ridge.

  CHAPTER 8

  “I want you to cancel the event,” Shay told Monty after she’d explained her theory on why Tim Auerbach was the best suspect for the sabotage.

  Monty shook his head as they walked toward the bull pens. “I can’t do it on suspicion alone, Shay. You’d see it, too, if you were talking from your head instead of your heart.”

  Shay stopped, facing Monty. “What do you mean?” “If you thought tonight’s victim were anyone but Luke Wilder, you would be talking me into a way to set a trap and catch the suspect instead of squelching the whole event. Look at it clearly, Shay. Whoever is behind this is desperate enough to be killing people and won’t stop just because one event is canceled. He’ll be back at it when we head to Houston next week and up in Oklahoma the next. We’ll put our heads together this week and figure out a strategy to catch him.

  “For tonight, we’ll put a deputy on Tim and one on the bull Luke draws. We’ll make sure Luke has fresh gear from our trailer, though knowing him, he won’t take it anyway.”

  Shay shook her head, not because Monty was refusing her—she’d expected he would—but because something seemed wrong and she couldn’t say what it was. Leaning her arms on the bars of the metal bull pen, she looked out over the bulls and tried to pinpoint the source of her disquiet.

  Was her emotional turmoil muddling her mind or was there a point she’d overlooked in the case?

  Monty patted her shoulder before walking back to his trailer. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  I already have, she wanted to say, I’ve fallen in love with a man who can’t love me back.

  After a few minutes, Joe Zappora joined Shay at the fence. “How’s the article going?”

  “It’s hit a snag,” Shay said morosely, watching across the pens as Luke sauntered into the contestants’ entrance, his gear bag thrown over his shoulder. Her heart fell as she saw he intended to ride. Some part of her must have held out hope he’d reconsider once he thought about what she’d said. But he’d said to hell with her love, he’d ride anyway. Luke threw a charming smile at the busty redheaded gate guard and stopped to ask a WBP official a question. The man shook his head and walked on.

  “Hey, that’s too bad it’s not going good,” Joe continued, unaware of her heartache. “Maybe you’re just tired of talking to us boring bullriders. Go find someone else to get another perspective on it, like the bullfighters, a bull breeder, or better yet one of the groupies who follow the tour.”

  Shay turned to Joe. “A groupie.”

  “Sure.” Joe shrugged. “They certainly see things others don’t, and we get so used to them around they get a lot more access behind the scenes than most folks.”

  “A groupie,” Shay repeated thoughtfully, her heartbeat accelerating.

  “There’s one now.” Joe pointed out a bleached blonde in jeans too tight and a shirt a size too small swiveling her hips over to where Luke stood, laying his gear out. “A’course she’s a little different because she’s a family member, too, though Tim doesn’t like to claim her.”

  “Tim?” It took all of Shay’s willpower not to go racing over and tell the bimbo to get away from her man. The woman ran her fingernails along Luke’s hairline. Luke grinned and shook his head. Now Shay wasn’t sure whether her sixth sense was warning her about the woman or it was just old-fashioned jealousy.

  “That’s Berry. She’s Tim Auerbach’s sister. Been hanging around the tour since the season started. She’s a hot property, but I wouldn’t get near her, and not only because Tim’s my friend. Just between you and me, I’ve noticed the guys she’s hung around with the past couple of weeks have been the ones ended up hurt.” Joe shrugged apologetically. “I guess I’m superstitious.”

  Or smart. “There’s nothing wrong with that. A bullrider ought to have a rabbits’ foot or two.”

  Sheepishly Joe reached into his pocket and flashed three rabbits’ feet, purple, pink, and green. “One for each round.”

  Shay laughed. “So you don’t need me to wish you luck.”

  “I’ll take whatever I get.”

  “You’ve got it then,” she said. She thanked him, then moved to follow Berry, who’d left Luke and was now headed back toward the front of the bull pens. Shay debated stopping at Monty’s trailer to tell him to ask the deputies to keep an eye on Berry as well but talked herself out of it. Monty would probably scoff at the thought of her suspecting a woman and likely accuse her of being jealous, which Shay hated to admit was probably true.

  Shay didn’t know exactly what she thought. But even if Berry only gave Shay some insight into her brother, she knew she ought to talk to her. Shay caught up with Berry as she stood flirting with a young, blushing bullrider named Chad at the main entrance. Chad nodded at Shay.

  “Berry?” Shay held out her hand. “I’m Shay McIntyre.”

  “I know who you are.” Berry looked down at Shay’s hand, ignored it, and resumed admiring the teenager’s belt buckle. His blush deepened.

  Shay dropped her hand. “I’d like to talk to you if you have a few minutes.”

  “Why?”

  “To get a different perspective on my article. Why you like to follow the tour—”

  “Because bullriders do it best.” She winked at Chad before turning back to Shay. “But then, you know that, don’t you? You drew at the top of the pen last night.”

  Narrowing her eyes, Shay wondered why Berry had noticed she and Luke had left the dance together. Was she envious? It didn’t feel like it; it felt like Berry was frustrated but not jealous. Shay tried to get a read on the woman, but Berry had so many angles and was using all at once; she was a cipher. Shay forced herself to stay rational.

  “So, can you spare a few minutes for me?”

  Berry gauged her for a moment with eyes that were surprisingl
y sharp with intelligence. “OK. There’s a bull pen around the back end of the arena, behind all those sponsorship signs. I’ll meet you there in five minutes and we can talk with some privacy.”

  Winking at Chad, Berry added: “I might have all sorts of secrets you boys won’t see ’til they’re in print.”

  Luke finally found Monty going over the list of bulls with his crew chiefs, responsible for the logistical nightmare of getting them from pens to chutes in the right order. “I’m not going to ride.”

  Monty looked up, stunned. “I don’t believe it. If anything would make me accept that the bullriders are being injected with mind-altering drugs, this is it.”

  “My mind is clearer than it’s ever been. Where’s Shay?”

  Monty shook his head. “You’re both crazy as March hares. You know she was just after me to cancel the event. Can you believe it? To hell with the investigation; she was only interested in saving your sorry hide. I should’ve fired her on the spot for losing her objectivity, but, hell, if she’s turned you into a real human being, maybe it was worth it after all.”

  Luke felt his heart swell. She’d been willing to jeopardize her job for him. A sudden sense of urgency pushed him to hurry. His eyes scanned the grounds, pausing at each female figure, moving on quickly. She wasn’t anywhere in sight. “So, where’s Shay?”

  Monty held his hands palms up. “I don’t know. She was going to look for Tim.”

  Luke felt his mind go into sharp focus. “Has he checked in yet?’

  “No, and you know that’s part of what doesn’t add up with this. Tim is always the last one on the grounds at every event. How is he getting all this done, if it’s really him?”

  “That’s bothered me, too. The only way I can figure it is he’s working with someone else.”

  “What a mess.” Monty shook his head. “We’ve got to get this cleared up before anyone else gets hurt.”

  “Listen; don’t announce my withdrawal until the last minute. Meantime, I’ll make a big show of setting my gear out and leaving it. Keep an eye on it while I go look for Shay.”

  Nodding, Monty stuck out his hand, and Luke took it. “I’m sorry I misjudged you, Luke. I always thought you were a helluva bullrider and not much of a man. You’re proving me wrong.”

  “You weren’t far wrong,” Luke said, thinking it took the love of a good woman to turn him into a man.

  “Good luck with Shay; you’re going to need more of it with her than in riding a bull. She’s an independent cuss. But maybe you can settle her down and get into the family business. Her daddy would like nothing more than to have another branch to his dynasty.”

  Luke felt himself go cold at the word. “Dynasty?”

  “You didn’t know? Mac McIntyre heads up the Reid Ranch, second in power only to the King Ranch. You may have fallen not only into love but into the clover, too, my boy.”

  Luke wandered away, the dread tightening like a vise around his chest. He’d escaped his own family hell only to fall in love with a woman attached to another one. Luke didn’t want to be a corporate anything—not of a computer empire, not of a ranching dynasty. As he ran his hands over his bullriding gear near the chutes, Luke knew—no matter what trouble she was in—he ought to run as far and as fast as he could away from Shay McIntyre.

  And never look back.

  CHAPTER 9

  Shay wasn’t sure where amid the labyrinth of empty pens to wait for Berry Auerbach. A single black Brangus bull she recognized as the infamous Hell on Hooves stood in the pen at the rear, so Shay chose the pen farthest from him and closest to the arena. The land sloped down from the arena fence and was completely covered with sponsorship boards, making the pens invisible to all but the top row of stands, which were empty. After a few minutes, she leaned against the metal bars and tried to peer at the action across the arena through a space in the boards. The rest of the stands were beginning to fill up with spectators. At the chutes, a bullrider was laying out his gear. Even at this distance, Shay knew Luke. The way he cocked his head to the right when he was concentrating, the way he tipped his Stetson back with his thumb.

  He was going to ride.

  She was going to solve this case.

  And they’d both go their separate ways, each carrying intact independence, free from compromise.

  And full of loneliness.

  “Nobody can see us over here; that’s for sure.”

  Startled, Shay turned to see Berry beside her. She wondered how a woman who looked so loud could move so quietly. Uneasy, Shay wanted the conversation over before it started. “It is certainly private. What secrets did you have to tell me?”

  “I think you’ve guessed some of them, or we wouldn’t be here. Why would a reporter want to talk to a rodeo groupie? No, you don’t care about my stories from the road. You want to know why I’m killing cowboys.”

  Shay gasped—at Berry’s audacity, at her own accurate instincts, and at how blatantly she disregarded them. If she’d respected her instinct that Berry was dangerous, she wouldn’t have planned to meet her in a place no one in the county could see.

  “You’re doing it for your brother?”

  “Not quite, but close. You do good research,” Berry said with genuine appreciation as she walked away. Shay watched her for a moment, before turning back around to look for a means of escape. “But you know smarts is a double-edged sword; that’s why you’re in this position now.”

  Shay felt a loop drop over her, tightening around her arms and torso. She spun around, falling to the ground and having the wind knocked out of her as another loop came up over her feet and tightened around her ankles. Helpless as a bulldogged calf, Shay watched as Berry dropped her last rope in the dirt and picked up her two loose ends and brought them to where she lay. Writhing, Shay fought, but Berry dragged her to the fence, gagged her, and tied her face-out. Before Berry got her legs secured, though, Shay kicked out and sent Berry flying. She landed in a heap in the mud.

  Berry looked at Shay with a glimmer of respect. “I think I’d really like you if you weren’t getting in the way. But I have a lesson to teach these bullriders, and it’s not over yet.”

  Berry rose and dusted off her jeans. She reached into her back pocket and withdrew a huge syringe. For a horrible moment, Shay thought Berry meant to inject her, but then she saw it was empty. That’s when she heard Hell on Hooves pawing and snorting in the neighboring pen. His mouth had begun to foam in drug-induced fury. Berry smiled.

  And Shay saw she wasn’t crazy; she was lucid as they come.

  Perhaps that was the thing that scared Shay the most.

  “You see, the most flashy, reckless cowboy who could stay on for eight seconds was going to win the finals last year. My baby brother Hugh wanted to be the one to do it, and now he’s half a man—can’t move anything but his mouth and might as well be dead. Now poor Tim, who was always careful, is being penalized and is having to feed two families. And still the daredevils are winning, even though they’re hurting and dying. I have to keep showing them and the WBP officials what’s wrong and what’s right. Until they figure that out, I can’t stop.”

  Berry laughed, humorlessly, walking toward the pen where the bull was becoming more overwrought. “It’s too easy for me—sleep with a cowboy, ruin his rigging. Compliment the sexual prowess of an official, inject a bull behind his back. I thought I had the perfect cover. And I still do. In this male chauvinist world, only a woman would think another woman capable of getting away with murder.”

  She opened the gate and leaped over the fence. “So I get rid of you, and I’m back in the business of making my point.”

  Shay was so angry she didn’t have room for fear. With adrenaline pumping, she struggled against the heavy roping twine that wouldn’t give, the bandanna that absorbed her screams. Berry turned around one last time. “If it makes you feel any better, hon, your lover will be joining you shortly. I’m trying something new, injecting the cowboy. Could be easiest of all.” She pulled a sma
ller syringe out from her cleavage along with a dead wasp, slipping both up her sleeve.

  Suddenly ice cold with the fear she wouldn’t allow for her own plight, Shay went still as she watched Berry round the corner, slapping Hell on Hooves as she departed. “Hey, that jugular injection works fast. I’ll have to remember that.”

  The bull heaved his tonnage against the metal, which shook with the impact. Keeping one eye on him as he knocked his way through the maze of gates, Shay craned her neck to see through the crack in the boards. Luke stood along with a half-dozen other bullriders at the chutes. He seemed to be talking to each one in turn, getting to Tim and gesturing frantically. She noticed Tim shaking his head sadly. Then she saw Berry approach the men who were smiling and giving her appreciative pats on the rump. Her eyes were focused on Luke, who was now talking to Chad. The teenage bullrider pointed toward where Shay was hidden. Berry was only an arm’s length away from Luke.

  Shay struggled against her bindings and screamed fruitlessly through the cotton in her mouth. She’d never felt so helpless in her life.

  Then the loudspeaker above Shay’s head vibrated to life. “We’ll be beginning our evening of the World Bullriding Pro Tour in fifteen minutes, so get in your seats and get ready to watch our bulls try to unseat the world’s top bullriders! We do have one announcement. Our leader after last night has withdrawn; Luke Wilder won’t be riding tonight. Sorry, folks.” Shay watched as Berry, glowering, changed direction and headed down the stairs, away from the chutes.

  Tears ran down Shay’s cheeks; she’d never felt so happy. Luke would be safe. He’d compromised. Did that mean he loved her, too?

  Hell on Hooves had reached Shay’s pen, crashing through the half-open gate. The rest of the metal fence shuddered and Shay tried to topple it by pushing against the ground with her feet, but although it swayed, it didn’t fall. The delirious bull focused on the red bandanna wrapped around her face and lowered his head, hooves digging into the muddy ground. He slipped just as his horn gave a bruising brush to her ribs, crashing full force into the fence instead of her torso. With an angry snort, he backed up and aimed again, just as Luke came leaping over the sponsor boards from the arena.