He moved against her, and she was up against the wall again, with his legs between hers and their lips still locked together as he ravaged her mouth.
Heat flooded her body as his hands moved over her, skimming her breasts, sliding down her slim waist, settling on her hips. She was dizzy with desire.
My God, Betsy thought, this is what it’s supposed to feel like.
Slowly, reluctantly, he pulled away and stepped back. He was breathing hard and his hair was rumpled.
“So,” he breathed. “Have I earned my information?”
“More than earned it. All right, grab a seat,” Betsy said, sinking into the chair in front of the microfilm machine. She didn’t think her knees could hold her up much longer. He pulled up a chair next to her, and stared at her, bemused.
“What?” she said nervously.
“You look like such a nice girl.” She rolled her eyes. Story of her life. She didn’t want to look like a nice girl; she wanted to look like Cheyenne, a dangerous, bad to the bone tramp, but no, she looked like the girl who should be standing behind the counter at the library saying “shhhh.”
“Tell me what you know,” she said.
“All right. A few months ago, our father died – shot to death when he tried to hold up a liquor store, of all things. Apparently he was getting desperate; His health was getting bad and he hadn’t pulled a successful con in years.” Jason’s face darkened. “Josephine hardly makes any money, and she had just finished paying off her student loans for the EMT school and she’d worked all these extra shifts and scrimped and saved to set aside some money from nursing school, when our father died. And she spent all her savings to give him a nice headstone and a decent funeral, which believe me, he didn’t deserve.”
“I’m sorry,” Betsy said softly, and felt guilty for how much she’d been complaining lately about her own family and her life. She’d taken it for granted that her parents would pay for journalism school, that she’d always have a job and a home in Crooked Creek. Not everyone had that luxury
“You reap what you sow,” Jason shrugged.
“Yeah, but didn’t you…I guess, the rumor is that you kind of followed in your dad’s footsteps,” Betsy said cautiously.
“Is that the rumor? Maybe I’ll tell you what really happened, someday. When I know you better.” Betsy felt her breath catch in the throat at that. Did he really mean that?
But he plunged onward. “When our father died, Josephine and I went through his storage shed. We found an old wooden trunk, I mean really old.”
“Do you have it with you?” Betsy interrupted.
“I do. It has old clothes, old books, newspapers, magazines, wanted posters, an antique pistol and bullets, all kinds of cool stuff, an old bible, boots…and an old leather-bound journal of his. When I started flipping through the journal, I found an account of what happened to him, in his last days. It was addressed to his wife, Rose. And he said that he had included a map so she could find where he left the gold, but there was no map in the journal or anywhere in the trunk.”
“So what, specifically, did he say in the account?”
“Some of it was him apologizing to his wife for what a scoundrel he’d been, as he put it. Thanking her for standing by him, and telling her that he knew that he was going to die, but that he’d finally made good, and he’d found enough gold to make her a very wealthy woman, and she and their son would never be hungry again.”
“Did he say where he originally found the gold?”
“He said in the journal that they found a rich vein of gold in a stream about 30 miles due northeast. He was about five miles away from town when he was attacked by Native Americans. And he said something in the journal about how he headed to the caverns where he’d hidden from his father’s rage in his youth, and hidden it in the left horn. If it’s in a cave somewhere in the area, I have no problem searching for it, but I’d need to know where to begin. I did some research, and apparently there’s hundreds of cave systems around here.”
“True, but that bit about the left horn…that rings a bell.”
“I searched for that on the internet and in the newspaper library here. Didn’t find anything.”
Betsy stared into the distance, making mental calculations. “Now that you’ve told me approximately which direction he was travelling and how close he was to town, that helps considerably. There’s one big cave system in that area, much of it underground. I know someone in town that I can trust; her family helped found the town and she knows every little bit of Crooked Creek history.”
“And you don’t think she’ll talk?”
“I know she won’t. I’m going to tell you my cell phone number. Call me tomorrow afternoon at noon and I’ll make sure that I’m in a place where the call isn’t overheard.”
“I don’t know about this…” Jason shook his head.
Betsy couldn’t hide a look of hurt.
He reached down and brushed her cheek with his thumb. “It’s not that I don’t want to see you again. I really don’t want to see you get hurt.”
She leaned back and put her hands on her hips, stubbornly.
“You need my help. I’m not sending you into the caves by yourself; have you ever gone spelunking?”
He looked amused. “No, but it sounds dirty. Would I do it by myself, or with a partner? I don’t know about you, but I definitely prefer to have a partner.”
Betsy smacked his arm. “Spelunking is the fine art of exploring caves. It can be very dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. And you’re not going to be much help to your sister if you get lost in a cave and die of starvation.”
“Fine.” He held his hands up in surrender. “You win, Betsy Finkelstein.”
She recited her cell phone number, and he repeated it back to her. Then they left and she locked the door behind her, and he walked her to car and stood there until he made sure she was safely inside. She drove away feeling warm and tingly and giddy with excitement. Being bad felt so good!
She was already mentally rehearsing the lie she’d tell her family about why she was out so late. It didn’t matter that she had her own place; they still treated her like a grade-schooler with a My Little Pony collection.
Which she had given to one of her nieces several years ago, thank you very much.
Chapter Nine
“You had sex with the bounty hottie, didn’t you?” Cheyenne asked, staring at Josephine appraisingly as she tied her apron on the next day.
It had been Cheyenne’s night off the previous evening, after Josephine had let Cooper give her so many orgasms that she could barely walk, and then she’d staggered into work, and then he’d walked her back to their room where he kept her up most of the night.
But now Cheyenne was back at work and Josephine couldn’t hide the smudges under her eyes or the deep feeling of satiation that oozed from every pore.
“Shhhh!” Josephine looked around furtively. Cheyenne and Betsy looked at each other and laughed.
“She doesn’t know Crooked Creek very well, does she? It’ll be all over town.”
“How could you even tell?” Josephine muttered irritably.
“I’m an expert in all matters sexual. Pre-sex, post-sex, definitely going to have sex, not getting any sex…it’s my hobby.”
Betsy nodded. “It’s true. She’s the sexpert, all right.”
They both turned to her. “So, was he awesome?” Betsy demanded.
“Of course he was. Look at her face,” Cheyenne said. “She has that satisfied post-coital glow to her.”
“Ladies! Please! There are customers waiting! Am I the only one here with a work ethic?” Josephine fled, cheeks flaming with embarrassment.
Her head was in a whirl over what had happened the day before with Cooper. What was going to happen between them once Jason showed up? How long would Cooper stay in town looking for Jason, anyway? What did Cooper want from her? For that matter, what did she want from him? If only she had met him under any other
circumstances but these…She found him more attractive than any man she’d ever seen, and she liked everything about him – except for the fact that he was trying to arrest her brother.
But if they’d met under any other circumstances, would he have wanted anything to do with her? Josephine knew that her body type wasn’t what was considered attractive by mainstream media. She’d never be slim. She’d always be a big girl with a pooch on her belly and thighs that brushed together when she walked.
And she knew that men loved arm candy. Men judged each other by their partners, and she’d never be the one to turn heads when she walked in a room. Was Cooper different than most men?
Or was he just using her, hoping that she’d slip up somehow and lead her to her brother?
Enough. She could dwell on this all day or she could get back to work.
A handsome Hispanic man was sitting at a table in her section, looking over his menu.
He looked up and favored her with a dazzling smile full of perfect white teeth. He wasn’t really her type, with his perfectly waxed eyebrows and wavy hair gelled into place, but he was undeniably movie-star goodlooking.
“I’m just visiting,” he said. “What do you recommend as far as local sights?”
“Oh, I’m from out of town myself. I can ask the manager, if you like.”
“Really? Have you moved here now, or are you just here for the summer?” He had an easy charm about him. If she wasn’t having a weird undefined relationship with the man who was trying to ruin her brother’s life, she’d definitely be flirting right back.
“I’m probably only here for a few weeks.”
“Well, if you find yourself needing any company after work-“
“Thanks, I- I’m kind of seeing someone. I think,” Josephine said, startled.
“You think?” His smile broadened. “My name is Manuel. I’m staying at the Big Timber Lodge. If you’re dating a man who isn’t man enough to lay claim to his woman, he doesn’t deserve to keep her. Stop by and leave me your number if you’d like to see the sights together.”
After she took his order, Betsy sidled up to her. “I’ve made some good progress with my research. I need at a few more days, though. I might have a handle on where the treasure is.”
“My god, that was fast!” Josephine said with admiration.
“Well, I am a genius,” Betsy shrugged.
“Do you have any idea where my brother might be? Or whether he’s found the treasure yet?”
Betsy appeared to be thinking about what to say next. “I don’t know where your brother is staying,” she said carefully. “But I talked to my aunt, who’s the newspaper’s historian. She said that two people showed up at the newspaper museum asking about Lucky Levi. One sounded a lot like your brother; the other was a man who looked like he’d been beaten up and was wearing sunglasses to hide it.”
“What?” Josephine shook her head, astonished. “Damn it. I so wish I could talk to Cooper about this.” She told Betsy about her house being broken in to, back home in Bitter Valley, and how whoever had broken in was clearly looking for something; they’d tossed the house and hadn’t stolen a thing.
“The treasure map,” Betsy said, face creased in worry. “Somebody else must know about the treasure map.”
“Again, this makes no sense. I’m telling you, my brother wouldn’t have told anybody about it. Man, I wish I could talk to him right now.”
“Me too,” Betsy said fervently.
At Josephine’s puzzled glance, she added “Because he could totally help us solve this mystery.”
“Of course,” Josephine said skeptically. Betsy was acting more than a little strange today. “All right. What’s our next move?”
Betsy looked at Cooper standing across the room, watching them through narrowed eyes, and turned back to Josephine. “I’m probably going to need you to keep Cooper distracted while I do some searching. It’s easier for me to travel to the spots where the treasure might be hidden then it would be for you, because I grew up here. I know every rock and tree in this county.”
“Keep him distracted?”
“Tomorrow. I have the day off from here and from the newspaper. You don’t have to work until dinner shift, so I’ve got the day free, and I don’t want anyone following me. I’ve got an idea of how to keep Deputy Mancini off my trail, and you’re going to have to take care of Cooper. So you’ll probably have to have sex with him. Take one for the team, you know?”
“Uh-“
“And make it last at least a couple hours. I don’t want to have to rush.” Betsy said, completely serious, and hurried off to her section of tables.
During a break, Josephine stopped by the bar to talk to Cheyenne.
“Okay, you’re the sexpert. Let’s say, theoretically, I had an incredible night of wall-banging sex with the bounty hunter jerk who’s trying to arrest my brother.”
“Which you did, of course. There’s no theoretically about it.”
“Am I a total traitor? Should I keep having sex with Cooper? What the heck am I doing?”
“The answers are not at all, hell yeah, and I have no idea. But I’d love to know. Did it by any chance involve restraints, or toys? I could give you some tips. My husband particularly likes-“
“Cheyenne!” Betsy was walking by them. “Seriously. Doesn’t Dylan care that you tell everyone what you guys do?”
“He’s actually quite proud of himself. I think he tells more people than me.”
“You guys are the most nauseating lovebirds ever.”
“And you are the queen empress of the prudes.”
To Cheyenne’s surprise, Betsy flashed her a knowing smirk, and turned and flounced away.
Now what the heck was that all about? Cheyenne wondered. Had Betsy finally gotten some? Not possible. There was no way she’d be able to keep that a secret. And besides, this was Betsy locked-at-the-knees Finkelstein.
She turned away, laughing at her temporary foolishness.
Outside the restaurant, Cooper grimaced as his cell phone rang, hoping it wasn’t Trent Sanchez again. He had made no real progress, and he felt badly every time he answered a call from the increasingly stressed out parole officer.
“Hello?”
It was his boss, Benny Beningo. He ran the bail bonds company that Cooper had worked for for the past several years.
“Hey, Cooper. Any progress?”
“I’m still working on it. Like I said, I’m sure he’s somewhere in the area. I suspect he’s in contact with his sister, but I don’t have any proof yet.”
“What about the police contact that you made up there?”
“He’s put the word out with the sheriff’s office to keep an eye out for him, but nothing’s turned up yet. I asked my contact to talk with the forest service. This time of year, there’s a high risk of forest fires from lightning strikes, so they have pilots who are doing fly-overs. I asked him to have them report back on anyone who might be camping out in the woods near town. Then he can have the forest service check on their camps to verify their identity.”
“Good idea. Any idea why he’s there? You’d think that if he wanted to disappear, he’d pick a big city. Strangers stand out a lot more in a small town.”
“I don’t know yet, but I’m going to make it my mission to find out.”
In the background, he heard the shrieks of squabbling children.
“My teddy bear!”
“No! Mine! He doesn’t like you!”
He laughed. “Working from home today?”
“Yeah, Maddie is at some fundraising thing at the school. All right, keep me posted.”
Cooper hung up, feeling a dull twinge in his chest.
Would that ever be him? He hadn’t had the greatest track record with women. For years, he’d been dedicated to the chase, putting it ahead of relationships. What woman would want to be with him when he was married to the job?
The last time he thought he was getting close to a woman, he’d come home early a
fter catching a fugitive faster than expected…to find her in bed with someone she’d picked up at a local bar.
And he couldn’t even blame her. When he was on the chase, it was all he thought about, day and night. Nothing distracted him.
Well, that had been true until he’d met Josephine, who was turning out to be his Achilles heel.
With a sigh, he shoved his cell phone back in his pocket and headed back to the Dry Gulch Saloon. He knew that they were understaffed and Josephine was stuck there throughout the dinner rush, so she wasn’t going anywhere for the evening, which meant he didn’t have to stick to her side while she was at work. However, he still liked to stop in and check on her periodically.
It was all professional, of course. It had nothing to do with the fact that he loved to watch the slide of her thick, glossy hair when she turned her head, or the way her face lit up when she smiled…
He narrowed his eyes.
Why was she smiling at the handsome customer with the black curly hair, who was obviously flirting with her? Why was she leaning over the table to point out items on the menu? When she did that, Cooper had a perfect view of her full, lush cleavage…and so did the customer.
There was something off about the guy – something that set off all of Cooper’s warning bells. And Cooper’s instincts were never wrong…or were they?
The guy was obviously hitting on Josephine, but was there more to it than that, or was Cooper just being jealous?
He shook his head in frustration. There was something about Josephine that scrambled his brain circuits and suddenly made him unsure of what he was doing. He shouldn’t have let his flirting go so far…he should never have ended up in bed with Josephine when their relationship was destined for an angry flameout as soon as he located her brother.
And maybe he shouldn’t even be following her around all day long. Was that really the best tactic for finding her brother? Did he, subconsciously, have other reasons for wanting to spend all of his free time with her?
He muscled his way through the crowd. There was definitely something off about this guy, and it was his duty as a good citizen to rescue Josephine from him.
Curvy Girls: The Big Girl and the Bounty Hunter Page 7
