Just Shoot Me (Cowboy Way, #1) (16 page)

There wasn’t a darned thing dark or tortured
about this cowboy. He was all light and happiness. She was glad
she’d met him tonight. After her run-in with Dean today, she needed
some of that tonight. It was refreshing.

Lucky stood and grabbed her hand then pulled
her toward the group of dancers. Once they stepped outside of the
firelight, the temperature dropped a little since it was completely
dark now, and she shivered. He must’ve noticed. “You cold, honey?”
he asked.

“
A little.” He stopped and slid off
his blue jean jacket and helped her into it. The darned thing was
about three sizes too big, and she probably looked like she was a
little girl playing dress up, but at least it was warm. “Thank
you,” she said smiling up at him.

“
I’d put my hat on you too, but
that sends a message out here in the country. I’m not sure you’re
ready for that.”

“
Oh yeah? What kind of message?”
Tina had to ask, because she had no clue but was damned
curious.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her
close to kiss the top of her head. “That you’re my girl, and only I
get to kiss you tonight.” Tina wondered if she’d see the blonde
wearing Dean’s sexy black hat tonight, and her heart squeezed in
her chest. That wasn’t her business. If that happened, it would be
a good thing for him.

“
Um, let’s wait on the hat. The
night’s still young, and we’re still getting to know each other.
Thank you for the jacket though.”

He laughed, and put his arm around her
shoulders to walk her into the crowd. He lifted her and set her
back down on his feet, and Tina put her hands on his shoulders.
They made several circuits around the group, and Lucky, true to his
word, danced like she was dancing with him. Out here in the dark,
nobody could tell anyway. She hadn’t seen Dean or the blonde yet,
and dammit she’d been looking, even though she didn’t want to.
Lucky made another pass around the circle then she saw them
standing just outside the light of the fire kissing. Tina’s lips
twitched in remembrance of his hot kisses. The man knew how to
kiss.

“
That’s Cord’s brother isn’t it?”
Lucky asked and his dance steps slowed a little.

Tina hadn’t realized how hard she’d been
staring, or that the man she was dancing with would notice. He
seemed to know exactly who she had been staring at. “Yeah, that’s
Dean,” she replied dragging her eyes away to focus on
him.

“
Something going on between you
two?” he asked and his voice wasn’t light like it had been all
night.

Dean Dixon had kissed her twice now. Once just
a few hours ago out in a bluebonnet field that had to be the most
romantic place on earth. The man who had been doing the kissing
didn’t have an ounce of romance in him, but he appreciated the
beautiful setting. Tina couldn’t tell Lucky that though. “Um, no
there’s nothing there.”

“
Good,” he said and his voice
returned to normal as his steps picked up again. They danced a
little while longer then Tina decided she needed a drink. She
wasn’t a big beer fan, but that looked like her only choice if she
wanted something alcoholic and she definitely did.

“
Hey can we go get a beer?” she
asked.

Lucky danced them to the edge of the crowd.
Tina stepped off of his feet and he dropped an arm over her
shoulders. They walked over to the cooler, Lucky bent to take out
two beers then opened them and handed her one. Tina heard raised
voices, and at first thought it was the radio until her ears zeroed
in on the tone of one of those voices. It was Dean Dixon’s. The
other was a female voice. And they weren’t just yelling to hear
each other over the music. She walked toward the end of the fire
pit. When she rounded the corner she saw him arguing with a tall
redhead, who looked almost like a she-devil with the firelight
flickering over her angry face.

“
Cindy, you need to get the fuck
off this ranch. You lost the right to be here three years ago and
you lost the right to see your son.”

“
We never finalized the custody
agreement, or property settlement,” she said, throwing her chin up.
The other guy standing behind her tensed up, but he didn’t say a
word. Tina hoped he didn’t jump in, because she could see the rage
in Dean’s tortured face in the firelight too.

He looked mad enough to kill
someone.

“
There wasn’t anything to settle.
You fucking left me and you left your son. We didn’t have a pot to
piss in then, so there was nothing to settle.”

“
My attorney says differently. And
I want to see my son. I’m remarried now and Bobby wants his
son.”

A roar erupted from Dean, and his hands flew
up toward her throat. She jumped back and Dean’s hands flexed in
midair then he dropped them to his side. “I wanted a fucking son
too. Thought I had one. But you made sure you told me I didn’t have
one when you left didn’t you? But you sure didn’t mind leaving him
for me to raise!”

“
I couldn’t take him with me,” she
said in a whiny voice that went through Tina.

“
Because you fucking hit the road
with Bobby. That’s not an excuse, Cindy. That’s abandonment. No
court in the country would give you custody after you abandoned
your son for three years.”

“
We’ll see,” she said smugly. “My
attorney—“

Dean’s growl was feral. It was obvious the man
had just reached his breaking point. Cindy stopped talking. Dean
took an aggressive step forward, hesitated, then spun on his heel
and walked off into the darkness.

Cord came up behind Cindy. “You’re trespassing
here. Get the fuck off this ranch, and don’t come back,” he grated
cutting his eyes to the man with her.

“
My son—“

“
You don’t have a son. The kid
doesn’t even know you. Haven’t you hurt my brother and that kid
enough? Just leave and don’t come back, or you won’t like what
happens.”

She snorted. “Are you threatening me, pretty
boy?”

“
No, ma’am. I’m making a promise to
personally toss your ass off this ranch if you come back here and
cause problems. Now get your
husband
, and haul your ass out
of here, before I do it now.” Cindy folded her arms around herself,
and lifted an eyebrow.

She and Cord had a whole conversation without
saying a word, and she evidently figured out Dean’s brother was
dead serious. She looked at the man with her and said, “C’mon
Bobby—we’ll let my attorney handle this.”

“
You better break out your
checkbook bitch, because I have a lot more money than you do and
you’re not getting him without a fight,” Hope yelled loudly at her
back. Cord jerked her to his side.

A crowd had gathered, Tina suddenly noticed.
The music had stopped and not a soul was dancing. They had all
heard what had just happened. Dean had to be humiliated, on top of
being ripped to shreds by the woman who seemed determined to crush
him.

Tina needed to see if he was okay. She pushed
through the crowd to walk in the direction she had seen him going.
Total darkness surrounded her, and the temperature dropped twenty
degrees. She snuggled Lucky’s coat closer to her body, and squinted
trying to figure out where Dean had gone. She knew how fast he
walked when he was upset so she picked up her pace, almost jogging
toward the woods.

If she remembered right, they weren’t too far
from the lake and the bluebonnet field. That place seemed to hold
some significance for him. Not too far wasn’t close though. It had
to be at least a quarter mile or so from there. Through the woods.
In the dark. Fear of what was in those woods at night made her
heart kick up a notch, but she kept going.

She was really afraid what Dean might
do.

CHAPTER TEN

Tina stopped at the narrow, rutted dirt path
into the woods, and took a deep breath of the earthy, piney air
then let it out slowly, before she started walking. She’d only
thought it was dark in the field. The blackness once she stepped
into the trees was absolute. No moon could penetrate the thick
canopy. Dean came here because that’s probably how he felt inside
after that nasty woman ripped his soul right out of his body in
front of everyone at the party.

Even though he was stern with his son, not
warm and fuzzy with him, it was obvious to Tina he loved his son
completely. If he lost him, it would probably kill him. She
wouldn’t doubt he’d have ideas of killing himself, or someone else.
A man could only take so much before he snapped. The man at the
fire had been on the verge of snapping, if he hadn’t done
that.

Today he’d made it plain he didn’t want a
relationship with her, but Tina knew he needed a friend. He needed
one badly. She could be that friend, if he let her. He wouldn’t
talk to his family, but maybe he would talk to her if she could
find him.

“
Dean!” she yelled when she got a
little deeper in the woods. Tina hoped he answered, because she
wasn’t watching the woods, she was watching the path under her
feet, what she could see of it, to make sure she didn’t trip or
step on something. Like a snake.

She’d call out again every ten yards or so,
but there was no answer. At least the animals and bugs in the woods
had stopped their night calls when she yelled. For a few minutes at
least, she could forget they were out there. In the dark. Staring
at her. Watching her as she did something stupid like walk in the
woods to find a man who didn’t want to be found.

Tina walked a few more minutes then a loud
roar that sounded like a lion, cougar or bear, split the night. She
must’ve jumped fifteen feet off the ground. Her heart shot up to
her throat then dropped to quiver in her chest, and it didn’t beat
again. Her breathing was short and erratic, as she stopped in her
tracks to decide which way she should run. That roar came again,
but this time it sounded human, and she thought it sounded a lot
like a man yelling, “
NO
!”

Dean. Tina tried to watch the path, but her
feet took off running down the path. She ran until she had no
breath left. Suddenly the full moon penetrated the blackness and
the woods opened up to the clearing she remembered from their ride.
She stopped there and looked around at the breathtaking beauty of
the bluebonnet field and lake in the full moonlight. She scanned
the area and finally found Dean sitting by a tree, hugging his
knees and rocking like that was going to soothe him. Tina walked
that way, and stopped beside him. He didn’t look up, he just kept
rocking. She dropped to her knees beside him and put her arms
around his shoulders to hug him. “I’m sorry, I get it now. I think
everyone gets it.”

His voice was a raw whisper when he finally
said, “Just leave me alone.”

“
No, I’m not going to leave you
alone. You need a friend, and you just found one. All of us want to
help you.” There was no way in hell Tina was leaving him out here
like this.

“
Nobody can help me,” he said,
sounding so desolate Tina wanted to crawl inside his chest and hug
his heart which must be bleeding.

“
We can if you let us,” she said
softly, as she sat beside him.

There was silence for a long, long time, then
finally he said, “I’m going to lose my son.”

“
Not if you let us help you,” she
said again.

He turned his head toward her and when his
eyes met hers in the darkness, she had never seen a man look so
hurt, so hopeless. “I can’t afford to get an attorney to stop
her.”

“
Use the money you got from selling
the horses,” Tina suggested.

“
We’ll lose the ranch,” he replied
quickly. “I’m not letting my family lose what they’ve worked for
all their lives. My granddaddy left this ranch to my daddy. I’m not
risking losing it to fight someone I should never have married in
the first place for a child who isn’t mine.”

Finding out that Jeremy wasn’t Dean’s
biological son back there at the fire had been a shocker, but it
explained a lot. But he didn’t know that for sure and it didn’t
really matter. “He’s your son,” Tina said then his words came back
to her. “You provide for him, put food on his plate, clothes on his
back. And even though you don’t say it, it’s obvious that you love
him.” Tina put her hand on his shoulder. “He is as much your son as
a kid can be.” A thought hit Tina, and the question slipped past
her lips. “Why
did
you marry her?”

She couldn’t help but ask, because the woman
she’d seen at that fire was not nice. There was nothing soft about
her, and she just couldn’t imagine why Dean would even like her,
much less love her enough to marry the woman.

“
She was pregnant,” he said and his
words echoed through the woods, just like they echoed in her skull.
“I met her at the Cowboy. We had sex and she got pregnant.” His
shoulders stiffened then he added, “I did the right
thing.”

Tina’s heart flipped in her chest. Dean Dixon
was a man who lived up to his responsibilities. His ex-wife had
taken advantage of that fact, and had trapped him into marrying her
when she got into trouble. He was a good man. A man who loved his
son, even though he was stingy with the words. That’s why the
thought of losing Jeremy had him upset enough to be out here in the
woods screaming out his anger and frustration. He couldn’t just
give up without a fight. It just wasn’t right.