Looking For Trouble (21 page)

Jess turned toward the band and grinned,
"Let's get this show on the road, guys..." then picked up her
acoustic and plugged it in, and lifted her new hat to put the strap
over her shoulder. Walking to the mike, she introduced the band,
and then herself, before they kicked off their regular set. Jess
felt good up there, the dance floor was full, and Jazzie and the
gang were feeling their oats and playing their hearts out for the
crowd, and they loved it. People, mostly good looking cowboys,
lined the stage, and whooped and hollered after every song. Wade
was one of them, and he was the only one she had eyes for.

She took a short break after the final song
of the first set, then hollered back to Jazzie with a smile, "Let's
do Take My Breath Away, as a final for the set." Jazz nodded then
told the others, and Jess grabbed her guitar and sat on the stool,
then spoke into the mike, "Okay guys, this is a new one I wrote,
and we're playing it for the first time tonight...grab your
sweetheart and snuggle up...let me know what you think!"

She grabbed Wade's eyes with hers, and sang
it with so much feeling, that her eyes teared up. Although the bar
was packed, it felt like they were the only two people in there
again. There was a pause at the end and she held it, oddly enough
the bar was quiet, then she sang the last line a capella, "And
every time you touch me...you take my breath away."

The stone cold silence remained after her
voice faded and Jess got worried. She noticed people had stopped
dancing, and were just standing there staring up at them, then
someone in the back of the crowd started clapping, and before long,
the bar was filled with uproarious applause and shouts. Several
people walked to the stage and were yelling up, wanting to know
where they could buy a CD.

Grinning from ear to ear, Jess slid off the
stool, and took a bow, then turned and waved her arm to the band,
who she saw were also clapping wildly, then she looked at Wade and
he winked at her, then grinned too. Exhilaration and adrenaline
flowed through her, and Jess walked to the edge of the stage to
stand in front of Wade. "Wanna help a cowgirl, down?" she asked him
with a bright smile.

She felt heat scorch her skin, as his eyes
ran up the length of her legs, up her body, then met her eyes. "You
don't have to ask me
that
twice, darlin'," he said then ran
up the steps, and picked her up, before he carried her down to the
dance floor. "Can I buy the most beautiful cowgirl in the bar a
beer?" he asked with a gentle kiss on her lips.

"Whatever your sellin' honey, I'm buyin',"
she drawled then chuckled.

"Ya'll were phenomenal, Jess...if that guy
from the record label doesn't think so, he needs to turn up his
hearing aid," Wade told her with a sexy grin, which made that
damned dimple pop out, and in turn made her want to rip his clothes
off right there and have her way with him.

Heady emotion clogged her throat, as she
looked up into his warm gaze, and she said, "I love you, Wade
Roberts...sometimes I think you're too good to be true," then
leaned up to kiss him.

Wade bought her that beer, and he even took
her for a spin around the dance floor to the canned music in
between sets...standing on his boots. It was hilarious, but it
worked. They played one new song at the end of each set, and they
seemed to be a big success with the crowd. The show was almost over
now, but the crowd was just as big as it had been when they opened
the doors, people weren't leaving. They had one song left, Angel
and My Baby Girl, and she couldn't wait to sing it to close out the
show.

"Okay ya'll, this is our last song tonight,
and it's another one brand new one. I'm going to play it
acoustically, so let me know what you think." The other members of
the band put down their instruments, then filed down the stairs to
stand in the crowd and watch too.

Jess sat down on the stool and caught Wade's
eyes, and started strumming her guitar...the look in his eyes
caused a lump to form in her throat, and she had to turn her head
to the side and cough to clear it, before she could sing. Leaning
back to the mike she inhaled a deep breath, then put everything she
had into the song, infused it with feeling. The crowd was quiet,
almost mesmerized, as she sang the ballad. Slowing down the
strumming when she got to the last line, she crooned, "And all I
need from this world...is my Angel and baby girl."

She patted her guitar, then lifted her face
to the crowd and smiled, as they stomped and clapped their
approval, the noise was almost deafening. "Thanks for coming out
tonight to see us and ya'll come back, we'll be here for a while,
until I lose the concrete shoe," she joked and lifted her cast to
the light, and the laughter floated up to her on the stage.

Evidently, one of the gang turned on the
canned music, and the crowd groaned, and quite a few couples headed
for the door, but others the dance floor. She sat there and closed
her eyes for a minute, just breathing and trying to get control of
the rampaging emotions flooding her system. This was why she
performed, this feeling...there was nothing else in the world like
it...well, one other thing, but she couldn't go there right now,
they were in public.

She heard someone clapping at the base of
the stage and she opened her eyes and looked down with a smile,
thinking it was probably Wade coming to help her down off the
stage. It wasn't, and her face paled and sickness churned in her
stomach, as she locked eyes with the last person she ever wanted to
see again, Ray Turner.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she
asked nastily then felt the blood leave her face, as she shot to
her feet.

"Is that any way to greet your fiancé,
darlin?" he snorted then tipped the hat back on his head to pin her
with his almost colorless blue eyes. Snake eyes, she'd always
thought they looked like, and they fit his personality perfectly.
It looked like he'd cut the surfer boy hair he had, and he was
dressed western, instead of in a polo and board shorts. That was
probably why she hadn't noticed the asshole earlier.

"I'm
not
your fiancé, Ray, I never
have been. I just let you tell people that, because it explained
why we were living together. And I told you to leave me the hell
alone when I kicked you out, so why are you here?" She saw Jazzie
over at the side of the stage, and her face was pale too.

"Well, I'm here, because my employers asked
me to be here...I told them I knew you personally, and they sent me
to hear you sing," he told her smugly then added, "You're still as
beautiful as always, and just as talented. I think I'll recommend
they sign you, if you're
real
nice to me," he said
suggestively with a wink.

She put her hands on her hips and squealed,
"You stole
my
songs, asshole, you stole
my
money, and
you think I'd be interested in working with you, or anyone
associated with you? You're out of your mind!" Jess didn't realize
her voice was being picked up by the mike right beside her, and was
being broadcast to the people left in the bar, until she looked up
and they were all staring at them. She picked up the mike stand and
moved it to the back of the stage, then stomped back to the edge to
glare down at Ray.

"I was out of my mind to let you go, that's
for sure. C'mon Jess, be reasonable," he pleaded in the whiny voice
that got under her skin, then added, "I still love you, you
know...we were good together, we could be again."

The sickness in her stomach got so bad
hearing his words, she felt like she might hurl right there. "You
just want a meal ticket, Ray...you and my dad always did. Well, let
me tell you, I don't give a fuck if you starve to death, because
that isn't happening! This gravy train dried up when I kicked your
sorry ass out."

Wade stepped up right then and got in Ray's
face, and grated, "Damn right that isn't happening, asshole, she's
my
fiancé, and you need to get the hell out of here, or I'm
going to get mileage out of your ass for what you did to her."

Ray leaned forward and put his nose to
Wade's then spat, "I didn't do shit to her, except work my ass off
to make her what she is..." then he put his finger in Wade's
shoulder and finished, "She owes me."

Jess sucked in a sharp breath when Wade
knocked Ray's hand away, then took a step back, and balled up his
fist, cocked it and hit Ray right in the mouth. Ray reeled
backward, holding his mouth, and landed on his ass. Before she
could blink, Wade was on top of him, beating the ever living shit
out of him. She screamed for Denver and her brother, then went to
the stairs, and wobbled down them.

By the time she pushed through the crowd to
find Wade, he was standing up beside a deputy, who had his arm, and
was trying to lead him to the back exit. His lip was bloody, and
his shirt was torn at the shoulder. Another deputy had Ray's arm,
but he was bent over spitting blood and moaning.

With a wail, she tried to run after Wade,
but tripped and wound up on her hands and knees on the dance floor,
with a crowd surrounding her. A guy stepped forward and took her
arm to help her up, once she got up, she stiffened her shoulders,
then walked toward the exit. The night that had been so perfect,
until now, had quickly turned into a nightmare, and she was afraid
it was only going to get worse.

Jazzie ran up to her at the door, and put
her arm around Jess's shoulders, then said, "I'm coming with
you...that sonofabitch isn't going to win this time."

Then Travis stepped up to her other side and
took her arm and told her fiercely, "Damn right he's not," then he
held the door open for them to go through.

***

Wade was pissed at himself for letting that
moron goad him into kicking his ass. But once he was committed to
it, he gave it all he had. Now, the asshole was on his way to the
hospital in Henrietta, and Wade was being locked up for assault and
disorderly conduct. His one phone call was going to be to Cole, but
somehow he didn't think the Sheriff would have much mercy on
him...he didn't deserve it, because he'd been so stupid.

So, here he sat, cooling his heels in a
holding pen with his hands handcuffed behind him, waiting for them
to get that asshole into the ambulance, so they could book him.
Wade had been arrested before, so he knew the ropes, but not in a
damned long time. He wasn't a kid anymore, so fighting wasn't
something he took lightly anymore...and he wasn't nearly as
hotheaded as he used to be. What that smarmy bastard had said to
Jess though, had almost made the top of his head pop off, he was so
damned mad. It had consumed him to the point he couldn't even think
straight.

He looked up when the door opened and a
deputy walked in and grabbed his arm to help him up. Wade saw blood
on the man's uniform, and knew it was Ray's and he swallowed,
hoping he hadn't hurt him too bad. He sure didn't need to wind up
in prison over something so stupid, his baby girl needed him, and
Jess needed him...he had to be around to take care of them.

What a dumb fuck he'd been tonight, he
thought for the thousandth time and shook his head. His stupidity
had put everyone he cared about in a bad situation. The deputy led
him out into the waiting room, then walked him toward another door,
and he went along with his head down, until he heard a gasp and a
whimper behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Jess shove
out a plastic chair then hobble toward him with tears in her
beautiful green eyes.

"Get the keys to my truck from the other
deputy, and go home," he told her in a choked voice. "You don't
need to be here...go get Angel."

"I called Cassie and she said the babies
were sleeping, and to just leave Angel, until tomorrow. I'm not
leaving you," she told him in a trembling voice, then her eyes
moved over him and she asked, "Are you okay, baby ?"

The deputy had stopped to let him talk to
her, but he tugged on his arm again now, and Wade stumbled then
walked away, saying over his shoulder, "I'm fine, Jess...just go
home."

When they got into the other room, the
deputy shut the door, then shoved him behind the counter and pulled
off his hat then stood him in front of a blue screen to take a mug
shot, then uncuffed him and took his fingerprints. He gave Wade a
wet wipe and he tried to get the sticky ink off, but it wasn't
coming off. With a frustrated sigh, he threw it in the garbage,
then turned around, so the man could put the cuffs back on him.

This time, he didn't put him in a holding
cell, he took him to a barred door and put his key in then opened
it and led him down a long hallway to a cell, then opened it and
shoved him inside. "Turn around and I'll take the cuffs off," the
deputy said gruffly. Wade turned and then rubbed his wrists, as the
deputy closed the door, then walked back down the hall.

With nothing else to do, but sit and stew,
Wade walked over to the narrow cot and sat down with his back
against the wall.

***

When Cole walked through the front door of
the station a couple of hours later, Jess launched herself at him
and wailed, "You've got to help him, Cole...Ray made him do it. He
shouldn't have been there, and he knew it!"

"He was there, because his employer sent him
there, Jess," Cole told her then shoved a hand through his hair,
"I'm sorry, but Wade was out of line."