Looking For Trouble (26 page)

"Why does he want that? There's nothing
there," Jess said flatly.

"He has a forensic accountant friend in
Dallas, he wants to get to look them over and see what he thinks.
If we can find proof that Ray mismanaged your money, or embezzled
money, we have leverage to help get you out of the contract...and
have him arrested."

"I have to find the thumb drive, it's in a
fire safe box, and I think it's upstairs in one of the boxes I have
stored here."

"Let's go look for it, Wade gave me the
guy's email address, so I can send the files to him."

"Was Wade okay, Trav?" Jess asked him in a
teary voice.

"No, he's not okay, sis...and neither am I,
because you signed that contract behind our backs. What he's trying
to do is save your ass from two years of hell with Ray Turner, and
you basically slapped him in the face."

Anger surged up inside of Jess, because
although some of this was her fault, Wade wasn't innocent here
either. "Did he tell you that if he rides this weekend, he could
wind up paralyzed, Trav? Did he mention that?" she told him in an
escalating frantic voice.

Travis's face blanched and he said, "No he
didn't mention that...what's going on?"

"He has something wrong with his back, and
if he rides and gets hurt, he could be paralyzed for life.
That
is why I was so upset, and said what I did. If
something happens to him, where will that leave Angel and me
then?"

"Not in a good place for sure...I'm going to
call him back," Travis said and pulled out his phone.

"No don't!" Jess yelled, then held up a hand
and said, "You don't need to get in the middle of this, Trav...just
get him the files he wanted...and leave it be. Wade is gonna do
what Wade wants to do, no matter what we say about it."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Late Friday afternoon, before their show,
Jess was getting ready for the show upstairs in the room Jazzie and
Travis were sharing. She had to borrow clothes from Jazz, because
she hadn't brought anything with her from the bunkhouse.

Last night after the show, Travis, Jazzie
and Den had helped get her up the stairs, so she could sleep in the
room with Jazzie and Travis. But she hadn't done much sleeping,
mostly she'd lain awake all night worrying about Wade...and missing
him. She couldn't eat either, because her stomach was a vat of acid
from the out of control emotions she was battling with inside.

Jess had reapplied her makeup twice now,
because she couldn't control the damned waterworks that sprang up
out of the blue. Jazz just sat on the bed watching her and shaking
her head when they started again. Travis had gotten the hell out of
Dodge, smart man that he was. There was no telling what was going
to come out of her mouth next...she'd yelled at everyone at least
once today, so far, even Angel, she thought then the tears welled
up in her eyes again.

"Stop it!" Jazzie finally shouted and jumped
up off the bed. "This is ridiculous! You've got to go on stage in a
half hour and you're a fricking garden sprinkler!" She pulled out a
tissue from the box on the dresser and mopped up Jess's face with
it.

"I can't sing the new songs tonight...I'll
lose it," she told Jazzie, then added, with a sob, "And no
Aerosmith, either."

"Okay, we'll scratch those tonight,
then...any other ones?"

"The Bonnie Raitt stuff...I can't do that
either."

"The list of the ones you can do would
probably be shorter, huh?" Jazz snorted then picked up the
concealer and dotted it under Jess's eyes, then blended it in.

"We can do the regular set lists, I can do
those," she said as Jazz picked up the eyeliner, and put some on
her.

"You're going to have to get over this,
sugar," Jazz said gently, then dotted the corners of her eyes with
the tissue again, "And stop the damned leaking!"

"I'm trying..." she told Jazz in a watery
voice, then added, "I really am, but I'm an emotional wreck. I miss
Wade, and I'm worried about tomorrow."

"Let's worry about tomorrow, tomorrow, and
focus on tonight, so we can get through this show. I had Red get a
fill-in for tomorrow night. We're going to Dallas in the morning, I
rented a car."

"Oh, god, Jazz, we can't afford that!" she
wailed and the tears started again.

"Stop it!" Jazzie ordered her and yanked
another tissue out, and patted her cheeks. "I can afford it...I
have money saved up and we
need
to be there."

Jess leaned forward and pulled Jazzie into a
tight hug, with so much thankfulness inside, there was no way she
could express it. Her friend always had her back, and she didn't
know what she'd do without her...she hoped she never had to find
out.

"Thanks, sister," she told her in a wobbly
voice.

"Now suck it up, and let's go do our job,"
Jazzie told her in a stern voice, then retouched her makeup again,
and fixed her hair, then put her hat on her head and patted it
down. "Travis is watching Angel, so let's go warm up," she told her
then grabbed her arm to pull her up to her feet.

Jess looked down at the emerald green
bandage dress she had on with her white boots. At least she'd left
her hat and boots here, so she had that to wear, she would never
have fit in Jazzie's tiny shoes. It was bad enough, the dress just
barely covered her ass, because Jazz was so much shorter than she
was. Her boobs looked like they wanted to escape from the top of
the V neck dress, and she couldn't pull it up, because then her
butt would be showing. It was going to have to work though, because
she didn't have any other option.

Pasting on a stage smile, she followed
Jazzie out the door and to the top of the stairs then stopped then
said, "You're gonna have to get the crew, because I can't make it
down there without help."

"Be right back," Jazzie said then headed
down to get them.

Travis, Den and Tony came up the stairs a
second later, and between them and Jazzie, they managed to help her
down, then Travis kissed her cheek and told her to have a good
show, and went back up to take care of Angel. She managed to climb
the stairs to the stage, and they all got set up, then she grabbed
her acoustic and sat down on the stool. When she looked up her face
froze, because Ray was standing there with another guy at his side,
staring at her. He smiled smugly then walked up to the stage and
said, "Jess this is Mr. Zucker from the label, and he wanted to
come hear you play tonight. He wants to hear the new songs."

"I'm not singing them tonight," she told him
bluntly and felt tears sting her eyes again. Jazzie walked up to
her side, and put her hand on her back.

He raised an eyebrow, and then said in a
threatening tone, "Sure you are...we'll just be over there," he
told her with a heated glare, then pointed to a table at the edge
of the dance floor. "Wade gonna be here tonight?" he asked with a
calculated stare.

"No, he's not...he had things to do," she
told him and her voice wavered.

"Not legal matters, I hope," he said with a
laugh then finished nastily, "It would be a shame if he had to deal
with that right now, I'm sure." Jess caught the threat in what he
was saying, and nodded, then dragged her gaze to her guitar, and he
walked off with the other man.

Jazzie stepped in front of her and lifted
her chin with a finger, "You do not have to do this...don't let him
intimidate you."

"I haven't done all this for nothing,
Jess...I have to do them. I'll be okay," she said, but her
statement lacked conviction.

"Don't fall apart on me, Jess...we've gotta
be strong to beat that sonofabitch," Jazzie told her not seeming to
care that the mike was hot, and he'd probably just heard what she
said.

They played a few warm up songs for a sound
check, then turned to Jazz and said, "We play all three songs, one
after the other, as soon as the doors open, then we're done..."
Jess hesitated, because she never drank when she performed, it made
her vocal chords cold, but tonight was going to be the exception,
so she added, "And I need a beer
now
."

Jazz smiled at her then nodded and said with
a grin, "Now there's my best friend. There's more than one way to
skin a weasel...I'll tell the gang, and get that beer for
you...maybe I'll get us all one, and tell the bartender to keep 'em
coming. It's gonna be one of
those
nights."

"Sounds like a plan," Jess told her then
stood up and stretched, which caused the dress to raise up her
thighs, and she felt Ray's eyes on her from across the room.
Looking over there, he and the older guy with him almost had their
tongues hanging out. She smiled, then decided, yeah, maybe there
was more than one way to skin a weasel. Turning around she bent
over unnecessarily to plug the cord into her guitar, and felt a
rush of air under the hem of the dress.

She could have waited until she sat on the
stool to start to play, but why when she could use the opportunity
to torture Ray? He was never ever going to have his hands on her
again, and she wanted to remind him of it, and what he'd lost by
using and abusing her. Once she got a couple beers in her, she'd
probably find more opportunities to do the same. At least it would
make her feel better temporarily...like she had some control over
the situation, and over him.

Jazzie came back up on the stage with a tray
holding five beers, and Jess grabbed one of the longnecks and
swallowed down half of it, then sighed, and finished it. She
wobbled a little from holding her head back so long, but
straightened then set the empty down on the tray and smiled at
Jazz, and said "Thanks, sis." Grabbing another one, Jess took a few
sips, then Jazzie passed out the other ones.

Den didn't want one, so Jazzie took his and
clinked it to hers in a toast and said with a snort, "Bottoms up
sister, literally."

"You saw that?" Jess asked with a
chuckle.

"Everyone in the bar saw
it
," she
hooted then wrapped her full red lips around her bottle and took a
long drink of her beer, and sighed then added, "Nice thong,
purple?"

Jess threw her head back and laughed.
"Lavender," she corrected with a grin.

"Someone almost fell out of his
chair...maybe you
should
do the Bonnie Raitt stuff tonight,
Love Me Like a Man
would send him the message," she
suggested with a wink, then took another sip of her beer.

Jess did the same then smacked her lips and
said, "Good idea..." then pushed her beer toward Jazz and told her,
"Let's do Angel too." There was nothing to keep her from singing it
anymore...Wade was gone...not hers anymore. He was probably already
in Dallas getting ready to ride tomorrow. She'd be there to see him
ride, but she wasn't going to talk to him. He'd made his choice,
and it wasn't her and Angel. Fuck all men, Jess thought, then
downed the rest of the second beer.

The doors opened and the guy up front,
checked IDs and took money, then Red lowered the lights and turned
on the spotlight, and people crowded to the bar to get drinks,
before winding their way to tables. She raised her arm and the band
started playing 'Take My Breath Away' and she sang the words, but
didn't feel them. The front of the stage quickly filled up with
cowboys, all staring up at her, trying to catch her eye. She
scanned the row of men, but didn't really look at any of them,
while she sang the song she'd written for Wade, until her eyes
landed on Beau Bowman and he grinned at her.

While she played ,she slowly walked down
there and stood in front of him and grinned, then sang the rest of
the words to him. He was safe, and she could play it up, without
worrying about him taking it the wrong way...or at least she
thought she could. When she sang the last line and poured on the
sensuality, he wasn't smiling anymore, his face turned red, and she
saw his jaw working. Looking behind her she saw why...Jazzie had
moved to the front of the stage and was playing the fiddle to
another cowboy down the line, staring into his eyes smiling.

They played Living the Dream and the dance
floor got packed, then went right into Angel and My Baby Girl to
finish the three songs quickly. They played the regular set
through, after that, then she looked at Jazzie and winked, then
picked up her new beer and drank some down. The cold liquid courage
slid down her throat and she sighed.

"Love Me Like a Man, she mouthed to her,
then picked up her electric guitar and plugged it up. Walking back
down the stage to where Beau was standing, she tapped her headset
to turn on the mike, then started picking the tune, and poured all
the sensuality she had into singing the breathy song to him, with a
lot of hip action with her guitar. When she got to the part about
'dating a lot of losers' she dragged her eyes to Ray's across the
room, and his face puckered up, then she focused back on Beau to
sing the rest.

"We're gonna take a short break, and be back
in just a few. Ya'll dance a little bit," she told the crowd with a
wink. They whistled and applauded and she and Jazzie made their way
down from the stage, and Beau was standing there at the foot of the
steps.