Looking For Trouble (29 page)

He felt blood rush to his face and he smiled
tightly then said, "Thanks, darlin'...let's get the hell out of
here," then he turned and gathered up his stuff, and put his arm
around her waist and walked her out. Jazzie and Beau were waiting
for them by the back door, because Beau had parked his truck in the
family parking lot, which doubled as the rider lot too. Angel cooed
when he walked up, and he dropped his gear and took her in his
arms, snuggling her to him and kissing her hair.

Happiness and love for the tiny bundle in
his arms flowed through him, and like it always did, his heart
pinched. He held her above his head and wiggled her a little, and
she giggled for him, then laughed. "Did you see daddy ride that big
ole' horse, darlin'?"

Her eyebrows lifted then she made sounds
like she was holding a conversation with him, and he should
understand what she was saying, and it tickled him so much he belly
laughed, then cradled her in his arms. He handed her to Jess, then
picked up his stuff and asked them, "Ya'll up for some steak
tonight to celebrate? I'm starving..." he said then grinned when
his stomach growled and seconded the statement.

"Nice rides, Wade," Beau told him and stuck
his hand out to him. Wade looked at it a second, then shoved back
the jealousy that had been plaguing him where his friend was
concerned, and took his hand pumping it.

"Thanks, man...good horses," he said
humbly.

"Good riding too," Beau corrected him.
"Horse is only half of the equation...you marked them just right
out of the chute, and owned them the rest of the ride."

Wade shrugged then grinned. "Sixteen years
of practice," he told him.

Cam Jessup walked past them carrying his
gear and shot Wade a heated look, but didn't say anything as he
walked by. Wade tipped his chin and said, "Looks like he lost some
of that piss and vinegar he had earlier."

"You kicked his ass, that's why," Beau told
him with a chuckle. "Was he running his mouth?"

"You have no idea," Wade told him with a
shake of his head, then said, "Let's go eat, so we can get back to
watch Karlie and Katie ride...we have a couple of hours
probably."

He saw Jess's lips pinch at the mention of
Katie's name, and he groaned. After they rode, he'd introduce them,
so she could see there was nothing between him and Katie. "You'll
like the team roping...it's pretty exciting, and Katie and Karlie
are the best."

Jess snorted, then asked sarcastically.
"Really? I didn't even know they rode in the rodeo."

"They were the number one female team ropers
in the country, before Karlie retired and went to work for Cassie
and Luke, then married Gabe. This is the first time they've been
back together since then. Katie's been roping with another partner,
but they're in third or something in the circuit."

"Yeah, I'd like to see that," Jess said,
with curiosity in her tone, but not a whole lot of enthusiasm.

"I'll have to tell ya'll a funny story about
Karlie when she first came to Bowie...how she and Gabe met," Wade
said with a chuckle. "Let's go," he said again then walked past
them and held the door open.

They had dinner at a steakhouse close to the
arena, and relaxed with a couple of beers, and a lot of
conversation. Wade watched Jazzie and Beau Bowman throughout
dinner, and it was a rare time that his eyes wandered from the
beautiful Latina fiddler, but she was oblivious to it, or was
making him think she was.

Wade was sharing a bowl of bread pudding
with Jess when his cell phone rang in his pocket. Pulling it out,
he saw it was Travis and stood up from the table and excused
himself to talk. He answered it as he walked up front, then sat
down on a bench in the waiting area.

"Hey, Trav...what's up?" he asked.

"Have you talked to that accountant you had
me send Jess's files to?" Travis asked with seriousness in his
tone.

"No, I just got done riding, should I have?"
Wade asked then looked at his phone and saw he had eight missed
calls from Doug, the accountant.

"Well, he's been trying to get you all day,
on a weekend, so yeah. He found a hidden file in that stuff I sent
him, and it's password protected, he can't get in and wondered if
you could ask Jess if she knew what it could be."

"Hang on, let me go ask her," he said and
got up again to go back to the table. Jess was talking to Jazzie,
and he put his hand on her shoulder and asked, "Can you come talk
to me for a second? Travis has a question..."

She looked up at him with puzzled green
eyes, then nodded and threw her napkin on her plate and stood up,
then followed him back to the entrance. "Do you have any idea what
password Ray might have used on a file on that disk you had?"

Her eyebrows raised then lowered as she
tilted her head to think. "I'm not sure. His main password on the
computer for his login was
flowerchild
, all lowercase, he
might try that, and I'll keep thinking."

"Try flowerchild, Travis," Wade told him
then heard clicking on the other end of the phone.

"That's not it, honey...can you think of
anything else?" Wade asked, then leaned the phone close to her, so
they both could hear. "A song maybe? Some phrase that he used a
lot?" Wade prompted, hoping to spur her memory.

"Try buttercup," she said and her face
flushed.

"Buttercup..." he said to Travis, but pinned
her with his eyes, wondering what significance that held for her
and that asshole.

"That's what he used to call me...his pet
name for me," she told him, then her face got redder and she added,
"If that doesn't work try--"

"That's it!" Travis told him and she didn't
finish what she was going to say, but he was going to find out
later, that was for sure. "I've gotta go, I'm going to go through
this stuff and see what I find, and call Doug back with the
password, so he can look it over too," Travis told him excitedly,
then disconnected the phone.

"I didn't see any password protected files
on there?" she told Wade in confusion.

"It was hidden, that's what Doug told Travis
anyway. Do you still have the computer the files were on?" He sure
hoped she did, because he'd heard that a person with the right
skill set could recover deleted files, and maybe that could help
them.

"Yeah, I have it stored at the bar with the
other stuff. I didn't see a reason to hook it back up there."

"Perfect, baby...let me call Travis back,
and he can go looking for it." He hit speed dial for Travis and
when he answered, Wade said, "Hey, Jess says the computer that
asshole used to do the books, is stored with the band's stuff at
the bar. You think we might should get somebody to check it out and
see if there are hidden or deleted files on there too?"

"Great idea, and we don't have to find
anyone...that would be me...I'm a guru at computer forensics.
That's what I do for a living, man."

"No, shit..." Wade said then grinned, and
Jess looked at him curiously. "Get to it then, stud, and let us
know what you find."

"I'm on it," Travis told him with a chuckle,
then disconnected again. Wade shook his head then put his phone
back in his pocket.

"What's going on?" Jess asked him then
grabbed his arm.

"Your brother is a superstar, baby...that's
what's going on. He's going to pick through your computer and see
if there are any hidden or deleted files that might help nail Ray,"
he told her happily, then picked her up in a big hug and twirled
her around.

She giggled, then slapped his shoulder and
said, "Let me down, Wade..."

He set her down and then gave her a gentle
kiss, then whispered over her lips, "I'll never let you down,
baby."

"Except when you fall on your ass tomorrow,
old man," A cocky voice said behind him, and he turned around and
saw Cam Jessup standing there with a group of young cowboys who'd
just walked in to wait for a table.

"You can always hope, right?" Wade told him
with a smile, then added, "Cause that's the only way you're gonna
beat me, greenhorn."

He felt Jess tense up beside him, and he
went to walk off, but Cam wasn't going to let that happen, Wade
figured, when he said, "Hey beautiful, if you want a real man, my
trailer's parked behind the arena..."

When Jess pulled out from under his arm and
spun around to face Cam and the group of rookies, Wade knew shit
was about to hit the fan, and held his breath. She put a sexy grin
on her face and sashayed over to them, then stopped to look them
over one at a time from head to toe, with her finger near her
mouth. Then she took a couple of steps until she was in Cam's face
and licked her lips. She met him eye to eye, because he wasn't a
big guy, just a cocky little fucker.

Leaning in like she was going to kiss him,
Jess shook her head and purred sexily, "You couldn't handle me,
sugar...you still a virgin, baby?" she asked running a finger over
his lips, then along his jaw.

Wade saw him swallow and his face got red,
then Jess told him, "I don't like to break my men in, I like them
with experience," then she grabbed his package, and it was all Wade
could do to stand there, instead of going over there and jerking
her away, but then she added with a smug grin, "And a little more
equipment than you have,
peanut
."

With a squeeze she let him go then walked
back over to Wade and put her arm around his waist, and they turned
to walk back to the table with raucous laughter behind them from
the cowboys with Cam Jessup.

Wade was breathing hard trying not to let
out the laughter bubbling up inside of him and cause a scene, but
he lost it when she said under her breath, "That work for you, big
boy? And I do mean,
big
boy..."

He stopped right there in the aisle between
the tables and doubled over to roar in laughter. Several people
around them smiled, some laughed with him, even though they had no
idea why he was laughing. He took a deep breath, then was finally
able to get himself back under control, and he stood up, then
grabbed Jess's arm and led her back to the table.

"My god, you were brilliant, honey..." Wade
told her breathlessly and wiped his eyes, before he pulled out a
chair for her, then took the seat beside her.

"What was that all about?" Jazzie asked with
a smile, looking from one to the other of them.

"Your friend here is amazing, sugar...she
just cut a six foot tall cowboy down to kindling with her tongue in
the space of two minutes."

Jazzie snorted and told him, "I could have
told you that...her tongue is a certified weapon in all fifty
states."

"Definitely lethal," Wade said and
chuckled.

"He needed it," Jess said sulkily, then took
a sip of her iced tea, then added with the beautiful smile that
made him weak in the knees, "Let's get the hell out of here, I
think we've had enough bull for one day."

Beau looked at his watch then said, "Yeah,
we have about thirty minutes, until Karlie and Katie ride."

The all got up then walked up front
together, with Jess carrying the baby seat, and Wade with his arm
around her waist. The cowboys, she noticed were sitting side by
side on the benches lining the wall, while they waited for a table,
and she winked at Cam Jessup, then told the others, "See ya around,
boys
..." then walked out the door Wade was holding open for
her.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

When they got back to the arena, and to
their seats, Gabe Kelley was sitting on their row, and he looked a
little nervous. Beau took a seat beside him, instead of by them,
and Jazzie stayed down there with them. It was amazing how much
those two looked alike, Jess thought, they could have been
twins.

Angel was sleeping in the car seat, and she
put it down on the floor between her and Wade, then sat down. The
crowd for this event wasn't nearly as large as it had been for the
bronc riding, but there were still a lot of people there.

"So what's the object of this event?" Jess
asked Wade, glad that he was able to sit with her now, so he could
explain stuff to her. Beau had explained some things to her, but he
had been watching the event mostly.

"Well, the cowboys and cowgirls work in
pairs, and one ropes the head around the horns, they're called the
header, and the other ropes the back feet, as quickly as they can,
and that person is the heeler. Once they get the head and back legs
roped they face each other and pull the rope tight for their time.
They'll have several rounds to get it done, then the team with the
best times wins. Those cutting horses are amazing to
watch...Karlie's horse JoJo is phenomenal."

"What about Katie?" she asked then watched
him intently.

"Her horse is Laramie, and he's damned good,
she does barrels with him too, but none of them is better than JoJo
and Karlie. She's going to be in the tie-down competition
too...that's where she really shines," he said with a grin then
told her, "Ask Gabe, he can tell you how good she is."

"What's the difference between tie-down and
this team roping thing?"