Looking For Trouble (31 page)

"Oh, god, thanks, Wade..." the red head said
then scrambled to her feet and leaned against the other truck
heaving for breath. "That asshole wouldn't leave me alone," she
told him.

"Karlie? Where's Gabe," he asked her looking
around.

"Katie...and I have no idea where he and
Karlie got off to. After she rode, I walked out for some air, then
that guy started talking to me and wouldn't take no for an
answer."

"You okay, sugar?" Wade asked her looking
her over as best he could in the dark.

"Yeah, thanks again," she told him then
looked down at the man who was still on his knees with his head
down.

Wade reached down and jerked the guy to his
feet and his eyebrows shot up when he saw it was his nemesis for
the day, Cam Jessup. "What the
fuck
, Jessup...you that
fucking hard up you have to rape a woman to get laid?" he shouted
in his face.

"Shut the fuck up, she liked it," he
wheezed, then grabbed his ribs when Wade shoved an elbow in
them.

"Try that on someone who'll believe it...did
she mention her brother-in-law is a Texas Ranger?" Wade asked
sarcastically, then told Katie, "Katie go find Beau and get him out
here."

"Just let him go, Wade...I don't want all
that trouble tonight. But if he even breathes my way again, I'm
going to have Beau on him like stink on a skunk."

"You sure, sugar? He's been asking for it
all day," he told her eyeing Cam Jessup angrily, then he shoved him
into the truck again.

"I'm sure...just let the bastard go, I'm not
hurt."

"Fine," he told her then let go of Cam's
shirt and took a step back. "I'm gonna give you a piece of
advice...end your bad day now before it gets worse. Haul your drunk
ass to your trailer, cause you're gonna need all the rest you can
get for tomorrow."

"I don't need your fucking advice, old man,"
Cam told him sulkily, then pushed past him shoving him with his
shoulder, then stumbling away.

Katie walked up to him with tears in her
eyes, then put her arms around him and hugged him. He kissed the
top of her head, and then looked up and there stood Jess with Angel
in her arms and tears in her eyes, her lower lip trembling.

Fuck
, he thought, then backed away
from Katie and held up his hands. "It's not what you think,
sweetheart," he told her, and walked around Katie to go to her, but
she stepped back.

"I'm going back inside and I'll ride back to
the bar with Beau and Jazzie. Ya'll have fun," she said dryly then
turned and walked toward the arena.

Katie ran past him and yelled, "Wait, Jess!"
then caught up to the stiff-backed blond stalking away from them.
She stopped, but didn't turn around, and he heard Katie tell her,
"Wade is my friend, nothing more...he hasn't ever been more. He
loves you, honey...he doesn't want anyone else."

Jess snorted then shook her head and said,
"Sure didn't look like it when I walked up."

"That damned Cam Jessup was trying to rape
me, and Wade ran him off," Katie told her in a trembling voice. "I
was hugging him to say thank you...nothing else."

Jess finally turned around to face them, and
asked Wade, "Is that the guy I told off today at the steakhouse?"
she asked Wade.

"One and the same...he's on a roll today,
evidently," Wade responded seriously, hoping her turning around
meant she was listening to them.

Katie smiled then chuckled, "You told him
off today?"

Jess's eyes were wary when she looked at
Katie, but she responded, "Yeah, he was giving Wade shit, and
needed it."

"Oh, god, Katie, you should have been there,
she was magnificent..." Wade said looking at Jess.

"Wish I would have been there, bet it was
something," Katie said then huffed out a breath. "I'm a nervous
wreck now, I probably should just drop out of the barrel racing
competition, Laramie will be fit to be tied, cause he'll know
it."

"No--you need to go ride. Don't let that
bastard have the satisfaction, Kate...go get you a beer, and settle
down, then ride...see if they'll put you at the tail end."

She nodded then smiled at him and said,
"Thanks again for the rescue...ya'll have a good night," then he
watched her walk back toward the door.

Turning to Jess he told her angrily, "You
need to quit assuming things, darlin'...it's getting old. I don't
want Katie, or Jazzie or anyone else, except
you
, so stop
that shit."

"I could say the same with you and Beau...or
any other cowboy I smile at when I perform. I only want
you
,
and not anyone else, Wade. So, if I'm going to slay my green-eyed
monster, you need to do that too."

She stuck out her pinkie to him and he had
no idea what she wanted him to do, or was trying to tell him. He
laughed and said, "Is that your way of flipping me off, sugar?"

She hooted, and Angel jumped in her arms,
then she soothed her and told him quietly, "No, that's a pinkie
swear, the most binding swear of all, between women...and now a
woman and a man, so stick out your pinkie big boy..."

He grinned and stuck out his pinkie and she
hooked hers with his then pulled. "No more jealousy...it's just you
and me, got it?"

"Got it...now let's go back to the hotel,
cause I've got plans for you."

***

Wade walked into the medic office the next
morning to get help making sure his brace was on right. Working his
way through the other cowboys in there he looked around for an
available trainer, and they were all busy, so he took a seat and
waited. Looking around the room, his eyes snagged on Cam Jessup up
on a table getting his ribs taped. He was holding an ice bag to his
left eye, and didn't look too happy. Wade figured he must be
hurting this morning from their scuffle last night.

Good, the bastard deserved it, and then
some, but Wade figured someone else would give him the rest of his
ass whooping soon. It wouldn't be him, that was for sure, he was
here to ride, not fight. He was so close to winning that prize, he
could taste it, and that's where his eye was, not on fighting with
that jackass.

Earlier, Wade had gone to the barn and made
his pull for his horse today, and he was excited about the horse
he'd drawn. He hadn't ridden him before, but a lot of the other
cowboys had, and said he was a mean bucking bastard, and would give
him a good ride, if he was man enough to stay on his back. Just the
kind of horse he wanted today.

Someone jump down from a table, and Wade
walked over there quickly before someone else did. Hopping up on
the table he pulled off his shirt, and handed the brace to the
medic, then sat up straight so the guy could put it around him,
then cringed as he laced it up tight. Wade was a little sore from
yesterday, because he hadn't ridden in so long, but it wasn't
enough to complain about. He'd ask for a couple of ibuprofen and
suck it up...he knew how to do that, since he'd done it for sixteen
years. He'd ridden in a helluva lot worse condition than he was
today that was for sure.

After the man finished lacing the brace,
Wade twisted it a little to make it more comfortable, if that could
happen. The damn thing was like a corset, and made moving fluidly
nearly impossible. He thanked the trainer, then asked for some
ibuprofen and a bottled water, which he took with him to go do his
equipment check.

He had about an hour to waste before it was
his turn to ride, which gave him too damn much time to think. As
many years as he'd been riding, he was a little nervous today. He'd
ridden for bigger purses than this, and hadn't been nervous, so he
didn't know why he was edgy today, but he needed to get over it,
before he got on Black Jack's back. That was the name of the horse
he'd drawn...fourteen-hundred pounds of muscle and meanness.

After he checked his reins, and saddle, he
put on his chaps, thinking of how much Jess liked them last night,
when he'd worn them for a different kind of riding. She was a
mess...he'd never thought of chaps as sexy, but Jess sure as hell
did. Wade knew he needed to deflect those thoughts, or he was going
to wind up in a whole different kind of pain when he got on that
horse. He put on his spurs and gloves, then went to find her for a
good luck kiss...a quick one, not like the one yesterday.

He walked down the alley, then the corridor
between the seats and the arena, and looked up to find her. She was
sitting on the first row again, and when her eyes met his, he
grinned and climbed the scaffolding to get up there to her. "Hey,
darlin', I came to get my good luck kiss," he told her.

Jazzie and Beau chuckled and Jess stood up
and walked over to him, then put her arms around his neck and he
put his arms around her waist, and as usual the best laid plans led
straight to perdition where they were concerned, and the kiss
scorched his hair. She didn't pull back, until Jazzie, Beau, and
Gabe started clapping and whistling.

She whispered by his ear, "Good luck,
darlin'...be careful, and I love you."

He didn't care about the audience they had,
he kissed her again, then told her, "I love you too, sugar...and I
think I used up all my luck when I found you again."

She put her forehead to his and told him
with a chuckle, "You say some of the sweetest things...for a rough
old cowboy."

"You callin' me old again, darlin'? Remember
the last time you did that?"

"Boy do I...and no, I won't make that
mistake again," she hooted, then kissed his cheek. "Get your butt
in gear, you've got a competition to win."

"Yes ma'am," he said with a grin then
climbed back down to the ground, and went back to the pen where
he'd left his gear.

Cam Jessup was standing a few yards down
talking to some of the other rookies in the competition, and cut
him a hate-filled glare. He glared back telling him silently not to
start his shit today. Wade was about at the end of his tether with
that guy. He quickly picked up his gear and walked off to wait
somewhere else for his turn to ride, away from Jessup. He found a
few old buddies and dropped his gear there and they chilled out and
talked.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Angel started fussing in her car seat, so
Jess unhooked her and held her, while she gave her a bottle, and
sang softly to her. Wade's ride should be coming up soon, she
thought. Half the cowboys had ridden, and Beau told her Wade's ride
was about halfway through the group. She hadn't seen him again,
since he'd come up there for his good luck kiss, and she hoped he
was relaxing and getting focused. She also hoped that guy from last
night was leaving him alone, because he didn't need that
distraction.

She'd mentioned what happened to Beau, and
he'd been upset and wanted to go talk to the guy, but she told him
that Katie wanted it left alone, so he didn't. Gabe was pretty
pissed too, but she'd sworn both of them to secrecy, because she
knew that Karlie would go off like a mama bear if she found out
about it, and then Katie would probably be pissed at her.

"And next up will be Wade Roberts, former
PRCA Bareback World Champion, and the leader in the saddle bronc
competition, riding Black Jack, a mean black bucking machine from
B&H Stables in Tulsa, Oklahoma..." the colorful announcer told
the crowd. Anxiety pulsed through Jess and she pulled the bottle
from Angel's lips and put it back in the bag, then put her to her
shoulder and stood up, shaking her to burp her.

Jazzie got up and stood beside her and put
her hand on her back, and said, "This is it...he's gonna do good,
sugar, don't worry." Beau and Gabe got up at the rail too, and were
watching intently, as Wade climbed over the fence into the chute,
and waited for the handlers to get the horse under control. He slid
down on the horse's back then jumped back when he reared and pawed
the air. The handlers pulled him back down again, and Wade pushed
his hat on his head then tried it again. This time he managed to
get on the dancing animal's back and grab the reins, then slid up
on it's back. He jerked the saddle horn, then lifted his hand up in
the air then leaned back a little and gave a confident nod to the
person at the gate.

To Jess, it seemed like the gate swung open
in slow motion, and the animal took a huge leap out through the
opening and Wade planted his heels right above the black and white
horse's shoulders and held them there, until the horse's front feet
touched the ground. Then like a boat riding a huge swell, the horse
reared again, and launched off of its back feet to catapult him and
Wade through the air. Wade kept spurring him in the shoulders with
his toes pointed out, as the horse switched directions crazily, and
seemed damned and determined to throw him off. It was amazing how
well Wade kept his balance with one hand high in the air through
the horrific twisting and turning the horse was doing.

The buzzer sounded, then a split second
later, it looked like Wade was going to get off the horse, but
instead, the horse bucked and his backend hit Wade in the back,
which launched him forward. He grabbed the saddle horn, but instead
of steadying him, he flew over the horse's neck with the saddle in
his hand. He flipped once in the air and landed on his back hard,
and didn't move. The horse was dancing and bucking crazily around
him, and almost stepped on him a couple of times, before some other
cowboys raced out there to help him. Jess lost her breath and
sickness welled up inside of her. Screaming his name she handed
Angel to Jazzie, then ran down the aisle past Beau and Gabe, down
the steps and to the backstage area, so she could get to Wade. When
she got to the pen area, she saw two red-shirted men running out
there with a stretcher and her heart sank to her knees, and she
gagged a couple of times, then took a deep breath trying to stop
the blood that rushed to her head.