Looking For Trouble (7 page)

If worse came to worse, she'd have to try
and wheel herself to the hotel, which she thought was about three
miles away...or wait until Jazzie or Travis figured out she was
stranded here. Giving into the pain medication they'd shot her up
with in the emergency room, she slid down in the wheelchair and
dozed off.

CHAPTER THREE

The party was pretty much winding down, when
Wade got back to the Double B, and everyone was going home. He
pulled to a stop outside the tent, and went to find Jazzie to tell
her that she needed to go pick her stubborn friend at the hospital.
Wade was done fighting with her, he was only telling Jazzie,
because he wanted to make sure she had a ride.

The things he'd discovered about the lithe
blond tonight, pretty much told him he didn't want to have anything
else to do with her. Not only was she a conniving liar and a
player, her morals seemed to be pretty damned shaky. Wade never
thought he'd see the day when he met a woman he thought was too
wild for him, but he could now say, he'd met that woman. Her games
were Olympic caliber events...she had her routine down pat, and
definitely scored tens on execution. The men she targeted didn't
have a chance.

Wade considered himself a decent judge of
character, and he couldn't resign himself to the fact that he'd
been so damned wrong about her though. Now that he'd calmed down
some, a few pieces of the Jess puzzle didn't quite fit in his
mind.

For one, when they'd made love a year ago,
if she'd been three months pregnant, he felt sure her stomach would
have been at least a little rounded, it hadn't been...it was
concave if anything...and there weren't any other typical signs
either, not that he'd been with any pregnant women that he knew of,
but he wasn't totally dense to the signs.

The first person he saw when he walked under
the tent was Beau Bowman, who was talking to Jazzie by the stage,
flirting with her. It was obvious to him then that Jess hadn't lied
about not having a meeting planned with Beau. That man was a
straight shooter, and he wouldn't be flirting with one, if he had
plans with the other. Wade got an uneasy feeling in his stomach,
when he walked over to them.

Jazzie immediately broke away from Beau and
walked toward him. With concern pinching her black brows together,
she demanded, "How's Jess? Where is she?"

Wade swallowed hard, knowing this spitfire
who was Jess's best friend was not going to be happy with him, "I
don't know, I left her at the hospital..."

She put her hand on her curvy hip, then
leaned forward and narrowed her eyes, and Wade knew she was
building up steam to blast him. The fiery little Latina's face
reddened and she took a step toward him, then put her finger in his
chest, and hissed, "What the hell do you mean, you
left
her
at the hospital? You
promised
you were going to take care of
her! If this is how you do that, then I'm
glad
she didn't
tell you!"

Guilt flooded him, because she was right,
but how could he take care of someone who didn't want to be taken
care of? "She told me to leave her there, she didn't want my help,"
he said defensively.

"I don't give a damn, you should have
stayed! She's stubborn and hard-headed and when she gets in a snit,
she's even worse! What did you say to her?"

Something Jazzie said a minute ago, finally
settled in his mind and worked its way to the front. Wade narrowed
his eyes and asked, "What is it you're glad she didn't tell me,
Jazzie?"

The woman's face got even redder and her
eyes widened in horror, then she covered her mouth with her hand
and shook her head then said, "Nothing," and turned to walk
away.

Wade took two steps and caught up to her
then grabbed her shoulder, and grated, "Tell me, Jazzie...what is
it that Jess didn't tell me."

"I can't tell you...it's not my place to
tell you," she said with determination.

Wade figured maybe he could trick her into
telling him, so he went fishing. "She did tell me, if it's Angel
you're talking about," he said trying to keep an even tone. This
had to be the issue, because there wasn't much else that Jess had
been evasive about.

Jazzie spun around to face him, her dark
eyes wide with shock, as she said breathlessly, "I don't believe
you...she wouldn't."

Her reaction told him that whatever Jess had
held back, it had to do with her baby, and that made his stomach
lurch, and his heart rate kick up. He didn't think she was pregnant
when they'd had sex a year ago, and now her best friend had
basically told him there was something she wasn't telling him about
the baby.

Two and Two still added up to four, and Wade
felt his heart drop through the floor, as he cast his line out
again, "Yeah, and I want to see my daughter, that's what we argued
about..." he lied and tried to keep his face neutral, although the
blood was pounding so hard through his body, he heard it in his
ears.

"That's something you'll need to talk to
Jess about..." she said and tears filled her eyes, then she
finished with a shake of her dark head, "I can't believe she told
you...she said she'd never do that."

"She didn't, but you just did," Wade told
her with so much fury heating his blood, he was afraid it was going
to boil out of his ears, then he shouted incredulously, "
I
can't believe
she
didn't tell me, since that kid is mine
too." Wade looked around and saw the remaining guests from the
party had all stopped talking and were watching him intently,
including Cassie and Luke.

Beau Bowman stepped up and put his hand on
Wade's shoulder, and said quietly, "Maybe we should take this
outside so there's not an audience, man."

Wade hadn't realized how loud he'd evidently
been, and shook his head, then walked outside with Beau, before he
said, "And I can't believe she was hitting on you tonight,
either...she's a piece of work."

"She wasn't...that was all an act because
you were using Katie Upton to try and make her jealous...you
succeeded, and evidently, so did she. Maybe ya'll just need to act
like mature adults and work things out, for the kid's sake?"

Wade didn't know why, but relief poured
through him, then guilt about what he'd been thinking about the
leggy blond, which evidently was off base...at least somewhat. "I'm
going to work things out all right, and she probably won't like
it," Wade told him angrily. "That baby is mine too, and she's not
going to keep her from me."

A whimper sounded behind Beau, and Wade saw
Jazzie take off running toward the van behind the tent. That's all
he needed, another woman with a broken bone tonight, Wade thought,
then took off after her. It didn't take much for him to catch her,
and grab her up off of her feet, but it took a lot to hold the
little wildcat, who was kicking him in the shins with her spiked
heels and flailing her fists around his head, landing blows now and
again.

He squeezed her tighter, and hissed near her
ear, "Settle down, Jazzie..."

"Let me go, asshole, or I'm gonna do some
damage, no surgeon is gonna fix," she screamed and kept
fighting.

"
Fuck
!" Wade shouted and let her go,
when her heel connected with his calf, and he was sure it was
embedded there. She took off for the van again, and he let her go,
but Beau ran after her now.

He saw Beau catch her right before she
slammed the van door in his face, and he opened the door and leaned
inside to talk to her. Wade didn't know what he was saying, but it
didn't look like it was having much of an effect on the Latina
hellion. She was waving her hands around and yelling, then she
stopped and evidently tried to crank the van, because it made a few
loud popping sounds, then he saw smoke coming out from under the
hood.

Beau pulled her out of the van then yelled,
"Someone get a fire extinguisher, quick!" then he leaned in and
popped the hood latch, before running around the front to open it.
When he raised the hood, flames shot out and he leaned back and
shielded his face from the heat.

Jazzie ran inside the tent, and came back
out with one of the caterers a minute later, who had a fire
extinguisher and immediately squeezed the trigger and blasted the
engine with white dust. The slight breeze blew it back all over
them, and when the flames were finally extinguished, Jazzie's black
hair and olive skin were white, and she let out a wail that could
be heard all over the pasture, then stomped her feet. The other
band members who'd been inside came running out and stopped short
when they saw the disaster their van was now.

Wade stopped rubbing his calf, and hobbled
over to the van to inspect the damage to the van, but stopped short
when Jazzie turned on him. Her fists were clenched at her sides,
and she pointed to him, then hissed, "This is all
your
damned fault! You better figure out how to get me to the that
hospital to get Jess,
right now
!"

Beau put his hand on her shoulder, but she
shook it off and stomped over to Wade, and he took a step back,
because he didn't want round two with her, that was for sure.
"That's right, buddy--you better be scared," she said with some
neck action, then added, "If my friend is hurt, I really
am
going to kick your ass, and I have five big ass brothers who will
help me!"

"If you'd stop being so dramatic, and calm
down, I'll take you to the hospital," Wade told her trying to be
calm, hoping that would defuse her.

"Damned right you will," she grated then
stomped past him toward his truck.

He heard Beau snort behind him, and looked
back at the grinning fool then gave him a heated look. Following
Jazzie to his truck, Wade opened the door for her, before he went
around and got in.

Without a word, he cranked the truck and put
it in drive, then glanced over at the furious woman on the other
side of the truck. He wanted to laugh, because she looked so
ridiculous with her arms folded under her breasts, her top half
coated in the white fire extinguisher dust, which made her angry
black eyes, and her red lips stand out like beacons in her pale
face. Jazzie looked like one of those mimes he'd seen in New
Orleans when the rodeo held a competition there, but Wade wasn't
taking his life in his hands by laughing right now, because he had
a feeling she really would kill him.

Shaking his head, Wade hit the gas, and
headed back to Henrietta for the second time tonight. This time
though, he really wanted to be there...he was going to meet his
daughter tonight, and he was going to get some answers from Jess
Sparks. Like how the hell he could
have
a daughter, when
he'd used condoms
every
time they'd had sex that night.

Not one word did the angry woman in the
truck with him say, during the thirty minute drive back to the
hospital. She just sat there with her arms folded, her legs crossed
shaking her foot in agitation. Wade swallowed down the added layer
of guilt that just flopped down on the humble pie he was building
inside of him, when he pulled up under the canopy in front of the
emergency department, and saw Jess sitting there slumped in a
wheelchair sleeping, with a bright green cast on her leg.

Jazzie sobbed then opened the door, before
the truck even stopped and slid to the ground, then ran to her
friend and pulled her into her arms. Jess jerked in the chair, then
her arms went around her friend and they hugged tightly, both of
them crying.

Oh Lord, Wade thought, now he had two
emotional women to deal with, and he knew he was in for a long
night. He didn't know what to do with one, much less two. When he
walked up to them, he stood back and kept quiet, figuring that was
the best thing he could do to avoid more drama. It didn't help
though, because when Jess noticed him standing there, she narrowed
her eyes and hissed, "What the hell are you doing back here?"

"We have things to talk about..." he said
firmly, because talking about his daughter with this woman was not
something he was going to delay, broken ankle or not.

Jazzie sobbed again, then told her friend
with tears tracking through the white dust on her face making a
paste of it, "He tricked me, Jess...he knows about Angel."

Jess grabbed the handles on the wheelchair
and shot to her feet then yelled, "
What?!?!
" The wheelchair
shot out behind her and her arms flailed.

Wade caught her right when she was falling
backward, and swung her into his arms. "Calm down, Jess...it'll be
okay...let's just get out of here, so we can talk," he said calmly,
because she was hysterical, sobbing, dry heaving and
hyperventilating all at the same time. He whispered near her ear,
"Shhh...I want to meet our daughter, don't be upset, I'm happy
about it," then kissed her hair.

Sucking in gulping breaths she told him,
"She's
my
d-dd-daughter..."

Wade's body tensed, but he wasn't going to
let her goad him into losing control. If he argued with her, he
wouldn't get to see his baby, and that's probably what she wanted.
He needed to stay calm, so he could calm these two women down...and
so he could talk sensibly to Jess. Beau was right, they needed to
act like mature adults.