Royal Trouble Read online

  "I don't have a minute," he informed and swung his horse as if to ride away.

  "Don't go!" she yelled.

  He stopped then swung the horse back toward her. "Ma'am I don't have time for this, I have a horse that needs my attention."

  "I need your help," she said stiffening her shoulders. "It won't take but a minute for you to help me. I-I have sixty dollars, I'll pay you to take a look at it and let me know what you think is wrong," she offered.

  A smile flickered on his face, or she thought it did. It faded so fast, she could have imagined it. He huffed out a breath, then told her, "I don't have a truck, and the ranch truck is out in the field."

  "Ride your horse," she suggested.

  "You gonna walk back?" he asked. One side of his mouth cocked up making a dimple appear in his right cheek.

  "Um, I guess I'll have to," she told him with a groan looking at her red, blistered feet.

  After a sigh, he said, "Gate's back there," he pointed toward the house. "Stay there, I'll come and get you."

  Leigh Ann walked back to the rock and picked up her boots, then sat on the rock to wait. She hoped like hell he wasn't going to suggest she get up on that huge horse. Leigh Ann was terrified of horses, since her incident with the pony as a child. She'd rather walk than get up there with him.

  Her feet throbbed painfully, so when she saw him riding slowly toward her down the drive, she waffled on that decision. He looked pretty competent up there, and she wouldn't be riding alone.

  The big cowboy stopped his huge horse beside her and reached his hand down to her, then pulled his boot out of the stirrup. "I'll pull you up, just put your foot in the stirrup," he instructed.

  Leigh Ann looked up and blinked twice, as a feeling of deja vu floated through her. In slow motion, she saw herself grab Roxanne's hand, felt herself go airborne as her older sister yanked her up onto the pony, before she saw the ground on the other side of the horse coming up to meet her quickly. Eight stitches later, her vow to never get near another horse was born.

  "Um, maybe I'll walk, but thanks," she told him sweetly.

  "Suit yourself, lady, but I don't have time to wait for you to decide. You either ride, or face the cactus needles on that road in your bare feet. I don't think those boots are going back on your feet."

  Leigh Ann looked down and saw he was right. In the few minutes since she'd removed her boots, her feet and ankles had swollen to double their size. The horse turned his head toward her and their eyes met. With mental waves, she sent him a plea not to kill her then dragged her eyes back to the cowboy. Reaching up, she took his hand, bent her knee and stuffed her foot into the stirrup.

  The cowboy lifted her, she pushed up and he pulled her the rest of the way up. He grabbed her waist with his large hands, grunted then hefted her in front of him on the saddle. One of his arms went around her like a steel band and he gathered the reins with is other hand.

  Leigh Ann wiggled a little to get comfortable and the cowboy groaned. "Sit still!"

  "Yes, sir," she squeaked, her muscles tensing. She sat perfectly still, not wanting to do anything to make him lose his grip on her. He started them forward again, and led the horse out onto the highway. The sound of the horse's shod hooves echoed through her skull, as she pictured herself landing on that hard pavement and the horse putting one of those hooves on her head. The muscles at the back of her neck tensed even more, and she gripped the saddle horn with white knuckles.

  The horse shied sideways and he yelled at her again. "Relax! The damned horse can tell when you're scared!"

  Relax? Sit still? She was on a big horse that scared her more than the man she was riding with. How the hell could she relax?

  "Haven't you ever ridden before?" the cowboy hissed near her ear.

  "Um, once," she replied. "That didn't go very well."

  "Just lean back against me and relax," he instructed, loosening his arm around her waist, which made her feel a helluva lot less secure up on top of the beast of a horse. Leigh Ann sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  Maybe if she made small talk, she would forget she was up on top of a two thousand pound beast. "What's your name?" When he didn't respond for a full minute, she didn't think he was going to.

  "Trace Rooks," he finally said.

  "Thank you for helping me, Trace. I'm Leigh Ann Baker," she told him.

  "I thought you looked familiar," he said and his arm tightened around her again.

  She tried to look back at his face again, but his arm around her prevented it. "Do I know you then?"

  "No, but I know you. In prison, the Miss Texas pageant is a pretty big event. Guys get killed for talking during it."

  Every muscle in Leigh Ann's body locked up, as fear shot through her. Prison? Another man with a similar background to the cowboy holding her up on this horse had made her life a living hell for an entire year.

  She knew all about the fixation those men had with the pageant. Had been personally educated on it through the letters the man who stalked her had sent after she won the Miss Texas pageant. Her stalker, Redmond Jones, Red to his inmate buddies, and to the law who had finally tracked him down and arrested him for kidnapping another woman.

  She had never met the man, but had seen a photo. His creepy light-colored eyes, almost white they were so light, were forever burned into her memory, but she had tried to forget everything else about him. Wanted to forget.

  The restraining order she had against him, the fact that he had received a three year sentence for abducting the other woman, had given her a measure of comfort. He was out of jail now, had been for a year, and a piece of paper couldn't stop a bullet, or stop him from kidnapping and assaulting her like he had that other woman. The yellow rose she had received before she left Dallas told Leigh Ann she wasn't off of his radar, and he hadn't learned a lesson from his incarceration. The only reason she wasn't freaking out now, was because she knew he didn't know where she was.

  Her attention shifted back to the man holding her as he walked the horse slowly down the road toward her car. His being in prison could explain the bulging muscles in this man's arms and chest, she imagined. This man's body was solid as a rock, and his attitude just as hard. She remembered Red's picture again, and his similar rock hard muscles. He was built like a bull with mounds of muscle that pulled his skin tight over them in the dirty white tank top he had been wearing when the photo was taken.

  Was that all they had to do in prison? Work out and get their jollies from television shows? Had she just stepped out of the frying pan into the fire by asking this man to help her? Would she end up naked and tied to a tree in those woods on the other side of the fence? Fear shot through her and squeaked, "You were in prison?"

  "Yep, for two years," he told her as if saying he had spent two years at Texas A & M studying business.

  "What did you do?" The question flew off of her tongue before she could stop it.

  "Hired the wrong female attorney," he said with a short derisive laugh. "She said I needed to cop a plea, so that's what I did."

  "You didn't do anything wrong then?" she asked, her shoulders relaxing a little.

  "Oh, I did plenty wrong, just not what they caught me doing. My daddy thought I needed a lesson, so he had his judge friend up the charges."

  "I see," she replied primly, then clamped her mouth firmly shut. If his own father thought he was trouble, how could she think anything less? But he was helping her, and seemed to be pretty sane. He didn't give her the creeps like just seeing the picture of Red had done. That hard look was missing from this man's dark eyes. That had to mean something. Leigh Ann relaxed a little more against him. They rode in silence to her car, until he swung down off the horse and reached up to help her down.

  He walked to the car and patted the hood. "Pop the latch, so I can open it."

  Leigh Ann limped to the car, opened the door, then leaned inside to release the hood latch. Thinking that keeping an eye on him was a darned good idea, she limped ba
ck around the front of the car to stand beside him, while he leaned underneath the hood. He pulled and tugged on something, wiggled wires here and there, then leaned even deeper into the engine compartment. But he didn't say a word.

  "See anything?" she asked a few minutes later.

  "You have a busted radiator hose for sure, and the block may be cracked from overheating. It looks like there's water in your oil."

  Leigh Ann groaned, because that sounded expensive. And expensive car repairs were exactly what she didn't need right now.

  Trace Rooks swung out from under the hood to stand up wiping his hands on his blue jeans. "Your car isn't going anywhere unless you have it towed," he told her bluntly. "You have a cell phone, or do you need to use the phone at the ranch?"

  "I have a cell," she said weakly, the heat and despair of her situation getting to her. Leigh Ann had a cell, but what she didn't have was anyone to call for help. Patting her purse, she flipped open the flap to dig for her phone.

  "I don't have all day, darlin'," he said, the pretended patience in his voice running thin. "My boss is gonna kick my ass if I don't get that horse cut from the herd and loaded. It has to be on a flight tonight."

  Looking up at him she said, "It must be in the car."

  Quickly walking around the car, Leigh Ann got inside and checked the console, on the floorboard, and in the pockets behind the seats, before she finally found it under the seat. Relief washed through her as she held it up to him. "I can call someone, thanks for your help...you go on back to work, I don't want to get you in trouble."

  She is the one who didn't want trouble. Now that she got a better look at him up close, she thought that was what she may have bought by asking for his help. He didn't look threatening, but the fact that he had been in prison, maybe with her stalker, concerned her greatly.

  "You sure?" he asked, hesitating after taking one step toward his horse.

  She huffed out a breath. "Yeah, I'll work it out."

  "I'll come back out here and check on you after I finish loading that horse," he said as he swung up into the saddle. "If worse comes to worse, I'll drive you into town on my bike."

  Bike? Picturing the cowboy riding down the country road with her on the back of his bicycle tickled her. "Bike?"

  Maybe this guy wasn't so bad after all. Perhaps he just lost his license due to a DUI or something. Maybe that's why he had served time. Red had been in for the stalking and rape of another woman. A very violent man, who had many brushes with the law, before he homed in on her as a victim. She was judging the man who was helping her based on a hardened criminal, and that wasn't fair really.

  Trace Rooks had only served two years, what he had done couldn't be all that bad. Her hackles lowered a little. Would he have volunteered that he had been in prison if he had nefarious purposes in mind? Not likely.

  "My Harley," he clarified then turned the horse toward the gravel road.

  "Oh," she said with a thrill shooting through her. She'd never ridden on a motorcycle before. Especially with a bad ass ex-con cowboy, who looked like he was still just this side of legal. But damned if she didn't want to do just that. Her mother would have a bird, and that made her want to do it even more.

  Sweat dripped down between her shoulder blades as she watched him walk the horse to the end of the drive, before kicking him in the sides to send him running down the drive toward the house. When the cowboy disappeared from view, Leigh Ann looked down at her cell phone to see she had a few bars of power left, but only one bar of reception.

  Making this call, having it connect, was going to be dicey, so she sent up a prayer, before dialing Dylan's number. He was her only other hope of getting help. The only person she could think of who she wanted help from. The others would just use the situation to think less of her. No way was she going to call them for help. Leigh Ann would just figure things out. Or let Trace Rooks help her.

  She got Dylan's voicemail, so she hung up. Leaving a message wouldn't do her any good. Thinking about it now, she realized if her sister was at the vet office with her this morning, that meant Dylan was probably getting ready to head out on a cattle drive. He would be busy with the guests there and wouldn't have the time to help her.

  And she had forgotten to ask the cowboy where exactly she was anyway.

  Excitement danced in her chest as she realized she would have to wait for Trace Rooks to give her a ride. It was hot, she was sticky, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something spontaneous, wild and free. She was going to grab it and him with both hands.

  To make the decision to do something she wanted to do without having to consult with anyone was liberating. If she wound up naked and tied to a tree in the woods, at least she'd have a good time before it happened. And at least the man doing the tying excited her.

  Leigh Ann crawled into the back seat, then leaned the front seat against the steering wheel, so she could prop up her feet. If she was going to ride on the back of a motorcycle, she was going to have to get her feet back in those boots.

  Smoothing down her skirt, she eased her feet up and leaned back to close her eyes and rest. It was hot and she was thirsty, but if she could manage to go to sleep and forget about it, maybe she would be okay. Mind over matter, she thought as she drifted off.

  A rumbling in her chest woke Leigh Ann. She scrambled up looking around in a daze. It was almost dark and the air had cooled off considerably. A chill moved through her as more vibrations rumbled through her chest, making her heart race.

  Looking up, she saw a mean looking black motorcycle pull up beside the car door and stop. Trace Rooks killed the engine then leaned down over the handle bars to stick his head in the window. His cowboy hat was gone, but his hair was still covered. In a black bandana dotted with a white skull and crossbones pattern, which amped up his bad boy persona tenfold.

  A little shiver of excitement passed through her, then grew when he grinned at her and that dimple appeared. "Have a nice nap, princess?" he asked lazily, his sexy rough voice rumbling through her like the purr of the motorcycle had done.

  She smiled back and asked nervously, "Did you get your horse loaded?"

  "Yep, c'mon let's go to town," he told her shifting his weight on the bike to lift the kickstand.

  Leigh Ann's heart fluttered as she put her feet on the floorboard then scooted forward to open the door. Crawling out of the car, she stood and smoothed down her skirt. "I'm not exactly dressed to ride a motorcycle, but my jeans are buried in the trunk somewhere," she said taking a stumbling step toward the back of the car.

  "We're not in a parade, princess. Just get on and don't worry about it. If you flash someone, they'll count themselves lucky." With a throaty chuckle and a flash of humor in his dark eyes, he added, "It's gonna be dark in a few minutes anyway."

  Leigh Ann picked up her boots from beside the car and shoved her foot inside, then put the other one on and stomped her foot down into it. Slinging the strap of her purse over her head she let it rest at her hip. Giving him one hard look, Leigh Ann considered her decision once more, then walked toward the bike with her knees trembling. Stepping up on the peg, she threw her leg over the bike to settle behind him. Leaning forward, she put her arms around his waist and asked, "You have a helmet I can wear?"

  "Nope, I sure don't." He reached inside his leather jacket, then handed her a bandana that matched his. "Put this on and just hang on," he ordered as he cranked the powerful machine and revved it a few times. The vibrations from the engine moved through her, along with a good dose of adrenaline.

  Quickly, she tied her hair up in the bandana feeling like a bad ass biker chick. Someone totally unlike Leigh Ann Baker, Miss Texas USA. Right now she was as far from a prim and proper beauty queen as she could get. And damned if it didn't feel great!

  Leigh Ann was living on the wild side tonight, and wild women didn't wear helmets. They rode on the back of bad ass motorcycles with ex-con cowboys and they liked it.

  CHAPTER NINE

&
nbsp; "If we haven't seen her by now, we're not going to catch her, Rox," Wes said with a huffed breath. After cruising through town down the route Leigh Ann would most likely have taken, they had driven almost fifty miles toward Dallas on the interstate. They still hadn't seen any sign of her baby blue mustang convertible. The chances of them catching up to her now were slim. It was getting dark. The best thing they could do was go back to his place and make calls. Roxanne might be off base about where her sister was going.

  "Maybe she went somewhere else?" he suggested, glancing at Roxanne to see her gnawing her lip. She looked as frazzled and worried as he had ever seen her.

  "Or maybe something happened to her," she replied softly.

  "Don't borrow trouble, Rox. She's fine, we just missed her." Wes wanted to believe that, because the alternative wasn't acceptable to him.

  While he drove, Roxanne had tried to call her sister twenty-five times since they left the office, and Leigh Ann hadn't answered. Even if she was angry, according to Roxanne, Leigh Ann had been programmed by their mother to never ignore phone calls, because it was rude. That is why she was so worried.

  Wes was worried too, but letting Roxanne know that wasn't going to help the situation. It would just upset her more and it wasn't going to help them find Leigh Ann.

  "Let's drive through town again," he finally said easing off an exit to turn around and head back toward town. "We'll go back the way we came and see if maybe we missed her."

  "Okay," Roxanne agreed scanning the road intently.

  Three hours later, the sun had set and there was not one square inch of Amarillo, Texas they hadn't searched. Wes's stomach rumbled and he told her, "We need to stop and get gas, and a sandwich or something."

  "I wanna keep looking," Roxanne told him.

  "I do too, but if we run out of gas we won't be able to do that," Wes argued reasonably, as he pulled into the next gas station they came upon. Finding an open pump behind a slick black motorcycle, he shut off the engine and got out. A rough-looking guy in a black do rag held a pump hose into the tank of the motorcycle.