Guardian Ranger (Shadow Agents #2)(17)

Despite the news that Gunner had given him about the would-be kidnappers, Jasper wasn’t going to head out of town with Veronica. Sure, it looked as though the trail might be leading to Dallas, but the shooter had been in Whiskey Ridge hours before. He’d been right there. So Jasper was betting that he was still around. The shooter had just gone to ground.

Gotten cover.

For the time being.

“Why are we going back to Last Chance?” Veronica asked him, and he saw her tense as she glanced out of the window and toward the smashed fence.

Had last night’s wreck reminded her of the hell she’d faced as a child? He wanted to ask her, but Jasper knew he’d pushed her too much already.

“Your brother had a contact at Last Chance.” This much was true. Jasper also wanted to make sure that contact saw him with Veronica. All the better to bait his trap.

“How do you know that?”

Lie, lie, lie. “Because I recognized him when I went into the bar last night.”

“Another army buddy?”

“Something like that.” More like a guy who’d gone AWOL and gotten tossed in the brig. A guy who knew how to deal dirty.

Jasper had been surprised to spot the man there, and if Veronica hadn’t been in danger, he would have pushed the guy for information before he’d left last night.

“It’s the middle of the day. No one is even gonna be in Last Chance now.” Veronica’s lack of hope was obvious.

But he knew something she didn’t. “The owner will be there.”

She turned her head. Frowned.

“He’s the one we want.” They were past the accident scene now. Good. It looked as though she was even breathing better.

Jasper glanced in the rearview mirror. No tails. Nothing but empty road.

“Why...why were you fighting last night?”

Ah, he’d almost forgotten about that little incident. “The guy thought he could get rough with a waitress.” His hands tightened around the steering wheel. “He thought wrong.”

“So you decided to beat the right thought into him?” She sounded censuring.

What response had he expected from her? “No, I told the guy to back the hell off, but when he took a swing at me, I swung back.” He glanced toward her. Found that bright stare on him. “I always swing back.”

“I know.”

He frowned at that.

“Cale told me a few things about you.”

He had? Jasper eased up on the accelerator. He wanted to hear this. “What did he say?”

“Mostly that I should stay away from you.”

So Cale had seen the way he looked at Veronica. One meeting. One two-hour dinner in Dallas on a night that felt like a lifetime ago. She’d been wearing a blue dress that made her eyes even brighter. Her hair had been pulled back. She’d smelled like honeysuckles then, too. He’d looked at her...

And wanted.

When she’d excused herself for a moment, Cale had leaned close. “She’s not for you.” That had been all he had said to him.

But it seemed he might have said plenty more to her.

“Why’d he tell you to stay away?” Because he was curious and annoyed. The chemistry between him and Veronica was so hot it almost burned him every time she got near. For her brother to keep shoving her in the opposite direction...

“He said you were too much like him. Too dark. Too wary of commitment. You weren’t the kind of guy who’d go for the picket-fence routine.”

Because he didn’t know what the picket-fence routine was. He’d sure never grown up in that perfect world of baseball games and barbecues. He didn’t know a damn thing about that life. So how could he ever give it to a woman like Veronica?

“You always do what Cale tells you to do?”

She didn’t speak for a moment; then she said, “I’m here with you now, aren’t I?”

Yes, she was. He wouldn’t let his lips curl in satisfaction. She’s a job. Don’t forget that. But he could feel himself starting to slide down the slippery slope that would lead to lust and sex and pleasure.

Want her.

He also had one more question for her. “Just how did you know that I was going to be at Last Chance?” Another long curve, and then he could see the bar and its empty parking lot, standing stark on the barren landscape.

“It’s a small town.” She shrugged. The seat belt slid over her shoulder. “Word travels fast.”

That fast?

She slanted him a look from the corner of her eye. “I actually saw you in Tom’s Diner, but you left before I could approach you. Since there is only one motel in town, it didn’t take me long to track you down.”

He waited.

“Once I, uh, ‘confirmed’ with the clerk where you were staying, it wasn’t hard to figure out that you’d headed to the only bar in the county.”

Then she’d put on her sexy clothes—damn sexy—and come calling for him. Made him an offer that he couldn’t refuse.

Interesting. The woman was resourceful. He’d remember that.

He pulled into the lot. Checked his rearview mirror once more. No one for miles.

“You’re sure the bartender’s here?” Veronica asked as she pressed her fingertips against the dashboard.