Slow Hand (Hot Cowboy Nights, #1)(65)

Although she maintained that she was a city girl, the happiest moments in her life were still the simplest ones—like the hours sipping sweet tea and playing cards in her MeeMaw’s kitchen back in Lavonia. Although she’d dropped her drawl and eradicated the outward signs of her rural upbringing, she was still small town in her heart. Could she have found contentment in Montana?

Damn it, Nikki! You made your choice—the right one. It was great with Wade while it lasted, but it’s done. Now accept it and move on.

She found herself staring at her own front door without even remembering how she got there. Dropping her bags, Nikki fished her keys from her purse only to discover the door unlocked.

What the hell?

She dug her cell out of her purse with trembling fingers, and was about to dial 911 when she noticed a familiar looking car in the parking lot—the only one in worse shape than hers—and one she suspected would be repossessed at any time. The second thing she noted was the TV blaring inside her apartment. She slapped the phone shut, dropped it back into her purse, and pushed the door open. Once inside she drew in a lungful of air, letting it out with an exasperated cry, “Shelby Jane Baker! What the hell are you doing in my apartment?”

Her younger sister never took her eyes off the TV. “Watching Jerry Springer.”

Nikki slammed her bags down and picked up the remote, furiously clicking off the television. “Why here? Did they repo your TV, too?” She was about to give Shelby another earful until her sister turned her platinum head to face Nikki straight on. Her lip was split and her left eye was mottled shades of green and purple, and hideously swollen.

“Holy shit!” Nikki cried. “What did that bastard-son-of-a-bitch-* do to you?”

“I keyed his new truck for screwing my neighbor. He beat the bejesus out of me. Then I left,” Shelby answered in classic, blunt Shelby style.

“And broke into my place?”

She shrugged. “Where else was I to go?”

“Did you call the police? You need to file a restraining order.”

“Yeah, right.” Shelby snorted. “As if I want them to know where I am.”

“What is it this time?” Nikki groaned.

“Don’t be melodramatic. It was only a couple of bad checks.”

“Does Asshole know you’re here?”

“Not yet. Probably won’t know much of anything even after he wakes up.”

“Wakes up?” Nikki scowled. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I slipped some valium into his bottle of Crown. How was your trip?”





Chapter 18


Jolted awake after another restless night, Nikki slapped the snooze bar on her alarm clock, and then pulled a pillow over her head, dreading her return to work. Although she was tempted to blow it off altogether, wisdom told her not to act rashly—at least not until she had enough money in the bank to tell her boss to kiss her ass.

After dozing through two more alarm cycles, she finally dragged herself from bed and stumbled to the kitchen to start the coffee. On her way back to shower, she thumped loudly on Shelby’s door.

“Go away,” her sister groaned.

Nikki cracked the door open. “Don’t you have someplace to be?”

“Like where?” Shelby mumbled, her head still buried under the covers.

“Like work,” Nikki snapped. “Aren’t you going?”

Shelby sat up with a guilty look. “About that. I meant to tell you that I’m kinda between gigs right now.”

“Again? Did you get fired?”

“No. I quit.” Shelby heaved a dramatic sigh. “Don’t look at me like I’m some kind of vermin, Nikki! A lot of people are out of work right now.”

“But you were only there a month!”

“Almost two, and I had good reason for leaving.”

“Yeah and what was that?” Nikki couldn’t hide her skepticism.

“You don’t understand how it is, Nikki. You just sit there all day in cubieland. You’ve never had to deal with the kind of dickwads I have to face every day—like the ones demanding blow jobs. That * offered me an extra fifty bucks to blow him.” Shelby rolled her eyes. “Fifty…as if I’d ever.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“Wish I was. You’d be surprised how many clients think a ‘happy ending’ is included with a massage. Tantric costs extra. Mucho extra.”

“Tantric?”

“You know, erotic massage.”

“No. I don’t know.” Nikki shook her head. “And I think I don’t want to know.”

“Probably not,” Shelby smirked.

“Are you at least looking for something else?”

“I was planning to,” Shelby said. “But you can hardly expect me to show up for an interview looking like this.”

She had a point. The bruising was hideous. “Look, Shel, you can stay here for a while, but I expect you to earn your keep.”

Shelby scowled. “What does that mean?”

“I want you to help out. You can at least clean the place up while I’m gone. You know, dishes, vacuuming, windows…”

Shelby’s eyes widened in incredulity. “You expect me to wash the freaking windows?”