Lady Luck (Colorado Mountain #3)(167)

“You got it, Chace,” Poppy shouted back.

Chace looked at me. “Sit. Eat your lunch. But please, f**k, no more life lectures. Can you do that for me?”

I grinned and said, “Sure.”

He stared at me. Then he shook his head.

Then he went back to scribbling on his paper.

I watched.

Then I asked, “So, are you gonna ask Faye out?”

His neck bent so just his head tipped back and he skewered me with his blue eyes.

“Okay, okay,” I muttered. “Yeesh.”

He looked back at his papers and kept scribbling.

Poppy served my cheeseburger, curly fries and diet at the table.

I squirted an enormous mound of ketchup on my plate while commenting, “By the way, you’re hot but you’re super hot when you get angry.”

His neck bent so his head tipped back again and he scowled at me.

“Just sayin’,” I muttered, digging a fry into my ketchup, popping it into my mouth and deciding against telling him his scowl proved my point.

I continued to do this and after I picked up my burger and took a big bite, Chace spoke and he did this to his papers.

“Walker gonna lose his mind, find me and rip my head off when he finds out you were sittin’ here with me?”

“Nope,” I said through half-munched burger.

His neck bent and head tipped back again. “Nope?”

I shook my head, swallowed and grinned. “Well, he might not invite you to our child’s christening but, like me, he’s grateful for what you did. If you’re not thinking that and instead thinking he’s jealous, nope again. You’re not my type. I’m not into blonds. But you know who is?” I asked.

“Lex –” he started.

I finished quickly, “Faye Goodknight.”

He sat back again but this time his eyes rolled to the ceiling.

“You do know I’m on a mission,” I informed him then took another bite of burger.

His eyes came back to me.

I chewed, swallowed and explained, “When women get all loved up, they do this. They want to spread the joy.”

He just stared at me.

“They get obsessed with it,” I went on.

Chace sighed.

“So you should probably just give in,” I finished.

He shook his head then bent it back to his papers again but I could swear he did it while his lips twitched.

Good.

I finished my lunch in silence while Chace Keaton scribbled and moved papers around and studied some photos and scribbled some more. When I was done, I opened my purse, pulled out money to cover my lunch and the tip and tucked it under my plate.

Then I announced, “Well! Off to get a library card. See you later, Chace.”

Before he could say anything, I slid out of the booth.

But when I was out of the diner and walking along the sidewalk in front of it, I looked into the window to the back booth and saw a pair of attractive blue eyes on me.

And they were smiling.

And it wasn’t the only thing on Chace Keaton’s face that was smiling.

So when I lost sight of him, it was my turn to smile.

* * * * *

Angel

One and a half weeks later…

“You are f**kin’ shittin’ me,” Angel Peña clipped to the DA.

“Nope, failure to appear. Jumped bond,” the DA replied.

Angel shook his head.

Duane “Shift” Martinez. A pain in his ass.

“Means your afternoon is free, Angel,” the DA went on.

Angel didn’t want a free afternoon. He wanted to sit in the courtroom and watch then testify at Martinez’s preliminary hearing.

Shit.

“Head’s up, you need to make sure the paperwork is processed so his bondsman knows real f**kin’ quick that he’s FTA. He doesn’t get someone out on this guy’s ass right away, he can kiss his bail money good-bye,” Angel advised.

“No bondsman posts bail without collateral,” the DA returned.

“Martinez is known to fib about collateral. The bondsman got dibs on Shift’s Momma’s house, he’s gonna learn soon Shift has no Momma. I don’t know what he put up, I just know there’s a twenty-eighty chance he don’t got it.”

“No bondsman is that dumb,” the DA replied.

“The one who bonded out Martinez is. He’s already kissin’ ten percent of his bond good-bye ‘cause he needs a bounty hunter to round him up. Shift was a huge flight risk. He took flight. This is not a surprise. Martinez perpetrated the ultimate f**k to his best f**kin’ friend, you think he won’t f**k his bondsman on collateral, you’re whacked. The longer this shit is delayed; the more chance Martinez has to get to Mexico.”

Or Colorado but, pray God, Angel hoped not.

He watched the DA’s mouth get tight.

Then he watched him pull out his phone.

Message received.

Angel jerked up his chin and walked on his cowboy boots out of the courtroom and through the halls of the courthouse automatically listing in his head who would get calls and their priority.

First, Ty Walker.

He was pushing through the front doors of the courthouse, pulling his phone from his inside jacket pocket when the drive-by happened.

The automatic weapon fire took down three innocent bystanders.