Lone wolf bounty hunter, p.14
Lone Wolf Bounty Hunter, page 14
After parking, Kendra stared down at her phone. Tripp probably needed to know what happened.
She searched for the number for the bonds company. She pressed call, and a young woman answered on the first ring. “Hello, this is Lockwood Bonds, Emily speaking. How can I help you?” The woman sounded far too chipper for Kendra’s liking.
“This is Kendra Spade. I was calling to get ahold of Tripp. Is he available?” She had her hackles raised, but as much as she tried to talk herself down from her annoyance, she found she had no control over it when confronted with this twentysomething-sounding girl who must’ve worked with Trent nearly every day.
She wasn’t the kind to be jealous, but oddly enough, it was undeniable. What did that mean?
“Hold on one moment, hon.” Emily sounded one step off from giggling.
The fact that the girl had just called her hon set her teeth on edge. If Emily had worked for her, she’d have been fired already. There was a time and a place for a jovial and nonchalant manner, but working in a business that controlled the destiny of its customers was not that time.
The phone clicked, and she was sent to the dreaded hell of late-’80s lobby music. She wasn’t sure when Mötley Crüe had gone from being edgy and on the forefront of music to becoming so mundane that it could be played while a person was on hold.
After what felt like ten minutes, Tripp answered the phone. “Hey, what’s going on?”
Hearing Tripp’s voice, which sounded far too much like his brother’s, she felt a lump rise in her throat. Now she was getting emotional, too? What was going on with her?
“Hey, so, your brother was just picked up by the local PD. He is being charged for assault.” The words came out like they were weighted and they sank in the air.
“Holy crap, are you kidding me?” Tripp laughed, as if he actually thought Kendra was playing some ill-advised and poorly timed prank.
“No, seriously. We ran into the senator. Things went downhill rather quickly.” That felt like an understatement. “Is there anything you can do to get him released?”
She could hear Tripp typing away on a keyboard. “I’m looking at the police scanner data now. The boards are pretty empty. We might get lucky, but I have to make some phone calls. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Thanks, Tripp, I appreciate it.” She could hear the relief in her voice.
At least I’m not completely alone.
The thought reminded her of her family. It was odd, but she hadn’t even thought of calling them and instead had chosen to call Tripp. She would have liked to say it was merely an oversight and she would call them soon, but as she thought about dialing, AJ popped into her head. He would be absolutely livid if he heard how everything had been going. It was probably a good idea not to have him in the know—not until everything played out and she was back in control and at the top of her game.
“I gotta say, you must really like my brother.” Tripp was still clicking away, and he spoke the words like it was no big deal or even slightly surprising.
“What do you mean?” She kept her voice light, as if she didn’t really care, even though she hung on his words.
“Seems to me, your family’s lawsuit is probably on hold about now. The senator’s lawyers were murdered, after all. You could probably head on home to New York and come back and still be ahead of the ball. Yet, you’re choosing to stay here and help us out. You’re a busy woman. It must be costing you a pretty penny to hole up in Montana like this. Which could only mean a couple of things.”
“My family wanted me here.”
Tripp chuckled. “And I know my brother is interested in you—or he certainly seems to be. You’re definitely his type.”
“What type is that?”
She could feel Tripp’s self-satisfied smirk even though he was on the other end of the phone. “He likes a woman who takes charge and pulls no punches. As for my brother, he isn’t one who normally hangs out with anyone for more than a couple of hours before seeking to be back by himself. He is a lone wolf, so the fact that it doesn’t seem like he’s left you alone...well, it’s telling me all I need to know about his feelings toward you.”
“We are just friends, that’s all.” She wasn’t sure why she said it, but something inside her drove her to want to protect their burgeoning relationship...or whatever it was.
“That’s good. Trent needs friends,” Tripp said, a shard of ice smattered in his words. “And I guess I’m glad there ain’t nothing more between you two...considering my brother’s got a girlfriend. If for a minute I thought you were into him, I’d have to warn you off. As it is, it would be in your best interest to steer clear of him.”
Her stomach dropped. Of all the things she’d thought the man was going to say, him telling her about Trent’s love life in a context that didn’t involve her came as a surprise. Trent had told her—or at least she thought he had—that he was single. She definitely remembered him telling her about his ex-wife, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t have a new girlfriend.
“I have to go.” She hung up the phone, not waiting for Tripp to speak another word out of the fear that what was left of her heart would be ripped to shreds.
Chapter Sixteen
The steel handcuffs were chewing at his wrists like hungry hound dogs. It wasn’t the first time he’d been booked, and it wasn’t going to be the last—at least, he solidly doubted it. That being said, this was the first time he felt like he was innocent. He had done a hell of a lot worse and never been caught, so to find himself here sitting on the bench and waiting for them to take his fingerprints was almost laughable. Hell, he would have been laughing if it hadn’t been for Kendra.
He couldn’t forget that look on Kendra’s face after they cuffed and stuffed him. She’d looked absolutely terrified. He would’ve done anything—or gone back in time and made a whole hell of a lot of different decisions—if only he could wipe that expression off her face. She was far too beautiful to look that scared. From the moment he had met her, she had been nothing but confident. Yet somehow, he had broken her.
He’d never really liked the senator, but now he hated the man.
If he ever found the senator’s guards in a dark alley, they would get an ass whooping that they would never forget. When he told Tripp about this, his brother would probably want to tag along just to lay down the hammer. His brother could be one hell of a pain in the ass, but when it came to things like this, he was a good man to have standing at his side.
When Trent got his one phone call—which wouldn’t be for a while—he wasn’t sure exactly whom he should call: Tripp, a defense lawyer or Kendra.
By now, if he was Kendra, he would’ve been on the first plane back to the city. She didn’t have to put up with his crap. She didn’t owe him anything. It was crazy how much they had been playing this delicate game of so close, yet so far. Right now, he was farther away than ever.
He was so angry, he could spit. For just about the first time in his life, he was doing the right thing for the right reasons, and yet here he was paying the price for all his other misdeeds. And, of course, he had been made to look the fool in front of her... Would she even stay?
Kendra definitely wasn’t his girlfriend; she wasn’t even his lover. Though they had come damn close. He would never forget the way she had felt sitting on his lap, the robe slipping from her shoulder, exposing that little puckered scar. If he hadn’t been able to see any part of her but her shoulder, he still would’ve been harder than pine.
The thought made him squirm on the hard wooden bench. Now wasn’t the time or the place to think about Kendra naked. It would lead to some odd questions if his body responded. Though, if he had to guess, there were probably people who enjoyed this kind of thing. He had definitely met a few who would get a rise out of being handcuffed and dominated, but he wasn’t one of them. He had to really trust someone to even allow them access to his world, let alone have any real control over it.
The officer who arrested him hadn’t said any more than what was absolutely necessary during the booking process. Now he was filling out paperwork on the computer, but he kept glancing over at Trent, making sure he wasn’t going anywhere.
The guy should’ve known better. He would’ve done about anything just to get out of this place right now, and acting up would have been against his own self-interest. He needed to get back to Kendra. She needed him. He’d seen it in the way she looked at him, and now sitting here, powerless, was far more torturous than anything they could do to him inside the jail.
He leaned his head back against the concrete wall behind him and closed his eyes. He tried to calm himself, reminding himself that Kendra was one of the most capable women he knew, but his heart was thrashing in his chest. If only he had gotten his hands on the senator. At least then he would’ve known where the man was and if he posed any real threat to Kendra.
So far, the man only seemed hell-bent on taking him down and hadn’t even really seemed to notice that Kendra had been with him. It could have been an oversight, or it could have been that the senator didn’t even know she was gunning for him. Trent hoped for the latter. If the senator wasn’t after her, she stood a chance in getting out of this entire fiasco without too much more going wrong.
Yes, that had to be it. She wasn’t in danger. She had anonymity on her side. Hell, even her family’s lawsuit was probably moot now, too, since the senator was a bail jumper.
The arresting officer made his way over to Trent. “You ever hear the story about the jackrabbit?” The man looked down at him, but even from where he was sitting, he could make out a thin sheen of sweat on the man’s brow. The guy even smelled of sweat, the dank, hormonal kind that came after a long day’s work and heavy stress.
They had been in the bucket for about an hour, so he couldn’t imagine why the man was sweating so profusely.
“Well, have you?” the officer inquired.
Trent shook his head.
The officer sighed. “My grandmother always told me a story about this one jackrabbit. Lived on my family’s ranch in North Dakota.”
Given the start of the story, he wasn’t sure why the man would’ve thought he’d ever heard it. However, being snarky and picking a fight didn’t seem like the greatest idea when he was sitting here at this man’s mercy.
“This little rabbit found itself in our family’s barn. Wasn’t a bad place for a rabbit. In fact, he thought it was real perfect. He could play all around the combine and big machines and stayed one step ahead of any little predators that liked to look outside the barn. At night, the little rabbit would slip under the door and nibble on the grass around the barn and do what rabbits do.”
The man looked at him, assessing, like he was making some odd metaphor about how Trent was the rabbit. The man failed to realize Trent wasn’t playing—this wasn’t some goddamned game to him.
“Sure enough, one day this rabbit got picked up by a little fox. That fox got it in its mouth and moved to start shaking it about, but lo and behold, that rabbit wasn’t alone. Out came another one from the barn. Instead of running or turning back and going back in that barn, that rabbit came charging after that fox, forcing it to drop the rabbit in its mouth.” The officer sounded annoyed.
If this guy was talking about them, Trent couldn’t imagine who would have already come to his rescue and forced the man to let him go.
“Are you saying you’re releasing me?” Trent asked.
The officer crossed his arms over his chest, making him look even wider than he already was. The guy was stocky and thick, and the last thing he would’ve called the guy was fox-like. If anything, he was more like a tank, thick and blocky, the kind of guy who would have no problem taking any dude to the ground.
“Hold your horses, I wasn’t done with my story.” The officer smirked.
Trent could see this man was enjoying his little show of power. He didn’t totally understand why the guy was going after him like he was. For all intents and purposes, they were fighting for the same side when it came to criminals. Or was this guy trying to warn him about something?
“While that little rabbit and his compadre got away, that fox was smart. Now he wasn’t just going after one rabbit, he was going after two. So, he hunkered down and waited. It wasn’t a day later that those hungry little rabbits poked their heads out, and he devoured both of them. The only thing he left of them was tufts of fur.” The officer bristled with the threat.
So, the man was going to have to release him. This couldn’t have been the first time the guy was faced with something he felt wasn’t right or fair, but if the cop had just talked to him and seen his side of things, maybe he could have helped him to understand that he wasn’t the villain here.
He looked at the officer, studying him. The guy was young—if he had to guess, he would’ve said he was probably about twenty-seven. He was just getting to that age where a person was starting to figure life out, but with figuring it out came a complete lack of humility. Life was just about to slap him down. Trent didn’t particularly want to be the guy that was responsible for that with this kid, but his own self-interest had to come first.
“Who told you that you had to release me?” Trent made sure not to smile, keeping his expression neutral in an attempt to keep the kid from reading him.
“Who said anything about releasing you?” the young man countered.
Trent tried to stifle his annoyance. The fellow was just learning the ropes. “What sergeant’s on duty today?”
“Why do you care?”
“I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but I’m friends with quite a few of your brothers in blue. In fact, I work closely with most of the men here. Detectives really like me.” He tried not to sound full of himself, but the kid needed to know that it wasn’t Trent who was playing with fire here.
“It’s funny, but every time I arrest somebody, they seem to get some new friends around the department.” He smirked again. “So, before you go throwing out any names, you need to make sure that they know I’ll be giving them a call.”
He was growing tired of this kid’s game. “I’m currently working with Detective Baker on a murder case. If you wanted to give him a call, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to come down here and talk to me and explain the situation.” He didn’t really want the dude to call the detective; he was nothing more than a witness for the man. However, if it sped up the process of getting him back to Kendra, he would pull out all the stops.
The young officer dropped his hands from his chest and started fiddling with the latch on his utility belt. He tapped his fingers on the set of handcuffs in the hard plastic shell, making them rattle. It was almost like a nervous tic.
Finally, maybe they were getting somewhere.
The kid pulled out his cell phone and started tapping away, and without saying anything, he went back to his computer.
Trent smiled; he’d be back to work in no time. He’d never been more amped up to get his hands on a fugitive before.
Trent was tired of men like Dean, the kind who never found themselves staring down the barrel. Instead, they were always the one holding it.
The officer answered a phone call. He turned away, shielding his face from Trent’s view, and it made him wonder who exactly he was talking to—if it was the detective or whoever had led him to having the conversation about rabbits.
The phone call didn’t last more than thirty seconds, and the kid’s hands were shaking as he slipped the device into his back pocket and turned again to his computer.
A few minutes later, the door at the end of the hallway opened, and Detective Baker came strolling out. He looked at Trent and gave him a stiff acknowledging nod before making his way to the office area where the patrolman was standing. They had a quick, hushed conversation.
Detective Baker made his way over to Trent and took out a handcuff key. “Why don’t you go ahead and stand up and we can get you out of here,” he said with a lift of the hand, motioning him upward.
Trent stood and turned toward the wall, holding his arms out behind him so Baker could take the cuffs off. With a quick flip of the key, Baker removed them and tossed them on the floor in the direction of the patrolman. While Trent wasn’t sure what they had said to one another, the toss made it clear the two weren’t going to become friends anytime soon.
Trent turned back around, rubbing the red welts on the outsides of his wrists where there had been the most pressure from the cuffs. Though he was flexible, it was amazing how much damage a set of cuffs could do to a fully grown man in a matter of hours.
“Sorry about this,” Baker said, motioning him in the direction of the door from which he had first appeared.
“It isn’t your fault. If anything, I should have made more of an attempt to control my temper.” He walked beside the detective as they made their way down the hall, but as he neared the desk where the patrolman was standing, he found the kid wouldn’t look him in the eye. “I appreciate you helping me out. Thanks.”
“Oddly enough,” Baker said, “I’ve actually been fielding a number of calls about you and Ms. Spade today. Sounds like you guys have been up to your knees in crap since I last saw you.”
Trent reached up and ran his hand over the back of his neck. “Well, hell. It wasn’t like we were aiming to cause problems. We were just trying to do the best with what the world has given us.” He gave a nervous laugh.
Baker shook his head admonishingly. “You’re just lucky that a pair of reporters caught your little scuffle with the senator’s guard on film. Otherwise, there would have been little we could have done to get you off being booked for an assault charge. As it is, after reviewing the tapes, Officer Daniels,” he said, pointing in the direction of the kid, “and I were able to conclusively say that you were acting in self-defense and no charges could be filed.”
