Double the Trouble (Texas Trouble 3)

DOUBLE THE TROUBLE

by Becky McGraw

This is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.  Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DOUBLE THE TROUBLE, Copyright @
July 18, 2012
by Becky McGraw.  All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions.  By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen.  No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the author.

CHAPTER ONE

Gabe Kelley didn't know how Elmer, his deputy, did this on a daily basis.  He'd only been sitting by the
Bowie
city limits sign for two hours
,
and it was all he could do to keep his eyes open. 
Only t
wo cars had passed by so far
, o
n
e was blue-haired M
r
s. Hopkins
, doing her normal twenty
in the forty-five mile an hour zone
, and t
he
other was a teenager
, who was only
doing thirty-five, but slammed on the brakes anyway when he saw the patrol car
.  The teen
rubbernecked in the rearview to make sure Gabe wasn't going to chase him
, and swerved nearly taking out
the speed limit sign
.

Gabe
had been
tempted to pull him over for being stupid
, i
f someone had been behind hi
m, they'd have eaten his bumper. 
That urge though could probably be attributed to
his foul mood.  Elmer was gone to receive an award from his accidental heroism, when an arms dealer had been after
his sister
Sabrina
,
and
her husband
Cole
,
on their wedding day.
 

Elmer had been
sitting right here when Cole passed him in his 65' Mustang doing
one twenty
,
trying to outrun the thug.  All Elmer did was call backup
,
because he couldn't keep up with them...and now
,
he was getting an award from the feds
. 
Gabe shook his head
, tipped back the dumb cowboy hat he had to wear with his uniform, then
picked up the styrofoam cup from the center console and took a sip.

Even the humongous coffee he'd bought at the Blue Bird
Cafe
before he came here, couldn't keep him alert.  He'd only drank about half of it, but you could stand up a spoon in the stuff Sabrina sold there
, and it still wasn't working.

Gabe was startled when t
he
patrol
car
rocked
violently
,
as
a
n older
black
Lincoln
doing at least a hundred
as it
zoomed past hi
m.  The hot coffee in the cup,
slosh
ed
all over the front of his
front of his uniform
, and scalded his chest
. 
The car had been going so fast, he
didn't even have
a chance
to clock it before it disappeared
. 

With adrenaline pouring through him,
he set the cup
back in the holder,
then fired
up the car
and switched on his lights
,
then
slammed his foot on the gas.
 
W
hen he pulled out on the road
, Gabe whistled when he
saw how far ahead the car was already.  T
hat damned
Lincoln
was hauling ass
,
and he wasn't sure he was going to catch it in the old cruiser Cole had stuck him in
.  Thank goodness there weren't any other cars on the road, or there
would
be trouble
, because the driver would never be able to stop that land yacht suddenly going that fast
.

A hay truck pulled out of a side road, and the
car b
rake
d
then
slow
ed a smidge
,
before the driver swerved and
switch
ed
lanes
to avoid colliding with
it
. 
Gabe
took the opportunity to push harder to catch up,
then
switched lanes too.  The driver should be able to see his lights soon, and they better damned well stop
, or he wasn't going
to catch them otherwise. 

There must be a rocket under the damned hood of th
at
Lincoln
.
  Finally,
t
he driver
evidently saw him, because he saw the brake lights again right before the driver slowed the car and pulled off on the shoulder.

Gabe had to really pump the brakes hard to get the cruiser slowed down enough to pull up behind
the car
. 
Most likely, he'd have to call Toby and have him do a brake job on the car after this, because he was sure
he'd burned
them
up
. 
After he slammed the car in park, Gabe grabbed his ti
cket book
off the seat, then
got out
of the car
and
saw
smoke coming from under the hood too.
 
He groaned and cursed, because that meant
he'd probably have to call a tow truck
too
.

Walking
up to the window,
Gabe
took a deep breath to calm himself down, before he leaned
into the window
and said, "I need you
r
license and registration..." he put his hand on the butt of his weapon, when the woman
reached
down
suddenly to
jerk her purse off the floorboard.  "Nice and easy, just get your wallet
out
.
..then step out of the car.
"

Suddenly, an ugly ass bulldog leaned over her shoulder
and stuck his head out the window then
lick
ed
Gabe right across the mouth.  Gabe spit and sputtered then wiped his arm across his mouth.  "Restrain your dog, ma'am."

P
ush
ing the
straw hat back on her head
, she
looked at him with the most beautiful bright blue eyes he'd ever seen, then smiled widely, before telling her mutt, "Down, Sarge...you wouldn't want to catch something
.
"
 

Smart ass woman, he thought.  When s
he went back to digging in her purse,
he said shortly, because he'd had enough of her rudeness,
"Can you hurry it up, please?"

Without looking up she asked him, "What're you late for your donut run?" then snorted, and not a cute little feminine snort either, it sounded like she had some nasal issues.

Hardy, har, he hadn't heard
that
one before. 
Gabe
smiled
tightly
,
and
because he
couldn't help himself, he asked
her
, "You break your nose or something?"

Her fingers flew up
to her nose
and she felt her way down the perfect slope then said, "No, why?"

"
You sounded like a pig in a trough
just now
, so I just thought maybe you had sinus issues.
"

She cut those beautiful eyes at him, then yanked her wallet out of her purse,
and
grabbed the door handle.  She almost took out his knee when she pushed open the door
, and he jumped back. 
Gabe's breath caught in his throat
as he watched one long
,
toned leg emerge from the Lincoln, then the other. 

W
hen she stood
up fully,
and he saw what she had on
, he swallowed hard
to tamp down the lust that hit him in the chest like a forty-pound mallet
.  A thin
,
western
type
shirt
was
tied right beneath the most exceptional breasts he'd
ever seen
,
and
it
was paired
with
a pair of very short, very narrow,
blue jean shorts.
  Every curve of her
outstanding
body was on full display, and she didn't seem to care. 
Neither did he, he thought, as his eyes took in the scenery
.

She reached for the back door handle and pulled it, then the bulldog jumped down and looked up at her adoringly, "Sarge, needs to pee," she told
Gabe
then pointed the dog to a grassy patch on the
other side of the car, and told him, "Go, potty
, Sarge."  The dog shook his head and slung slobber on Gabe's pant leg
.  Gabe
thought the dog smiled s
lyly
at him
,
before he walked over to the grass to do his business.

The red
-
hot redhead handed him her license then leaned back
against
the car and crossed one of her long legs over the other,
then crossed
her arms under her breasts
, which pushed them up to the V of her shirt
.  Gabe's eyes automatically went
there and his mouth watered
.
  He dragged his eyes away and looked at her license.

"So, where are you headed in such a hurry, Ms. Upton?"
he asked and forced his eyes to meet hers instead of where they wanted to go.

She tilted her head then asked snidely, "This a social visit, Sheriff?"

Gabe felt blood rush up his neck, along with the anger that surged through him.  She was baiting him.  Well, Ms. Uppity
Upton
wanted to be rude?  She
'd
just bought herself a big ticket or two
,
instead of the warning he'd planned on giving her. 

"
You were doing one hundred and five miles an hour when you passed me," he
told her
,
guessing because he hadn't actually clocked her
,
then started writing on his ticket pad.  When he finished, he tore it off
and
handed it to her
.
"That's probably a two-hundred and fifty dollar ticket," he told her with a smug smile
, then added,
"And you were driving recklessly and endangering other motorists,"
before he
looked back down at his pad to start writing again.

"What motorists?
" she snorted and he smiled
, because the sound really
was
funny.
"
The hay truck?  He pulled out in front of me..."

"If you hadn't been driving so fast, you would have seen him and been able to stop," Gabe lectured
her
.  He hated when he did that, but this smart-mouthed woman need it
, and a
lot more.
 
Karlene Upton
had no respect for authority. 
He imagined she'd been hell on wheels as a kid, and her parents had indulged her
.  H
e'd like to give her the spanking they
evidently hadn't
...
she could use it
.

Gabe
looked up when she took a step toward him
,
then
leaned over a little pretending to look at the ticket he was writing, giving him a perfect view down her shirt.  "Aw, c'mon, Sheriff...I'm sure there's
something
we can do to work this out, right?
she asked lifting her
bright blue
eyes to him, "
Can't you c
ut me a break?
"

He
gave her a tight smile then said sarcastically,
"You'
v
e been so
nice
to me since I pulled you over, I really would
love
to just give you a warning...but I can't.  Have to meet my quota, you know."