Double the Trouble (Texas Trouble 3) (2 page)

"I could be
really
nice to you, if you decided to give me that warning," she purred then licked her full lips
, and looked at his car behind them
.

His eyes followed her tongue, then he looked back in
to
her eyes, and asked, "How nice?"  Gabe wasn't falling for this, but he wanted this hellion to sink her own ship.

"As nice as you want me to be, sugar
...I'm sure there's something I could do for you.
" she told him
, then added,
"
I really can't afford those kind of tickets."

"Well, you shouldn
't have been driving like that," he told her and ran a finger along her jaw, "
And you
really
shouldn't have just propositioned me for sex
, because now you're under arrest
."

She jerked back from him and put her hands on her hips.  "I didn't say one damned word about sex.
..but you sure have been staring pretty hard,
"
she spat then ran her eyes over his body.  "Looks like that's not the only thing hard, either."

Gabe didn't look down at himself and give her the satisfaction, he stuffed his ticket book in his back pocket and told her
forcefully
, "You're going to jail,
your car is being impounded,
and your mutt is going to the pound."

"The pound!" she wailed and tears filled her blue eyes.  "You can't send Sarge to the pound, Jake will find him!" 
Karlie knew that the chip embedded in him had Jake's phone number and address on it, and that's who they'd call if she couldn't get him out.

The too sexy Sheriff backed up a couple of steps and told her, "Come to the back of the car and put your hands on the trunk, so I can pat you down."

"You just want to feel me up--I know your type.  Ain't happening, bucko."

She saw him grind his teeth and clench his fists then he spat, "I'm arresting you Ms. Upton, now get your ass over here."

Karlie shook her head
and
her eye caught on the l
ariat
she had in her back seat, then she looked back at him, then back at the la
riat
.  "You're not touching me, call a female officer," she told him.

"We don't have any female officers at the Bowie Sheriff's Department, ma'am."

"Well
,
call
someone
, because you're not touching me,
or I'm going to sue you.
" she spat.

He huffed out a frustrated breath
, pointed to her and said
with narrowed eyes
, "You stay right there,"
then turned his back to walk toward his car. 

Taking
her
to jail was one thing,
Karlie thought,
but
she
was not letting this man take Sarge to the pound, no way, no how.  She reached through the back window and grabbed the rope from the back seat, pulled the loop open
,
took a couple of twirls
then
tossed it at him.  Because she was an excellent roper
,
of course it landed it perfectly over his head, then she yanked it tight
and jerked him off of his feet
. 

H
e wound up on his ass
, then he tried to sit up
, cursing a blue streak
. 
Karlie
ran to him and
looped him a couple more
times, then rolled him and tied
it to his feet, and then his hands.
Out of habit, she threw up her own hands for a time
then pushed up off of him to stand
.

"Lady, you just committed
f
elony assault on a police officer...you'll go to
prison
now
,
"
he grated then said, "If you untie me, I'll forget this happened."

Karlie gnawed her lip and fear coursed through her.  He was right, and now that she'd tied him up, she thought better of it, but she couldn't let him send Sarge to the pound
.  She'd already stepped off into it anyway
, and could
n't
go back
. 
Tears stung
her eyes and
she
told him, "I really am sorry...but I can't let you send my dog to the pound.  Who can I call to come get you after I'm gone?"

"That's not going to help you," he grated and pinned her with his angry blue eyes, "You're still going to prison, Karlene. There's no cell phone reception out here, anyway."

"Karlie," she corrected him.

"What?"
he asked struggling against the knots in the rope, his hands clenching and unclenching.

"My name is Karlie..." she told him, then added, "I'll go call someone on the radio in your car, I can't just leave you out here."  She might have tied him up, but she didn't want anything to happen to the good looking deputy.  She couldn't live with
that
on her conscience, whether she was in prison or not.

He snorted then told her, "I don't know why you'd care...murder would just add time onto your sentence, and you don't seem to care about breaking the law."

"Oh, I care...but I care about my dog more," she told him then started walking toward his car.  She saw the steam pouring out from under the
hood
and wondered if he'd blown a hose or something, or if maybe the radiator had a hole
, she smelled brake dust too and looked down to see it coating the rims
.  If he'd been nicer, she might would have
been nice and
help
ed
him fix it
like she offered
,
but he'd been an ass and thought she'd meant sh
e wanted to have sex with him.
  That thought caused a little thrill of excitement to skitter along her nerve endings
, but it made her mad too
.

Karlie
pulled the door handle and slid into the driver's seat
, then
looked around at all the older looking equipment, and shook her head.
She'd
seen the inside of enough police cars to know this wasn't state-of-the-art
stuff
.
 
This really was a backwoods town, but the deputy sure wasn't
, she thought
. 

Although he had on a uniform and cowboy hat, it didn't look like he was comfortable in it
, and he didn't have a
Texas
drawl
.  He must be an implant in
Bowie
, or something. 
She found the radio on the dash and picked it up then pressed the bar on the side and said, "Hello..." then let it go.

A woman's voice came over the
radio and said, "Who's this?"

Karlie pressed the button again and told her, "I just wanted to let you know you need to send someone out to the main road near the city limit sign to pick up your deputy."

"Gabe?  What's wrong with him?" the woman
asked with concern.

"Just come get him.
..
" Karlie
told her
,
then tossed the microphone from her now shaking hand.  She slid back out of the car and shut the door
,
then walked back over to the deputy who was struggling in earnest against his bonds now
, because Sarge was standing by him licking him all over his face
.

"Sarge! Down!" she yelled running over there to grab him by the collar and drag him off of the deputy.  "I'm sorry...he's a licker, and he seems to like you, go figure," she said then snorted.

"If I could get my hands on my gun, I'd show you and your dog
exactly
how much I like
both
of you," he hissed then wiped his face on the grass he was half laying on. 
His
other half was on the
asphalt shoulder
, so she was glad his face was on the grass.

"I'm going now, but I called your dispatcher...someone should be out to help you
, soon
." she told him then hesitated and said, "I really am sorry...and I wasn't propositioning you for sex, although you're pretty cute, I was going to help you fix your car."

Karlie turned toward her car and called Sarge to follow her, then opened the door and let him in the back.  "Bye!" she yelled at the officer, then got in the
Lincoln
, deciding she needed to get the hell out of here, b
efore his help arrived.

***

Gabe was amazed...totally
fucking
blown away that the woman had managed to catch him off guard and hog-tie him, before he
e
ven realize
d
what was going on! 
She'd been like a freaking ninja with that rope,
and
had him trussed up in less than a minute!  And
she'd tied him
damned good too, he thought
,
trying again to loosen the knots. 

His military stint, being a cop in
Phoenix
, and then a Private Investigator, none of it had prepared him for the
feisty
redhead with roping skills that should be in a rodeo. 
He was mad as hell, and embarrassed, but he wanted to laugh too. 

This was one that would go down in the annals of history at the Bowie Sherif
f
's department...the day the new Chief Deputy got hog-tied by a woman on the side of the road.  Cole was going to give him absolute hell...might even fire him.  Elmer had nothing on Gabe in this instance.  He almost wished it was his deputy hog-tied here, because everyone expected Elmer to screw up, and laughed at it. 
Gabe d
idn't think Cole would think it was as funny with him being the victim.
 

Laying his head on the grass,
Gabe
sighed then closed his eyes waiting for help to show up. 
He
hoped the woman wasn't lying about calling someone,
or else
he could be out here all night.

Five minutes later, he saw Cole's big green dually pull up on the shoulder in front of him and he groaned.  Julie Beth couldn't have just sent another deputy out here...she had to call Cole, the Sheriff, to compound his embarrassment.  Gabe hit his head against the grass, then heard the truck door slam and Cole's footsteps as he walked over to him.

Blood rushed up his neck and heated his face when he heard Cole say, "Holy shit!" then his friend the Sheriff broke down in gales of laughter so loud and hearty, Gabe flinched then groaned.  Cole must've laughed a full minute before
, out of breath,
he asked "What the hell happened, Gabe?"

"Just untie me," Gabe told him through clenched teeth.

"I wish my cell phone had a camera..." Cole told him leaning down to pull on the stiff rope.
  "Sabrina is never gonna believe this."

It took
Cole
a minute to untie all the knots, then when Gabe was finally free, he rolled onto his back and put his hand over his eyes, trying to get his anger under control.  That woman was going to pay, and pay big when he caught up to her.  And he would find her...if it took him a lifetime to do it. 

***

Karlie's stomach was churning with nerves and hunger when she finally pulled up in front of the big farmhouse at the Double B ranch.  Looking over behind the house to the barn, she saw a couple of people, but not Cassie or Luke, so she got out of the car, but left Sarge in the backseat
,
in case they weren't home.