“Handing back your keys in the police station’s parking lot as I was heading out on a call doesn’t count.” He lifted one blond eyebrow. “What the fuck is going on, Nat? I thought we’d made it past these sorts of games in Arizona. Or were you just using me to blow off some steam after being on that damned sabbatical for too many months?”
I winced at the sharp bite underlying his words. Apparently he’d been counting the individual minutes within each of those seventy-two hours since she’d returned.
“I wasn’t using you, Coop.” She spoke calmly, as if there wasn’t a snorting bull pawing at the floor not ten feet away from her.
“Then tell me what the hell is going on here, because when I left Jackrabbit Junction, you gave me the impression that we’d be picking up here in Deadwood where we left off down there—in and out of bed.”
“I know, and I’m sorry, Coop, but …” She trailed off, puffing her cheeks and then blowing out a long breath. “We have a problem here.”
“I agree. Parker needs to go away and let us finish this discussion in private.”
“I second that motion,” I said, raising my hand.
“Stop taking his side, best friend,” Natalie said.
My cheeks warmed with guilt. She was right. Why was I taking Cooper’s side? The bozo had been a butthead to me since he arrived at the Sugarloaf Building earlier. I returned to doodling Doc’s name repeatedly with hearts in place of the O’s.
“The problem I brought you out here to discuss has to do with Violet, too,” Natalie told him.
He scoffed. “Why does that not surprise me?”
“Listen here, Bitter Betty,” I said to him, popping up from the chair with my finger aimed at him. I was tired of surly sons of bitches jabbing and sucker punching me today. The solid blow from Prudence via Zelda’s elbow earlier was the final straw. Cooper could find someone else to be his punching bag tonight.
“Sit down, Violet.” Natalie stole the wind from my sails, adding a “Please” when I hesitated. After my hind end had returned to the chair, she told Cooper, “I heard something worrisome from Detective Hawke the other night.”
His shoulders stiffened. “What were you doing with Hawke at night?”
“She wasn’t with Hawke.” I butted in before Cooper got his tail kinked. Detective Hawke had a history of flirting with Natalie, thinking he had a popsicle’s chance in hell at getting her to give him more than the time of day. “She was merely listening through the floor vent.”
Cooper’s body uncoiled slightly at my clarification. “What did you hear?”
“Hawke suspects that you’re compromised.”
“Compromised how?”
“I heard him tell someone on the phone that he thinks you are working with Violet. He said he’s going to be watching you along with her now, trying to find some evidence that will prove his theory about you two being in cahoots. Then he’s going to turn you in along with Violet.”
Cooper’s face hardened all over again. I half expected to see fracture lines appear below his crinkled brow. “Fuck.”
“That’s not all,” I said, turning my scrap paper over. “Tell him about what we saw earlier, Natalie.”
While I doodled some more, she filled Cooper in on the secret meeting she’d caught Hawke having with Jeff last night. Then she told him about the rendezvous earlier with Tiffany next to the Mickelson Trail.
When she finished, Cooper scowled from her to me and back. “You two were spying on Hawke tonight?” He didn’t sound happy at all about our stakeout.
I chanced a peek at him, running into his hard stare. “If we say ‘Yes,’ are you going to yell at us again?”
“What do you mean ‘again’? I haven’t yelled at either of you tonight … not yet, anyway.”
“Yeah,” Natalie said, “but the night is young.”
Cooper huffed, plowing his fingers through his hair and leaving behind a choppy wake of tufts. “Jesus, you two.” He sounded more tired than pissed. “You both make me want to crawl inside a whiskey bottle for a week.” He focused on Natalie. “Especially you.”
“I’m sorry, Coop.” She took a couple of steps toward him, but then stopped short, as if she’d reached the end of her leash. She clenched her hands together so tight that her fingers turned almost white. “I’m torn about what needs to be done here, but we can’t ignore Hawke and the potential shitstorm he could start.”
“You’re right, but I want you to back off—both of you—and let me handle this.”
“No can do, Coop. You’re too close to the fire this time. You need to be careful, same as Violet.” She stared down at her clenched hands. “Same as me.”
“Natalie …” he started.
“I don’t think we should see each other anymore,” she blurted out, still staring at her hands, before continuing in a lower voice. “I mean alone. We can still see each other on the street, or here at Zoe’s place, but—”
“I disagree,” he cut in.
“But,” she plowed onward, louder now, “we can’t be spotted alone together, especially by Hawke.”
Cooper cursed at the ceiling.
“Because if Hawke catches wind that you and I are anything more than pals these days, he’ll probably come after you even harder since I’m Vi’s best friend.”
“Are you forgetting that you kissed me in front of two Deadwood officers that day at Freesia’s place? Do you think he didn’t hear about that little show you put on?”
“Yeah, but nothing more came of that. Besides, those two officers are used to me flirting like that.”
His nostrils flared. “Really?”
“Coop, don’t look at me like that. What I did in the past cannot be held against me right here and now. If you’ll remember, you wanted nothing to do with me then.”
“That’s right.” I took Natalie’s side this time. “That was back when she was just a local girl. And we all know how you felt about dog paddling in the local dating pool prior to now.” I grinned in
