“You can’t do that.” Ronnie started after her.
Katie turned when she reached the door. Her left cheek twitched. “Wanna bet? And while I’m at it, I’m going to take care of your problem with Grady’s ex, too. That bitch will rue the day she messed with my sister.”
* * *
“What in the hell were you thinking, sending Coop to come get me out of jail this morning?” Natalie asked Claire as soon as the three old amigos took their late afternoon break from supervising the back deck construction project.
It was the first moment she’d gotten alone with her cousin since Coop had dropped her off at the General Store after springing her from the county pen.
Coop. In the flesh. Here with her in Jackrabbit Junction.
Shit.
He must have showered before coming to get her. She could smell his heady cologne across the cab of the pickup all of the way back to the RV park, making her want to scoot closer and nuzzle his neck.
When she’d mentioned to him after they dropped off Kate that she couldn’t hang out this afternoon because she had work to do, he’d shrugged and told her that he needed to sleep after the long drive south. His expression hadn’t changed at her addendum that she was helping out at The Shaft tonight, or when she invited him to stop by to eat, drink, and be merry. His parting, “I might see you there,” had left her grumbling under her breath about men and why a sabbatical was the smartest thing she’d ever done.
Might see you there.
He’d followed her over a thousand miles to Arizona for his so-called vacation and he “might” see her? The ornery son of a gun was as frustrating on the west side of the Continental Divide as he was on the east.
“You want to know what I was thinking?” Claire said, snapping Natalie back to the present. She lifted one end of a porch joist they’d cleared of nails and screws, waiting for Natalie to take the other end of the board. “I was thinking about ways to NOT end up in jail with you two. Kate is a black hole these days, sucking everyone into her insane world.”
“You’re right about that.” Natalie hefted the other end of the board. Together, they loaded it into the back of Ruby’s old Ford pickup.
Natalie had filled in Claire and the old boys on what happened earlier in Yuccaville with Kate. She’d skipped the part about the flash drive Kate had nabbed from Deputy Dipshit’s desk, selling the whole event as just another one of Kate’s “crazy” episodes.
Claire moved to the next loosened joist. “So what’s the story?”
“Which particular story?” They carried the board to the pickup, dumping it inside next to the other board.
“The one starring a certain Deadwood detective who drove to Arizona to stay at the same RV park as you.”
They grabbed another joist. “Oh, that one.”
The board clattered in the back of the pickup with the others. A raven squawked at them from a nearby cottonwood tree, apparently unhappy with their racket. Claire flipped it off.
“He claims he needed a vacation.” Natalie grabbed another board.
“I heard Tahiti is nice this time of year.”
Natalie chuckled as she stepped over a concrete pier, careful not to trip as they carried the board to the truck.
After they loaded another joist, Natalie came clean. “He’s the reason I left Deadwood.”
“Is he a stalker?” Claire asked.
“No, it’s not like that.”
They lifted another board.
“Was he giving you trouble back home?”
“Sort of.”
“Are we playing twenty questions here?”
They dumped off the joist.
Natalie moved closer to Claire, lowering her voice. “Years ago, we got hot and heavy behind the Purple Door Saloon.”
Claire grinned. “You back-alley tramp.”
“Not quite. We didn’t finish the job.”
“Why not?”
“Work called and he ran off to hunt criminals.”
“He chose work over sex? What is he, a cyborg assassin sent back from the future?”
Natalie chuckled. “You sound like Vi.” Her best friend back in Deadwood often claimed Coop wasn’t made of flesh and bone. Natalie knew otherwise, though, after being on the receiving end of those lips and hands. He was no machine, not with the way he kissed.
“I’m surprised Violet didn’t tell you he was coming down here,” Claire said. “She knows we’re allergic to cops.”
“She didn’t know.” A phone call shortly after Coop had dropped her off had confirmed Natalie’s suspicion—his trip to Arizona had been kept a big secret. Her partner in crime up in Deadwood had sworn up and down that she would have called Natalie and warned her if she’d known Coop was heading south.
“Ahhh, he kept it a secret,” Claire said. “Smart move.”
They carried another joist to the pickup, dumping it off.
“That’s what worries me. He’s too smart.” Natalie shook her head. “I left Deadwood because I needed to clear my head before I did something stupid.”
“Like sleep with him.”
“Exactly.” They carted another board to the pickup. “Giving in to my whims with him could really screw up a good thing.”
“Or just be a good screw thing.”
“You’re not funny.”
Claire grinned. “I sort of am. Besides, you’re on sabbatical. Doesn’t that make you indifferent to temptations in the form of male flesh or something like that?”
Natalie’s bark of laughter echoed across the RV park. “My electromagnetic, anti-men force field has not been working when it comes to Coop for some reason. So, I did what any savvy woman would do in my shoes—packed my duffle bag and fled. I figured a couple weeks of being far, far away from him would give me the time and space needed to take back the reins on my lonely heart.”
Another board landed in the pickup. Three to go.
“But now he’s here,” Claire said.
“Yes, he is.” Every sexy inch of him, damn it.
“What are you going to do?”
They carted another joist over to the truck.
“Well, I can’t ignore him. That’s rude.” And truth be told, she enjoyed Coop’s company. Over the last few
