“Oh: Dallas allowed her disappointment to show.

“But he gave me his .”

“Oh! Good!”

Amber laughed. “just in case. don’t get too Excited. I told him I was going with someone.”

“I see.” Dallas smiled. “The conversation got that specific, then?”

“Let’s face it. Vince has proposed about twenty times , and I always find some excuse to stall him. Should tell me something, shouldn’t it?”

“I would say so .” ,

Amber walked over to pick up the towel shed thrown. “Funny how some people just click.”

“Yeah.”

Amber straightened, the towel in one hand, and looked directly at Dallas. “For example, I can’t forget the picture of you and Gabe kissing over there by the pool tables. I don’t care what you say. He s the right one. Maybe he went a little crazy when somebody raped his sister. What brother worth anything wouldn’t? Cut him some slack.” She peered at Dallas. “God, you have a peculiar look on your face. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Dallas put a hand over her roiling stomach. She didn’t need to talk about Celia’s rape right now. “Must be something I ate.”

“Go home after work, then. Forget the inventory “

“No .” Dallas’s voice sounded faint even to her own ears. She cleared her throat and spoke more forcefully. “I’ll feel better when it’s done

: ‘


“Did anyone ever tell you that you’re stubborn?”

“Yes; Dallas said, and glanced for the hundredth time at the clock.

GABE WIsHED that he smoked. He needed something to pass the time as he and Jasper sat in his truck parked a block from Rowdy Ranch. Jasper wasn’t much of a convesationalist. As they sat silently in the chilled cab, Gabe fooled with his watchband, snapping it repeatedly

“Damn, but you’re making me nervous; Jasper said. “And I don’t get nervous .”

Gabe stopped snapping the band. “Sorry.” Jasper’s calm temperament was one of his most endearing characteristics. An ex-wrestler, he had the kind of body that required custom clothes. When people saw jasper, they instinctively drew back, until he smiled his gap toothed smile and gave them a cheerful greeting.

Jasper liked everybody, unless he learned they’d run afoul of the law. Then he perceived it as his mission to bring them to justice. He accomplished this without rancor, but his brutal efficiency was legendary among bounty hunters. Gabe hadn’t sent him inside Rowdy

Ranch because he might have been recognized. And even if he hadn’t, Jasper never went unnoticed for long.

“We should be able to take our positions in about fifteen minutes; Gabe said. “Remember, if he comes out with her, don’t even take time for the radio. just get him, as long as you can do it without Dallas being hurt.”

“Right. And if he comes out alone, I’ll follow him and hide next to the electrical box .” Jasper hit his fist into the palm of his hand. “We’re gonna nail this sleazoid.”

“Yeah.” Gabe decided he couldn’t sit there any longer. He opened his door and glanced over at jasper. “I think we’re close enough to the time. Ready?”

Jasper nodded.

“Then let’s go .”

VnqrCs nqVED to pick up Amber as Rowdy Ranch began to empty out. Fortunately Irving Skinner hadn’t left, which gave support to Dallas’s story that Irving was also staying late to take inventory.

While Amber finished cleaning up her station, Vince held Dallas captive with a long-winded story about his latest softball triumph. When Amber left with Vince, she glanced over her shoulder and rolled her eyes. Dallas smiled, figuring she might not have to listen to many more of Vince’s stories. Even if Fred told stories, they’d at least be more interesting than anything Vince could dish out.

One by one the shop owners pulled the black accordion doors across the front of their shops.

“Inventory, huh?” Shirley Jorgenson from the T shirt shop commented as she walked by on her way out the door.

“Afraidso; Dallas said, looking official with a clipboard in one hand.

“Got mine done last week, thank God: ‘

“Lucky you.” Dallas watched Shirley walk out the door accompanied by Frank, one of the bouncers. Shirley didn’t like mace or pepper spray, claiming they always detonated in the heat that built up in the interior of her car on warm Arizona days. So she opted for an escort. Somethings terribly wrong when women can’t walk alone at night without fear Dallas thought. She took a deep breath. Tonight she’d do her part to combat the terrorism that had become the norm.

Only a few dancers remained on the floor. Diego had left his position by the bar, but Dallas had expected that. According to the plan, Diego would now be standing on a toilet seat in the mens rest room , crouched low so no one could detect his presence. Dallas hadn’t seen Neal recently, either, although Beth was still around. Was Neal in the parking lot, deep in the shadows, waiting? Fear tightened in her chest and quickened her heartbeat. She swallowed and took several deep breaths.

Eventually the deejay played the final song of the night, and the last few stragglers left. The gel lights and neon were extinguished in favor of clear overhead lights that dispelled much of the magic that drew Rowdy Ranch customers. In the overhead glare Dallas noticed worn spots on the dance floor and stains on the carpet. The sound of vacuum cleaners replaced the seductive country-western music, and the wait staff scurried back and forth with clean glassware and fresh stacks of napkins

At last one of the managers wandered over to Dallas ‘s shop. “We’re ready to take off,” he said. “You know which door to use when you go out : ‘

“Right.” The double doors in front and the delivery doors on the side were fitted with security bolts and the managers had the only key. Dallas could go out a back door, which would automatically lock behind her.

“just throw on the alarm system when you leave, the manager said.

“Sure thing.” Cool sweat trickled down her backbone’ See you tomorrow night: Tomorrow night seemed aeons away, a safe time when everything would be over. She wanted it to be tomorrow night.. now. The manager and the last of the wait staff walked out the back door.

She was alone. Except for Diego. Maybe she should go find him and tell him the coast was clear.

She walked toward the rest rooms, where one door depicted a pendulous cow and the other picture, pendulous in a different fashion, depicted a bull. She’d always resented those pictures, she thought as she headed toward the bull. Men might preen at being compared to a well-hung bull, but no woman she knerv appreciated being compared to a cow.

As she lifted her hand to push open the door, the dance hall was plunged into darkness.

She whirled, her heart racing. Had there been a power failure? What a damned rotten time for it!

But there had been no power failure. A single slash of purple neon flickered on, bathing the hall in a dim, otherworldly glow. Dallas strained to pick out a movement in the deep shadows but could see no one.

Then the sound system began to play, and George Shait’s voice filled the hall. Dallas’s mouth went dry and she stopped breathing. The song was “When Did You Stop Loving Me?”

“Diego!” she screamed, pushing open the door.

“Forget Diego;’ said a microphone-assisted voice over the music.

With a strangled sob, she dashed for the only door that would open, but a black figure, crouched and ready to spring, blocked her escape. “Just try it; he whispered. “I like it when they fight.”

She backed away from him and tried to unfreeze her brain. She had to figure this out. Had to be smarter than he was. She quickly calculated her position. To her left were the rest rooms, to the right the dance floor. Directly behind her, maybe ten yards away, was one of the bars.

If she talked, she might distract him enough to take defensive action. “You knew,” she choked out.

“That you’d stopped loving me?” he drawled, mimicking the song. “I’ve suspected for a while.” He moved toward hex as she inched away. He seemed in no hurry. “The idea of a trap crossed my mind when you so conveniently announced you’d stay late. But seeing that bastard Axton was the final clue. I’d been trying to place the guy with a beard, and when Axton talked to him I remembered the face. Saw him a couple of times the past few days, thought it was coincidence. But it wasrit coincidence, was it, Dallas? Your boyfriend hired him to follow me, didn’t he?”

As the George Strait number ended, her hands closed on the back of a chair. Using the same motion as ropinga calf, she hurled the chair at him.

He dodged the chair and laughed as it thudded harmlessly on the carpet behind him. “I knew this would be fun.”

A new song began, a move suggestive one. Let’s get together for that old bump and grind, sang a new country star.

“Diego!” Dallas screamed again as she eased toward the bar.

You’re just the sort of girl to make me lose my mind.

Neal stalked her, the left side of his face outlined in violet, the right thrown into shadow. The silver buttons on his black shirt gleamed dully in the ghostly light. His dark western hat shaded his eyes, those pale eyes she’d once thought babyish. “Your bearded friend won’t be coming; he said.

She stared at the movement of his full lips, heavy with carnality. Her stomach heaved. “You killed him.”

“No. I’m not a kill ex Dallas. Sweet Dallas. Haughty Dallas : ‘

“Then where is he?”

“Passed out in the bathroom: His teeth gleamed carnivorous and sharp in the neon glow. “Lucky for me I keep a few drugs in the car. Never know when they’ll come in handy. When I told Beth the guy would be laying for me torught, she agreed to slip something into his drink. You see, Beth will do about anything for me: ‘