It was the Longest Friday night in history for Dallas. She closed the shop at midrught. Amber had gone home a half hour earlier, and Dave had a run of business and would obviously be staying late. Dallas didn’t feel like waiting around so he could walk her to the parking lot, as he often did and undoubtedly wanted to do tonight. But she was a big girl, and she always carried a small caruster of pepper spray in her purse for the times she left the dance hall alone.

Following her usual precaution, she pulled the spray out once she pushed through the oak doors into the night. She wore her fringed leather jacket but the late February chill nipped at her bare legs. When she saw the black Corvette parked several spaces down from her truck, she wondered if it could be Neal’s.

She was too mentally and physically exhausted to care, but as far as she knew, he was still dancing. The Aztec warrior had been glued to his bar stool. She’d passed him with her head high, her eyes forward, and silently wished him a vicious hangover in the morning

To thixtk that she’d thought herself mildly attracted to that arrogant man. She wondered if he was some sort of vigilante type who ran around second-guessing judges and juries. For all she knew he was dangerous. She got a firmer grip on her spray as she unlocked the door of her pickup.

Just as she was about to get in, a car swerved up next to her. She whirled, her thumb on the trigger of the spray.

“Hey, don’t shoot!” said the driver of the black Corvette

Dallas looked closer and recognized Neal. It had been his car, after all, and now he was heading home. “A woman can’t be too careful in a parking lot late at night; Dallas said, lowering the spray slightly.

“Yeah, I suppose you’ll be especially careful after listerung to the testimony of that woman at the trial.”

“That’s right: Dallas turned to get into the truck.

“Good rught now.”

“You know we could just have a drink sometime. I looked for you during your breaks, but I couldn’t find you. “

Dallas had spent her breaks in the women’s rest room for that very reason. Dodging Neal all rught was one of the reasons she was so tired. “I doxi t think we’ll be having a drink, Neal; she said, and swung into the truck. “don’t be too sure,” he called out, just before he peeled out in a cloud of dust that settled over the peacock blue finish of Dallas’s truck.

Cursing under her breath, Dallas started the engine. Then she noticed another truck pull out and drive in the same direction as Neal’s Corvette. She had a strong suspicion the battered old pickup belonged to the Aztec war nor Well, at least he was following Neal instead of her.

The trip to her mobile home in Avra Valley seemed to take much longer than the twenty minutes her dash board clock registered. Once there she pulled into the dirt driveway and parked under the dusk to-dawn light she’d installed last week, before the trial had begun eating up all her spare time.

Behind a high chain-link fence, Gretchen, her Great Dane, barked a greeting. Dallas checked automatically to make sure both her horses, a bay mare named Sugar and a roan gelding named Spice, stood peacefully in the pipe corral. A three-quarter moon puddled cacti shadows on the desert floor and outlined the clefts of canyons in the nearby Tucson Mountains. Tomorrow she’d go for a ride into one of those canyons, the irst outing she’d had time for since the trial.

Gretchen started whining, and a large form detached itself from the edge of the fence. Dallas leaped from the truck, the pepper spray in her hand. “Get out of here, Igor!” she shouted.

A huge dog, half Irish wolfhound, half Saint Bernard , bounded away down the road. Dallas was glad he’d left of his own accord. She didn’t want to use the spray on him, but he was making a real nuisance of himself.

Adrenaline still pumping, Dallas locked the truck and strode toward the gate. Gretchen whined and yipped, trying to get out. “And you, you harlot, get away from that gate. He’s not for you: ‘

Gretchen barked once in protest, but she backed away from the gate as Dallas unlocked it.

“I know in your present condition you don’t understand this, Dallas said, rubbing the dog’s large head.

“But you’re meant for better things than that mongrel.

I’m saving you for Mr. Right, who will be so purebred he’ll probably brin ga valet when he comes calling: ‘

Gretchen licked her hand and trotted beside her up the flagstone path, which Dallas had laid last summer before the rains. Her list of projects was long, but each one completed gave her immense satisfaction because she was building her life herself; without depending on anyone else, least of all some man.

She unlocked the dead bolt on her front door and stepped into the living room she’d furnished bit by bit as she could afford it. The sofa and easy chair were upholstered in blue denim, and she’d found chair pads for the rocker in a red bandanna print. Her coffee and end tables were solid oak. She was proud of the room, proud of the whole place, for that matter. After buying the land six years ago from her earnings as a beauty operator, she’d gone into debt for the single-wide mobile home, but it would be paid for in another two years. Then she d only have her loan for starting the business to worry about.

“We have to learn to control some of our urges for instant gratification, Gretchen; she lectured the dog as she flicked the dead bolt into place and turned out the living room lights. “If you scratch that itch without thinking, you may live to regret it.”

Guiltily she remembered an urge she’d had tonight , one she’d scarcely been willing to admit to herself. When she’d leaned over Gabe Escalante, with her fingers buried in the black luxury of his hair and his eyes drifting closed, she’d had the crazy desire to lean just a little farther… and taste those sculpted warrior’s lips.

GABE SAT on a kitchen chair in Celia’s small kitchen, a bath towel pinned around his shoulders. He felt slightly more rested than he had the night before. Jasper had relieved him of watching Parnell’s apartment at two that morning, and he’d gone home to sleep until nearly ten. Then he’d called Celia and talked her into finishing his haircut. But first he’d had to tell her why he needed her services, and she d had a fit.

“I shouldn’t be doing this,” she muttered as she snipped at his hair. “If you’re going to act like an idiot you may as well look like one.”

“How do you knowd’m not right? Pamell could have bought her off, couldn’t he?”

“No. You weren’t at the trial or you’d realize what an imbecilic thing it was to accuse that woman of something illegal. She’s not the type. Now hold still.”

“You should have seen how Parnell talked to her calling her by her first name. And sending roses. What do you think of that?”

Celia combed a lock of hair away from his ear. “He does that sort of thing with women all the time. He sent me roses before I even knew who he was. That’s how he operates. It means nothing: ‘

“So you say:” He noticed that Celias scissors squeaked like an agitated mouse. Dallas’s scissors had been well oiled and silent.

“Listen, Gabe, you went off half-cocked, like you tend to do when you haven’t had enough sleep and you’re upset. I wish you’d have told me you planned to follow Neal around. Instead you just headed out from the courthouse like some crazed version of Charles Bronson.”

“I had to do something, Cel .”

She waved the scissors dangerously close to his nose. “So you marched into Rowdy Ranch and insulted the foreperson of the jury.”

“Who let that scumbag walk!”

Celia sighed and continued clipping. “I tried to prepare you for this, but you were so sure they’d accept my testimony. If anybody’s to blame for Neal Pamell getting off, it’s me.”

Gabe shifted in his chair. He hated having to think about what had happened to her. It made him want to close his fingers around Pamell’s throat and squeeze until all the life left his worthless body.

“Be still, Gabe, unless you want to end up looking like the lead singer in a heavy metal band.”

“I don’t like you blaming yourself. You reacted instinctively”

“And destroyed evidence. The prosecuting attorney told me from the beginning it would be hard to prove.”

“But Dallas is a woman! “

“Hold still, Gabel”

He quieted himself with effort. “She’s a woman,” he repeated more calmly. “She should have listened to your testimony and known you were telling the truth.”

“When Neal had an alibi? When I’d showered away all the evidence before I worked up the courage to report it? When he wore a ski mask so I couldn’t see his face? When I’m a divorced woman who dated several different men during the time I went out with Neal? you’re in law enfprcement, Gabe. Be realistic .”

“I still say she knew him before and she swayed the jury so he’d be sure and get off.”

Celia laid down the scissors and took his face in both hands. She leaned down so her dark eyes looked directly into his. “I know you’re hurting, but doxi t strike out at someone who doesn’t deserve it .”

He grasped her wrists. “I want to kill him, Cel: ‘

Fear leaped into her eyes. “No, Gabe. Please don’t talk like that. You’d be the first person they’d come after if something happened to him: ‘

He took a deep breath. “That’s the only argument that’s kept me from wringing his lousy neck. I won’t be any help to you in j all Qr on the run. I won’t add to what you’ve been through.”

“Thank you.”

“But I’m going to get that guy. I don’t care how long it takes. I’m going to get him.”