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Clenching her eyes closed for precious seconds, she held on to the hope, the prayer, that more would come of this than a broken heart.
Her eyes opened as he made the turn onto the side road that led into his farm. The night seemed darker, the stars blotted out by the thick covering of pine that reached into the night sky. She felt isolated from the rest of the world, as though she and Zeke were riding into a place where nothing else could touch them, where nothing existed but the two of them.
When he broke from the heavy tree cover it was to make the short ride to his home. He pulled the motorcycle up to the garage doors, stopped, and kicked down the stand before swinging off, leaving the engine throbbing as he moved to open the garage doors.
Rogue slid into the seat he vacated, relishing the heavy heat he left, kicked up the stand, and pulled the cycle into the garage before cutting the motor and pulling off her helmet and hanging it on the end of one of the handlebars as she watched Zeke move toward her.
The cell phone at her hip beeped imperatively.
Pulling it free, she checked the number, before lifting her gaze back to Zeke.
“Jonesy and John are getting rather impatient,” she told him.
“Do you usually check in with them?” he asked her.
Rogue shook her head before flipping the phone open and bringing it to her ear.
“I’m busy,” she told her bartender. “What’s the problem?”
“Where the hell are you? John is going crazy trying to hunt you down and he’s making me crazy,” Jonesy growled. “Why can’t you just let someone know when the hell you’re riding off into the night?”
Her lips thinned at the controlled anger in his tone.
“Where is John?”
“Hang on, you can talk to the little bastard yourself,” he snapped.
The muted sound of the band, conversation, and general good times could be heard through the phone for long seconds as Rogue threw her leg over the cycle’s seat and waited impatiently as Zeke paced to the end of the garage before turning back, leaning against the wall, and crossing his arms over his chest as he watched her.
“Where the fuck are you?” John snarled into the phone. “I’ve called every damned number you’ve ever given me trying to find you. ”
“Since when do I have to inform you of where I’m going or what I’m doing?” she asked quietly, aware of the sound of the bar fading in the background of the phone.
“Since I suspect you ran off with that damned sheriff you insist on sleeping with,” he retorted harshly. “Get your ass back here, we need to talk. ”
“Is the bar on fire?” she finally asked sweetly.
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p; “Don’t fuck with me, Rogue. ” His voice was grating and harsh. “No, the damned bar isn’t on fire, no one is bleeding, dead, or hospitalized, and you aren’t in danger of a lawsuit. What you are in danger of is the fact that Dad will be on the first flight out here if I make the call I’m getting ready to make. ”
Anger threatened to explode through her. Zeke was watching her with those cool, predatory eyes of his, as though he knew something she didn’t and he was just waiting on the explosion.
John was exploding, Jonesy was acting damned strange, and for some reason, Gene, Zeke’s primary deputy, couldn’t get a call through to him. Zeke wasn’t even wearing his cell phone.
“I’m not fourteen,” she said softly. “Nor does Daddy make the rules I live by any longer. Make all the calls you want to. But be warned, John, cause me too much trouble and I’ll leave you lying on the floor with your balls choking you. Understand me?”
She flipped the phone closed before he could answer, then turned it off, all the while her gaze locked with Zeke’s.
“I assume explanations will be forthcoming,” she said.
“You can assume. ” He shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I have the answers. ” He shifted away from the wall and headed for the door. “Let’s go inside, Rogue. I’ll give you what I have. At this point, that’s about the best I can do. ”
His voice was heavy, laden with something bitter that clenched at Rogue’s chest and left her aching. It left her frightened.
Berkley titles by Lora Leigh
BENGAL’S HEART
