Chapter Eleven

Lucky gave Thunder his head, letting him race across the ground like the wind. He’d been jumpy and nervous when she’d pulled him out of his stall and saddled him up. He needed to run and she needed the wind in her hair and to get away from the house and the two men she feared she was falling for.

By the time Thunder reached the creek with the pool, they were both breathing hard and ready for a rest.

She reined in the big horse beside the clear pool and slipped from the saddle. Thunderclouds had gathered in the west and pushed up a long line of storms headed her way, which suited her mood. She’d hoped the ride would settle her thoughts, make her decisions easier and get her over the heartache building like the storm.

It hadn’t. Coming to the place where she’d first experienced an orgasm with Trent didn’t help. She could only imagine him here, lying naked on the rock ledge, maybe with Isaac floating in the pool. Her core heated, blood running like molten-hot liquid through her veins. The image of both of them, naked and beautiful, dappled by sunlight through the overhanging trees had her breathing hard and wishing with all her heart they were there.

But the foliage around the pool wasn’t the lazy, sublime trees of the day before. The wind whipped them, making them wave like palm fronds in a hurricane.

The horse whinnied, urging her to get moving. Lightning lit up the bank of clouds followed by a low rumbling in the distance. She’d have to hurry if she wanted to get on the road before the storm hit.

Swinging up in the saddle, she gave one last glance at the pool, her chest hurting so badly she could barely breathe.

Before she could press her heels into Thunder’s flanks, he bolted out of the valley and raced back toward the barn, galloping as if being chased by the storm.

When she reached the barn, Lucky hung the saddle in the tack room, rubbed the horse down, led him into the stall where she fed him sweet feed and hay and made sure he had plenty of water. “Too wild to ride, my fanny,” she muttered, rubbing his nose. “Misunderstood is more the case. You just like to run.”

The horse tossed his head in agreement. “If only men were as easily understood.”

Thunder brushed her cheek with his nose as if sensing her melancholy.

Before leaving the barn, Lucky went to the last stall to check on the heifer. The bovine seemed to be doing better already, although she shifted nervously at the clap of thunder outside.

Done in the barn, Lucky trudged up to the house and called out, “Trent, Isaac?”

No answer.

“I’m leaving,” she called again. Nothing moved inside. She went from room to room, searching for them. When she didn’t find either one, she was sad and relieved at the same time. If she tried to leave with them standing there, it would be that much more difficult. Especially if they just let her go.

With tears welling in her eyes, Lucky packed her duffle bag, sliding her picture of her dad in between the clothing to keep it from breaking. Clouds obliterated the sun outside, making the room dark and gloomy.

She closed the door and walked back through the house, carrying her bag, her gaze skimming over the leather furniture in the living room and the pictures hung on the wall of horses, Texas blue bonnets and wide-open western sunsets. Though she’d only been there a short time, she’d miss this place. It was the first place she’d felt could be a home after her father died. She stopped in the kitchen for a couple pieces of bread from a loaf on the counter.

At the front door, she turned back into the house for one last look. “Goodbye,” she said to no one, and then she left.

Otis met her on the porch, nuzzling the hand with the slices of bread. She let him have one, saving the other to lure him toward her truck.

Stashing her bag behind her seat, Lucky glanced around the yard and down toward the barn. Neither of the Jameson men were anywhere in sight. Lucky supposed they’d gone to town. Now would be a good time to leave the Triple J.

Then why was it still so hard?

Nobody stopped her or tried to convince her to stay. She would be on her own again, homeless and alone.

She held the passenger seat door open and tossed the other piece of bread up on the seat.

Otis jumped in.

Alone except for Otis, who happily gobbled up the piece of bread in one gulp and tried to climb into Lucky’s lap when she slid behind the wheel.

“Ready to find a new home, buddy?”

Otis woofed and settled back against the seat, staring out the window as if he looked forward to the adventure.

At least someone was happy about leaving.

Lucky drove slowly out of the yard and down the long winding drive leading to the highway. Every five seconds she glanced in the rearview mirror, hoping one of the Jamesons would come riding up beside her and beg her to stay. She made it to the highway and halfway to town before she realized how idiotic she was being. They weren’t coming.

But that storm was.

As she drove down Main Street in Temptation, she noted the people standing outside of the Shear Safari, staring up at the sky.

Among them was Audrey Anderson.

Lucky pulled up next to the curb and dropped down from her pickup. “Audrey, could I have a word with you?”

Audrey broke away from Mona and the woman Mona had been with the night Lucky pushed Audrey’s truck into the ditch.

Audrey called back over her shoulder, “Oh, and Bunny have those flowers delivered to Charli tomorrow. It’s her two-year anniversary with the Ugly Stick Saloon. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

A pang of regret ripped through Lucky. She hadn’t even lasted two nights, much less two years at the Ugly Stick and here she was bugging out because she was afraid of falling in love with two very handsome cowboys.

“What’s up, Lucky?”

“I’m leaving.”

Audrey frowned. “What do you mean, you’re leaving?”

Before Lucky could respond, a shout sounded from across the street at the local attorney’s office. “There she is! That’s her! That’s the woman who attacked me and threw me into Judge Stephen’s pool.” Mrs. Rutledge hurried toward her, followed by a man in a suit and another in a sheriff’s deputy uniform.

Mrs. Rutledge shook her finger at Lucky. “I told you I’d sue you.” She turned back to the deputy. “Serve her,” she demanded.

The deputy was the same one who’d been there to take notes after the debacle in the sheriff’s pool the day before. “I’m sorry, Ms. Albright. I don’t always agree with these things, but I’m here to serve you with papers.”

Lucky’s heart dropped into the pit of her belly. “Serve me?”

“That’s right. I’m taking you to court. And don’t think you’re going to get away with attacking people like you did in Comfort.”

Audrey’s brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

Mrs. Rutledge pointed her finger in Lucky’s face. “She burned down the public library in Comfort, Texas, and practically burned the entire town down. She’s bad for Temptation, I’m telling you. And I aim to have her banned from town and anywhere within a fifty-mile radius of us.”

Lucky’s fingers curled around the envelope the deputy handed her, her heart burning in her chest. It was happening all over again.

“You don’t have to worry, Mrs. Rutledge. I’m leaving Temptation. In fact I’m leaving Texas as soon as I can get on the road.”

“You are doing no such thing.” Audrey stepped between Mrs. Rutledge and Lucky. “I don’t know what Lucky has done in the past, but she’s a good girl and an excellent waitress. I won’t have you or any of your garden club witches bullying her like you bully everyone else in Temptation. If you want to bully someone, I suggest you take me on.”

Mrs. Rutledge puffed out her chest and stood even taller. “I’ve been after the county to shut down that sorry excuse for a bar for years. With you threatening me, you’ve finally given me the justification to do so. Mr. Wallendorf…” she turned to the man in the business suit, “…you heard her threaten me. I want you to find a way to use that threat to shut down the Ugly Stick Saloon.” She faced Audrey, eyes narrowed, a sneer curling her lip. “Mark my words, I will shut down the Ugly Stick if it’s the last thing I do.”

Mona and Bunny joined the crowd around Audrey and Lucky.

“You can’t close the Ugly Stick Saloon. Too many people depend on it for employment.”

“It’s an eyesore and a place of sin,” Mrs. Rutledge pronounced.

“Is not,” Bunny chimed in. “It’s a place where people go when they have nowhere else to go. Audrey’s done more for this community and the people living here than you and your snooty garden club have.”

“Alcohol consumption is a sin.”

“And you being judgmental isn’t?” Mona turned on Mrs. Rutledge, placing herself between Lucky, Audrey and Mrs. Rutledge.

“Don’t you get huffy with me. I have the right to tell it as it is.”

“Maybe so, but that doesn’t give you the right to shut down the only place cowboys and girls have to play and let their hair down after a hard week’s work. We’re tired of you and the Temptation Garden Club pushing people around. We’re not going to take it anymore.”

“You watch out or I’ll have the health department shut down the Shear Safari.”

Lucky groaned. Could things get any worse?

A blared siren wailed overhead, long, loud and insistent.

Everyone standing on the street around Lucky glanced up at the sky, falling silent.

“What was that?” Lucky asked.

Audrey gripped her arm. “Tornado siren.”

The radio clipped to the deputy’s shoulder squawked and a voice called out, “Tornado has touched down southwest of Temptation, headed northeast at sixty miles an hour. Expected to hit Temptation in less than five minutes. Seek shelter immediately.”

Mona glanced around. “Come on, everybody, let’s get inside.”

“We need a tornado shelter,” Audrey said. “We have one in the basement of the Ugly Stick, but that’s too far. Where is one around here? We don’t have much time.”

“I don’t know about shelters, but my shop used to be a bank a long time ago,” Mona said. “They had a vault in the basement. The vault door was replaced with a wooden one, but the walls are concrete and it’s as solid as any other tornado shelter. Come on.”

“Oh, dear Lord. Dear Lord.” When Mrs. Rutledge remained standing in the very spot she’d started her tirade, Mona turned back. “It’s come with us or stand here and be blown away by a tornado. Your choice.”

“Come on, Mrs. Rutledge, be safe. Go with Mona.” Lucky motioned the woman to follow Mona. “Better safe than sorry.”

The older woman glanced at the sky, the wind whipping dust into her eyes. “I can’t.”

Audrey gripped the woman’s arm on one side. “Mrs. Rutledge, you can and will.” She tried to drag her along.

The older woman’s heels dug into the pavement. “I can’t move.” Tears streamed from her eyes and she sank to her knees, sobbing. “I can’t move.”

Lucky glanced at the roiling sky. They didn’t have much time. Debris was flung with the wind, pelting them with dust, small sticks and tree branches. She squatted next to the sobbing woman and spoke loudly and calmly into her ear. “It’s okay, Mrs. Rutledge.” The judge had called her Barbara. “Barbara, I’m going to help you to your feet. Audrey and I, we’ll carry you into the shelter. Hold on, you’re going to be all right.”

“I’m going to die,” she cried.

“We won’t let you.” Lucky draped one of the woman’s arms over her shoulders, Audrey draped the other. “On the count of three,” Lucky shouted over the roaring wind.

Together, they stood, bringing Mrs. Rutledge with them. Then moving as quickly as they could with the deadweight of the older woman between them, Lucky and Audrey got Mrs. Rutledge inside. Once behind the doors of the beauty shop, she seemed to snap out of it long enough to get herself down the steps into the basement, and thank goodness, other than pushing her down the steps, Lucky couldn’t see how she or Audrey could have lifted the woman on their own.

When they were all safely in the old vault, Lucky remembered Otis, sitting in the cab of her pickup.

She ran up the steps.

“Where are you going?” Audrey shouted after her.

“My dog. I can’t leave him out there.” She ran through the beauty shop as heavier debris slammed into the window. A broken tree branch hit the glass, shattering it inward.

Otis, she had to get to Otis.

When she flung the shop door open, it whipped out of her hand and the wind flung her sideways. Bracing herself, she looked to the west. A wall of destruction headed straight for town, kicking up dirt from the farm fields, shattered buildings, tin roofs and more.

Lucky ran for her truck and yanked open the door.

Otis whined and refused to get out.

She reached in and dragged him to the edge. Then he leaped over her and onto the ground.

When Lucky reached for the leather collar Trent had put on him, he shot out of reach.

She followed him, buffeted by nature, the roaring increasing with each step. A branch full of leaves raked across her face and slapped her in the eyes. She blinked and refocused on Otis as he disappeared into the open doorway of a house.

“Otis!” Lucky yelled, the sound swallowed in the massive maw of the tornado bearing down on Temptation.

She dove for the door as the windows imploded, blowing glass outward.

Otis barked from the back of the house.

Lucky prayed whoever had been in the house had made it safely to shelter. “Otis!” She ran from bedroom to bedroom. One of them was filled with children’s toys, a dollhouse and pink bedspreads on the bed.

Otis’s tail stuck out from beneath the bed.

Lucky grabbed his tail and yanked. “Come on, boy, we have to get somewhere safe!”

She pulled him out from under the bed, and as soon his head cleared he barked wildly.

“I know. I’m scared too.”

When she tried to drag him back through the house, he yanked free and ran back into the bedroom where he barked at the bed.

Dread washed over Lucky as she ran after Otis. Dropping to her knees, she peered beneath the bed and spied a small girl and a little boy crouched beneath. Tears streaked down their faces.

“Oh my God.” Lucky reached out to the children. “Come with me. We have to get to safety. Please!”

The little boy crawled out. He had to be about six, and he was shaking and scared.

When the girl wouldn’t come, Lucky lay down on her belly and grabbed the girl’s ankle and dragged her out. She grabbed both of them up in her arms and ran for the bathroom, tossed them into the tub and ran back to the bedroom for a mattress to throw over them. A glance out the window showed a greenish-black sky, and flying debris made up of two-by-fours, siding, insulation and more. The town was being ripped apart.

A figure lay on the ground outside in the backyard, a woman, possibly the children’s mother.

Lucky ran back to the bathroom threw the mattress on top of the kids and raced out the back door.

The wind lifted her up and slammed her back against the house. She fought her way forward, her arm over her eyes, protecting her vision from sharp objects.

When she reached the woman, she grabbed her arm and dragged her toward the house. “Get up!” she yelled.

The woman moaned, the sound barely audible over the screaming wail of the wind.

The mother staggered to her feet and, with Lucky’s help, made it into the house and the bathroom as the full force of the tornado descended on Temptation, hitting it hard.

Huddled beneath the mattress, two frightened children and their mother crying beside her, Lucky prayed Trent and Isaac were okay.

She made a promise to herself that if she made it through the storm, she’d go back to the Triple J Ranch. No more running. No more feeling sorry for herself. She’d stand up to that crappy streak of bad luck and tackle it head-on. And she’d go after the two men she had grown to admire in the short time she’d known them and see what happened. If they wanted her to stick around, she would. If they didn’t, she’d be okay too. Sad, but okay.

She wanted to shake her fist at the tornado, to rail against the destruction and to shout, The bad luck ends here!