Read Online Don't Mess With Texas by Christie Craig - Free Book Online Page A

I can’t go soft on her. She’ll take it better from you.”
    “You’re just afraid she’ll start crying.”
    “Guilty.” Tony started walking back toward the ER. They continued in silence for the next few seconds before Tony asked, “Did you know LeAnn worked here now?”
    “At this hospital?”
    “I just spoke with her. When I heard her laugh, I swear I died and went to heaven.”
    Tony smiled—a smile like Dallas hadn’t seen on his brother’s face in a long time.
    “So it went good?” Dallas asked.
    “Not really.” Tony’s smile faded. “She was laughingwith some asshole doctor. But I think I know what I have to do.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Win her back.” He inhaled. “She looked good. I’m getting her back.” His smile returned, even bolder this time.
    Dallas glanced at Tony and wondered if he had that goofy look on his face when he used to talk about Serena. Serena, the woman who’d walked out on him when he’d been accused of murder. Serena, who’d admitted to sleeping with her boss when they were married. God, was he ever one fucked-up idiot. He never wanted to smile like that again.
    Never again, he thought. Not that he wished Tony bad luck, but love had made a fool out of Dallas once, and he wasn’t going there again.
    “And how do you plan to win her back?” he asked his brother.
    “I’m still working on that, but I know this much. For nine months I’ve played by her rules.
Stay away. Give her time. Don’t push
. It hasn’t worked. Now, I play by my rules.”
    “And those are?”
    “Anything and everything goes,” Tony said.
    They arrived back in the emergency room. Dallas looked at the curtained-off area where Nikki waited. “You said the ambulance’s coming here?”
    “Yep,” Tony said. “And from what we know, she’s still alive.”
    Dallas took a step then stopped. “I hate delivering bad news.”
    Tony nudged him. “I’ll be right out here if you need me.”
    Dallas knew his brother was a coward. But when it came to dealing with emotionally distraught women, so was Dallas. He remembered the look in Nikki’s big blue eyes when she heard his brother suggest he might arrest her. As the investigating officer, Tony’s job practically mandated he be curt. Nikki Hunt would probably take the news better from him.
    Dallas slipped between the curtains to face the music. Only problem, there was no music to face. Nikki Hunt wasn’t there. The IV needle that had once been injected and taped to her wrist, now dangled downward and dripped onto the floor.
    A woman’s purse lay open on the hospital bed, some of its contents spilling over the mattress.
    He stepped out of the curtained space. Tony met his gaze. “Problems already?”
    “Yeah.” Dallas looked up and down the hall. “Just a little one. About five-five, blond, and… very soft.”

 
    “S HE RAN ?” T ONY jerked the curtain back and stared at the empty hospital bed.
    “We don’t know that.” But damn it if Dallas’s mind wasn’t moving in that direction. Not that running made her guilty—he still hadn’t changed his mind about her being innocent. He personally knew how it felt to be accused of a crime you didn’t commit. Hell, running had crossed his mind once or twice, too.
    “Fuck it!” Tony snapped. “Let’s break up and search for her.”
    Tony stormed off and Dallas could hear him drilling the nurses about Nikki’s disappearance. That’s when Dallas’s eyes moved back to the purse and items on the bed. If the woman was running, wouldn’t she have taken her purse or at least her wallet?
    He picked up the red wallet and thumbed through it.
Does flat broke mean anything to you?
He recalled her earlier words. Good to her word, he found no cash, not even any loose change. But her debit and credit cards peeked out of the little pockets beside her driver’s license.He didn’t know a woman alive who would leave home without her credit cards. He studied the purse’s other contents: a