Read Online Justice Burning (Hellfire #2) by Elle James - Free Book Online Page B

of his brother’s taunts. Rather than stick around for more of their good-natured abuse, he pushed through the front door and out into the open night air. The moonless sky was no less bright with the blanket of stars shining down on the Texas landscape.
    He breathed in and let go of the tension he hadn’t been able to shuck since he’d met the fiery-haired temptress on the road to Hellfire. If he’d known then she’d be staying in Hellfire indefinitely, he might not have been so helpful. Oh, who was he kidding? An hour after he was supposed to have reported in for shift change, he’d dragged his ass into the sheriff’s office. When he filled out his report, he’d found himself deleting half of the words he’d typed on the screen.
    The sheriff and the county records didn’t need to know the woman was young, and pretty with pale, moss green eyes. They sure as hell didn’t need to know she bit her bottom lip whenever she was nervous and that the action made Nash want to kiss her every time she did it. When he’d finally made his way to the ranch, he’d had every intention of going for a long ride on his horse to clear the woman from his head.
    The ride had to be postponed as he’d promised to go with his brothers to the Ugly Stick Saloon to celebrate Chance’s birthday. If he could have gotten out of it, he would have. But today was his brother’s birthday and they’d promised each other to pick up where their parents had left off after their untimely deaths. They were family, and family stuck together.
    Except when they were pushing him toward a woman who had trouble written all over her pretty face.
    Nash walked across the gravel parking lot, tempted to climb in his truck and head back to the ranch. He’d done his duty and drank a toast to his brother’s birthday. They wouldn’t begrudge him calling it a day, considering he’d been on duty since five o’clock that morning. But the farther away from the saloon he walked, the more it called to him to return.
    Hell, the saloon wasn’t what called to him to return. His protective instincts were on high-alert for the little redhead on her first day as a waitress. He couldn’t ignore her or go home now that he knew she would be there all evening, surrounded by a bunch of rowdy cowboys, who would most likely drink themselves stupid and come on to every waitress in the bar— including Phoebe and Audrey.
    Jackson would be there to help Audrey close up. He always was on rodeo nights. He loved his wife, the mother of his baby girl, and didn’t want her to be manhandled by a drunken cowboy. Audrey was just as much of a temptation as the other waitresses with her strawberry blonde hair, short cutoffs and bright red cowboy boots. She’d made something out of the Ugly Stick Saloon and the bar was getting a reputation for the place to go when cowboys and travelers were anywhere near the tri-county area.
    Resisting the urge to return to the saloon, knowing he couldn’t keep his gaze off Phoebe, Nash walked around the building, staring out at the hayfields bathed in starlight. He loved the wide-open spaces and the fresh, clean country air.
    After four combat tours before he’d turned twenty-seven, he was glad to be home. Two years of ranching later had barely taken the edge off his military duty. With more nervous energy than even he could stand, he’d signed on with the local sheriff’s department. It was just another way to stay busy and continue the ingrained need to serve and protect the people of his country and community. Otherwise, the transition back to the civilian world would have been even harder, and he might have ended up like some of his buddies who couldn’t seem to find their way home.
    He had his family, the ranch and the open spaces where he could escape when he needed to. Lights shined on him from a vehicle turning around at the back of the building. Nash glanced to the side to make sure he wasn’t in the way. As a deputy with the sheriff’s