Read Online Their Ex's Redrock Midnight (Texas Alpha) by Shirl Anders - Free Book Online Page B

him when he’d told her he was driving her taxi.
    “You know them?” Rusty asked from her scrunched position on the seat next to him.
    Cabe nodded, but kept watching the rearview when Runningtree’s meanest-looking companion kept watching Rusty’s empty cab pull away.
    “You’re staying at Rowdie’s with me,” Cabe ordered. “There’ll be no fucking going home, unless I’m there.”
    “So what you know, it isn’t good news,” Rusty surmised, then she added, sweet as hell, “Won’t it mess up your thing leaving Vega? Me being with you.” She paused while he let her straighten out of her scrunch. “Us being seen together,” she whispered.
    He grabbed her nape, curling her toward him. “So sweet, I feel it deep,” he muttered, then he glanced from the road into her worried but widening eyes. “We got each other’s back, right?” he asked, and she nodded. “That means we’ll have to deal with it.”
    She scooted closer and pressed her hand on his chest. “I just don’t want to make it harder on you, Captain.”
    He chose a bit of levity. “Boo, the harder the better to fuck your sweet, sweet pussy.”
    She smiled a little, but it didn’t go to her eyes as she petted him, and he liked her touch as she said, “Okay, I’ll take that as a promise.” Her gaze lingered on his mouth, and he felt it. “I’m glad you have my back, Captain.”
    She sighed and snuggled into him while Cabe wondered about a woman that didn’t tear him apart for his decisions, just sweetly accepted them. This thing between them was burrowing deep into him and the feelings he’d been having of “rightness” kept getting more solid and sure.
    After that, any call Rusty got on her business cell to pick up or let off at Redrock, she said she was too far out to take. So it was slow business, but they got about half a dozen. She’d scoot away from him every time a customer got in, but she’d be right back beside him each time they left her cab.
    There were several more-than-interested locals wondering why he was driving her cab. But luckily they couldn’t find a way to come out and ask. Cabe was certain, though, that word would be spreading quickly he was spending time with Rusty.
    Rusty was curling a long strand of her rich auburn hair around her finger while gazing out the window, when she asked, “So you moved into Rowdie’s?”
    “Yeah, baby,” he said, glancing at her and seeing she had more on her mind, but might be holding back. “So ask it, boo.”
    Her long, dark lashes dipped as she glanced sideways at him, and he wished he had a camera to capture the sultry effect with her hair twirl, eyelash dip, and her bare leg propped up on the dash. “How’s Vega taking it?” she whispered the question, not looking at him.
    He took the turn onto WTSF’s long drive ... it was now his turn in their deal about the division of time. His belly clenched with unpleasantness, and he wasn’t about to share the sordid details, but out of his mouth came—
    “Fucking crying, wailing, threatening to kill herself, and trying to drag me to bed at the same time,” he growled out, remembering the first scene, but not the last one, when he’d told Vega he was divorcing her ass.
    He heard Rusty suck in a breath. “Sorry it’s so hard, Cabe,” she told him, now looking at him as her hand squeezed his thigh. “Must make you feel like it’s your fault or something, when someone acts that out of control.”
    Jesus. Cabe inhaled deeply. What was it about Rusty getting inside him and pulling out the parts he had the most trouble dealing with? It wasn’t Vega acting needy and crazed ... or her acting so fake fragile with tears, it was the fucking guilt she tried to lay on him.
    “Boo—” It was all he could get past his lips.
    She stroked his thigh to his knee and back again. “We all tried that on guys in high school. It’s when a girl learns her best manipulation weapons. Act crazy, tears, threats, or make them feel guilty.