Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 60360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
“Look local?” Izzy asked.
Caleb took the photo from her. “Could be,” he replied. “Trees are right for the area. But there are thousands of cabins across the whole state and there are no identifying markers.”
“Worth looking into,” she declared as she replaced the photo.
“This is less glamorous than I thought it would be,” he said as he and Izzy pawed through the Paul’s disaster of a living room.
She laughed. “You watch too much television. Bounty hunting is ninety percent investigation and only ten percent combat.”
“How tough is the combat?”
She shrugged. “Depends on the skip.”
“Ever been shot?”
“I wear a vest a lot.”
He snorted. “Doesn’t help if they shoot you in the head.”
“That’s not the first time I’ve heard that.”
Caleb’s phone chirped unexpectedly and he glanced down at the screen. He grimaced.
“Trouble?” she asked.
“It’s Shooter. He wants to know if I’m coming to poker night.”
“I love poker,” Izzy exclaimed.
Caleb glowered. He hadn’t meant it as an invitation.
“Of course,” she said, eyeing his expression, “we could always stay in.”
He sighed. Poker or poke her. He didn’t know which one was more dangerous.
Chapter 21
Caleb took them up the winding road out in the hills beyond the city. He’d actually never had a woman on his bike before, and he had to admit he didn’t exactly mind it. Izzy’s hands were low on his stomach, enough to be flirty but not so much that he’d have to pull over and bend her over.
When he pulled up to the house and shut off the engine, Izzy gave the house a once over. “It’s beautiful out here,” she said.
Caleb nodded. “Shooter bought it on his own and hoped she’d come back and see it one day.”
“She left him?”
“For a while. She had a…rough time.”
Izzy scanned the large yard and the view of the city below them. “Well, it’s a nice place to come home to.”
Before Caleb could swing his leg off the bike, she leaned down and pressed her lips to his. When she pulled away, he regarded her curiously. “What was that for?” he asked.
“Your friends are watching,” she told him.
He turned to see that, sure enough, all the women, Sarah, Abby, Tildy, and Daisy—even Easy, the nosy bastard—were looking out the windows of the Sullivans’ living room.
Izzy shrugged. “If I’m supposed to be your girlfriend,” she said, “we’ve got to sell it.”
“I don’t think they’re buying it,” he declared. “Come here.” He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her across the Harley and into his lap. With one hand on her hip and the other around her shoulders, Caleb sank his tongue into her mouth. Izzy made a soft noise and clutched at his shoulder. Her fingertips dug into the leather of his jacket as she pulled him closer.
When he finally broke the kiss, she was panting hard. He pushed her off him and to her feet, grinning at her. “How’s that for a battering ram? Don’t think I’ve forgotten about that. Or forgiven you,” he informed her.
He enjoyed watching her shiver at his words.
Inside the Sullivan house, Sarah did her best to make Izzy feel at home. She shooed Caleb out of his favorite chair so Izzy could have it. As much as he’d hoped that bringing a woman to poker night could just be taken in stride by the rest of the group, he’d known that it was a futile thing to hope for. The women inspected Izzy as though she were an animal in a zoo, an exotic creature they’d never seen before. Thankfully, it appeared as though each of the men had told their better halves about the state of his non-union with Izzy. And, he gathered, about Sioux Falls, if the way Sarah was occasionally shooting him chastising looks was any kind of a clue.
“So you’re a bounty hunter?” Tildy asked, eyes wide with curiosity and fascination.
Izzy shot Caleb a look.
“Don’t worry about it,” he assured her. “Your secret’s safe with them. They won’t tell anyone.”
“Oh, no!” Tildy gushed. “We’d never tell anybody! It’s just that I’ve never met a bounty hunter before. How long have you been doing it? What’s it like? Is it really dangerous?” Tildy paused in her barrage of questions, seemingly having startled herself. “Have you ever killed anyone?”
Izzy snorted. “Rule number one,” Izzy replied, amused. “Don’t kill anyone.”
Tildy sighed and leaned back in her chair. “That’s good,” she said, relieved.
Izzy nodded. “You don’t get paid if they’re dead.”
“Oh, Tildy replied. “Oh, wow. Does it… Does it pay a lot?”
“Yeah. With a two-man team of experienced hunters, it pays pretty damn well.”
“You have a partner?”
Caleb watched Izzy’s gaze darken as he realized she always did when she was talking about her father. They must have been close, he surmised. She must have really loved him. Caleb hated his own father, but he’d loved his mother—weak as she was and unable to protect them. She’d tried, though. She’d tried damn hard. When he was younger he’d wondered, even asked his mother why they didn’t run away, just the two of them. His mother had never answered him. It was only when he grew up and began to see the world as it really was, that he’d finally understood.