“Yeah, I see it,” Brady said in such a flat voice Suzy wondered if he knew that she was in danger of having her throat slit. “Let her go, Bart.”
“As soon as you give me the keys and your gun.”
Brady tossed the keys first and then the gun. The prisoner shoved Suzy so hard she stumbled backward and Brady caught her before she slammed into the wall. Bart walked out the door and padlocked it behind him. He pocketed the keys and the gun and stood there for a moment, looking at them with a smug smile on his handsome face.
“You won’t get away with this,” Brady said.
“No?” he asked. “A silver dollar says I will. Have
a nice weekend, you two,” he said. “
I
will. Oh, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Then, whistling to himself, he went down the hall, let himself out of the jail and disappeared.
There was a long silence inside the cell. Suzy stood there, breathing hard, her back pressed against Brady’s chest. His arms were still wrapped tightly around her, her bottom was cushioned against his manhood, as if he was afraid she’d collapse if he let go. She was afraid of the same thing. She’d never been so scared in her life. So scared she was shaking like the fall leaves outside the jail. Slowly, with his hands on her shoulders, Brady turned Suzy around to face him. “You okay?” he asked, his eyebrows drawn together.
She nodded, unable to speak. There was a lump in her throat the size of a golf ball. He ran his hand gently down the side of her neck. So gently she wanted to cry.
“Sure?”he asked.
“Fine,” she said, finding her voice at last But she wasn’t fine. She’d managed to steady her hands and her voice, but on the inside she was still shaking. She wanted to throw herself back in his arms, to feel warm and safe, but she didn’t dare. Because once she was there, she wouldn’t want to leave. “Just a little scared,” she admitted.
“Nothing to be scared of,” he said.
“Just a man with a knife and a gun.”
“Where’d he get the knife?” Brady asked.
“It must have been inside the bags.”
“Who packed the food?”
“Celia. I thought she knew it was for a prisoner, but maybe...”
“Maybe she thought it was some ordinary citizen’s take-out supper,” Brady said.
“What do we do now?” Suzy asked. For some strange reason, she wasn’t worried. She knew Brady would get them out of there.
“Wait.”
“For how long?”
“Till tomorrow morning. No big deal. It’s Hal’s weekend on duty.”
The thought of spending the night with Brady in the small cell made her feel chills on the outside and a burning heat on the inside. She sank down on the narrow bed and gripped the edge of the thin mattress.
“Why don’t you get us out of here?” she asked.
“How?”
“I don’t know. Yell. Scream. Maybe someone will hear us.”
“Go ahead,” he said. “Be my guest.”
She stood up and screamed. And yelled. The sound bounced off the thick walls and echoed through the small space. She sat back down on the bed, deflated.
“Be my guest,” she repeated with a reluctant smile. “Under the circumstances, that’s funny.”
He shook his head then returned her smile.
“Why are you so calm?” she asked. “Aren’t you mad, aren’t you upset that he tricked you, don’t you feel foolish? I mean you’re the sheriff.”
“Thanks to you. If I’d lost the election, it would be Darryl in this jail with you.”
She gave a little shudder at that awful thought.
“You mean you’d rather be locked in with me?” he asked.
“Between you and Darryl? Of course.”
“What about between me and Brad Pitt?”
She wrinkled her nose as if in deep thought.
“Never mind,” he said. “Anyway, what good would
it do to get mad?” he asked. “It could be worse. We’ve got food, thanks to you.”
“It’s thanks to me we’re locked in here. It looks like I’m responsible for this whole mess.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” he said.
“Who should I blame?”
“Blame me. I was careless. I underestimated him.”
“I actually liked him,” she confessed. “I can’t believe I thought he was so nice. I’m such a bad judge of character, I deserve to be locked up,” she said morosely. She looked around at the tiny cell, the sink and the toilet in the corner. “But not for a whole night. Are you sure no one will come by this evening?”
“Tomorrow morning is the earliest. I set it up with Hal this afternoon. Nobody’s going to miss me. What about you?”
She shook her head. “Nobody will miss me.”
There was a long silence. Brady braced his hands on the bars and Suzy stared out through the bars into the hallway. All evening and all night in this cell with Brady. What was she going to do? Where were they going to sleep? She wanted to scream. But she’d already tried that It didn’t do any good.
“What are we going to do?” she asked, looking around nervously. Were the walls closing in on her, or was that her imagination?
“Prisoners of war do exercises to keep fit,” he said.
“You first,” she said and stretched her feet out on the bed.
He went down on the cement floor and started doing push-ups while Suzy watched.
“Hey,” he said. “Get down here. If you can.”
“If I can?” she asked, easing herself off the bed and
onto the floor next to him. “Of course I can. Why, do you think I’m flabby and out of shape?”
Without missing a beat, he was able to give her a long, appreciative look. “Not an ounce of flab that I can see...or feel.”
She braced her hands on the floor, warmed by his words, and even more warmed by the look in his eyes. She thought she was strong, she thought she had muscles in her arms from lifting Travis, but after two breathless push-ups, she collapsed, stomach first, on the floor.
“Come on,” he urged. “You can do it.” When she protested, he got to his knees and concentrated on giving orders.
“Back straight, like this.” He ran his hand down her spine. “Knees off the floor.”
“I can’t. I just can’t.” Wasn’t it bad enough she had to be incarcerated, let alone incarcerated with a drill sergeant?
“Of course you can.” He planted his knees on either side of her waist. Then he put his arms around her, but that didn’t work, she just bent in half like she was hinged at the waist. Moving his hands forward he spanned her ribs with his broad palms, his fingers grazing the undersides of her full breasts. She gasped.
“How does that feel?” he asked.
How did it feel? She couldn’t explain. She couldn’t even speak. Not with her breasts tingling and a heat building somewhere deep inside her.
“Up...down,” he instructed. He pulled her up and let her fall forward. Her heart was beating so fast, he had to hear it. But he seemed oblivious, both to her heartbeat and to the reaction his touch caused. “Knees
rigid,” he barked. “Toes on the floor. Your whole body should be stiff as a board.”
But her whole body wasn’t stiff as a board. Her body was weak and limp as a spaghetti noodle. He finally eased her to the floor and let her stay there. She couldn’t catch her breath.
Her cheek was pressed against the floor, her breath coming in short pants. “Enough,” she murmured weakly. As if she could ever get enough of Brady.
“Enough?” he said. “Oh, no, that’s just the beginning.” Brady got to his feet in one fluid motion.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Suzy muttered, summoning the energy to lift herself off the floor and back onto the cot. “I suppose you do this every day,” she said with an admiring glance at his well-muscled arms, well-toned abdomen and broad shoulders. The man was in fabulous condition.
“I’d like to,” he said with a wicked smile.
She blushed in spite of herself. “I mean the push-ups,” she said. So he did know what he was doing, and he wasn’t oblivious at all.
“I’ve got a few other things to show you later. You know this weekend may be just what you need to get in shape.”
“I thought you said I didn’t have any flab.”
“Not now. But you have to think of the future. Keep in shape for those long years ahead of you. Instead of sitting on your porch knitting—”
“I’ll be bench pressing one hundred fifty.”
He grinned. “Now you’re getting the idea.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t want to show up my husband.”
“Better marry someone in good shape then.” He
leaned against the wall and studied her face. “Any candidates?”
Suzy sighed. “I told you you’d be the first to know.”
“I’ll rephrase the question,” he said. “Any regrets?”
“Regrets about quitting my job here? How can you ask that when I’m stuck in this jail? This is just the kind of thing that happens when you’re in law enforcement. I should never have set foot in this jail once I left. If I’d stayed at the diner and let you come to pick up the food—”
“Then I’d be here by myself.”
“And you could do push-ups by yourself all evening.”
“I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to,” he said.
“What are we going to talk about?” she asked, drawing her knees up to her chest. “I think we’ve about covered most subjects.”
“Not at all. You’ve never said anything about Travis’s father.”
“You could have gone all night without mentioning him,” she noted, resting her forehead against her knees.
“He was that bad?”
“No. You just reminded me of one of my major mistakes.” She lifted her head and warily looked Brady in the eye. “Okay, what do you want to know?”
“Who was he? Where did you meet him?”
She took a deep breath. Might as well get it over with. Might as well let him know the worst about her. Her poor judgment. “He was a traveling salesman. See what I mean? What woman with an ounce of sense falls for a traveling salesman? Don’t answer that. Anyway, he came into the feed and fuel store where I worked selling heavy farm machinery and told me I was the
most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Can you imagine?”
“Yeah,” Brady said, his voice deep, his eyes darkening. “I can imagine.”
“And since he’d been around the block a few times, being a traveling salesman and all, I believed him.” She pressed her palm against her forehead and closed her eyes. “But that wasn’t all. He took me to Reno and Vegas and Virginia City. He spent a lot of money on me. I was used to Harmony guys whose idea of a big evening is to rent a video, buy a pizza and come over to your house.”
“You were looking for excitement,” Brady suggested, folding his arms across his chest.
“I guess so. All I can say is I made a big mistake. I thought I was in love. That’s my only excuse.”
“What happened?” Brady asked.
Suzy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I thought you knew. I thought everyone knew.”
“I don’t listen to rumors.”
“You’re the only one in town who doesn’t,” she said wryly. “It’s no secret, anyway. I got pregnant, and he left town. I quit my job and had a baby. Then I answered your ad and went to work for you. That’s what happened. Fortunately I had my mom to baby-sit for me. And friends to rally around me. I’m fine now. But at the time I felt like an absolute fool. Not that he ever said he loved me or that he was serious about me, I just thought...I assumed...” Her throat clogged with unexpected tears. She was over it—she was. But how could she convince Brady she was fine when she couldn’t even get through a sentence without breaking down?
Brady sat down on the edge of the bed and put his
hands on her shoulders. “Don’t do that,” he said softly, brushing a tear off her cheek with the pad of his thumb.
“I’m so ashamed, ” she said with her head down. “To be taken in like that. To give my heart away. I was old enough to know better.”
“Are you still in love with him?” Brady asked gruffly, dropping his hands from her shoulders.
“It wasn’t love. It was infatuation. I know that now. I’ve learned a lot, at least I think I have. I won’t be taken in again. I know what I want.” She smoothed an invisible wrinkle in the wool blanket that covered the cot. She was afraid to meet Brady’s gaze for fear he’d see that she wanted him.
And this time it was a whole different thing. She admired Brady, not for what he did for her, not for his looks, but for what he was. An honest, upright, kind, lovable man. But she’d learned something else. And that was to keep her feelings to herself. Especially around a man who didn’t want to get married.
She looked up and a gave him a cheerful smile. “Anyway, I got the best of it. I got Travis. Enough about me,” she said. “Your turn.”
“No way,” he said. “You already know enough about me. Too much.”
“If you refuse to talk about yourself, what are we going to do?”