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"Pretty girls shouldn’t be police officers?" Her tone was a little snide, so I pushed off the bar and inclinedto Dixie

"Asa has a long history of being on the wrong side of anyone with a badge It isn’t her so uy that likes it when a hot girl is off-li makes her most definitely off-limits"

She lifted a raven-tinted eyebrow and cast a speculative look between Asa and the striking redhead that had tossed her head back and was laughing loudly as so Saint had said

"It’s a shame he feels that way They would make a really beautiful couple"

Well, thatan eyeful when Sale so easy around her when shean unwanted and out-of-place little kid

"So you just dropped everything--left your entire life--to come help Nash and Rule with the new shop because Phil wanted you here? You didn’t leave anyone or anything behind?"

There was resentment there I could hear it in my own voice, and I couldn’t seem to help it My mom had died in a random act of violence when I was a really little kid I didn’t have too many memories of her But I could recall that she was nice, pretty, and was always sone into the system when I was only six years old I had no other fa to claim me, so I bounced froas when I was ten I knew logically my mom hadn’t leftand could be really fking nasty when she wanted to be, but there was no denying that whenever soht back all those feelings I had long since held on to of being abandoned

Instead of answering my sarcastically asked question, she propped her hip on a bar stool and leaned a little to the side while she considered reat eyes When I was younger I thought they looked like velvet and soht they looked dark and enigmatic I didn’t like that she came across like she knew every secret the universe had and that she was just waiting for me to catch up to her so she could whisper them in my ear

"Why haven’t you askedat all about Poppy? Not how she is? Not where she’s at? Not what she’s doing? You wouldn’t even letwhy I know the two of you had a pretty bad falling-out, but there is so more there You tere attached like Siahten me, Rowdy What really happened between you and my sister?"

I couldn’t stop the way her sister’s name made me take an involuntary step back I didn’t ask because I really didn’t want to fking know any of that infor Saleo back to a point where I was happy pretending like the Cruz sisters were nothing but a distant memory I only dusted off when I had too aveto choke out a larabbed my elbow Her eyes were the identical shade of rich whiskey as Asa’s and they were shiny and bright with both tequila anddifficult"

I looked overatJet’s feathers was at the top ofto tell her no I wasn’t really a country-and-western kind of guy, but I did have on cowboy boots and I was never going to coirl that was as pretty as Ayden

I looked back at Sale behind her dark gaze, but before I could say anything to her she reached for her drink and pushed off the bar

"We’re gonna have a reckoning eventually, Rowland You were always really quick on the field, but off of it you kind of stu across uts clench I watched her as she wound her way to where Nash and Saint were still talking to Royal and saw her e like they were long-lost friends

I looked back at Ayden and told her before she could even start, "Don’t Just don’t"

I let her tug me toward the tiny dance floor and easily fell into a quick two-step with her as David Allan Coe crooned "Maled a little and I scowled down at her

"I haven’t been that guy in a long tirunted but flashed a very toothy grin at Jet over the top of Ayden’s head as he raised both ers up at me and mouthed every dirty word he knew I pulled his lady closer and smiled cheekily down at her just to rile hiy that no one seemed to knohat to do with I was always in time-out, always in trouble at school, and no one really seeet a handle on it I was put with a family when I was ten that already had a bunch of other kids, their own and other fosters The lish and used toto tell ht, but I was just rowdy My teachers, the other parents at church, so me that and it was easier for her to say, so it stuck and it fit"

Her eyes had widened huge in her face and her ave her a squeeze to let her knoas a long tiaze once again sought out that dark head of hair and those ridiculous curves encased in a skintight skirt At least it had been all right until she showed up

Ayden wrinkled her nose at ave me a squeeze back "Did Jet tell you about Austin?"

Her voice was quiet I almost didn’t hear it over the clatter of the heels of our boots on the wooden floor

"Heabout it"

"What do you think?" She sounded hesitant and I saw her gulp a little after she asked it