This Kiss. Debbi Rawlins

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СКАЧАТЬ her man lasted barely a minute. Sophie sank back in her chair and sighed. Lately, the thrill of success was fleeting and not all that sweet.

      Locating the deadbeat dad was rewarding because, well...he had three kids to support. But if he was going to jump bail anyway, couldn’t he have done a better job of covering his tracks? For God’s sake, a fourth grader could’ve found him.

      After four years the job was finally getting to her. Too much sitting at the computer. Too much of the same old thing every day. Skip traces, lame excuses, shaken or resigned parents putting up collateral for their wayward children or, almost as frequently, the roles being reversed. Here in Wattsville, Wyoming, nothing much exciting happened. Oh, they had bank robberies occasionally and liquor store holdups, but those types of criminals tended to be really stupid and that made her job boring.

      Sophie sighed. Working in the bail bond business wouldn’t be forever. Mostly she’d signed on to help Lola get the company off the ground. Sophie looked on her cousin more like a sister. And Lola didn’t mind that Sophie was sticking around only until she’d figured out what to do with her life.

      Rolling her chair away from her dinged-up metal desk, Sophie dropped her chin to her chest and stretched her neck to the side. Feeling the strain of muscles that had been worked too hard earlier at the gym, she tried not to whimper. At least not loud enough for Lola to hear.

      The front door to the reception area squeaked open and she glanced at the clock. “Oh, come on,” she muttered. How could it be only eight-fifteen? It felt like noon.

      They were expecting Mandy, the third member of their team, to return from Jackson Hole sometime this morning. But in case it was a potential client, Sophie got up. When she heard Hawk’s voice, she promptly sat back down. And wished her door was closed. Hawk was Lola’s sleazy boyfriend of three months. Sophie didn’t like him, but so far she’d kept her mouth shut.

      Lola hadn’t had much luck with men in the past, but two people had never been less suited to each other. Hawk wasn’t very bright, was sometimes crude and was under the delusion that riding a Harley and wearing black leather made him a badass.

      He was a poser, no doubt in Sophie’s mind. She knew something about desperately pretending to be someone you weren’t just to fit in. A tiny bit of sympathy for him stopped her from telling Lola that his real name was Floyd and he was a high school dropout.

      Sophie smiled. The idiot didn’t get that she was really, really good with computers. And she knew a whole lot more about him than she’d let on.

      Which she’d keep to herself. Unless Floyd kept pissing her off. She wasn’t the quiet, naive young girl she used to be in high school. Unlike Floyd aka Hawk, she had put a great deal of effort into transforming herself.

      “Hey, Shorty,” Hawk said, lounging against her office door frame. “Missed you at the gym this morning.”

      She hated the nickname, which he knew. Anyway, five-four wasn’t that short. She gave his tall, lanky body a once-over. “Like you’ve ever seen the inside of a gym.”

      He laughed. “Gotta admit, you’re looking pretty buff,” he said, pushing back his straggly hair and eyeing her legs.

      “Lola’s in her office.”

      “I know. She’s busy.”

      “So am I.” Resisting the urge to tug down the hem of her bike shorts, Sophie swiveled in her chair so that her legs were under the desk, her gaze on the monitor.

      “You guys working on something big?”

      She noticed that line 2 was lit. Lola was on the phone. “Why are you still here?”

      “Chillax, Shorty. Just making conversation while I wait for the old lady.”

      The front door opened again and Hawk glanced over his shoulder. His look of dread made Sophie smile. It had to be Mandy. She’d been working as a bounty hunter in Colorado before Lola hired her two years ago, and she could be intimidating at times. Plus, she didn’t like Hawk any more than Sophie did. Only, Mandy wasn’t as circumspect.

      A whoop came from Lola’s office. “Okay, ladies, we’ve got a live one. Mandy, are you here?”

      Sophie leaped out of her chair and barreled past Hawk, who had enough smarts to get out of her way. “Somebody jumped bail?”

      “Oh yeah.” Lola walked out of her office waving a piece of paper. “You’ll never guess who.”

      The waiting area was small, with two chairs, a ficus that was alive only because Lola remembered to water it and a rack of magazines, where Mandy stood, tall, beefed-up and calm as could be. She wasn’t the excitable type. “Ethan Styles,” she said, and dropped her duffel bag.

      Lola shoved back her long red hair and sighed. “How did you know?”

      “Ethan Styles,” Sophie murmured under her breath. She must’ve heard wrong. If his name was on the list of bonds they’d posted, she would’ve noticed. She knew him...sort of... “Who did you say?”

      Lola’s concerned gaze found Sophie. “I’m pretty sure you remember Ethan.”

      “The rodeo guy, right?” Hawk moved to the circle and sidled up to Lola when Sophie and Mandy gave him butt-out glares. “He’s that hotshot bull rider.”

      Lola nodded and looked at Mandy. “You just get back from Jackson Hole?”

      “An hour ago,” Mandy said with a curious glance at Sophie. “I turned Jergens over to Deputy Martin.”

      Sophie couldn’t seem to slow down her brain. Too many memories of Ethan revolved like a slide show on speed. She hadn’t seen him up close since high school. She’d gone to a few rodeos just to see him, but only from the bleachers and it had been a while. Sometimes she watched him on TV, but not often. She wasn’t a kid anymore and there was only so much daydreaming a woman could do without feeling like a dope.

      “You get any sleep yet?” Lola asked Mandy, who just smiled.

      “I hate to send you out again, but I got a tip that Styles might be headed for northwest Montana. A town called Blackfoot Falls.”

      “No shit. Pretty boy has an outstanding warrant?” Hawk laughed. “What did he get locked up for? Screwing somebody’s wife?”

      The expression on Lola’s face hinted that Hawk might not be far off the mark.

      It wouldn’t surprise Sophie if he was in trouble because of a woman. Half the girls in school had had the hots for him. Even now he left female fans across the country panting, but so what? Lola was mistaken if she thought Ethan’s reputation with the ladies bothered Sophie. He didn’t faze her. Not anymore.

      “Why didn’t he pay his own bail? Between his winnings and endorsement deals, he has to have money,” Sophie said, mostly thinking out loud.

      Lola shrugged. “He wouldn’t be the first pro athlete to blow his cash on stupid things,” she said. “We have the pink slip for his motor coach as collateral, so I had no problem with posting. I have to say, though, I’m surprised he skipped. He’s not due in court until Monday, but he wasn’t supposed to leave the state.”

      “I’ll СКАЧАТЬ