Six Degrees of Desperation (Dirty Tricks) by Myla Jackson Read Free Book Online Page A

vehicle from the back.
    “You can’t haul me in. I didn’t do
anything,” she called out.
    “Tell it to the judge.” He shut the door and
left her sitting there and went back inside the saloon. A few
minutes later, he returned, leading a big man in a black suit with
a bloody nose, his hands zip-tied behind his back. The deputy
loaded the man into the other side of the SUV, then slid into the
driver seat and drove away from the Ugly Stick Saloon.
    “Don’t leave! I need to go back in,” Charli
insisted.
    “No can do," Deputy Dense said with a
southern drawl.
    “But people are getting hurt. I could
help.”
    Sirens screamed past them as more county
sheriff cars and the local volunteer fire department arrived with
the Emergency Medical Technicians and ambulances.
    “Let the professionals handle it.”
    “But—” She pulled against the manacle on her
wrist.
    “Not listening.”
    Charli sat in the back next to the big guy
with the bloody nose, who didn’t fit into the usual crowd at the
Ugly Stick Saloon. “Who are you?”
    He stared straight ahead, without
answering.
    “I get it. You’re one of the strong silent
types.” She huffed. “Good, didn’t wanna talk anyway.” She twisted
around trying to look over her shoulder as the SUV pulled off the
short road to the saloon onto the highway. “Where are you taking
us?”
    “To Hole In The Wall. The jail in Temptation
is going to be too full to handle everyone.”
    Red, blue and yellow lights flashed,
strobing the night with color all around the saloon. “You wouldn’t
have to fill up the jails if you’d just let us go.”
    Charli was ignored again, by both the deputy
driver and the man sitting beside her, blood drying on his lip.
    As the colored lights faded, all Charli
could see was the big Texas night sky filled to overflowing with
bright, beautiful stars. Her vision blurred with a wash of tears.
“I never got to tell him.” She sighed. “It’s just as well. He
wouldn’t understand.” She snorted softly, leaning her head onto her
arms. “I don’t even understand.”
    Her silent seat partner harrumphed, the
first sound he’d made since he’d been shoved into the back of the
SUV.
    Charli tipped her head on her arms and
stared across at him. “What would you do, if you thought you were
in love with someone, but that you might also be in love with
another?”
    The big guy’s gaze shifted toward her for a
nanosecond, then back to the front again.
    Charli sighed again. “I know, it all sounds
wishy-washy, but they both have great qualities. On the one hand,
Original Sin knows exactly what buttons to push to make me so hot,
I swear my hair lights on fire.”
    Those dark eyes shifted toward her.
“T.M.I.,” he muttered.
    “Ah, so you do have a voice.” Charli sat up
straight. “You’re a man, answer this—"
    “No.” He cut her off before she got any
farther. “I don’t get involved when it’s not my business. And you,
little lady, are not my business.”
    Her brows rose. “Just what is your
business?”
    “I’m a bodyguard.”
    Charli’s brows rose further, a smile lifting
the corners of her lips. “Did you lose something?”
    His brows furrowed. “I shouldn’t be here. I
didn’t throw the first punch. I was only protecting my boss.”
    “Yeah, yeah. Another sob story.” The deputy
glanced in the rearview mirror. “Cry to the judge.”
    “He’s not very sympathetic, is he?” Charli
stuck out her tongue at the back of the deputy’s head.
    “I saw that.”
    “So what are you going to do, arrest me?”
Charli chuckled and turned back to the bodyguard. “Anyway, what
would you do if you fancied yourself in love with two people? One
the exciting, blood-stirring spontaneous type and the other, the
steady, you-can-bank-your-life-on-me type? Which would you
choose?”
    “Not that it’s my business, but the bank.”
The deputy shot a glance at Charli in the mirror. "Likely he won’t
spend his nights carousing in a bar,