Wildcard by Cheyenne McCray Read Free Book Online Page B

her.”
    “Later,” Jess said before punching the phone off and setting it back down.
    At least Santiago was getting some tonight. With a frustrated sigh, Jess got up from the recliner and laid the palm device on the end table. So much for that lead. But what really pissed him off was the fact that those bastard coyotes had caused the death of yet another innocent.
    Scrubbing his hand over his stubbled face, he considered what to do next. He’d never get to sleep feeling as restless and edgy as he was.
    Due to one sexy little redhead who he couldn’t get off his mind.
    It took only a few minutes to lock up the little cabin and then Jess found himself striding through the dark night and toward the MacLeod house without any real purpose or plan. Just on the hope of seeing Trace, maybe catching her outside or in the kitchen, and getting to talk to her for a few minutes.
    He passed by the corrals and barn, the sounds of a horse whickering, the low of a cow and the singsong of crickets filling the night. Jess knew the sounds well. After all, he was a native Texan, and he owned his own nice spread near Houston. Once this case was closed and cleaned up, he intended to head back there. Although he enjoyed his work, he was accustomed to family dropping in, big get-togethers with his folks, his grandma, his sisters and brothers, and all his nieces and nephews. It had been months since he’d seen them, and he could sure use some of his mom’s blueberry pie, straight from the oven, with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream right on top.
    He might even talk to his mom about Trace, about his sudden feeling that she belonged close to the sprawling Lawless family.
    Before he knew it, Jess found himself standing in front of the ranch house and near the room he knew had belonged to Trace MacLeod when she was growing up here. No doubt it would be where she’d be sleeping.
    What are you going to do, Lawless? Throw rocks at her window?
    He bit back a wave of frustration and embarrassment. But then, why the hell not? Maybe she’d get a kick out of it, of him showing her his teenage-feeling interest.
    Just around the corner at the back of the house, hidden within a closed in yard, he could hear the pulsing of the hot tub jets as well as Jake’s and Dee’s voices. By the sound of Dee’s gasps and Jake’s groans, Jess suspected they were more than enjoying themselves. Better move on from that. Private things were private—though to hear Catie Wilds Savage talk, she wouldn’t have thought twice about it. That little hellcat would have pulled up a front row seat and wouldn’t be the least embarrassed to admit it.
    Jess had never been much for voyeurism, except for once in his teen years, when a kid could be forgiven for being desperate. With a wry smile, he bent and picked up a few pebbles from the yard. Then, he eased behind the trees that obscured the room’s window from sight and looked in. Covert operations was something he’d done often, although nothing like this…spying on a woman he was dying to get his hands on, with the intent of grabbing her attention with a pebble or two.
    I’m losing my damned mind. And I don’t spy on women I’m interested in.
    All right, except for that time when he was thirteen and he had peeked into Maggie Jensen’s window while she was dressing. She’d been eighteen and built like a brick house—one of those figures that gave all teenage boys wet dreams. It’d been the first time he’d seen a live pair of breasts and a woman’s hair-covered mound, and he’d masturbated more than a time or two over the image of her naked, imagining what it would feel like to fuck her.
    But now he was an adult, with a raging hard-on for a woman that he couldn’t get his mind off.
    A few tosses. If she doesn’t answer, I’ll go on back home.
    He melted into the shadows behind the tree as he peered through the parted curtains. Good. The window was closed. He raised his hand for the first pebble toss just