Operative Attraction (2 page)

Walking past Yazmin and Reid
,
I spoke.  “Yeah, um
,
make sure the Texans don’t kill him.”

“Seems like dude might need killing,” Yazmin said.

Her words brought a tear to my eye.  Yazmin was all
Cali
girl but sometimes she said the most southern things.

“If the authorities come here, they might confiscate your weave and Reid’s handbag collection as evidence,” I said.  It was wrong of me to scare them thusly
,
but I really didn’t want them murdering anyone in my town.  If dude had to be ended, they needed to drag him to another town to do it.

Stepping into the saloon, I called Town Administrator of Awau. 
That woman
was nothing if not practical.  Okay, she wasn’t the least bit practical
,
but she had a houseful of big men who liked nothing better than beating the shit out of people.  Her husband
 
described himself as an ‘asshole by choice
;
’ her
brother
-in-law
was co-holder of the Alaska Territory Asshole of the Year Award for the last three years; and his co-holder of the prestigious award was
his best friend
,
who’d held the title for fifteen straight years before
he
came to town.  The Posse could kick all kinds of ass
,
but we had our families in attendance
,
and um
,
yeah, that wasn’t cool.

“
Administrator
speaking,” she answered on the first ring.  Two seconds later, she screamed
,
“Settle down or I’m coming in there
,
and you do not want that!”

“I know your baby girls aren’t cutting up,” I said.

“Not my angels
—
it’s their daddy, uncle, and godfather that I’m talking to.  If they don’t learn how to act
,
I’m going to toss their asses in your jail.”

“Normally, I’d let you
,
but we have a situation.”  Pausing, I filled her in on the details.  I didn’t know why Shara was wailing on dude, but the fact that she was meant that he’d done something egregious…besides trespassing.

“I’ll send the Asshole Trio your way…and being that I’m overrun by males
who like to fight
, send your kids over here.  Ain’t nothing going to happen to our babies,” she said before clicking off.

I had hardly set the phone back in the cradle when I heard the sounds of a big truck.  Pressing the button to open the gates, I waved them through.  Exchanging the kids for the assholes, we made our way to the jail where dude was cuffed, bound and duct-taped.

“He seems to be enjoying his unconsciousness,”
one of the men
remarked.

“Yeah, let’s beat him awake so we can find out why the hell he’s up here threatening our family,”
his brother
snarled.

“And after we find out, let’s beat him back into unconsciousness,”
his friend
growled.

Leaving the guys to the interrogation, they headed back to the saloon for a light lunch.  Ten minutes later,
the men
rocked in with frowns on their faces, a gleam of ‘somebody’s fixin’ to take an l’
(as in loss)
in their eyes and that familiar alpha swagger.

“We broke him,”
they
announced.

“You broke him, like we should be looking for some dirt to put him in, or you broke him meaning you got him to talk?” Shara asked.

“Unfortunately, only the second
.
”

“And?” I asked
,
getting a hinky feeling about what they hadn’t said.

“You know that serial rapist
and
murderer
who’
s been eluding authorities?”

“Yes,” we all responded.

“That’s him.”

There was a stunn
ed
silence.  For about two seconds no one moved, breathed or blinked.  A second after the shock wore off there was a mad rush for the door.  Every woman in attendance grabbed a weapon and rushed to the jail.  All set to storm our own jail, we were met by
the Administrator’s husband
,
who stood guard.

“Move,” Raelynn instructed.

“Fuck off, dude,” Shara said almost simultaneously.

“As much as
I
want to, I can’t do that
,
ladies,” he answered.

“
We
really need for you to move.  We like your wife and thus don’t want to hurt you,” Jeanie said.

“That’s why I’m the one standing guard.  I’m hoping that your like for my wife will stop you from leaving her without a husband and my baby girls without a father.”

“You. Cannot. Use. That. Shit,” I growled.

“Yeah, what my big sister said.  We need to fuck him up a little bit,” Dréa yelled.

“Hell yeah,” the rest of the chicks chimed in.

“If it helps,
the boys
worked him over pretty good,” he said as he stepped from in front of the door.

Stepping forward, the group let out a collective “damn.”  Though they were only in there a few minutes,
the boys
had fucked dude up.

Pissed but knowing we weren’t about to kill
him
for the chance to beat him some more, we stepped back.  “Fine.”

“We already called the authorities.  They’re sweeping the area looking for accomplices
,
and
one of the boys is
going to retrace his steps and see where he came from.”

“Yeah, but
—
” Shara said.

“
The other
is going to stay here to make sure he doesn’t enjoy his consciousness.  I’m going home to sit with the children.”

Heading back to the saloon, we washed up and finished our lunch…and waited.  Finally,
Administrator
called.

“Lots of official-looking peeps just showed up
,
and I sent them your way.”

“Gate
’
s still open
,
but tell them to leave their vehicles outside the gates.  We’ll meet them at the front on the side-by-sides.”

Knowing how much Jeanie and Dréa enjoyed the storehouse of toys, I asked them to go get the authorities.  Not sure how many would show up, they took the six-passenger side-by-side ATVs.  Of course, they raced all the way there.  Seeing all the dirt that they kicked up and hearing all of the dares they tossed out was reason number one that vehicles weren’t allowed in town.  There was no point in telling them to slow down or be careful.  With only forty HP and a top speed of forty-six mph, there was only so much damage they could do—hopefully.  Oh, well, it wasn’t like they had a long trek ahead or were transporting fine china.  They were simply bringing back some officials.  In their line of work they should be accustomed to dangerous situations
,
so riding with Jeanie and Dréa shouldn’t even faze them.

Fifteen minutes later I was proven wrong on so many levels.  Squeezing every ounce of horsepower out of the side-by-sides, those two came barreling into the center of town.  Though it was a quarter-mile straight, they zig-zagged their way to the saloon at top speed.  Driving like stunt drivers on a movie set, they showed off their driving skills by popping off
three sixties
before careening to a shuddering halt inches away from the steps.  Killing the engines, they jumped out of the vehicle, each proclaiming victory.

“Woohoo!” Jeanie yelled as she threw her fist in the air.

“I’m the champ!” Dréa said as she broke off a little shimmy.

“You’re both nuts, is what you are,” Reid said.

“And you are a hater,” Dréa said.

Ignoring the five men riding with each of them
,
they dropped into seats.  They may have ignored them
,
but the rest of us weren’t.  For the second time that day
,
we let out a collective “damn.”

“I thought y’all were ‘the authorities
,
’” Shara asked suspiciously.

“We are, ma’am,” the first male drawled in what was assuredly a Texan accent.

“How come y’all look like you escaped from a male review
?
” Laura asked all innocent like.

“Um,” they began.  Well, the ones who weren’t on their knees thanking all of the gods they knew that they’d survived the ride in tried to answer.

“Show me your badges,” Shara demanded.

Stepping up, she inspected each of the badges.  “They’re legit,” she said.

“Legit male strippers or legit authorities?” Yazmin asked.

“The authorities,” Shara answered.

“Damn,” Reid said. “I’m almost sad that Yaz and I are leaving later this afternoon.  As beautiful as the scenery is, it just got a whole lot more interesting
.
”

“I hear you.  If I wasn’t going to the hair show, I’d delay my plans so I could get a taste of that fineness,” Yazmin said.

“They
’re
lucky I’m not eighteen anymore,” Shara said.  “Otherwise…”

“Otherwise they’d have to arrest their damn selves because y’all would break off the kind of kinky shit they would have to make laws about?” I teased
,
knowing good and damn well that Shara was totally in love with Mr. Her.

“Yeah,” she said.   And then she got that gleam in her eye.  “Hey, most of us can’t look, but we can write.  CHALLENGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

And that is how it began.

Operative Attraction

by

Raelynn Blue