Lori Wilde - Mistletoe & Mayhem

“So help me, ma’am.” He turned his chair around and straddled it. “Shoot.”

For the first time in her life, Jodie thought she might have. If only she’d had a gun handy. Not the kind that Hank Jefferson had refused to sell her. Not a real gun. But if she’d had a water pistol handy, she would have taken aim and unloaded it just to wipe the self-confident grin off his face.

Setting her glass on the table, she sat down and said, “You’re not really some distant cousin of Katie Dillon’s, are you?”

Shane shrugged. “Well, in the sense that all of us are kin, I must be related in some way.”

“Bull. You want to know what I think? I think you’re a bounty hunter who’s come here to track Billy Rutherford down.”

For a moment, Shane didn’t say anything. He didn’t even move. Dillon was right. She was smart. The admiration he felt for her mixed with the annoyance he felt for himself. He’d been careless. And the reason for it was sitting right across the table from him. Instead of keeping his mind on getting his man, he’d been entertaining thoughts of…Ruthlessly, he pushed his fantasies aside.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Jodie asked.

“What tipped you off?”

“In the attic, you mentioned handcuffs. I don’t think they’re standard equipment for burnt-out corporate executives.”

He recalled exactly when the words had slipped out, but he’d been hoping she wouldn’t notice. He rarely let his cover slip, but he supposed swinging from the rafters by his feet was some excuse.

“Why are you a bounty hunter?” Jodie asked.

“The usual reasons, I suppose. It pays well and I’m good at it. Why are you a librarian?”

“Inertia. I loved college, and applying for the job at the library allowed me to stay right on campus.” She met his eyes squarely. “That makes me like my mother. Afraid to try anything new.”

“You must enjoy it,” Shane said.

She shrugged. “Parts of it. I love books and I love to research things and discover the answers, the secrets.”

“It sounds a lot like bounty hunting.”

“Except that I spend most of my time in front of a computer screen, and lately…” Suddenly her eyes narrowed. “Hey, I’m supposed to be asking the questions, not answering them.”

“I’ve got a proposition for you. Why don’t we team up and track down Billy Rutherford together?” The surprised look on her face summed up his own feelings exactly. Where in the world had that question come from? He always worked alone.

“No.”

That one word should have flooded him with relief, not disappointment. And certainly not annoyance “Why not? Think about it. It makes perfect sense. Especially if we don’t want to stage another Keystone Cops scene like the one we played out in the attic.”

“I can’t,” Jodie said. “I want to catch Billy to prove something—that I’m not like my mother. How am I going to do that if I team up with a big-time bounty hunter?”

“I can see to it that you get all the credit.”

“But if you’re the one who really catches Billy, I’d know it. And if I’m going to change how everyone thinks of me, I think I have to convince myself first. So my answer is no.”

Shane watched in silence as she rose and turned away. He let her get to the door before he said, “One more thing…”

She turned.

“Something very important you ought to know about me—I never take no for an answer. I’m going to persuade you to change your mind.”

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