Blue Jeans and a Badge Read Online Free PDF Page A

have a clue, anyway.
    Flipping up the bench top, he gathered a handful of long, elegant quills from a tackle box sitting next to the strong box and returned to the old guy. “Figure you could use them more than I can,” he said, and poured them into his hand. “Thanks for the info.”
    Then he slid back into the Jeep and revved it up. Just before pulling out, he stuck his head out the window and asked, “By the way, have you seen Clyde since last Thursday?”
    The man looked down at the quills on his palm, then closed his hand over them. “No,” he answered.
    Philip nodded. “Well, if you do, can you tell him he’s been cleared of that mess in St. Louis? He just needs to turn himself in and it’ll go away.” Then he wheeled the Jeep around and headed back toward the highway.
    Suddenly everything he’d done made sense.
    Luce was impressed.
    â€œNice work,” she said. “Using the native telegraph to tip off Clyde that he’s been cleared.”
    He gave her another wink. “I’m betting by the time we find his sister’s place he’ll already have heard, so he won’t be afraid to show himself.”
    â€œAnd come with us willingly.” She nodded. “Pretty smart, O’Donnaugh.”
    His shoulder lifted. “My dad taught me respect gets you a lot farther in this business than strong-arm tactics. You would have done the same thing.”
    â€œWe bounty hunters can’t afford to be so subtle. Drawn guns and handcuffs are the respect we count on.”
    He chuckled. “Funny, I don’t remember anything about guns the time you pretended to be an IRS agent.”
    She glanced over at him, jaw dropping. “How do you know about that?”
    â€œI do my research. I know a lot about you.”
    She wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that. The thought of him digging through her life made her nervous. Not that she had anything to hide. But why would he want to know?
    â€œThe only thing I don’t get,” he continued conversationally, “is what made you choose bounty hunting in the first place. That’s not the sort of work women usually go in for. Especially ones with straight As in school.”
    â€œI like kicking men’s butts,” she said tartly. It was her stock answer. It shut most people right up about the topic. Especially if they were male.
    â€œTough girl, eh? What made you hate men so much?”
    Unfortunately, she was beginning to realize Philip wasn’t most people.
    She suppressed a sigh. She didn’t like going into all this. Nobody ever understood it wasn’t the danger that drew her, but the restless need the job fulfilled within her. Always searching for something that was always just out of reach.She wasn’t sure what she was searching for, but it was like a compulsion within her, the search.
    She’d know what it was when she found it.
    She hoped.
    â€œI don’t hate men,” she said. That much was true. She liked men as much as the next female. Possibly more. It was just…complicated. “And I’m not a girl.”
    He shot her an amused glance. “Woman, then.” His gaze slid down her body and his amusement faded, replaced by something edgier. Something hungry, circling around her like that hawk he’d been watching. “Definitely woman.”
    â€œDon’t,” she murmured, feeling the impact of his perusal from her head to her toes. Remembering the look in his eyes from the motel room that morning.
    â€œDon’t what?”
    â€œDon’t try to seduce me.”
    He regarded her for a moment, then said, “Nothing’s further from my mind.”
    Yeah, right. She mustered a determined tone and stated, “Good. Because I’m not interested.”
    She slid him a look to check his reaction. And he shot back a smile. A knowing smile that called her a liar louder than if he’d yelled the word at