Free Billy Bob Walker Got Married by Lisa G. Brown Page B

a heavy fine and a wreck going on her driving record. No need for jail. I was pretty mad when I—"
    "She knows better than to run a car at any such speed," T-Tommy cut in flatly. "Don't get your badge all heated up, son. I'm the one that's lockin' her up, and I'm the one who'll be takin' the blame if there is any.
    "But—" Shiloh began.
    "But nothin'," the sheriff interrupted. "I got no desire to see you dead, Shiloh. So you can just take your medicine. You'll spend the rest of the night right here, thinkin' about why. A'course, you got a phone call comin'. You could go right now and call Sam. Tell him what's happened," T-Tommy added shrewdly.
    Shiloh stared at him wide-eyed, then swallowed heavily before she shook her head without a word.
    "That's what I thought," T-Tommy said with a sigh. "He's what you're running from, all right, in more ways than one. Look at you—you're a bundle of nerves. You ain't fit to drive, nor fit to face him, either."
    Then he fumbled for one of the keys and walked to the cell beside Billy Bob's, where he unlocked the door and flung it wide.
    "Come on. And then I'll call Laura—just to let her know you're safe. She can tell Sam that much."
    Shiloh tossed back her head defiantly and turned toward the row of three cells. For the first time, she caught a glimpse of Billy Bob as he stood in silence in the shadows, leaning indolently against the window, his elbows propped up in it, his long brown fingers locked together over his flat, bare stomach, and she jumped just a little, whether in surprise or apprehension he couldn't tell.
    But she sucked in a deep breath and with a sort of if-you-don't-like-it-you-can-lump-it movement, she limped into the cell. Limped, because one heel was broken off of a shoe—the one she'd kicked the trooper with, Billy assumed.
    T-Tommy moved with a heavy finality to shut the door behind her, then hesitated at the last minute and didn't quite push it all the way closed.
    The watching trooper made a weak protest. "Looks to me like you're babying her."
    T-Tommy eyed him, then answered dryly, "She ain't goin' nowhere. And for all your fussin', you're the calm before the storm. You ain't nothin' to what Sam Pennington's gonna be." Then he switched his attention back to the girl and said gravely, "This is for your own good, Shiloh."
    He watched the girl who'd sunk onto the edge of the cot as her long, delicate fingers nervously smoothed the white sheet once or twice. She avoided both his gaze and that of her fellow prisoner.
    T-Tommy, who suddenly seemed to remember that Billy existed, frowned at him and shook his keys in his general direction. "You watch yourself, Billy Bob. Don't give her a hard time."
    His male prisoner lifted his hands in a mocking, silent surrender, then T-Tommy followed the trooper into the outside office, closing the door behind them.
    That left the two of them alone in the dusky silence; even the church service had ended.
    It had been four years since he'd been alone with Shiloh Pennington, and her unexpected presence here tonight just might make his thirty days in jail worthwhile. Excitement and pure devilment seeped into him as he looked her over.
    She was wearing a sleek black nothing of a dress, and her matching hose had been torn up one side. The wild thickness of her shoulder-length hair had bushed out into a wavy, short mane, and she had a scratch along one cheek.
    For the first time in years, she looked . . . touchable. Maybe even a little forlorn.
    He pushed himself off the wall and as her wary brown eyes swung to find him, he drawled in a weak imitation of a gangster film, "So, Lefty, it's just me and you in the slammer tonight."
    "If you say one more word, I'll—"
    "Do what? Call the law? Well, don't look now, but somebody beat you to it, honey."
    "Don't 'honey' me. I'm not in the mood for it."
    His voice went dead serious as he stepped closer to the bars that separated them. "So you wrecked your car, just because you felt like