Free Hot and Bothered by CRYSTAL GREEN Page A

loosening.
    Problem solved? Goddammit, like he had the time.
    â€œQuick-draw!” yelled one brunette whose hair was blond at the bottom. She was scanning him with a lascivious grin, probably wondering why he’d come in here without his usual cowboy gear on.
    He didn’t have time to explain that he’d shaved and worn an all-black wardrobe today for his job’s sake. He’d wanted to look imposing in case the creeper was at Rochelle’s signings.
    â€œNice to see you, Nola,” he said over the music.
    â€œHow about some body shots?”
    Any other night, and he’d be into that. In fact, he’d been into that a few times before.
    â€œJust stopping by,” he said, gesturing toward the back hallway that led to the private poker room.
    She flipped him off and returned to her drinks.
    Hell, she’d find someone else. Maybe even Jimmy Beetles, who was urging a pack of sweet asses from a local motorcycle club to get up and dance on the bar. First guy to do that every night won a pot of money that everyone contributed to, which is how Gideon made a lot of his pocket change.
    Best of luck to Beetles.
    When Gideon arrived at the poker room, the door was closed, so he knocked. The door opened, compliments of Kat.
    The brass ceiling fan inside the flocked, red-velveteen wall-papered room ruffled her short, blondish hair.
    Gideon leaned against the door frame. “What’re
you
doin’ back here?”
    â€œTaking a second off from work. What—am I the only one who’s never allowed a break?”
    He chuffed her under the chin like she was a little sister. “It’s good to see you resting, Kat. Isaiah’s got a good influence on you.”
    â€œYeah, well.”
    She opened the door and he walked in to find Boomer and another R&T regular at the poker table lounging over beer, cards, and guttered cigars in ashtrays. The room carried a brandied aroma barely cut by the motion of that lazy ceiling fan.
    Talking about lazy, Boomer laughed, pushing a hank of dark hair away from his eye and tossing away his cards. “You missed a hell of a game, quick-draw,” he said in his scratchy New Orleans voice, although he never confirmed or denied
where
he was from. But the way he still made his
th
s into
d
s gave Gideon a good hint.
    Across the table, Jesse Navarro rubbed at his skull-shorn hair. He had a very basic Aztec sun shaved into one side, and he looked as granite as ever.
    â€œCowboy,” he said in an officious, rumbling voice that spoke of his time as a fellow soldier.
    â€œJesse.” Gideon noticed that one spot at the table had another set of cards marking Kat’s place. She was really taking a break tonight, and that was strange, seeing as she was always working her ass off to make sure the saloon didn’t go under. “What’s really the occasion, Kat?”
    â€œNo occasion,” she said as they both sat. “It’s just that I haven’t been part of a good game in years, and I told myself why not. Might as well give it a go every once in a while.”
    Boomer chuckled. “Kat’s got a hankering for her man, and she’s trying to distract herself. That’s the down-low.”
    â€œShut up, Boomer,” she said.
    But Kat was trying really hard not to smile, and that made them all smile, because she’d fallen for a guy last year, and that was highly unusual, seeing as she was as secretive and private as they came. She had a past—a doozy of one that had resulted in a knife scar near her ribs—and only a few R&T regulars knew about it, including Gideon and Boomer.
    What was telling was that her new beau, Isaiah, still didn’t know everything about her. Kat had been working her way around to it for months.
    If you asked Gideon, he’d say that didn’t bode well for their future. Neither did the fact that Isaiah was attending graduate school out of state and they were doing the