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me,” he said. “Is this normal procedure?”
    She shifted her hips to avoid getting bumped by the door as it was slammed closed. Even in his agitated state, Tucker couldn’t help but notice the attractive curve of those hips and how they nipped in at her slender waist. Snug, faded jeans had never looked so good.
    “I have no idea of normal procedure. I’ve never been arrested before.” She leaned forward to get her arms positioned comfortably behind her, then settled back with a sigh. “I think it’s more a matter of necessity. The third deputy has to go on another call, and that’ll leave them with only two cars. From the sound of it, Rodeo Days has them hopping.”
    Tucker felt no sympathy for the law enforcement officers. “You shouldn’t even be here. The bastard hit you first. Everything that happened afterward was completely his fault.”
    “True,” she agreed, “but it’s my word against his. My stars, what is that smell?”
    “I think the last passenger got sick back here. They tried to clean up the mess, but it still stinks in this heat. What do you mean, it’s your word against his? What about all the witnesses?”
    She let her head fall back against the seat. “Not everyone in the crowd saw exactly the same thing.”
    Tucker peered out his side window at the deputy, now powwowing with his colleagues and taking notes in a little black book. Glancing back at her, Tucker asked, “How could they not see the same thing?”
    “It’s a phenomenon that often occurs with witnesses,” she explained. “One person says a perpetrator was tall, another that he was short. You see it all the time on television.”
    “That’s fiction,” Tucker bit out. “This is reality, and our bacon is on the plate.”
    “I don’t blame you for being angry,” she said softly. “If not for me, you never would have gotten mixed up in this.”
    Tucker strained his wrists against the metal bands. Popeye without his emergency can of spinach flashed through his mind. “I’m angry, yes, but not at you. I just can’t believe this. The bastard belted you square in the face.”
    She cut him an apologetic glance. “I know, but some people didn’t see that part.”
    “What did they see, for Pete’s sake?”
    “You tackling him from behind and me kicking him.”
    “Well, damn.” Tucker wanted very badly to ram his fist into something. “If this isn’t a hell of a mess.”
    A wan smile touched her mouth. “A few people told itstraight. But overall, the deputies got conflicting stories. When they can’t get to the truth, I guess the policy is to arrest everyone and sort it out later.”
    “Fantastic.” Tucker’s temper fizzled out, replaced with resigned acceptance. He’d been arrested only once before, when he was attending university—an underage-drinking charge that had ultimately been dropped when he’d proved he was twenty-one. Nevertheless, he could still remember how long it had taken for him to be released. When you dealt with law enforcement from the wrong side of a cell door, there was always tons of red tape. “I can think of better ways to spend my afternoon.”
    “Me, too. I’m sorry the situation got out of control, forcing you to step in.”
    Even handcuffed in the back of a police car, Tucker didn’t regret his decision to help her. “No worries. You tried to call the cops. It’s not your fault the guy went ballistic when he saw you with a phone.”
    “I could have walked away when he knocked it from my hand.” A dark, distant look filled her eyes. “Somehow that didn’t seem like an option at the time. The horse was just standing there, waiting for more blows, too well trained to do otherwise.” Her voice trailed off. Then she swallowed and went on. “People are like that sometimes, conditioned all their lives to follow the rules and expecting everyone else to do the same. When that isn’t the way it happens, they don’t know how to react.”
    Tucker had an uneasy feeling she