Justice Burning (Hellfire #2) Read Online Free Page A

you to town. Regulations state I can’t let anyone but another deputy, or the sheriff, ride up front.” He tipped his head toward the front passenger seat, filled with the usual mobile computer and electronics typical of modern police work. “Besides, there isn’t much room for you and your dress up front.” His lips pulled upward in a smile.
    Phoebe chewed on her bottom lip for a moment and then nodded. “I guess it’s okay. I just…I never…rode in the back of a police car.”
    “It’s no different than riding in the back seat of any other vehicle, except the child safety locks are engaged. I’ll have to let you out.”
    She heaved a sigh, the rounded swells of her breasts rising and falling beneath Nash’s chin.
    Damn, she smelled good, and he bet there was a gorgeous body to match the breasts, all hidden beneath the ridiculous amount of white fluffy material.
    Nash deposited her on the back seat, almost dumping her like a bag of hot potatoes before he got too used to holding her against his body. He didn’t need complications in his life. Phoebe had complication written all over that pure white wedding dress.
    Intent on taking her to town and dropping her off on the nearest sidewalk, he bundled all of the dress inside with her and slammed the back door. Hurrying around the side of the SUV, he glanced across at his brother, standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, that damned grin spreading across his face.
    “What?” he demanded, his voice terse, his temper rising.
    “Nothing. I just never pictured you carrying a bride.” Rider nodded. “Looks good on you, bro.”
    “Shut up,” Nash bit out. “I’m just doing my job.”
    Rider’s grin widened. “Uh-huh. She’s pretty, and apparently unattached.”
    “And passing through.” Nash opened the driver’s side door, praying the woman in the back seat hadn’t heard his brother’s words. He didn’t want her to get the idea he was at all interested. She’d be gone as soon as she placed a call to whomever she had waiting back at the church.
    Nash pulled out onto the road, radioed in to dispatch that he had a passenger and would be dropping her off at the garage. When he’d finished reporting in, he glanced at the woman in the back seat. Her face was pale, her pretty auburn hair a wind-blown mess and she kept chewing on her bottom lip. He found himself wanting to kiss the lip and make her stop worrying it.
    Dragging his gaze back to the road ahead, he swerved to miss an escaped Brangus bull, wandering across the road. “Damn.” Again, he radioed to dispatch. “Call Raymond Rausch and tell him Francis is loose again. Remind him that he needs to fix the fence on the highway to keep that bull from crossing the road.”
    “Roger.” Gretchen, the dispatcher, responded. “Someday someone will hit that damned bull.”
    “I sure hope not. I doubt it would hurt the bull, but slamming into him would most likely kill the driver.”
    “Exactly.” Gretchen asked for a mile marker sign and promised to call Rausch immediately.
    As he entered town, Nash tried to push aside any feelings of guilt or empathy for the bride in the back seat. The best he could do was to find a telephone for her to make a call to her family back wherever she was from. They could come collect their runaway, and she would be on her way. “My brother has a phone at his shop. I can let you in to use it.” He glanced at her in the rearview mirror.
    She lifted her chin. “Thank you, but I don’t want to call anyone.”
    “Don’t you have family who can come get you?”
    Frowning, she shook her head. “I’m not going back.”
    Great. Now what was he supposed to do with her? “How about a friend?”
    “I don’t have any friends,” she said, her voice firm, but the bottom lip she’d been chewing on trembled.
    “Well, I can’t just leave you on the street.”
    She glanced down at the ring on her finger and slipped it off. “Is there anywhere I can sell this ring?