Prologue
“I’m his girlfriend,” Annabelle lied to the nurse.
Laura, the nurse’s nametag read, frowned at her but nodded. “Then you can stay. He needs to rest for a while, though.”
Annabelle dragged her attention back to the window where she could see into the room and the poisoned bull shifter lying still in the hospital bed. “I won’t go in there then. I just wanted to make sure he’s okay.”
“I understand,” Laura said softly.
“Are his friends okay, too?”
Laura leaned her shoulder against the wall. “First Time Train Wreck and Jack of All Trades will be fine once the drug is out of their system completely. But Last Chance? He could use some extra prayers.”
Her heart ached at hearing that. “Is his family here?”
“No one has shown up for any of them. No one but you and that guy.” She gestured to a man sitting in a chair at the end of the hallway. “Do you know him?”
The behemoth was staring straight ahead, but she recognized his profile. That was easy. Black hair that hung stylishly down to his cheekbones, and a dark beard to match. Tattoos up his neck and a stout frame layered in muscle. He was famous. He had bucked tonight. He was the number one bull shifter in the world in the PBSCR and seemed to be a new friend of Annabelle’s best friend, Raven. Quickdraw Slow Burn was his name.
“I know him.” Kind of.
Laura twitched her head in his direction. “There’s a chair by him if you get tired of standing. I have to get back to work.” She gave a soft, crooked smile before her kind eyes brightened a little. “Train Wreck will be okay.”
Annabelle thanked her and then looked back at the stranger in the hospital bed.
Train Wreck was looking back at her, conscious now, a slight frown across his features. He was younger than she’d thought from the charcoal tint to his hair, and the silver in his beard. Maybe his bull was silver. His face was smooth and tan, and on his upper arm, tattoo ink stretched from his elbow up into the sleave of his hospital gown. He lifted two fingers in a weak wave back to her, and then relaxed and closed his eyes again.
No, she wasn’t First Time Train Wreck’s girlfriend. She’d never even met him before, but she knew how awful he felt right now, his body trying to detox from the drug Filsa that someone had poisoned him with. She’d taken the drug before, too, back when she thought she didn’t want the animal that lived inside of her.
“What are you doing here, Wolf?” Quickdraw Slow Burn asked low.
He hadn’t moved, was still sitting in the chair, elbows on his knees, white cowboy hat dangling from his hand, his dark hair covering his eyes as he stared straight forward.
Huh. Well, he’d pegged her animal. Bull shifters had good instincts. Or perhaps Raven had told him what she was.
Annabelle pulled her purse closer to her side and made her way toward him, her sneakers squeaking against the sterile white tiles of the hospital with every step.
“I could ask you the same thing. Isn’t that your competition in there? Lying there helpless?”
“Did you do this to them?” he asked, dragging a dark gaze to her. His face was half hidden with a thick black beard. His eyes were full of fury and seemed to look right into her soul.
“No.”
After a second of hesitation, he nodded. “You’re telling the truth.”
It was Annabelle’s turn now. She was a shifter, too, and could hear truth and lies, just as clearly as him. “Did you do this to them?”
To her surprise, a small smile took his face. “Atta girl. You just proved you’re here for a good reason.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Did you poison those bull shifters?”
He sat up and then leaned back in the chair, dragged his attention up and down her body before he said, “No.” And it was the truth. “Your animal is protective. You playing guard dog?”
Annabelle shrugged up one shoulder and allowed a, “Maybe. Are you a guard moo-cow?”
“Don’t call me a cow.”
With a little laugh, she sank down in the chair next to his. “I wanted to make sure no one came in to finish the job. The nurse said Last Chance is worse off than the other two.”
“Shit.” Quickdraw chewed the corner of his lip and then said, “I’ve been trying to figure out who has the most to gain if the bull shifters go down.”
Annabelle puffed air out her cheeks. “I wish I knew more about rodeo and about the circuit, but I don’t even know all the players. Would the riders benefit by this?”
“Not at all. Their rank and income and notoriety depend on them being able to ride us for eight seconds. If there are no bulls to ride? They don’t get paid. They don’t keep their sponsors, they don’t keep their fans, they fade into nothing. They would be forced back into riding regular bulls but take a big pay cut and lose the attention.”
With an explosive sigh, Annabelle threw up her hands. “Well, that was my only guess. I can’t help you play detective, but I can watch over these boys until their people get here.”
“Why?” he asked earnestly. “Why even bother?”
“Because it doesn’t feel right celebrating the rodeo tonight when something this awful happened. They’re important. All shifters are.”
“Not all,” he grumbled.
She laughed. “Aaaah, you’re the dark and moody type, huh? Well, I see good in people. Everyone has some in them, and even if it’s just a tiny amount, the good is valuable.”
Quickdraw’s dark eyebrows furrowed as he studied her. “But the bad weighs heavier.”
She tucked her knees up into the chair and rested her head against the wall. “Does it?”
His frown deepened, and after a few moments, he murmured, “You’re strange.”
Annabelle smiled at him brightly. “Thank you.”
Chapter One
The plane tickets were for today at 3:10 pm.
Had she trapped him?
From the envelope, Annabelle pulled out the single ticket for the rodeo finals for the Battle of the Bulls. It was the last event of the PBSRC circuit, and it was set in Casper, Wyoming. The winner would take home a huge purse, and so far, Quickdraw was dominating the entire circuit.
He was going to be rich after this, and in her mind, that was part of the problem.
Had she accidentally trapped him?
There would be a letter. There always was. Three times, Quickdraw Slow Burn had sent her plane tickets, and two times before now, she’d ignored them. She’d ignored his texts asking if she’d gotten them, too. Even Raven, her cow shifter best friend and a member of Quickdraw’s herd, had asked why she was ignoring him.
That part, she hadn’t been able to explain. Not to anyone. Not to her parents, not to her co-workers, not to her best friend, and certainly not to Quickdraw.
She pulled out the letter with shaking fingers and read it.
Annabelle,
This is a long shot. I know it is. I ain’t asking for a date. You do what you want with your life. But since that night, I want to spend more time with you. I guess my bull does too. He always looks for you after a buck.
Please come.