Don't Mess With Texas by Christie Craig Page B

interest, his brother would guess Dallas’s reason and blow a gasket.
    “What’s happening to our town? I’ve never had thismany homicides in one night before.” He glanced back at Nikki. “Looks like I’ll have to chat with Nikki later.” He started off then turned back. “Her car’s going to be held for a while. If Annie Oakley leaves, can you make sure Nikki has a way home?”
    Shit
. That didn’t follow Dallas’s tread-carefully plan.
    “Or…,” Tony continued. “I could call one of the other ‘interested’ guys to do it.”
    There was a teasing quality in his brother’s voice that pissed Dallas off even more. “I’ll do it,” he growled.
    Nikki sat with Nana and the Ol’ Timers and Ellen’s mother, taking a whole corner of the surgery waiting room. Nikki had only met Mrs. Wise once at an open house at the gallery. She had immediately liked the woman if for no other reason than, like Ellen, she was a warm and exuberant individual. Though none of that exuberance shined now.
    Nikki couldn’t help but wonder if Mrs. Wise held Nikki responsible for her daughter’s attack. If not for Nikki, Ellen would probably have been home with her own young daughter and not holding the fort down at a dying art gallery.
    Again, the questions started firing in Nikki’s brain. Why was this happening? Who killed Jack? Was it just some freak coincidence that Ellen was also attacked? Nikki had asked the detective right before she’d been released if it appeared the motive had been robbery. He said that according to his men, the money was still in the register and Ellen’s purse was still under the counter. So robbery didn’t appear to be the motive. But what the hell was? It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense.
    The mood in the waiting room could best be described as tensely optimistic—especially after a nurse had popped in and said they were still operating and it was touch and go.
    Mrs. Wise passed around a picture of Britney, Ellen’s six-year-old daughter, who was with her grandfather, probably asking for her mother.
    Ellen had never said much about Britney’s father, except to call him her biggest mistake. Nikki had to swallow several times to keep from crying when she looked at the little girl’s picture. The thought that Britney might have to grow up without her mother ripped at Nikki’s heart. And not just because her mother was Nikki’s best friend. Nikki knew what it felt like to be that age and lose your parents. Not that Nikki’s had died; they simply hadn’t wanted her anymore.
    Occasionally, someone waiting for another patient would ask about the vintage wear of Nana and the Ol’ Timers. There had been some conversations about the Annie Oakley play, but then it got quiet again and the tension crept back into the room like a heavy fog.
    Dallas and his brother, Detective O’Connor, were in and out of the waiting room taking phone calls. Nikki didn’t know if they were about her but, because during those phone calls one or the other would glance over at her, she suspected they were. The detective’s gaze was bothersome in that she could feel him measuring her for a pair of handcuffs. That would lead Nikki to thinking about Jack, and the vision of him dead in her trunk would flash in her head.
    Dallas’s gaze was equally disturbing. Not that he looked at her as if she was guilty. Nope, he looked at herwith concern, as if she was his personal project and he had to make sure she was okay.
    It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate his help, but it reminded Nikki of how she’d felt for Jack in the beginning. She’d had her work for sale on commission at a small café, and when the business went bankrupt, her six paintings had somehow gotten caught up in the deal. When she’d gone to the law firm handling the case to explain, Jack had been all too eager to come to her rescue. He’d been a knight in shining armor. And Nikki had fallen right into the role of damsel in distress.
    Almost as if