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well as physically. If she hadn’t ended up in the hospital with my phone number in her purse he might have killed her. Rance and I flew down and brought her home.” He shook his head. “She hasn’t even been close to herself since then.”
    “What happened to Stadler? I hope she pressed charges.”
    “No.” T.J. let out another sigh. “Rance tried to but the cops told him she needed to do it herself. We could hardly get her out of the house in what seemed forever, much less file a complaint. But Rance had what you might call a heart-to-heart with the guy.
    And I don’t think Erin would let him get within ten feet of her again without screaming her head off.”
    Hollis pulled out a little notebook and jotted something down. “We’ll check him out, anyway. The Ranger and I are going to check the bar again tonight, too. See if someone there was in it when she left and remembers anything.”
    “Just find my little girl, okay?” Rance looked up at him. “Before some piece of garbage thinks he can get his mitts on her and suck a bunch of money out of us.”
    * * * * *
    “The room’s not nearly as bad as you made it sound.” Erin looked around the motel room with its standard queen sized bed, small table and chairs and one big arm chair.
    Just as the man named Bubby had said, it wasn’t fancy but it was clean.
    Grady studied her. “I have to say, darlin’, you look like you’re used to fancier digs.”
    Erin stiffened. “Why do you say that? This is fine. Perfect, in fact.”
    He studied her some more before his mouth curved in that sexy crooked grin.
    “Okay. If you say so.”
    “What time do you have to be at the bar tonight?” she asked.
    “I like to get there about an hour before the first set tonight. Why? I’ve been thinking you can’t spend the next two weeks in those clothes. How about I take you shopping this afternoon?”
    He was right. She needed toiletries, too. And other things.
    “That would be nice.” She looked him hard in the eye. “I’ve got money. I pay for my own things.” She was more than grateful that for whatever reason she’d been hoarding a nice amount of cash. Maybe she’d been planning on “breaking out” all along.
    For a moment she thought about T.J., who’d done nothing but love her and be nice to her and her conscience stabbed at her. She’d find a way to get a message to him. It was the only right thing to do. She needed to let her father know she was okay, too, so he’d call off the dogs. But she wasn’t near ready to talk to him yet. He’d just steamroll over her and she’d be back where she’d been.
    Grady smiled at her. “Fine by me. Whatever you want, darlin’. How about we go now? Then you can you’ll have some time to shower and change and we can grab a quick bite before heading for the bar.”
    She insisted he take her to Walmart, despite his trying to steer her to an outdoor mall with nicer stores. She needed to buy a lot and her cash had to last her. The trip turned out to be more fun than she expected, with Grady teasing her as she looked through the lingerie and holding up low cut tank tops for her to try on. She even bought a large duffel to carry everything in. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d done something so…so normal. Maybe never. She’d gone from being Rance Braddock’s pampered princess to the hot babe working her way up the hotel chain, to Cal Stadler’ punching bag. Maybe her life had never been normal.
    But for right here, right now, she could pretend with Grady that none of that existed. None of it mattered. She even found herself laughing, something that had been in short supply for her for a long time.
    Her biggest challenge was keeping him away from the newsstands near the doors.
    She was sure her face would be plastered on every front page, if her father had his way.
    “Planning on hanging around with me for a while?” he asked when they got back to the room, his tone of voice half-joking.
    Did she? Right