Raising the Stakes

“A wildlife preserve.” That, at least, was true. There was one, about forty miles from the ranch. She’d taken Tommy there several times. “No gas stations, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Gray nodded and pulled onto the road. “In that case, we might as well head back to Vegas. I seem to remember passing some kind of blur in the road about an hour back.”

She looked at him and smiled. “A blur in the road?”

“Yeah.” He grinned. “You know, what passes for civilization in the middle of nowhere. A sign that says Home Cooking, another that guarantees you the biggest, nastiest looking rattlesnake heads…”

“Yuck.”

“And maybe a gas station.” He looked at her, a little smile on his lips. “You have something against home cooking? Wait. Let me guess. You don’t like rattler heads.”

“I just think they belong attached to rattler bodies, that’s all.”

“Wow.”

Dawn shifted in the seat so she could turn toward him. “Wow, what?”

“Wow, a lady who likes snakes. Never thought I’d get to see such a creature.”

She laughed. “I didn’t say I liked them. Actually I don’t like them or dislike them. It’s just that there’s something, you know, kind of barbaric about killing them just so you can mummify their heads. Or whatever it is people do to get them to look like that. Do you know what I mean?”

“To tell the truth, I never thought about it but—yeah. You’re right. It does seem wrong…unless, of course, you eat the rest of the snake.”

Her eyes widened. “Eat it?”

He grinned at the way her voice skidded up the scale. “Uh-huh. Cross my heart. Don’t look at me that way. It’s considered a delicacy.”

“Rattlesnake,” she said flatly. “A delicacy.”

“There’s this terrific restaurant in Boston…” Gray looked at her. “Tastes just like chicken,” he said, his mouth twitching as he tried not to laugh.

“That’s what they said in Phoenix, at a place that served armadillo.”

It was the most, hell, it was the only thing she’d ever told him about herself without being asked. He didn’t know what to say. Anything he could think of would probably close her down and he didn’t want to do that. He needed to learn more about her, didn’t he? For Jonas?

“Armadillo.” He arched an eyebrow. “Did you ever taste it?”

“No.” Dawn shuddered. “And I’ll bet that you never tasted rattlesnake.”

“You’d lose.”

“No. You didn’t. Rattlesnake?”

“Yup.” He goosed the gas pedal just a little, torn between wanting to make the drive last and wanting what was the best of two worlds, a car speeding along an empty road with a beautiful woman beside him. “It was sort of a rite of passage.”

“Were you in college?” Dawn eyed him suspiciously. “Was this one of those fraternity things you read about? You know, where some idiot drinks a gallon of beer and thinks he’s a man?”

“My God,” Gray said innocently, “are you telling me there are universities where… No. I don’t believe it. Why would eighteen-year-old kids do such things?” He looked at her and laughed. “Actually, I was only about ten when I munched on roasted rattler.”

“You mean, rattlesnake is one of the basic food groups in Texas?”

“Now you’re hurting my feelings.” He eased back on the gas. “Nah. Only if you’ve got a pack of crazy cousins like mine. We hung around together a lot when we were kids.” His smile tilted as he thought back to those days with three of Jonas’s sons—Travis, Slade and Gage. Those memories were pretty much the only good ones he had of growing up in Texas. “They had this club. I’d always wanted to be a member, but—”

“Why weren’t you?”

“They were brothers,” he said, as if that explained everything.

“Huh.”