Chapter Six
Dillon raised his hand in greeting to the tableful of men who called out to him. "Who are they?" Josie asked.
"Booster Club."
"Booster club? Are you serious? They all go out on Saturday night without their wives? Wow, I bet that makes for a happy home."
"It just might. You haven't met those fellas."
"Ooh," she gave the men another glance. "Well, do you need to go speak to them?"
"Considering the time and energy they put into fund raising for the program, I suppose I should."
"I thought your family was the heavy hitter when it came to contributions."
"We are, but these guys have raised a lot of money and they live football."
"Well, then go over and say hi. I'll be fine right here. Lula and Linc will be taking a break from the dancing soon."
"Are you sure you don't mind?"
"No. Go on."
What she didn't say and would not have for a hundred-pound box of ten-dollar-bills, was that she could use a little break from the effect Dillon had on her. So far, this evening had been fun. They'd laughed and talked with Lula and Lincoln, danced and flirted and teased and if she could have put her duty out of mind, it would have felt like a date.
It didn't go unnoticed that Dillon was quite the popular man. He was friendly to everyone who stopped to say hello and had a nice word to say about many of the players whose parents wanted to thank him for his guidance and example with their child.
Another thing was abundantly clear. If Dillon Walker didn't have a woman to spend time with, it was because he didn't choose to have one. Every time they danced, he had at least two women wanting to cut in. Josie was secretly pleased that each time he declined. She liked dancing with him. A lot.
But that's another thing she'd never admit.
As she watched, her body went into alert a split second before the cause registered in her mind. Two men stood at the bar, both holding beers, but neither drinking, and both scoping out the bar. Josie watched and noticed them looking at Dillon then talking to one another.
One of them saw her watching and the look he gave her told her without doubt that he was a threat. The question was, did he perceive her as one? The only way to find out was for her to make a move and see what happened.
She got up and started toward the restroom room, pretending to be watching the dancers. She saw both men following. Damn. One wouldn't be a problem. Two might. But she would rather have to deal with them than have them do anything to Dillon, so she continued.
There was a line at the restroom room, so she took a place at the end and leaned back against the wall. As expected, the two men worked their way through the crowd, body bullied the lady in front of her out of the way and took up positions on either side of Josie.
"You look like you need some fresh air," the one to her right said and pulled back his leather jacket to display a gun in the waistband of his pants.
"You know, I did notice a bad smell."
The man tried to take her arm but she slapped it away. "Unless you want to start a shit storm you won't try that again."
"Outside. My partner here is going to keep an eye on your boy while we have a chat."
"Fine." Josie headed for the door, all the way across the bar. She saw Lula and Lincoln coming off the dance floor and when her gaze connected with Lula's she was pretty sure Lula got the message that something was off because Lula put a hand on Lincoln's arm and leaned in to speak to him.
Josie made a point to look back at the man's partner, who was now standing at the bar, not far from where Dillon was sitting with the Booster Club. She then looked at Lula who nodded.
Once they were outside, Josie stopped beside a car to face the man. "I'm guessing you have something to say?"
"I'm just going to state the obvious. We can get to the golden boy any time we want, so you need to tell your boss that it's really not in his best interest to keep bucking the powers that be."
"You can't seriously think you're walking away from this."
He laughed. "Right, because a woman with no weapon, is going to stop me."
"Well how about that. You're smarter than you look."
His face twisted in anger and she saw her opportunity. Before he could reach for his gun, she used the car as a launching pad, put her hands on it and mule kicked the man with both feet in his gut. He wheezed and as he doubled over she landed, raised one knee and caught him under the chin.
A crowd was already forming from people entering the bar, but her awareness of them was secondary to her opponent. This time the blow she delivered lifted him up and send him careening backward. Josie was on top of him by the time he hit the ground. In a second, she had his gun in her hand, pointed at his head. "You're going to want to stay very still. I tend to get twitchy with firearms."
Without taking her eyes off him she stood and moved off to one side, keeping the gun on him. "Could someone please call the police?"
"Josie?"
Dillon's voice came from the direction of the bar's entrance. "Over here."
"What the hell?" He looked at the gun in her hand and the man on the ground. "Did you know Lula just body slammed a guy in the bar?"
"I'm not surprised. Did anyone call the police?"
"Hannah, the owner is doing that now. What's going on?"
"Can we talk about that later?"
"Sure."
"Thanks."
"So what do we do now?"
"Wait for the police."
"Okay."
It wasn't long before sirens announced the imminent arrival of the police. The moment two officers appeared, one pulled his service weapon. "Ma'am I'm going to ask you to relinquish your weapon."
Josie held up her hands, with her thumb through the trigger of the gun so that it hung loosely. An officer hurried over, took the weapon and pulled Josie's arms behind her and snapped on restraints. She saw the other officer getting the man off the ground to cuff him as two additional officers hurried to the entrance of the bar.
"Hey, she hasn't done anything." Dillon protested.
"It's okay," she assured him and then looked over her shoulder at the officer. "Can he please ride with us to the station?"
"That's highly irregular, ma'am."
"This is a rather irregular situation, officer."
"Please," Dillon added. "You can cuff me if you want."
"That won't be necessary Coach." The officer took hold of Josie's arm. "Come with me."
Josie didn't protest. In fact, she was glad she was being taken in. That kept her cover intact. It would take nothing more than a phone call to secure her release. The man she'd disarmed, however, would probably find himself being transferred to a federal facility. Making threats against the family of a United States Senator, carried consequences.
The message he'd given her was of far more concern than his arrest. Richard Walker had done more than ruffle feathers in the current administration. He'd made enemies and anyone bold enough to make this kind of threat was probably egotistical enough to assume that Richard would back down.
Clearly, their opponent had no idea who they were up against. Richard Walker would never back down and she'd give her life to see that he lived to secure the Republican nomination. If there was one thing she'd stake her life on it was that he would give everything he had to get the country on the right track again and unite America.
And that, in her book, was something worth risking your life for.