Page 5 of Accidentally Kidnapping the Cowboy

“Okay, so? This was our only option. I didn’t know what kind of trouble you were in!”

“So?You kidnapped me across two state lines and now you’re asking me to be an accessory after the fact to grand theft auto. That’s a pretty bigso. And I wasn’t in any trouble before I met you!”

“Didn’t look that way to me. It was two against one and you were already unconscious. But then I remembered a story about the judge here. He’s a sucker for a romantic story. So all of…this…will be a non-issue if we just get married,” she says desperately. The piece of paper shakes in her hand. “Please. I tried to explain it to my mother and that asshole, but they don’t believe me.”

I gape at her. I don’t believe her, either. But her desperation is palpable and real, and she did rescue me from a bar fight I was definitely losing—not that I couldn’t eventually win it, but therewere three bear-shaped men and that is a reasonable test of my fighting abilities.

And then the door creaks on its hinges and our time is up.

Taking a big, fortifying breath, I unlock it and let it pop open, revealing a stocky, angry man on the other side.

Behind him is a woman bristling with her own variation of violent rage. She looks like Daisy, albeit with a few decades of bitterness having worn her down.

I immediately don’t trust them.

“Can I help you folks?”

“Who the hell are you?”

Fuck. I sure hope her plan has some substance, because apparently we’re doing this.

“I’m Daisy’s fiancé.” I push to the full extent of my six-foot-five-inches and frown down at them. “Didn’t she tell you?”

CHAPTER 3

DAISY

I knew I’d have to give the truck back. I don’t even want it. But I hadn’t counted on themtrackingme so easily.

Apparently, the truck itself has GPS built into it. As soon as they woke up, they knew where I was, and my phone hasn’t stopped blowing up since.

Now they’ve arrived.

At no point in the last six hours of my mother and step-father finding me in Jackpot, Nevada and telling me not to move another muscle, because they were hot on my tail, did I think that I was actually going to pull off this absolutely bananas plan.

But now that my cowboy—Zane—is glaring down at them, a wave of wild relief slams into me.

This just might work.

Unfortunately, that overly optimistic thought is immediately followed by a chirp of a siren and red and blue lights lighting up the open door to our motel room.

“You called the cops on your own kid?” Zane bites out. “Didn’t even give her a chance to make this right?”

“Daisy’s nothing but trouble,” my mother says, sending a sharp pain straight through my chest.

“What’s going on here, folks?” The question is followed by a car door closing, then a sheriff’s deputy steps into view behind my stepfather.

“A simple misunderstanding, officer,” Zane says confidently. “My fiancé’s parents here don’t approve of us eloping, you see.”

Maybe kidnapping him wasn’t the worst impulsive idea I’ve ever had.

“Wait just a minute,” my stepfather snarls. “That’s not?—”

“One at a time, one at a time,” the deputy says. He pulls out a notebook. “Let’s start with your names. You first, cowboy.”

“Zane Lowry.”

The deputy looks at me next. “And your bride-to-be?”

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