Ms. Got Rocks Read online

  Ms. Got Rocks

  By

  Jacqueline Colt

  Ms. Got Rocks

  Rocky Clancy was a freight hauling pilot in Alaska. She becomes a gold miner after inheriting a gold claim located in California. Her attempts at pulling a living out of the American River are seriously complicated when her gold claim is jumped by the most gorgeous man ever born, her new best friend is a world class bad girl who accidentally leaves a body lying about near Rocky's cabin. Then, making things worse, the high school buddy she hopes to make her next man, won’t give her a second look and the Feds suspect she is up to no good on a world wide scale.

  As if that isn't enough, her gold claim gives up a monster gold nugget and takes a huge price in exchange. While recuperating Rocky’s adventures continue with a claim jumper who is not what he seems, her dogs, and a buffalo loving jackrabbit. The law officers who suspect she is a Mafia Don-ette make her long for the peace of a forty mile ski trek in sub-zero weather up home in Alaska.

  Ms. Got Rocks

  Jacqueline Colt

  Copyright (c)2013 by Jacqueline Colt.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic form or by any means including information storage and retrieval systems-except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews without permission in writing from its publisher, Colt Publications.

  All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious and used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author or publisher.

  Published by Colt Publications

  ISBN 9781301520367

  Boxer dog (c)CanStock Photo Inc./GELPI

  http://www.canstockphoto.com/boxerdog 3887351.html

  Black Lab dog (c)CanStock Photo Inc./ESIGHT

  http://www.canstockphoto.com/blacklisting 3188995.html

  Handsome man (c)CanStock Photo Inc./curaphotography

  http://www.canstockphoto.com/handsome man 5206310.html

  Portrait of beautfulwoman (c)CanStock Photo Inc./Anderson

  http://www.canstockphoto.com/portraitofbeautifulwoman 3618389.html

  Gold Nuggets (c)License Agreement http://www.canstockphoto.com/legal.php)

  (c) Can Stock Photo Inc. / ROMS

  Friends and Family

  I want to thank my son, Craig Colt for talking constantly about gold dredging,hard rock mining and geology for all these years, while he worked at dredging. This one sided conversation made writing the gold dredging by Rocky possible.

  To my son Brian Colt, for always listening to my ideas, for his smart and correct editorial choices, for knowing how to punctuate, and because he can make me laugh out loud. I thank him so much.

  To Becky Erisch, Camille Pratt, Denise Washburn and Mary Blackburn who read the first draft and refrained from laughing themselves silly, I dedicate this book. For their years of encouragement and undiminishing love, I thank you forever. You guys are the very bestest.

  If you liked Ms. Got Rocks, you might like Jacqueline's adventure, set in the future, a shorter story. Star Hunter is available at Amazon.com.

  In July 2013 watch for the first edition set of short contemporary romances. One is a bit naughty. The set will be available at your favorite e-reader store.

  Chapter 1

  "Get in the plane. Take it back to Anchorage where it belongs." He was walking still closer to Rocky.

  “No, the plane is staying right here. Get out of here Tony, it isn't yours. You have no legal right to it." She was firm but calm.

  "I’m still your husband and I want that plane, take it back to Anchorage now or I will make you pay,” Tony hissed through his teeth at Rocky.

  "Why do you want the plane, you can't even fly, in fact…"

  "Shut up bitch, and get into the plane," he was starting to yell but there was no one within miles to hear him in the Alaskan night.

  "No, I'm not taking this plane anywhere, and neither are you. Leave Tony. Don’t make this harder than it already is." Rocky was still calm but just barely.

  Tony taunted her in a mocking voice.

  “I'll show you harder...”

  He punched Rocky in the soft spot in the middle of her stomach. She doubled over barely capable of breathing. Then, she definitely could not breathe.

  Rocky heard Phoebe growl and felt the dog’s body come off the tarmac. Lovie, the big Boxer dog, had screamed. Rocky felt Tony land against her, he was stumbling. He recovered and grabbed Rocky by the hair pulling her toward the plane's hatch. Rocky landed against the sharp edge of the door. Tony pulled his arm back to hit her again.

  There was a terrible howl, as Lovie had caught and bitten Tony’s arm. The big dog pulled and shook him like a rat. Lovie dragged him a foot from Rocky. Tony had to let go of her hair. He was trying to shake the dog off of him. Rocky threw the cockpit door open. She fumbled inside looking for the tire iron she used to knock ice off the plane skis in the winter. It was somewhere on the floor.

  Tony was howling for Rocky to help him. Phoebe, the short Lab mix mutt, was moving in. The man was half way to the ground with Lovie still on his bare arm. The big dog shook it with intent to kill. Phoebe jumped for his face, which was finally in her range. She clamped her jaws around Tony’s throat. Phoebe was the more dangerous of the two dogs, by far.

  "Rocky get these fuckin' dogs off me before I kill them," Tony screamed.

  Rocky had the tire iron, and her second wind. Action movies are wrong. You can’t kick a man after being slugged in the stomach. It’s not a happening thing. You can barely breathe, much less stand up straight, Rocky thought. But, thanks to the dogs, Rocky was upright and Tony was down on his back. He was trying to push himself toward his truck with his heels.

  As fast as Rocky could move she lurched her way to the truck and jerked open the passenger side door. That was when she spotted the gun on the seat. Grabbing it, she staggered a few feet from the truck, then threw the gun as hard as she could across the dark runway.

  The injured man had scooted himself to the running board of the pickup. He opened the driver side door with his free arm, and pulled himself into the truck. Getting leverage there he brutally kicked Lovie in the stomach. That infuriated the big dog further, she dropped his arm and attacked his leg with a renewed vigor.

  As Rocky hurried around the bed of the truck to help the dogs, she could see blood glimmering as it ran down Tony’s arm and throat. Phoebe was not letting go of his throat. The little dog was standing on her hind legs on his lap. Tony had most of his body in the truck now. Rocky rushed over and tore loose Phoebe’s grip. Lovie let go of his leg after a final furious shake and tear. Rocky slammed the door on him as hard as she could, and forced it open again.

  Tony moved further into the cab of the truck. Rocky slammed the door as hard as she could again, it caught Tony’s hand across the knuckles. She could see him screaming, but she did not hear any sound. Pushing the door open again with his swelling hand, Tony frantically threw himself onto the seat while trying to turn the ignition key.

  Rocky pushed the door closed again. Getting her feet under her, she re-opened the door and smashed it into his ankle. Quickly, she pulled it back and punished his ankle again. She could hear someone screaming in front of her.

  Tony was completely in the truck. As Rocky moved the door to again smash into him, he gathered his strength and yanked the door from her hands, locking it.

  The panting, frantic, angry dogs and Rocky stumbled to the plane. She boosted them into it and locked the door. Rocky swung into the cockpit and began the engine start up. Again she heard someone yelling.

  “I will mow the bastard down with the plane. It won't be of any use to him and not worth a plug nickel.�
�� Rocky did not realize that it was she doing the yelling.

  While she was automatically running through the start up procedures, her brain reconnected. She was appalled at what she had done. She even could acknowledge that the wild thing moments ago was her, and felt a momentary twinge of guilt.

  Her husband had managed to start the truck and instead of ramming the plane, as Rocky expected, he raced the truck down the only road from the Palmer airport.

  Rocky reached around and turned on the cabin lights to check the dogs for injuries. Phoebes’ mouth was running with blood, and Lovie was whimpering softly. Phoebe had a loose tooth and numerous tears in her mouth and Lovie must have internal injuries. When the plane was warmed up she flew with shaking knees and arms the twenty miles back to Anchorage, Alaska.

  * * *

  Rocky was her nickname; her name formally was Rochelle Siobhan Clancy Hardwyn. The name Rochelle blurred into Rocky after she panned her first little gold nugget on her Daddy’s gold claim. The name stuck as she grew older, and the nugget still hung on a chain around her long elegant muscled neck.

  Her husband, Tony, decided after ten years of marriage that playing the field with a co-worker was better than marriage. To symbolically rid himself of Rocky and their marriage, he moved all of Rocky’s belongings to the Anchorage land fill. Then, using the next month’s rent money, he took off for a Mexican vacation with his latest amour.

  Rocky was left without a place to live, with her two dogs, her SUV and her airplane that she uses for her job as a bush pilot carrying freight for Richland Air Service. Returning from his moment of love in Mexico, Tony was demanding the rest her possessions.

  Later in Anchorage, she gently carried the dogs to the SUV and drove like a mad woman to the pet ER just blocks from the Merrill Field airport. Rocky spent the rest of the night there, being with her dogs as they were stitched and made comfortable.

  Shortly after four AM, the ER office was a hub of activity. The vets had called the police to report the abuse of the dogs. Rocky was signing a complaint against Tony on their behalf. She signed an attempted burglary and assault charge against him for herself.

  The officer was insisting that Rocky go to the ER and have X-rays taken and be checked. As soon as both dogs were sleeping under medication she allowed the cops to take her to Providence Hospital ER.

  Rocky was going to be fine, no broken bones, but she was certainly bruised. She did not remember getting the huge scrape on her face. The left side of her face looked like five day old ground meat.

  The color was not a complement to her freckles nor to her hair which is the color of the embers of a bonfire. Her slightly up tilted eyes are like frosty root beer on a hot morning. The angles and planes of her face are athletic and strong. She is used to physical work. The cop later described her to his partner as a babe with hot curves.

  It was now eight AM, and she had been awake for most of the past twenty-four hours. The reporting metro cop gave her a lift to the vet hospital. She picked up the groggy dogs and settled them in the SUV and carefully drove to Merrill Field Airport in eastern Anchorage.

  * * *

  “What the hell happened to you, for God’s sake, sit down?” Betty, the admin. assistant, was pushing Rocky into her office chair. "Mr. Richland, get in here pronto, now."

  Rocky explained as best she could to the gang at the flight service office, while Doc Martin, the other pilot, was finding his Ibuprofen.

  “He isn’t getting the plane and after last night, I don’t want him back. No way, done for, ended,” she said very loud convincing herself and everyone else she meant it.

  Doc and Talltree, her mechanic, gently carried the heavy weight of a half sleeping Lovie into the office, laying her and the barely conscious Phoebe on their beds, next to Betty’s desk. Both the dogs made an effort to thump their tails, happy to see the men. Rocky was tired enough she could curl up next to them and sleep for years.

  Chapter 2

  Rich Richland, the flight service owner, was making plans for Rocky. She was too exhausted to quibble.

  The SUV was being ferried to his home garage and the plane now had an armed security guard posted on it.

  Mr. Richland bundled her into his car where she instantly fell asleep, only waking when the passenger side door opened. Mr. Richland helped her into the Captain Cook Hotel lobby. She could get some sleep and be out of the way, while the police handled the situation. The dogs would stay in his office and go home with him that night. The last thing Rocky remembered as she double locked the hotel room door was Rich Richland telling her the dogs would be safe. She wanted to stay awake long enough to take a bath.

  "Ah, a bath, that feels good, sorta, ouch." Rocky murmured as she slid into the big round tub. Easing her very sore, multi-colored body under the hot, waterlily scented, bubbly water she closed her eyes and tried not to think of Tony and the divorce.

  "I want to stay here forever, well, at least for the day,” she told her toes which were propped on the tub rim. At that point she was not entirely sure what day it was.

  The water was cold and Rocky realized that she had drifted off to sleep again. She hauled her body out of the chilly water feeling as big, swollen and ugly as a walrus hauling out on the beachhead.

  Later, wrapped in the fluffy hotel robe, she called room service and discovered she had slept twelve hours. They would send up a small steak and salad dinner.

  Her clothes, in a heap where they were dropped, were covered in human and canine blood. Her new jeans were practically in shreds on the sides. She could wear them long enough to eat and get back to the airport and her plane. The spare set of clothes waiting for her in the airplane was all she had to wear, since Tony had thrown all her earthly possessions into the city dump.

  The office was locked when the taxi dropped her off at Merrill Field. She walked around to the back side. The guard scared her when she came around the plane. The guard was making lots of noise regarding proper ID.

  Minutes later, he watched over her as she got her one shirt and jeans from the plane. He loaned Rocky his cell phone and Mr. Richland was at the airport in minutes with the dogs.

  Rich Richland opened the office and Rocky made a small pot of coffee. After she changed clothes, she took a mug of coffee out to the guard.

  Rocky returned to watch the dogs settle down on their new beds that she had spent practically her entire last paycheck to replace. They were a sorry looking little crew, with stitches and swellings over them much more than her. They never looked more beautiful and wonderful to Rocky as they did then.

  “Rocky, we have to get you out of here. There is no way that we are going to keep you safe for as long as it takes with your ex. I think that he is in jail at this moment. He only needs to be arraigned and post bail and then we are back to square one keeping you safe again.”

  Rich Richland kept talking when he was on a roll. A person had to wait for him to wind down. It had always amazed Rocky how he could talk so fast. But then, most Alaskans talk fast.

  “Rich, I sort of accepted the offer of the crop duster down in the lower forty eight, I think I better get serious and get the SUV sold, and get down there.”

  “We hate to see you go, sweetie, but we hate more to see you like this, all beaten down. Has Tony always been violent with you?” Rich asked, obviously hurting as much as if Rocky were one of his daughters rather than an employee.

  “No, he is certainly angry a lot with the whole world and especially me. He has never liked the dogs, but he has never hit me. There have been a couple times, recently when I was sure that he was going to, but he didn’t. Honestly, Rich, I think he was going to kill the three of us, if that is what it took to get the plane and the car.” Rocky was pacing the small office, even though she hurt everywhere.

  “Yeah, I think so too, it sure looks like it. The cops told me that they found the gun that you threw onto the runway. It is registered to the girl friend.”

  Rocky’s head popped straight up and the
pacing stopped.

  “Well, how stupid is that? I mean it is pretty damn stupid to try to take a plane away from me by force, but to use your girl friend’s registered gun. He is losing it.”

  Rocky rolled her empty coffee mug around in her hands, to keep them from shaking as much as to warm them.

  “Rocky,” Rich looked at her, with his I’m the parent look that he used on his daughters.

  “Whether it is losing it or stupid, it is obvious that it is too dangerous for you to be hanging around here waiting for him to try it again. In my opinion, which nobody asked for, of course, if he is stupid enough to try that kind of stunt once he will do it again. You need to leave, and very soon, like tomorrow, while he is still in jail,” Rich was giving Rocky the straight scoop.

  “But Rich, he will know that I’m going to California, he knows that Dad is sick and I want to get there. He will follow me,” Rocky was beginning to realize what a mess that she was really in.

  “Besides, I’ve never run away from anything in my life,” Rocky was sounding concerned, but not stymied.

  “Rocky, he can’t go out of state when he has posted bail, he can‘t leave, he can’t follow you,” Rich explained.

  “Sure, he can, he can’t do it only if he gets caught doing it, and there is no one to watch him 24/7. Oh my God, what am I going to do?" Rocky was close to panicked, her bravado slipping rapidly.

  “How much do you want for the SUV?” Rich asked.

  “Huh?”

  She did not get her brain turned around quickly enough to keep up with Mr. Richland’s train of thought.

  “I said, how much for the SUV? Sherry, our oldest daughter is expecting again and with her oldest two, there isn’t enough room in the sedan for her and three little ones and the junk she hauls around. The Missus and I thought that we would like to buy the SUV and give it to her. How much do you want for it? We cut a deal here, and you can be gone tomorrow morning,” Rich was grinning and not in the least breathless.

  “How about fifteen eight?”