She closed the gate and watched Paloma race toward a cluster of other foals, bucking and kicking, seemingly delighted when they joined her like a flock of starlings to tear around the pasture. Her smile was real, but her eyes stung.
With her peripheral vision, she saw that Jed had joined her at the fence. He stayed quiet, which he probably remembered was a more effective tactic with her than demanding answers.
“You want to know where I got the money.”
He glanced at her, eyebrows raised.
She supposed there was no reason not to tell him. “My stepfather died.”
“And left you his money.”
“No, he left me my mother’s money.” She added grudgingly, “That was decent of him. He didn’t have to. He had a son.”
“Your mother didn’t have it tied up to come to you?”
“No.” Her mother had cut her off for her ‘lies’, but Linette didn’t have to tell Jed that. This was something she didn’t talk about. Still, she saw the speculation in his eyes.
But he surprised her with what he did say. “You never told me you came from a privileged background.”
“Money, you mean,” she said bitterly. “Well, we had that.” She shrugged. “I almost gave it all away, but then I decided it should be mine. It gave me the chance to start over.”
His mouth crooked just a little, giving his face the fleeting warmth she had once loved so much.
She walked past him, returning to the barn although she couldn’t remember what task was next on her agenda.
“Where’s Troy?” Jed asked.
“Lunch break. He usually sits on the front steps, but if you didn’t see him, he might be in the kitchen.”
“You let him in the house?”
Linette just shook her head. “He’s a nice guy. Of course I let him put his lunch in my brand new refrigerator. I even make lunch for both of us sometimes.”
Jed winced at her mention of the ridiculously expensive appliance.
“Couldn’t get the smell out?”
“No.” Or maybe she’d only imagined the lingering odor. Didn’t matter. “I’m thinking about buying a gun,” she said.
He gave her a sharp look. “Do you know how to use one?”
“I practiced some with Lloyd’s shotgun.”
“How many years ago?”
“What, you think I should stick with the baseball bat?” she snapped.
“No, damn it.” Jed leaned toward her, anger suffusing his face. “I think you should use me.”
Linette stared at him, speechless…and oh, so tempted.
CHAPTER NINE
Jed hated the shock on her face. Hadn’t she taken his offer to guard her seriously? Or was she only stunned because he hadn’t gotten her message? To all appearances, Linette hated him and the ground he walked on. He couldn’t blame her. He’d treated her like crap.
He heard again her scathing tone. I’ve had it with men, present company included. I like my horses better.
The only good part had been the preface. And no, before you ask, there’s been nobody since I got here.
Her chin came up. “You don’t owe me anything.”
Oh, yeah, he did, but he knew better than to say so. “That’s not what this is about.”
She studied him, those green-gold eyes seeing deeper than Jed liked. Then she gave an odd half-laugh, tipping her head back to gaze toward the open beams above where he’d earlier spotted several sparrow nests.
“Last night,” she said quietly, “I had an epiphany. Alex Burke called and offered to spend the night again. I said thanks but no thanks. When Troy offered, too, I lied and claimed I had a friend lined up.”
Jed’s throat felt so tight he doubted he could swallow.
“Then—” she stole a glance at him “—I climbed up in the tree and discovered I was scared. I found myself thinking stuff like ‘pride goeth before the fall’. Oh, and cutting off my nose to spite my face.”
Thankfulness and even a trace of humor eased his tension. “No need for original thought, I take it?”
Linette scrunched up her nose in a way that sent a painful pang through him. God, he’d missed her.
“I was working my way around to a point.”
He let himself smile.
“If guarding the ranch and me will allow you to feel you’ve balanced the scale in some way, I can live with that.”
His sense of satisfaction crashed and burned. In Linette’s view, was this the same as when she’d accepted her mother’s fortune? Because she was owed?
Well, fuck it. He did owe her. Besides, staying as long as she needed him gave him a foot in the door. A chance to show her he’d changed. Or maybe he should say, that he could change.
That he’d never leave her again.
You so sure? an inner voice mocked.
Yeah, he thought. He was. But whether he could be enough for her, that was another story.
“Fine,” he said. “Expect me before dark.” He turned and left her standing alone in the shadowy depths of the barn.
*****
Knowing Jed didn’t like surprises, Niall Callaghan sat on the front porch steps so that he’d be seen right away. A dark SUV that shouted cop car slowed as it approached the house, finally drawing up to the curb. The man getting out eyed the unfamiliar truck before he noticed Niall. He relaxed subtly, probably on seeing the Georgia license plate.
Niall rose slowly to his feet. His face split into a grin. “If it isn’t Jedediah Dawson himself.”
Jed laughed. “Niall Callaghan. Damn.”
They shared a back-slapping hug.
Drawing back, Jed asked, “What are you doing here? I thought you were settled back in Alabama.” That’s where Niall’s mother and sister were, the Huntsville area. He felt guilty he hadn’t made more effort to stay in touch with friends. He couldn’t remember the last time he and Jed had talked or made contact online. Before Jed had inexplicably moved to Oregon, he knew that.
“Got tired of taking orders.” Niall shrugged. “I’m traveling. Visiting old friends.” Looking for something he couldn’t name.
“I’m glad to see you.” Jed sounded like he meant it. “I hope you’ll stay for a while.”
“Few days, anyway. Got a duffle in the truck.”
“Bring it in.”
Once Jed had put together sandwiches and poured them both coffee, they studied each other over the kitchen table. Seeing Jed again seemed unreal, especially in such a different context.
“Okay,” Niall said, his southern drawl stronger than Jed’s, “you have to explain why you moved to this godforsaken part of the world.”
Jed didn’t exactly squirm, but he came close, especially for a man who rarely betrayed emotions or his thoughts. Intrigued, Niall waited.
“Remember Linette Broussard?”
“How could I not? Never seen a guy fall so fast and so hard. Boom!”
“Fuck you,” Jed said agreeably.
Niall was smiling again. “So you’re back together?”
“No, it’s not that simple. I, uh…” Jed planted his elbows on the table and yanked his hair. “She says she’s done with men, me included. Sounds like she got into a crappy relationship after we split.”
After Jed had walked.
The grimace suggested he was thinking the same thing. “She’s in trouble now, though.”
Niall’s brows rose.
“Long story.”
Jed told it in between bites, starting with a gang of what sounded like professional cattle rustlers, moving onto some nasty tricks played on Linette followed by an attempt to steal one of her foals that sent her to the hospital.
“She’s finally agreed to let me stand guard nights. Daytimes, she has a young guy working with her at the ranch. Usually he’s part-time, but he seems to be putting in extra hours for now.”
Niall didn’t hesitate. “I can help. You can’t do your job and stay awake all night, too.” This might be just what he needed: a mission. Like Jed
, he had the experience to handle bodyguard duties. An army veteran, he’d served as an MP for a few years and a cop since he got out.
“The sheriff is cutting me some slack,” Jed said. “I slept a few hours this morning.” He paused, frowning. “If you hit on her, you’re out of here.”
Niall grinned wickedly. “Would I cut out a friend like that?”
“Not if you know what’s good for you.”
This time when Niall laughed, Jed joined him.
“Hell, she’ll probably be glad to see you.”
“Of course she will be. I’m a good guy. I didn’t dump her.”
“Yeah, you and Clarissa broke up not that much later.”
Niall felt his jaw tightening. “I came back from my last deployment pretty messed up. She couldn’t take it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Couldn’t blame her.” Niall’s shoulders jerked. “I hardly noticed when she left.”
Jed would know the feeling. The intensity of the anger, the nightmares, the plunges into depression, made it hard to maintain any kind of relationship. A lot of marriages failed.
Niall didn’t like failing at anything. Jed at least had a better excuse. He’d been messed up long before he joined the army.
Jed being Jed, he changed the subject. “I have to stop by headquarters. If you want to come along, I’ll introduce you to the sheriff, Grant Holcomb. He’s a good guy. Served a few years, too. Hey, he’s desperate for deputies. He’d hire you in a minute.”
Tension crawled up Niall’s neck. “You know I signed on with the Madison County Sheriff’s Office. Patrol for a while, then narcotics.”
Jed grimaced. He’d known about the narcotics part. “Grant would think you’re manna from heaven.”
“Yeah, the thing is, I’d have to take orders. I meant it when I said I’m done.”
“How about my orders?”
“Call ’em requests and we’ll be fine.”
“Deal.”
They grinned at each other.
*****
Disgruntled after taking a call from Cassie letting him know she couldn’t meet him for lunch, Grant decided to eat at his favorite Mexican restaurant anyway. It came as a surprise to see Harrison Seward, the Fort Halleck police chief, sitting alone at a booth. As far as Grant was concerned, Seward exemplified some of the worst of small town policing. Unfortunately, since Fort Halleck was the county seat and largest city, and the sheriff’s department headquarters had been built on the outskirts, Grant couldn’t avoid the man entirely. They’d worked together cooperatively a few times, butted heads more often.
A man in his late fifties, Seward looked up while Grant waited to be seated. With a phony smile, the chief gestured. “Why don’t you join me?”
If Cassie had been here, Grant would have had an excuse. As it was, he did try to maintain as cordial a relationship as possible with his counterpart in the FHPD.
“Good to see you,” he said insincerely, joining Seward. Scrutinizing him across the table, he could see why the guy’s first name hadn’t been relaxed to Harry. Not a big man, Seward seemed to have a Napoleon complex. Everything about him, including his flat-top haircut, bristled whenever Grant saw him. Maybe he was always that stiff. For his sake, Grant hoped not.
“Grant.”
They shook hands.
Once Grant had ordered, the two men discussed administrative annoyances they both faced on a regular basis, as well as the difficulty in finding capable men or women to fill open positions. A Fort Halleck PD officer had been murdered back in February. During the investigation, Grant had had to fire one of his deputies.
Seward shook his head. “Guy I took on to replace Chad Norman? Let him go last week. There were rumors he was napping during his shift. Last straw was when I smelled booze on his breath when he came into the station to sign out.”
“I’d have fired his ass, too.” Apparently they did have some standards in common. “I have to say, I’ve been really happy with the woman I hired to replace Youngren. She was hands down the most impressive candidate who applied. People relax around her. She’s doing extra training to be able to take over some of the basic crime scene jobs, too.”
“I don’t know.” Seward dropped the subject while the waitress delivered his enchilada, resuming after she retreated. “Not sure I’m comfortable having a woman out there with a badge and gun. I’ve seen that little gal you hired. Not much to her. Now, you tell me how she’s going to take on a belligerent drunk who weighs two or three times what she does.”
Grant set down his soda. “Research shows that women cops don’t have to physically confront aggressive men nearly as often as male cops do. They’re better at defusing anger, settling everyone down so the situation doesn’t turn violent.”
“What you mean is, even drunks might have some qualms about punching a cute gal like your deputy.”
No, that wasn’t what he’d meant, but Grant doubted he’d get anywhere with this argument. Even so, he couldn’t resist countering, “No, I think on average women are better at using their smarts and their words than the average man. But you have a point, too. Most men are likely to hesitate to attack a woman.”
“Well, you let me know how it goes with her,” Seward said, no give in his attitude.
Grant’s lunch arrived and he started to eat. Seward asked about the cattle rustling and Gary Webb’s murder, which carried them for a few minutes. That was fine until Grant got the uneasy feeling the police chief was a lot more interested in the subject than he would have expected.
“You have acreage yourself?” he asked casually.
Seward’s hesitation increased Grant’s curiosity. “I do,” he said at last, surely realizing that Grant could easily find out where he lived. “Run some cattle, in fact. Brings in extra income.”
“Do you? I don’t think Detective Dawson has you on his list. How big a herd do you have?”
“On top of some steers I’m bulking up, I’ve got close to forty calves. And yes, I’ve branded them.”
“Herefords?”
“Nope, I’ve got Red Angus and I’m moving into Charolais. I like the look of them, and their calves are big.”
“Never seen one. Cream colored, aren’t they?”
“In the dark, they look like ghosts moving out there in the pasture.”
The man had more poetry in his soul than Grant would have guessed. Also shrewdness, and a reasonably successful sideline to his job in law enforcement.
It did cross Grant’s mind that a herd of Charolais had been stolen, although he couldn’t remember from which ranch. And had the calves been branded? He’d ask Jed.
Seward didn’t seem happy with the turn of the conversation, or maybe he’d just recalled an obligation. Either way, he pushed away his plate, dropped some bills on the table and excused himself with surprising speed, his manner stiff again.
It was also possible he’d just remembered how much he disliked Grant. Word had it he disapproved of Grant’s youth and thought he’d been offered the job as sheriff only because he’d been a high school football star, leading the Fort Halleck team to a state championship at their level.
Grant was fine with letting him think whatever he wanted to, as long as it didn’t get in the way of their working relationship. Truth was, he didn’t know whether Seward’s territorial tendencies had anything to do with his feelings about Grant, or whether that was just his nature.
Seward’s ranching operation wasn’t huge, but it was bigger than a lot of the small-time ranchers in the county could boast. So why hadn’t he come to any of the meetings Jed had held in cooperation with a bunch of separate agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Oregon State Police, even the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife? The man was in law enforcement himself.
Not a cow had disappeared since Gary Webb’s body had been discovered. Either the cattle rustlers had scared themselves, or the volunteer patrols and flyovers were having an impact. The sheriff’s department had been
able to reroute deputies to back country roads with the highway patrol stepping up on the highways in the county. Following the example of Malheur County, Jed had asked ranchers to note dates, times and license plates when they saw vehicles they didn’t recognize in grazing areas, or on the roads at night, especially any pulling a stock trailer. Jed encouraged individual ranchers to set up security cameras if they could, too.
At this point, there wasn’t a lot they could do that they weren’t already doing. But murder had upped the stakes, Grant thought grimly. The Hayes County Sheriff’s Department wasn’t close to giving up.
*****
Jed’s light rap on Grant’s half-open office door brought an immediate, “Come in.” When Grant saw the stranger accompanying Jed, he rose to his feet and looked inquiring.
“Niall Callaghan,” Jed said. “Old army friend of mine who drifted into town.”
Waving them to seats, Grant smiled at the description. “Planning to stay awhile?” he asked civilly.
“Longer than I intended,” Niall said. “Seems Jed here needs help shoring up defenses out at Linette Broussard’s place.”
Jed hid his wince. He’d forgotten to tell Niall that his boss knew nothing about his history with Linette.
“That so,” Grant said with interest. “What do you have in mind?”
“I’ve talked her into letting me stay out there nights,” Jed said bluntly. “Niall may reinforce me for a few hours each night so I can get some sleep.”
Grant transferred his gaze to Niall. “Are you armed?”
“I will be.” His grin was effortlessly charming. “Didn’t think I ought to walk in here carrying.”
“Smart decision.”
“Niall spent some of his time in the army as an MP,” Jed explained. “He got stuck on protection details for visiting congressmen and the like. He’s been a cop since he got out three years ago, too.”
“I don’t suppose—”
Niall laughed. “I’ve spent too many years taking orders, thank you.”
Grant grimaced. “I was getting to that place myself. Now, Jed—” there was a smile in his eyes “—I rarely have to give him an order. For you, Mr. Callaghan, I suggest you find a small town that needs a police chief.”
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