Her Cowboy Hero: Rodeo Knights, A Western Romance Novel (Cowboys of Ransom Creek)

by Debra Clopton

  “We’re going to find them,” he assured her and then he turned away leaving her staring at his strong back as he began scanning the ground.

  She watched him and then her gaze collided with Sean’s. No doubt he could feel the tension between them, it hung in the area despite Trip’s tight smile.

  “What should I look for?” she asked Sean feeling self-conscious.

  “Anything that seems worthwhile,” he said and went back to looking around himself.

  “How about this cigarette butt?” Trip asked from where he stood several feet away. “I know that there’s a lot of cowboys who smoke but I can’t place any of my men who do. Maybe this will come in handy.”

  Sean went to look. “Maybe so. It’s not faded at all so it could be recent.”

  Sean pulled a plastic baggie from his pocket. He also pulled a small pair of tweezers from a small pouch he was carrying. “Good call.” He picked the butt up with the tweezers and placed it in the bag and sealed it. up.

  Deciding the best thing she could do was to look around herself, Lori got busy, determined to contribute rather than complain. She studied the indention of where the trailer had been. There were several footprints along the side of the trailer tires. “Maybe these belong to someone involved?”

  Sean agreed. “Could be. We’ll want to look at your men’s boots and see if the imprints match.”

  “That can be arranged,” Trip said.

  “Until we know whether or not one of your men has these imprints we won’t know if this is a significant break or not.”

  She tried to remember if one of her guys walked with a sway or leaned heavily on one leg. Anything that might mean an imprint with an awkward back heel like the print Sean had found near the hitch area. Harvey had a little weight on him, but Mike was skinny as a fence post. But like Trip had said earlier they had no reason to suspect either man of anything but carelessness.

  Sean knelt down and rested his elbows on his knees, his cotton shirt stretched tight across his shoulders as he studied them. “It looks like three separate imprints. Different from the first one at the trailer hitch. There should be two imprints at the trailer hitch one of them will be your man and one set could be the horse thief’s.”

  Sean took several more photos and Trip took some as well. “See the depth of this imprint. It’s deeper than the other two which probably means he’s heavier so my guess would be that we are dealing with two of a similar weight and one heavier.”

  Trip frowned. “Harvey’s not the smallest guy. He’s about six foot and over two hundred pounds I would estimate. Mike is smaller, about five nine but less than a hundred and seventy.”

  “We’ll want their imprints,” Sean said.

  She looked at Trip, unease turning in her stomach. “You don’t think Harvey’s involved do you? Daddy hired him years ago. I really can’t imagine him being involved in this.”

  “Then there’s nothing for him to worry about,” Sean said. “We aren’t accusing him of anything. But I still need to eliminate his boot imprint with this one, we’re not claiming or insinuating guilt of any sort. I just need to my process of elimination to figure out who these prints belong to so that we can decide whether or not these are clues. They can help us along the way.”

  She nodded getting what he was saying and tried not to feel guilty about not trusting the men who worked for her.

  “Trip tells me you had dealings with rustlers a week ago?”

  “Yes. So far nothing has turned up.”

  “Okay, I’ll relay that back to my brothers when we look at all the factors.”

  They spent the next few minutes discussing what the agency could do and if they could help at all. “We’ll just have to see,” Sean said. “Until we dig deeper we really don’t know what we’re dealing with. I’ll head out to your ranch in the morning and do a few interviews. I’ll just tell them I’m following up where the police left off. At this point we aren’t accusing anyone of anything. Maybe someone noticed something the police missed in their questioning. After that I’ll drive back to Dallas and catch my plane.”

  Lori nodded and met Trip’s gaze. His brow hitched slightly as if questioning if she was okay with this. She wasn’t okay with any of it. “That’s fine. We’ll be ready for you.”

  She just hoped that questioning her men didn’t cause them to believe she didn’t trust them. She already struggled to have them give her half the respect they’d given her father. She certainly didn’t need to alienate them.

  They were quiet as they left the arena and headed back toward the ranch. She raked a hand through her hair. Her thoughts swirled.

  “I’ll make sure all the men stay near the main compound in the morning so we can talk to them. It’ll be good to see if anyone saw or heard anything out of the ordinary over the last few months. I’m not sure exactly what we’re looking for but maybe slinging questions out is the way to uncover something. I know you’re worried how the men will take this but stop worrying. It’s your ranch, Lori. You have a right to answers and to ask anything you want to know. And as far as these horses go, so do I.”

  True, she told herself. “Still, I just took over the ranch and this isn’t going to endear me to the men. I’m already the daughter of the boss.”

  “And for the ones who can’t handle that I’ll show them the door.”

  They’d been over this again and again. He’d fired three guys not long after she’d taken over for that very thing. They’d just not liked the fact that a twenty-seven year-old woman was their boss.

  “No, I don’t want to do that again. No one has been rude like those others were. And I can’t help feeling like I shouldn’t have let them go.”

  She felt him tense. They’d been at odds over this from the beginning too. Silence held the inside of the truck captive.

  “You’re my boss, but you know I disagree with you on that.”

  And that was part of their problem…she hated being Trip Jensen’s boss. Yes, they were partners in the stock contracting company but as for the ranch, she was his boss and he didn’t seem to be able to forget that.

  In the few months that her dad had been alive after he’d hired Trip, she’d been able to ignore how awkward this was going to be since she was almost two hundred miles away from the ranch while living in Houston. But then, her dad died and she’d taken a leave of absence and come home to sort things out. And being his boss along with everything else in their past was not helping the tough situation she faced of picking up the pieces.

  Trip’s grip on the steering wheel tightened as regrets pounded him like baseball sized hail. He fought hard not to overstep his boundaries, reminding himself that he was only the foreman, the manager. He was not Lori’s keeper. As much as he wanted to be more to her, he wasn’t. And he had to keep reminding himself of that fact. It got harder with every passing day they worked together.

  “Do you really think that they’ll find anything?”

  “They have a great reputation so they’re the best shot we have and that’s why I called them.”

  “That was a good call. I hope we get this figured out soon.” She grew quiet and nodded then went back to watching the pastures pass by.

  He glanced at her profile. She looked tense. Before he could let the boss/employee relationship stop him he reached out and took her hand. “It’s going to be alright,” he assured her.

  She met his gaze with wide sea blue eyes and for a moment she looked so vulnerable. She was no longer the freckled faced girl who’d befriended him that first day his dad had taken him to the ranch after being hired as the foreman. Trip had been ten and she was nine. Now, in that split second he felt like he’d been transported to old times. When she had trusted him. So long since there had been an easiness between them.

  “I hope so,” she said, removing her hand from his.

  A band tightened around his heart. He’d been a lonesome kid when they’d moved to Ransom Springs for the new job on the ranch and they’d moved into t
he manager’s house. Lori had been a skinny, freckled faced girl with pigtails and that first day she’d been wearing a pink shirt with blue jeans tucked into pink boots. Lori Calhoun had been one sassy little girl. He almost smiled remembering how she’d marched over to him as he got out of the truck.

  “You know how to ride?” she’d asked looking at him skeptically.

  He’d been highly offended. “Of course I can ride,” he’d boasted and she’d grinned wide, exposing a missing a tooth.

  “Not as good as me,” she’d said. “Come on let’s saddle up.”

  And from that day forward they were friends. And she’d been right…that scrawny girl could ride a horse better than most grown men. Her daddy had taught her well.

  They’d grown up together on the ranch and been the best of friends as kids. They’d ridden every inch of the ranch together, climbed the hills and followed the trails herding cattle and chasing strays. That had been when life was simple.

  When she was about sixteen and he was just about to turn seventeen he knew she was the girl for him. And that was when things got…complicated.

  His dad had taken him aside and pointed out the facts of life as far as their family was concerned—Lori was the boss’s daughter and Trip was the manager’s son. She would always own the ranch and he worked the ranch. And that was an impasse that he didn’t need to cross. His dad also pointed out that if Trip dated Lori and they broke up it could put his management job in jeopardy.

  A weight had settled on Trip’s shoulders and on his heart at that moment. And it had changed the course of his and Lori’s relationship. He’d backed away his senior year, knowing he had to. He had nothing to offer her. Nothing. And so he’d graduated and taken a job on a ranch near Texas A&M and worked hard to help put himself through college. Then he went to work right out of college selling a top brand feed and hit the road. He saved every penny he could, stocking it away for his future.

  He hadn’t loved his job but the pay was good and the commissions even better. He’d dated some, but Lori had stayed on his heart. He’d tried not to care when he got word she was in a serious relationship in Houston. Tried not to care when he’d heard her relationship had fallen through. And he’d tried not to care the day her daddy had called him and offered him the ranch manager job after Trip’s own daddy had announced he was retiring.

  Trip had refused the offer to come back and take over where his dad had left off. The pay had been great, the opportunity undeniable—if a man wanted to manage someone else’s ranch. None of that would help Trip own his own ranch or win the woman of his dreams.

  When Lori’s dad had called back being open about wanting to ensure the ranch was in good shape for Lori if something were to happen to him, Trip had understood where Ray was coming from. But being foreman still left him in the same position he’d always been in where Lori was concerned. As if he understood Trip’s dilemma, Ray had counter offered with the manager’s job plus the opportunity to buy in as half owner of the rough stock contracting company.

  Trip had taken the deal.

  He’d sunk his savings into the offer and now, his future rode on the success of the rough stock business. If he could help grow the business and build it then he could let his feelings for Lori be known.

  It was getting tougher to keep them hidden with every day he was here.

  He needed to know where they stood and he needed to get past the barrier of polite professionalism that was wedged between them.

  Chapter Three

  The next day Sean showed up to the ranch and he went about interviewing the two men who had lost their trailer. Just like Lori feared, Harvey took offense to being questioned by Sean.

  “I already answered questions for the police. Now you’ve hired a private eye to investigate me? Your daddy always trusted me.”

  She started to say something but Trip beat her to it.

  “Harvey, we’re not accusing you of anything but carelessness, which you and I both know Ray would not have stood for so stop with the guilt trip and answer Sean Knight’s questions. We’re just looking for leads.” The two men stared at each other and Lori knew what Trip had said about her daddy was true.

  “Fine,” Harvey grunted and then glared at Sean.

  Sean had remained neutral in the conflict as if he was used to this sort of thing. Lori wasn’t. But she had to admit now that Harvey had been so disagreeable she was determined that he would answer the questions even if she was the one who ended up asking them.

  Sean looked at Harvey’s boots. It was logical that one set of prints near the hitch would be his. It wasn’t the pair with the uneven heel. Harvey’s had a little normal wear but he didn’t have an exaggerated worn edge like the one at the scene.

  After an irritated, but somewhat cooperative Harvey left and they called in Mike. He also had a worn down boot heel.

  “Did you see anything that might get your suspicions up?” Sean asked him.

  “I’m afraid not. There was nobody around while I was there it was just me. We loaded the horses up and I locked the trailer up. Then we went and got the truck.”

  “And it took two of you to get the truck?”

  “Um, well,” he hedged. “I didn’t think anything about leaving the horses there. Most everyone was packing up and heading out. We see the same people at every rodeo. It never occurred to us someone would do this.”

  He’d only been working for the ranch for six months, hired right after Trip fired the three who hadn’t liked the idea of a female boss.

  Sean looked at the two of them when he’d finished the interviews. They’d found a couple of their ranch hands who had a boot heel that could possibly be a match to the one near the trailer hitch.

  “So far all we have several cowboys with slanted boot heels,” Sean said.

  “And there are a lot of bowlegged cowboys out there with slanted boot heels,” Lori said with a sigh.

  “But still, we have a cigarette butt and a slanted boot heel and when we get a break one of those could be the ace in our pocket,” Sean added. “I’ve got to head out if I’m going to catch my flight. We’ll see you in Fort Worth. Call if you have more information. I’ll do some digging and some background checks on the men working here if you’ll send me the list of names. Something about all of this still doesn’t feel right.”

  “I can do that,” Trip said as they stood and headed out of the office.

  Sean looked around. “So you own the ranch,” he said to Lori. “And you both own the stock contracting business? I’m not convinced this is WRC related. Those cattle being stolen could be connected to your horses being stolen.”

  “Yes,” Lori said. “We’ve been thinking that too.”

  They stopped at Sean’s truck. “So, my advice is to be on your watch and I hate to say it but don’t trust anyone.”

  Trip met her gaze. Did Sean mean each other?

  Sean’s truck disappeared in a cloud of dust but his words hung in the air around Trip and Lori. He turned to her. “Do you trust me?”

  She squinted at him in the sunlight as she pushed her dark hair behind her ear. “We might have our differences, the truth is that Sean could have told me straight up that you were stealing from me and I wouldn’t have believed him. He was talking about everyone else working for us.”

  Relief washed through Trip and he fought down the need to smile. Instead, he met her serious gaze with a nod. “Okay then, that means a lot.”

  “So where do we go from here?” she asked, holding his gaze.

  Her words brought up a whole host of wishful thinking on his part. “Want to take a walk and look at the stock heading to Fort Worth?” He needed to move.

  “Sure.” She fell into step with him as he started walking.

  “We need to do whatever it takes to figure this out,” he said. “And I think you should know, that while I don’t like the idea of this being an inside job like Sean implied, I’m not discounting it. Your daddy hired me because he knew he could trust m
e with all the things he cared about.” They reached the holding pen and he looked her. “We came to an understanding because we had a common goal."

  "Are you talking about me?" Lori asked.

  At Trip’s words and the look in his pale blue eyes a shiver of awareness raced through Lori. His gaze rested on her lips then lifted to meet her eyes.

  "What else would I be talking about, Lori?" he asked, his voice roughening.

  Her skin tingled and she swallowed hard. Suddenly, she needed to change the subject. It was getting too close to something she didn't want to acknowledge, something she was scared to acknowledge for fear once again her hopes and dreams would be dashed and her heart broken.

  She moved a step away from him, that or else she feared she’d throw herself at him and that would not do.

  "Do you think my daddy had something wrong with him? I just, I just can't come to grips with the fact that he was thrown from his horse.” There, she hadn’t voiced that concern to anyone.

  Trip was quiet and she wasn’t sure if it was because she’d changed the subject or because her question had startled him.

  “No, he didn't say anything. And if he was having issues I never noticed it. Sometimes things just happen. Flukes, oddities,” he said, his voice gentle. “If a horse trips anyone, even the best horseman in the business, can have an accident."

  Lori nodded and felt moisture at the corner of her eyes and she blinked hard, she would not cry. She took a shaky breath. He’d stood beside her at the funeral, as her ranch manager and she’d longed for her friend…

  But she’d lost him when she’d pushed for their relationship to be more during the end of her junior year. He’d pulled away almost instantly and distanced himself then left for college and broke her heart.

  Now, despite fighting her feelings for him and all the conflicting complicated emotions she was facing right now she would settle for just having her friend back.