Cowboy Tough

by Stacy Finz

  “The neighbor from Beals Ranch I told you about.” He gazed around the tent. “How do you think it’s going so far?”

  “Excellent, don’t you?”

  “I’m happy with it.” He couldn’t help himself and kissed the top of her head.

  She smiled up him and straightened his collar. “Don’t just talk to people you know.”

  “And you thought Tiffany was bossy?”

  As if he’d conjured her with his little quip, Tiffany appeared at his right elbow. “I have some people I want you to meet.” Before he could respond, she dragged him away.

  She pushed him into Lionel Fisher, who owned a cement processing plant in Rock Bottom, an unincorporated area on the edge of Mill County, which had a population of less than five hundred. Fisher was a generous benefactor in the area and had built a couple of small parks with money out of his own pocket. Needless to say, his backing would go a long way.

  “Nice barbecue.” Fisher tipped his cowboy hat instead of shaking Jace’s hand, old-school style.

  “Thanks. Glad you could make it.” Jace looked around Fisher. “You bring Barbara and the kids?”

  “Nah, she’s the 4-H horse leader in Rock Bottom and is up at that retreat at the Nevada City fairgrounds today. The kids’ Saturdays are pretty packed. So it’s just me. Came to hear what you have to say.”

  “I’m just looking for your vote, Lionel. It’s as simple as that.” Tiffany discreetly kicked him in the ankle, urging him to do the whole damn stump speech. “I’ve been a good sheriff,” he continued, uncomfortable bragging about himself. But that’s what Tiffany wanted him to do and on this score she was right. No one was going to toot his own horn for him. “I have more than a decade of law enforcement experience, including making detective on a midsize city’s force. I believe…correct that…I know Mill County has been a safer place since I was elected sheriff.”

  “We had that biker murder two years ago and there’s been an uptick in property crimes.” Fisher was reading straight off of Jacob Jolly’s talking points.

  “Yep. We arrested two people in that biker case days after the murder. Both were convicted and got life in prison without the possibility of parole. I’d say that was a job well done. As far as the uptick in property crimes, that started before I took office. Take another look at those numbers, Lionel. You’ll like what you see.”

  “You’ve done a good job, Jace. And I don’t pay a lot of attention to rumors or sex scandals. But Jacob Jolly is offering a fresh perspective that I think will shake up the status quo.”

  Jace couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m not arguing with you as far as shaking up the status quo, if you mean getting a guy in here with absolutely no law enforcement background. He runs a hardware store with two employees. I run a county department with a seven-figure budget and a staff of thirty. It’s thirty because the first thing I did when I was elected was make good on my campaign promise to add ten more deputies to the department. Jacob Jolly is a great guy if you need a wrench. As the top cop in Mill County, not so much. I’d also be concerned that much of his contributions are coming from one special interest group and how beholden he might be to them in the future. I don’t have half his war chest, Lionel.” Jace made a point of drawing Fisher’s attention to the crowd. “But every dime I’ve collected is from my constituents, not folks who live outside the county.”

  “All good points, Sheriff. All points I’ll take into consideration when I go to the ballot box. Your grandfather was a good man and I think you’re a good man. I also think Jolly’s a good man.”

  “Fair enough,” Jace said. “Get yourself a burger, Lionel, and I’ll catch up with you later.”

  He walked away not feeling particularly optimistic about having won Fisher over. Tiffany chased after him.

  “See, that wasn’t so hard.” She pulled him behind the bandstand, where a local bluegrass group was entertaining the crowd. “You were magnificent, by the way!”

  “He’s voting for Jolly.”

  “He was before you made your spiel. Now he’s on the fence and I have the utmost faith he’ll come around by the June primary.”

  “We’ll see.” Jace wasn’t as convinced.

  “Notice that the sex scandal came up again. I told you we had to mitigate that problem.”

  It was all Jace could do not to blow a loud raspberry. “I can’t control ridiculous rumors. All people have to do is look at Aubrey and Cash to know that Mitch’s story was bullshit.”

  “Jill’s here, by the way.”

  “I saw her old man earlier. She’s a neighbor, a constituent, what can I do?”

  “Nothing.” Tiffany gazed around the tent. The crowd had spilled out onto the lawn and everyone seemed to be enjoying the event. “We want her vote, Jace.”

  Jace didn’t give a rat’s ass about Jill’s vote. As far as he was concerned she should be in jail, but Randy Beals had enough problems without having to visit his daughter behind a Plexiglas window. In the corner, near the bar, he spied Brett in his wheelchair and decided that whatever happened with the election didn’t compare to having good friends. Great friends.

  “Tiff, I see someone I want to talk to. Let’s reconnoiter later.” He squeezed through the crowd, shaking hands as he went.

  “Hey, it’s the man of the hour.” Brett high-fived him.

  “You came.”

  Brett threw his hands up in the air. “Of course I came. For you, bruh. And last I looked Sacramento was only an hour away and I’m still registered in Mill County, my friend.”

  “I heard you were voting for Jolly.”

  Brett flipped him the bird. “Jill’s here along with the kids.”

  Jace nodded. “Anything new going on there?”

  “She wants us to get back together.”

  “And?”

  Brett shrugged. “I’m not ready yet. Fact is, I don’t know if I can let what she did go, Jace. For the sake of the kids, I want to forgive and forget. But…shit.”

  “I hear ya.” The whole damn affair was so freaking sad, Jace had trouble wrapping his head around it. Brett had given so much…to his country…to his community. Jill had been in love with him since she was a teenager. And then Brett came back from the war a paraplegic and in the blink of an eye everything changed.

  “I’d like to meet this babysitter you’ve been telling me about.” Brett smirked. “Where is she?”

  “Come on, I’ll introduce you.”

  Guests cleared a path so Brett could get through in his chair, and Jace led him to the other side of the tent where Charlie and Aubrey had managed to make time for a burger.

  “Look who I found crashing the party,” Jace said.

  “Brett!” Aubrey hopped in his lap and threw her arms around his neck.

  Brett did a couple of spins in his wheelchair. “When’s the big day? ʼCause I might steal you away.”

  “My fiancé will likely have something to say about that,” Aubrey said. “June. You’re coming, right?”

  “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  Aubrey scooted out of Brett’s lap and he extended his hand. “Charlie, I presume.”

  Jace made formal introductions, then got pulled away again by Tiffany. Charlie, Brett, and Aubrey stayed behind, talking. There was a photographer from the local paper milling around, taking pictures. Jace had seen him before at a couple of crime scenes and gave him a big hello.

  “How’d you get stuck with this assignment?” The kid probably preferred real action, not a stuffy campaign function.

  “It’s not so bad spending the day on an awesome ranch.” The photographer smiled. “Can I get a shot of you standing next to one of your campaign posters?”

  “How ʼbout I flip you a burger, instead?” Tiffany perked up at the suggestion, probably liking the folksy appeal of the sheriff standing over a barbecue.

/>   “That would be awesome.” The photographer got his camera ready, clearly jazzed about the photo op.

  But Tiffany’s smile faded as soon as Jace slipped a “Mr. Good Lookin’ is Cookin” apron over his head and she stared daggers at him. Apparently, it wasn’t the image she was going for.

  The apron had been a gift from Aubrey and it’s what he wore when he did all his backyard grilling.

  Just keeping it real, Tiff.

  The photographer ate it up, though. “Turn a little to the left so I can get the apron.” Click, click, click.

  “How do you like your beef?”

  “Medium rare.” The camera man kept shooting pictures.

  “A man after my own heart.” A burger should never have an internal temperature of more than 145 degrees as far as Jace was concerned. He slapped a slice of cheese on top of the patty, waited for it to melt, and served it up with a toasted bun. “Here you go. Take a load off and grab yourself a beer.”

  Jace took off the apron, much to Tiffany’s relief, and she led him off to another Jolly supporter, who’d probably come to the barbecue on a reconnaissance mission for Jace’s opponent.

  Whatever. Forty bucks was forty bucks, regardless. And by the end of the event, schmoozing everyone old enough to vote, he had more than earned every cent they brought in and then some.

  Chapter 20

  Sunday morning Tiffany called, barely able to contain her glee. “Have you seen the paper yet?”

  Charlotte was in the midst of making crepes, with the phone clasped between her shoulder and her neck. “No, why? Is there a positive mention of the fundraiser?”

  “Better than positive. Go look. I’ll hang on.”

  “Jace,” Charlotte called to the dining room where the entire Dalton gang had descended for breakfast and to do a postmortem—Sawyer’s words—of the event. “Tiffany is on the phone. She wants you to look at the paper.”

  A short time later Jace came into the kitchen, took the phone from Charlotte and said, “Tiff, I have to call you back.”

  He hung up with a solemn expression on his face.

  “What’s wrong? Tiffany said the coverage was good.”

  He took the batter bowl from her and put it down on the counter. “Come in here for a sec.”

  She followed him back to the dining room, where the local paper was spread out on the table. There was a picture of her up on tiptoes, straightening Jace’s collar, the fake engagement ring twinkling in the flash of the camera’s strobe.

  Charlotte’s first thought was that Jace was furious about the ring. Very quickly, though, she saw the real problem.

  “Oh no.” She put her hand to her heart. “How did this happen?” It was a ridiculous question. There were at least three newspaper and TV photographers at the event and lord knew the number of attendees taking pictures with their phones to post on social media. “I’m such an idiot.” She squeezed her eyes shut. She’d inadvertently left a road map for Corbin.

  “Nope, that distinction goes to me,” Jace said and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m the cop, I should’ve thought about pictures, about the security issues they posed.”

  “Ainsley already knows you’re somewhere in Mill County.” Sawyer hitched his shoulders. “And if he sees the picture in the paper, or online, he’ll know you attended a campaign fundraiser for the sheriff. Doesn’t seem like the end of the world.”

  Cash slid the paper across the table under Sawyer’s face. “What does that picture look like to you?”

  Charlotte didn’t have to take a second look. How did the adage go? A picture’s worth a thousand words. She and Jace were staring at each other with such heat in their eyes that she was surprised the newspaper hadn’t spontaneously combusted. Throw in the sparkling diamond ring and Corbin was bound to form his own conclusions and go crazy with possessiveness.

  Oddly, no one had mentioned Tiffany’s diamond ring, not even Jace. She certainly didn’t feel the need to bring it up. The situation was bad enough as it was.

  Sawyer took a long look and grimaced. “Yeah, I see what you mean.” He pushed the paper back at Jace.

  “There’s not much we can do about it now,” Jace said. “The truth is I’ve been waiting for this thing to come to a head. We’ll just have to be more vigilant about security when Charlie’s here alone. And when Ainsley comes, I’ll be ready.”

  “We’ll be ready,” Cash corrected.

  Charlotte didn’t want this. She didn’t want to disrupt these good people’s lives or ruin Jace’s chances at reelection with yet another scandal. Most of all, she didn’t want the stink of Corbin to touch Travis and Grady.

  Her stay here had been a dream, and leaving Jace and his family behind would be like driving a stake through her heart. But the time had come to return to her original plan. She didn’t even care about her own safety anymore. She cared about protecting the people she loved.

  After breakfast Jace found her in her in her bedroom.

  “You okay?”

  She sat on the edge of the bed, fidgeting. “I guess in this day of social media and phone cameras it was inevitable that a picture of me would eventually surface. I just wish you hadn’t gotten caught up in it.”

  He leaned against the dresser and his gaze slipped to her left hand. “What was up with the ring?” So, he had noticed. Charlotte felt a bead of perspiration trickle down her neck.

  Jace’s expression remained neutral and she couldn’t tell whether he was angry. For a second, she considered lying but there’d been enough of that already. Jace deserved the truth and she deserved his rebuke for being duplicitous, even if she’d only had his best interests in mind.

  She cleared her throat. “Tiffany thought if I wore the ring people would think we were engaged and it would put the old rumor about you and Aubrey to rest, or at least give everyone something else to talk about. Ultimately, she thought it would help your chances for reelection.”

  This time, she saw anger flicker across his face and Charlotte braced herself for his temper.

  But he didn’t move from the dresser and in a low voice said, “And you thought that was a good idea?”

  “I didn’t think it could hurt and…I wanted to help you.” She shoved her hands under her legs to stop them from shaking. “Please don’t be mad.” Even to her own ears her voice sounded weak. Pathetic.

  “I am mad, Charlie. It was a lie designed to manipulate voters. It’s everything I’m against and you of all people should know that about me.”

  She did and yet she’d worn the ring anyway. “I…uh…wasn’t thinking.”

  “No, you weren’t.” He turned on his heels and started for the door.

  “Jace,” she called to him. “I’m sorry. I’m terribly sorry.”

  He whirled around and she flinched.

  “I know you are,” he said. “And I know you were only trying to help. But I wish you would’ve talked to me first.”

  He walked out of the room, leaving Charlotte alone on the bed.

  He was furious. Very, very angry, which he had every right to be. But he hadn’t hit her or even raised his voice.

  * * * *

  Sunday passed in a blur. While Tiffany and Jace’s family had deemed the fundraiser a rousing success, he wasn’t so sure. He’d talked to at least a dozen people at the barbecue who said they were leaning toward Jolly.

  “No offense. You’ve been a great sheriff but maybe it’s time for new blood,” Mercedes Aguilar, Mitch’s secretary at Reynolds Construction, had told him. Of course, she was devoted to Mitch and still nursed residual resentment over Aubrey and Mitch’s breakup and Mitch’s subsequent arrest. But she’d once been a loyal member of Jace’s fan club.

  Jace supposed he should take solace in the fact that people like Mama, the owner of Mama’s Towing and one of his toughest critics, was continuing to stand by him.
r />   Time would tell. But at least he had the barbecue behind him. And Corbin Fucking Ainsley in front of him. It didn’t take an FBI profiler to know that the ring Charlie had worn in the picture was like throwing down the gauntlet to a man like Ainsley.

  Oh well, it was done now. And Charlie’s heart had been in the right place. She’d worn the ring for him. For the sake of his reelection. He’d forgiven her. But Ainsley…Jace was looking forward to meeting the sumbitch face-to-face.

  He looked up at the clock on the wall and got to his feet. On the way out of the office, he told Annabeth to hold his calls and walked to Mother Lode Road.

  April was just a few days away, but the temperature hadn’t gotten the memo. Jace zipped up his vest and pulled his hat down low.

  Cash and Sawyer were waiting for him at the coffee shop at their usual table, where a pitcher of sarsaparilla and a fresh decanter of coffee waited.

  “We took the liberty of ordering for you,” Sawyer said. “Cash has to be in Placer County by two.”

  Jace took off his hat and hung it off a steer horn on the wall. “What’s going on in Placer County?”

  “A couple of drive-by shootings. Some idiot or idiots are picking off sheep in the fields.” Cash poured himself a cup of coffee.

  “You talk to the sheriff over there? He’s a good guy.”

  “We’re working it together,” Cash said. “So far, no suspects.”

  “What kind of asshole does something like that?” Sawyer reached across the table for the coffee decanter.

  “Don’t know, but I hope you catch whoever’s responsible.” Jace poured himself a glass of the sarsaparilla. If he had another cup of coffee he’d be bouncing off the walls.

  “I don’t have much time either. Grady’s getting his cast off this afternoon.” Charlie had volunteered to take him, but Jace thought he’d make a surprise appearance at the doctor’s office and take everyone out for dinner after the big reveal. “So let me get right to the point.” He’d put off telling his cousins long enough. “Randy Beals told me he’s selling his ranch.”

  “Ah, shit.” Sawyer rubbed his hand down his face.