Her Dirty Cowboys

by Roma James

  I slipped my phone back into my pocket and hurried into the living room, where Cole was already taking Nora’s statement for our report. Good. That would hopefully have kept her from realizing how long I’d been in the kitchen.

  “Got you some water,” I offered, handing her the glass.

  “Thank you, sheriff.” She took a drink and then shook her head. “Can we possibly finish all of this later? I’ve already told you everything I know. Surely that’s enough for your report? I just want to get to the hospital. But… I think I might need to lie down for a bit first.”

  Cole looked like he might argue, but I cut in before he had a chance to speak. “Of course. We understand how hard this must be for you. Mr. Bishop was here as your, ah… friend? Is that right?”

  “My friend, yes,” she answered, her eyes narrowing. “Not that it’s anyone’s business.”

  “No, of course not.” I motioned for Cole to follow me as I walked toward the door. “We’ll be going now, but feel free to contact us at the station if you think of anything we might be interested in. You know, any other details from this morning you feel you should mention.”

  Her gaze moved from me to Cole, then past us to the edge of the dining table that was just barely visible from where she was sitting.

  “No, that’s all,” she said, suddenly sounding distracted. “Please show yourselves out.”

  I nodded and walked out the door with Cole right on my heels. From the corner of my eye, I could see Nora in the window watching us as we got back into the patrol car and pulled away.

  “What the hell was that all about?” Cole asked as we drove off. He was looking at me as if I’d lost my mind. “I wasn’t even finished taking her statement. There might have been something, some clue or—”

  “There was,” I interrupted, fishing my phone from my pocket and flashing him a wry smile. “You’re gonna want to see this.”

  “Oh, shit,” he murmured as he saw the picture I’d taken in Nora’s kitchen. “Oh, shit. So where are we going now?”

  I quirked a brow as we turned back toward town. “Where do you think?”

  We pulled up to the rear stairs behind Isaac’s office and parked the car. I turned off the engine and drummed my fingers against the steering wheel.

  “We can’t just go in there,” Cole said, echoing the thoughts that had been going through my head for the past several minutes.

  “We shouldn’t,” I corrected him. “Not without probable cause. But… we did tell him we’d be back to check on the official results of his water tests, didn’t we?”

  Cole nodded.

  “Now we’re back.” I shrugged. “We go in. We look for the test results. That’s all.”

  “And if we find something else?” Cole asked.

  I shrugged again. “I can’t speculate on what we may or may not find. I’m telling you that we’re just looking for the test results.”

  “And how are we going to get in? Break the door down? Nobody is going to believe those test results are that important, Prescott.”

  He had a point.

  I hadn’t considered that the door would most likely be locked.

  But we were already there, and we didn’t have anything to lose by at least trying to get into the office. If we had to, we could always go around to the front and through the real estate office to try that entrance.

  “If the door is locked, we’ll figure something else out,” I said. “Or we’ll leave.”

  We weren’t leaving.

  Not without getting some more information. I’d already made that decision. But since we were already on very thin ice legally—and that was with the most generous interpretation of what we were doing—I would have preferred not to break too many more laws in the process of gathering that information.

  I opened the car door and stepped out into the empty back parking lot, then waited for Cole to do the same. I could tell he was reluctant to bend—or break, if it came to that—the law like this, but I was taking the lead. I was his boss. I was calling the shots.

  And if it came down to it, I would be the one to accept full responsibility for what we’d done. I’d make sure that the only thing Cole was guilty of was following my orders.

  I slowly walked over to the metal stairs and began climbing to the second floor. I didn’t look back, but I could tell from the way the rusted metal was swaying and groaning that he was right behind me.

  We got to the door and I only hesitated a moment, then took a deep breath before I reached for the handle. This was the moment of no return. We could still walk away now and truthfully testify that we never broke into Isaac’s office.

  I turned the doorknob.

  It was unlocked.

  Cole sucked in a sharp breath behind me as the door creaked open. My heart was racing. I took a step inside, then stopped.

  “What the fuck?” I asked, my words echoing through the dark, empty space.

  Empty.

  As in… completely empty.

  “What the hell happened here?” Cole asked, stepping in beside me and looking just as confused as I felt. “It’s like…”

  “Like nobody was ever here,” I finished.

  And that was exactly what it seemed like. The walls were bare. The floors were clean. The desk was gone. The filing cabinets, gone. Even the tables where the maps had been laid out were gone. If Cole and I hadn’t been standing in this office just a little over a week ago, I would have never believed anything had been here at all.

  “I don’t get it,” Cole said. “Isaac was obviously still in town this morning. Where did all of his shit go?”

  “I have no idea,” I said, pulling my phone from my pocket. “But I’m going to find someone who does know.”

  I pulled up the number for the USGS and made a quick call. I could tell Cole was straining to hear the other end of the conversation, since all I was offering were a series of “ah, okay,” and “I appreciate your help.”

  “Well?” he asked once I’d hung up the phone.

  I scrubbed a hand down my face and sighed. “I’m honestly more confused than ever. Isaac’s supervisor said Isaac hadn’t been in the office for over a month but that his assignment here ended weeks ago.”

  “What?” Cole’s brow furrowed. “Weeks ago?”

  “Before any of this even began,” I answered. “And get this—he had apparently taken a leave of absence while he was here. His time off ran out just a few days ago.”

  “So he was supposed to go back to his office at the USGS a few days ago?”

  I shook my head, still unable to make any damn sense of the new information we had. “No. Once all of his personal time ran out, he just… resigned.”

  “I don’t get it,” Cole repeated. “I don’t understand how it all fits together.”

  That made two of us.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know, either.” I nodded toward the door. “Come on, let’s get out of here. We need to write down everything we know, everything we can remember plus all of this shit we’ve found out today. We’ll make a timeline and then see if anything stands out.”

  It was the best we could do under the circumstances, but I could tell exactly what Cole was thinking from the way his frown deepened as we turned toward the door.

  We still don’t know enough. We still don’t have a case.

  Chapter 14

  Daisy Lynn

  I looked around the crowded dinner table and couldn’t help but smile. Janessa had insisted on inviting Prescott and Cole over for dinner—an invitation I was more than happy to extend to my guys. I’d worried that my friends might not approve of my decision to take things more seriously with both men, but Janessa seemed eager to try and help move things along in the right direction.

  Even Becca, who had been more than a little skeptical of the whole situation at first, seemed interested in hearing about how well they both treated me and how sweet and tender they were when it was just the three of us together.

  And now t
hat we were all sitting around the table together—Prescott, Cole, Becca, Janessa, Cade, Boone, and Justin Thoreson all talking together and over each other—it felt like some kind of weird reunion.

  The men all knew each other already through business connections and the fact that my two guys were the entire local police force. Then Janessa, Becca, and I were still playing catch-up from all the time I’d spent recovering at Cole’s house.

  At any given moment, there were at least four or five different conversations going on around the table.

  Until the topic turned to the poisonings that had been happening. That got everyone’s attention.

  “Do you have any new leads, sheriff?” Justin asked from the other side of the table.

  Next to me, Prescott sighed. “Nothing we’ve been able to make sense of, unfortunately. We did come across some interesting bits of information earlier today, though.”

  “Anything you can share with us?” Boone asked.

  As far as I knew, Boone and Cade’s ranch hadn’t been targeted by the person doing the poisoning yet, but they still seemed on edge and were still splitting their time between their own place and the Triple J Ranch to make sure Janessa stayed safe.

  “There’s something going on between Nora Statler and the guy who was supposedly from the USGS—the one who came out here to take water samples not too long ago,” Prescott said.

  “Something going on… romantically?” Janessa asked.

  “That isn’t really my business, but I suspect there’s a romantic element involved. She was awfully distraught this morning.” Prescott grimaced, and I wondered if he was trying to decide just how much information he wanted to share over the dinner table. “But there’s also some sort of business connection. Something we haven’t been able to figure out yet.”

  “I could go and talk to her again if you think it might help,” Janessa offered.

  “Again?” Prescott and Cole both said at the same time as all eyes turned to Janessa.

  “Well… I, um…” Janessa looked uncharacteristically nervous for a moment, then sat up straight and put her shoulders back. I knew that look. She was going to stand by whatever she was about to say. “I just went to check on her, to ask how she was doing when I heard her horse was poisoned. It was the neighborly thing to do.”

  On the other side of Janessa, both her guys exchanged looks. One of them—Cade—was grinning so widely it was obvious what he thought about Janessa’s neighborly intentions. Even her own uncle snorted.

  Prescott wasn’t smiling, though. He gave her a stern look that made me glad I wasn’t on the receiving end of what he was about to say. “I appreciate your offer to help. I really do. And I understand you have a particular interest in finding out who is behind these poisonings.” He paused and took a deep breath. “But it isn’t safe for you to get involved. People are starting to get hurt, and I don’t want anything to happen to you—or anyone else at this table.”

  He gave me a pointed look. Message received. Don’t get involved.

  “Thankfully none of us have gotten hurt,” Janessa said. “I pray it stays that way. But you don’t have to worry about me, sheriff. I’ll be okay.”

  I could tell that Prescott wanted to say more, but I also knew he liked Janessa’s family and probably didn’t want to offend anyone, since he was here as their guest.

  “Just stay safe,” Cole said, following up where Prescott had left off. “That’s all we can ask. We’re taking all of our leads seriously, and we’re investigating as thoroughly as we possibly can. You’ll have to trust us.”

  “We do trust you,” Justin spoke up. “And we all have respect for the law in this house.”

  I was pretty sure by his tone and the look he gave his niece that the last part of his message was aimed squarely at Janessa. I saw her bristle and was worried she might speak out again—not that I could really blame her, of course. She was just trying to do what she thought was right for the ranch and her animals. That certainly wasn’t a crime.

  “This meal was so good,” I said, maybe a little too loudly. Definitely not a smooth transition to a new topic, but whatever. “I hope everyone saved room for peach cobbler, though. It’s a recipe from Janessa’s grandmother, isn’t that right?”

  Janessa gave me a look that was somewhere between irritated and amused. “That’s right,” she said, finally. “I just hope we did it justice, because my granny’s peach cobbler was the best I’ve ever tasted in my life.”

  “It sounds amazing,” Boone said, giving her a warm smile.

  “I can’t wait,” Cade added.

  Yeah, those two had it bad for her. God, it really was written all over their faces. I loved seeing it, though. Janessa deserved that kind of happiness, especially after the past twelve months. Losing her parents, cutting college short to come back and take over the running of the ranch with the help of her uncle, and now all of this craziness with poisonings and fires and not knowing who she could trust in town anymore… yeah, she deserved a break.

  “I think dessert sounds like a great idea,” Prescott said, finally smiling again after the tense conversation. “And if I know you, Janessa, you’ve done your grandmother proud.”

  We could all agree on that point, at least.

  And cobbler.

  Thank goodness—and Granny Thoreson—for the cobbler.

  Dinner was great. Dessert was even better. And afterward, walking around the Thoresons’ ranch at sunset with my two guys?

  Heaven.

  “I have to admit,” I said, looking up at my guys on either side of me as we walked hand-in-hand down by the horse stables. “I never thought I’d say it, but this place is really starting to grow on me.”

  Both guys looked at me with expressions that were equally surprised and amused. I’d honestly never really been much of a “city girl,” but I’d made no secret of the fact that there were still a few luxuries of city life that I’d been missing during my stay in Bliss.

  Like having food delivered from my favorite restaurants.

  Or being able to see a movie without driving forty-five minutes to a town large enough to support a theater.

  Or buying my clothes from a store that doesn’t also sell live fishing bait.

  Just the little things.

  “That’s music to my ears,” Cole said, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. “Are you really considering a move, beautiful?”

  “You know we’d be the first ones volunteering to help you settle in,” Prescott added. “But yeah, I didn’t even realize something like this was even on your radar.”

  “Well, it wasn’t really on my radar until—” I met the two of you. I started to think about the future. I realized how good we were together. “Until recently. But the more I think about it, the more I could see myself living in a nice little farmhouse with a couple of acres. Maybe with a few chickens. Maybe even a horse.”

  “A few acres, hmm?” Prescott smiled and looked over at Cole. “A couple of horses? Some chickens… interesting…”

  I looked from Prescott to Cole and back again. “Why do I get the feeling there’s some sort of inside joke happening right now? What am I missing?”

  Cole’s cheeks flushed a little, but he was smiling when he looked at me. “My family owns some land a few miles from here. It’s nothing like Triple J or the other big ranches in the area, but it’s still a nice little spread. We have some horses. Cattle. Pigs. Chickens.”

  “Really?” I felt the excitement bubbling up inside me. “You’ve never mentioned any of those things!” Then I frowned as another thought hit me. “Is it not something you’re interested in? Is that why you’re a lawman instead of a rancher?”

  Not that it was a big deal to me either way. My fledgling dream of living in a farmhouse and having a few cute animals had only even been in existence for a few days. But Cole and Prescott had definitely been a part of that dream. A big part.

  I could make some adjustments, though, depending on what their dreams were.

/>   “Nah, it isn’t that I don’t want to be involved with the ranch,” Cole said as the three of us stopped to look across the pasture where the horses were lazily grazing. “I’ll inherit a piece of it someday, and I’ll be proud to take care of it and hopefully pass it down myself, eventually.”

  He sighed, but neither Prescott nor I said anything, giving him time to continue at his own pace. Cole looked back and forth between us for a moment, maybe hoping we’d interrupt, but finally gave a wry sort of smile and kept going.

  “So anyway,” Cole continued. “It’s a long story, but my family has been in law enforcement around here since Bliss was settled. My grandfather was the sheriff here. My dad was a deputy. I sort of think they were all trying to make up for my Uncle Merle. Or maybe Merle was always trying to rebel against them—who really knows, right?”

  Another pause. Another furtive glance in Prescott’s direction.

  “You don’t have to pay for the shitty things your uncle did, Cole,” Prescott said, finally. “You know that. I hope you know that, anyway.”

  “I do know.” Cole nodded. “But there are still people around town who give me the side-eye because of him. Because of some old scandal or whatever. Or the drug overdose that killed him, maybe.” He shrugged. “I don’t even know. The few times I’ve had the guts to ask, nobody will say. So yeah, even though it isn’t my job to restore the family’s name or some bullshit like that… it kind of is, you know?”

  “You’re doing a good job of it,” I cut in, putting my arms around him and hugging him tightly. I couldn’t hold back any longer. Not while I could see that he was hurting. “I don’t know what happened a million years ago, and I don’t care. You’re a good man, and if anyone can’t see that, well—”

  “Then fuck ‘em,” Prescott finished. “She’s one hundred percent right, Cole. You’re a damn good man. If your family’s name needed redeeming—and I don’t think it did, personally—then you’re the best man I can think of to do it. Regardless of any of that, you are setting a good example for people all over town, and that’s what people will remember when they think of Cole Wright.”