The Deputy Gets Her Man

by Stella Bagwell

  His remark caused her insides to stiffen. “You can’t imagine.”

  Her voice sounded strangled to her own ears and she wished she’d not brought up her past. But Tyler had already revealed so much about himself. It was only right that she open herself to him. But no one liked to admit to being a fool. And more than anything, she wanted Tyler to think of her as smart and strong. She wanted him to see her as much more than that bubbly blonde who’d disillusioned him and caused him to turn away from women.

  “I can imagine lots of things, Rosa. Don’t be embarrassed to tell me that some guy broke your heart. Isn’t that what happened? A young woman as attractive as you couldn’t have gone through half of her twenties without falling in love.”

  His last word pulled a cynical snort from her. “I only thought I was in love, Tyler. Now that I look back, I think I was obsessed with the idea of having someone to plan my future with more than someone to love.”

  He shifted so that he was facing her. “So there was someone important in your life.”

  “When I lived in Gallop,” she replied, “I had moved off our family farm to start college and was just beginning to work toward a degree in education when I met Dale. We were together for several months before we finally got engaged. That’s when all the trouble started.”

  “You found out he was cheating on you.”

  Shaking her head, she said, “If only it had been that simple. You see, Dale wasn’t cheating. In fact, in the beginning I truly think he cared about me. My parents liked him. My whole family was happy for me. Everyone believed he would make a good, caring husband. Then about the time we announced our engagement, the trouble started and everything began to spin out of control.”

  Confusion wrinkled his brow. “What sort of trouble?”

  She gazed out at the dark lawn stretching away from the porch. Here on the Pine Ridge Ranch, her ordeal with Dale seemed almost dreamlike, but four years ago it had been a living nightmare. “The stalking. The threats. The weeks of wondering who would be killed first. Me or Dale.”

  Incredulous, he stared at her. “Killed?”

  Feeling too restless to sit still, she rose from the love seat and walked to the edge of the porch. Leaning against the arched rockwork that supported the roof, she said, “You see, when I first started dating Dale he’d recently ended a long-term relationship with Monique. I didn’t know the woman, but from what he explained, the two of them were poison for each other and he wanted to put the affair far behind him.”

  “And you believed him.”

  Jerking her head around, she stared at him over her shoulder. “Yes. He meant it—at the time. He just wasn’t strong enough to stick with it. Not after Monique started harassing me with threatening phone calls, following me, leaving nasty notes on my car windshield, breaking into my apartment. I could go on and on. But mostly it’s all too horrific to repeat.”

  He left the cushioned seat and came to stand behind her. “I’ve heard of men doing that sort of thing, Rosa. But not a woman. How did you deal with her?”

  “Hmm. At first it was hard to accept that any of it was happening. And then I thought—well, I can handle this. I figured Monique was just a sore loser and after a while she’d move on and leave us alone. But I was wrong. Her behavior grew more bizarre and dangerous. Not only toward me, but toward Dale, also. At first we tried to deal with the problems on our own. But when she confronted me physically I was forced to go to the police and get a restraining order from the judge.”

  “Did that help?”

  With a cynical little laugh, she shoved her hair back from her face. “I’m now a law officer and I respect everything our job stands for. But we can’t provide ’round-the-clock protection for every citizen in Lincoln County. It’s not possible. It was the same in McKinley County. Eventually, one night, when I was driving home from my family’s farm, Monique drove up on my back bumper and tried to ram me. I lost control of my car and it careened off the highway. It landed upside down and for a while I was pinned inside the wreckage.”

  “My God! What did it do to you?”

  “Broke my arm just above my wrist and cracked a few ribs. But mentally I was more wrecked than my car.”

  “So that must have put an end to Monique’s mischief, right? She was arrested?”

  “You would have thought so. But the incident occurred on a lonely stretch of highway. Without witnesses, I had no way of proving Monique’s involvement. But by then I didn’t care if the woman was punished. I just wanted out and away from it all.”

  “What about Dale? If he loved you and you were planning to be married—”

  Turning, she reached for his hand and squeezed it tightly. “Even before the wreck Dale had already started to crumble. More and more he’d started giving in to Monique’s demands, agreeing to meet her to talk. To reason with her, or so he’d always said, because he wanted to keep her from harming me.”

  “Sure,” he said sardonically. “Well, the man was either very weak or very stupid. That’s all I can say.”

  “Both, I think. But I was more stupid, Ty. I should have gotten out as soon as the mess with Monique started. Instead, I wanted to believe Dale was a strong, capable man. I wanted to cling to the dream I had of marrying and having a family.”

  “So what happened with you and Dale after the accident?”

  “I think deep down he was relieved when I returned his engagement ring. By then, both of us had realized our relationship had collapsed. After that, I left town and moved down here to live in Mescalero on the Apache Reservation.”

  “You didn’t want to return to your family home?”

  She shook her head. “Monique had frequently threatened to harm my family, too. I didn’t want to take any chances that she might carry them out. Besides, I was a grown woman. It was time for me to stand on my own two feet and support myself. And I suppose I was a bit like you. I wanted to start over in a fresh new place. As for Dale and Monique, my family informed me later that he’d been seen around town with her. So apparently he went back to that poisonous relationship. He took the easy route of dealing with a bad situation.”

  “Does that bother you now?”

  “No. What bothers me is the bad judgment I used. That’s why—well, since all of that happened with Dale I’ve not let myself get involved with any man. Until you.”

  Tugging on her hand, he pulled her close against him and Rosalinda buried her face against his shoulder.

  “Rosa, my sweet, I’m so sorry you had to go through all that. But it wasn’t your fault. You weren’t stupid to want things to work for you and Dale.”

  Tilting her head back, she looked at him. “But I should have realized it was hopeless. I was an idiot for hanging on until I was nearly killed.”

  “Yes. And I should’ve realized it was hopeless with DeeDee, too. I should have walked away from her long before my family was ripped apart. I think—well, failure is a hard thing to accept, Rosa. I didn’t want to let go and admit to it any more than you did.”

  There was nothing critical in his expression, only compassion, and in that moment Rosalinda knew that no matter what happened in the future, this man was changing her life.

  “I told Sheriff Hamilton and Undersheriff Donovan about the ordeal back in Gallop. Because as my bosses, I thought they deserved to know. Especially if the woman ever got it in her head to cause more trouble for me. That would ultimately reflect upon the sheriff’s department.”

  “That won’t happen. She’s won her prize.”

  “Well, I just wanted you to know that you’re the only other person I’ve told about it. I think—” She cradled her hands around his face. “After this afternoon—it was your right to know.”

  His arms tightened around her shoulders. “Rosa, I think tonight we both need to forget about our past mistakes. Right now it’s en
ough that we’re together. Isn’t it?”

  It wasn’t enough for Rosalinda. This man was beginning to take up residency in her heart. It would be nice to hear that she was becoming special to him, that he wanted more from her than just a heated affair. But that would be expecting too much, too soon from him, she told herself.

  Dropping her hands from his face, she sighed. “Yes. I suppose so.”

  He must have picked up on the dejected tone in her voice because he suddenly frowned. “I guess this is where a gentleman would be making promises to you, Rosa. And I wish I could. But I—”

  “No,” she swiftly interrupted. “I don’t expect promises right now, Ty. This thing between us has just started. We both need more time to let it grow—to learn each other better.”

  “And tonight is the perfect time for us to start learning,” he murmured huskily.

  Lifting her into his arms, he carried her into the house and straight to his bedroom. And as he made love to her a second time, she wondered how long she could keep holding her heart together. How long would it be before he held it and her in the palm of his hand?

  Chapter Eleven

  Five days later, she and Hank were still going full steam on the arson case and as they climbed back into their truck to leave the Chaparral Ranch, Hank tapped the notebook he’d stuffed into his shirt pocket.

  “We’re getting somewhere now, Rosa. The arsonist has to be a person working on this ranch.”

  He started the engine and the air-conditioning vents on the dashboard immediately began to blow. Rosa leaned forward to let the air cool her face. It had been a hot day and she and Hank had spent most of the afternoon milling around the barns and feedlots on the big ranch. Both of them had interviewed and questioned several ranch employees for the first, second and third times since the fire had happened three weeks ago.

  “We don’t have anything concrete. But I do agree with you,” Rosalinda told him. “The cowboy named Guy said that two fuel cans were always kept in the tractor shed, but at some point during the day of the fire he’d noticed them missing.”

  Frowning thoughtfully, Hank backed the truck away from the barn and began driving out of the huge ranch yard. “Yes. But I questioned him the very first day after the fire. Why didn’t he tell me that from the very beginning? I’m wondering if he decided to speak up now to make it appear like he was being helpful or he could be trying to shed suspicion on someone else.”

  “Everyone was shaken after the fire, Hank. It’s only natural that people weren’t recollecting everything that happened that day. And then there’s Saul. He admitted to filling up two plastic jugs with gasoline earlier that day. To use in a lawn tractor and weed eater. Or so he said.”

  “Yeah. Well, he had to admit to that. Everyone who uses the gas and diesel tanks on the ranch has to sign a log and register the amount they’ve pumped out. Anyway, I believe that old guy. He’s worked on the ranch for years. And he moves so slow you can see the lice falling off him.”

  “Hank! The man doesn’t have lice!” she scolded.

  Hank chuckled. “I meant that he moves around at a snail’s pace. How could he have made it up to that cliff where the burn started? No, the culprit has to be a young person.”

  “That’s logical reasoning. And I think Saul is sweet on Frankie Cantrell—did you see the way he looked after her when she came by the barn? It’s nice to see her back on the Chaparral again, even if it took the fire to bring her home. But several men other than Saul had pumped fuel that day and Guy wasn’t one of them.” Strapping on her safety belt, she settled back in the seat. “Besides, what would be Guy’s motive?”

  “Rosa, if we knew the motive, our search would probably be over.”

  “That’s true enough,” she agreed.

  A half mile later, they reached an intersecting dirt road that ran north and south. North led directly to the Pine Ridge Ranch, and Rosalinda deliberately kept her gaze from drifting in that direction. It wasn’t that she was trying to keep her relationship with Tyler a secret, but the less her nosey partner knew, the better.

  As for seeing Tyler, she’d not had another chance to be with him since that night they’d returned from the cabin. In the past few days the two of them had spoken on the phone twice, their last conversation taking place three days ago. During that call, he’d informed Rosalinda that he and Santo were going to be out of town for a couple of days on a horse-buying trip, but he wanted to see her as soon as they could get together again.

  Realizing it was taking Hank an inordinate amount of time to pull onto the crossroad, she looked over at him. “What are you waiting for? The light to change?”

  He grinned at her sarcasm. “I was just about to ask you if you wanted me to turn left. You might want to go up to the Pine Ridge Ranch and say hi to the owner before we leave the area.”

  It was true she was aching to see Tyler again. Since the two of them had made love, he’d consumed her thoughts. Being connected to him physically had been incredible. It had drawn her to him in ways she’d never felt before. But sharing her past with him had somehow been even more intimate. Now her thoughts alternated between euphoria and downright fear. Had she found the man of her dreams, or had she climbed back into a dangerous pit? She couldn’t answer that. She only knew that she wanted to feel his arms around her. She wanted to hear him say he needed her and wanted to be with her just as much as she wanted to be with him. But so far he’d not said anything that would lead her to believe he was thinking in future terms or that he wanted to take their relationship to a deeper level.

  It’s too soon for that, Rosa. Besides, he made it pretty clear that you shouldn’t expect any promises from him any time soon.

  Trying to ignore the voice in her head, she scowled at Hank. “Who told you that you should try to be a comedian?”

  He snorted with amusement. “You don’t have to tell me you’re hung up on the rancher. I know you are.”

  Had she really changed that much since she’d met Tyler? If Hank could see a difference in her, then what was Tyler seeing? “Oh. How did you figure that out?”

  Hank answered, “That dreamy look that comes in your eyes for no reason.”

  “Hmm. For all you know I might be dreaming about a bowl of ice cream.”

  He grunted. “Ice cream doesn’t produce the smoke I’m seeing in those brown eyes of yours.”

  She pointed to the right-hand junction of the road. “Let’s get going, genius. We need to talk to Brady about the discrepancies we found in our interviews today. And if we don’t get back to headquarters soon, he’ll be heading home.”

  “All right, all right. I guess that means no stopping for pie at the Blue Mesa,” he said doggedly.

  “It means no stopping for anything.”

  * * *

  Later that evening, after they’d discussed their findings with Brady, Rosalinda was in her office typing up the last of her interview notes, when the phone on her desk rang.

  Seeing it was the dispatcher, she quickly punched the flashing button and said, “Yes, Bette?”

  “There’s a call for you on line four, Rosa. It’s from a Gib Easton. Want me to put it through or tell him you’re not available?”

  Gib? Why on earth would he be calling her at headquarters? Surely not to invite her to supper. He’d use her personal cell for that. Something had to be wrong.

  “No. I’ll take the call, Bette. Thanks.” She ended the connection to the dispatcher, then punched the button for the line where Gib was waiting. “Gib? Are you there?”

  “Sure am. Sorry to interrupt you at work, Rosa. I lost the cell number you gave me.”

  “That’s okay, Gib. I’m only dealing with paperwork at the moment.”

  “Well, something has happened and I didn’t want to wait around to tell you about it.”

  Her h
eart went from a nervous thud to an all-out gallop. “Has Tyler been hurt?”

  “No. Ain’t nothing like that. But he could be hurt if you don’t persuade him to—well—” He broke off abruptly and then returned in a low, almost whispering voice. “I don’t want to go into the whole thing on the phone. But he got a call from his sister today. The news wasn’t good. Ty’s mother has taken real sick.”

  Stunned by this turn of events, Rosalinda stared at the wall while her mind spun with questions. “So Ty is back from his horse-buying trip?”

  “Yeah. He made it home about an hour ago. He’d hardly gotten in the house when he got the call.”

  “How did he take the news about his mother?”

  “He told me she was sick, maybe dyin’. Then walked out of the house. Haven’t seen him since.”

  Rosalinda pressed a hand to her forehead. She could almost feel the pain that Tyler must be going through. There were still lots of things she had yet to learn about Tyler, but one thing she did know, if there was one person on earth that he loved, it was his mother.

  “I go off duty in an hour. I’ll come over straight after that,” she promised.

  * * *

  Rosalinda hardly remembered making the drive from headquarters in Carrizozo over to the Pine Ridge Ranch. Her mind kept going over what she could possibly say to him. What she needed to say. He might even resent her talking to him about his mother.

  By the time she parked in front of the house, dread had settled in the pit of her stomach. Yet at the same time her heart was yearning to see him, to help him in any way she could.

  As soon as she knocked on the front door, Gib stepped out to join her on the front porch. “Tyler still hasn’t come back to the house. Sawyer said the last time he saw him Ty was down at the paddock where they keep the weanling colts and fillies. Do you know where that is?”

  Rosalinda nodded. “I think so. It’s the little pasture on past the stables. I’ll go look for him there.”