“That’s not it. He’s growing pot. That little bastard has a whole greenhouse set up out back.”
“Are you kidding?”
“No. It’s a shit job, made out of two-by-fours and plastic sheeting. I can’t believe it hasn’t collapsed under the snow yet, but I guess the heaters and lamps are melting it off. It’s full of plants. And he’s clearing out more land, like he plans to expand during the summer. That’s why the truck is so muddy. He was trying to pull stumps out of half-frozen ground, because he apparently doesn’t have even half a brain.”
“Okay, listen. I’m glad you came to me. You’re not responsible for it just because it’s being grown on your land. This happens all the time these days. Somebody picks a secluded area, and—”
“It’s not just on my land,” Luis interrupted. “That damn greenhouse is sitting half on my land and half on federal forest. And that’s not the worst of it.”
Nate took a deep breath. “Do I want to know?”
“I have no idea, but I don’t know who else to turn to. I need your help, Nate. It’s...”
“Shit. Is James involved? Tell me the truth.”
Luis slumped. “I don’t know. He’s a good boy, but he loves his cousin. Looks up to him. And I found out he skipped school last week. The same day Victor borrowed the truck. Regardless of what Teresa wants, if I was sure James wasn’t involved I would’ve just called you and had your guys go out and shut it down and arrest that little shit. But if he’s pulled James into it...”
“Listen. Even if James is marginally involved, he’s a good kid, like you said. He’s only fifteen. He won’t—”
“He’s fifteen, yeah. And he’s almost six feet tall, and he’s got brown skin and the last name Hernandez, just like me. To a lot of people around here, he doesn’t look like a good, harmless kid. He looks like an ad trying to scare people about dangerous illegals.”
“Come on, Luis. People around here know you and your family.”
“Yeah. And some of them probably remember when I was a kid and got up to no good.”
Nate sighed. He’d forgotten about that. Luis had gone through a rebellious stage, and rebelled himself right out of school a couple of times. And into jail once after stealing beer from a local gas station. The same kind of trouble lots of kids got up to, but it was different when you were one of the few brown-skinned kids in the school.
“I’m scared, Nate. If my boy’s involved and it’s on my land, it’s going to look like a whole damn Mexican family operation.”
“You’re as American as I am,” Nate snapped. “I shouldn’t even have to say that. We were both born right here.”
Luis raised an eyebrow, and Nate didn’t bother arguing further. Sure, Nate bore the Hernandez name, as well, but it was his middle name, not his last. And he had his father’s gray eyes and lighter skin than his cousins. He knew it wasn’t the same for him.
He cursed and ran a hand over his jaw. “All right. Listen. Is there anywhere you can send James for a few days? Maybe a week? Doesn’t Teresa’s family live in Colorado?”
“Yeah. Maybe I can arrange something. But I’d have to pull him out of school. Teresa won’t like that at all.”
“You’re going to tell her, though, right?”
Luis’s eyes shifted away.
“Come on, man. You have to tell her.”
“She won’t like it. Better to lie. If I tell her, she’ll want to let—”
A sudden shadow cut off Luis’s words. “Hello, boys! You’re not conspiring to lie to an innocent woman, are you?”
Luis flashed wide, panicked eyes up at Jenny, whose ponytail was still swaying from her abrupt appearance. “What?” he yelped.
She waved off his alarm. “I’m a bartender. Believe me, I see it every day. Just be kind to her, okay?” Smiling, she tipped her head toward Nate to include him in her advice, but still didn’t seem to recognize him. “You gentlemen want a pitcher?”
Luis shook his head, but Nate said, “Sure.”
Her eyes flickered down his body. “Light?”
Nate was suddenly damn glad for all the hours he put in at the gym to keep in shape over the winter. “Bring us the real thing. We’ll indulge.”
She flashed that smile again. Wide and open enough that it shouldn’t have felt intimate, but did. He’d thought that smile was something secret for him. But no. It was just her. She offered it to everyone in the crowd.
Good to know.
Nate laughed at himself as she turned away, already moving toward the bar to get their pitcher. But while he was still shaking his head at his own foolishness, Jenny jerked to a stop, frozen midstep.
Luis was leaning toward him, but Nate held up a hand and kept his eyes on Jenny as she slowly pivoted.
She frowned and cocked her head. Her eyes narrowed at him. And then her face broke into a grin wider than any she’d ever given to him.
“Deputy Hendricks?” she asked.
He tried not to feel thrilled. “Yes, ma’am.”
She laughed, her blond hair swinging as her chin tipped up. “Oh, my God! I didn’t recognize you without the shades!”
“Yeah, I noticed,” he said dryly.
“It’s not my fault! You look totally different. Not nearly so scary.”
“Still a little scary, though, I gather?”
Instead of answering, she just stood there looking at him for a few long seconds. “My God,” she finally said. “Look at you. You’re a real person.”
“That’s just a rumor.”
“Okay,” she said, still smiling. Then she shook her head. “Okay. Well, the beer’s on the house, Deputy.”
“It’s Nate,” he responded.
Her eyebrows rose. “I like that.”
She liked that. Thank God she finally turned away, because Nate knew he looked far too pleased with her opinion of his name.
“Hey,” his cousin said, the worry in his voice making it clear he’d already dismissed any idea of the cute server. “What the hell am I going to do, man?”
Nate kept his eye on Jenny Stone’s swinging hips until she was swallowed by the crowd at the bar before he gave up the vigil and met Luis’s eyes. “No kidding around, are you asking me as a cousin or a cop?”
“Hell, I don’t know. Both?”
“We’ve got two options, but whichever way we do this, I don’t want James around. If you want me to handle this as your cousin, I’ll do that. We send James away to keep him out of the fight, we tear down the greenhouse, burn the plants and put the fear of God in Victor. But that means he’s got to go. You have to be sure Teresa understands that. I can do this on the quiet, but he has to leave.”
“Okay. Yeah. We could do that.”
“But,” Nate added, letting the word hang there.
Luis gave him a weary look. “But what?”
“Are you sure he’s working alone? If he doesn’t have a truck, how did he get all this set up in the first place? And where did he get the money? The plants, the heaters, the lamps. Do you really think he built that greenhouse and started clearing that land on his own?”
Luis had gone pale. “If James...but he doesn’t have any money, and he’s only missed one day of school!”
“I don’t mean James. But that’s the other reason I want him gone. I want to watch the place. See who’s coming and going. And I don’t want to see James. If Victor isn’t the only one involved, if he’s not the money and the brains, I’m going to have to handle this as a cop, and I can’t have any reason to mention James in the reports.”
Luis looked grimmer than ever.
“How do you want to handle it, Luis?”
“Christ. Victor isn’t a great guy, but he’s not a criminal mastermind, either. He’s working for someone. Some guy who uses kids to do the dirty work, I’m sure. Will you check it out for me?”
“Yeah. You’ll send James away?”
“He’s going to be out of school for a day or two next week for Presidents’ Day, anyway. I’ll te
ll Teresa that John Lopez needs help with calving over in Casper. She’s always liked that guy and she keeps complaining that James needs to learn how to work harder.”
“Has calving started yet?”
“Hell if I know.”
Jenny arrived with the pitcher, and she paused as if she’d say something, but someone called her name from another table and she flitted away with an apologetic smile.
Nate poured two beers and slid one toward his cousin. “Teresa’s going to find out about all this, you know. You can’t hide it for long.”
“I know.” Luis closed his eyes for moment. “But I don’t want to tell her until I know the extent of it. Otherwise she’ll convince herself it’s nothing and we should sweep it under the rug.”
“It’s big money these days, cousin. People get shot over it. Remember that. You could’ve been killed just going out to the cabin if the wrong person was waiting. There was that case up in Gallatin Forest last year. A hiker ran across a crop in a federal forest and someone shot him to keep him from talking. Luckily, the shooter had bad aim.”
Luis nodded. “Yeah. I know. Damn it. That little shit Victor has put my family and my livelihood in danger. And if he’s involved James...” He took a deep breath. “I can’t just let it go. I’ll call you when James is on his way, all right?”
“Perfect.”
Luis only drank half his beer before he blew out a deep breath and stood. “I’ve got to get going.”
Nate stood and gave him a tight hug.
“Thank you, man. I don’t know what I would’ve done about this if you weren’t around.”
“Does that mean you’ll stop calling me The Fuzz behind my back?”
Luis slapped his shoulder and stepped away. “Hell, Nate. You know that was because of that mustache you tried to grow to be more like me in high school. I figured you became a cop just to try to live down the nickname.”
“If you want my help, you’ll keep that quiet.”
“Got it.” Luis’s smile faded. “I’ll call you.”
Nate sank back into his seat and topped off his beer. He wasn’t going to take any unofficial law enforcement action, but he could poke around the cabin a little without stepping too far outside the rules. There might be some personal danger, but Nate was willing to risk a lot for the sake of Luis and his family. Luis was more like a brother than a cousin. Nate had a sister, but she was a few years older and had always been more of a second mother than a playmate. But Luis...if he needed help, Nate would step up any day.
“Hey!” Jenny suddenly appeared, her head tilted toward the front door of the saloon. “I hope your friend’s coming back. I can’t let you drive if you drink that whole pitcher on your own. I’m sure you understand. The cops around here are real uptight.”
Nate raised one eyebrow and refused to meet her smile.
“Right. Ha! So, anyway...” she drawled.
“Luis isn’t coming back, but I promise not to finish the pitcher by myself.”
“Are you waiting for someone?”
“No. I’m on my own.”
“I could...” Her eyes slid to the chair Luis had vacated, but then she just flashed a wide smile. “I’ll check back on you later.”
Nate looked from the chair to her. “I wanted to talk to you, actually. Care for a drink?”
“Yes! I was just about to take my break. I’ll be right back.”
He watched her ponytail bounce as she hurried toward the bar. If someone had asked him an hour before, and if he’d allowed himself to be completely honest, he would’ve said that sitting down for a drink with Jenny Stone was the goal of the evening. But at this point, he had no idea if he should be satisfied or just embarrassed that he was so damn easy for her.
CHAPTER TWO
“I’M TAKING MY BREAK,” Jenny said to Benton, trying to hide the fact that she was slightly out of breath as she reached past him to grab a clean glass. “Can you survive without me for ten minutes?”
“No problem,” he said, his eye on the pitchers he was filling.
Thank God. Deputy Hendricks was... Wow. He was...making her blush from across the room.
She cleared her throat and glanced at Benton, hoping he couldn’t see her embarrassment. Because Nate Hendricks was so damn hot he made her thighs clench a little.
She’d spent so much time worried that he was hiding close-set bug eyes under his glasses that she hadn’t braced herself against the opposite possibility: that one glance from those icy gray eyes and she’d melt into a pile of awkward mush. She’d almost invited herself to have a drink with him. She kind of had.
Jenny took a deep breath. It didn’t matter. He’d come here to see her. Or maybe not. Maybe he’d come to interrogate her. Or tell her he’d changed his mind and she needed to come down to the station with him.
Oh, Jesus, what if she was about to get arrested?
“No,” she said to herself as she untied her serving apron and laid it on the counter. “Now you’re just being weird.”
“What’s wrong?” Benton called. “You being weird again?”
“Shut up, B.”
“Whatever you say, freak.”
Jenny had always appreciated that Benton was like a pain-in-the-ass little brother to her. That appreciation was being strained tonight. She started away before he could say more, but not quickly enough.
“Hey!”
She turned warily back.
He tipped his head in the direction of Nate Hendricks’s table. “I’ve got condoms under the register if you’re making a move on that guy.”
“Shut up!” she repeated. “It’s not like that. He’s my...um...deputy.”
“Ah. Of course he is. That girl over in the corner there is my librarian. I still use condoms when she invites me over, though. When you sleep with one public servant, you sleep with every public servant. Or something like that.”
“I hate you.” Her face felt as if it were the color of the maraschino cherry Benton popped in his mouth. “I really do.”
“Go get ’im, tiger.”
She’d get Benton back somehow, she thought as she made herself walk toward Nate. The problem with Benton was that he was utterly shameless. Even Rayleen, the dirty old woman who owned the saloon, couldn’t embarrass him, not that she ever stopped trying.
Speaking of...Jenny kept her eyes straight ahead and didn’t look toward Rayleen’s table. Hopefully the old lady wouldn’t look up from her game of solitaire long enough to notice anything.
“Hi,” she said stupidly when she reached his table and took a seat.
Nate immediately poured her a beer. “I thought you were the bartender here.”
“I am, but I serve on pitcher night. I’m quick and I like the change of pace.”
“You’re good at it.”
“At what?” she asked.
His eyes locked on hers and pushed her nerves to another level of chaos. “Being charming.”
“Oh?” What did that mean? It sounded as if it could be a compliment, but his voice was faintly cool and his eyes assessing.
“Did you call about the class?”
Oh, crap. That was what he was here about? “I’ve been really busy, but I’ve got it right here....” She patted the front pocket of her jeans, then stuffed her hands into her back pockets. Nothing there. By the time she patted her breast, thinking maybe her shirt had a pocket, she realized she was doing some obscene sort of macarena. His cool eyes slid down to the hand cupping her boob.
God. “It must be in my apron,” she said weakly as she unclasped her breast. “I’m going to call today.”
“It’s seven p.m.”
“Right. I meant... The afternoon slipped by.”
He reached into his pocket—not cupping any sensitive body parts, she noted—and withdrew...
Not handcuffs, please. Not handcuffs.
...another card.
“I have the card!” she insisted.
“Just take it.” He sighed.
She
took it, noticing the warmth of it seeping into her fingertips before she set it on the table. “I’m going to call. The day just got away from me.”
“Why don’t I believe you, Ms. Stone?”
“It’s Jenny,” she said automatically. “And I’ll call you Nate.”
She glanced up when he didn’t respond. But he couldn’t take it back now. She knew his real name. She’d said it. And it felt surprisingly sweet on her tongue. It was so human. So easy. Nate. The man himself, on the other hand, was so intimidating she felt nervous saying it out loud.
“I’m honestly going to call. I appreciate what you did for me. You didn’t have to. Nobody else would have.”
He sighed. “You’re right about that.”
She started to smile, but in that moment she realized that she was right. No one else would’ve given her so many passes. No other cop would’ve tried to help her out the way he had. So why had he done it? And why was he here?
Warmth washed through her, trailing little sparks that settled under her skin. He liked her. As impossible as that seemed as he watched her with those cool eyes. He didn’t smile. He’d barely even blinked when she’d fondled her own breast in front of him. But he must like her. It was the only explanation.
She took a needed sip of beer. “I’m sorry I drive too fast,” she offered.
“You’re going to have to stop, you know. One of these days someone else will pull you over and that’ll be it.”
“I know.”
“Why can’t you just slow down?”
“I don’t know.”
His head tilted. His eyes narrowed. Finally, he shook his head. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“I don’t! I mean, I obviously know how to drive like a reasonable person. I don’t speed through town. I’m careful when the highway is crowded. I’ve never even had an accident!”
“I know. I checked.”
She looked down into her beer. “But when I’m out there alone, I just...lose myself. It’s not that I think about getting out there and seeing how fast I can go. I’m not racing. At least, I’m not racing anyone else. I just want to go.”
“Where?” he asked, the word just a quiet drop in the river of noise that flowed around them.
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