by Katie Lane
“I’m so sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t have Sheriff Willaby’s password.” It was a bald-faced lie. Sheriff Willaby hated paperwork and had turned over most of it to Dixie as soon as she became his deputy. Something Officer Hayes would find out if he called the sheriff. Luckily, it turned out that he disliked dealing with the sheriff as much as everyone else did.
His eyes narrowed on her for a long moment before he nodded his head. “Then I guess I’ll be on my way.” He pulled on his hat. “But I’ll be keeping an eye on you, Deputy Meriwether.” He turned on a boot heel and strode out of the office.
When he was gone, Dixie mimicked him in a peevish voice. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you, Deputy Meriwether.” She slammed the door closed and gasped when she saw her reflection in the full-length mirror on the back. A blue film of dried gel covered her face. “Just great, Dixie Leigh. You certainly know how to make a first impression.” She moved to the desk and grabbed some tissues out of the box. “Not that I wanted to make a good first impression on uppity Lincoln Hayes, Texas Ranger,” she said as she wiped off her face. “It’s obvious the man likes to throw his weight around like Sheriff Willaby. And my daddy.”
Although he could’ve pulled out his phone and reported her spa day to the sheriff. And yet, he hadn’t. Since he seemed like a straitlaced lawman who followed the rules to a tee, she had to wonder why. Maybe he didn’t want Sheriff Willaby finding out he had stopped by to take a peek at his files.
After getting Queenie out of her carrier, Dixie scooted the chair closer to the computer and quickly pulled up the case files. There were only three missing persons reports filed in the last year. One was for Ernie Finnegan’s missing Labrador retriever. The dog had been found three weeks later at a ranch twenty miles away with a pregnant female basset hound. One was for Mildred Hampton’s husband. It turned out Mildred was a seventy-three-year-old woman who had never been married and was hoping to change that. The last missing persons report was for Sam Sweeney.
Dixie remembered this one. Sam’s daughter, Maisy Sweeney, had come in and filed the report with Sheriff Willaby. Afterwards, she’d stopped in the outer office to chat with Dixie. She was a sweet young woman who claimed she rode wild broncs for a living. Dixie couldn’t believe that a woman would want to spend her time being flipped off a horse. Just like she couldn’t believe Maisy’s daddy had met with foul play in Simple, Texas.
But that was exactly what Sheriff Willaby seemed to believe.
Or not in Simple itself, but on a ranch just outside of the small town. The Double Diamond ranch was the last place Sam had worked. The ranch had been a boy’s ranch for trouble teens at the time. In his notes, Sheriff Willaby wrote about his suspicions that the delinquent teenagers who had spent the summer there were somehow responsible for Sam’s disappearance. He’d even listed each teen by name.
Cru Cassidy. Logan McCord. Holden Lancaster. Valentine Sterling. Sawyer Dawson.
Dixie’s eyes widened as she read the last name.
And Lincoln Hayes.
Chapter Two
Lincoln steered the horse he was riding away from the gopher hole and glanced up at the clear blue Texas sky. Damn, it felt good to be back at the Double Diamond ranch with his friends. It had been too long since they’d all been together. He glanced at the four men who flanked him on either side. Sixteen years had added height, muscle, and maturity to the group.
Or maybe not maturity.
“We should camp out under the stars tonight.” Cru Cassidy fidgeted in the saddle as if he was struggling to keep his horse at a sedate pace—which he probably was. Cru had always been hyperactive. “We could get a keg of beer and make some s’mores.”
“Beer and s’mores?” Holden Lancaster stared at Cru as if he’d gone off his rocker.
“Let me guess,” Cru said. “You’d rather have caviar and champagne.” Holden had been a snobby rich kid when he’d first come to the Double Diamond Boy’s Ranch as a teenager. Now he was a country lawyer who dressed in faded jeans and western shirts and spent most his time trading legal advice for hound dog puppies and homemade banana bread.
“Actually, I was thinking milk goes better with s’mores. And I can’t camp out tonight. Devlin’s making me dinner. She has some surprise to tell me. Probably about the research she’s been doing.” Holden’s wife Devlin was a geoscientist who had given up her job of searching for oil to research new energy resources.
“I can’t camp out either,” Logan McCord said. “Evie isn’t due for another couple months, but I’m still nervous about leaving her. I missed Clint’s birth. I refuse to miss this one.”
“I’ll have to pass too.” Val said. “Reba’s helping me plot the next book in my Diamond Ghost Ranch series tonight.” Valentine Sterling had been the definition of a book nerd when he’d first come to the ranch. He’d grown up to become a sophisticated bestselling fiction author who lived in New York City. . . until he’d fallen in love with the owner of the only hotel in Simple. Now that he and Reba were married, he’d become a small-town business owner who spent his time baking for the guests at the Dixon Boardinghouse and writing ghost stories for middle school kids.
Cru leaned over and punched Lincoln in the arm. “Then it looks like it will just be you and me eating s’mores and sleeping beneath the stars, Linc.” His cellphone pinged with an incoming text. He pulled it out of his shirt pocket, and as soon as he looked at it, a dopey smile spread over his face. He glanced at Lincoln and winked. “Sorry, dude. I got a better offer.”
Lincoln knew exactly where the better offer had come from. He laughed. “That’s okay. I’d take your pretty cowgirl wife over me any day. Besides, this is my first night at the Double Diamond, I figure I should spend it with Lucas and Chester.”
Lucas and Chester Diamond owned the Double Diamond. Sixteen years earlier, the brothers had decided to open it up to six troubled teenagers. It had only taken the two old cowboys one summer to turn the bunch of delinquents into roping and riding cattle herders. And Lucas and Chester didn’t just teach them how to rope, ride, and herd cattle. They taught them how to be good men. All the boys owned them for that.
Lincoln most of all.
Until he came to the ranch, he hadn’t known what a good male role model was. His dad had died in an oil drilling accident when he was only three and his mother had dated only one man after that. A man who had turned out to be the opposite of a good role model. After his mother passed away when he was thirteen, Lincoln had gone to live with his grandmother, who didn’t know what to do with her punky grandson when he skipped school, drank, smoked pot, and got in fights.
Thankfully, Lucas and Chester had known what to do. They looked past the punk kid and saw a good person. They pulled that good person out of him with love, attention, and a hard day’s work filled with plenty of life lessons: Satisfaction from a job well done is worth more than gold. If you take care of the land, the land will take care of you. Your best days are spent working alongside friends. A man is only as good as his word. It’s easy to make the wrong choice and so much harder to make the right one. Good always prevails over evil—so be smart enough to be on the winning team.
Lincoln had chosen the winning team. He was one of the good guys now. Although, lately, he hadn’t felt that good. His caseload kept growing, and no matter how many hours he put in, it felt like evil was winning. His boss had pushed him to take a week off, but even on his vacation, he’d been doing a little investigating work on the side.
Sam Sweeney had been a ranch hand on the Double Diamond. Instead of helping the group of troubled boys become cowboys, he’d pulled mean-spirited pranks on them. When Lucas and Chester had found out, they fired him. Everyone assumed Sam left town. But a few months ago, his daughter had shown up looking for him. Sam had disappeared and no one had heard from his since leaving the Double Diamond ranch. Which made Lincoln and the rest of the boys uneasy. Especially when Chester had threatened Sam if he ever came back to the ranch.
“I haven’t found out anything
else on Sam Sweeney’s whereabouts,” Lincoln said.
Holden turned to look at him. “Neither has the private investigator I asked to help. He hasn’t been able to find one piece of information on where Sam went after he left here.”
Silence settled over the group of men, the only sounds the squeak of saddle leather and the clomp of hooves on hard red earth. Lincoln knew they were all thinking the same thing: Sam Sweeney was dead. He also knew that not one of the boys felt any sadness. He certainly didn’t. Sam was a bad person. Something Lincoln had known long before coming to the Double Diamond. As much as he would love to let Sam’s disappearance go and forget about the man, he couldn’t seem to do it.
“Tell me again what happened the last time you saw Sam, Val.” Lincoln had already gone over the story with Val numerous times, but he had learned from experience that people usually forgot some little detail. The more they retold the story, the more they remembered.
“I was mucking out the stalls when Sam showed up to get his saddle and gear. When he saw me, he went off and started cussing all of us out for getting him fired. He grabbed me and that’s all I remember before I got so scared I blacked out.”
Just the thought of Sam bullying Val pissed Lincoln off. Maybe because he had been just as scared of the man. “And you don’t remember anything else?”
“No. When I came to, Sam was gone. I hid in the stall until I heard his truck drive away.”
“When you finally came out of the barn, did you see anyone?”
“You mean Chester? No. But he had to be somewhere around because how else would he know about Sam coming back to the ranch. I didn’t tell a soul. Did you ask him about it?”
“I did, and he claims he was just riding back to check on you when he saw Sam coming out of the barn. He said he was quite a distance away and Sam left in his truck before he could get to the ranch.”
“That would make sense,” Cru said. “Chester had good eyesight back then. He was always catching us doing things.” He flashed a grin at Logan. “Like you smoking behind the barn.”
Logan laughed. “And Sawyer looking at girlie magazines in the hayloft.”
“And Chester didn’t come to check on you after Sweeney left?” Lincoln asked Val.
Val shook his head. “No. He said after Sam left, he rode back to finish helping with the cattle.”
This was the part of the story that bothered Lincoln. Chester was protective of “his boys.” Lincoln couldn’t see him riding off without making sure Val was okay. It didn’t fit.
“Why all the questions, Linc?” Holden asked. “With the sheriff under investigation, we don’t need to worry about him pointing fingers at the Double Diamond anymore.” He paused. “Unless you think we need to worry about his deputy. The few times I’ve talked to her, she didn’t seem like a hardcore law officer.”
Lincoln snorted. “That’s putting it mildly. I caught her giving herself a facial and painting her toes today when I stopped by.”
Logan McCord laughed. “Well, it’s a good thing Simple doesn’t have a lot of crime or we would be in trouble.” He leaned on his saddle horn and grinned at Lincoln. “So did you pull the tough Texas Ranger card and read her the riot act?”
“I probably should have. But I figured after being Willaby’s deputy for the last few months she deserved a spa day. The arrogant asshole has no business being a sheriff—or any law enforcement officer, for that matter.”
“Willaby is an asshole.” Cru Cassidy nudged his horse forward. “But that’s not the main reason you didn’t get onto Deputy Meriwether. You let her off easy because she’s good-looking. Every man in town falls all over himself when she’s around just to open a door for her and get one of her megawatt smiles.”
Deputy Meriwether was good-looking. Even with a layer of blue goop on her face, there was no denying the woman was beautiful. But after going through a painful divorce from a manipulative beauty, he was now immune to them. He had little doubt that Deputy Meriwether used her beauty to manipulate people.
“What Deputy Meriwether does or doesn’t do isn’t my problem,” he said. “I have no desire to become a rookie’s babysitter.” Although she certainly needed one. She was too much of a greenhorn to run the sheriff’s office on her own and Lincoln intended to see if he couldn’t get another county sheriff to help her out.
As the five men rode over the ridge and the Double Diamond came into view, Lincoln forgot about the deputy as memories came flooding back. The summer he’d spent there had been the best summer of his life. He’d worked hard, but he’d also played hard. Skinny-dipping at Mesquite Springs, drinking frosty coke-floats at the pharmacy soda fountain, telling ghost stories around a blazing campfire, sitting at the scarred oak table in the kitchen and filling up on all of Lucas’s good cooking.
The scarred table was gone now—as was the entire house. A brand-new house sat in the same place as the old one. Lincoln and the rest of the boys had chipped in to have it built after the old house had burnt to the ground when Lucas had forgotten to turn off his ancient gas stove.
“Y’all did a good job of replicating the ranch house,” Lincoln said.
“That was Penny’s doing,” Cru said. “She wanted everything to be as close to the same as possible.”
“Well, she did a good job. And the new paint on the barn looks great as well. Although I wish you’d left me something to do while I’m here.”
“Believe me, Chester and Lucas can always find you something to do,” Holden said. “I loved living with the two old cowboys, but I won’t miss all the chores or being woken up at the crack of dawn by Lucas clattering pans in the kitchen. Not to mention that I love having Devlin all to myself.”
“I hear you,” Logan said. “I love Clint, but I wouldn’t mind having a few nights alone with Evie. Having a teenage son in the house can sure put a damper on your sex life.”
Cru snorted. “Try having your father-in-law living in the same house. I’m thinking about renting us a room at the boardinghouse just so we can get a little wild and crazy.”
“I’m afraid you’re out of luck,” Val said. “Since I published the story about Granny Dovey’s ghost, we’re booked until the end of April. Besides, I thought you and Penny were going to build a house on the land Chester and Lucas gave you.”
Chester and Lucas had given all six of the boys a piece of the Double Diamond ranch for helping them rebuild their house. Logan and Holden had already built homes on theirs. Val intended to put a summer camp for kids who didn’t quite fit in on his. Lincoln had no plans for his. Maybe he’d build a house on it and retire one day.
“I don’t think Penny will ever leave her family home,” Cru said. “She loves it too much. And whatever makes her happy is fine with me.” He glanced at all the boys and grinned an impish grin before he shouted. “Last one to the barn is a steaming cow patty!” He took off on his horse.
The other boys urged their horses into a gallop, their laughter ringing out as they tried to catch up. But with his head start, Cru made it to the barn first. Logan and Lincoln were neck and neck for second place, but Lincoln drew rein and ended up last when he saw the sheriff’s SUV parked in front of the house.
Damn.
“Lincoln’s the steaming cow—” Cru cut off when he finally noticed the deputy’s vehicle. He glanced at Lincoln. “I thought you said the deputy wasn’t going to be a problem.”
“I’m sure she’s just making her rounds.” He swung down from the saddle. “Y’all go on home to your wives and let me handle this.”
Since Val was the only one besides Lincoln who rode a Double Diamond horse, he dismounted as well. “I’ll take care of the horses before I leave.” He took Lincoln’s reins and led the horses to the barn.
“Call us if there’s a problem, Linc,” Holden said.
“I would hope a big bad Texas Ranger can handle one little ol’ deputy,” Cru said, teasingly.
Lincoln flipped him the bird as he headed for the house. He heard Deputy Meriw
ether’s lyrical southern twang as soon as he stepped in the door.
“Why this has to be the best chili I’ve eaten in my life—although our family cook would be devastated if she heard me. Juanita has been with us ever since I was born and thinks her chili is the best this side of the Pecos.”
“The secret is in the chili powder,” Lucas said. “Use too much and you’ll burn a hole in your gut. Use too little and it doesn’t have enough punch.”
“This certainly has enough punch and I’m just shocked that some woman hasn’t scooped you up already. Handsome and a great cook.”
Lincoln moved into the doorway of the kitchen and found Lucas grinning like a fool. And so was Chester. The brothers were seated on either side of Deputy Meriwether and looking at her like she was a royal princess who had graced the peasant farmers with her presence.
Lincoln understood why.
Deputy Meriwether had cleaned all the blue goop off her face and beautiful wasn’t a strong enough adjective to describe her looks. Stunning. Exquisite. Breathtaking. Those words all came to mind as Lincoln’s gaze took in the cat-like slant of her deep green eyes, the perfect slope of her petite nose, and the rosy flush of her high cheekbones. Her long, thick hair fell around her face and shoulders in waves that ranged in color from deepest butterscotch to lightest sunshine.
She had a body to go with the face.
In Sheriff Willaby’s office, it had been hard not to notice how well she filled out her deputy’s shirt and slim-cut jeans. He’d also noticed her height. While he felt like a giant to most women, Deputy Meriwether was no petite flower. Even in bare feet, she’d been no more than six inches shorter than he was.
It was too bad she was as fake as a plug nickel.
“I can’t believe you’re not married either, Chester,” she gushed. “Why the women of Simple must be blind not to know a good catch when they see it. Two good-lookin’ cowboys who own their own ranch and have the manners of true gentlemen. And finding a gentleman who knows how to treat a lady is impossible these days.” Her gaze shifted to the doorway. “Hello, Officer Hayes.”
