Steel Resolve. B.J. Daniels
I walked in, I thought it had, but now you’re frowning. Is your coffee all right?”
Mary replaced her frown with a smile as she turned her attention to her mother and away from Chase. “My coffee is amazing. Thank you so much. It was just what I needed. Normally I try to get over to Lone Peak Perk when it opens, but this morning I was anxious to get to work. I wish they delivered.”
Her mother gave her a pointed look. “Are you purposely avoiding talking about your date, because I’m more interested in it than your coffee habit.”
Laughing, she said, “The date was fine. Good. Fun, actually. We’re going out again tonight.”
Her mother raised a brow. “Again already? So he was a perfect gentleman?” Her mother took a sip of her coffee as if pretending she wasn’t stepping over a line.
“You’re welcome to tell Dad that he was,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.
“Mary!” They both laughed. “So you like him?”
Mary nodded. Like was exactly the right word. She had hoped to feel more.
“You are impossible. You’re determined to make me drag everything out of you, aren’t you?”
“Not everything,” she said coyly. Her mother seemed to like this game they played. Mostly Dana seemed relieved that Mary was moving on after Chase. She didn’t like to see her daughter unhappy, Mary thought. It was time to quit moping over Chase, and they both knew it.
* * *
“SO HOW DID we do?” Deputy Dillon Ramsey asked his friend as he closed the cabin door and headed for the refrigerator for a beer as if he lived there.
“Picked up another three head of prime beef,” Grady Birch said, and quickly added, “They were patrolling the fences last night just like you said they would be. Smart to hit a ranch on the other side of the river. We got in and out. No sweat.”
“It’s nice that I know where the deputies will be watching.” Dillon grinned as he popped the top on his beer can and took a long swig.
“Trouble is, I heard around town that ranchers are going to start riding their fences. Word’s out.”
Dillon swore. “It was such easy pickings for a while.” He plopped down in one of the worn chairs in Grady’s cabin, feeling more at home in this ratty-ass place than in his nice apartment in Big Sky. “So we’ll cool it until the heat dies down.”
“Back to easy pickings, how did your date go?”
He grinned. “A couple more dates and I’ll have her eating out of my hand.”
Grady looked worried. “You’re playing with fire, you know. The marshal’s daughter?” His friend shook his head. “You sure this game you’re playing is worth it?”
Dillon laughed. “To be able to drive out to the Cardwell Ranch, sit on that big porch of theirs and drink the marshal’s beer right under his nose? You damn betcha it’s worth it.”
“Maybe I don’t understand the end game,” Grady suggested.
“I need this job until I can get enough money together to go somewhere warm, sit in the shade and drink fancy drinks with umbrellas in them for the rest of my life. I have plans for my future and they don’t include a woman, especially Mary Savage. But in the meantime...” He smiled and took a slug of his beer. “She ain’t half bad to look at. For her age, I get the feeling that she hasn’t had much experience. I’d be happy to teach her a few things.”
“Well, it still seems dangerous dating his daughter,” Grady said. “Unless you’re not telling me the truth and you’re serious about her.”
“I’m only serious about keeping the marshal from being suspicious of me. I told you, he almost caught me that one night after we hit the Cardwell Ranch. I had to do some fast talking, but I think I convinced him that I was patrolling the area on my night off.”
“And dating his daughter will make him less suspicious of you?”
“It will give him something else to worry about,” Dillon said with a grin. He knew he’d gotten the job only because of his uncle. He’d gone into law enforcement at his uncle’s encouragement. Also, he’d seen it as a get-out-of-jail-free card. No one would suspect a cop, right?
Unfortunately, his uncle had been more than suspicious about what Dillon had been doing to make some extra money. So it had come down to him leaving Wyoming to take the deputy job in the Gallatin Canyon of Montana.
“Mary Savage is a good-looking woman, no doubt about that,” Grady said as he got up to get them more beer.
Dillon watched him with narrowed eyes. “Don’t get any ideas. I’ve been priming this pump for a while now. And believe me, with your record, you wouldn’t want Marshal Hud Savage looking too closely at you. That’s one reason we can’t be seen together. As far as anyone knows, you and I aren’t even friends.”
* * *
MARSHAL HUD SAVAGE had been waiting patiently for the call since Deputy Dillon Ramsey had gone off duty. Still, when his phone rang, it made him jump. It wasn’t like him to be nervous. Then again, this was about his daughter. He had every right given his feelings about Dillon Ramsey.
He picked up the phone, glad to hear the voice of Hayes Cardwell, Dana’s cousin, on the other end of the line. It was nice to have several private investigators in the family. “Well?”
“You were right. He headed out of town the moment he changed out of his uniform,” Hayes said. “He went to a cabin back in the hills outside Gallatin Gateway. You’re probably more interested in who is renting the cabin than who owns it. Ever heard of a man named Grady Birch?”
The name didn’t ring any bells. “Who is he?”
“He has an interesting rap sheet that includes theft and assault. He’s done his share of cattle rustling.”
“And Dillon went straight there.”
“He did. In fact, he’s still inside. I’m watching the place from down the road with binoculars.”
“So it’s away from other houses,” Hud said. “Any chance there’s a truck around with a large horse trailer?”
“The kind that could be used to steal cattle?”
“Exactly,” the marshal said.
“There’s an old one parked out back. If they both leave, I might get a chance to have a look inside.”
“I doubt they’re going to leave together,” Hud said. “Thanks for doing this but I can take it from here.”
“No problem. What’s family for?”
“I’ll expect a bill for your time,” the marshal said. “Or I’ll tell Dana on you.”
Hayes laughed. “Don’t want her mad at me.”
“No one does. Also,” Hud added, “let’s keep this just between the two of us for now.” He disconnected and called up Grady Birch’s rap sheet. Hayes was right. Grady was trouble. So why wasn’t he surprised that his new deputy was hanging out with a man like that?
He’d known it the moment he laid eyes on the handsome lawman. Actually, he’d suspected there would be a problem when Dillon’s uncle called, asking for the favor. He’d wanted to turn the man down, but the uncle was a good cop who Hud had worked with on a case down in Jackson, Wyoming.
Hud rubbed a hand over his face. Dillon was everything he’d suspected he was, and now he was dating Mary. He swore. What was he going to do about it? In the first place, he had no proof. Yet. So warning Mary about him would be a waste of breath even if she didn’t find something romantic about dating an outlaw. Some people still saw cattle rustling as part of an Old West tradition. Also, his daughter