Chapter Twelve
Not since she was a young bride was Alice this excited about planting a few vegetables in her freshly cleared garden.
Once she got over the shock of finding Clint working in what had been a jungle of overgrowth, and put aside the surprise of all Brooklyn had to report, she eagerly worked at his side to finish the prep work.
The thing that was even more unexpected than his clearing the space for no other reason than he remembered it was something she wanted to do, was how much she’d come to enjoy working at his side.
And if she were honest with herself, dancing with the man.
Everything about him was so… perfect. She knew there was no such thing as a perfect human, but danged if this man didn’t come close.
She had to laugh to herself. The way he rescued her stripped self, and fretted over her when she’d been hurt on the fence all those months ago, and stepped up to save a ranch that wasn’t his—if ever there was a man worthy of a best-selling romance novel, Clint was it.
Of course, she had no business thinking of him as a hero, romantic or otherwise.
For one thing, the man had to be a good ten years younger than her.
And for another, she was his boss. Did thinking he’d make a perfect romantic hero qualify for sexual harassment?
Of course not, at least not if it was just in her head.
Maybe it was time she considered finding a new man.
Maybe not to marry, but at least to go to a movie, or play a game of corn hole.
Just… company. After all, it wouldn’t be long before she’d be living in an empty house.
Empty house. Dang, that sounded awful. It had been so much fun having Kade back and his buddy Josh.
Watching those two horse around took her back twenty years to a house full of raucous teens.
And she realized how much she’d missed that.
Maybe it was time she told Sarah Sue that she was ready to start fostering dogs.
Not the same as children, but she couldn’t imagine life on this ranch without Brady.
“And what has you looking so distracted?” Clint appeared behind her. The tool belt clipped around his waist told her he had more work to do in her garden.
“Just contemplating the immortality of the crab.”
A deep hearty laugh erupted as his head tipped back a moment. “I really love your approach to life.”
She wondered if she was blushing, because she could feel heat rising from her toes to her cheeks. Straightening in place, her grip on the trowel tightened. “The only thing I’m approaching today is planting these seeds. What are you up to?”
His nose lifted toward the opposite side of the garden. “The old compost bin has seen better days. I just got back from town with fresh lumber. Was about to get started, but I can move on to something else if my hammering will bother you.”
She shook her head. “I can’t imagine a rancher in the world who the sound of hard work would disturb.” Besides, she liked knowing he was near. Made no sense, but it was what it was.
She’d barely dug up the first few seed holes when Cassie came hurrying up beside her. “Sheriff Boyd is here.”
“Here?”
“He said he was in the area and thought he’d stop by. Give you an update. Kade is inside with him and Carson is on his way over. Preston and Garret are tied up.”
Nodding her head, Alice set her tools aside and peeled off her gloves, slapping them along a sideboard to shake loose the dirt before shoving them into her back pocket. Taking a single step, she paused and looked to Clint. “If this is about Ray, as our new foreman, you should probably come too.”
His gaze leveled with hers and for a long moment he remained silent. She knew he was debating whether or not that was his place and saw the moment he made up his mind, then he removed his tool belt, set it aside, and followed them into the house.
Inside, she followed the sounds of men’s voices.
Laughing voices. Well, that had to be a good sign.
If something was truly wrong the tension should be thick as pea soup.
Alice caught the tail end of some story about the sheriff catching Blake climbing in the window with Jillian holding a gun on him.
Kade was laughing so hard, he was almost falling out of his seat.
Of course, she knew that story, but Kade had been away and she guessed this was the first time he’d heard it.
As soon as they heard her cross the threshold, both men stood. Gotta love Texas chivalry. It made her right proud every time her sons or daughters did something, anything, to show her she and Charlie had raised them right. “Afternoon, sheriff.”
“Miss Alice.” He tipped his chin at her. No doubt if his hat had been on his head and not on the desk, he would have tipped it the way cowboys had done for generations before them.
“I hear you have news for me?” She waved for him to retake his seat.
Cassie moved to sit on the arm of the chair where her husband sat, and the sheriff plunked down in the comfortable easy chair at the same moment Carson came rushing into the room. “Got here as fast as I could.”
“That wasn’t necessary,” the sheriff said. “I don’t have much to report. Though we’ve caught two more of your former cohorts.”
“Where?” she asked quickly.
“Millers Creek. They were drunk as skunks and spewing about being gypped out of a fortune. When they got around to telling a couple of working girls that they were going to get even and get their due share, one of them got nervous that they might be dangerous and the bartender called in the police.”
“So Ray ripped them off too?” Carson asked.
“Looks like it. Unfortunately, the two lawyered up as soon as they sobered up. But we did learn that the reason they took off was because Ray got wind that you were going over the books. I guess he figured he needed to get out while the getting was good.”
“Rats,” Kade muttered.
“From what we gathered, he didn’t dare take any of the money they’d accrued in case the law caught up with him. Same with the hands. He promised them if they lay low for six months, he’d give them their money when the heat was off.”
“But he didn’t?” Alice asked, even though it wasn’t really a question.
The sheriff shrugged. “Doesn’t look like it.”
“So where does that leave us now?”
Clint stood along the back wall of what had once been Charles Sweet’s office.
If the hands were found so close to home, the hackles rising on the back of his neck told him that Ray might not be far behind.
Unless, of course, he’d lied through his teeth and had taken more than enough money with him and, sure he was safe, was very long gone.
“One of the two let it slip that Ray had hidden the loot here on the ranch. But by then they’d sobered up enough to ask for a lawyer and shut their mouths.”
“The hundred k we found?” Alice spoke softly.
Her voice was so low Clint almost didn’t hear her.
And yet, he had an overwhelming urge to cross the room and place a hand on her shoulder.
A reminder that he was there if she needed him.
That was the more acceptable behavior. What he really wanted was to hold her hand, squeeze it, reassure her, or better yet, wrap his arms around her and protect her from all this nasty business.
The sheriff nodded. “That’s my guess.”
Carson shook his head. “Except based on our math from the sold cattle, the sold equipment, lumber, etc., there has to be a helluva lot more money than that.”
“You think he spent the rest?” Her spine straight again, Alice was frowning.
Marvelous. Now Clint wanted to run his thumb across the pleats in her forehead and make her worries go away. Clearly, he’d lost his mind.
“There has to be more somewhere.” Kade pressed his lips tightly together and Cassie gently rubbed his shoulders.
“Cameras show anything?” the sheriff asked.
Both Kade and Carson shook their heads.
“I guess,” Kade looked to his brother, “that would explain why we found remnants of someone digging.”
“Either Ray was here looking for his loot, or one of the others.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Alice leaned forward. “I mean, maybe the hands, but not Ray. He’d have to know where he hid the money.”
“Unless,” the sheriff turned to face her, “he found it there and simply didn’t have time to put things back the way he found them.”
Alice shook her head. “Everything in me screams that whoever was digging, didn’t find what they were looking for.”
Clint’s gut was telling him the same thing.
Hands on the arms of his chair, the sheriff pushed to his feet. “I do have some good news. With the four of your hands in custody, if we don’t have a case against anyone, the DA will probably release your money in a few weeks.”
“So he believes it’s ours?” Carson asked.
Nodding, the sheriff reached for his hat. “Based on what those two yahoos said, yes, he believes it’s most likely yours, but he still has to go through the process and bureaucracy is a lot of things, expedient ain’t one of them.”
No one moved, and Cassie hopped up from her perch on her husband’s chair. “Let me walk you to the door, sheriff.”
Smiling, the man nodded, and tipped his hat at Alice. “I’ll reach out if we learn anything else from those yahoos.”
“Thanks, sheriff.”
He dipped his head in a silent your welcome and followed Cassie out of the room.
“So,” Kade’s eyes narrowed, “who wants to bet if those two hands are back sniffing around, Ray can’t be far.”
Carson shook his head. “No point in borrowing trouble. For all we know, it was those hands who were digging for gold, so to speak, and not Ray.”
“Well, I can’t do much about it. Josh and I have to be back on base Monday morning.”
“We can handle it.” Carson nodded this time. “You protect the rest of the world. We’ll watch out for the ranch.”
Clint wanted to speak up, to reassure Kade that he was constantly vigilant and as of this minute, he was going to be much more vigilant.
Especially where Alice Sweet was concerned.
Ray might have gotten the better of the Sweets before, but he was not going to let that happen again anytime soon. Or ever.
“Do you think we need more cameras?” Alice asked. From what Clint could see, the question seemed to come more from a surveillance standpoint than from a position of fear.
Of course that made perfect sense. He’d yet to see Alice Sweet afraid of anything.
“With your permission, first thing in the morning, I’m going to head out to check more of the line shacks. See if there are any more hidden loot that we need to know about.”
Carson nodded. “Except from now on, no one goes anywhere on this ranch alone. We’ll do like dive buddies. Two or more.”
“Agreed.” Kade bobbed his head. “We are not to take any chances until Ray is caught and, preferably, behind bars.”
“Do you think the two hands in custody will be released?”
“I hope not.” Carson looked around the room. “I truly hope not.”
Clint couldn’t agree more. Not so much because he was afraid of the pipsqueaks, but more so because if he ever got his hands on the bastards who stole from Alice and made her and her family’s lives so difficult, he couldn’t promise he wouldn’t wind up back in jail again, this time for a crime he did commit.