Chapter Thirteen
After several hours of pretending to be asleep, Alice decided that there was no such thing as fake it till you make it when it came to slumber.
Climbing out of bed in the pitch of night was standard for ranchers.
There was much to be done and the day always started early.
For her, it was in the kitchen, but for the rest of the family or hands, the work was usually outdoors and always strenuous.
Today, she would have a hearty breakfast ready for her crew and join Clint on his search of the shacks.
As soon as he’d mentioned checking for more stashes of cash or goods, she wondered why the heck hadn’t they done that right away. It was foolish to assume that was the only money Ray or one of his people had hidden.
“Wow.” Kade came into the kitchen with his buddy on his heel. “You’re up early.”
“I could say the same about you.” She flipped pancakes on the griddle.
Josh chuckled. “She’s got you there.”
“What’s your poison?” Alice pointed to the griddle. “Pancakes, there’s a French toast casserole in the oven, eggs in the frying pan, and I’ve got bacon or sausage or both.”
Her son’s friend looked from the stove to Kade and back, and then, a smile took over his face. “I guess a little of everything.”
“Keep eating like that and you’re going to have to go on a crash diet before reporting back for duty.”
“Hey,” Josh raised his hands at Kade, “I’m no fool. Uncle Sam could learn a thing or two from your mother. I’m going to enjoy this home cooking for as long as I can.”
The back door swung open. Removing his hat, Clint slapped it against his thigh and stomped his boots on the mat.
“Hungry?” She waved a spatula at him.
“No, ma’am.” He shook his head. “I’ve already eaten.”
Swallowing quickly, Josh ran a napkin across his mouth. “You do not know what you’re missing. You may want to rethink that.”
Clint looked at Josh, gave a slow lazy smile and nodded. “Miss Alice is an excellent cook.”
Now why did that little complement make her cheeks warm? “If you’re not hungry, what brings you up to the house?”
“I’ve left Benny fixing the chute for vaccinating. Last time a few good kickers tore it up a bit and it needs to be reinforced before the next round.”
Alice nodded. Having Benny around was helping them catch up on deferred maintenance.
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to get an early start, check for some more loose floorboards in the shacks and make sure the cameras haven’t been tampered with.”
“Have a seat. I’m almost done with the last of the pancakes. Then I’ll get my boots on and we’ll go together.”
“That won’t be…” his voice dropped off at her glare. “Yes, ma’am.”
She almost chuckled out loud. That look had worked just as well with all her children and Charlie too. It was kind of nice to know after all these years, she hadn’t lost her touch.
From her husband’s office, the door squeaking shut could be heard followed by the fall of booted heels against the floor. Carson came to a stop in the doorway. “I know we’re ranchers, but isn’t this rather early for everyone?”
“Couldn’t sleep so I got up and started breakfast early.” Alice shrugged.
“We were going to do a morning run, but we got waylaid by Mom’s cooking.” Kade shoveled a forkful of eggs into his mouth.
His mouth already full, Josh glanced up, smiled, and still chewing, nodded. The sight almost made Alice laugh. She didn’t care what their age was, she still saw little boys sitting at her table.
“Well, glad you’re all up.” She didn’t like the look on Carson’s face. “It may be nothing, but I was looking at the footage from the cameras, and I could have sworn I saw shadows in the distance along the back forty fence line.”
Kade squinted, his forehead pleating with concentration. “That’s pretty far to see from where the cameras are.”
“I know,” Carson said. “That’s why I prefaced my observations with it could be nothing.” His hand rubbed along the back of his neck. “Maybe I’m just paranoid with all the weird crap that keeps happening around here, but maybe—”
“Maybe,” frowning, Clint leveled his gaze with Carson’s, “someone is still messing with us. I’ll check out the fence line first thing.”
Alice flipped the last pancake, slid it onto an already-high stack and then put the dish in the oven. “If anyone wants more, they’ll be warm in here.”
All heads nodded, except Clint. “Maybe I should check this out alone.”
Shaking her head, Alice caught herself in time to stop from rolling her eyes. “It will be daylight by the time we get to the back forty, I’m sure the boogeymen will be gone.”
Though she knew he was still concerned, she spotted one corner of Clint’s mouth tilting upward before he bit down on his back teeth and drew his lips into a thin line and nodded at her.
As if the man had ears in their kitchen, Alice’s phone buzzed with a text from Brooklyn. Call me when you’re up. That made her laugh. Apparently, the former SEAL had no idea about ranching hours. Quickly hitting the call button, she waited for him to pick up on the second ring. “Hi, Brooklyn.”
“One of my men managed to get a lead on Ray.”
Everyone stopped eating and looked up at her phone.
“From what we can tell, he holed up for a while working a few ranches in Wyoming, then Colorado, onto Oklahoma, and now he’s turned up in the panhandle.”
“He’s heading back,” Kade muttered.
“That’s our take,” Brooklyn confirmed.
Alice tried to process the idea that Ray might be returning to the scene of the crime.
Which told her two things: first, he probably had no idea they’d found his stash—at least one of them—and second, if that vermin ever set foot on this ranch again, she was still angry enough to kill the SOB with her bare hands. “Someone should tell Sheriff Brody.”
“He’s next on my list to call,” Brooklyn told her. “In the meantime, keep an eye out. Do you need me to send a few men to help secure the property?”
Alice scanned the faces in the room. They all seemed to be thinking about it when Kade, after sharing a glance with Carson, sighed. “The man’s a thief, he probably just wants to come back for his money and get out fast. We’ll be fine.”
Carson nodded.
Clint merely ground his teeth until the muscles at the base of his jaw twitched.
Yep. Right about now, no one was happy.
None of what he was hearing made Clint happy, but hopefully the family was right. Ray might be a crook without a conscience, but so far he hadn’t proved dangerous. That didn’t mean they had to sit back and do nothing.
“Come on.” Alice slid into her boots and grabbed a jacket. “We’ve got a fence to check out and some line shacks to search. We’ll bring Brady. If anyone is lurking, that dog will sniff him out even if he’s upwind.”
Clint nodded. What more could he do? She was his boss, not his wife.
As much as he wanted to tell her to stay put, that he and Brady, or maybe even Benny too, would check things out.
Unfortunately, though he was pretty sure it wouldn’t be enough to get him fired, he also knew that it would go over about as well as a skunk in the kitchen.
Taking the four-wheeler to make better time, they pulled up to the section of fence where Carter thought he might have seen some movement where there shouldn’t have been any cows. Hopping out, the two of them walked slowly along the fence line, carefully looking for anything out of the ordinary.
Walking ahead of Clint, Alice came to a sudden stop, squatted down on her haunches, and not touching anything, studied the ground in front of her.
“What did you find?” Clint squatted beside her, his gaze immediately falling on what Alice had seen. “Hmm.”
“My thoughts exactly.” She fingered the freshly turned dirt. “This section of fence was repaired months ago.”
Clint nodded.
“Which means…”
“Someone must have dug these posts up and then put them back.”
She cast a look over her shoulder toward the line shack not too far away. “We’d better check out the closest shack.”
Not seeing any signs of recent travel by a vehicle or animals en route to the shack, Clint had to wonder why the heck would someone dig up and replace a pole?
At the shack, just in case, he pulled the rifle from the rack and escorted Ms. Alice to the small space.
Inside, he already knew what to do. Kicking the floorboards as he walked, he listened for a hollow sound.
Nothing. This wasn’t making sense. Why did they dig up the post over there?
And who was responsible? Could the men from Millers Creek been the ones who ransacked the other building?
“What are you thinking?” Alice stood, hands on her hips, looking around, shaking her head.
“It doesn’t make sense.”
“Yeah, that’s my thought too. We have to be missing something.”
Bobbing his head, he turned and headed out the door, Alice on his heel. Walking slowly, he searched the perimeter.
“Over here.” Alice crouched by the corner of the shack.
These old shacks were built a million years ago when pier and post foundations were used. By the trap door to access the plumbing under the cabin, the dirt had been moved.
“We should call the sheriff.” Alice pushed to her feet, brushing off her hands and taking a step in retreat, tripped over a small rock and stumbled, her arms flapping like an injured bird.
Instantly, Clint lunged forward, his arms gripping hers.
As the two tumbled to the ground, he rolled, his arms now wrapped tightly around her in a desperate effort to avoid squashing her beneath him.
Successfully flipping them, he landed on his back—hard.
His head bounced off the ground and Alice Sweet, all soft and pliable, was sprawled on top of him.
It took a minute for him to blink away the stars and open his eyes.
Almost nose to nose, not even when they’d danced had he been this close to her.
Eyes a sparkling deep shade of blue stared down at him.
He could feel every thump of her rapid heartbeat against him.
All rational thought flew out the window and sheer instinct kicked in.
Tightening his hold with one arm, the other wrapped around her shoulder, closing the distance between them, his lips pressed against hers.
Lips warm and smooth and sweet as honey had his brain rattled and his hormones in high gear.
Somewhere in the back of his addled mind he knew this was a serous mistake.
He had no right. Then, the tiniest of moans reached what was left of his brain cells and it registered, she was kissing him back.
All good sense—not that he had any at the moment—and all sense of propriety, flew out the window.
He tightened his hold and kissed her again until he could barely breathe.
Just as suddenly as the urge to hold her close and kiss her long and hard had overtaken him, Alice suddenly froze in his arms and good sense smacked him upside the head. Letting his arms fall to his sides, he waited for her to inch back and right herself.
Pushing off of him and coming to her feet, she brushed her hands again, and took a careful step toward the side of the shack.
“It looks like someone dragged something out from under.” She sucked in a long deep breath and blew it out slowly.
“Could have been a smaller piece of equipment but my money is on a backpack or sack of more cash.”
Now standing, his mind was scrambling to keep up.
Clearly she wasn’t going to say anything about the kiss, which meant what?
Was he to ignore it as well? Was she waiting for him to apologize?
What the heck was he supposed to do now?
Especially if he didn’t want to lose the best job he’d ever had, and more importantly, being near Alice Sweet. “I, uh.”
He barely got the sounds out before her hand flew up, palm out, and her head began to shake from side to side. “Don’t. Lets focus on this. On Ray. On whatever it all means.”
“Okay.” He nodded and desperately tried to clear his mind. “I’ll call the sheriff. There might be some prints left behind, though I doubt it.”
“This probably explains the post. Whoever came out here wasn’t in a vehicle, they were on foot.”
“And they knew what they were looking for. Whoever found this stash, also put it here.”
She nodded. “And our most likely candidate is—Ray.”
“Ray,” Clint echoed her words.
Now the question at hand was, is this it—or is he coming back for more?