Taming a Texas Devil - Katie Lane Page 0,39
“But for now, I’m afraid I need to use the computer to fill out a report about the ticket I wrote to Jethro Mills for letting his kids ride in the bed of his truck. I gave him a warning, but he just wouldn’t listen. And I would hate to have one of those sweet things end up falling out on their heads.”
The sheriff looked like he was about to refuse, but then he got up from the chair and moved around the desk. “Have you discovered any new information on Sam Sweeney?”
“Not a thing,” Lincoln said casually.
Willaby glanced at the deputy and Lincoln waited for her to spill her guts about the bone. The woman loved to talk. But instead, she just shrugged. “Not a little ol’ thing. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do and I can’t do it with two good-lookin’ men standing there distracting me.”
Sheriff Willaby pointed a finger at her. “Just remember whose office this is, deputy.” He glanced at Lincoln. “Hayes.” He walked out the door.
When he was gone, Deputy Meriwether flopped down in the chair and let her smile drop. “Now that was interesting. I think the sheriff doesn’t know what extended leave means.”
“Oh, he knows what it means.” Lincoln sat down in the chair in front of the desk. “I thought the sheriff had run roughshod over you. I didn’t realize it was the other way around.”
She shrugged. “Some men are easily handled with a smile and a little ego building.”
“Some?”
She laughed. “Okay. Most. But a lot of people respond better to honey than they do to vinegar.”
“I guess I’m vinegar.”
“Now did I say that?” The twinkle in her eyes said that was exactly what she meant.
She did have a point. Lincoln had always believed the best why to deal with people was with a firm hand and a no-nonsense attitude. Dixie believed just the opposite. She used her beauty and easygoing personality to get what she wanted. He had seen it as female manipulation, but now he had to reconsider. If she hadn’t been there, Lincoln had little doubt that he and Willaby would’ve gotten into it. She had diffused the situation with just a few smiles and her southern charm.
Maybe honey did work better than vinegar.
“Now what has brought the big bad Texas Ranger here today?” she asked. “Wait, let me guess. The bone turned out to be Sam Sweeney’s and you need my help solving the case.”
“No on both counts.”
Her face fell. “It isn’t Sam’s? Then whose is it?”
“The report hasn’t come back yet. Now I need to look at your records.”
“It’s Sam Sweeney’s.” She leaned back in the chair and crossed her boots up on the desk. “He’s the only one missing. It has to be him.” She nibbled on her thumbnail with the pretty pink polish. “We need to find the rest of his body. It could lead us to his murderer.”
“There’s no we. This is my case.”
She took her feet off the desk and sat up. “But I found the bone!”
“Boomer found the bone.”
She glared at him. “Why do you hate me?”
“I don’t hate you.”
“Yes, you do. I lied through my teeth when I told the sheriff you have been a kind, caring gentleman to me. You’ve been surly and mean and have done everything in your power to get me to quit. Why?”
He should’ve told her about her father. He was getting sick of the charade. But he’d been given an order and he never ignored an order. That didn’t mean he couldn’t ask questions. “What made you choose law enforcement? I just don’t get why a senator’s daughter and beauty queen would want this job.”
Her eyes widened. “Who told you about my daddy?”
“I googled you.” It wasn’t a complete lie. After finding out who her father was, he had googled her . . . and seen image after image of her on beauty pageant stages showing off a body that would bring most men to their knees. Just not him. “Why this career choice?” he asked. “Why not something more fitting with who you are.”
She stared at him. “And who am I, Officer Hayes? A ditzy beauty queen? A spoiled senator’s daughter? That’s how most people see me. But I’m more than that. And maybe I just want the chance to prove it.”
They were words he had used more than once in his life. He knew what it was like to want to prove that you were different from what someone