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