Taming a Texas Devil (Bad Boy Ranch Book 5) Read online

  He skipped the pleasantries. “What are you doing here, Deputy Meriwether?”

  Her smile kicked up a notch, displaying a set of even white teeth that could be in a toothpaste commercial. “Just doing my job and checking up on the people in my county . . . sir.”

  Before he could reply, Lucas cut in. “Where are your manners, boy? Get that hat off. There’s a lady present. And get those boots off too. You weren’t raised in a barn.”

  If it had been anyone else, Lincoln would’ve ignored him and gotten to the bottom of why Deputy Meriwether was there. But he couldn’t ignore Lucas or Chester. He respected them too much. He turned and headed to the bench in the entryway. As he hung his hat on a hook and then sat down to pull off his boots, he listened as the conversation continued in the kitchen.

  “So tell me more about this boys’ ranch,” Deputy Meriwether said. “How many summers did it go on?”

  “Only one,” Chester grumbled. “After that, the town got up a petition and banned us from doing it again. They thought the boys were responsible for all the mischief that took place in the town that summer.”

  “And were they?”

  Lucas chuckled. “I’m sure they were responsible for some. Boys will be boys. And our boys weren’t saints. But they weren’t sinners either. They were just troubled kids who needed a little extra love. Like Lincoln there.”

  “Officer Hayes certainly looks like he could use a little extra love. Exactly what did he do to get sent to a boy’s ranch?”

  Lincoln got up and walked into the kitchen before Lucas could answer. “I had problems keeping my fists to myself. I was what you’d call an angry kid. Now if you don’t have any more questions, Deputy Meriwether, I’ll see you out.”

  “Lincoln!” Both Chester and Lucas said at the same time.

  Deputy Meriwether quickly got up. “That’s okay. I do need to be going.” She gave each man a hug like she’d known them forever. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you two sweet gentlemen. I swear you remind me of my Grandpappy Meriwether. And I’m just kickin’ myself that I didn’t come out and meet y’all sooner.”

  Lucas snorted. “We don’t blame you at all. Not with that horse’s as—behind Willaby as your boss.”

  “He is a bit of a horse’s patootie, isn’t he?” She winked at him. “But now that’s he’s on extended leave, if you have any problems at all—I mean any problems—you just give me a call and I’ll come right out.” She flashed a wide-eyed innocent look at Lincoln. “After all, a deputy’s job is to protect and serve her community.”

  “That’s real sweet of you,” Chester said. “But I’ve got a double-barrel shotgun that works just fine for dealing with trouble.”

  Lincoln mentally cringed as Deputy Meriwether’s eyes widened. “Really? Have you had to shoot anyone?”

  Before Chester could answer, Lincoln took her arm. “This way, Deputy Meriwether.” He planned to walk her right out the door. But like him, she was in her socks. So he stopped at the bench and waited while she tugged on her boots. They were Lucchese handmade and no doubt cost more than he made in a month. Either she had money, or she just spent foolishly. It had to be the latter. He couldn’t see someone with money choosing a job as a sheriff’s deputy. Unless there was another reason she had chosen it.

  “Why law enforcement?” he asked.

  She stood. With the stacked leather heels, she was even taller. It was disconcerting to be so close to those cat-like green eyes. They reminded him of a marble he’d cherished as a kid. He used to hold it up to the sun to try and see inside. When she leaned in closer, he could see splashes of spring green surrounding her dark pupils.

  “I have a thing for handcuffs,” she whispered.

  Desire flared, but he snuffed it out quickly. “What are you doing here?”

  She took her hat off a hook and pulled it on. “Just being neighborly.” She turned and headed out the door. He followed her.

  “Let’s cut to the chase, Deputy Meriwether. You looked up Sam Sweeney’s file after I left, didn’t you? And you thought you’d take over Willaby’s investigation. But there’s nothing to investigate here. Chester and Lucas had nothing to do with Sam Sweeney’s disappearance.”

  She turned. The sunny late February day had turned cold and blustery, and the wind blew her hair around like whipped honey. A strand caught the stubble on his chin and clung there like a silky spider web as she gazed directly in his eyes and smiled.

  “Sheriff Willaby doesn’t suspect Chester and Lucas. He suspects you, Officer Hayes.”

  Chapter Three

  “I’ve had just about enough of this foolishness, Dixie Leigh Meriwether. You need to get yourself home and you need to get yourself home now. Last night, your mama had a hideous dream that she and I were called to the morgue to identify your body.”

  If she hadn’t been holding her cellphone to her ear, Dixie would’ve rubbed her hands together with glee. Instead, she did a little wiggle shimmy as she got out of the sheriff’s SUV. A man walking down Main Street did a double take. She smiled and waggled her fingers in greeting, too happy to care that dancing in the streets wasn’t exactly how a deputy should behave.

  If her mama was having nightmares about her daughter getting killed in the line of duty, Dixie was close to victory. So close she could taste it. Her daddy worshiped the ground his wife walked on and didn’t like anything or anyone upsetting his sweet Georgia peach. He enjoyed the fact that he had married a refined southern beauty queen with a mile-long pedigree and had no real expectations of his wife beyond her love.

  The same wasn’t true for Dixie.

  While her daddy loved her to pieces, he also had high expectations of his only child. He was proud Dixie had gotten her mama’s good looks and won a few beauty contests, but he was also convinced she had gotten his brains and needed to use them.

  He was wrong.

  While Dixie had a whole lot in the looks department, she had next to nothing in the brains. In school, she had excelled at every social activity, but struggled with her classwork. Her third-grade teacher had identified her learning problem as dyslexia and called a meeting with her mama. Winona Meriwether had always believed the way to deal with imperfections was to hide them. So she had decided it was best to keep Dixie’s dyslexia a “little” secret from her husband. Dixie was all for that. She didn’t want her daddy finding out his sweet little princess wasn’t perfect either. With a little hard work and help from tutors, she knew she could catch up to the other children.

  Dixie had spent her entire school life trying to catch up. While she hadn’t graduated from high school and college top of her class, she had graduated. But that hadn’t been good enough for her daddy.

  “I mean it, Dixie Leigh. When I said you needed to complete three years of law before you could get the money your grandmother put aside for you, I meant law school, not working as a lowly sheriff’s deputy.”

  “Then you should’ve been more specific, Daddy. You taught me yourself that words can easily be misconstrued and it’s best to have everything in writing so there are no misunderstandings.” She headed toward the Simple Pharmacy. She usually just brought her lunch to work and ate in the office so she could avoid the town and having to deal with any law issues. But today, she had a craving for a cheeseburger from the pharmacy soda fountain.

  “Don’t you dare use my words against me, Sugar Squirt,” her daddy said. “You knew exactly what I meant. You just don’t want to go back to school. I never should’ve let you and your mother talk me into letting you postpone law school so you could try out for Miss Texas. All those years were wasted and put the hare-brained scheme in your head of using your grandmother’s money to become some beauty pageant instructor. And I flat refuse to let that happen. You are a Meriwether and Meriwethers are lawyers, judges, and politicians.”

  “Mama’s not.”

  “Your mama is a Hanover. She was brought up with different expectations than you.”

  “Well, maybe I want to be a
Hanover. Hold on, Daddy.” She put her phone on mute and hurried to hold the door open for a little old woman who was just coming out of the Simple Hair Salon. She sucked in her breath with fear when she saw who the woman was.

  Gertrude Dixon owned the Dixon Boardinghouse with her niece Reba. While Reba was as sweet as apple pie. Miss Gertie was as sour as sugarless lemonade. As was her hairless cat, which sat in the basket attached to the walker.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Gertie.” She went to scratch the cat’s head and received a mean hiss for her efforts. She pulled back and forced a laugh. “I guess you’re the same as usual, Rhett Butler.”

  Both the cat and the old woman glared at her.

  “So you’re still here?” Miss Gertie said. “I thought you’d left with that horse’s behind, Willaby.”

  “No, ma’am. I’m still on the job.” Just hopefully, not for long.

  Miss Gertie snorted. “I don’t know what job you’re talking about when every time I see you, you’re either gabbing on your smarty phone or applying lipstick.” She shook her head as she rolled the walker right over Dixie’s boot. “What in tarnation is this town comin’ to?”

  The woman did have a good point. Simple hadn’t exactly won out in the law enforcement department. Dixie felt a little guilty about that and decided right then and there to do everything in her power to make sure they got a better deputy next time around.

  “Nice to see you, Miss Gertie,” Dixie called after her before she took her father off hold. “Sorry, Daddy. So where were we?”

  “You were telling me that you wanted to be a Hanover instead of a Meriwether. And while I’d rather see you follow in my footsteps, I won’t have any problem with you being like your mama and getting married and giving me some grandkids. There’s a new young man on my staff that reminds me a lot of myself when I was his age. If you’ll quit playing this game you’re playing and come on home, I’ll make the introductions.”

  “So now you’re going to arrange a marriage for me, Daddy? I don’t think so.” When she married—if she married—she wasn’t going to marry anyone like her father. She wanted a husband as malleable as silly putty.

  “Then you’re not getting your grandmother’s money,” he said. “She wanted me to decide when you were mature enough to get it, and this little charade you’re playing proves you aren’t mature at all.”

  Dixie stomped her foot in frustration as she stopped in front of the Simple Market. Her daddy had just put her in check. But she wasn’t giving up yet. She hadn’t been given the role of Sandy in her high school production of Grease for nothing. She had enough acting chops to fool her father.

  “I’m going be honest with you, Daddy,” she said. “At first, I did decide to be in law enforcement just so you would give in and give me Granny’s money. But after going to the academy and becoming a deputy, I’ve realized the importance of this job. I can’t just wile away my days giving myself facials and painting my toes. It’s my job to protect and serve the people. Especially with Sheriff Willaby gone. Why, the entire responsibility of the county falls to me now. And I need to take that responsibility seriously. I couldn’t just quit, Daddy. Crime would run rampant.”

  “Crime? Your mama might think you’re working in a cesspool of sin, but I’ve been to Simple, Texas, and the only crime happening there is the name. Who in their right mind would name a town Simple?”

  “I like the name. And I don’t know when you’ve been here last, but things aren’t as simple as they used to be. There’s plenty of crime here.” It wasn’t really a lie. There had to be crime here. She just had no desire to find it.

  “Crime in Simple? What? Did someone steal a chicken?” He laughed his full-belly laugh.

  She gritted her teeth. She hated to be laughed at. Especially by her daddy. Which explained the crazy thing she did next. “Actually, I’m working on a murder case as we speak.”

  “Murder?” Her father’s shocked voice boomed through the receiver.

  She hated to worry her daddy. But dang it, it was her life and she needed to live it the way she saw fit. She wasn’t smart enough to be a lawyer or a judge or a politician. But she was smart enough to start her own beauty pageant consulting business. Thanks to her mama, she knew all the ins and outs of beauty pageants. It was the one place she felt most confident and in charge. She knew what gowns looked best beneath the lights. How to tape a dress in place so your boobs wouldn’t pop out. How to walk in five-inch heels without twisting an ankle or falling. And how to win the judges over.

  True, she hadn’t won the Miss Texas pageant. But she had been the second runner-up and that wasn’t an easy feat to accomplish. She could make her consulting business work. She knew she could. She just had to get her daddy to give in. And the sooner the better.

  “Yes.” She made her voice as ominous sounding as possible. “Murder, Daddy. It seems a ranch hand went missing years ago and Sheriff Willaby suspects foul play.”

  “I thought Willaby had been put on extended leave until his misconduct was investigated.”

  She was surprised that her father knew about that. She could’ve sworn she told him Willaby was on vacation. Oh, well. It didn’t matter. In fact, it could help her cause. Her daddy wouldn’t want her working for a jerk. “The sheriff is being investigated for misconduct, but he was working on the case before he left.”

  “And now you’re working on it?”

  She wasn’t. She had witnessed Sheriff Willaby’s incompetence. The man couldn’t find his butt with both hands and a three-way mirror. And the theatrical movie plot he’d written down in his report about a bunch of teenage kids murdering a ranch hand and disposing of his body on the Double Diamond was ridiculous.

  Still, it had been fun toying with Lincoln Hayes. His face when she had dropped the bomb of Sheriff Willaby considering him a suspect had been priceless. She seriously doubted that the man would bother her again.

  “Yes, I’m working on the case, and with a Texas Ranger, no less.” Her daddy thought very highly of the Texas Rangers so she figured it wouldn’t hurt to throw that in. And she was right. Her daddy jumped on that like a trout on a worm.

  “A Texas Ranger? Who?”

  “Officer Lincoln Hayes. But truth be told, he’s a little incompetent. So I’ll probably be heading the search for the body. And as a Meriwether, I won’t give up until I catch the murderer.”

  The sound of breath being sucked in had Dixie turning. Two women stood there staring at her with their eyes bugging out of their heads.

  “Murderer?” they said in unison.

  Blistered biscuits! Dixie had gone and done it now. She’d just opened up an entire can of wiggling worms that she needed to close as quickly as possible.

  “I need to go. I’ll call you later.” She hung up before her father could stop her and slipped her cellphone into the cute little Louis Vuitton phone holder that she’d attached to her deputy belt. Then she turned a bright smile on the two women.

  “Good afternoon, ladies. Sorry to get you all riled up. I was just playing a virtual version of Clue with one of my friends.” She held up her thumb and forefinger to indicate an inch. “I’m this close to figuring out who done it and winning the game.”

  Raynelle Coffman, who worked at the Simple Market grocery store, placed a hand on her ample chest. She was a sweet middle-aged woman with funky glasses and blue hair. While Dixie would never dye her own hair blue or cut it so short, the color and style seemed to fit Raynelle. “Good Lord, you sure gave us a fright, Deputy Meriwether.”

  “Speak for yourself, Ray,” Raynelle’s best friend, Luanne Riddell, said. “I wasn’t scared at all.” Luanne was married with four kids and worked as a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant. She also made bracelets that reminded people to keep the Ten Commandments, which she sold on Etsy. She had tried to get Dixie to buy one, but Dixie tried to stay away from godly reminders.

  “You were scared that a murderer was loose in Simple,” Raynelle said. “And I have your fingernai
l imprints in my arm to prove it.”

  “I didn’t grab your arm in fear as much as surprise. Although I don’t know why I’d be surprised that a murderer was living here. There are quite a few people who fit the bill. Damn hot flashes!” Luanne pulled a mini-fan out of her purse, turned it on, and held it in front of her sweaty face before continuing. “Like Walter Henley. That man has always been a little strange. He’s lived out in that shack all by himself for over twenty-five years without once having a girlfriend . . . or a boyfriend. A man going without sex for that long is sure to go a little crazy. Bud can’t go without it for a week without getting grumpy.”

  “Who says Walter goes without sex?” Raynelle chimed in.

  Luanne’s eyes widened as she turned to her friend. “Don’t you dare tell me you’ve been havin’ sex with Walter Henley, Ray!”

  Raynelle sighed. “I wish. But between work and cleaning up after my deadbeat son and his girlfriend, I don’t have time for sex. Which come to think of it, has made me feel a little murderous.”

  “Don’t you dare joke,” Luanne said. “Murder is not a joking matter.”

  “Good afternoon, ladies.”

  The deep baritone voice had Dixie turning to see Lincoln Hayes standing there. Except this time, he didn’t look like a starched and spit-polished Texas Ranger. This time, he looked like a rugged cowboy who had just finished bringing in a herd of cattle on the Chisholm Trail. His brown cowboy boots were scuffed and covered with a layer of dust. His jeans were worn with tattered hems. His western shirt was faded with damp spots of sweat under the arms. And his jaw had a thick layer of dark stubble.

  He looked . . . good enough to eat.

  Luanne and Raynelle must have thought so too, because they were looking at him like they wanted to cover him in chocolate syrup and lick him up. Or maybe that was just Dixie projecting.

  “Hey there, Lincoln,” Luanne said with a sigh in her voice. “Do you remember me? Luanne Riddell. We met at Val and Reba’s weddin’.”