Page 50

Not quite believing what he was about to do, he tossed the ball ahead of Bulwinkle in the direction of the fence. After pausing a minute to watch the ball roll down a hill, Bullwinkle trotted after it.

Behind him, Javi said, "You are shitting me."

Shouts varying between amazement and amusement filled the air behind Chance, but he didn’t care. Yes, it was stupid. Yes, it was unexpected. But if it worked, it worked.

Javi's prediction was spot on. It took them several hours to herd the bison back into the correct pasture. After taking a break for a late lunch, they started riding the fence to find out where the bison escaped. It was by sheer luck they found it. There was no food or water outside the fence to draw the herd there. It didn't look like any fence broken down by a herd of bison he’d ever seen. But it was more important to get the thing patched.

Chance grabbed a post hole digger and was headed toward the spot when his phone rang. After the morning he’d had with Joy, he wasn't about to ignore the call. It surprised him to see Sam Nelson's name on his caller ID. What did the sheriff want this time of day?

If Detective Jackass James tried to come back out to the ranch, he was gonna find the gate shut and locked. He was about sick ofseeing that man's face. And if James tried to talk his gypsy into leaving him and going back to Texas one more time, Chance was gonna punch him in the mouth.

Taking the call, Chance said, "Hey, Sam. What's going on? I kinda have a situation here, so if it can wait, I'll call you back."

"I'll be quick, but I think you're gonna want to hear this."

Great. What now? If one more bad thing happened today, he was gonna shoot somebody. "All right, Sam. Hold on. Let me hand this off to one of my men, and then we can talk." After tossing the post hole digger to Javi, Chance walked away from the noise and asked, "OK, Sam, what's all this about?"

Sam did not make him wait. "I know you've never been especially fond of our detective friend from Texas, but because of his badge, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt."

Chance narrowed his eyes at the sheriff's use ofwasinstead ofam.

“Exactly what do you mean bywaswilling to give him the benefit of the doubt, Sam? Has something happened that made you change your mind about that?"

"You could say that. The last two days, I’ve watched the detective get more and more insistent about talking with Joy and taking her back to Texas. It started hitting me wrong, so I thought I'd do a little research."

Chance got a cold feeling in his chest that had nothing to do with the freezing temperature. "And what did your research find?"

"Nothing good. The detective said the Nameless PD sent him up here specifically to talk to Joy. He said he was assigned to ask her questions and get her back home. But here’s the thing: when I talked to the chief of police down there, he said Chris James was on extended leave. A leave, mind you, that he requested."

Well fuck. "Are you telling me James is not here representing the Nameless PD?"

“Not officially. But it gets worse."

Of course, it did. That cold, sick feeling spread from his chest into his gut. Before Sam said another word, Chance headed for Jasper to get him saddled up. "Don't make me play twenty-two questions, Sam. What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the chief of police not even knowing there was an open case against Eddie Sharp. Much less that Sharp had killed someone. He didn't say much after that, except that he'd be looking into it and he'd get back to me. I thought you should know."

Hell, yes, he should know. He needed to get home to Joy. He wasn't letting her out of his sight until they knew exactly where Detective Chris James was. And only then if he was headed back to Texas in handcuffs. "Obliged for the information, Sam. Let me know if you hear anything else."

"Will do, Chance. And if the detective shows up at Wild River Ranch, I expect a call from you. This is a police matter now. I don't want you to go off halfcocked and wind up sitting in jail."

The hell he would. His gypsy was just that. His. He would protect her at all costs. Now that he knew what the detective was up to, he’d make sure the man didn't get anywhere close to his Gyspy.

CHAPTER 22

Joy sat on the front porch, wishing she could have gone into town with Ruby, Kenzie, and Tildi to deliver the cookies they had all decorated. But she’d promised Chance she’d stay in or around the lodge.

Besides, she wasn’t sure her bottom was up to riding down the rough mountain roads between Wilder and the ranch. The ache in her backside was enough to have her sitting on a cushion on the front porch swing.

Of course, the ache wasn’t all bad. Now that the sting had finally calmed down, the ache in her bottom had caused another, equally troublesome ache between her thighs. If she knew Chance wouldn’t mind, she would go up to their suite and tend to that one right now. As it was, she didn’t know, and she wasn’t willing to risk it. Not today, anyway.

Tucking Puggles into her backpack carrier, she pushed off the porch swing and hopped down off the front porch. “I know we have to stay close,” she told Puggles, who worried a lot more these days about getting into trouble than she used to. “We can still walkaround the lodge. We need new pictures to post on the ranch’s social media pages and the website.”

It was hard to believe their followers had tripled in less than a week. She needed to design a new photography company website, too. So far, she hadn’t settled on a name for her new company. She’d loved the name of her studio in Nameless. Smile, Beautiful said everything she wanted to convey.

A noise interrupted her thoughts. Was that a car door slamming? They never had company. Ruby said it was too early in the season, but that soon they’d have a steady stream of hunters and campers in the cabins.

There was no reason anyone would be here now. Chance and his brothers were trying to deal with the bison getting out. Ruby and the girls should be back for at least another couple of hours.