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“He strike you as the kind who might deal drugs if the right person talked him into it?”

“He’d do anything Dominic Mollohan told him to do. Might let a woman talk him into some stupid stuff. But I don’t see him being a pushover for anyone else.”

Lee was quiet for a second, mulling this over. “What about the morning you guys met me? You said there were no unfamiliar vehicles in that parking lot that morning, that if Fang had followed me there, he’d have to have walked?”

“Yeah?”

“Was Petey J there?”

It took Clint a second, but he was quick to follow her line of thought. “A whole group of ranch hands were there from Rocking D. I remember because Landry wanted to talk to them about this new cow vaccine he’d heard about. Figured they would know about it if anyone local did.”

She chewed on her bottom lip, some of the final puzzle pieces falling into place. Before she could connect the dots for Clint, however, the door burst open and Westin came into the house.

“Lee, I can explain everything. It wasn’t what it looked like.”

“How is she?” she asked gently.

He shook his head, looking as though he might just be standing on the last straw. “She was pissed.”

“I’m sorry.”

He threw himself onto the couch beside her and knocked off his hat in his attempt to run his hands over his face. “What a fucking day!”

She moved against him, just wanting to feel his arms around her. He obliged, wrapping her up tightly, pulling her hard against his chest. She closed her eyes, thinking that if this was the last thing she felt on this earth, that would be okay. This was heaven all on its own.

“I think now is a good time for me to make myself scarce,” Clint volunteered. “I might go make a phone call to the local sheriff, explain to her some of the things you’ve been telling me.”

Lee pulled away from Westin. “Wait. What if the local sheriff is involved in… I mean, I haven’t—”

“We can trust Sheriff Reeves,” Westin told her.

“She’s a good person, Lee. She isn’t corruptible.”

She rolled her head. “That’s what I thought about Will.”

“You can trust her,” Clint repeated. “I do.”

“You can,” Westin agreed.

Lee slowly settled back down against Westin. “I guess I put my life in your hands the day I came here. I should probably start trusting you.”

Westin kissed the top of her head. “Maybe you should.”

Clint headed for the door. Just before he stepped through it, Lee sat up again. “One more thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Do you think you could get me a gun?”

Clint shot Westin a look, but then he nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.” He backtracked, going through the door that cut the main part of the house off from the bedrooms. A few minutes later, he was back, a 9mm Glock in his hand. He popped the clip, emptied the chamber, and then handed it to her.

“Military?”

“Marines.”

Lee nodded. “Thank you for your service.” She looked the gun over, the feel of it not unlike her DEA-issued weapon. “This’ll work.”

Chapter 12