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“Thanks for doing that, Sheriff. You’re the nicest person I ever met.”

“Lots nicer than me out there, Tammy.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

I laughed. “Tons of good guys out there. I ain’t one of them.”

“How far is your ranch from here?”

“Oh, about twelve miles or a bit more. I never checked the distance.”

She turned to look at the dogs in the back seat and she was about to reach for Max.

“Let the dogs get used to you before you try to pet them, okay? They’re trained protection dogs and they don’t like strangers, but once they know you and I tell them to, they will protect you too.”

“What are their names?”

“Max and Sarge. Sarge has more black on him. That’s how you can tell them apart.”

She smiled. “Yep, I can see him. Now I know which is which. Hi, Max.” He was the closest to her.

He wagged his tail, not sensing any danger from Tammy.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

From the hospital, I drove straight to the ranch to get Tammy settled in. She was pretty shaky and I figured she needed some stability in her life to get her head straight.

We drove through the gate and she stared, taking everything in. “This is a big ranch.”

“Thousand acres.”

“Why can’t we go to Texas now?”

“I’ve got two more weeks as sheriff of the county before the election. As soon as a new sheriff is elected, I’m free of my obligation and I can go.”

“You gonna leave your ranch?”

“Billy is going to take over the ranch for me. He’s my deputy and you’ll meet him when he comes home.”

“He live here too?”

“Yep, he does.”

“What if Tibor gets out of jail and comes to get me before we go to Texas? He never stays in jail too long. Never has in the past. They can’t hold a guy like him. He told me that, Sheriff. Ain’t a jail been made that can hold Tibor Garrison. Just say’n.”

“I think they made one that could hold him. He just hasn’t seen the inside of it yet. Might be coming up sooner than he thinks.”

“Tibor likes to think he’s a bigshot,” said Tammy.

“Guess it will be my job to take him down a peg.”

“That’s gonna be a hard job, Sheriff. Tibor is tough. Like, super tough. Just say’n.”

“For the next two weeks you’ll have to stay with me and go everywhere I go. There’s no way around it, Tammy. I can’t leave you alone.”

“Okay, that might work. I’ll stick with you, Sheriff.”

“You can call me Travis if you want to.”