Page 4 of Warrant

He chuckled. “I have a feeling she’s not going to be impressed by you. Or your club. Or Cypher’s security firm.”

“Hard to impress, huh? We’ll see about that.” Grinning at him, I clinked my bottle against his.

“Don’t fucking cheers that,” he muttered, pulling his bottle away so I couldn’t do it again. “You’re going to get my ass canned. I just know it.”

“Naw, trust me. It’ll be fine.”

He eyed me, looking baleful. “Yeah. Right. Trust you. Fucker.” He got up and started walking toward his cruiser. “Thanks for dinner. You’ve got the dishes this time!”

Relaxing on the bench, I settled in to enjoy the sunset, a beer, and plan my next moves.

CHAPTER 2

Ainsley

My door slammed open, leaving me blinking in surprise as the woman flew into my office like a tornado, and all I could do was watch.

“Hi!” she all but sang.

Shaking the hand she held out, I bit the insides of my lips to hold back my amusement. There wasn’t time to return her greeting because she just plowed on through.

“I’m Harlow Roth. The Mayor of Sentinel. I wanted to stop by and welcome you to town.”

“Thanks, I-”

“It’s about damn time Sheriff Denison retired,” she said, cutting me off. “And I’m so glad the town is continuing on with this theme.” She gave me a warm smile. She was all energy and positive vibes.

I liked her.

“Theme?”

“Oh yeah,” she said with a laugh. “A couple years ago they started voting in women to be in charge of Sentinel.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Really?” I asked, tone skeptical. “Why’s that?”

She shrugged. “They didn’t like the way the town was being run. I promised in my campaign to make sure that the ranchers were heard more. To go to bat for them.” She shrugged. “Last mayor was fine, but he didn’t seem to care that ranching is the backbone of this town. I was elected and I haven’t looked back since.”

“Nice,” I replied. Motioning toward the chair on the other side of my desk, I said, “I just got into town yesterday.”

“I know,” she said, her green eyes shining with amusement. “You know everything in a small town.”

“Bigger than where I came from,” I told her.

“Where’s that?” she asked.

“Small town, west of here on the state line,” I told her.

“I was surprised when I got your memo, wanting to get on the election ballot for a town you didn’t even live in.”

Smiling at her, I nodded. “I assumed I had you to thank for that. I was a deputy back home. My uncle is the sheriff. He was the one who told me Denison was retiring and that I should consider moving here. Didn’t think I’d have a shot in hell since I didn’t live in town and no one knew me.”

“Well, Bill Rankin put in a good word for you,” she said with a wink. “Actually, what he told me is I’d be a fool to exclude you.”

“I figured there was no way,” I admitted. “Since most places have a residency clause.” Bill had been my uncle’s best friend since they were kids. It didn’t surprise me he’d done what he could to help me.

“Eh, you met the Wyoming residency clause. Just because you didn’t live in Sentinel didn’t mean you couldn’t do a good job. Or so I told the County Commissioners when I spoke tothem and convinced them to put your name on the ballot. Besides, no one else was stepping up. Why not let you have the job?”

“Well, I’m really appreciative,” I told her.