Page 106 of Sheriff's City Girl

She shook her head. “No… He’s just a jerk.”

“And you’re a?—”

“Shut the hell up,” I barked at Derek, holding back the urge to plant my fist right in his face. “You keep talking and I’ll charge you for everything under the sun.”

“Corrupted piece of?—”

Jackson slammed him hard against the wall of the barn again, a thud echoing out through the parking lot. Lucas was eyeing us as he directed attendees around the scene that we were all making.

“Get him out of here,” I instructed, pointing to the cruiser. “Book him in on attempted assault on an officer.”

“Got it, boss,” Jackson said with a nod, dragging him toward the cruiser.

“I’m so sorry,” Emma said to me, wrapping her arms around herself. I brought her into my arms, giving her a hug.

“No, I’m sorry that some psycho ex-boyfriend had the nerve to show up the way he did. He won’t bother you again,” I added, meeting Derek’s gaze. “And if he tries something again, I’ll be sure to take care of him.”

“That a threat?” Derek spat out toward me as Jackson shoved him into the back of the cruiser.

I ignored him, turning back to Emma. “It’s a promise. I will always keep you safe from any harm. I know that I failed with that when it came to Graham, but it won’t happen again.”

Emma nodded. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” I placed my hand on the small of her back. “Now, let’s go enjoy this nice event that you took it upon yourself to put on for the ranch.”

“I can’t believe how this turned out,” Lucas said to me as we sat at one of the tables, watching the crowd two-step to a country song.

I nodded, taking in the scene. “There’s more people here than there are in the entire county.”

“I think you might be right,” Ron commented, pulling out a chair beside me. “And look there, even Annie Calvin is out and about.” He pointed to the old couple, moving a little slower than the rest of them, but still having a great time.

“Now if only we can get everyone else’s cattle back,” I remarked, a little bit of disappointment slipping into my chest. “I hate that we haven’t been able to give back to the rest of the community.”

“Well, but it’s one step at a time, you know? That’s just how it goes. We’re gonna solve it. It might take us longer than we want, but it’ll get done. We only have so many resources, and there for a while, we were more concerned about Graham Hudson.”

I nodded, grabbing my beer to take a sip. “I guess we just can’t give up.”

“Yeah, but at least the Calvin’s got their cattle back,” Jackson commented, his eyes still on the two older people. “I’d hate to see them lose everything they have.”

“Yeah, but Lucas is on the verge of that, too,” I said, shaking my head. “He stands to lose it all.”

Jackson nodded. “No one ever wants to lose cattle.”

“No, no they don’t,” Ron agreed. “But I’ll admit that it was nice to have the win of finding the Calvin’s cattle.”

“You ever think that they wanted us to find the cattle?” I asked, thinking back to the conversation with Emma. My gaze flickered to Cody and Jess, who were dancing together, both with smiles on their faces.

The dad in me wanted to jump up and break the two apart, but I stopped myself, knowing that Jess would kill me—and that they weren’t doing anything wrong…

But I still didn’t like it.

“I think that they might have wanted us to find them, considering we ain’t been able to put eyes on anyone else’s stock.”

“I don’t know…” Jackson’s voice trailed off as he downed the rest of his beer. “I think that’s kind of a toss-up. We might have just missed the others because they didn’t have as obvious markings on their face.”

“That’s true, too,” Ron commented, letting out a sharp breath. “And I just think that there still might be something to the old unsolved rustlings that happened back in the nineties. I think there could be a connection still.”

“Do we gotta talk about work right now?” Jackson huffed, shaking his head. “Can’t we just sit and enjoy the damn night?”

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