Page 16 of Sheriff's City Girl

Ugh.

I met her gaze, my cheeks growing hot. “I might have.”

Chapter Seven

Mason

Istepped into the conference room behind Ron, seeing Jackson already waiting inside. Ron was a big fan of my young deputy, and I was, too, but I couldn’t help but wonder why he had been chosen to be in the room as well.

Because the look on Ron’s face was telling me this wasn’t a gas station candy theft.

“All right you two,” Ron began, shutting the door behind us. “For starters, have you had any reports of missing cattle?”

I furrowed my brow as I racked my brain. “The only thing we had recently was the cattle out that caused a vehicle accident—but everyone was fine. Cattle were returned, and I’m sure their insurance will be settling everything.”

Jackson nodded in agreement, but then stopped. “Actually… We haven’t had anything reported, but… I was down at the café and there was some talk about a Bob Parson missing some cattle. I didn’t ask and I didn’t hear much. You know the size of the guy’s place. I figured they were just a little lost.”

I laughed, unable to hold back at the way the last few words came out of his mouth. However, Ron didn’t find a lick of humor in his words.

“Something is wrong,” he said, clearing his throat and ignoring me. “That’s what I’m saying. These ranchers aren’t reporting it, but I know of three different ranches that have cattle missing right now. They all wanna play it off like they’re just on the other side of the creek or something, but I think something big is happening.”

“We haven’t had any cattle rustling in over ten years.” I folded my arms over my chest, wishing I had gotten some coffee before I walked into this meeting. “Typically, there’s signs of it, too. You know, cut fences, truck and trailer tracks, or suspicious activity reported.”

“Maybe aliens took the cattle,” Jackson chuckled, pulling out a chair and taking a seat. “I mean, I have been watching that show?—”

“Shut up,” I warned Jackson, glaring at him. “Don’t start that shit in here.”

“Anyway,” Ron shook his head. “I got this map.” He turned around and picked up a rolled-up paper sitting beside his bag. “I’ll show y’all what I’m seeing.”

Jackson and I waited quietly as he laid it out across the dark wood of the conference table. My eyes scoured over it, realizing that it was a map of the county, complete with all the property lines… I squinted as I saw bold red marks, and then my stomach dropped.

What the hell?

There was a big red “X” on the edge of the Lowe Creek Ranch—only a couple of miles from my cabin. If there were cattle missing from Lucas’s place, there was no doubt that he would’ve told me…

Maybe Ron is just finally losing his mind.

I mean, my mentor was over sixty now, but I quickly brushed it off. Ron was still sharper than most of the deputies that worked for me. However, I did peek over to Jackson, who for some reason… Didn’t look surprised at all.

“So Bob Parson is missing twenty heads here,” Ron pointed to the mark on the map. It was the farthest point to the north, sitting in the top right-hand corner of our rectangular shaped county.

“And that was almost a month ago…” Jackson commented, appearing perplexed. “I don’t get why he wouldn’t go ahead and report it at this point. I mean, if you ain’t found ‘em by now…”

“I don’t know why they’re not reporting them,” Ron said in a stiff voice. “But I’ve been pretty damn diligent about keeping my mouth shut with this. I wasn’t gonna bring it to your attention until I had more to go on, but after this morning…”

Jackson nodded. “Yeah, no kidding.”

I’m missing something.

“What happened this morning?” My gaze bounced between the two of them, while they just stared back at me.

“Lucas didn’t call you?” Ron blinked a couple times, his old gray eyes surprised. He had seen so much that I don’t think anything ever caught him off guard, so this was concerning.

“No one has called me this morning…” I shifted my weight to my heels and then back to the toes of my boots, growing more and more uneasy. “What the hell happened?”

“I was meaning to tell him, but I hadn’t gotten a chance,” Jackson said to Ron, shrugging his shoulders. “You saw that he just got here. I wasn’t gonna radio it over, either. Lucas doesn’t want to report it until he can be sure.”

My stomach knotted up. “How many cattle is he missing?” Something told me by the grave expression on both Jackson and Ron’s faces that this was big.

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