Page 1 of Dairy and Deadly

Chapter 1: Borrowed Jacket

“This is the fifth outbreak of salmonella in the past month, deep in the heart of cattle country.”

The local news anchor highlighted each of the outbreaks on her electronic map of Central Texas.

“Dairy farmers are on edge, and milk prices are on the rise due to the resulting production shortages.”

Johnny Cuba lifted his remote control and turned off the television mounted on the wall across from his desk. Yeah, he was as concerned about the salmonella outbreak as every other dairy farmer, but he was already taking every possible precaution to protect his herd.

In the meantime, there wasn’t much he could do other than stay informed. As his office was plunged into silence once again, his thoughts returned to the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about. A few days ago, he’d lent his jacket to her. He knew her name, but he had no way of reaching her. No hotel address. No phone number. Not that he was overly concerned about getting his jacket back. He had another reason entirely for wanting to cross paths with the injured police officer from Dallas again.Correction.Formerpolice officer. She’d been quick to set him straight on that detail.

She might be unemployed, but he wasn’t buying her cock and bull story about driving all the way to Heart Lake merely to rest and recover from the bullet she’d taken in the line of duty. Nope. Every instinct in him as a private investigator told him there was something else going on.

She was too alert. Too watchful. Too aware. And he sure as all get out was aware of her in return. That was the real reason he wanted to see her again. He wanted —no, heneeded— to know if she was capable of making him feel the same way he’d felt when she’d plowed into him. Literally. And scalded him with the mug of hot cider she’d been carrying.

He wasn’t accustomed to feeling things. Not any longer. Sure, he put on a good show for others — enough to earn himself a bit of a reputation as a flirt around town, but it had been nothing more than an act beforeshe’dcome along.

Fortunately, in a town as small as Heart Lake, the two of them were bound to bump into each other a second time before she hightailed it back to the city.

Or so he hoped, so he could figure out why she’d made him feel things again. Things he’d mistakenly believed he’d never feel again. Things he wasn’t sure he had any right to feel again.

In a burst of restlessness, he snatched up the paperweight he kept on his desk at Lonestar Security. It was a bucking bull made of pure silver. Not cheap. One of his rodeo buddies had given it to him after his final competition — a ride that had earned him a small fortune while nearly ending his life.

He could still taste the grit of dust after landing face down in the ring following his fateful ride. He would never forget the fiery pain shooting through his dislocated collarbone as he attempted to roll to his feet, along with the hot air blowing from the demonic bull’s nostrils. Or the way his hooves had sliced into the dirt only inches from his face.

The screams of horror from the crowd were forever etched into Johnny’s memories. So was the feeling of weightlessness that had overtaken him as the rodeo clowns converged on him, dragging him by his boots to safety. Right up until the gate clanged shut behind them, he’d been convinced he was done for. In that exact moment, he couldn’t have cared less. Six feet under was exactly where he’d wanted to be.

Instead, he’d awakened in a hospital bed with two of his future bosses leaning over him. Their job offer had put more than a thousand miles between him and the small church cemetery where his shattered heart remained buried to this day.

The intercom on his desk crackled to life. “Mr. Cuba, you have a visitor.”

He reached over to press the button on the panel that allowed him to answer. “Who is it?” He laid the silver bull back on a stack of manilla folders. On his darkest days, it was a reminder there was a reason he was still topside. He had a job to do. A community to serve. Clients to seek justice for. It was far better than blubbering his brains out over the twin headstones he’d left behind in Wyoming.

“Miss Ashley Perkins.”

No kidding?He straightened in his chair as the new front desk attendant continued, “She says she has something to return to you. If you’re too busy, she says she can leave it?—”

“I’m not too busy, ma’am,” he cut in. Excitement coursed through him at the thought of coming face-to-face with the woman he couldn’t get out of his mind. “Go ahead and send her back to my office.” If he was more of a gentleman, he would’ve offered to meet his unexpected guest at the front of the building, but what was the fun in that? Having her meet him in his office at the back of the building would make their encounter last longer. It would give him more time to analyze the mysterious Ashley Perkins and his equally puzzling reaction to her.

Then again, maybe his initial response to meeting her had been nothing more than a fluke. Maybe he would come face-to-face with her a few moments from now and feel the usual…nothing.

“Sure thing, Mr. Cuba.” The intercom went silent.

He smirked at the phone panel. The attendant’s insistence on calling him Mister never failed to amuse him. A former 9-1-1 operator, the grandmotherly Mrs. Ginger Fairfax was old-school in her skirt suits, stockings, and horn-rimmed glasses. She was also very good at her job. Lonestar Security was fortunate to have someone with her impeccable manners and decades of experience running the front desk.

While he waited for Ashley to make her appearance, he stood and strode to the door of his office to open it. Then he returned to his desk to move his two upholstered guest chairs closer. When he was finished, they were half facing each other.Perfect.He backed up a step, hitched a thigh on the edge of his desk, and waited.

He was nervous, which was weird. Not too long ago, he’d made a small fortune riding bulls for a living. Guys like him didn’t get nervous. Yet here he was, glancing repeatedly at his watch. That’s how he knew it was a full minute-and-a-half before Ashley’s freckled features and tumble of auburn hair popped into view. Yep, he’d been counting the seconds, too.

“Really, Johnny?” She paused in the doorway with an exasperated expression heightening the color of her otherwise creamy features. “You justhadto make me walk the length of an entire football field to drop this off?” His brown leather jacket was dangling from one gloved finger. The rest of her was bundled beneath an olive turtleneck sweater, unzipped white puffer coat, and a pair of faded jeans that hugged her feminine figure. She wasn’t overly tall or overly short, too plump or too skinny. She looked just right to him, even though she was wearing suede ankle boots instead of the cowgirl boots worn by most of the local women. It was a dead giveaway that she wasn’t from around here.

He hid a smile. “Maybe I was hoping you’d join me for a cup of coffee.” It was a bold move, but bull riders were known for their bold moves. It was downright expected of them.

She blinked in surprise, but she quickly recovered. Shrugging, she moved into the room. “Sure. Why not? I never turn down coffee.”

He mentally gave himself a high five for extending the invitation as he waved her into one of the chairs in front of him. Because of how close he was perched to the chairs, the puffy fabric of her coat brushed his left knee as she shimmied past him.

The moment she was seated, she tossed his leather jacket at him, assessing him as openly as he was assessing her. “Thanks for letting me borrow your coat. Without it, I would’ve turned into an icicle at the wedding.” It was an outdoor double wedding where two of his dearest friends had married the women of their dreams. He’d been invited. She had not.

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