Page 8 of Tom's Chance
“How did you know that?”
From behind Sparrow Jim Faulkner arrived, and said, “Leslie Warren you’re under arrest. You are being taken into custody on the felony warrants out for you.”
When Leslie tried to bolt, Sparrow was right there trying to slap the cuffs on her, Jake and Stonewas there backing her and Jim up, and when Leslie struggled and got a few feet away, Tate was right there to stop her. She froze and was taken to the ground before they could get the cuffs on her.
When they brought her to her feet, Tom looked at her and shook his head. “I don’t have to tell you that the date is over, and I never want to see you again.” He turned his back on her while Sparrow and Jim escorted her out. When they were gone, Tate nudged his nose into Tom’s hand, and he laughed as he rubbed him down again.
“I’m okay, Tate,” he said, and actually got down on one knee and hugged the dog. His real name was Tator, but since he had his vest on, Tom knew to call him Tate. He stood up and looked at the three men standing before him. “I’m good.”
“I hope you don’t mind that I got things started,” Stone said after he shook Tom’s hand and petted Tate. “I overheard her ask for your credit card to pay. I thought that was weird and sent a text to Sparrow to come in earlier than planned.”
“You had this all planned out?” Tom asked in shock.
“We did,” Jake said. “Manchester called us yesterday with his findings and we did some more digging. We couldn’t go as deep as he did, but we had enough to bring Sparrow in. Actually, she happened to be at the office when we got the information. Between the three of us, Manchester,Brotherhood Protectors, and the Sheriff’s office, we were able to get a lot of information on your Leslie Warren.”
“She’s notmyanything. Is Leslie even her real name? Because when I called her out on the street she was oblivious to the name.”
“Probably not her legal name, but there is a Leslie Warren that had her identity stolen. That might be why she didn’t acknowledge you right away.”
“Yeah, I figured as much,” Tom said on a sigh. “Well, as much as I hate to leave this party, I have a rancher in need of my skills.” Tom shook their hands and started out the door. Once outside he went to his truck, but was stopped by Sheriff Jim.
“Can you come down to the station and give a statement?”
“I can, but not right now, I have to get out to the Coleman ranch.”
“That’s fine, stop in when you get a minute. Because of all the warrants out for her arrest, we’ll have to sort it out as to who gets her first. I only have one question.”
“What’s that?”
“How did you get the information you did?”
“Oh, I was out at Erin’s Way, and there’s a guy there that’s former FBI. He works for Erin as her security guy. He runs background checks on the people that want a sample for Riceman Stallions.”
“I don’t even want to know,” Jim said on a chuckleand held up his hands. “I’ve heard about it, and I don’t want to know.”
Tom laughed and sighed. “Talk to Duane Manchester out at Erin’s Way, he’s the one that did the background check on Leslie.” Tom then went on to tell him, and actually showed him the text messages from his other date from the dating service and Jim only shook his head and said he was sorry.
“Yeah, I figure if there’s someone out there for me, God and Grandpa will shove them at me, and then I’ll pay attention.” They shared another laugh and Tom got into his truck to head out to the Coleman ranch.
Hours later,Tom looked up at Jared Coleman and shook his head. “I’ve done what I can, and it should ease his pain, but you’re going to need a farrier to fix this hoof.”
“Do you know of any around here?”
“I might. Like I said, what I did will ease his pain for a couple of days, but let me look around and I’ll get back to you.”
“Thanks, Tom.” Jared held his hand out and he shook it. They made small talk as Tom cleaned up his tools, then his hands and loaded them back into his truck. On the way back to the office he wracked his brain as to where to find a farrier, then it struck him. He looked at his watch, then the clock on the dashand sighed heavily. It was too late to make a house call, so he decided to go back to the office, check the day’s paperwork, then call it a night. He made sure that he would go out to the farrier he knew of first thing in the morning. Until then, there wasn’t anything he could do for Jared Coleman’s young stallion.
Tom was at work early the next morning, and by seven o’clock his entire staff was present so he called an impromptu meeting in the back as the boarded animals were being fed and taken out back for a walk to relieve themselves. When everyone was gathered around again, Tom got right to the point.
“First, I want to thank all of you who came together to put my name out there on that dating app.”
“Did you find someone?” his receptionist asked in glee.
“No, and I’ve only been on two dates, well, technically only one. The first one canceled on me because I refused to take her to Denver to a restaurant where the cheapest thing on the menu is one hundred and fifty dollars. It’s not that I’m a cheap bastard, it’s just that in my personal opinion, I refuse to fork out hundreds of dollars on a meal if the date isn’t going to work out. Again, in my humble opinion, a date like that is for something special, like if you’re going to ask someone to marry you, or for an anniversary. Not a first date.”
“What happened?”
“She canceled saying I was too cheap for her standards.”
