Page 27 of My Cowboy Temptation

Chapter 9

Brody

“How doI know this witness is going to talk?” Chief McCall asks me early Monday morning.

I think back to Arnie’s face after I left him Friday night. “He’ll talk. It’s in his best interest that he does.”

“He’s got to come in and make these statements voluntarily. You didn’t, say, rough the guy up or threaten him with any harm?” McCall asks me.

“Ask him yourself.”

“I will,” he says, sounding good-natured enough, but I can sense underneath his tone there’s a warning.

I study Castle Fall’s chief of police. He’s been on the job for two years now, replacing Homer Adams, our former crusty, semi-proficient chief who retired at the ripe age of a hundred and two. Okay, maybe he wasn’t that old, but he was old by most people’s standards.

Having Logan McCall come in, a man I would place somewhere in his early-forties, is a breath of fresh air in comparison. “You handle drug cases much before?”

His blue eyes may be as shrewd as mine, and he sits back in his chair. “I’m from L.A. And I did some time in the Army Rangers before that. Believe me. I’ve handled more than enough.”

“But have you taken down a rural drug cartel with a police force of ten?”

“If you’re asking me if I know my ass from my elbow, let me assure you I do. Is there anything else?”

I know when I’m being dismissed, and I come to my feet. “Let me know if you need anything else from me or Lucas Castle. Confidentially, of course.” I pause as I reach the door of his office. “And when you decide you’re ready to move on this, as a matter of reciprocation, you could consider letting us know. Just so we can prepare ourselves accordingly for any…blowback.”

“I’ll share what I can, when I can.”

It’s about what I expect him to say. I tip my hat to the man. “Chief.”

Outside the police station, I look around, making sure that my early morning meeting hasn’t been witnessed. But it’s barely seven in the morning, and there aren’t a lot of people around, least of all the kind of lowlifes whose hours of operation are far from now.

I return to the truck, climbing into the passenger side. “It’s handled.”

Lucas nods and starts the engine and pulls out as I give him the highlights of my discussion with McCall.

“Thanks for your help, Brody,” he says once I’m finished. “I always know I can depend on you. You’re a good friend.”

I nod and turn my attention back out the window, not really comfortable accepting any praise or gratitude from this man whose daughter I’ve spent the past couple of nights fucking until we’re too exhausted to barely breathe.

Even when I’m not with Callie, my mind is always finding its way back to memories of her and what we’ve done and what we still have yet to do, leaving me to wonder how I ever lived before now.

I’m not what you would call a poetic or romantic type of guy. I honestly have never had to be, nor have I seen the point. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy women. A lot. But I’ve never felt that hankering to make anything more permanent with any of them. I enjoyed my time with each of them, and when things got complicated, I moved on.

This thing with Callie, however, feels different. She’s invaded my thoughts and become almost my obsession. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think I expected that once I fucked her, I would finally get my head back in the right headspace that I could get my life on track again and move on.

That hasn’t happened, and I’m starting to wonder if it ever will.

Fucking Callie Castle seems to have somehow permanently changed me, and I don’t know yet what to make of that. Especially since I know full well that any time we have together is borrowed time, because in a week’s time, she’s leaving Montana for a life of adventure and happiness in London.

A life she deserves. Even if that life involves another guy who can offer her far more than an uncouth, uneducated old cowboy like myself ever could.

Callie Castle won’t be mine. Not for long. But I’m going to revel in whatever time I might have with her.

* * *

Callie

“Go on, Bandit,”I say late Tuesday evening, pushing my horse to run faster as we reach the end of our trail ride and hit the open meadow in front of the ranch. Bandit stretches his legs, and soon we’re flying across the ground, the wind whipping as we race.

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