Page 49 of Meant for Her

“Did this ranch have a name?” Hanson asked.

Chip glanced to the ground. “I didn’t take notice.”

“How much did you pay for the cows?” Luke asked, butting into the conversation.

“Eighteen hundred a piece. No, wait. There was a pregnant cow that I paid twenty-four hundred for.”

Anger rolled off Luke. He seemed to think that was way too cheap. “How many cows did you buy?” she asked. Luke had lost twelve.

“Six of them.”

That wasn’t good.

“Before we start accusing Mr. Lawson of anything, let me see that branding iron and your certificate of ownership,” the sheriff said. “We’ll get this sorted out.”

Luke handed everything to him.

“I can show you which cows I believe are Luke’s,” Seth said. “They are in pen thirty-one.”

There were a lot of pens packed full of cows, ranging from black to brown to white, and a combination thereof. Even if Luke had memorized every cow he had, it might be hard to find them if the ear tags had been changed.

“Let’s go. Including you, Mr. Lawson.”

The four of them followed Seth. When they arrived at pen number thirty-one, Seth turned to Luke. “Can you tell which ones are yours?”

Luke looked through the pen posts. He studied them. “I had ear tags in all of mine—dirty ones. Someone took them off and replaced them.” He pointed to one. “There’s one that looks like the brand was altered. You’ll have to look through all of the papers. We didn’t have time to pull the files of the twelve missing cows.”

“I understand,” the sheriff said.

Chip took out a piece of paper. “I have the information written down on the ones I’m selling.”

The sheriff took the list. “How did you pay for the cows? Cash, credit card, check, crypto, or what?”

“Mr. Minter insisted that I pay in cash.”

That figured. Then it would be untraceable.

“I need to speak with someone in charge of the auction,” the sheriff said. “We don’t need them selling these cows before we’ve had a chance to confirm if they were stolen or not.” The sheriff turned to both Chip and Luke. “You both better come with me.”

Once they left, Malia turned to Seth. “What happens now?”

“Someone will separate the cows Luke believes are his. The sheriff will have to determine if they could be the stolen animals. I suspect he’ll believe Luke has the authentic papers. After all, he and Ryan were shot.”

“Let’s hope. If Chip’s information leads the sheriff to the rustlers, he probably should leave town. Those thieves will not take kindly to Chip interfering in their livelihood.”

“Definitely not. However, if Chip paid cash, I’m thinking he was aware that the sale wasn’t on the up and up. I will say, I’m surprised Chip would deal with someone like that.”

“Unless he’s in on it.”

“There is that.”

It was a good thirty minutes before the three of them returned with someone from the auction. From the satisfied look on Luke’s face, he was given a chance to prove which cows were his.

Uh-oh. Luke was walking normally. She nudged her brother. “Can you telepath to Luke to remind him to limp? We don’t need the sheriff questioning him about his sudden recovery.”

“I’ll try,” Seth said.

A moment later, Luke looked over at them, nodded, and followed the sheriff, walking with a decided limp. Now, she’d have to see if Luke could prove the cows were his—assuming they were.

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