Page 51 of Meant for Her

He leaned his head back. “I wish I knew. I have more theories than there are days in the year. I bet I can rationalize every one of them too.”

She reached out and gently squeezed his leg. “We’ll find the cows. They are somewhere.”

“True.”

“What will happen to Chip if the sheriff can prove that the cows are yours and that they were stolen? Does Chip lose out?”

“I can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Chip was clearly taken in. Having to pay in cash, though, should have been his first clue. Hopefully, Minter and his gang have the money somewhere.”

“When Zach, one of my cousins, was assaulted by some human vigilantes, his dad—the sheriff of Wildwood— contacted a friend of his for help. General Armand gave my uncle the name of a white hacker. Apparently, this Mick McLaughlin guy can trace anything. How sweet would it be if Mr. Minter hid his ill-gotten gains in some offshore account, and Mick could track it down? Or don’t you think he would be that sophisticated?”

“I don’t know, but slow down,” Luke warned.

Shit.Malia slammed on her brakes and skidded to a halt behind the sheriff’s cruiser, barely missing rear-ending him.Sheesh. She hadn’t been paying attention. Being distracted by her men had to stop.

The sheriff pulled off the side of the road. “Why are we stopping here?” she asked with as much composure as she could muster.

“I’m sure the sheriff will let us know shortly.”

Now Luke was the patient one? She wasn’t sure if she’d ever figure him out.

Sheriff Hanson exited his cruiser and walked back to her car. Malia rolled down the window.

“Seems Mr. Minter set up some elaborate pen system to hold the cows, lured Mr. Lawson to this vacant piece of land, and then moved on.”

“I’m guessing Chip has no idea where Mr. Minter might be?” she asked.

“None. It’s not to his advantage to withhold information though. He’ll be out over twelve grand if the authorities find the cows belong to the Lattimores.”

“What happens now, sheriff?” Luke asked as calmly as could be.

“I’m not sure of the timing, so you need to be patient. We’ll let you know when you can have your six cows back. As for the other six? Let’s hope this Mr. Minter decides to sell them someplace else. I’m hoping to get a lead of them soon. Let me keep your registration papers for now.”

“No problem. I have a digital copy. If I feel up to riding, I’ll see if I can narrow down which cows are missing,” Luke said.

“That would be helpful. Too bad Minter changed out your ear tags or we could have wrapped this up sooner.”

“It was smart of him to have thought of that,” Luke said.

“I guess that’s what you’d call it.” The sheriff touched his index finger to his hat and then returned to his vehicle.

“That’s all we can do for now.” Malia did a U-turn, which was probably illegal, but there weren’t any cars on the road. On the way back, she called Seth and gave him the latest update.

“Too bad Minter wasn’t there, though it was safer for the sheriff that he wasn’t,” Seth said.

“That’s what we were thinking.”

“It’s a waiting game for now. From my end, I’ll see if I can pick up any chatter about any stolen cows.”

“I appreciate it,” she said and then disconnected.

“How connected is your brother?” Luke asked.

“Are you asking if he can find the rustlers?”

“I guess.”

“My family hasn’t had any of their cattle stolen in many, many years. That’s in large part due to the fact we have surveillance equipment in a lot of places.”

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