Stalking Season. Sandra Robbins

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СКАЧАТЬ had seemed fragile, too, and she’d turned out to be about as delicate as an 18-wheeler. She’d leaned heavily on him for support in the weeks following the robbery, and he’d fallen head over heels for her. He’d thought she cared for him, too, until the day the owner of the convenience store called to say that Jasmine was missing along with a hefty sum of money from the cash register.

      She and her male companion were arrested a few weeks later in South Carolina. They’d been stopped for a traffic violation and a bench warrant for Jasmine’s arrest showed up when they searched her name. It didn’t take long for her to confess that the man with her was the one who’d robbed the convenience store, and she’d been in on the robbery all along.

      After that, Luke had decided he was going to be careful. His job was to offer professional help—and nothing more. There would be no other Jasmines for him. He liked his life too well the way it was now to put himself through something like that again.

      There was no doubt, however, that Cheyenne needed help, but right now he wasn’t sure how to proceed. He pulled into the parking lot and sat there a moment recalling all the things Cheyenne had told him, then got out and walked inside. Clara still sat at her desk and looked up as he came in the door. When he walked inside, she looked up from her computer and smiled. “Hi, Luke. Are you ready to clock out?”

      “Not yet. I have some reports to finish.”

      “Okay,” she said as she leaned forward in her chair and glanced from side to side as if to see if anyone was listening. Then she spoke in a soft voice. “I noticed when I came in this morning that there had been a call about a domestic disturbance over at Bruce and Linda Carter’s house last night. Ben took the call, but he didn’t say much about it. Did you happen to hear anything today?”

      Luke tried to keep from grinning. Clara had a reputation in town as the local gossip, and she was always on the lookout for more information. Ben Whitman, the sheriff, had warned her several times about questioning the officers about the calls they answered, but it did no good. Clara felt it was her duty to keep the good folks in town aware of what was going on around them.

      “Sorry, Clara, I haven’t heard anything about that. I’m sure if it was anything serious Sheriff Whitman would have told you.”

      She settled back in her chair and pursed her lips. “I suppose so, but I never have trusted that Bruce. He drinks a lot. I don’t know why Linda puts up with it. Now if that was my husband—”

      “Excuse me, Clara,” he interrupted, “but I have some work to do before I leave. I’ll talk to you later.”

      He took a step to leave but stopped when she spoke again. “Did you get Miss Cassidy back to her truck okay?”

      He turned slowly to face her and nodded. “She’s on her way home right now.”

      “That’s good. That poor child looked like she was scared to death when she walked in with you. I hope you were able to calm her down. After all she’s been through it would be a shame if she didn’t get to perform tonight.”

      Luke cocked an eyebrow. “Now why doesn’t it surprise me that you know all about Cheyenne?”

      Clara waved her hand in dismissal. “Oh, I know all about her stalker, and about her parents being killed, and how she’s come here to forget the past and work at the Wild West show.”

      Luke shook his head in amazement. He’d often said that the government should hire Clara as a spy. She could infiltrate a country and have all their secrets in no time at all. “How did you find all that out?”

      Clara crossed her arms as a smug smile curved her lips. “Shorty, the cook out at Little Pigeon Ranch, told me.”

      Luke chuckled and shook his head. “Shorty probably didn’t stand a chance against you once you decided he needed to spill the beans about the new resident at the ranch. But tell me, Clara, did you happen to get her birth date and social security number while you were at it?”

      Her mouth dropped open for a moment, and then she scowled at him. “Are you making fun of me, Luke Conrad?”

      He held his hands up in a defensive move. “Not at all. I’m just in awe of all your interrogating skills. I think Ben needs to promote you to detective.”

      She glared at him. “You are making fun of me.”

      Luke laughed and shook his head. “I’m just teasing. You know I love you like a sister. I just wish that Cheyenne had come to town under different circumstances.”

      “Yeah,” Clara said. “I told Shorty the same thing. He said she’d been real private ever since she got here, acted like she didn’t want to make friends.”

      “Maybe Dean and Gwen can help change that.”

      Clara looked at him, and a sly grin spread across her face. “Are you thinking maybe you could help change that, too?”

      Luke felt his face flush, and he shook his head. “I didn’t say that. The job of this department is to make her feel safe.”

      Clara arched her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. “If you say so.”

      He started to respond, but he just frowned and huffed out a breath as he turned and strode down the hallway toward his office. When he walked in, he headed straight to his desk and slumped down in the chair behind it. He sat there in thought for a moment before he straightened and prepared to fill out the reports he had to file. He needed to hurry or he’d be late getting home tonight, and that wouldn’t do if he was going to get to the Wild West show. He wasn’t going there to see Cheyenne ride. He would probably need to return her cell phone if the techs had finished with it.

      At least that’s what he told himself as he began to fill out his reports.

       THREE

      Cheyenne drove the truck up the long driveway that led to the main house on Little Pigeon Ranch. She pulled to a stop in front, turned off the ignition and sat there a few moments letting her gaze drift over the rambling structure that now served as a lodge for guests who wanted to experience the adventure of being on a dude ranch.

      She smiled as her eyes moved over the house and the cabins scattered across the fields nearby. After a few weeks this place was already beginning to feel like home, especially since Patches was with her and they had a place to train. It was hard enough leaving her family ranch behind and all the memories of her parents associated with the place. She didn’t think she could have endured it if she’d had to leave her horse, too.

      When her father’s friend and his son had offered her the opportunity to ride in the Wild West show, she thought that would be the answer to getting on with her life and leaving the past behind. Now she wasn’t so sure. The texts and the phone call this afternoon had signaled that the terror she’d lived through wasn’t over after all.

      Even though she’d had trouble believing her parents’ killer was really dead, she’d been comforted by the fact that he hadn’t contacted her in all these months. Now he was back, and this time it seemed worse than ever.

      His threatening words had played over and over in her mind all the way home. No matter how much she tried to convince herself that it might have been a copycat intent on scaring her, СКАЧАТЬ