Kitabı oku: «Wyoming Cowboy Justice»

Chapter One

Laurel Delaney surveyed the dead body in front of her with as much detachment as she could manage.

“Know him?” the deputy who’d first answered the call asked apologetically.

“We’re distantly related. But who am I not related to in these parts?” Laurel managed a grim smile. Jason Delaney. Her third cousin or something. Dead in a cattle field from a gunshot wound to the chest, presumably.

“Rancher called it in.”

Laurel nodded as she studied the body. It was only her second murder since she’d been hired by the county sheriff’s department six years ago, and only her first murder in the detective bureau.

And yes, she was related to the victim. Unfortunately, she wasn’t exaggerating about the number of Bent County residents she was related to. She’d known Jason in passing at best. A family reunion or funeral here or there, but that was all. He didn’t live in Bent, his parents—second cousins, she thought, to her parents—weren’t part of the main offshoot of Delaneys who ran Bent.

“We do have a lead,” Deputy Hart offered.

“What’s that?” Laurel asked, surveying the cattle field around them. This ranch, like pretty much everything in Bent County, Wyoming, was in the middle of nowhere. No highway traffic ran nearby, no businesses in the surrounding areas. Just fields and mountains in the distance. Pretty and isolated, and not the spot one would expect to find a murder victim.

“The rancher says Clint Danvers broke down in front of his place last night. Asked to use his phone. He’s the only one who was around. Aside from the cows, of course.”

Laurel frowned at Hart. “Clint Danvers is a teenager.”

“One we’ve arrested more times than I can count.”

“Had to be a Carson,” she muttered, because no matter that Clint wasn’t technically a Carson, his mother was the mother of a Carson as well. Which meant the Carson clan would count him as theirs, which would mean trouble with a Delaney investigating.

Laurel herself didn’t care about the Delaney-Carson feud that so many people in town loved to bring up time and again, Carsons most especially. Her father could intone about the generations of “bad element” that had been bred into the Carsons, her brother who still lived in Bent could sneer his nose at every Carson who walked into his bank, her sister could snidely comment every time one of them bought something from the Delaney General Store. The street could divide itself—Delaney establishments on one side, Carson on the other.

Laurel didn’t care—it was all silliness and history as far as she was concerned. She was after the truth, not a way to make some century-old feud worse.

A vehicle approached and Laurel shaded her eyes against the early-morning sun.

“Coroner,” Hart said.

Laurel waved at the coroner, Gracie Delaney, her first cousin, because yes, relations all over the dang place.

Gracie stepped through the tape and barbed wire fence easily, and then surveyed the body. “Name?”

“Jason Delaney.”

Gracie’s eyebrows furrowed. “Is it bad I have no idea how we’re related to him?”

Laurel sighed. “If it is, we’re in the same boat.” It was a very strange thing to work the death of someone you were related to, but didn’t know. Laurel figured she was supposed to feel some kind of sympathy, and she did, but not in any different way than she did on any other death she worked.

“All right. I’ll take my pictures, then I’ll get in touch with next of kin,” Gracie said.

Hart and Gracie discussed details while Laurel studied the area around the body. There wasn’t much to go on, and until cows learned how to talk, she had zero possible witnesses.

Except Clint Danvers.

She didn’t mind arresting a Carson every now and again no matter what hubbub it raised about the feud nonsense, but murder was going to cause a lot more than a hubbub. Especially the murder of a Delaney.

She processed the crime scene with Hart and Gracie. Even though Hart had taken pictures when he’d first arrived, Laurel took a few more. They canvased the scene again, finding not one shred of evidence to go on.

Which meant Clint was her only hope, and what a complicated hope that was.

Gracie loaded up the body with Hart’s help, and Laurel tossed her gear back into her car. “I’m going to go question Clint. You on until three?”

Hart nodded. “Let me know what I can do.”

Laurel waved a goodbye and got into her car. She didn’t have to look up Clint’s residence as Bent was small and intimate, and secrets weren’t much of ones for long. He lived with his mother in a falling-down house on the outskirts of Bent.

When Chasity Haskins-Carson-Danvers and so on answered the door, freshly lit cigarette hanging out of her mouth, Laurel knew this wasn’t going to go well.

“Mrs. Danvers.”

Chasity blew the smoke right in Laurel’s face. “Ms. Pig,” she returned conversationally.

“I’m looking for Clint.”

“You people always are.”

“It’s incredibly important I’m able to talk to Clint, and soon. This is far more serious than drugs or speeding, and I’m only looking to help.”

“Delaneys are never looking to help,” the older woman replied. She shrugged negligently. “He’s not here. Haven’t seen him for two or three days.”

Laurel managed a thin-lipped smile. It could be a lie, but it could also be the truth. That was the problem with most of the Carsons. You just never knew when they were being honest and helpful, or a pack of liars trying to make a Delaney’s life difficult. Because to them the feud wasn’t history, it was a living, breathing entity to wrap their lives around.

Laurel thanked Mrs. Danvers anyway and then sighed as she got back in her unmarked car. Most unfortunately, she knew exactly who would know where Clint was. And he was the absolute last man she wanted to speak to.

Grady Carson. Clint’s older half brother and something like the de facto leader of the Carson clan. Much like the men in her family, Grady Carson put far too much stock in a feud for this being the twenty-first century.

A feud over land and cattle and things that had happened over a hundred years ago. Laurel didn’t understand why people clung to it, but that didn’t mean she actively liked any of the Carsons. Not when they routinely tried to make it hard for her to do her job.

Which was the second problem with Grady. He ran Rightful Claim, which she pulled up across the street from.

She glared at the offensive sign outside the bar—a neon centaur-like creature, half horse, half very busty woman, a blinking sack of gold hanging off her saddle. Aside from the neon signs, it looked like every saloon in every Western movie or TV show she’d ever seen. Wood siding and a walk in front of it, a ramshackle overhang, hand-painted signs with the mileage, and arrows to the nearest cities, all hundreds of miles away.

Laurel refused to call it a saloon. It was a bar. Seedy. It would be mostly empty on a Tuesday afternoon, but come evening it would be full of people she’d probably arrested. And Carsons everywhere.

Grady wasn’t going to hand over Clint’s whereabouts, Laurel knew that, but she had to try to convince him she only wanted to help. Grady was a lot of things—a tattooed, snarling, no-respect-for-authority hooligan—but much like the Delaneys, the Carsons were all about family.

Mentally steeling herself for what would likely amount to a verbal sparring match, Laurel took her first step toward the stupid swinging doors Grady claimed were original to the saloon. Laurel maintained that he bought it off the internet from some lame Hollywood set. Mainly because he got furious when she did.

She blew out a breath and tried to blow out her frustration with it. Yes, Grady had always rubbed her completely the wrong way, and yes, that meant sometimes she couldn’t keep her cool and sniped right back at him. But she could handle this. She had a case to investigate.

Laurel nudged the swinging saloon doors and slid through the opening, making as little disturbance as possible. The less time Grady had to prepare for her arrival, the more chance she had of getting some sensible words in before he started doing that...thing.

“I see you finally found the balls to step inside, princess.”

Laurel gritted her teeth and turned to the sound of Grady’s low, easy voice. Doing that...thing already. The thing where he said obnoxious stuff, called her princess, or worse—deputy princess—and some tiny foreign part of her did that other thing she refused to name or acknowledge.

Her eyes had to adjust from sunlight to the dim bar interior, but when they did, she almost wished they hadn’t.

He was standing on a chair, hammering a nail into the rough-hewn wood planks that made up the walls of the main area. Lining the doorway were pictures of the place over the years—a dingy black-and-white photograph of the bar in the 1800s, a bright pop of boisterous color from the time a famous singer had visited in the sixties, and photos documenting all Grady had done inside to somehow make it look less like a dive bar in a small town and more like a mix between old and new.

Much like the man himself. Laurel always had the sneaking suspicion Grady and the Carson cousins he routinely hung around with could straddle the lines of centuries quite easily. Sure, he was dressed in modern-day jeans and a simple black T-shirt that she had no doubt was sized with the express purpose of showing off the muscles of his arms and shoulders along with the lick of tattoos that spiraled out from the cuff and toward his elbow.

But he, and all the Carsons she had pulled over or served a warrant on more times than she could count on two hands and two feet, wore old battered cowboy hats like they were just dreaming of a day they could rob a stagecoach and escape to a brothel.

She wouldn’t put it past Grady to have a brothel, but for the time being the worst thing he did in Rightful Claim was sell moonshine without a license.

Something she’d reported him on. Twice.

“Gonna stand there and watch me work all day? Want to slap my wrist over some made-up infraction?”

“It’s funny you call this work, Carson. You don’t have a single patron in here.” She glared at the picture he rested on the nail he’d just pounded into the wall. It was a cross-stitched, nearly naked woman. Cross-stitched. Oh, she hated this place.

“There are no patrons because I don’t officially open until three. But there’s nothing like a Delaney coming into my place of business and criticizing my work ethic when your family has—”

“Please spare me the trip down family feud lane. I have business to discuss with you. It’s important.”

“You have business to discuss with me?” He got off the chair, just an easy step down with those long, powerful legs of his. Not that she noticed long or powerful, even when he was roaring his way down Main Street on that stupid, stupid motorcycle of his.

“I’m going to need a drink to go with this interesting turn of events,” he drawled.

“You’re going to drink before three in the afternoon on a day you’re working?”

He walked past her, way closer than he needed to, and that wolfish smile was way too bright, way too feral. How could anyone call him attractive? He was downright...downright...wild, uncivilized, lawless.

All terrible things. Or so she told herself as often as she could manage to make her brain function when he was smirking at her.

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do, princess.”

“Deputy. This is official.” She followed him toward the long, worn bar. Again, Grady claimed it was original, and it looked it. Scarred and nicked, though waxed enough that it shone. She couldn’t imagine how anyone balanced a glass of anything on the uneven wood, or why they’d want to.

“All right, deputy princess—”

She was trying very hard not to let her irritation show, but the little growl that escaped her mouth whether she wanted it to or not gave her away.

The bastard laughed.

Low, rumbly. She could feel that rumble vibrate through her limbs even though there was this ancient big slab of a bar between them. Hate, hate, hate.

“Gonna report me again?”

She schooled her features in what she hoped was a semblance of professionalism. “Not this afternoon, though if I see you serve the moonshine when I know you don’t have a license for it, I will contact the proper authorities.”

“If that’s your idea of pillow talk—”

“I know, all those multisyllable words, too hard for you to comprehend,” she snapped, irritated with herself, as always, for letting him get to her. “But this is about your brother. And murder.” His eyes went as hard as his expression, which gave her a little burst of satisfaction. Not so tough now, are you? “Care to shut up and listen?”

* * *

GRADY HAD ALWAYS had a little too much fun riling up the Delaneys, Laurel in particular. She got so pinched-looking, and when he really got her going, the hints of gold in her dark eyes switched to flame. And unlike the rest of the Delaneys, Laurel gave as good as she got.

But her words erased any good humor riling her up had created. Murder and Clint. Damn. Clint might be his half brother without an ounce of Carson blood in him, but he was still family. Which meant he was under Grady’s protection.

Grady jerked his chin toward the back of the bar. Though the regulars knew not to swing through the old saloon doors until three on the dot or later, he didn’t want anyone accidentally overhearing this conversation.

“I’m sorry, I don’t speak caveman. Is that little chin jerk supposed to mean something?”

He flicked a glance down her tall, slender frame. He could see her weapon outlined under the shapeless polo shirt she wore. The mannish khakis were slightly better than the polo because they at least gave the impression of her having an ass. A shame of an outfit, all in all.

“Let me ask you this,” he said, leaning his elbows on the freshly waxed surface of the bar. He’d spent most of a lifetime learning how to appear completely unaffected when affected was exactly what he was, and this was no different. “Is this visit personal or professional?” he asked, making sure to drawl the word personal and infuse it with plenty of added meaning.

“Professional,” she all but spat. “Like I said earlier. Trust me when I say I will never set foot through those pointless swinging doors for anything other than strictly professional business.”

“Aw, sweetheart, don’t lay down a challenge you won’t be able to win.”

“I see that even when it comes to your brother, you can’t take anything important seriously. How about this? The murder victim is Jason Delaney. The only person around at the time of the murder was Clint Danvers.”

Grady swore.

“I need to question your brother before news of this murder and that he was a witness spreads through town like wildfire. All we need is for one person to see a Delaney’s been murdered, and know Clint is technically a Carson and a witness, and we have a whole feud situation on our hands. Are you going to help me or not?” she said evenly, the only show of temper at this point in her eyes, where he could all but picture the flecks of gold bursting into flame one by one.

He didn’t trust a Delaney in the least, but Laurel Delaney wasn’t quite like the rest. She hated the feud, and he almost believed she might be more interested in the truth than crucifying Clint without evidence. The rest of the town would be a different matter. This would result in the kind of uproar that could only cause problems for everyone.

Clint was in trouble, and Bent was in trouble, and the thing that kept the Carsons and Delaneys in this town, most of them hating and blaming each other for good or for bad, was that something about Bent had been poured into their blood at birth.

Something about the buildings that had stood the test of time in the shadow of distant, rolling mountains, far away from any kind of typical civilization. Something about the way history was imprinted into their fingerprints and their names, even if some people chose to ignore it.

Bent was like an organ in the body of those who stayed, and no matter what side of the feud you were on, Bent was the common good. Usually no one could agree on what that meant.

This wouldn’t be any different. Laurel would want to solve the problem with warrants and investigations and all sorts of time-consuming bull. He and his cousins could have it sorted out with a few well-timed threats, maybe some fists, probably within the week.

So, he smiled at Laurel, as genially as he could manage for a man who wasn’t used to being genial at all. “Have to pass, princess. Guess you and your gun will have to do all the heavy lifting.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Sometimes I can’t decide if you think I’m stupid or if that’s just you. This is real life, Grady, not the Wild West—especially your lame version of it. If you want to arrest a murderer, you have to conduct an investigation. If you want to save your brother from the possibility of not just being a suspect, but being convicted, you need to work with the police. This isn’t about Delaney versus Carson. It’s about right and wrong. Truth and justice.”

“Guess we’ll find out.”

She shook her head. “Don’t come crying to me when Clint is locked up.”

“Don’t let the doors slap that pretty little ass of yours on the way out. You might end up enjoying it.”

“You know, I don’t get to say this enough in a day. Screw you, Grady.” She flipped him off as she sauntered out of the saloon. The doors didn’t hit her on the way out, but that didn’t stop him from watching her disappear.

He waited until she was completely gone, then watched the clock tick by another few minutes. Casually, he pulled out his phone, then gave one last glance at the doors that had gone completely still. As if he didn’t have a care in the world, he sent off a text to his cousins.

We need a meeting.

Ty was the first to respond. Mine, cow, or woman?

Grady’s mouth quirked at the code they’d developed as teens. Mine was property, because the Carsons had managed to eke out some of their own, even with the Delaney name stamped all over this town since the first Delaney bastards had screwed the first Carsons out of their rightful claim to land and gold. Because of that nasty start of things in Bent, the Carsons didn’t let anybody mess with what was rightfully theirs.

Cow meant family, because the Carsons and the Delaneys of old had gone to great and sometimes disastrous lengths to protect their livestock around the turn of the twentieth century, and these days, going to great lengths to protect family was still a number one priority for the Carsons.

And woman...

Grady stared at where Laurel had gone. Well, she was a woman, and she was a pain. A cop. A Delaney.

Yeah, he had a woman problem, but it was one that he was going to ignore, and it would go away. So, he typed Cow into his phone before grabbing his keys and heading out the back.