Page 25 of Savage Rancher
Garrett frowns at me, and I realize he thinks this isn’t the first time I’ve spent the night here, given Luke knows my coffee order. Clever. I relax for the first time since Harper texted me. This is going to work.
"I'll get right to it," Garrett says, turning back to Jake. "Eli Turner is missing. Witnesses reported seeing you in the parking lot of the Rusty Spur last night.”
“Witnesses?” Jake asks, tilting his head with a faintly questioning expression.
“One witness saw you in a black truck.”
Jake nods, gesturing to the yard. “I’m sure you’ve already checked out my vehicle.”
I look out the window and see a couple of trucks and a large SUV out there, all black. Both the trucks look similar to what Eli drove, though I’m not an expert on cars.
Sheriff Garrett studies Jake steadily. “It matches the description of what the witness saw.”
I poke Jake. “You don’t have to protect me. Just tell him.”
Jake frowns. “Emma?—”
Sighing, I face the sheriff. It’s a little like facing my dad, and I have a moment of chagrin. No one wants to confess to a father figure that she was making out with a man, no matter how old she is. “Eli wanted me to meet him at the Rusty Spur. He’s been trying to pressure me to sell Dad’s ranch to him, and Jake said he’d come and make sure I was okay.”
Still holding my hand, Jake brings it to his bare chest, cradling it against his heart. “Turner made Emma uncomfortable. He frightened her.”
“I’d told you that, Sheriff.” I ignore Jake frowning at me and hold the sheriff’s gaze. “You filed my complaint last week, remember? I told you Eli was harassing me, and you said you couldn’t do anything unless he actually did something wrong.”
“Classic,” Luke says, shaking his head.
The sheriff gives him a narrow look, though he also has the grace to look a little guilty. Then he returns his attention to me. “Why didn’t Jake meet you inside?”
“I was late,” Jake says.
“That was my fault,” Luke says easily, an abashed smile quirking his mouth. “And I’ll probably hear about it for the next week.”
“Maybe longer,” Mason mutters.
“But it didn’t matter,” I continued, “because Eli didn’t show up. I ran into Jake in the parking lot after I decided I’d waited long enough.”
Sheriff Garrett watches me closely. “What time was that?”
“I gave Eli half an hour, so it’d have been around nine thirty,” I say honestly.
The sheriff turns his frown back to Jake. “The witness saw you leaving the parking lot sometime before ten. What were you doing between nine thirty and then?”
I clear my throat. “That’s private, Sheriff Garrett. And since, as far as I know, public nudity is still illegal in Iron Ridge, we came back here to, uh, continue."
Luke snorts into his coffee mug.
Sheriff Garrett shoots him a glare before returning his attention to Jake. “Another witness claims he saw Turner’s truck on Ridgeback Highway, close to your ranch.”
Jake shrugs. “What time?”
“Around eleven o’clock last night.”
Luke chuckles softly. “Eleven o’clock last night, Jake and Emma were in his room. I won’t tell you how I know that, but I can tell you I’m buying earplugs today.”
Mason holds out his fist to Luke, and they bump knuckles.
The sheriff turns to us.
Jake pulls me in closer, as if trying to shield me from the sheriff’s censure. "That's correct. We were here."
