Reunited with the Rancher (Texas Cattleman's Club: Blackmail 3)

He stepped off the porch to circle around the big yard, wishing he could catch the troll and end his worries about Emily once and for all.

Six

Monday morning they drove the short distance to the Texas Cattleman’s Club for the emergency meeting about Maverick.

Tom parked and they walked together toward the front door. Emily looked at the dark stone-and-wood clubhouse. In recent years, the TCC had voted to include women. It still hurt to walk in the front door and see the children’s center where she had taken Ryan occasionally.

She waited while Tom checked his black Stetson. He wore a tan sport coat, a white dress shirt open at the throat and dark jeans, and just looking at him, her heart beat faster.

He turned and his gaze swept over her, and for another moment, she forgot everyone around them and saw only Tom. She took a deep breath. She would soon be divorced from him. Their marriage was over. Life was changing, and it was difficult to worry about Maverick when she had lost Ryan and now was losing Tom. Their happy marriage had been gone a long time, though, even if the past few days with him had reminded her of how it used to be.

Looking back now, she realized she had made a big mistake with Tom in being so desperate to get pregnant. That had made her tense and nervous on top of the grief they both dealt with daily.

Now she realized she had driven Tom away. For the past few days, she hadn’t had her old worries about her inability to get pregnant, and she was relaxed with him.

At the time she hadn’t realized what a mistake she’d made with him, and now it was too late to undo it.

“You look pretty,” he said when he walked up to her. He leaned close to speak in her ear. “When you get home, take your hair down.”

She smiled at him as she reached up, unfastened the clip that held her hair and shook her head. Her wavy, honey-brown hair fell around her face and on her shoulders.

“I like that,” he said softly. He took her arm. “Let’s get a seat.” He turned and she walked beside him. They went through the foyer lined with oil paintings of past members. The motto of the club from its early days—Loyalty, Justice and Peace—was emblazoned on the wall in big letters for all to see.

They went past a lounge, and Emily saw a boar’s head hanging above a credenza that held a crystal decanter on a silver tray. Some members wanted the stuffed animal heads removed. But they’d had been fascinating to Ryan, and as far as Emily was concerned, they could stay because other little kids might find them just as interesting.

She and Tom greeted friends as they walked through the club. Taking in her surroundings, she couldn’t believe the club was more than a hundred years old. It had been founded around 1910 by Henry “Tex” Langley and other local ranchers. Tex wouldn’t recognize a lot of things about the club now, particularly that women

had been accepted as members, which had resulted in a child-care center where the billiard room once was.

They finally arrived at the large meeting room and settled in near the back. She had an eerie feeling when she thought about how Tom had said Maverick might be present at the meeting. As the room began to fill, she wasn’t surprised to see the mean girl trio, Cecelia, Simone and Naomi, arrive and take seats near the front. Could the three women be behind the emails and blackmail? That was the rumor. But Emily couldn’t imagine them doing something that wicked and then coming to this meeting. They were members of the TCC and had had background checks, friends in the club and people to vouch for them. They might be snooty, but she didn’t think any one of them would do something criminal. She’d heard that Maverick blackmailed Brandee Lawless. And why would they have come after her, sending her that photo of Tom with the Valentines? How would they have even gotten such a photo?

“There’s Nathan,” Tom said and she glanced around the room. Sheriff Battle stood to one side, leaning against the wall, looking as if he wasn’t paying attention, but she knew he probably wasn’t missing anything that was happening in the big room.

At the stroke of the hour, Case appeared. Whenever she saw him, he looked in a hurry. Often he talked fast. His brown suit matched his short dark brown hair, and he looked as if he hadn’t shaved for a couple of days.

“Good morning and thanks for coming,” he said, holding a mike and stepping out from behind a podium they had set up for him.

People in the audience answered with an enthusiastic, “Good morning.”

“Everyone here knows why we’re having this meeting. We have a problem in Royal. Someone going by the name of Maverick is harassing and blackmailing people using social media and email. We need to put a stop to it.” Case paused to allow for applause.

“I’d like to form a TCC committee to investigate, coordinating with the sheriff to back up his department’s work. We’re not law enforcement—just a group of concerned club members, citizens of Royal, who will make a big effort to keep their eyes and ears open for anything that might aid Sheriff Battle. You can sign up at the door and you’ll be notified when we’ll have our first meeting.

“Also, Chelsea Hunt has asked if she may speak. She has some ideas of her own that should help. Chelsea, why don’t you come up here?”

Wearing head-turning designer jeans with a tucked-in white silk shirt and a leather vest, Chelsea walked up to join Case, amid more applause. Her high-heeled ankle boots made Chelsea appear to be the same height as the club president.

“Here comes the tech genius. She’ll get things moving,” Tom said quietly as he applauded. Emily knew that Chelsea was considered the cyber expert in Royal, so she was a good one to have at the meeting.

“I’m glad all of you are here today. I’m fully committed to the TCC’s grassroots investigation into these cyber attacks. I’ll have a tablet here at the front, so when the meeting is over, if you have computer skills and want to help me with the technical aspects of the investigation, please sign up. There has to be a way to find Maverick. There will be a trail of some sort, and I think if we pool resources, we can trace these messages.”

Everyone applauded again and Chelsea thanked Case and sat down.

Tom stood and Case turned to him. “Tom?”

“I think we need to get word out to citizens in Royal. If they get a message from Maverick, they need to let Sheriff Battle know, even if there’s blackmail involved. We can’t do anything if we don’t know who Maverick is targeting.”

“I think we can all work on getting that message out,” Case said, nodding. “Thanks.” Tom sat back down.