Carson pushed to his feet. “I’ll deal with the driver.”
Willow moved aside for Carson to pass.
Theo checked his watch. “I should probably go tell Juliette her romantic wedding week now includes background investigations.”
Willow whipped her head to stare at Theo. “What? You can’t crush a woman’s dreams that way.”
He waved a hand. “Believe me, the love of my life will get the attention she deserves.” He pushed away from the desk, and with mug in hand, wandered out of the office.
Willow followed on his heels, asking for details about this week he spoke of, leaving Pope alone. He sat there for a minute, checking the security footage around Summer’s duplex, then he wandered outside too.
Carson stood in the driveway next to the long trailer parked beside the fencing, talking to the cattle driver. The second Pope saw the driver clearly, recognition clicked.
He knew the guy. It was the man who came through the Stockyard every month or two. He sat alone and ate burgers at the bar. Summer had called him Gary Crowe, and now it made sense why he drifted through Willowbrook on an irregular schedule.
Crowe spotted Pope and grinned. “Hey! Bar guy.”
Pope walked closer. “Didn’t realize you hauled cattle.”
“Pays the bills.” Gary jerked a thumb toward the trailer. “North to south, mostly. Sometimes east to west too.”
Carson took the paperwork for the transaction to a nearby fence post to read the papers and sign his name to it.
Gary stuck his hands in his coat pockets and looked around the ranch. “Beautiful place. My grandparents had a spread like this in Idaho.”
Pope leaned casually against the fencing. “Yeah?”
“Should’ve been mine someday.” The guy laughed without humor. “But my dad had a falling out with his parents and we got left outta the will.”
“Sorry,” Pope said honestly. “That sucks.”
The trucker shrugged one shoulder. “Life goes on.”
Pope studied him a second before asking, “How do you like trucking?”
Crowe grinned. “It’s pretty sweet. I got a girl in every state.”
Pope huffed quietly through his nose.
The driver laughed. “Kidding. Mostly.”
But Pope’s attention had already drifted elsewhere, back to Summer and the unanswered questions circling endlessly through his head. Somebody knew where she lived. Somebody knew enough about her finances to make kindness into a weapon. Somebody punctured her tire while she worked.
The trucker kept talking about routes and weather delays but Pope half listened, his mind working through possibilities.
Summer’s ex could have made the financial gesture to help her and Ben.
But the punctured tire was different. That was a threat.
He hated all of it because every possibility ended in the same place.
Summer was vulnerable. Ben was vulnerable.
Somebody had set their sights on Summer.
The problem was that Pope had started thinking of her as his.
* * * * *
