Wildcard by Cheyenne McCray Read Free Book Online Page A

furnishings weren’t much to look at, but it was neat and clean. A pair of ancient deer antlers was mounted on the wall beside the black stove pipe of the old wood stove. A few throw rugs were scattered around the tiled floor and knotty pine paneled the walls adding to its rustic look.
    On one of the small wooden tables perched a small potted Christmas tree with miniature decorations, courtesy of Dee who figured all her ranch hands needed something Christmas-y in their quarters. The tree she’d put in the bunkhouse had been a little too big for his tastes, but the men had gotten a kick out of it.
    Jess turned on his palm device and used the stylus to tab through the pages of notes he’d made on the smuggling case and came to his short list of subjects.
    Dee MacLeod had been one of his original suspects, but after his first two months of investigations, he’d marked her right off the list.
    Kev Grand always seemed to be in the middle of things. He was becoming somewhat of a vigilante as far as UDAs crossing his property. That could be a front. And those poisoned cattle could be just another way to throw suspicion away from his own illegal activities.
    Then there was Brad Taylor, who’d been seen around the Wilds’ cabin sometime before all the documents had been discovered that had falsely incriminated Steve Wilds. Taylor had claimed to know nothing about it, but he had a habit of staying out late just about every night. Although he’d heard that Taylor had a penchant for twins…at the same time.
    According to information Jess had dug up recently, Kathy Newman had a long history with Forrester—too long to be discounted. Apparently they’d been tight for some time, although they’d had some kind of quarrel a few months ago and hadn’t been seen together for awhile before the rustling cover had been blown. Big Tits drove a black Mercedes, and the way she was reported to enjoy flashing cash around, it was a wonder Jess hadn’t run into her the few months he’d worked the area. Although she did live a good thirty minutes from the MacLeod Ranch, and he’d heard she preferred to spend her money in Sierra Vista, the biggest town in the county, or better yet, Tucson.
    Bull Stevens was a big time rancher in the area who also had a big time grudge against UDAs for damaging his fence line. He’d lost thousands of dollars worth of cattle when they strayed out and died after getting into some bad feed. But was that enough to cause a man to get involved with the Mexican drug cartel?
    Not too long ago, Natalie Garcia had bought the old Karchner place a couple miles north of the Flying M. Drug activity had escalated since her arrival and some big busts had been made not to far from her property. His gut instinct told him that the single mother had nothing to do with what was going on, but it wouldn’t hurt to question her. She was romantically involved with Steve Wilds, who’d been framed but then cleared of any involvement in the rustling activities.
    Tomorrow Jess had plans to head down to the county hospital to interview a UDA who’d been used as a mule to smuggle drugs in from Mexico. The man had been beaten half to death by the coyotes , the bastards who ran the smuggling operations.
    The hum of his cell phone snapped Jess out of his consideration of the suspects to date. He picked up the phone from the end table and saw by the caller ID that it was Santiago.
    “Lawless,” Jess said into the phone at the same time he shut off the PDA.
    “Just talked with Miguel Cotiño,” Santiago said.
    “The Special Ops Super over at the Border Patrol?”
    “Yeah.” A feminine giggle could be heard in the background and Santiago’s voice lowered. “Said to not bother heading to the hospital to interrogate that mule. He’s dead.”
    “Shit.” Jess ground his teeth and thumbed the PDA onto the end table. “Anything else?”
    “Nah. Catch you tomorrow. I got me a hot little thing waiting for me to get back to