Promise Them (The Callahan Series Book 6) Read Online Free PDF Page B

on in his county, and took care of problems with aplomb. When Beau ended the call, he went back to his men. “The sheriff will check it out. Once he does, I want that fence back up.”
    Gordon’s dark eyes stared back. “There’s no way we can get all this fence up today.”
    “You can get up enough to keep the cattle in,” Beau snapped.
    Gordon shrugged. “Are you going to wait around for the sheriff?”
    “I’ll catch him at the house and ride out here with him.”
    He pulled himself into the saddle and headed back. Who would want to cut his fence? For what reason? His neighbor on the west side had been here for twenty years. It wasn’t likely he’d do such a thing. But someone had. The thought made Beau nervous.
    At the barn, he removed the saddle from Taro’s back, brushed him down, led him to a stall, and stroked his long face. “You’re a beauty, aren’t you?”
    Taro threw his head back and whinnied. “Don’t like being called pretty, I see.” Beau chuckled as he fed and watered the horse.
    Though he was tending Taro, Beau’s thoughts were on the vandalism. Except for the Callahans and a few other ranchers he’d met in town, Beau was a virtual stranger in these parts. It wasn’t likely that someone had it in for him this soon.
    There were his years as a businessman, but they’d been productive years. He’d made a few enemies, but mostly they were what you’d call friendly enemies. In the senate, he’d taken sides, gotten into heated arguments, sometime fought against his own party, but nothing shady.
    Maybe it was just kids being mischievous. He hoped that was all this was. He didn’t need more worries.
    He gave Taro a pat on the head just as Dugan drove up.
    Once more, Beau was struck by how well the Callahan children had done. Dugan slammed the door behind him, tipped his Stetson, and reached out to shake hands.
    “Sorry you’re having trouble.”
    Beau nodded. He’d met and admired all of the Callahans, including the in-laws and offspring at their annual Labor Day shindig just after he’d moved in last year. That had been an eye-opener. He’d never seen so many family members in the same place at the same time before. They were an impressive lot. Little wonder Nell was so proud of them.
    His thoughts flew to Rey and Dani. Lela hadn’t heard from them in the past two weeks. Though Beau was committed to this tough-love thing, he worried about them.
    They were young. Perhaps, if he hadn’t interfered, they would have grown out of their self-centered existence, gotten jobs, and become independent young adults on their own.
    “Maybe it’s not trouble,” he answered Dugan’s question. “I could be paranoid. The more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to believe it’s nothing to get excited about.”
    “Let’s take a look.”
    They went to the cruiser. “Tell me about that son of yours,” Beau said as he climbed into the passenger seat.
    A grin split Dugan’s face. “I swear Dev’s growing so fast it makes me wonder if he won’t be starting school tomorrow.” He looked over at Beau. “He took his first steps yesterday.”
    Beau chuckled. “I’ll bet your camera got a workout. Take advantage of those Kodak moments. You’ll be glad you did.”
    For the length of the ride, Dugan regaled Beau with the baby’s antics.
    Beau wondered if he’d ever have a grandchild to dote on.
    All too soon they were at the fence. Joe was stretching wire, nailing it to the post. Gordon stood there waiting for them.
    “Let’s see what you found.”
    Beau showed him where the wire had been cut. Dugan walked up and down the fence, encompassing a wide area on both sides before he said anything.
    He pushed back his Stetson, wiped his brow at the same time, nodded toward the fence. “It’s been vandalized all right. There are tire tracks that could belong to the perpetrator unless one of you guys was here. You can see where someone drove up the fence line.”
    “Wasn’t one of us that I