Cowboy Proud by Stacy Finz

Author:Stacy Finz [Finz, Stacy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Published: 2021-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Angie woke up to find dawn’s early light seeping through the window shades. She reached for Tuff, but he was gone.

She got out of bed, found a flannel shirt in the closet and slipped it on before going in search of him. He was nowhere to be found. The only hint that he’d been there at all was a half pot of freshly brewed coffee. She went outside to check the porch only to find that his truck was also gone.

She knew he liked to ride Muchacho in the morning. Maybe he was at the barn.

Angie returned to the kitchen and rummaged through Tuff’s refrigerator. There was a carton of milk hiding behind a six-pack of beer. She fixed her coffee the way she liked it and drank it at the sink. Buddy trotted in from the living room and demanded a pat on his head.

“You want to go outside, Buddy boy?” She walked him to the door and waited on the porch for him to conduct his business. He halfheartedly peed on a tree and came running back inside.

Angie gathered up her stuff and went home. She stood in the shower until the water turned cold and quickly dressed. It was too early to call Earl. She charged her phone and flicked on the TV. Nothing on but those morning shows.

For the sake of something to do, Angie made another pot of coffee. She peered out the window at Tuff’s cabin while she waited for it to brew. He’d probably go straight to his studio. For all Angie knew he was there now. Maybe he’d had an early morning appointment. But even as she thought it, she knew it wasn’t true.

At seven she called Nina and told her she’d be late to the store. At eight she dialed Earl’s number, dreading the conversation she needed to have with him. But if anyone would know what to do it was Earl.

“Hi.”

“This is early for you. Everything okay?” His voice said he knew it wasn’t.

“Yes, but I’ve gotten two calls from Kari’s number. The first one was a couple of weeks ago. I missed her call and when I tried to call her back, I got a message that the number had been disconnected. I dismissed it as an unexplained weirdness. Then I got another call last night. When I answered there was static. I thought it was a bad connection, so again I tried to call her back and got the same message.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Either Earl was pissed or he was trying to parse what Angie had just told him.

She waited patiently until Earl said, “I’ll look into it. In the meantime, don’t call Kari again and change your number.”

“Why? Zane or Burt, or any of the others…they can’t call me from jail, can they? They’re not even allowed phones.”

“Jails…prisons… are full of contraband. Drugs, weapons, phones, you name it, they can get it. Change your number, Angie.”

“Okay. But how would they have co-opted Kari’s number?”

“I’m not saying they’re responsible.

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