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Chapter 1
Daisy Lynn
Ilooked out over the huge front lawn of the Triple J Ranch and almost had to pinch myself just to confirm we were really here. If I was being perfectly honest, I’d been a little nervous about spending a few days out on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, but I’d pushed my nerves aside for the sake of visiting and catching up with Janessa.
We’d done our best to stay in touch over the past year since Janessa’s parents had passed away, but this was the first time Becca and I had actually been able to come visit. Looking at the place, it seemed just like Janessa had described it to us—a big, old farm house sitting on a perfectly manicured lawn with fields and pastures stretching out in every direction as far as the eye could see. Even the nearest road from town was at least a mile away down the long driveway.
But even though it looked like a quiet, quaint, dull-as-dishwater place, it was apparently far from boring. Or maybe we’d just come at a particularly dramatic time. We’d learned from Janessa and from the bits and pieces of conversation we’d picked up over breakfast that there had been some trouble at the ranch lately.
Vandalism.
Burglary.
Poisoned animals.
And now Janessa, Becca, and I were standing on the front porch waiting for the sheriff to arrive and take a look around.
I hated that my best friend was going through so much scary stuff all at once, but I had to admit it made the whole place seem a lot more exciting than I’d imagined. A lot more dangerous, too.
And to think I’d been worried about bears and wolves before we got here.
“They’re here,” Janessa said, squinting against the sun as she looked down the driveway.
I followed her gaze but couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t even see the road from where we were standing on the porch. “Where?” I asked. “How do you know?”
I looked over at Becca, wondering if I’d missed something, but she just shrugged.
“Listen,” Janessa said, cocking her head to the side. “You can hear the engine in the sheriff’s patrol car from a mile away.”
I couldn’t hear anything and still couldn’t see anything, either—which meant they wereliterallya mile away. Did living on a ranch give people some kind of hearing superpower? It really was quiet here, though. Like,reallyquiet. Maybe it was easier to hear when something out of the ordinary was happening once you got used to the normal ranch sounds.
Or maybe my best friend was a mutant. With everything else I’d learned about this place in the past twenty-four hours, I wouldn’t have been totally shocked.
But just as I was getting ready to question Janessa on her mutant origins, I saw the glint of sunlight from the lights on top of the police cruiser. And once I could see the car, I could finally start to hear the engine noise that she’d been talking about. God, how had I missed that? It really did sound like a race car coming up the driveway.
“Told you.” Janessa grinned as my eyebrows shot up. “Anyone committing a crime in a five-mile radius knows when to start running from the sound of that engine.”
I opened my mouth to reply but then closed it again when I saw the two men getting out of the police car.
“Wow,” Becca whispered, clearly just as impressed as I was with the level of hotness we were witnessing. “They look like…”
Her voice trailed off, but I was pretty sure I knew the direction her thoughts were heading.
They looked like strippers.
Like strippers pretending to be cops.
Except way,wayhotter than any strippers I’d ever seen. So much so that I was tempted to ask if there was a birthday or a bachelorette party going on that I didn’t know about.
“Why didn’t you tell us you had such hot lawmen out here?” I asked instead.
“What?” She gave me a surprised look and then started laughing. “Really?”
I nodded absently, my mind going blank as I stared out at the uniformed officers, committing every detail I could to memory. It had been a while since I’d had a steady boyfriend, so the sight of these guys would probably keep me going for at least a few days. I mean… they really looked like they’d just stepped out of one of my fantasies.
One of my best, hottest fantasies.
“They’re both gorgeous,” I finally managed to answer. “Seriously. Makes me want to run out and commit some crimes.”
