Her Texas Ranger

“You’re already a sergeant. Before long you’ll be a captain.”

Seth grimaced. Ross was still, in many ways, just like their late father, Tucker. He’d believed all Ketchums were meant to go straight to the top of the ladder.

“I don’t want to be a captain,” Seth said while gazing absently at the glass of iced tea he was holding. “I like the position I’m in just fine.”

“Seth, you—”

“Ross, will you let it rest?” Victoria interrupted. “Seth isn’t telling you how to run the ranch. And he’s only been home a few minutes! Why don’t you let him catch his breath?”

Seth glanced gratefully at Victoria. She was not only a beautiful woman, she was also a damn good doctor and as far as he was concerned, she’d always been the most levelheaded of the four Ketchum siblings. After all these years of her being single, he found it hard to believe that she and Jess Hastings had mended their differences and were now married and expecting a child. Yet that wasn’t nearly the shock he’d received when he’d heard that his playboy brother had tied the knot with Isabella Corrales, a beautiful lawyer from the Jicarilla Apache reservation.

But romance and weddings hadn’t been the only things taking place on the T Bar K. Jess, his new brother-in-law and undersheriff of San Juan County, had been shot and nearly killed. Thankfully, that case had been solved and the ranch hand that had committed the crime was now serving time behind bars. However, there was still the mystery of the murdered foreman, Noah Rider, to unravel and everyone in the family was now looking to Seth, expecting him to work a miracle in a case that, frankly, had been cold from the very beginning.

Ross moved away from Seth and took a seat on the arm of his wife’s chair. “I just want to brag a little on my brother, sis,” he said to Victoria. “I’m not trying to tell him how to do his job. Hell, that’s the reason we called him. He knows how to investigate a murder case. We don’t. That is, except for Jess. But he’s already said the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department is welcoming all the help they can get.”

Seth said, “Well, like I told you both on the phone, New Mexico isn’t exactly my jurisdiction, unless we have a Texas crime that overflows into this state.”

“It appears that you have,” Victoria spoke up. “Noah Rider lived in Hereford, Texas, at the time he was murdered. Looks to me like a Texas Ranger has every right to investigate the death of a citizen of Texas.”

A faint grin lifted the corner of Seth’s lips. “Depending on where that death occurred,” he told his sister.

“We don’t know where the death occurred,” Isabella pointed out.

Ross smiled proudly at his wife. “Good point, honey. I think I’ll keep you around, after all.”

Bemused, Seth watched his brother lift the back of Isabella’s hand to his lips. He’d never seen Ross acting so smitten and it came as a shock that his brother was really and truly in love with someone other than himself.

“Seth, you don’t really have to have jurisdiction around here to do a little snooping on your own, do you?” Victoria asked, her face wrinkled with concern. “I mean, you don’t have to work in conjunction with Jess’s office, do you?”

Seth smiled briefly at his sister. One of the reasons he’d dropped everything back in Texas and hurried out here to the T Bar K was to help ease Victoria’s mind. From what Ross had told him, Victoria had been extremely upset from the very onset of this whole murder thing and she’d continued to worry about what it might do to the family, and the ranch, if the killer wasn’t caught and brought to justice. All the anxiety couldn’t be good for the baby she was carrying. And more than anything, Seth wanted to see his sister deliver a healthy child.

“Don’t worry, Victoria. I can snoop in a way that won’t step on anyone’s toes. I just won’t have immediate access to Ranger computer data. But if I need something searched, I have a friend back in Texas who’ll do it for me.”

“A female friend?” Ross asked impishly.

Seth didn’t bother to glance at his brother. After all these years, he was used to Ross’s teasing. And now that Seth was thirty-nine, nearing forty, and still single, he expected to hear more from his newly married brother.

“No. A fellow Ranger.”

“Seth, you’re just no fun at all.”

“I didn’t come up here for fun, little brother.”

Instead of taking offense, Ross chuckled. “Okay, you don’t have any fun back in Texas and you don’t plan on having any while you’re here at home. So what are you planning to do?”

The question brought Seth’s head around and he looked at his brother squarely. “I plan to track down Noah’s killer.”

The next morning Seth was up early. After eating a big breakfast with his brother, he walked out to the front porch and there he stayed, long after Ross headed on down to the barn to start his day’s work.

He’d nearly forgotten how dry it was up here in northern New Mexico. It was such a switch from humid San Antonio that his eyes burned and the inside of his nose felt as if it was going to crack.

But it was beautiful here on the ranch. He could never deny that, he thought as he watched the sun burst over the crest of eastern mountains. It was wild and rugged land that was as harsh as the climate could be. He’d left the ranch nearly eighteen years ago when he’d been only twenty-one.

At the time, Tucker had thrown a walleyed fit. Which had been no surprise to anyone in the family, especially not Seth. His father had been a hard man with his own ideas about how to live life and how he wanted his sons and daughter to live it. The last thing Tucker had wanted was for Seth to pursue a career in law enforcement. Particularly, a Texas Ranger, which would force him to leave the state. But Seth had defied his father and followed his dream. He’d become a member of an elite group of lawmen, a feat that very few men accomplish in a whole lifetime. And he’d done it all on his own, without the help of Tucker Ketchum. A fact that left him full of pride, but always a little sad, too.

“So here you are.”

At the sound of Marina’s voice, Seth turned to see the heavyset cook step from the doorway and onto the wooden planked porch. The Mexican woman had worked for the Ketchum family for forty or more years and was considered more of a family member than an employee. Ross kept her wrapped around his little finger, but she always seemed overjoyed to see Seth, whenever he did make a rare trip up here to the ranch.

“Did you need me for something, Marina?”

She grinned at him as though just looking at him made her happy and he felt a pang of guilt for not keeping in closer touch with his family.

“I just make a fresh pot of coffee,” she said. “You like some?”

Nearly an hour had passed since Seth had eaten breakfast. He supposed he could use a little more caffeine and it would give him an opportunity to throw a few questions at Marina.

He followed the old cook through the large, rambling house, to the back where the kitchen was located. The room was warm, the breakfast mess already cleaned away from the long pine table, but the smell of fried bacon still lingered in the air, mixing with the scent of freshly brewed coffee. From atop the refrigerator, a small radio was playing country music and reporting tidbits of local news.

Aside from a few updated appliances, the room was the same as it had been when he’d been a child. Except that his mother wasn’t hovering behind his chair, ruffling his hair and reminding him to eat his oats.

His parents had been dead for some years now, along with his brother, Hugh. His brother had been the first to go—six years ago, he’d been gored to death by one of the ranch’s bulls. A year later, his mother had passed away from the lingering complications of a stroke, then a little more than a year ago, his father had died from heart failure. A big part of his family was gone now.

Shoving away the bittersweet memories, he caught Marina’s attention and patted the seat kitty-corner to his left. “Pour yourself a cup, too, Marina, and come sit here beside me.”

Marina eyed him with curious black eyes as she lifted the tail of her white apron and wiped her hands.

“I don’t need to sit. I got work to do.”

“You’re going to sit. This place won’t fall apart if you rest for a few minutes.”

Mumbling under her breath, she poured the coffee, then carried the two mugs over to the table.

“What’s the matter?” he asked as she eased down in the chair. “Don’t you want to visit with me?”

She pushed one of the coffee mugs toward him. “You don’t want to visit. You want to ask me questions. About the murder.”

A low chuckle rumbled up from his chest. “How do you know that? I haven’t said anything yet.”

She frowned. “I see the look on your face. I know you, Seth Ketchum. You might as well pin that badge of yours on your chest.”

He touched his hand to the left of his chest just above his shirt pocket. It wasn’t very often that he went without his Ranger badge. But he was basically on vacation now and as he’d told Victoria, he didn’t want to step on any toes up here in New Mexico.

“I’m not going to ask you about the murder, Marina. You couldn’t know anything about it anyway.”

Her frown deepened as though she wasn’t sure if he’d just insulted her. “Well then—what we gonna talk about? You?”

Seth chuckled again. “No. You already know all there is to know about me.” He lifted the mug to his lips, took a careful sip and lowered it back to the tabletop. “How’s your memory, Marina?”