Free Lips That Touch Mine by Wendy Lindstrom

Despite
her effort to maintain eye contact, his frown made her drop her
gaze to her cold, clenched fingers.
    "Do you think Boyd would do this?"
    The sheriff's tone implied his brother would
never do such a thing, but she could only shrug. She honestly
didn't know what Boyd Grayson would do.
    "Mrs. Ashier?"
    She looked up to see sympathy in his
eyes.
    "I know you're frightened, but I'd stake my
badge on my brother's innocence. He would never threaten a lady. In
fact, when I tell him about this note, I'm going to have a hell of
a time keeping him from hunting down the author."
    "Why would he get involved?"
    "Because he's the kind of man who protects
those who can't protect themselves. When Boyd was ten he fought a
boy twice his size because the boy had been picking on one of our
friends. Kyle, Radford, and I had to restrain Boyd while the older
boy ran home."
    "You believe he's innocent then?"
    "Yes." The sheriff leaned his wide shoulders
back in his chair. "My brother is too hot-tempered to spend time
writing a note, Mrs. Ashier. If he'd wanted to give you a warning,
he'd have banged on your door and made sure you understood his
message. But I'll question him along with the other saloon
owners."
    "Thank you," she said, but she wasn't ready
to take the sheriff or Boyd Grayson at their word. She would watch
and judge them by their actions.
    She got to her feet and moved to the door.
"Will you let me know when you find out who left the note?"
    "Of course," he said, pushing his chair back.
The room shrank when he stood, and she instinctively took a step
back. "My deputy and I will be around this afternoon to check on
you."
    She nodded, but didn't leave. "Did you ask
Levi Harrison to stop selling liquor at his hotel?"
    His eyebrows lowered. "Why?"
    "Because it was an honorable thing to
do."
    He sighed. "Don't accuse me of being noble,
Mrs. Ashier. I acted out of self-preservation. I couldn't hire a
rum seller as deputy when there are a hundred women in town who
would scalp me for doing so."
    "Despite your penchant for frequenting your
brother's saloon, Sheriff Grayson, you just climbed a notch in my
regard."
    o0o
    Boyd slammed his empty mug on the bar,
outraged. "Claire thinks I wrote the note?"
    "Settle down," Duke said, then finished
telling him about the incident. "She's scared and doesn't know what
to think."
    Pat Lyons leaned his elbows on the bar beside
them. "Who could be threatening her?"
    "Any man in town." Karlton, who was four
inches shorter than Pat, stood behind the bar drying a beer mug.
"She's stirring up trouble with everybody."
    "Unfortunately, that's true," Duke said.
"When Mrs. Ashier started the temperance push, I decided to do a
little digging into her past. It seems her husband died sucking
river water. Apparently Claire was there but unable to save
him."
    Boyd's gut tightened. "Do you think someone
from her past could have left the note?"
    "I don't know. Mrs. Ashier suspects everyone,
but thinks Don Clark might be responsible. I can't see Donny doing
something like this though," Duke said. "I'm going to talk with him
now, but I want you three to keep this information about Mrs.
Ashier in strict confidence. She's pretty shaken up about it."
    "She should be," Karlton said. "The saloon
owners and our patrons aren't taking too kindly to being harassed
by a nagging group of women."
    "That doesn't give anyone the right to
threaten those women."
    "Didn't say it did, Sheriff." Karlton turned
and thumped the mug down onto the back bar shelf, a handsomely
carved unit backed with beveled mirrors.
    Boyd clenched his fists to keep from swatting
Karlton for being careless of the wood. It had taken him and his
father six months to build and carve that back bar. It was the
centerpiece of his establishment, a masterpiece of exquisitely
figured mahogany combined with holly, flamed birch, and satinwood
inlays, painstakingly joined together to showcase the wood and give
the piece depth. And it had taken an entire day to mount