Stockton County Cowboys Book 4: Branding Cowboys

Chapter 2: The Linear Bar

Chapter 2: The Linear Bar

Tal was just a few years younger than me at twenty-nine, seemed physically fit concerning his five-ten frame, and had the most beautiful amber-hazel eyes that could drop me to my knees in just a few seconds. The owner of the Linear Bar had thick red hair, freckles on his cheeks and nose, and seemed a bit shy.

He bought the bar approximately three years ago after moving to Stockton County from Dallas, opened the place, followed all the laws of the land with accuracy, and made a fair living at serving drinks and bar food to fellow cowboys, both gay and straight. The Linear Bar was just like its name. Some men went into the place to dance with another man. Others simply wanted to sit at the bar, eat peanuts, drink a few beers, and watch a rodeo on the seventy-two inch flat-screens that hung from the rafters. No fights ever broke out there. Drugs were rarely taken or sold in the two bathrooms. And Thomas P. Lord, the sheriff of West Stockton, never had to visit the bar for some unnamed and questionable business.

Now for the best question and answer I have to share: Why did Tal owe me? Because some drunk broke into his bar last winter, after hours, and thieved seven hundred dollars from his wall safe. I caught the bastard since Sheriff Lord and his boys in brown-and-gold had their hands full with other duties. There was no fee involved for Tal. No bill to pay. Nothing like that. It was something men sort of did in Stockton County. If you scratched my back, I would scratch yours when needed. And Tal just happened to have a back I wanted to scratch.

So Tal Linear had some scratching to do, and I was very itchy. That’s why I closed the agency early, locked its doors at five-twenty in the evening, and went two doors down Lockmar Street to the Linear Bar. I walked in, moseyed up to the bar, and found a seat. Like a gentleman, I looked the handsome cowboy in his seductive eyes, shared a serious look with Tal, and said, “I’ll take a bottle of Bud and any information you have on the murder of Evan Sting.”