by Eden Butler
My heart hammering, I smiled at the waitress when she dropped off two waters and left the table, giving Sam the chance to reach across to grab my hand. “So,” he started, pulling on my arm to get me to lean closer. “I did it.”
I pushed my eyebrows up, only shifting my gaze when I spotted the black Stetson visible over the booth just behind Sam. It comforted me knowing who wore it, knowing if anything happened, Ed was right there. “You did?” My voice came out high, but soft, and I hoped Sam bought the excited tone. “You really found her?” He smirked and I stretched my smile wider. “How on earth did you do it?”
There was no warmth to his laughter, nothing that did a thing to calm me. Sam shook his head, sending me a wink like I was a kid who had no idea how the real world worked. “Hell, Piper, I always knew where she was.”
“You’re kidding?” Sam twisted his mouth into a smirk that made him look like a smug asshole. “I always keep tabs. Kinda have to, you know?”
Over the years Sam had alluded to his uncle’s reach, to how connected he was, and aside from the infrequent ticket he got me out of, I’d never believed him. Not until Ed punched him two days ago and I pretended to kick Ed out of my life. It had been set up once Investigator Farlow and Ed had asked me to meet them at the ranch.
With the evidence laid out in front of me and the truth of how the Sheriff ran Midland, I understood why Sam had done what he had to Ed and why all those sneaking suspicions I’d had about his deliveries had been true: because Sam believed he could get away with it.
“Oh…because of…your…” I lifted my eyebrows, shooting a look around the diner, and Sam laughed.
“Aw, Piper, Midland is safe. We’re safe. There isn’t a person here that can touch my uncle.” He shrugged, reaching for his glass.
“But what does that mean…”
“Sweetie, no one can touch us.” Sam grabbed my hands and I withheld the cringe I felt twitching along my cheeks. His smile was wide, his gaze moving to my lips as he watched me close. “You know Erin and I had…business dealings that maybe my uncle looked the other way about.” When I sat up, withdrawing my hand from his touch, Sam’s expression shifted, the wrinkles along his forehead deepening. “It’s okay, like I told you. No one can touch us. Not in Midland. Not when my uncle is Sheriff. We’re all safe. I can protect you because he protects me. Always has.”
“But not Erin? You and Erin are over? So you don’t have business with her anymore?”
“No. Our business had gotten complicated.” He rested against the booth, gripping the sweating glass of water next to him. “That was the main reason she left town. To keep attention off her. Besides, I think she always knew how I felt about you.” Sam tilted his head, that smirk on his face softening. “She was always jealous of you. It was just a good time for her to lay low.”
“But you fought. I remember hearing you two on the patio that day. I thought you broke up.”
Sam shifted in his seat, dropping his smile for a second before he recovered. “That was just business stuff. Nothing major, and anyways, none of that matters now. Now that I know you hate Mescal, and you finally are ready for things between me and you to move forward, I knew I had to break things off with her. It’s why I went to see her last night. It’s done. She wasn’t…happy, but I needed to break ties.”
“Last night?” The smile on my face was easy, relaxed, and I hoped Sam bought the casual tone of my voice. Farlow wanted to know where Erin had been all this time. She was key to the case. She was the one who could tie everything together if they could find her. “You didn’t call me till really late last night. I thought you would be home sooner. Where was she?”
When Sam hesitated, casting a glance to the side, then back at my face like he wasn’t sure how much he should give away, I reached for his hand, letting my nails smooth against his palm. His gaze slipped from my face, to the intimate brush of our skin touching, then back to my mouth. I thought of Ed, of his mouth, his kisses and pretended it was him I wanted to tease when I slid my tongue along my bottom lip.
“Ah…” Sam tried, sounding as though something caught in his throat. “Dunes.” He recovered, holding our fingers together. I scrunched my nose, making him smile. “I know. That place is disgusting.”
“That’s all nineties trailer houses and rust bucket pick-ups. Not exactly your kind of place. Besides, I didn’t think you even knew how to get out there.” He followed the tilt of my head and how I kept my fingernails stroking along his knuckles. I hoped it distracted him enough, enticed him enough to keep him talking.
“Oh yeah. My uncle has business there all the time.” Sam’s voice got lower, sidetracked as I leaned forward, turning his hand open, pretending to be interested in the lines that zig zagged along his palm. When he spoke again, his tone was raspy, and a little stunned. “It’s…ah…where most of the deputies store their…hunting equipment.” He grinned then, winking at me.
“Around a bunch of bikers?” The thought made me a little sick, though I forced a laugh to hide my anxiety. Sam seemed to buy it, giving my hand a squeeze.
From the cases my father had tried, I knew there were no hobbyist bikers out near the Dunes. There weren’t even folks who simply liked to keep to themselves and live their lives without the restriction of conformity. The bikers Sam mentioned, nearly all of them, were drug runners and sex traffickers. Not exactly the kind of company a town sheriff should be keeping.
“Well, I don’t know about the bikers, but hell, who can tell the difference between the cops and criminals out there anyway?” He found his joke funny enough that he leaned back, slipping his hand from my touch, long enough to take a drink of his water before he returned his wet fingers back to my palm. “The point is, it’s done. It’s totally over and now you and me…”
“You and me?” I asked the question, making it sound like something surreal and unbelievable, mostly because it was both things to me. And it would never happen. But Sam’s smile told me he thought I was giddy over the possibility of us together after all the years we’d been friends. He stretched his mouth, looking so young, so clueless just then and I moved forward, curling my fingers around his, head shaking like I couldn’t quite get my head around the idea of us being together. “You and me as a couple. It sounds…I don’t know, almost unbelievable, right?”
“Like a dream.”
Or a nightmare.
I slipped a glance over Sam’s head, to that black Stetson wondering what the man wearing it thought of our conversation. Hoping he wasn’t close to upturning the table and landing another fist in the center of Sam’s face.
“Well, it’s just…” I cleared my throat, hoping the forced nervous quake in my tone would have Sam believing I was as excited about us being together as he’d been the night before when he tried to kiss me.
He’d seemed to buy the nervous way I jerked away from him, how I’d laughed like I couldn’t believe we were standing so close, that he held my hand so tightly, like a lover, not a friend. Then, he’d gone in again and I froze, forcing another cackling laugh that made his entire body stiffen.
“Oh God, sugar…I’m so sorry,” I’d said. “I’m just…flustered is all.”
“It’s okay,” he’d answered, making his voice saccharine sweet. “We’ll go slow.”
Now though, Sam seemed to want the pace to increase, and with that Stetson turning toward us, I knew I’d have to be quick on my feet.
“Well,” I said, trying not to laugh too much, trying, in fact to sound shy and silly, two things I made a point to never be. “I’ve only ever been with…” He flared his nostrils, the excitement quickly fading, and I hurried to explain. “And well, trusting anyone after that…”
“Piper, come on…I’m nothing like Mescal. I’m loyal. I’m honest. And I’d never steal from you. If you knew…”
This was where I’d wanted to get to. The plan for two days had been leading to this one—flirt with Sam. Dangle a promise of something happening between us. Then, ask for
details.
“Knew what?” I shifted my head, bringing my eyebrows together like I had no idea what he was trying to say.
“I’d do anything for you.” Sam’s voice went lower then, his grip on my hand tightening as he ran his fingers up my arm. There was something in his eyes I’d never seen before. I never wanted to see it again. It was desperation and desire. Want and hunger all twisting together, intensifying as he watched me. Like I was something he had to have. Like he’d do anything, say anything to possess me and didn’t care who knew it. “Hell, I’ve done so much already. Just for you…”
“Sam,” I said, letting my tone get quiet, letting a gentle laugh die in my throat as I watched the expression in his eyes grow. “You’re not making any sense, sweetie. What…have you done for me?”
That hesitant shift in his features moved in his eyes again and the grip he held on my arm eased. I thought he was going to back down. I thought he might have come to his senses, and I couldn’t have that. He had been the cause of so much heartache. He damn well owed me.
“Sweetie,” I tried, bringing his hand to my mouth, pushing back the sick feeling that came over me when he bit his lip, watching me kiss his knuckles.
“God above, Piper…” he said, the words coming out half-plea, half-prayer. Sam looked ready to pull me across the table. He bit harder into his lip, his free hand rubbing up and down my arm, then fiddling with my hair before he hesitated, watching as I placed another kiss against his hand. As I brought my lips against his skin, I flicked my gaze up on his greedy face, staring, praying I wouldn’t be sick.
“You know, if we’re going to be together,” I started, holding his hand between my fingers, “really together, I need you to be honest. I can’t handle being lied to. I mean it. I need the truth. All of it.”
He hesitated a second longer and I exhaled, dropping his hand, shifting my attention around the diner, hoping the disinterest would loosen his lips. “Mescal needed…handling…” he started, and for a second, a small surge of triumph shot through me. He was going to talk, I realized, but then, what he said registered and that small victory got crushed by the truth.
Sam tried looking sweet. He shifted his shoulders, tilted his head like that flippant gesture and half-smile could make up for what I heard. “He was all wrong for you. I needed him out of the way.”
This wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard from Sam a thousand times before. He’d spent years reminding me how stupid I’d been to fall for Ed and how ridiculous it was to close up my heart for five long years because I’d been hurt by him. But knowing a half-truth was nothing. Seeing everything hidden behind the lies and deception woke something inside that I wasn’t sure I could rein in.
Forgetting myself, and the play for a moment, I leaned back, curling my arms together, ignoring how his face fell, how Sam seemed disappointed by the loss in contact. “Did you…set him up?”
He shrugged, not giving me a thing and I tried a new tactic, betting that his ego wouldn’t stand for me doubting him.
“No,” I said, laughing as I waved him off. “No, you couldn’t have done that. You aren’t that devious. You couldn’t have come up with something like that…”
“Why not?” Sam said, slamming a fist against the table. “Think I’m not clever enough? What? You think Erin did that shit on her own? Please. She would have never looked at Ed for the robbery if I hadn’t pushed her toward him.”
“I don’t understand…pushed her toward him?”
“God, Piper, open your eyes.” He shook his head, his mouth twisting like he’d tasted something sour. “Midland has the lowest crime rate in the state. That isn’t because no one does shit.” Sam moved his eyebrows up, lifting both hands out at his side, like what he said now was a fact no one could dispute. “It’s because my uncle keeps the crime regulated.”
I leaned forward, shifting a glance around us before I whispered, “He…manages the crime? Is that what you’re saying?”
“It’s not unheard of.” Sam took a drink of water, looking bored. He glanced to his left, frowning toward the empty counter. “Happens everywhere.”
His attention was split and Sam began to shift his gaze around the diner, squinting as he watched the couple to our left and the man leaning against the jukebox trying to decide what song he wanted to play. If I didn’t hurry, I’d miss my shot at getting anything concrete. Erin’s location might not be enough. A bit more would likely help.
“And Erin was one of the…” I released a gasp, covering my mouth, the sound loud enough that Sam jerked his attention right at me, his face open, concerned. Waving a hand to calm him, I said, “Her family…I remember my dad talking about her father. He was an informant.” I looked around the diner, pretending to worry that we might be overheard and Sam grinned. “That’s why she became a cop. The whole department was dirty already.”
“Ha. Yeah, well, it’s not like anyone can do a thing about that.” He grinned, laughing at himself.
Sam leaned back, his ease restored by my small show. He pulled out his cell, thumbing through the screen like I wasn’t there, and the thought struck me without any warning. He’d come here after supposedly breaking things off with his on and off girlfriend of five years. He’d brought me the wrong flowers. Me. The woman he supposedly wanted so much he’d framed the man I loved to get him out of his way. And after all that mess, all that manipulation, all that hurt, after confessing what he’d done, he pulled out his phone because… what? He was bored already? That’s how little I mattered to Sam Travis. The woman he supposedly cared so much about.
There was a powder keg set inside me, and the indifferent, dismissive grin on Sam’s face set small sparks to the fuse. Over his head, the Stetson tilted and I made out the slope of Ed’s forehead and the way his eyebrows dipped together when he turned toward the sound of our voices. He’d never dismissed me. Never ignored me. God, he’d never done anything to hurt me, not since we loved each other, really loved each other.
Sam’s attention stayed on his phone as small chirps and vibrates alerted him, and the more his smirking grin transformed to a smile then to a silent laugh, the more I hated him. The more I wanted to see him locked away in a cell for the rest of his life. There was nothing left of the friendship I’d felt for him. It was utterly gone.
“So,” I said, feeling that fuse light fully when he didn’t bother looking away from his phone, when he simply moved his head in my direction as a way to acknowledge me. I pressed on, ready to the answer I really wanted now. “Was it you or Erin who planted that money in Ed’s truck?”
His reaction was immediate. Sam’s thumb froze over his screen and he jerked his gaze to me, his mouth falling open as though I’d just announced I was pregnant with the alien antichrist’s baby. “I…I…don’t…” He abandoned his phone, moving it to the table before he leaned his elbows on the surface, the sides of his hands against the wet ring made by his plastic glass of water. “What?”
If the diner wasn’t filled with half a dozen investigators, I’d have jumped across the table and scratched his eyes out. But he wasn’t worth the hassle it would bring or the bail it would cost me. Wanting to be done with this conversation and the man in front of me, I inhaled, shaking my head as I looked him over one good time. “What a rotten, low down, worthless piece of shit you are, Sam Travis.”
“What?” He flinched, as though I’d slapped him, his eyes growing wider, rounder. “How can you…”
“I was epically stupid, I’ll give you that,” I said, holding up my hand to stop him from repeating whatever bullshit excuse I was sure he had at the ready. “I was blinded by years and years of loyalty to you. But Ed, he saw straight through you. Always had. He was right about you from the very beginning.”
“How can you say that?” He reached for me, but I jerked away from his touch, sliding to the edge of the booth seat.
“Because he’s not the damn criminal, is he?”
“And what am I?”
“A drug dealer? An
embezzler? I could go on, couldn’t I?” By the wideness of his eyes and how tightly Sam curled his knuckles I got that he hadn’t expected our date to take this turn. My anger had gotten the better of me, and I was blowing it. I had to find a way to cover for what we were really doing here until he spilled the information we needed. I was losing my cool and the desperation overwhelmed me. Lying was ridiculous, but I wanted to see him squirm.
“Why do you think I had the cameras installed in your office a few weeks back? Why do you think I had a new system installed in the cottages? I’d suspected for years you’d been having drops done at my B&B, but it wasn’t until I spotted Millie Stephen’s little brother—the same drug-running kid she’d told me two years back hadn’t managed to keep out of jail for more than six months since he was fifteen—making a delivery to you that I started to connect the dots.” He opened his mouth, leaning on his elbows, but I silenced him with one finger. “You can save it. I’m not interested in hearing anything you have to say. All this time, all these years, Ed was right about you.”
Sam’s laugh was loud and rude, and when he slammed his fist against the table, the silverware jingled against the surface. “But he’s the only one who got caught.”
“Nah, man.” Ed said, coming around the side of the booth to stand at my side. Sam moved toward him, his hand reaching for his phone, but Ed grabbed it first, shooting my former friend with a look that dared him to move a muscle. “That’s where you’re wrong.”
“Your ass will be in the back of a cruiser in about ten minutes,” Sam said, scooting across the seat. “And I don’t need my damn phone to call somebody to come get you.”
“No, you won’t,” Slim said, approaching the table. He took Sam’s phone as Ed handed it to him. “But you might wanna think about who you’re gonna call when we bring you in. And I can promise you it won’t be to your uncle’s jail.”