The Colton Sheriff

by Addison Fox

  “I recognize there is little comfort while this is happening, but these women deserve a thorough investigation. We have not yet found evidence against any one individual. And I’m not interested in making a false arrest against a potentially innocent person simply to satisfy a ten-second sound bite.”

  “Sound bite? Are you suggesting this is a ploy for the media?”

  “No, Mr. Evigan. I’m suggesting you are using this opportunity to garner ammunition for your campaign.”

  Trey turned to the assembled reporters. “My focus right now is on finding the perpetrator who killed an innocent woman. We will share information as we have it and as we are able. I will plan on convening a press conference this afternoon at four o’clock to provide an update on where we are.”

  Without waiting for more questions, Trey headed back into the sheriff’s station. Evigan continued to rant and rail behind him, but the reporters were decidedly less interested, a few of them already scattering at the idea Evigan was using them for political gain. Trey had no doubt it was a temporary victory, but he’d take what he could get.

  And now he had to figure out how to address this situation by late afternoon.

  * * *

  After a morning spent holed up in the conference room, Aisha was pleased to get out and stretch her legs a bit. Ever since the press conference, Trey had been distracted. She’d seen little of him as he was either embroiled in back-to-back meetings with various deputies or hunkered down over his computer in his office poring over the case.

  Every available resource had been called in. And each deputy was stretched like a very thin wire. Which had made her lunchtime walk a double benefit. She’d get out and pick up lunch so everyone would get food.

  A win-win.

  Unlike the poor woman who even now lay in the morgue.

  Aisha had turned it over and over in her mind throughout the morning. Why the break in pattern? It was the question she kept coming back to and simply could not let go of.

  April Thomas, the sixth victim discovered on the mountain, had been the same. Although Aisha hadn’t fully identified it at the time, now when she compared that death with the other five she saw what she’d missed at first. Thomas’s death felt more like opportunity rather than the woman being specifically targeted because she fit a profile.

  Was the copycat angle the right one to pursue?

  And if it was, did that mean the killer and his crimes were being ignored?

  Goodness, it was overwhelming. She knew Trey was under enormous stress—had known it for months and had sympathized with his situation—but now seeing it up close she realized just how maddening it all was. It was as if each thread you attempted to tug came up with both a knot and a dead end.

  The sign for Bruno’s Pizzeria came up ahead of her, and Aisha’s attention was so focused on lunch she missed the man loitering in front of a nearby shop.

  “If it isn’t the little woman.” The man she recognized as Barton Evigan’s brother spoke up.

  Her pulse sped up, but Aisha kept her voice even, her tone as full of disdain as she could project. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

  “You know we did. Last night. At your fancy dinner. But I’ll remind you again for good measure. I’m Trace Evigan.”

  “What do you want?”

  “A little respect.” The man’s eyes were dark and dangerous, a combination she’d seen before. He thought himself above her, whether because she was a woman, or worse because she was a black woman.

  “I give respect where it’s earned.”

  “Like your precious sheriff?”

  “Trey Colton is a good man. Unlike your brother, who is an opportunist and a snake.”

  The man took a few steps forward before he clearly thought better of himself. “You’ll be talking a different tune before you know it.”

  Talking a tune? She ignored his odd response in the more urgent need to get away from him. “Don’t count on it.”

  “You’re the one who needs to stop counting things. You and your boyfriend have been counting roosters that haven’t even hatched yet.”

  Aisha knew a fruitless argument when she saw one, but the urge to go another round with the ass was great. But why? Every exchange between Trey and Barton Evigan had been fraught with drama and a not-so-subtle sense of danger. Like an undercurrent, the threat from both men was hard to pin down, but there all the same.

  She was prevented from making a choice she’d regret when Trace backed up, his attention still pinned on her. “My brother’s going to make a hell of a better sheriff for the good people of this county. You can count on that.” He cocked his finger in the shape of a gun and mimed pulling the trigger. “It’s only a matter of time.”

  “And an election,” Aisha muttered to herself after she was satisfied he’d gotten into his car.

  The rich scents of Bruno’s Pizzeria welcomed her as she ducked into the shop. A stack of pizzas already rose up at the edge of the counter, and Aisha did a quick scan and figured the six boxes were her order. She walked over to pay, more relieved than she’d have expected by Rosa Bravo’s broad smile.

  “Hello, my girl. How are you doing?”

  “I’m good, Rosa.” Aisha thought about the swirling morass of feelings that currently occupied her life and pressed on with the lie. “How about you?”

  Rosa shook her head and clucked. “I heard about what’s going on down at the station,” she whispered and bowed her head. “Another poor dead girl.”

  Aisha sighed. Between the media coverage and the speed with which news flew around a town the size of Roaring Springs, it wasn’t a surprise Rosa knew. But still...

  How was Trey supposed to keep a lock on this? The dead woman might be big news but law enforcement needed time to do their jobs.

  Although Rosa’s concern was genuine, Aisha was hesitant to say much. Her loyalty was to Trey and she didn’t want to come off as if another death in town was gossip fodder. “It’s very sad.”

  “And in the midst of so much happiness.” Rosa reached over and laid a hand over Aisha’s where it lay on the counter. “An engagement. It’s all your mother could talk about the other day.”

  While the death of an innocent might not be fit gossip, conversation about an upcoming wedding was straight up the line of small-town conversation. Although she knew she and Trey had technically “gone public” with their dinner the prior evening, her mother knew better. She’d have to have a conversation with LaShanna about her eagerness to spread the word.

  Even if she’d had every intention of avoiding her mother for a few days until she’d internally settled a bit over having sex with Trey. Her mother knew her better than anyone and Aisha had serious doubts she could keep her joy under tight enough wraps. It already felt like excitement oozed out of her pores. Wasn’t a mother trained to know when stuff like that happened?

  And hell and damn, what had she gotten herself into?

  “Trey Colton is such a good man.” Rosa’s broad smile punched through the confusion over how to handle LaShanna Allen. “I’ve been pulling for you two.”

  “Thank you.”

  Shades of Earl’s comments the night before seemed to echo through the pizzeria. About damn time, too. I’ve seen you two running around since you were little ones. Peas in a pod, you both were.

  Were Rosa and Earl in this together? And what was it with everyone telling her and Trey that they’d always expected them to get together?

  Vowing to puzzle through it later, Aisha opened her wallet to pay for the pizzas before Rosa waved her off. “My treat today. You tell everyone down at the station house I’m grateful for them.”

  “Rosa. You don’t have to—”

  The older woman waved a hand. “It’s my pleasure. And you give them my thanks.”

  “I certainly will.”

  Aisha snagged the pizz
as and headed back out to the street. The walk to the station house was a short distance away and the time passed quickly as she considered all that had happened since she’d walked out twenty minutes ago.

  All of Roaring Springs knew there was another dead body.

  Those in the know in Roaring Springs knew she was engaged.

  And her mother had clearly taken great joy in spreading the word far and wide about her daughter’s fake engagement.

  When had her life gone so sideways? And why did it increasingly feel as if things would never go back to the way they used to be?

  * * *

  He watched Aisha Allen hotfoot it through downtown Roaring Springs, lunch clearly in hand. Did he call her the little woman? Or a pain-in-the-ass busybody?

  Or even more likely, a complication?

  He’d heard the rumors, of course. Roaring Springs was small and he was well connected. She was engaged to the sheriff. It seemed sudden but the two of them were thick as thieves. Always had been. It wasn’t too big a leap to see them suddenly figure out there was something sparking there all along.

  Besides, she was hot. Truth be told, Trey Colton should have been tapping that a lot sooner if the man had half a brain in his head.

  The real question was how did he use the information to his advantage? Aisha Allen was smart and she was well respected. He’d always had a healthy disdain for shrinks, but also knew to keep his distance. There was nothing they loved more than digging into someone else’s backstory and deep, dark history, dredging up whatever they could.

  He’d buried his past a long time ago and had no interest in seeing that change.

  Not one bit.

  Perhaps it was time to create a little distraction.

  He wanted his vengeance but he wanted it on his own timetable. A sheriff up for reelection would be damned focused on hunting down clues to catch a killer.

  Since he didn’t know yet who’d killed the woman, he needed time to figure it out. The only way he could do that was if he changed the game.

  Aisha’s form had grown smaller as she’d walked toward the sheriff’s station, disappearing altogether when she turned into the parking lot. It didn’t matter. She’d make a nice diversion for Trey Colton but deep down he sensed he needed a bigger play.

  Something even more distracting than putting the sheriff’s woman in the hospital.

  Something a little more personal.

  Chapter 15

  Trey heard the commotion just before he smelled the distinct aroma of meat, cheese and doughy goodness. The damn-near stampede down the hall from the bullpen to the front entrance paraded past his office with all the finesse of a herd of rhinos and, as his stomach let out a trumpeting roar of its own, Trey got up and quickly followed behind.

  Aisha was back.

  Since his heart did a weird little flip at that thought, he slowed his walk and tried for a few extra beats to gather his thoughts. Despite the craziness of the early-morning phone call and all that had come since—including a call from their esteemed governor—the night they’d spent together hadn’t been far from his mind. He knew he should be focusing all his effort and attention on catching a killer—copycat or otherwise—but his brain was determined to dissect every single second of making love with his best friend.

  Who knew it could be so incredible? Or maybe a better question was how had the two of them taken so long to get to that place.

  Together.

  Mental images had assailed him all morning, matched by the sizzling-hot memories of how her skin felt beneath his palms. The weight of her breasts as he’d held each in his hands. The light moans that tore from her throat as her orgasm took her under.

  All of it was as vivid as if she were still in his arms and seared in his mind with a mental branding iron.

  The hallway from his office to the front entrance of the station wasn’t that long, and in a matter of steps he’d closed the distance. Aisha stood in the middle of his team, her curly hair spilling out of her ponytail holder and her fit frame shown off to perfection in a sleeveless tank and shorts.

  She was perfect. Not only strong and beautiful and lovely on the outside but just as amazing—even more, really—on the inside. She’d keyed in so quickly on the crime scene photos, her unerring cleverness hitting on the fact that the latest victim didn’t put up much of a struggle. She’d been equally quick to entertain the copycat notion, already settling in to work up some scenarios of what that might look like. The woman wasn’t a profiler, but she was good at her job and she understood human nature.

  And she understood him.

  What he needed. What made him tick. Even the quick run to get pizzas was as much of a gift to his team as it was to him. She understood how hard they all worked and was determined to make them feel encouraged. Supported.

  Believed in.

  Oh, God, how was he going to give her up?

  He’d flirted with that thought off and on since they’d started the whole fake engagement thing, but something about making love to her had made the reality of that sharper, somehow.

  And much starker.

  “I saved you a few slices of pepperoni from the ravening beasts,” Aisha said as he moved closer, setting her own slice down on the counter.

  “Thanks.” One of his deputies made kissing noises and Trey shot him a side eye. “Nice, Brooks.”

  Nathan Brooks was a jokester and the subtle encouragement was all he needed. “Some fiancé you are. You two should be out interviewing DJs and tasting wedding cake and instead you’re stuck here. It’s a wonder she sticks around, Sheriff.”

  “Lucky for us she did.”

  Nathan wiggled his eyebrows at Aisha while clutching a hand to his heart. Trey didn’t miss the small dab of pizza sauce that stuck itself just over the B on Brooks’s Bradford County T-shirt and suspected Aisha didn’t, either. “Drop this one, Aisha, and say you’ll be mine forever. I avoid working most weekends and I’m loyal.”

  “You may be loyal but you’re barely house-trained, Brooks,” Aisha shot back. “But you are cute. I’ve got a cousin I can fix you up with.”

  All joking left Nathan’s face. “You serious?”

  “Sure.” Aisha nodded before reaching over and wiping off the sauce with a napkin. “I’ll give you her number.”

  Trey knew the exchange for the joke that it was, but something still stuck hard in his throat at the idea of Nathan Brooks asking Aisha out on a date. The quick shift in focus to her cousin didn’t do much to assuage the tension that knotted his shoulders. “Remember you owe her one.”

  Nathan’s eyes already danced in anticipation. “I sure do.”

  With their immediate hunger satisfied, people headed back to their desks with paper plates full of second and third slices. “Thanks for running out. I’ll get that expensed for you.”

  “No need.”

  “Sure there is. You don’t need to feed us.”

  “In this case, that was a delivery only. The pizzas were on Rosa.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep. And for the record, she’s pulling for you.”

  Without checking the impulse, Trey bent down and pressed a kiss to her mouth. He took his time and lingered, the warm garlicky taste of pizza and sauce still on her lips a delicious counterpoint to the soft warmth of her mouth and the memories of what they’d shared only a few hours earlier. “I’m pulling for us, too.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “It is what I meant.” Trey leaned in for another kiss, but unlike the first he felt the slightest reluctance emanating from her.

  “Aish? You okay?”

  “Sure.” She smiled but he saw the truth beneath the warm veneer. She wasn’t okay. The question was why? Was it the discovery of a dead body? Or the realization that there was a deep, abiding attraction between the two of them?

&nbs
p; “I’m just tired is all. It’s been a busy day and I’m not sure this is the right place to be—” she hesitated before adding quietly “—carrying on.”

  “We’re alone.” Trey glanced around the office. Although there wasn’t anyone in the immediate vicinity, his team was all over the building. There wasn’t any reason to think someone wouldn’t walk back, either for more pizza or simply in the normal course of their work. “Besides, we’re engaged.”

  “Is that what we’re calling it?” She lowered her voice. “I thought it was a ruse designed to cover any manner of sins.”

  While they’d made a pact at the start to minimize displays of affection, hadn’t things changed last night? “Is that how you see what’s going on?”

  “It certainly isn’t the truth.”

  Trey wasn’t sure when or how things had gone sideways, but he wasn’t about to be cavalier about it.

  Not one bit.

  “Last night was the truth,” he finally said.

  “Was it?”

  * * *

  She hadn’t intended to pick a fight. Not at all.

  But now that the first few licks of fire were out there, Aisha realized it had been building for quite some time. Since the fake engagement. Since the endless feelings she had for Trey that she’d struggled to make sense of.

  This was neither the time nor place for it to all come tumbling out, but she couldn’t stand there and pretend to be all nicey-nicey. Or kissy-kissy, as the young officer had indicated.

  Nor could she pretend she wasn’t affected by Trey. By all of it.

  She’d believed herself able to handle what they were doing, but increasingly, it looked like she had deluded herself. Her heart wasn’t nearly as well armed as she’d thought and it was only now beginning to become obvious what a risk she’d taken by agreeing to this ridiculous ruse.

  He’d kissed her. Over pizza and in plain view of his deputies. Like she belonged there.

  Like they belonged together.

  She wanted to believe it, but she’d thought something similar once before and she’d been wrong. She’d had a relationship once built on a mirage and now here she was, doing it all over again.