by Riley Storm
Pushing open the door, she didn’t bother to fight the smile on her face. If Dunbar lashed out at her for not being miserable, too bad. She would handle it. Nothing was going to get her down today. Nothing at all.
Carla was unable to keep silent at the sight that greeted her inside the station. “What the heck?”
Dunbar was there, but he was dressed in civilian clothes, and had a box of stuff in one hand. He was red in the face, whisper-yelling at another person, who had their back to Carla.
The rest of the office was gathered in another corner, talking excitedly amongst themselves. Carla walked in, heading over to the grouping—despite Dunbar’s efforts, he’d not been able to turn the rest of the station against her. She wasn’t the most popular deputy, but she wasn’t disliked either. They would tell her what was going on.
“Spence,” she said quietly to her closest friend on the tiny force. “What’s going on?”
“You didn’t hear?” the other deputy said, his face splitting open in a grin.
“Obviously not,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be asking you, now, would I?”
Spencer Alldin grinned. “Dunbar just got sacked! That’s the mayor.”
Carla spun, mouth dropping open in shock as she realized he was right. It was the mayor of Five Peaks.
“What the hell is Mayor Pollock doing, firing Dunbar? I don’t understand.”
“No idea,” Spencer said. “But you don’t see me complaining, now do you? Nor should you!”
“Well, of course not,” she said, elbowing him in the side. “You’re next in line to become Sheriff. Why would you complain? Good for you, Spencer, good for you.”
“Nothing is official yet,” Spencer said. “Still has to be confirmed, everything like that. I’m not taking it for granted. I never thought I’d see Dunbar sacked either. I figured he’d just be Sheriff until he died.”
“I never understood how he kept getting elected,” she said, shaking her head. “Beats me how Pollock put up with him for so long. At least he’s not a complete idiot.”
In front of her, Spencer stiffened.
“And he’s standing right behind me now, isn’t he?” she asked
Spencer nodded.
Carla sighed. “I am never going to get off desk duty at this rate,” she muttered and turned around. “Mayor Pollock, good to see you,” she said with a nod.
“Like Deputy…Frazer, is it?”
“Yes sir,” she said.
“Right. Well, Deputy Frazer, I appreciate your half-compliment, believe it or not. I’ll never make everybody happy, so if people think I’m only half an idiot, then I like to think I’m doing my job of appeasing all the various people of Five Peaks.” He tossed her a wink to let her know he wasn’t mad.
Carla smiled tightly. “Of course, sir.”
“And for your information, I never liked that pompous dick. But he was elected, and so I was forced to deal with him.”
Carla’s eyes strayed to the front of the office, where Dunbar was just exiting. Would that that was the last sight she ever saw of him, departing his beloved station in shame and disgrace. The man had earned that much at least.
“So what changed?” she asked, feeling emboldened by the Mayor’s admittance of his distaste for Dunbar. “Why get rid of him now?”
“I can’t disclose everything; there is an investigation pending. Only those who are involved are cleared to know everything,” Mayor Pollock said in an official tone.
She narrowed her eyes at the mayor. Was he trying to hint at something?
“Is there an officer in charge yet?” she asked.
Mayor Pollock smiled. “I was hoping you would volunteer, Deputy Frazer. I hear you’re the best at this sort of thing.”
Carla shrugged. “I can try sir. What investigation is that?”
“Sheriff Alldin here will brief you on the specifics,” Pollock said, nodding his head in Spencer’s direction, a formal confirmation of the transfer of power. “But suffice to say, we received some evidence that Sheriff Dunbar’s elections may have been…how shall we say, not entirely legitimate.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Wow. Okay, yeah, that’s kind of serious. I’ll take the case, assuming of course the Sheriff here is okay with that.”
Alldin grinned. “Of course, I am. Keeps you out of my hair.”
Carla looked up at the new Sheriff. The very bald new sheriff.
“What hair?”
She backed out of range while Alldin glared at her. Only the mayor’s presence was preventing him from punching her in the arm.
“And here I was about to give you a new vehicle,” Alldin said with a sigh. “Put you back out on the road as my first act as Sheriff.”
Carla rolled her eyes. “Give me the keys, Sheriff, or I’ll tell the mayor here about our last trip to Peaks Pub and how you—”
“Okay, okay, Deputy,” Alldin said with a false glare. “Fine. You get the keys. Truce?”
She smiled and stuck out her hand. “Truce.”
“Best of luck, Sheriff,” Mayor Pollock said with a smile. “I think our Sheriff’s Department is in good hands with you two. I’ll be in touch.”
He departed then, leaving the other officers to acclimate to the changes. Dunbar had been Sheriff for decades. There was going to be a lot of change now, she was certain of that.
“Okay, everyone,” Alldin said, clapping his hands. “You heard the mayor. Let’s get to work, make this town proud. We’ve got a lot of damage to undo. No better time to start.”
Carla grinned.
Oh yeah, today was a good day.
Chapter Forty
Carla
“This is it, El Barto,” she said as the solid black gate slid open in front of her. “Our new home.”
Barton made an inquisitive noise and sat up, sticking his head out from the back between the two seats. He wasn’t allowed to ride up front.
“Yup, you got it. Lots of space for activities. If you’re careful,” she added, taking her foot off the brake and slowly guiding the car into the open courtyard that awaited her.
Truthfully, she was a little worried about the move. Not for her sake. Carla was thrilled to begin the next chapter of her life with Pace. Plus, the view was a little bit of an upgrade from her old place.
No, it was Barton she was worried about. Pace had said that most animals usually had a hard time around dragons, and she hoped that one of them wouldn’t accidentally mistake him for a sheep or something and eat him while flying around.
“You’re no sheep, are you, boy?” she said, giving him a quick scratch under the chin.
El Barto ignored her, too intent on looking at the gathering of people approaching.
“They rolled out the welcome carpet for me, I see.”
Barton whined.
Carla laughed. “Oh, of course, buddy, yeah, it’s definitely for you. How could I have been so blind!”
Her dogs mouth dropped open in a doggy smile as he panted excitedly.
“Okay, stay there,” she said, putting her car in park. “I’ll get you in a moment.
“Barton!”
She heard the roar of greeting from outside the car, despite having the windows up. Pace rushed forward to the passenger-side rear door and opened it.
“Hey boy! Hi! Yeah, hi. Hey, how are you? How are you, Barton buddy? You good? You a good boy? Who’s a good boy? Yeah, you’re a good boy, such a good boy. Come on, come let’s go!”
“Honey, I’m home,” Carla said dryly as the door slammed behind Barton, who was now barking excitedly and dancing around Pace, who kept hyping him up.
Getting out of the car, she watched the two of them playing happily. It did warm her heart to see, she couldn’t deny it.
“Boy, do I have a surprise for you, Barton ole buddy, ole pal!” Pace said, reaching behind his back. “Do you want it?”
Barton barked.
“Okay. You gotta sit, though.”
Barton’s rear slammed
into the stone. Carla just snorted. “Do you know how long it took me to teach him that?” she moaned. “He still rarely obeys me.”
“You must be Carla.”
She turned to see a man and a woman approaching, arms linked together. They were young, but definitely older than her by a bit, perhaps a decade or so.
“That’s me,” she said.
“I’m Logan,” the male with the neatly trimmed goatee and short shiny black hair said, extending a hand.
“Ah, Logan, yes, I’ve heard about you. You’re in charge, I guess,” she said.
Logan smiled. “Yes, I guess.”
“That must make you Clarice,” Carla said, turning to the woman. “Pace told me that you were awesome and if I had any issues adjusting, I should come to you.”
“Is that a dog?!”
They all looked up at the higher-pitched cry that could only belong to children. Two boys, maybe ten years old at most, shot out of the crowd and raced toward Barton.
“Those would be my boys,” Clarice said with a happy sigh. “Is that okay?”
“Oh yeah. Barton is in dire need of buddies to play with,” Carla said, watching as her dog bounced and jumped, trying to get the ball out of Pace’s hand.
Her mate almost let him have it, then chucked the ball into the waiting hands of one of the kids, who promptly tossed it across the courtyard at the group of other people.
Someone yelped and they scattered as eighty-odd pounds of dog went flying past, ears flopping, tail wagging as he chased down the ball.
“Kids,” Clarice sighed, half adoring, half exasperated.
Carla grinned. “Yup.”
She felt a twinge in her stomach.
“Are you okay, Carla?” Logan asked, picking up on her momentary pang.
“Yeah,” she said, watching Pace, noting the other kids in the crowd. “Yeah, I think I am.”
Maybe there was time for her after all.
With Pace, the opportunity for the future, for a family of their own, it all seemed believable now.
***
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Other Books by Riley Storm
Thanks for checking out my other books!
Below you can find all my novels, divided up by series. The brackets indicate which of my worlds the series is written in. So dig in!
Dragons of Mount Aterna (Five Peaks)
A Mate to Treasure
A Mate to Believe In
A Mate to Protect (Mid-April 2020)
Storm Dragons (Winterspell Academy)
Stolen by the Dragon
Trapped by the Dragon
Dragon’s Chosen Mate
High House Ursa (Plymouth Falls)
Get the Five Book Bundle (Click Here)
Includes:
Bearing Secrets
Furever Loyal
Mated to the Enemy
Shifting Alliances
Blood Bearon
High House Canis (Plymouth Falls)
Get the Five Book Bundle (Click Here)
Includes:
Savage Love
Blood Mate
Moonlight Bride
Shadow’s Howl
Royal Alpha
High House Draconis (Plymouth Falls)
Get the Five Book Bundle (Click Here)
Includes:
Fire Dragons Bride
Mated to the Water Dragon
Ice Dragon’s Caress
Earth Dragon’s Kiss
Claimed by the Dragon King
About the Author
Riley Storm
Riley is one of those early-morning people you love to hate, because she swears she doesn’t need caffeine, even though the coffee-maker is connected to her smartphone. She lives in a three-story townhouse by the good graces of a tabby-cat who rules the house, the couch, the table, well, basically everywhere. When she’s not groveling for forgiveness for neglecting to pet her kitty enough, Riley is strapped in to her writing chair coming up with crazy worlds where she can make her own decisions of when feeding time is and how much coffee can be drank without her friends—of which she has three—holding yet another intervention that they threaten to post on the internet.
Find her on:
Riley Storm’s Amazon Page
Riley Storm’s Facebook Page