Hiding From The Sheriff (A Southern Kind of Love Book 1)

by Palmer Jones

  She nipped his bottom lip. “Do you have to go to work?”

  “Got bad guys to stop and paperwork to complete. Thankfully in Statem, it’s usually more paperwork than bad guys. Although I do need to go over the latest surveillance footage.”

  She ran her hands over his shoulders and rose on her toes giving him one hell of a kiss that made him almost call in a favor to another deputy on their Sunday morning off. He’d never hear the end of it from the guys at the station.

  “I’ll get two cups.” She stepped away from him and opened a cabinet.

  “Sorry about the mess.”

  “It doesn’t bother me.” Her eyes narrowed. “But don’t think I’m like one of those magical girlfriends that clean up after you and thinks your messiness is cute. Those are the unicorns of our species. I’m more of a look-the-other-way kinda gal and try to find something clean to use.”

  Girlfriend. The title started to twist his insides around until he looked at the openness in her expression. No lies. No games. He ran a hand over her hair. “No unicorns here. Got it.”

  She held up the cups. “None of your dishes match. Is that some kind of country chic thing?”

  “More like a hand me down thing. If you’ve noticed, I don’t have anything that matches.” He finished scooping the coffee and clicked it on. The smell filled up the kitchen. “I have to warn you. Most people hate my coffee.”

  “How can you ruin coffee?”

  “It’s possible. Becky and Juliana suffocate theirs with sugar.”

  “Sugar is good, but not necessary. I drink coffee any way you brew it.”

  “I remember you saying that.” He shook his head. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Hungry?”

  Her eyes locked with his. She gave his shoulder a nip with her teeth. “Is that code for something?”

  “Might be code for honeybuns.”

  Her eyes sparkled as her finger traced his tattoo. “I might be up for a honeybun.”

  After a quick glance at the clock, thirty minutes until he needed to leave, he bent down and lifted Addie over his shoulder. “Honeybun it is.” She squealed as he carried her back to the bedroom. He could do a lot in thirty minutes.

  Stretched out across Cameron’s bed, Addie configured the new laptop he’d given her in the exact way she wanted it. The programs she added gave extra safeguards against someone tracking her movements. In less than an hour, she’d rerouted her connection three times, made another pot of coffee, and rummaged through Cameron’s closet to find a questionably clean pair of pajama pants. He hadn’t exaggerated when he said nothing in his house matched. The towels were various colors. His sheets and pillow cases didn’t match. The entire house screamed bachelor.

  She pulled up the White Rabbit’s server and shot a message to Miss Alice.

  Finally got a good connection. I’m on it now.

  Miss Alice must devote her life to doing nothing but monitoring the message center. A response came back.

  About damn time, Hollywood. Last chance.

  Addie lifted her fingers to type something back but let the issue drop. No use in sending her excuses. She’d do better to get her butt into gear and figure out how to get into Sunflower’s server.

  Gaining access to the system could be done in several ways. Since the fancy Mr. Sunflower was so sophisticated, she’d do a straight phishing scheme. Three hours of research later and she’d emailed four members of his gang to their personal accounts offering a discount on top of the line perfume. Now she had to wait.

  “Time for a refill.” She rolled off his bed, laughing as Lacy jumped up with a bark and raced to the back door. “Need to go out?”

  Addie grabbed the leash, clipped it on, and let Lacy meander wherever. It felt nice to get up and move. Typically, a hacking job took hours, days, and coming up for air, or food was rare. She’d adjusted her schedule around Brian being home, keeping it all a secret and running it mostly at night, but now she didn’t need to do that.

  Freedom tasted good.

  But she’d wasted so much time at this point, the quicker she found the information to hand over the better. She wanted this job. Being out of work and without a place to live made her a little antsy.

  Jogging back inside, giving them both a boost of energy, Addie headed straight to the kitchen for the coffee. It wasn’t quite as strong as Cameron’s had been, but close enough.

  She returned to the computer. No emails. Only one of Sunflower’s goons needed to reply to her email from Sunflower’s IP address. Then, she could go into the original version of the message which gave the IP address and information needed to locate the physical origin of the email. A simple cut and paste into another program, and it began tracking the location and server that sent the message. As long as the thug sends a signal from Sunflower’s internet, she could trace it back.

  Once she had the server information—

  “Addie?”

  She screamed, rolling over and right off the bed.

  Lacy pounced, licking and jumping on top of her.

  “Are you okay?” Cameron picked the dog up and a moment later picked her up. “I called your name when I first came in.”

  She pushed her hair off her face. “Sorry. In the zone, I guess. Why are you back?”

  His eyebrows pulled down. “It’s lunchtime. Said I’d be back by then.”

  Glancing around, the clock on his desk showed twelve-fifteen. “Right. Time to go back to your parents’ house.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, looking so adorably uncomfortable with something that Addie couldn’t help but smile. “What’s wrong? You’re not getting that morning after awkward thing are you? Because it’s afternoon. You missed your chance.”

  “No.” His hands rested on her shoulders. “I hated thinking of you here by yourself doing whatever it is you do. That someone might find out and come after you. I know what you said, but I can’t seem to get it out of my head.”

  “Unless they have a supersonic jet, don’t think they could have made it by now.” She gave him a gentle squeeze. “You have to trust me.”

  His eyes flicked away. It was subtle, but enough of a confirmation that he didn’t really trust her. She’d trusted him enough to let him in closer than anyone else before. Her job didn’t give her the opportunity to share everything. If he had a big case or something secretive, she wouldn’t expect him to tell her the nitty-gritty details.

  “Actually, I hate asking you this, but I didn’t know if you could look back at the camera. See if they caught anything last night. The guy broke-in again, but this time it was at Ms. Iris’s diner. She’s upset because he left all the fridges in the back open. Made himself a sandwich.” He grimaced. “Becky’s already threatening to patrol the diner at night with her shotgun.”

  “Becky has a gun?”

  “She grew up hunting, so, yeah, she has a gun. Don’t show up at her house unannounced either.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “I’ll remember that.” She settled back on the bed with her laptop, her fingers wanting to keep working on Sunflower.

  “What’s that?” He pointed to the avatar in the corner with Hollywood written across it.

  “Oh, that’s my alias. Hollywood.” She closed her other screens and opened the server she’d hacked into before. The video from last night played.

  The guy walked right past it.

  “Wait. I think that’s Dexter.” She enhanced the video. “Those are his boots.”

  “Boots? Are you sure?” He sat down on the bed behind her. “They look like ordinary boots.”

  She rolled her eyes and leaned back against his chest. “They’re tan.”

  “I own a pair of tan boots.”

  “I didn’t say I was positive. It’s the way his pants bunched up around the top of them.”

  His silence was proof enough. He didn’t buy her story. She fast-forwarded through the rest of the night, satisfied they had the best angle they could on him. Maybe it wasn’t him. It was a pretty lame way
to identify a suspect.

  “Thanks for looking it up. C’mon, let me take you back. I’m going to have to get back soon.”

  Her head tilted to the side as his lips trailed down the column of her throat. His hands reached around her, closing the laptop screen. She closed her eyes. “Can I be with you tonight after work?”

  “I’m planning on staying around the station. I’ve got to break this case, Addie.” His hands fisted along the side of the pajama pants of his she wore. “I can probably get a break at some point.”

  She’d been afraid he’d start listing all the reasons they shouldn’t be together. Leaning back against his chest and turning her head, she reached a hand back behind his neck to pull his lips down to meet hers.

  If he wasn’t going to discuss it, she wouldn’t bring it up. The countdown to the last kiss had begun. She wanted every moment with him without their future hanging over them like a dark cloud. To enjoy it and know she’d have to move on.

  He rested his forehead against her temple. “I really need to go.”

  “But later?”

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “Later.”

  20

  Twenty minutes later, Addie snuggled next to Cameron in the middle of his pickup truck as he drove back to his parents’ house to drop her off. Like two teenagers. Except they both had a paycheck and no curfew. Part of her was grateful that she’d not dated him as a teenager. He would have intimidated the crap out of her.

  “I appreciate you not making me ride in the back of your patrol car.”

  “It’d make it a little difficult to touch you.” He punctuated the statement by squeezing her thigh.

  She leaned her head against his shoulder. “Can I still go to your place to work later?”

  “Mom has a spare key. Let yourself in anytime. It will keep me from having to find time to feed Lacy if you can do that for me.”

  They pulled down the long driveway to his parents’ house, Cameron’s Sheriff’s car still parked to the side next to his dad’s.

  He turned off the truck and cut his eyes at her. “If my mom catches me kissing you, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  She kissed behind his ear, flicking her tongue along the spot she learned he liked last night.

  “You don’t play fair,” he grumbled but didn’t pull away. His strong hands slid along her thighs. Why did he have to work?

  “I never understood how to play fair. I play to win.” She kissed the other side. “By any means necessary.” She wanted to crawl into his lap, savor what was left of their little bubble together before reality came back.

  “Dammit, Addie.” He caught her lips and swept her up into a kiss she wouldn’t forget in a long, really long, time. Like. For eternity. The guy had some serious moves.

  A loud bang on the hood broke them apart.

  Sheriff Dempsey motioned to Cameron before jogging to his own police car. “Why isn’t your radio on?” he shouted.

  Cameron unbuckled and jumped out, checking the radio on his hip. “Crap,” he muttered. “It must have been turned down.”

  Addie held onto the steering wheel before she tumbled face first into the dirt. “What’s going on?”

  He reached back with a hand, helping her out of the truck.

  “Williams County just called for back-up on a car chase of a suspected drug dealer headed into our county. Right now. Head toward the old Fire Tower Road.” Sheriff Dempsey slammed his door. Partway down the driveway, he gunned his engine, gravel and dirt flying.

  Cameron sprinted to his car, Addie right behind him. “Be careful,” she said, the sentiment sounding pointless in the panic rippling inside.

  He spun around and kissed her hard on the lips. “Please stay here until I get back.” He sat down in the car, starting it before he’d even closed his door. She jumped onto the porch as he wheeled through the front yard and accelerated out of sight.

  Her heart pounded in her throat. Her tongue felt dry. Why hadn’t she realized he did real-life cop things beyond trying to catch a serial petty thief? Car chases could end in shootouts or wrecks. Life had been so quiet in Statem. He could get hurt. Killed.

  All night he’d held her, both pretending that life didn’t exist outside of his house. The sunlight coming in through the windows early this morning had illuminated his tan skin as she traced the tattoo, committing it to memory this time. That was a lifetime ago.

  She continued to stare down the driveway. The chase could be called off, and he’d come back. The uncertainty of what might happen rattled her deeper than anything else ever had.

  Her smile came suddenly.

  When had she fallen in love with the country boy? Her optimism bottomed out at the same moment. They had less than a week.

  “Addie?” Mrs. Dempsey stepped down to stand beside her. “I guess you heard the guys had to head out.”

  “I saw them leave.” She studied Mrs. Dempsey’s profile. “Are you worried?” She had a husband and son that could face life or death every day.

  She watched the driveway with the same longing Addie felt. “More for Cameron. There’s a wife’s love that runs deep. Bone deep. If anything happened to Jimmy…” She trailed off and shook her head. Her eyes shifted to Addie. “Life would be hard. But that’s nothing compared to something happening to Cameron. A part of my soul would die if he did. I’m not sure there’s any recovery for that.”

  Addie rubbed her arms as a cold chill crept over her skin. She swallowed over the lump in her throat. “I hope they’ll be okay.” Because, for the first time, she’d understood that bone-deep ache for someone. Cameron and his grumpy, strait-laced personality had taken root. Dirty dishes and everything. She wasn’t ready to give it up yet.

  He hadn’t mentioned their next step, and she didn’t have a solution. They were farther apart than simply miles. Their jobs didn’t mix.

  “Let’s go make some tea.”

  Addie arched an eyebrow at Mrs. Dempsey, causing her to laugh.

  “Fine. I’ll make you some coffee before we eat lunch. You can tell me all about the benefit dance last night.” She draped an arm over her shoulders. “And anything else you want to talk about that might have happened.”

  Mrs. Dempsey might be one of those cool moms, but she’d stick to PG-rated topics and leave her son’s incredible skills in the bedroom out of the conversation.

  She chatted about the dance while Mrs. Dempsey warmed up leftovers for lunch.

  After two hours of waiting in the kitchen, Addie moved to her room, changing out of his pajama pants and into a pair of leggings. She curled up in her bed. Her whole body felt drained from the tension of waiting to hear about Cameron.

  Cameron’s smell, that pine tree scent she’d discovered that morning came from the soap he used in his shower, infiltrated her light sleep.

  “Addie.” His hand stroked her hair.

  She jolted upright. Their foreheads smacked together.

  “Ah!” She cried, rolling over holding her head against the immediate pain.

  “Shit, are you okay?” He pulled her hand away, brushing the pad of his thumb over what was sure to be an ugly bruise.

  Reality busted through the throbbing ache. “You’re back.” She threw her arms around his neck, breathing him in deep. “I was so worried.”

  Strong arms held her close. A half-laugh vibrated in his chest. “I didn’t realize it’d scare you that much.”

  “I didn’t either.”

  He set her away from him. She pointed at a long, shallow gash across his forehead. “Did I do that?”

  “No.” His jaw a light discoloration of a bruise. Sweat beaded along his hairline, the back of his neck and shirt collar damp.

  “What happened?”

  “The guy wrecked his car and tried to run.”

  She traced the bruise with a light finger. “Did he fight you?”

  A dimple formed next to the corner of his lip. “No. But it wasn’t for lack of trying on my part. When I caught him, I tackled him,
and we rolled down a hill, and the motion threw me into a tree.”

  She leaned up and kissed his jaw. “I’m sorry a tree beat you up, but I’m glad you came back somewhat intact.” She moved to kiss his neck and found herself pressed back onto her pillow. Cameron’s delicious body weight pushed away from the worry, replaced by a new need she recognized as more than pure lust. Love. She didn’t ever want to give this up.

  His kiss parted her lips.

  How had she missed this feeling her whole life? The longing to get as close to a man as possible. The realization that she loved him made everything bright and sunny now that he was back and safe. She pulled him tighter. He gripped her thigh, pulling it up next to his hip.

  God, she wanted him.

  “You’re stopping by tonight, right?” Her question came out in a pant. No use playing hard to get.

  “Yes.”

  “Good,” she muttered against his lips.

  He smiled, breaking their kiss. “I have to get back to the station.” He sat up, dragging her to a sitting position.

  “I’ll be sure to feed Lacy tonight before I get zoned out on taking down Sunflower.”

  The sexy look in his eyes faded. He brought her to her feet as he stood, his lips set in a thin line of annoyance. “Do you really have to do this job? I just chased down a drug dealer. It wasn’t pretty, Addie.”

  The warm fuzzy feeling started to disappear.

  “You’re messing with some of the lowest scum on the earth. Seriously. A drug lord? I don’t want you anywhere near them. I can’t protect you if you can’t tell me who you’re targeting.”

  She crossed her arms. “I didn’t think I asked you to protect me.” How had their lovely interlude turned into an argument about her job? She’d been riding high on the feelings of love and relief and now, nothing but annoyance and frustration.

  “Look,” he began, setting his hands on her shoulders. “You said you were scared for me today. That should make sense why I’d be scared for you.”

  No. It didn’t. Not unless he had the same feelings. Not unless he loved her.