by Amy Lillard
“Well, yeah.” She shifted in her seat. “I’m low on gas. I, uh, thought I would go around to the Shell station and fill up. It’s closer, you know.”
“Uh-huh.” He wasn’t buying it. Not at all. He eyed her as if she were about to run. “What’s really going on, Jessie?”
That man was too smart for his own good. “I’m leaving.”
“Seth? Cattle Creek?”
She nodded, tears clogging the back of her throat.
“Why?” The one word was simple and complex all at the same time.
“He doesn’t love me.”
“You’re wrong about that. He told me himself.”
Oh, how she wanted to believe that to be true. But it was just typical Seth. The peacemaker. Always making the best of everything. He’d go around telling everybody he loved Jessie. He might even start to believe it himself. But she knew the truth. “He doesn’t.”
“So you’re going to leave. Just like that.”
“Just like that.”
“Without saying good-bye.”
She turned to face him but couldn’t look him in the eye. “Good-bye.” Her heart lurched in her chest.
“What about Seth?”
“He’ll figure it out.” It was a coward’s way out, but she just couldn’t handle any more. She’d call him in a day or two, once she had time to settle in, collect herself, understand it. Like that was ever going to happen.
“Are you sure about this? Maybe you should give it a couple more days.”
“I’m sure.” She smiled reassuringly, then added a nod for extra emphasis.
Sadie barked as if to say make that two.
Jake slapped his hand against the side of her car as if to send her on her way. “Be careful, then,” he said.
“I will.” She waved and pasted on a fake smile as she pulled away.
* * *
What do you mean she’s leaving?” Seth covered his free ear with his hand, doing his best to hear his brother over the running noise of the small waterfall created by a thick wooden dam. It wasn’t the biggest dam he had ever seen. But it was sure serving its purpose.
“I mean she’s leaving,” Jake said. “She has a bunch of stuff packed into her car, and she’s headed out of town.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“She had the dog with her.”
That can’t be. They were a couple, weren’t they? Were they? He loved her so much it hurt. Every day his love grew, and he knew eventually that it would consume him whole. His only hope was to have her by his side come what may. She couldn’t leave. He had to stop her.
“Seth?”
“I’ll get over there as soon as I can.”
“You better hurry,” Jake said. “She was almost to the highway.”
Seth muttered a curse under his breath and swiped his phone off. He had to get out of there and find out what was wrong with his wife. The good Lord willing, Jake had misread the situation and Jessie would be waiting for him at the ranch house tonight.
You know that’s not going to happen.
Jessie had been pulling away from him ever since she lost the baby, and he had been helpless to stop it. They had been so close, so close to the love they both deserved. After the baby, he’d wanted to give her time. Time to heal, time to see the truth for what it was.
Damn it! He’d told her he loved her! What else was a man supposed to do?
He made his way over to where Chester waited, his black slacks looking strangely crisp against the muddy banks of the creek.
“Well?” he asked, raising one brow in an echo of his question.
“Listen, Chester. I’m pretty positive that Amos is not responsible for this dam.”
“He most assuredly is.” For all of Chester’s Texas upbringing, the man sounded a lot like an extra for a British sitcom. Dressed that way too, with a brocade waistcoat and pocket watch. “Who else would do something so diabolical?”
“Beavers?” Though he knew good and well that there weren’t any beavers in Cattle Creek. At least not counting the ones that lived on Basin Road, and Seth was fairly certain that Royce and Imogene weren’t responsible for the load of firewood that had been dumped in the creek.
“Poppycock! Beavers aren’t diabolical. It’s man . . .”
Seth had heard the talk so many times he started to tune it out. It was the same every time. Man was the downfall of man. And teenagers had made the dam, but knowing Chester the way he did, even that answer wouldn’t satisfy the man. He wanted Amos strung up. Plain and simple.
But right now he had something more important to do. “Chester. I’ve got something I need to take care of.”
“You need to take care of this.”
How close had she been to the highway when Jake called? He wished he knew. He was running out of time.
“Let me get Dusty out here. Or even Summers.” Bradley Summers was his latest deputy, fresh-faced and eager. Brad was the grandson of the previous sheriff and nephew to Darly Jo, but even with all that stacked against him, he still wanted to be in law enforcement.
“What’s he, twelve?”
“Twenty,” Seth corrected. “And he loves the law. I’m sure he could straighten this out for you.” That was a lie, but Seth needed to go; time was wasting.
“Sheriff, you gotta do something about this.” Amos came barreling through Chester’s pasture.
“You need to get off my land,” Chester countered.
“It ain’t enough that he violated my mailbox and other private property. Now he wants to go and . . .”
Seth blocked out the two and thumbed his cell phone to the address book. He was going to need backup. “Millie, get Dusty out here to the Gibson place. Jessie’s leaving, and I need help.”
“Jessie’s leaving?”
“Just get Dusty out here. Now.” Somehow he managed to keep his cool when he wanted to do nothing more than yell, scream, and jump up and down.
The line was silent for two whole seconds as Seth waited. “He’ll be there ASAP.”
“Thanks, Millie.”
“Sure thing, Sheriff.”
He dialed his second number and did his best to ignore the dueling seniors behind him. This was far more important to him than pink mailboxes and faux-beaver dams.
“Yello,” the young voice on the other end greeted.
“Brad, it’s Seth.”
“Oh! Sheriff.” He could almost hear the boy’s heels click together in military fashion. “What can I do you for?”
“I need you to find my wife.”
“Jessie?”
“She would be the one, yes.” He used one finger to plug his ear as Chester and Amos continued their arguing. “She’s heading toward the Shell station out on the highway.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I need you to find her and stop her.”
“Stop her from what?”
Seth closed his eyes. “Stop her from leaving town.”
“Jessie’s leaving town?”
“Can you do it?” Seth asked.
“I think so.” His tone did not inspire Seth’s confidence.
“Don’t think,” Seth instructed. “Do. Do whatever it takes but don’t let her leave town.”
“Roger that.”
“And, Brad?”
“Yes, Sheriff?”
“Don’t answer the phone ‘Yello.’”
“Yes, sir.” There went that military click again.
Seth hung up and eased back over to the two men. They hadn’t even known that he was gone.
“And furthermore,” Chester was saying with a flourish and a brandishing of his long pointer finger.
“Furthermore, nothing,” Seth interrupted. “This has got to stop, and I need it to stop now.” He turned to Amos. “The Nolan twins painted your mailbox. They thou
ght it would be a good joke and no one would care because they put a pink ribbon on it. You know, the whole breast cancer awareness thing. They also painted Miss Gleeson’s, the fire chief’s, and the one in front of the hospital. They’re doing two weekends of community service and will be putting up new mailboxes in all four places.”
He turned back to Chester. “The basketball team built that dam. Well, more than likely. They’ve gotten into more mischief this summer than I care to recall. It’s time you got that through your head. Amos has a bad back and couldn’t get down long enough for that sort of construction without spending weeks in traction afterward. I’ll call the coach and have a talk with him. He’ll have the boys come out and dismantle it for you. Until then, leave your neighbor alone. Capiche?” Seth asked.
“What exactly does that mean?” Amos asked.
“It means understand, you imbecile,” Chester said.
“I’m the imbecile? At least I speak American.”
Chester rolled his eyes.
Seth would have laughed, but daylight was burning. “I’m leaving, gentlemen. I trust this incident is over.”
He waited for them both to give a nod of agreement before tipping his hat, turning on his heel, and heading back for his truck.
He could only hope that Brad could hold the scene until he could get there.
* * *
The blue-and-red strobe lights flashed in her rearview mirror.
Jessie glanced back, hoping against hope that it wasn’t Seth. Surely he would know his own vehicle. It was probably the highway patrol. Had she been speeding?
Her heart was breaking, so she hadn’t been paying the best attention to how fast she was going.
She rolled down the window as Bradley Summers came up to the side of her car.
“Can I see your driver’s license and registration please?”
Sadie let out a bark from her perch in the passenger’s seat. Then bared her teeth and emitted a low growl.
“Hi, Brad. Is there a problem?”
“Just driver’s license and registration.”
“I understand that.” Jessie fished her wallet out of her purse and handed her license to him. “But why did you stop me?”
“We can talk about that after I see your registration.”
What had Seth done with the registration papers? She leaned over and dug around in the glove box, but there was nothing. She checked over the visors—passenger’s side and driver’s side. Nada. “Let me check under the seat.”
“Ma’am, do you have a registration for this vehicle?”
This was growing more bizarre by the minute. “I don’t know what Seth did with it, Brad, and why are you calling me ma’am?” She fished around under the seat and came back with a folder of papers. Thank heaven, the registration for the Jeep was right on top.
She handed it to Brad.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“I babysat you, and you tried to kiss me at church camp. Why are you calling me ma’am like you don’t even know me?”
“Wait here, ma’am.” He walked back to his car, and Jessie wondered what the odds were that he would follow her if she floored it.
Only two things stopped her. One was the fact that she had Sadie in the car and she wouldn’t risk the pup’s life in a potentially high-speed car chase. And two, she might have known Brad Summers her entire life, but that didn’t mean other agencies wouldn’t get involved in whatever was playing out right now.
Oh, and it was against the law. There was that too. She certainly didn’t want to spend the afternoon in jail. One night there had been enough.
She checked her rearview to see if Brad had taken her documents into his car or if he had done something else. With the way this day was turning out, she wouldn’t have been surprised if he had set fire to them both and was now performing the Mexican Hat Dance around their smoldering remains.
Thankfully he had slid behind the wheel of his car and was talking on the radio. To Millie? To Seth?
Maybe she should take her chances.
“Great,” she muttered as Seth pulled up.
She watched in the mirror as he came up to the car. She didn’t get out.
“What are you doing?” he asked. He looked as if the devil himself had taken up residence. His eyes blazed, his cheeks were red, and his breathing was labored.
“I’m leaving, Seth.” She had said it three times now and it hadn’t gotten any easier.
“Why, Jessie?”
“Don’t make me say it.” She closed her eyes, but they snapped back open again as he responded.
“Say it.”
“You don’t love me, and I can’t make you stay married to me. Not now.”
“You’re wrong. I do love you. More than you will ever know.”
“And this is why I didn’t want to say it.” She shook her head. “You’re a great guy, Seth. One of the best I know. Maybe the best. But I can’t trap you into staying married to me. Let me go. There’s somebody out there for you to love. I can’t keep you from that.”
“Jessica Langston, what the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about words, Seth. Don’t tell me you love me when we both know that’s not true. They’re just words, Seth. Only words.”
“Get out of the car, Jessie.”
Something in his voice made her comply. She slid from the cab of the Jeep and immediately wished she hadn’t. He towered over her in both height and anger. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
Next thing she knew, he had confined her hands in cuffs, and she was on her way to his service vehicle.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m taking you to jail.”
Chapter Twenty-one
You’re what?”
Seth escorted her past the shocked deputy, then opened the back door of the car. “Watch your head.”
Had the entire world gone insane?
“You can’t do this,” she said as he urged her inside.
“Oh, but I can. You see, you stole my car.”
“I thought it was a gift,” she mumbled.
“Tell that to the sheriff.”
“You are the sheriff.”
“Hmmm.”
She looked to Brad. “It was a gift. Help me.”
“Was it a gift?” Brad asked Seth. She had to hand it to the kid. He had a pair for sure.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Seth answered, slipping his sunglasses back into place.
“I’m not sure if you can arrest someone for taking a gift, sir.”
“Fine.” Seth pressed his lips together and gave him a curt nod. Then he turned back to Jessie. “You’re under arrest for stealing my dog.”
* * *
Seth was surprised that he had any molars left by the time he got Jessie to the jail. This had to be one for the history books. How many sheriffs had had the great honor of arresting their wives? Not once, but twice!
He opened the door and helped her from the backseat.
All eyes were on them as he escorted her inside and to one of the holding cells.
“You have anything you want to tell me?” he asked.
“Now, why would you go and ask a fool thing like that?”
“Nothing in your own defense?”
She tossed back her head like an angry filly. “Nope.”
“Then you have the right to remain silent—”
Jessie shut the door before he could even finish. “Lock me up, Sheriff.”
“Are you bad to the bone?” he asked, repeating her words from that fateful night just a couple of months ago.
“Damn straight.”
“A smart man once said, ‘Pride goeth before a fall.’” He watched her reaction as he locked the cell door. Damn, but she was full of piss and vinegar.
“Bible,” she mumbled.
“I beg your pardon.”
“It was in the Bible.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “I believe you’re right.”
“You think I’m being prideful?”
“Honey, I know you are. But it’s okay. I’ve got all day.” He sat down in his chair and propped his booted feet on the desk. “Hell, I’ve got at least another year before election time comes around again.”
“What do you want from me, Seth?”
“I want you to admit that you love me.”
“Why, so you can rub my nose in it? One more notch on the bedpost for Cattle Creek’s most eligible bachelor.”
“No, because it’s a terrible thing, to be in love alone.”
“Who said that? Grandma Esther?”
“Nah, it was on that box of herbal tea you left in the pantry.”
“Sage advice from Lipton.”
He snorted.
“You don’t love me, Seth. Just let me go.”
“You don’t know what I feel. You’ve never given me a chance to explain.”
She crossed her arms and huffed. “Fine. Explain.”
The straight line of her shoulders and the set of her jaw looked dangerous.
“What do I have to do, Jessie? What do you need from me?”
“I need the truth.”
“Never mind.” He had tried, and he was all out of ideas. He couldn’t make her believe. Not when she didn’t want to so badly.
He started toward the door.
“Does this mean you’re going to let me out of jail?”
“No.” He said the one word, then turned to Millie. “Whatever you do, don’t let her out of that cell.” That said, he walked out of the building.
* * *
Jessie flopped back onto the cot and mulled over her options. There really weren’t any. Not until Seth decided to let her out of jail.
Unless Seth hadn’t considered Millie as a weakness. . . .
She was on her feet in a heartbeat. She wrapped her fingers around the bars and said a little prayer this would work.
“Why is he doing this, Millie?” He was only making it harder on them all.
Millie didn’t look up from the papers she was reading.
“Millie,” Jessie tried again. “Just let me out of here. I won’t tell.”