Taming Deputy Harlow

by Jennifer Morey

  “I’m not a detective.” And Jamie had planned on going to Never Summer, anyway. He didn’t need an excuse. Reese was his excuse. He had to see her.

  “No, but you’ll keep her safe while she investigates a forty-year-old murder. The killer is still running free, remember, and he’s avoided arrest all this time. He won’t respond well to the prospect of going to prison now.”

  “If he’s still alive.”

  “Might be better if he isn’t.”

  Jamie curled his fingers near his mouth as he contemplated how much to tell Kadin about the status of his relationship with Reese. He’d find out soon enough, given how explosive Jamie and Reese were together, but he didn’t need to know they’d already been intimate.

  “As it happens, I was planning to ask you for some time away from the office to go see her,” Jamie said.

  Kadin seemed only marginally surprised. “She left without making plans to see you again?”

  “Yes.”

  “She’s a runner all right.” Kadin laughed briefly.

  Their parting kiss came back to haunt Jamie again. As potent as that had been, Reese still stuck to her resolve and had left. “That’s putting it mildly. She’s stubborn.”

  Kadin chuckled again. “I just find out she’s my daughter and you’re already making moves on her? I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what will happen if you hurt her.”

  “No, sir.” Why did he get the feeling if anyone would wind up hurt it would be Jamie?

  “Go pack.” Standing, Kadin moved away from the desk. “Bring your work with you. We can fly in candidates for interviews, if necessary. Penny and I are leaving this afternoon. Lucas Curran is in charge while I’m away. I would have asked Brycen Cage but he’s busy recording a new show.”

  “Lucas is in town?” Lucas worked remotely most of the time and had an office next to Kadin’s. Brycen had no local office.

  “Yes. At my request.”

  He’d met a few of the investigators but not all of them.

  Kadin stopped at the door. “Oh, and don’t tell Reese. I’ll make contact when I think the time is right.”

  * * *

  As Reese reached the town center, she spotted Sawyer Bennington unlocking the front door of his new restaurant. She almost crossed the street to avoid him when he saw her and smiled. Darn.

  With under five hundred residents in Never Summer, everyone knew everyone else and who they slept with. He’d been awfully chatty lately. And the way he looked at her made her uncomfortable. Not that he’d be a bad catch. He was rather nice-looking and in shape. He’d also just come back after completing a business and culinary degree, rented the commercial space right in town and opened a pub called The Ore House. But hooking up with a local didn’t appeal to her. What if it didn’t work out? Hooking up with anyone didn’t appeal to her right now.

  Not even Jamie?

  He came to her mind a lot. In fact she didn’t think he’d left since she’d met him. As crazy as it was, she missed him. No, yearned for him.

  She stopped at the dark brown brick front with double-paned windows reflecting morning sunlight, giving only a glimpse of wood tables and a back-lit bar that made the bottles of booze look like lamps. He always started early preparing the restaurant for business.

  “Morning, Reese,” he drawled. He was much more country than his father. If he wasn’t from Never Summer, she’d consider dating him.

  Jamie wasn’t from Never Summer...

  “Hello, Sawyer.”

  “Good to see you.” His eyes took a trip down her body in a way she disliked from most men. It was disrespectful and a cheap way to let a woman know he thought she was pretty. “Heard you cashed in on a windfall.”

  A lot of people had commented on her find. “How’s business?”

  His face beamed pride. “Very well. I can take real good care of my lady on the income I bring in.” He winked at her. “Tourist season was generous.”

  Her cue to move on. Scratch the idea of dating him at all. His innuendo made her recoil. Besides, he paled in comparison to Jamie. She started to think Jamie may have ruined her for any other man. At least for a while.

  She smiled to be polite and started walking again.

  “I’ll keep your secret if you have dinner with me.”

  The hidden money was no secret. She waved without stopping or looking back. Someday he’d get the hint she wasn’t interested.

  She spotted a man standing outside the local coffee shop, smartphone in one hand. He looked up as she passed. She didn’t recognize him, and she knew every face in town. Must be a tourist.

  Since she moved to her house in town, she could walk to work every day. On her way, she usually ran into residents. Betsy and Horace Milton approached on the sidewalk, Betsy giggling at something Horace said. With her short, spiky gray hair and dancing bright blue eyes, she exuded an abundance of energy. She and Horace led active lifestyles, as evidenced by their fit bodies—despite having lost muscle mass with age. At nearly seventy, they behaved like forty-year-olds.

  “Reese, hello,” Betsy said as she neared.

  “What kind of trouble are you two causing this morning?” Reese teased.

  Betsy laughed and Horace smiled white-crowned front teeth. He’d had a bridge done last year.

  “Horace is threatening to take me down to the creek and have his way with me.”

  Betsy was a real Clairee Belcher from Steel Magnolias.

  “Maybe you should just open the gas station late today.” Reese winked.

  “I tried to, but he’s a hard worker, my Horace.” She leaned against him with happy, love-filled eyes.

  The two had met later in life, after each of them lost their first spouses, Horace’s to death and Betsy’s to unfaithfulness. Reese had only been five when they’d gotten together, but her adoptive mother had told her all about the scandals.

  “Enough kidding about us,” Horace said. “What’s this we hear about you finding a treasure?”

  And Sawyer had offered to keep a secret? Not in this town. “It may be part of a murder investigation. You remember Ella Neville?”

  Horace’s cheerful mood seemed to dim, as did Betsy’s. “Why, yes,” he said. “Terrible tragedy. Jeffrey was never himself after that.”

  “The two of you were friends?”

  “Not close. He lived in town and we were close to the same age. Sheriff back then asked me all sorts of questions. But Ella didn’t live here long before she and Jeffrey got together. I never had a chance to get to know her very well.”

  “Me, either,” Betsy said. “Why do you think the money is related?”

  “I don’t know if it is. Seems awfully strange someone would hide it in my house, though.”

  “Yes, that is strange. Have you learned anything new?” Betsy asked. “It’s been so long. We gave up hope the killer would ever be caught.”

  Everyone in town had. “No, nothing yet.” She refrained from revealing she’d enlisted Kadin Tandy’s agency to help. “I should let you be on your way. I’ll be late to work.”

  “Good running in to you, Reese,” Betsy said.

  Her cell phone rang. Seeing it was Sheriff Robison, she answered.

  “Lavinia Church called. Virgil is at it again. Would you go by there on your way in?”

  She stopped walking. She needed a vehicle for that. “Sure.”

  Turning back, she headed up the street toward her house. As she neared the corner, she spotted a familiar truck parked in front of the hotel across the street. Her steps slowed. That couldn’t be...

  Reese stopped walking as a man opened the door. Two combat-booted feet met the pavement and then a tall man wearing a cowboy hat emerged. He looked right at her, but she was too far away to see his blue eyes. His muscled arms and chest bedazz
led her next. In a tight, thin gray sweater and jeans, he took a jacket out of the cab and put it on, concealing all but part of his chest and stomach. She remembered that body.

  Holy...

  “Jamie?” Of all the things she anticipated today, this landed last on the list. It didn’t even make the list.

  He grinned, a sexy lopsided smile that contradicted his size and ruggedness. Striding toward her, he checked traffic and waited for a single car to pass. His distraction gave her a few seconds to devour the sight of him, which punched her most vulnerable senses. The last time she’d felt vulnerable... Had she ever felt vulnerable? The day her parents dropped her off at college. But that had been mild and fleeting. As soon as she realized she was on her own and could do whatever she wanted, the liberation had taken over and she’d soared. So that didn’t count. There was also that second time she and Jamie had made love...

  She would not go there.

  Jamie reached her side of the street and stopped before her, the sun lighting his eyes. His hair had grown a little longer, though it was still short. She had to take deeper breaths. Doing so through parted lips that he noticed, she shut her mouth and swallowed.

  “Good morning, Reese.”

  His deep voice transported her back to their night. As if she needed any more stimulation to do that, anyway.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “What do you think I’m doing here?”

  He’d come for her. Did he mean to start up a relationship? What did he think would come of that? He lived in Wyoming and she lived in Colorado. She didn’t want to move. Would he? Could he? She doubted that, and chided herself for even considering the possibility. What they’d had was one night. If he wanted more nights, would she give him that? Is that all he wanted? She began to worry he may be looking for more. Why else would he have come all this way?

  “I plan to work while I’m here. I have a series of interviews I need to do and I can do those from anywhere since the candidates are from different states, anyway,” he said. “Some we may fly in.”

  “But...” Should she come right out and say she wouldn’t spend time with him? She had a deep, dark feeling she’d be lying if she did.

  “We didn’t get a chance to get to know each other. I’m not here to lure you into bed again. I want to start from the beginning, rather than jump to home plate before the game even starts.”

  As they had done in Rock Springs? She didn’t like his reference to baseball. Though he accurately summed up what had occurred, it made her feel indecent. They had jumped to home plate, but she’d rather not analyze why too much. And it was not because she was indecent.

  “You should have called first,” she said.

  “So you could tell me not to come over the phone? I like this much better.”

  The element of surprise. So, he wouldn’t leave, even if she asked him to. When his determination flattered and delighted her, she turned down her street. “I have to work.”

  “Isn’t the sheriff’s office that way?” He pointed up the street as he kept up with her.

  “Yes, but I need my Jeep.”

  He took hold of her hand and stopped her from walking. “I can take you wherever you need to go.”

  Taking in his tall, gorgeous form, she felt her resistance slip. “That’s okay. I’ll manage.”

  “I’ll take you. We can talk on the way.”

  Talk? She loved talking to him. “No, really.” She started back down the street.

  “Afraid?”

  She stopped again and faced him. “Of what?”

  He stepped close. “Me. What I make you feel.” He leaned in as he said the last part, a playful light in his eyes, shadowed by the rim of his hat.

  His heat radiated to her, or maybe he just heated her. Oh, yes, she should be scared of that. Just his face close to hers triggered a hot reaction.

  “My truck is right there. Your house is three blocks away.”

  He knew where she lived? And as if three blocks was such a long way. She found that sort of funny, that he’d try and use the marginally shorter distance to coerce her into his truck. She smiled, unable to help it. What harm would a ride do? If he wanted to talk, maybe he’d leave once they did.

  “All right. I have to answer a call. It’s a bit of a drive. Do you have time?”

  “Of course.”

  He walked with her to the passenger side and opened the door for her. She saw a few people on the street take notice and got in.

  “You’re sexy in your uniform, by the way.” He closed the door. When he climbed behind the wheel, he added, “I think I even like the ponytail.”

  Was he teasing her? She didn’t think so. “You’re one of those cavemen who prefer their women with their hair down?”

  “Only when the mood is right.”

  Now he teased.

  “You seem to like to let your hair down every once in a while,” he said.

  Reese recognized that for the leading comment it was. She’d let her hair down with him. “Why don’t you just ask me what you want to know?”

  “All right. What made you decide not to get involved in serious relationships?”

  How had he come to that conclusion? She’d told him what kind of relationships she’d had. Well, not everything about them.

  “I guess I got tired of men latching on to me. I don’t mean to sound crass. I just felt they expected more than I was ready to give. They got hurt. I didn’t. Now I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

  He drove in silence for a while. Was he looking for more than she could give? It wasn’t the first time she’d wondered and it bothered her. How could his feelings escalate so quickly? And what about hers? A panicky flare mushroomed. What if she fell for him?

  “I don’t sleep with men like I did with you.” She’d already told him that but felt the need to make sure he understood. “It’s been a long time and you, we...”

  “Yes—we. Reese, are you trying to say you want me to leave?” he asked.

  She should say yes, but she couldn’t. Instead, she turned toward the windshield. Relieved he didn’t say anything more, she watched for the turn ahead.

  “That’s the road there.” She pointed to a barely discernable one-lane gravel road.

  He turned and drove slowly up the long, curving driveway. At the small cabin in a clearing of thick forest, he parked.

  Reese got out and so did he. She stopped when he intercepted her.

  “Just so we’re clear.” He put his hand on her lower back and slowly pulled her to him. She would have jumped away without the fire swirling to life on its own. “I won’t stick around long enough to get hurt.”

  She liked the sound of that. Not that he’d leave eventually. That he possessed so much certainty. He knew his limits. His strength set off a chorus of delightful tingles. His confidence and hard determination rang true in his voice and shone bright in his eyes.

  “And you should take into account that I’m not the one who could end up that way.”

  While she absorbed that enlightening piece of information, he kissed her. Hard at first, then the warmth permeated and took control. His mouth meshed with hers, moving and fitting in perfect harmony. She melted against him, just as she had in Rock Springs.

  Shouting from inside reminded her of her purpose. He let her go and she walked hurriedly to the front door.

  Reese knocked. “Deputy Harlow. Open up!”

  Virgil Church swung open the door, his bushy eyebrows crowded low over hazel eyes. He kept his silver hair combed back. He and his wife must have been around when Ella was murdered. They fit the age bracket. Were they married back then?

  “It’s about time you got here.” Lavinia pushed Virgil aside as she appeared in the doorway. Barely topping five feet, her short, curly, white-
bleached hair looked frozen in place. “He broke my grandmother’s vase. That vase has been in my family for three generations and he broke it!”

  “Lavinia is suffering from dementia and it affects her mood,” Virgil explained. “We had an argument and I smashed the vase on the floor.” He looked at Lavinia. “I lost my temper. I’m sorry. But you’re not an easy woman to live with, especially when you forget things.”

  Lavinia’s blue eyes, which must have been strikingly beautiful in youth, flashed anger. “His temper is horrible. I want a divorce!”

  “May we come in?” Reese asked. This would take some finesse to defuse the situation.

  This wasn’t the first time the sheriff’s office had responded to one of Lavinia’s calls and everyone in town knew she had dementia. On a few occasions, someone had to drive her back home when she got lost. She often lashed out at her poor husband, accusing him of flying into a temper, but Lavinia was always the one in a temper when the sheriff’s office responded. It couldn’t be easy living with someone with dementia and it couldn’t be easy being the one with dementia. It was an all-around sad situation.

  Reese stepped inside before Jamie. Lavinia and Virgil lived in a moderately sized cabin with a detached garage. The A-frame provided wonderful views from the front, and Lavinia had decorated in cottage style that passing time had worn and dated.

  “Walk me through what happened,” Reese said.

  “I was looking for something to watch on TV when Virgil took the remote from me and told me to shut up.” Lavinia’s brow shaped her eyes into a beaten-puppy look, the passion coming from her outweighing the severity of the offense.

  “I was already watching something when she changed the channel,” Virgil said, sending his wife an irritated glance. “She started to yell at me and then I told her to shut up.”

  “We fought until he lifted my vase and threatened to break it if I didn’t shut up.”

  “She didn’t shut up.”

  Reese rubbed beneath her nose, trying not to laugh and to decide the best approach. Beside her, Jamie clasped his hands in front of him as though struggling with the same dilemma.

  “I admit, I shouldn’t have broken the vase,” Virgil said. “I just couldn’t take her badgering anymore.”