by Stacey Wilk
Chapter Nineteen
Gage held Calista close. Her sweet scent drifted around him while they lay entwined in her bed. Her breathing had deepened as he stroked her back. He didn’t think he would be able to fall asleep. As long as she was wrapped around him naked, he would want to make love to her. He had lost time to make up for. He didn’t care if he sounded like a teenager who couldn’t control his hormones.
She had offered herself up to him today. She was ready to move forward. At least he hoped that was the case because she’d given him the few minutes of peace he needed. With Calista, he could catch his breath.
He wanted her to love him again and to understand what Ajay did wasn’t his fault. In some ways, it had been. He should have been a better authority figure for his brother. He should have been able to give the right kind of advice. He hadn’t known how to handle Ajay. His mother was busy with the ranch, and he was the oldest. The responsibility had been his, and he’d failed at it miserably, which was why he kept the reins tight on Izzi. He couldn’t let anything happen to his daughter. He had no excuse this time. He wasn’t young. He wasn’t inexperienced.
With regret, he untangled himself from her beautiful body and shoved his legs into his boxer briefs. He found his phone in the bathroom and sent a text to Izzi. He lied about working, but he’d be home soon. He shot a second text to Jett and asked him to sleep at his place. He didn’t want Izzi to be alone all night, and there was no way he wanted to tell his mother he was at Calista’s house. He might be forty and the sheriff of the town, but he still couldn’t look his mother in the eye and admit he had sex.
“Gage?” Calista’s voice drifted toward him.
He padded back into the bedroom. “I’m right here.”
“I woke up and thought you left without saying goodbye.”
“Hey, I would never do that.” He climbed back into bed and gathered her to him. Her head rested against his shoulder. She snaked her arm around his waist.
“I was worried you regretted what happened.” Her voice was low, and her breath warm against his skin.
“This is the only place I want to be.” That was the truth, and hopefully not too much truth for her. They might have made love several times—he grinned—but they had not talked about what would happen between them. “I needed to check on Izzi.”
If she asked him to leave, he would, but if she wanted him to stay the night, she wouldn’t have to ask twice.
“Is she okay?” Her fingers skimmed his back. He leaned into the soft pressure of her touch with ease.
“I just didn’t want her to worry about where I was.”
“You’re a good father. She’s lucky to have you.”
“Thanks.” The compliment and the press of her breasts against his chest turned up the heat in his body several degrees. He started to grow hard again.
“Can you promise me something?” Her hands continued to entice him.
“Sure.” He tangled his fingers in the ends of her long hair.
“Can you promise not to run away if I start to freak out about what’s happening between us?”
“Are you sorry?” He stilled his hands and held his breath.
She gripped him tighter. “No. Never think that. I’m glad you’re here and we did what we did. It’s just when the sun comes up and we have to face the real world, I hope I don’t get scared.”
“Are you talking about your father not wanting us to be together or about your feelings for me?” He shifted up on an elbow to see her better.
He could handle Andy Hartman, who would be unhappy about this arrangement, but if she backpedaled and left him again because of the past, he might not recover from that.
“I never thought we’d be in this situation, but when I’m with you, I want to stop living in the past, and when I’m in Backwater, all I can do is relive it. Ava is everywhere in this house and around every corner. Your family fills in all the other crevices she isn’t. It’s hard to breathe sometimes.”
“Can I ask you to promise me something?” He wanted to make things easier for her, but until she was ready, the past would haunt her. He’d try, though. He didn’t want her hurting anymore because of his brother.
“Of course.”
“Tell me if you’re frightened. Don’t push me away this time. If you’re leaving me, I want it to be for something other than Ajay. If I’m not the man you want today, I can live with that. Please don’t judge me for the man I was before.” Because he’d been trying for sixteen years to be better.
She placed a warm hand on his cheek. “I’ll be honest with you. I promise.”
He brushed his lips against hers. His insides burned for more of her. He had years of missed chances to love her to make up for. She laced her fingers in his hair and returned the kiss.
He ran his hand down her back and cupped her bottom. She gripped his hand and eased away from the kiss.
“Did I do something wrong?” he said.
“The opposite, but I’m starving. You never took me to lunch or dinner.” Even with only the moonlight spilling through the curtains, he could see the sparkle in her eye.
Relief spread through his chest, and he laughed. “I can take care of your empty stomach. I can run into town and pick something up at the café.” He checked his phone. “I have about thirty minutes before they close. If I call, they’ll wait for me.”
“Or we could whip up something here.” She ran a finger down his chest and stopped right before the good part.
“I like that idea.” He kissed her nose.
His phone went off. He wanted to ignore it but stole a glance anyway. Barry Pearce was calling. He could let his deputy handle whatever was happening. Tonight was about Calista.
“You should get that. I don’t mind. It could be important.” She gathered the sheet around her.
On a long breath, he sat up and swiped at the screen. “Sheriff Ryker.”
“Sorry to disturb you, Sheriff, but we have another robbery. And this time someone’s been shot.”
****
Gage jumped from the truck and ran down Main Street. The ambulance and the tanker truck blocked the road. Bystanders, some in their pajamas, huddled on the sidewalk. His heart throbbed in his ears as his boots stampeded the ground. Someone blocked the entrance to the florist. He shoved them aside.
“Where is she?” He gulped in air.
Faces turned toward him. His deputy was there. Luke Patterson from the EMS squad knelt on the floor, packing up his bag. John Granger from the fire department spoke into his phone.
Barry took a step forward. The lines around his mouth deepened, and his cheeks had sunken. His eyes were bloodshot. Marty Boseman stared at him with glassy eyes, then averted his gaze back to the floor. He was handcuffed.
“I’m sorry, boss.”
He pushed Barry aside and went behind the tall display case of flower arrangements. Anger seared his blood. Nyx Blackwood knelt by the gurney and held the hand of the woman who acted like his other mother.
“Phyllis…” His voice stuck in his throat. He couldn’t lose someone else he cared about to a damn gunshot wound.
Nyx turned and blocked his path. “Gage, you should—”
“Get the hell out of the way, Nyx.” He stepped around her to get to Phyllis.
She was so small on the gurney. His heart ached. Her eyes were closed, but Nyx hadn’t removed the oxygen yet. A brace was secured around her neck. “Phyllis?”
Her eyelids fluttered open. Her lips moved into a small smile. “Sheriff, I was waiting for you.” Her voice was like tires over gravel. She closed her eyes, and he held his breath.
She opened them again, and the air left his lungs. He took her hand in both of his. “If you wanted a day off, you should have just asked.”
Her grip on his hand was weak. “Don’t smartmouth me. And don’t you worry about a thing. My office is a tightly run ship. You’ll find everything you need.” She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. “This one hurts, Gage.”
“GSW to the abdominal area. We need to go, Gage. She insisted we wait for you, but she could be bleeding internally.”
Of course she had insisted, because that was Phyllis. He leaned closer to her ear and whispered, “Don’t die on me.”
“I love you too,” she whispered back.
He helped Nyx get Phyllis in the ambulance. He slammed the back doors, and they sped off with lights flashing and sirens blaring.
He waited until the sirens couldn’t be heard and turned on Marty Boseman. He grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up. “You stupid idiot. I warned you something like this would happen. If she dies, so help me, I will nail your ass to the wall.” He shook Boseman until drool ran down his face.
“Sheriff, stop.” Barry’s hands were on him, but he threw Barry off.
This was all his fault because he hadn’t solved the robberies. His town didn’t trust him. Another person he loved was slipping away from him, and he could have done something to stop it. How was he going to walk into his department and not find Phyllis standing there with her glasses on her head and bossing him around?
“Sheriff,” Barry yelled.
He wanted to shake Marty Boseman until his eyes fell out of his head. Until all the pain and hurt and anger could slink back under its rock and stay there forever.
“He’s an old man, Gage.” Kace’s voice cut through the confused noise in his head. He pulled Gage’s hands free from Boseman’s shirt, and Boseman slumped against the storefront.
He held his brother’s gaze. The same black eyes as his stared at him, but he didn’t see Kace at all.
“When did you get here?” He hadn’t seen or heard Kace arrive.
“I came as soon as I heard.”
As always, one of his brothers was there when he needed them, but he continued to let them down. First Ajay in the worst way possible. And today with Jett. Jett could lose the ranch because of him. The only thing Jett loved more than his family was his ranch. What about Kace? How many times had he let Kace down? Or Lock? They were residents of the town. Hadn’t he let the whole town down too?
“Barry, what happened?” He needed answers to feel in control of something.
Barry read from his notebook. “She was helping Marty with the night shift and making some flower arrangements. Someone banged on the front door. He went out front to see who it was. They argued. Marty had his gun pointed at one of the suspects. The kid ran, and Phyllis ran after him. Marty pulled the trigger. She was in the way.”
For once he’d taken good notes.
“Did you get a look at who came in your store, Marty?”
Marty looked up at him with a watery gaze. “Two Indian boys. Young. One of them looked like the boy that Howard hired to paint his fence. I’m sorry, Gage. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“Shut up. No one wants to hear you’re sorry.”
He marched away with Kace calling after him.
Chapter Twenty
“Thanks, Lincoln. Anything you can find out about Justin Crow and his brother would be a big help.” Gage pulled his tie from the rack in his bedroom closet and laid it on the bed beside his only black suit.
“My pleasure. I’ll run his name through every program I have. Something will come up. It always does. What did this kid do anyway?” Lincoln Smith was a private bodyguard with connections and skills not too many other people had.
Gage had met Lincoln through an old police academy friend during a Christmas party some years back. He had liked the man instantly and often hosted him on the ranch. “He’s involved in a string of robberies. I just can’t prove it yet.”
And if he could find a way, he’d pin murder on Justin Crow too.
“I’ll call you back when I find something. And hey, I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thanks.” He ended the call before he embarrassed himself and started crying. He’d save it for the funeral. Then no more.
He slid the tie around his neck, but his hands shook. He wasn’t ready to do this. Wasn’t even sure if he could. He hadn’t been to the cemetery in a very long time. His mother always gave him her disapproving look when she asked him about it. But he wouldn’t go. Couldn’t go. Those gravestones weren’t his family. His father and brother had moved on. Their spirits lived someplace else. Maybe that was his Kootenai heritage speaking, but he liked to believe they were more than just bones in a rotting coffin. When he wanted to talk to his dad, he stood in the middle of the field.
He would have to watch as Phyllis’s coffin was lowered into the ground. His heart fractured, and his legs buckled under the weight of the broken pieces. He dropped onto the corner of the bed and held his head in his hands.
“Gage, it’s almost time.” Calista’s voice forced him to look up. She stood in the doorway of his bedroom in a black dress. She had pulled her hair up in a knot at the back of her head and had swept a gloss across her lips.
His breath caught in his throat at the sight of her. “I need a few minutes.” He wrestled with the tie and lost.
“Let me.” She untangled the fabric from his grip and smiled up at him.
“I can tie my own tie.” If he could hear the growl in his voice, she wouldn’t have missed it.
She kept smiling at him. “I know you can, but I can also see the anguish on your face. There’s no crime in getting a little help today. Plus, I want to touch you. It makes me feel better.” She finished knotting the tie and flattened her palms against his chest.
Her touch melted some of the ice around his heart. “I went for a five-mile run this morning, but it didn’t do anything to make the anger stop. I want to punch something.” Once he found something out on Justin, he was going to find a way to get that kid alone and beat the shit out of him.
He’d spoken to Justin after the robbery at the flower shop. His alibi checked out, which just pissed him off because he wanted a reason to arrest the kid. Marty’s identification of a person that looked like Justin wasn’t enough, and there hadn’t been any surveillance footage because men like Marty Boseman refused to listen to him when he told them to update their security.
If the kid Marty saw wasn’t Justin, Gage hoped it was the brother. He needed more information. If Lincoln came through, this would all be over. He wasn’t going to let Phyllis die in vain the way Ajay had.
“Give yourself time.” Calista’s voice dragged him from his runaway thoughts.
“I’m out of time. Four robberies and now a death. The residents want answers, and so do I.”
“The residents can wait. Today their sheriff needs to be with family and friends.”
“Thank you for being here. It’s the only thing keeping me together.” He wrapped his fingers around hers.
“I’ll be here for as long as you want.”
He wanted to say he wished she’d never leave. He wanted to ask her to stay and make a life with him, but the words stuck in his throat. He’d ask her later, after they made love again and some of the edges of the hurt softened.
“Dad, Uncle Kace and Gammy are here. They’re ready to go.” Izzi stood in the doorway in her gray skirt and white top. The cuts on her legs had healed.
The interruption had Calista pulling away from him. He wanted to pull her back.
“I’ll follow in my car.” She smoothed back her already-neat hair.
He shrugged into his suit jacket. “You don’t want to drive with me and Izzi?”
“You two need some time together. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Izzi, tell Uncle Kace and Gammy we’ll be right out.” He waited for her to disappear down the hall and took Calista’s hand again.
“I want you beside me today. I don’t care what anyone thinks about us. Not my family, not your father. Izzi loves you. That’s all that matters to me.”
“Are you sure? Today is going to be hard for everyone. I know I’m here right now, but anyone would understand my stopping by
considering the circumstances. You and I together as a couple in public, without warning, might be too much for your family. It’s going to send my dad over the edge.”
“My family doesn’t hate you, and I will handle your father.”
“Your family has every right to hate me for the pain I caused you.”
“You were just reacting to losing your sister. The only thing that matters is we’re past it now. I don’t want to focus on that night anymore. Ride with me, Calista.”
****
Everyone was gone. Gage hadn’t moved from the metal folding chair sinking in the grass. Sweat ran down his neck into the collar of his dress shirt. The heat from the sun was unbearable. His body ached. The woman he loved like a second mother was gone because of him. He couldn’t save Ajay, and now his incompetence had taken away another person he held dear. This wasn’t supposed to happen. His job was to keep everyone safe. If he couldn’t do his job, he shouldn’t be the sheriff anymore. And what if he couldn’t keep Izzi safe? Just the idea of her hurting because of him nearly stopped his heart.
The chair beside him creaked with the weight of a person sliding on it. Her spicy scent drifted toward him and eased some of the hurt. “I thought you left,” he said.
“I couldn’t. My ride is still here.” Calista gripped his knee.
He closed his eyes and fought back the emotions. Her tenderness, the thing he’d needed sixteen years ago, she gave so willingly today. He wanted to drown in it and forget. “Can we go to your place? I can’t go to the restaurant and see Phyllis’s husband and kids. They would have every right to spit in my face.”
“Gage, look at me.”
His neck burned with the weight of his heavy head as he met her gaze.
She placed a cool palm on his hot cheek. “It’s not your fault. Phyllis’s family knows that. Marty Boseman behaved badly, and because of that, a tragedy happened. You warned them all not to take matters into their own hands. He didn’t listen to you. You could not have known Phyllis would be anywhere near him.”