“Well, that didn’t go exactly as planned,” Jeff sighed. “Guess we could always turn your house into a rental.”
Very slowly, I turned my head and narrowed my eyes at my brother.
“What? You have the next best view. It’s not like anyone’s going to want to rent a cabin next to a gigantic wood pile.”
He held up his hand over his eyes as he pretended to look out a window. “Ooh, look at that piece of wood. They sure know how to cut ‘em out here in Montana!”
“I’m heading into town,” I muttered, taking the books with me under my one good arm.
“Yeah, sure!” he called out. “I’ll just stay here and take care of all the work!”
“You do that!”
“I was being facetious!”
When I didn’t say anything, he called out, “That means sarcastic, by the way!”
Maverick lookedup at me from behind his desk as I strode into the station. All it took was a single look to know he had nothing new for me.
“There’s nothing new,” he said immediately.
Shutting the door behind me, I took a seat across from him, not even sure why I was here.
“There has to be something we can do.”
“Well, yeah. I can go arrest the fucker and toss him in a cell, but we both know that won’t stick.”
“If he isn’t stopped, things are gonna escalate, and then you’re gonna have a big problem on your hands.”
“Yeah, like helping you bury a body,” he sighed. “You know, this job was supposed to be easy.”
“Would you?”
“Would I what?”
He knew exactly what I was asking. Maverick didn’t have a single legal bone in his body. He might like to appear moral to the rest of the town, but I grew up with him. I knew exactly the kind of shit he got up to, and the lengths he was willing to go to do what he considered right.
However, with the bad blood between my family and the Callahans, if anything happened to Austin, John Callahan would be out for blood.
And there wouldn’t be a damn thing Maverick could do to cover for me in any way.
Maverick’s lips turned into a smirk the longer we stared at each other. “I think we’ve known each other long enough for you to know exactly where I stand. But don’t do anything stupid.”
“Not planning to,” I shrugged.
“But you have that look in your eyes. Liam, I’m telling you right now, if you do anything to that fucker, there’s not a damn thing I’ll be able to do to protect you.”
“He tried to kill Bailey,” I snarled.
“And until I get some evidence of that, I need you to keep a lid on that anger of yours. If Austin suddenly disappears, it’ll be your face on every news station around here.”
“No one in town would believe them.”
“Doesn’t matter. Your name would be attached to that fucker’s murder for the rest of your life. Is that something you can live with?”
I shoved to my feet, already done talking about this. “If he goes after Bailey again, there’s not a damn thing I won’t do to make sure he never touches her again. You can bank on that.”
He rolled his eyes as I headed for the door. “Fuck, I guess I’d better prepare for a bloodbath now.”
