Both her brows rose dangerously high as she leaned forward. “Are you capable? I mean, really, areyoucapable of doing something besides being unbothered byactualcriminals?”
“I am,” he said, grabbing her right arm and forcing her to turn around. She looked behind her to see him wrap a steel cuff around her wrist.
What the fuck! I didn’t do anything wrong!
Sick of suffering the fucked-up consequences for other people’s actions, Lauren yanked away and spun around intending to plant her knee deep into his balls, but the world turned upside down. Literally.
Momentarily disoriented, she realized that he’d slung her over his shoulder like a sack of feed and carried her down the hill like she didn’t weight a solid one hundred and eighty pounds.
“Nicely done, dear,” the old woman called out, wiggling her fingers goodbye.
Lauren reared up and began slamming her fists against the sheriff’s hard back. He jumped, bouncing her, and she fell back over his shoulder and gripped his shirt, praying she wouldn’t land on her head.
“You bastard! Did she pay you off, you crooked-assed cop!”
He ignored her and called for the young male deputy. Opening the back door of the deputy’s cruiser, he dumped her inside as she awkwardly kicked out at him. Shoving her feet insafely, he slammed the door shut. She hurled curses and threats at him as if she was possessed.
“Take her to the station and put her in holding cell one until I’m finished here.”
“She under arrest, Sheriff?”
Lauren went silent.
“I’ll decide when I get back to the station.” He headed back up the hill and paused at her car, reaching inside to pull out her purse. He walked back down and handed her purse to Derry. “Call up Tovin and tell him we’ll need a second tow for her vehicle.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lauren sat back and watched him through the half-open window. He returned her gaze as the deputy put the car in reverse, rolling backward down the hill. Lauren adjusted her position so that she could continue watching him through the windshield, then Derry made a three-point turn and drove away.
Gazing at the trees, Lauren listened as Derry put in the call for another tow. After a few miles, he turned onto a road she hadn’t noticed before. Closing her eyes, she rested her head on the seat, admitting—only this once—thatthe great betrayalhad made her reckless. But the way that sheriff chose to overlook the older woman’s drunken actions, treatedheras if she was the one at fault, then proceeded to manhandle her, helped Lauren to understand that her reckless need for retribution wouldn’t go away anytime soon. Now what she wanted most in this world was to make that asshole regret ever laying a hand on her.
CHAPTER 2
“Uh…Ms.Lauren…ma’am, me and Jessie are heading over to Lou’s BBQ. Would you like some supper?”
Looking up from her laced fingers, Lauren unfolded her legs from a lotus position and hung them over the side of the cot. The young deputy, Derry, stood outside her small ten-by-six cell, unable to maintain eye contact with her, unable to stop fidgeting.
“Your sheriff, what’s his name?” she asked calmly.
“Sheriff Santiago Stillwater.”
“Stillwater,” she said. It had a nice flow; she looked forward to drowning him in frustration and regret.
Rising, Lauren approached the deputy. “Since I’m not under arrest yet, do you mind giving me my phone. I need to cancel my resort reservation for the night, the deposit of which I’ve lost because your sheriff chose to be a barbaric asshole.”
The deputy looked toward the front of the building where another uniformed man, presumably Deputy Jessie, waited.
“Don’t worry,” she assured Derry. “I won’t say anything to Sheriff Stillwater about you leaving me here alone.”
His face reddened.
“You wouldn’t be alone. Audrey’s here.”
“The admin?” she asked with a raised brow. “Are you going to deputize her?” She looked at her purse sitting on Derry’s desk. “I’m being respectful and pleasant, Deputy, but if I don’t get my phone, the first call I make will be to my lawyer. She’s in California but she can be here in hours, and I don’t imagine that this little town can afford a multi-million-dollar lawsuit. All I’m asking for is my phone.”
“Ms. Audrey, can you hand me her bag,” Derry said, unlocking the cell door.
Lauren waited patiently as an older White woman, with an air of disapproval, handed Derry the purse.
