Tears rose in my throat, but I pushed them back down. I was still a deputy, kind of, and there was no way I was going to cry here at the station.
There was one small benefit to my title as Deputy Marsh, though. I’d left some toiletries in my locker here, and I’d been able to clean up and change back into my clothes from before our shopping trip. Dean had showered and changed in the men’s locker room, since his new shirt had been ruined.
Nodding against Dean’s chest, I pulled back slightly totalk. “I kept my interview as dry as possible. Didn’t tell Owen we already knew Nox Woodson’s identity before Phelan mentioned him.”
“Same here. I said Phelan contacted us today on Main Street out of the blue. We went to meet with him, and he said he needed help from the police but was afraid of his security company. Then he got shot.”
“You didn’t mention Ryan Garrett, right?”
Dean nodded. “Figured I shouldn’t. You knew that name, didn’t you?”
I nodded. Garrett was theRyanI’d heard Woodson talking about, who’d been angry about some shipment. But I hadn’t made the connection to the last name Garrett.
It was a name I’d heard before.
Ryan Garrett had to be the second shooter. And I knewexactlywhy Garrett had gone after me.
“Who is he?” Dean asked.
I hesitated. There was something else I needed to know first. Owen could be back any second.
“I’ll tell you later. What happened after you chased Woodson?” In the chaos of the ambulance arriving and Dean returning dazed and covered in blood, we’d only had time for him to tell me the shooter was Woodson and that he was dead. But little else about exactly what happened.
Dean didn’t blink. “I killed him. He lost the gun. Went after me with a knife, and I took it from him. Made sure he could no longer use the knife against me. It was self-defense.”
“Of course it was.” I’d assumed that was what happened, but was Dean okay? Physically, he seemed like it. A bandage covered the knuckles on his right hand, and there was a bruise blooming on his jaw. I’d also seen a scrape on his side earlier through a slice in his shirt, and I assumed he was patched up.
“You’re all right though?” I asked, gripping his biceps.
“Yep,” he murmured. “Just fine.”
Wasn’t so sure I believed him. Then something else occurred to me. “You ran after a gunman while you were unarmed. That was sostupid, Dean. You could’ve been killed.”
He caressed my face. “But I wasn’t. It’s not always about the weapon, Keira. It’s about the person using it.”
The office door opened. Owen came in, closing it behind him and heading to his desk. He took off his hat and rubbed his fingers through his cropped, dirty-blond hair.
Dean and I both took our seats. “Hey, Tex,” Dean said. “You look tired.”
Owen sat heavily, his chair creaking under his weight as he glared at us both. “At least you don’t look like a hippie anymore. You had the sense to get your hair cut. As for what happened today, though? I’m not seeing the sense at all.”
“Sheriff, we already told you—” I started.
But Owen cut me off with a wave of his hand. “You’re both going to tell me what you left out of your official interviews.”
I kept my face neutral, even as my mind raced. Owen had no idea that Dean and I had gone to confront Phelan at his home weeks ago. Or about the masked assailant who’d tried to run us off the road afterward. Or about the rest of our investigation.
There was alotOwen didn’t know.
“Let’s start with this one. Why on earth would Phelan suddenly contactyou twoafter he hid behind his lawyers since the shooting?”
“He wanted help,” I said. “Exactly as I told you in my interview. He was afraid to make an official report against Nox Woodson and Crosshairs Security. He thought I would be discreet.”
Owen’s eyes narrowed. “Out of all the law enforcement he could contact, Phelan picked the same deputy he argued with at that roadhouse three months ago? The same deputy who was later shot by masked assailants, with Phelan as our top person of interest?”
“Maybe he came to Keira simply because he thought his bodyguards wouldn’t expect it,” Dean chimed in.
Owen ignored him. “And then there’s Nox Woodson. The guy was wearing a demon mask today. Like the shooters who came after you several months back. Did Phelan offer to trade information about Woodson, Keira?”
