“Why are you sniffing around my child?” he asks again in a hushed voice.
I raise both hands in a faux gesture of peace.
“I saw her out here with a strange guy. I was looking out for the good sheriff’s daughter. No need to thank me. I’m just doing the neighborly thing.”
He doesn’t buy it. He shouldn’t.
“How do you know she’s mine?”
“It’s my job to know everyone in this town.” I wish I could tell him that I know more about his wife than he does, but I don’t.
He points his finger at my face. I knock it down.
“What the fuck are you smirking at?” he asks. When I don’t answer, he says, “This is my town,” he hisses. “It’s not your job to know anyone here, least of all my child. Stay the hell away from me and mine,” he warns.
“You’d think you’d be grateful. We saved your ass, forgave your debt, and all you had to do was look away. I think you got the better end of that deal.”
His cheek twitches again.
“You set the trap,” he says.
I grin, but I neither confirm nor deny.
“Don’t think you’ve won,” he warns. “And I had to do more than look away, you son of a bitch.” Something in his demeanor shifts, and he deftly pulls his gun from his holster and points it in my face.
I pull mine from my waistband and do the same.
“Now we’re both pointing guns at each other, looking stupid. You’re not about to shoot me in front of your daughter, and you know it.”
We stare at each other, neither one of us moving.
“Hey!” Eden exits the car and walks toward us. “Don’t you dare point a gun at my father. You put it down right now.”
“Dandy, go get back in the car,” Rose warns, but Eden doesn’t leave. She glares at me, so I lower the Glock and put it back in my waistband.
“Don’t you ever do that again,” Eden hisses while she points at my face. “If you do, it will be the last time you ever hold a gun.”
“I guess you missed the part where he drew a gun at me first?”
“I don’t give a damn,” she says.
I raise both hands to signal I come in peace.
“Dandy, go.” She listens and returns to the car.
“What the fuck was that? You’re playing games with my daughter now?”
“Game’s over, Sheriff. I won,” I shout over my shoulder while I walk back to my truck.
She’s sitting in the front passenger seat, staring at us. Her window’s down as she watches.
“I’ll see you soon,” I say as I walk past the sheriff’s car.
She doesn’t react, but I know she heard me.
Chapter 23
Eden
