Amka studied Nixi’s still pale features.“Christian threatenedeverybody?”
Nixi walked across the cozy room, her normally graceful movements stilted.“Boy, did he.I wouldn’t post his name, or yours, for any amount of prize money.”She opened the door and looked over her shoulder.“I’m sorry about this.I’ll be back to work tomorrow.”
“No worries.”Amka wanted to remain in that room and not deal with the insurance adjuster.Or try to keep herself from gaping at Christian like an awkward teenager lusting after the hot and mysterious guy in class.But she had to be a grown up.The fact that he’d protected her from more publicity she didn’t want only made more butterflies wing through her abdomen.Enough of that.Smoothing back her hair, she moved back into the bar and found Helene waiting for her.
Just great.
While Amka couldn’t seem to banish these feelings about Christian, she didn’t have to allow any additional stress into her life.“I’m done talking to you without a lawyer,” she said to Helene.
The woman sat back.“I’m not a cop.”
“I don’t care.”It was too bad Daisy had the afternoon off.“I’m done.”She forced a smile.“Can I get you a drink?”
Helene huffed out a breath.“Fine.I’ll take a mimosa.”
So the woman wasn’t going to leave the tavern.Just fantastic.Amka poured the champagne and orange juice, sliding the glass across the bar.
The door opened and a young blonde woman with wide brown eyes walked inside, a green puffer coat encasing her.Definitely a tourist.Locals considered the spring weather a new heatwave.Visitors found it downright cold.“Hi.”She moved toward the bar.“Um, a nice lady named Flossy told me I could find the sheriff here.”She looked around the tavern.“Does your sheriff drink during the day?”
Not since he’d accepted the sheriff job.“Just coffee.”Amka lifted her head and cocked it toward the woman.The four Osprey brothers had paused their discussion when the door had opened, so she kept her gaze on Brock.
He kicked back his chair and stood, heading her way, looking Alaskan tough in jeans and a dark T-shirt with his badge clipped at his belt.It had taken a nagging Flossy to get him to wear it, and it looked natural on him.
Christian followed, unsurprisingly.He’d been eyeing the door for a while.
“Hi,” Brock said to the woman.
“You’re the sheriff?”She stuck her hands in her thick jacket.
Brock sighed.“That’s what they tell me.”
The woman blinked, looked at him, at Christian, then back to Brock.“Um, okay.”
Yeah, they were something to see.Tall, dark, dangerous and more than a little harshly handsome.
“Can I help you with something?”Brock asked.
“I’m gone.”Christian nodded at Amka and walked outside.
That’s it?I’m gone?Amka barely kept from rolling her eyes.
The blonde brushed hair out of her eyes.“Hi.I’m Lorrie Warner?My husband was, ah—” Tears gathered in her eyes.
“Yeah.”Brock gently took her arm.“Eli Warner.We’ve been expecting you.I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you.”She turned slightly and looked around the tavern as if wanting to escape the conversation.Poor woman.Her shoulders slumped.“What now?”
Brock led her to the door.“Let’s go down to the station so I can get your statement, and then we’ll figure out where to go from there.We’re a couple days away from having the right helicopter to get his body to Anchorage for an autopsy.”
She exhaled.“I don’t have to, um, identify, um, him?”
“We can use a picture for that,” Brock said, escorting her out.
Amka’s heart hurt for the woman.
Steve moved up, his brow wrinkled as he placed his phone on the bar.His blue eyes had darkened.“I have bad news.”
She looked down to see a video identifying both Christian and her at the storage building fire along with news of the shooting the other night as well as Eli Warner’s death.The flirty influencer, a brunette Amka had only seen once, mentioned that Christian was currently unattached and had three just as sexy Alaskan badass brothers.Oh, they weren’t going to like that.At all.She peered closer.“This already has five hundred thousand views.”
