“I deal in the facts, Miss Rausch.”
Oh, so it wasMiss Rauschnow.
“And your ‘facts,’” my girl said, hooking air quotes around the word, “are bullshit.”
A horrifying realization dawned then.
“Are you here to make a formal arrest?”
“Not at this juncture, no,” he said, sounding like every bit of a sanctimonious prick. “We still have some investigating to do, and we’re waiting on forensic reports from the scenes to be processed yet.”
“Why is that taking so long?” I asked.
For the first time since Sutton appeared in the room, he addressed me. “Some sort of backup at the lab in Boise.”
I cursed colorfully. It had beenmonths.
And what the fuck was going on in my department that my goddamn undersheriff was going rogue? Had running the department in my absence given him a taste of power that made him thirsty for more? Was he gunning for my job? Luckily, the position was an elected one, but if I didn’t figure this shit out and wrangle my people quickly, I was at risk of being out on my ass.
Howdarehe? I thought we had a better relationship than this.
Apparently, I was wrong.
“So you’re here as what?” I asked. “A courtesy?”
“I’m here to encourage Miss Rausch not to leave the area for the foreseeable future. At least not until we can fully investigate these claims and get those reports back from the lab.”
Sutton sat so still, she may as well have been a statue. This combined with the box that had so clearly freaked her out was really taking a toll on her, and I needed to get rid of Johns as fast as possible.
Coming around to her side, I gently pressed my hand to her lower back. “Sunny, why don’t you go to bed? I’ll be there in a second.”
Her answering nod was robotic, and she disappeared.
The second she was gone, Johns found himself slammed against the wall of my living room, photos crashing down around us, my arm barred across his throat.
“Why thefuckwasn’t I made aware of this the second it came in?”
Johns grinned, though it was really more of a sneer. “Because ofthis. You can’t see or think clearly when it comes to her. I took it upon myself to investigate without involving you because I didn’t want you to biasedly dismiss a claim that proved to be entirely credible.”
“You had no fucking right to do that. This ismygoddamn department.”
Johns shoved my chest, and I stepped away, not because he was strong enough to move me, but because I needed him the fuck out of my face before I doubled my body count—and assaulting my second in command wouldn’t look good if I wanted to keep my job.
Smoothing his hands over his jacket, he headed for the door. But before he stepped into the cold, he delivered one final parting shot over his shoulder.
“For now.”
“The fuck did you just say?”
“For. Now,” he enunciated. “It’syourdepartmentfor now.”
With that parting shot, he was gone. After locking the door and arming the security system, I headed for my room. Sutton was a lump under the covers, curled in on herself, shaking violently.
I climbed in beside her and wrapped my arms around her.
“Hey, hey,” I murmured, gathering her close to my chest and rubbing my hand up and down her back in the way I’d long since learned soothed her. “It’s okay, baby. Nothing is going to happen to you.”
“I’m suspected of acrime,” she whispered, her voice thick with unshed tears and cracking on the last word. “I don’t understand.”
