Chapter One
Evelyn Myers wasn’t book smart. She didn’t have any school trophies or impressive college accolades. Her skills were average, her ability to solve math equations low, and to say she was uncoordinated was like saying it got dark at night. Eve wasn’t a standout from the crowd. She was in it, trying to get from point A to point B while counting down the minutes until she could get home and take off her bra.
Her only notable exception, however, was enough to change absolutely everything for the worse.
Eve had a soft spot for trouble.
Which was why she was wearing a wedding dress beneath her coat and leaning against the McCoy County Sheriff Department’s front desk with a smile that had been idling as long as Mrs. Jane had been trying to find the man she’d come calling for.
“Darius—I mean, Detective Williams is out on a call,” Mrs. Jane said after she placed the phone back on its ancient cradle. It was as outdated as the interior of the building, but it wasn’t like the small as small town of Seven Roads, Georgia, should have been expected to meet the current times with vigor.
Eve hadn’t been back in town since she was twelve, and now at thirty-five she was sure as spit boiling on the sidewalk in summer that the dust on top of the vending machine in the lobby hadn’t been cleaned since she had been living with her daddy in that old house on Maple.
“Do you know if he’ll back anytime soon?” Eve asked. She subtly pulled her coat even tighter over a dress that cost more than her last apartment’s rent. Mrs. Jane might not have recognized the little girl who had been a local all those years ago, but the wedding dress would be a dead giveaway to the fact that now she was Mrs. Keys-To-Be.
Eve Myers was unimpressive. But the family Eve Myers was marrying into had a net worth of almost half a billion dollars, spearheaded by the absolute stud of a bachelor named Scott Keys. Very impressive.
Even though she wasn’t marrying Scott, shewasmarrying his little brother, Mitchell.
The running joke in the media was she was getting the keys to the castle, not the entire kingdom.
But standing there, staring at Mrs. Jane trying to find an excuse to shoo her away, Eve could tell she was as unimpressive to the woman as the frayed carpet beneath their feet.
“You’ll just have to leave your name and number, sweetie,” Mrs. Jane settled on, some spice to her Southern syrup. “That’s the best I can do if you don’t have an appointment with him already. He’s a very busy man. He’s the only detective in the county, you know.”
Eve didn’t need the Darius Williams who was a detective.
She needed the Darius Williams who owed her a favor.
Eve sighed out heavy. Her wedding dress sure was tight.
“Leaving all that isn’t going to do me any good right now.” She tapped the counter with her knuckle twice. “I’ll see myself out now.”
Mrs. Jane looked like she wanted to say something, but Eve’s attention flitted to the giant analog clock above the double doors leading outside.
It was almost four o’clock.
Which meant five wasn’t far behind.
An hour and a half until I get married.Eve growled out at herself.You sure did make a mess of things, huh?
If she had known this morning what she did now, she could have avoided this whole thing. Instead, Eve pressed out into the cold of a true rare Georgia winter. She was wondering if Darius still lived out on Maple—wondered if his mama had kept her promise—but knew even if she ran out there, he was working. Seeing the old house wouldn’t do a dang thing other than help her reminisce.
Eve pulled her coat closer and chided herself for not being the kind of woman who came up with backup plans when a couple walking past caught her attention.
The man she didn’t recognize, but his deputy’s uniform readGavin. The woman, at least a foot shorter and a pregnant belly wider, was dressed sharply in slacks, a sweater and a leather jacket. A badge was clipped onto her exposed belt, but Eve couldn’t see any name on her. Not that she needed shiny metal to recognize Wildcard Rose Little. A town menace to some, a hero to many, especially over the last few years. No one messed with the petite woman without regretting it. The same had been just as true when they were in first grade and Danny Ripken had refused to let Rose on his dodgeball team during recess. He’d called hertoo little, just like your nameand had laughed a whole lot at what he thought had been a Grade A insult.
Rose had given him a few moments with it before pegging him in the face with a rubber ball. His nose had busted like a mighty geyser, followed by giant crocodile tears. Rose hadn’t been finished.
“Did that hurt, just a little?”
One question filled with a sea of sass.
It had been enough to get Rose picked first for teams in dodgeball after, and now years later, the memory had made it easy to spot the adult version of that small spitfire.
She rubbed at her pregnant belly and kept on, not at all recognizing Eve.
But Eve had locked in on the first mention of their only detective’s name. The second mention came quickly after.
