Becoming Three (24 page)

After knocking on Samuel's door, Jace repeatedly tapped his heel against the broken concrete walkway. Adrenaline rushed through his system like a runaway flash flood.
Come on, you son of a bitch, just open the door and give me a reason to arrest you.
Before falling asleep last night, Jasper lay tucked against Sarah's back, holding her, while sharing what his brother had said in the fast-food restaurant, and that Jasper had come to an ultimate realization that Samuel couldn't be fooled into leaving Sarah alone by Jasper's absence from the picture. Jasper had clutched Sarah to him so tightly, clearly still scared for her safety. Jace lay facing him, Sarah between them, and it broke his heart to witness. Sarah's eyes had shone in the darkness, only inches away from Jace's face, and Jace easily read the sadness and helplessness in her too. She had Jasper back, but the man still lived with fear, and she was such an empathetic person, his emotions leaked into her with equal power.
Not anymore. If Jace could bring one thing to this relationship, it would be that he could protect Sarah and Jasper from harm and make sure they always felt safe in this town and in their home. With him.
Jace knocked again, harder this time, and a moment later, Samuel ripped open the door. “Can't a person have a second to take a goddamn piss anymore?” He took in who stood in front of him, noting the uniform shirt and badge, and narrowed his stare. “Nu-uh. I don't know why you're here, but I didn't do it. If you have another dead girl, I didn't kill her. Just like I didn't kill those other two. I already told that bitch cop, and I'm gonna get myself a lawyer if you drag me in and make me say it again.”
Jace gritted his teeth against the instinct to pound this motherfucker into the ground for calling his coworker a degrading name. “See this?” He slipped off his badge and held it up instead. “I'm not here as a deputy.” He tucked the deputy star in his back pocket, out of sight. “I'm here as a friend. A friend of Sarah Tennison's. And a damn good one at that, so listen up. Sarah has a lot of people in this town who love her, particularly the men and women down at the station where she works. Not one of them would take well to something happening to her, least of all me.” Samuel opened his mouth, but Jace had him snapping it shut with one raised finger. “I need you to understand me, Mr. Simmons, and interpret these words with as much threat as possible. If anything happens to her, if you talk to her, approach her, or even look at her sideways or funny, you will be dealing with me. Not Deputy Maxwell, who follows the letter of the law, but Jace, an overprotective friend who doesn't give a shit about what is legal and what isn't.” He thought about that poor girl in Bozeman, and his skin crawled at the atrocious images that followed. “You think you're so smart you can walk away from a crime? You hurt Sarah and I will take you apart piece by painful piece, and nobody will ever find the body. That's how good I am.”
“What the hell did my pussy little brother come crying to you about this time?” Samuel screeched with outrage, and with every word he spoke, Jace believed less and less that the same blood could be running through this person and the sweet man he had shared a bed with last night. “Scared little cunt always did hide behind our grandma when we was kids. He never did learn how to fight his own battles like a man.”
Rage curdled Jace's blood, and he had no idea how he kept his voice restrained or stopped himself from grabbing this asshole's throat. “That's another thing.” He wrapped his hand around the doorjamb and leaned in, towering over the stockier man. “Jasper has built a good life here. He has a good job and people who care about him just as much as they care about Sarah. Hawkins Ranch sees him as one of their own, and they wouldn't take any more kindly to something happening to him than the people down at the station would to Sarah. There are a lot of hard men working those pieces of land, some who've actually done time for their crimes. Those men like Jasper; they think of him as their little brother. They might do much more painful things to you than I could ever imagine if something happened to him. You might want to stop threatening him before I let it slip to them and they take care of you themselves.” Jace pursed his lips and tilted his head, feigning pondering thoughts. “I'd have to investigate the crime, but I don't know; we have a small town here with limited resources. I might never be able to find the guilty party.”
Samuel snorted and pushed his hair behind his shoulders. “You're not very smart if you think I'm gonna stand here and let you threaten me without turning you in and filing a complaint.” Looking beyond the space Jace filled, Samuel suddenly offered a nasty little smile. “What makes you think I won't grab that deputy you got sitting in your truck there and tell him everything you just said?”
“Go ahead. Complain.” Jace moved aside and let Samuel get a clean view of Cade in the SUV. “Talk to him. You won't exist anymore by the end of the night. You decide if stirring up trouble is worth your life.”
Bringing his focus back to Jace, Samuel cursed up an impressive string of foul words. “You're all dirty together,” he added. “Bending the law and protecting your own.”
“Doesn't feel so good having a threat aimed at you, does it?” Jace's voice seeped venom. “Remember me and this moment the next time you think about tracking down your brother for a little bit of together time.” He pushed away from the doorjamb and crossed his arms against his chest, looking down on Samuel. “Or maybe you've had enough bonding. I know Jasper has. You have nothing holding you here. I think it's time you moved on from Quinten and got yourself a new start somewhere else.”
“I ain't afraid of you.” Samuel puffed up with bravado. “I know you ain't going to do anything to me. I'll do what I damn well want, whenever I want to do it.”
We'll see
. Knowing he'd done as much as he could, Jace slipped his sunglasses off the edge of his shirt and slid them on his face. “Surprise me by leaving.” He flicked his fingers in mock salute. “You have a good day.” Samuel slammed the door in his face, and Jace walked back to the truck.
He climbed behind the wheel, and Cade said, “Feel better now?”
Jace noticed the open passenger-side window and felt certain that even with his lowered voice Cade had somehow still heard every word. He swallowed bile but took the assessing stare without lowering his head in shame. “Judge me if you have to, but you haven't seen the fear that bastard puts in Jasper every time he makes his vague little threats.” He mentally rolled back to that picture of Jasper holding Sarah so protectively in bed this morning. “If this makes Samuel go away or at least lay off his brother, then I don't regret doing it. I'll take whatever consequences might come.”
Cade's pupils barely flared, and his damaged face remained its normal poker mask, but Jace could still see all the puzzle pieces being sorted through and slipping into place within the astute man. Cade had heard the conversation, he saw Jace's face now, recalled his behavior today, already knew how he felt about Sarah, and he knew. He read everything. And Jace couldn't put a denial to his lips for the world.
“Okay,” Cade finally said. “It's done now. Let's get back to the station.”
Jace started up the SUV and pulled out of the motel's parking area. He slid in behind a beat-up old VW and followed it toward town. After a long moment, he murmured, “Thank you.”
Cade nodded, and nothing more was said.

Jace pushed into the station behind Cade, and immediately homed in on Sarah at her desk.
You always look right at her, Maxwell; it's not different today because of last night
. Today, though, he would have to work extra hard to keep from getting an erection, as he'd had to do a good part of the morning while working in the bull pen.

Sarah hung up the phone, spun in her swivel chair, and smiled up at him. Them, he corrected himself. Cade moved across the bull pen to his desk too.
“Everything go okay?” she asked.
“Taken care of,” Jace answered. “The brothers were a little hot under the collar and needed someone to separate them.” He chuckled as he took his seat. “You'd think a couple of guys in their sixties would have more sense and exhibit better restraint than some of the hothead cowboys we get around here, but not those two. Took care of a bloody nose and a dispute about a tractor, and they seem okay now.”
“I just sent Max and Juan over to the high school to break up a fight between a couple of girls that turned into a free-for-all.” Sarah shook her head. “Getting a lot of little flare-ups of temper the last few days. Must be the heat. It came a little early this year.”
Jace slid his keyboard to the top of his desk. “The kids are getting antsy for spring break.” His attention drifted and held on her again. “Remember what that felt like?”
“I remember the year you took me camping in Yellowstone. Senior year.” She looked at Cade, blocked her mouth with her hand, and whispered loudly. “He was trying to make up for not letting me go to Mexico. I didn't want to go to Mexico.” She turned back to Jace, and he caught the spark lighting her gaze. “I just wanted to torment you.”
Jace remembered being twenty-four years old and feeling like a pervert for wanting to share a sleeping bag with newly eighteen Sarah, who happened to be his best friend's little sister. He groaned and growled. “You succeeded.”
She beamed at him with a thousand-watt smile, and at the next desk, Cade burst out laughing.
“Hey!” Jace spun on his partner.
“What?”
Carson flew out of the equipment room and rushed to Sarah's desk. “I need the boss. Is he back from his daughter's doctor's appointment yet?”
Sarah nodded and went for her phone. “He's in a meeting. Is it important enough for me to interrupt him?”
“Yeah, I think he's going to want to see this.” Sarah spoke softly into the phone in response, and Carson turned to Jace and Cade. “Guys, come with me.” He walked backward, his entire face and body animated as he moved. As soon as they were in the privacy of the equipment room, he said excitedly, “I have a face on one of the tapes. A man with Ginger.” He looked back and forth between Jace and Cade. “You won't believe who it is.”
Duke slipped into the room and shut the door. “What is it, Deputy?” he asked. Carson sat at a chair in front of the small TV, and the other three leaned in around him. “Show me.”
“It's the first face I've been able to conclusively connect to our victim.” After Carson cued up the machine, they all watched the images speed backward for a few seconds as he rewound the tape. “Look. He has his hand on the small of Ginger's back, leading her around the side of the building to where the motel room is located.”
The suited, stocky, auburn-haired man came on the screen, and Duke whispered, “Son of a bitch.”
Jace whistled as the face became clear for a pair of seconds. “That's the deputy mayor.”
Duke looked like he chewed and spit out something rancid. “Bastard's in my office right now looking for another update on this very case. Cade”—Jace could see the wheels spinning behind the sheriff's eyes—“go put yourself at my door and make sure he doesn't leave. Give us five minutes, then bring him to the interview room. Don't say anything. I will talk to him.” He put his hand on Carson's shoulder. “You wheel this in there right now and set it up for me. Mr. Gates and I are going to have a chat.”
Jace didn't bother to ask if he could sit in on the interrogation. If the boss allowed anyone to, it would be Carson, who had found the evidence. He deserved the privilege. Instead, Jace went to the viewing room to wait. As soon as Cade let Brian Gates into the room, he joined Jace in the observation area, and they both watched through the glass.
“What's going on?” Brian asked as he took a seat. His hair, suit, and tie were impeccable, but his face was just average enough to appeal to people rather than make them wary of his lack of cowboy boots, jeans, and Stetson. “Do I need a lawyer?”
“I'd just like to talk to you right now, Brian,” Duke answered. “But if you feel like holding me up to call a lawyer, we can do that. I won't deny you your right.”
“You're a straight shooter, Sheriff. I've always respected that.” Leaning back in his chair, Brian spread his legs and linked his hands behind his neck. “Lay it on me. What's up?”
“You want to tell me about your relationship with Ginger Carlton?” Duke asked. “And before you think about lying, let me show you something.”
Ready with the remote, Carson brought the TV in the corner to life. Jace watched Brian's mouth turn down and his entire face fill with red as he recognized himself on the screen. He sat quietly longer, staring at the screen, now frozen with his and Ginger's images. He suddenly jerked his attention back to Duke, and the flush of color bled from his cheeks as he surely realized the implications of entering a motel room with a murder victim.
“Now do you want to tell me about your relationship with the victim and where you were the night of her murder?” Duke asked. They had yet to identify the man she had serviced last Friday evening before she called Beth to help her forget. “Or do you want to change your mind about requesting a lawyer?”
Brian opened and closed his mouth a half dozen times, sputtering, before he finally spit out, “You can't seriously think I murdered that woman.” He pointed at the frozen TV picture. “If she took a customer on the night of her death, it wasn't me. I was working at the mayor's office, like I always do.”
“I appreciate your not attempting to snow me by claiming she was your secret girlfriend and that you were in love,” Duke said. “You used the word 'customer' just like that.” He snapped his fingers in front of Brian's face. “Yet I never mentioned anything about clients or services. In our daily meetings, I've never mentioned anything of the like either.”
Lifting his hand, Brian worked his fingers into the neck of his shirt, undid a button, and loosened his tie. “Yes, fine, she was a prostitute, which clearly isn't a shock to you. And yes, I partook of her services for the better part of a year and a half.” His chair scraped across the speckled floor as he pulled it up to the table and struck a finger into the surface. “Look, I'm a busy person, Sheriff, and you know that better than anyone in this town. The mayor is a nice man, but he has a big family with children and grandchildren, and he doesn't want to work longer than eight to five, five days a week, and that doesn't include the extra time he takes away from work for that family. I put the hard hours into making this town run without a hitch. I'm the one you come to when you need to clear funds or zone something, I'm the one who has sat down and talked budget with you these last two years, and you know it. And I do it for more than half the other government-funded programs in Quinten too.”
From the viewing room, Cade raised an eyebrow at Jace. “That's true.”
“Agreed.” Jace turned back to look through the glass. “But what's his point?”
“I know you do, Brian,” Duke answered, pulling the deputies back to the exchange in the interview room. “And I've told you more than once that I appreciate your availability. You have a civic calling that goes above and beyond, but I don't see how that relates to our conversation.”
Brian threw his hand up, as if exasperated by the simple people around him. “My point being, I love what I do, and I don't want to compromise the effort I'm putting into this town right now and sacrifice my chances of becoming mayor when Hastings retires. Because of that, I don't have any free time to date a woman right now. I don't have the time, energy, or interest to put into getting to know someone and seeing if we're compatible enough to take the relationship to another level. But I am a thirty-four-year-old man, and I am not impotent. I want a woman every now and again sexually, but I'm not going to trick some local girl into thinking I can commit to monogamy or a marriage right now, when I can't. What I can do is spare a few hours once a month to relieve a need.
“Ginger was a nice young woman with needs of her own; she got what she wanted out of our meetings, and so did I.” Brian went back to sitting in a relaxed position. “I didn't kill her. Why would I? She's the only sex I've had for the past two years. Why would I murder her and put myself right back into celibacy? It doesn't make any sense.”
“Maybe you became possessive and didn't like that she had other clients,” Duke pushed. “Stranger things than a john becoming obsessed with a prostitute have happened. Maybe you killed her out of jealousy. Maybe you found out the names of the other men she serviced and didn't like it.”
“Come on, Sheriff, I thought we had respect between us.” Brian now looked like a man sitting with a colleague, talking over a meal. “You know as well as I do that her murder did not happen as an act of passion. It was too precise and cold. What do you really want from me here? Just ask me, and if I can, I'll tell you. Ginger was a sweet girl. Friendly. It was just sex, but our agreement went on for long enough that I liked her as a person. I do want whoever killed her to be caught and punished.”
Duke slid a pad of paper across the table. “Why don't you start with if anyone can confirm your presence at the office on Friday evening. I need a name.”
Jace swore and spun away from the window. Another dead end. “Damn. The guy's going to be a great politician. He knows how to read a room.”
Brian was absolutely right. Jace could tell Duke didn't believe this man had murdered Ginger. But the boss would try to finagle as much information out of him as he could anyway. Such as if Brian knew the names of her other clients. The three men questioned so far had solid alibis, and now the boss could add Brian to the list, but that still left at least six men Ginger had let pay her for sex.
Cade turned from the window and moved to the door. “I'm going to get back to tracking down if similar cases exist in the cities Ginger visited,” he said, letting himself out. “Sonoma, Austin, and Atlanta still haven't given us the courtesy of a return call.”
Following Cade down the hallway, Jace said, “Maybe I'll give Robyn another call and bug her about evidence for both cases.” Yesterday her lab had confirmed their Jane Doe's death was a result of asphyxiation. Likely, a thick plastic shopping bag thrown over her head and the ends pulled tight around her neck, also crushing her windpipe. One of Robyn's people had found a scrap of white plastic snagged on one of the victim's back teeth. They'd sent her prints and DNA through the appropriate databases but hadn't received a hit back yet.
Jace sat down at his desk and shuffled through his notebook. “I want to get with Juan when he gets back and see how he's doing tracking down our psychic's history aiding the police.” Jace still hadn't forgiven that jackass for crushing Ginger's family with the news of her female lover. He hadn't forgotten about that rich bastard Quick yet either. The sheriff hadn't given him the okay to question the man, but he knew the guy was still in town. The man had given Sarah a call at home the other night just to chat.
Jace growled and felt those protective talons wanting to break their way through his skin. Sarah was his. And Jasper's.
Damn
. Jace sat up straight. He suddenly wondered if he had to worry about someone out at the ranch coveting Jasper's long, sexy body as much as Alexander Quick worming his way into Sarah's life.
He growled again, and Sarah admonished him for sounding like a bear as she paused at his desk and handed him a yellow Post-it note.
“Got a message while you were in back,” she told him. “There you go. You too.” She handed one to Cade.
They both said, “Thanks,” and Sarah went back to her desk. Jace held up the piece of paper and read:
Jasper was in town getting supplies with Ren and came in to say hi. He kissed my cheek and whispered I should give one to you from him if I got a private moment with you. His cheeks burned as he said it, and he was about as cute as I've ever seen him. Consider yourself kissed.