Imperfect Justice (5 page)

“C
an you fix it?” Misty anxiously asked the garage attendant as he peered under the hood of her car. It had seen better days but for the most part it was reliable transportation. Until today. This afternoon she’d wanted to go to the store but the car wouldn’t start. She’d been forced to call a tow truck and now here she was with the repairman who could make or break her day.

“Of course I can fix it.” The man gave her a reassuring smile but it did little to bolster her spirits. She was getting ready to start a new life in Seattle and it was much more expensive to live there. Although she was making good money with her paintings, she’d been poor too long to take anything for granted. “It’s probably nothing big. Maybe the alternator or the fuel pump.”

Misty knew nothing about cars and even less about the internal combustion engine. Was an alternator worse or better than a fuel pump? She hated feeling helpless in any situation but this repairman could rip her off and she’d never know it.

“Trouble?”

That deep voice that had been running through her mind was suddenly right behind her. Misty had gone out of her way the last ten days to neither see nor speak to Jared Monroe and so far she’d been successful. He’d been haunting Misty’s dreams every single night since she’d helped him home. Her sleep was punctuated with images of the two of them doing things she’d never pondered until…that kiss.

She stiffened her spine and turned to face him. He was so tall she had to look up into his handsome face. “Just a little car trouble, Sheriff. No big deal.”

“That’s good.” The sheriff gave the mechanic a sidelong glance. “And please call me Jared. Sheriff seems too formal.”

“Fine. Jared,” she said stiffly, wanting him to leave her alone. Her knees were going weak and her heart had sped up to an alarming rate. That couldn’t be healthy.

The repairman was watching them both, his gaze finally resting on Jared. “Hey, Sheriff. I’ve got the oil changed in your SUV. It’s all ready for you and parked out back. Keys are hung up in the usual spot and we’ll send the bill along at the end of the week.”

“Thanks, Ray. I appreciate the quick service.”

“Any time, Sheriff. Day or night.”

Jared shoved his hat back on his head and strode over to the front office a few feet away.

The repairman’s gaze swung back to Misty. “So we’ll need to get your car up on the lift to really see what’s wrong. I’ll call you tomorrow with an estimate.”

“Tomorrow?” Misty echoed with alarm. “You can’t fix it today? I can wait.”

The man shook his head and nodded to the clock on the wall. “It’s already after two and we have a full day’s work and then some. Tomorrow morning is the best I can do.”

He tried to sound regretful but he had to know she was in a fix. She wasn’t going to have the car towed anywhere else.

“I’d take it as a personal favor if you would take a look at Miss Foster’s car first thing in the morning, Ray.”

Misty opened her mouth to object to Jared asking on her behalf but then remembered that she really wanted her only means of transportation back. His words seemed to have a magic effect on the mechanic. The man’s expression grew serious and he scratched a few more things on the clipboard in his hand.

“I didn’t realize Miss Foster was a friend of yours, Sheriff. I’ll make sure her car is first up in the rotation tomorrow morning.”

“He’s not my friend.” Her protest came tumbling past her lips before she could censor it. It sounded mean and a little desperate. Her cheeks flamed and she had to take a few deep breaths before speaking again. “What I mean is, Sheriff Monroe is everyone’s friend of course, but I don’t want any special favors.”

The mechanic looked at her strangely, his bushy dark brows pulled down in question. “It’s no trouble. I’m happy to do the sheriff a favor.”

“Thank you, Ray. I appreciate it,” Jared interjected smoothly before turning back to Misty, his keys dangling from his fingers. “Looks like you need a ride. I’m going off shift in a few minutes so I can run you home.”

Misty wanted more than anything to object but the fact was she did need a ride. She just didn’t want it to be with Jared Monroe. She could always get a cab.

“Um, thank you,” she replied awkwardly. “But I really need to stop at the grocery store. That’s what I was coming into town for.”

“That’s fine. I need to finish some end of shift paperwork. How about I pick you up in front of the store in about half an hour?”

He’d swept away her objections so easily she didn’t have any choice. Numbly she nodded and turned to the mechanic who was watching them with great interest.

Dammit, this would be all over town by dinnertime. She didn’t need this in her life.

Wait…I’m moving to Seattle.

The small-minded people of Fielding weren’t her problem any longer, but of course Jared would have to deal with them.

He looked more than capable.

She signed the paper that the repairman shoved in front of her before following Jared out to the sidewalk in front of the garage. Fumbling in her pockets for her gloves, she carefully avoided his gaze.

“Is half an hour enough?” Jared asked.

“Plenty of time. I’ll be out front.”

As far away from the large windows as I can be. I don’t want everyone to see this.

“See you then.”

Jared ambled down the block to the sheriff’s office and Misty stood there watching his large, powerful frame until he turned the corner and was out of sight. She’d vowed to stay away from him and now he was giving her a ride home.

In front of the whole town.

Once again…nothing good could come from this.

Senior deputy and second in command, Knox Owens was waving a piece of paper in the air when Jared walked into the station. Sighing, Jared snagged it from the man’s hand as he walked by. This was going to keep him from getting his paperwork done tonight, he could just feel it. Knox had a grim expression which wasn’t the norm for the usually easygoing deputy.

Jared patted his empty breast pocket looking for the glasses he needed to read these days. Not yet forty, he’d decided growing older officially sucked when he’d found himself holding paper at arms’ length simply to be able to make out the small type. They were missing as usual so he slapped the paper back on Knox’s desk.

“Just read it to me.”

“It’s Boyd Hicks. He got parole.”

“Shit,” Jared said softly. Boyd Hicks had always been a dangerous man. Now he was a dangerous man with little to lose. It was a recipe for very bad things. “When?”

“A few days ago,” Knox answered flatly as Chris Marks, another deputy and the son of one of Jared’s best friends, joined them. He was on second shift today. “Think he’s on his way here?”

“Who is Boyd Hicks?” Chris asked, settling his hat on his head.

Knox handed the paper to the junior deputy who perused the contents. Jared leaned against a desk and rubbed his suddenly throbbing temples. This was bad news.

“Boyd Hicks is a career criminal that we put away about five years ago,” Jared replied, already thinking about what Hicks might be planning. The safety of his men and town were uppermost in his mind. “He swore vengeance on us the day they sentenced him and dragged him out of the courtroom. Revenge is sort of a hobby for him.”

“If he’s a career criminal why was this time any different?” Chris asked. “It couldn’t have been too serious of a charge if he got parole in five years.”

“This time was different because during his sentence his wife OD’d and lost custody of their baby daughter. It was different because Hicks swore up and down he didn’t rob that liquor store. Said he’d been set up.”

“Who would bother to set up a petty criminal?” Chris queried.

“His brother Dale,” Knox answered with a grim smile. “That family is something else.”

“Like the Manson family,” Jared muttered. “But we found no evidence of him being framed. Everything pointed to Boyd.”

“So Boyd thinks he did time for his brother, lost his wife and daughter,” Chris surmised. “And he blames…Fielding’s finest?”

“Correct,” answered Jared. “Welcome to the club.”

“I wish it was a little more exclusive,” Chris joked. “Maybe he’s not pissed at me. I’m new.”

“Boyd Hicks is pissed at the world. He once stabbed his uncle in the arm because the man smoked Boyd’s last cigarette. I wouldn’t say he was a think first, shoot later kind of guy.”

“So what do you want us to do?” Knox swung his legs down from where they were propped up on the desk. “I could go talk to his wife. See if she’s heard from him.”

“Ex-wife,” Jared corrected. “She divorced him a couple of years ago. I heard she got clean and is married to a guy who works on a nearby ranch. But that’s a good idea. We need to talk to her, Dale, and any of Boyd’s former associates, assuming we can find them. Also, make sure all the deputies have a picture of Boyd and are keeping an eye out for him. Everyone should consider him armed and dangerous. No one should try and bring him in alone. Call for backup. Hell, call me at home if you have to. This guy would love to put a couple of slugs in a cop. Let’s not give him a chance.”

“Amen to that,” Knox declared, already printing out photos of Boyd Hicks for the staff. Jared spoke with Chris for a moment and then headed to his office. He still had a few minutes to try and get some of that paperwork done and off his desk.

Twenty minutes later Jared gave up and stacked the file folders in a neat pile for tomorrow morning. They’d have to wait one more day which wasn’t out of the ordinary. There was always plenty of administrative work to keep a lawman busy at his desk instead of out on patrol where he’d rather be.

Shrugging on his coat, he grabbed his keys from his pocket and made his way to the front door. “Call me if you need me.”

“It’s all good. See you tomorrow,” Knox called out. The senior deputy wouldn’t call Jared unless the shit really hit the fan, which was more than he could say about the last guy that had the job. He’d woken Jared up almost every damn night with one thing or another. A good night’s sleep sounded like heaven right about now.

But first he had some groveling to do.

Misty was sitting next to Jared as stiff as the statue of the local war hero in the park. He’d picked her up in front of the grocery store where she’d refused to let him help with her two heavy bags. Now she was sitting next to him in his truck chewing on those pillowy soft lips and staring straight ahead.

Time to man up and apologize.

“Listen, I wanted to say that I’m sorry about how I acted the other night. Obviously I’d had a few too many. I hope we can put it all behind us and still be friends.”

For a moment he thought she wasn’t going to say anything, but then she nodded stiffly but still didn’t meet his gaze. “I think it’s best if we never speak of it again.”

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, had the kiss been that bad? He’d never had any complaints before.

“It’s clear that I upset you.”

This time she did look at him, her dark blue eyes almost gray with some troubled emotion. “I thought we weren’t going to talk about it.”

“We won’t. After this. What I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry that I acted like a horse’s ass. It certainly wasn’t my intention. You probably saved my life, after all. I could have frozen to death on that bench.”

Misty gave him a long-suffering sigh. “I wasn’t upset. Being kissed by a half-inebriated man, however, does not excite me. Now can we drop the subject?”

For some reason Misty wanted to pretend she hadn’t been affected by the kiss, even though that was complete hogwash. He wasn’t a virgin. He’d felt the way her body trembled and the sweetness of her tongue’s tentative explorations. If that was what she was like when she was uninterested, he’d love to be with her when she was all in.

“Sure. We’ll drop the subject.” For some perverse reason he couldn’t leave it alone. “I just don’t want things to be awkward between us now.”

She was chewing on her lower lip again. “Does it matter? I’m leaving for Seattle in a month. We’ll probably never see each other again.”

“Won’t you come visit your friends and family?”

“I don’t have any family and I only have one real friend. She’ll come visit me.”

The thought of never seeing her again bothered him and he had no idea why. He’d called them friends but they really weren’t. Before the other night, they’d said five words to each other in the last five years. He was much older than she was and they didn’t socialize in the same crowd.

“I’m sure you have more friends than that.”

Misty shook her head and looked out of the window. “No. Just Rayne.”

That seemed like an awfully lonely life. Jared was constantly surrounded by family and friends almost to the point that it drove him crazy. He couldn’t fathom being alone most of the time.

Jared tried a new subject since it was clear she didn’t want to discuss their kiss. “So you’re looking forward to Seattle? Do you have a place to live yet?”

That question seemed to perk her up. She smiled and her gaze swung from the scenery back to him. “I signed a lease the last time I was there. It’s the cutest little one bedroom that overlooks a park and is near public transportation.”