Page 15 of Engaging the Deputy (Silver Stars of Montana #3)

“I need your help,” she said, her fear making his skyrocket. “I’m in the bar parking lot. My tire is flat. Someone stuck a screwdriver in it.”

Bar parking lot? Hadn’t he advised her to stay close to home? He didn’t have to ask which bar. “I’ll be right there.”

The motel where he was staying while in town on the case wasn’t far from the bar where Olivia had said she’d met up with Cody and her old friends the night they decided to spend Halloween at Starling.

He found her sitting in her car in the almost-empty lot and pulled alongside in his patrol SUV, spotting the flat tire. She climbed out into the night at once. He couldn’t tell if she was more scared or angry.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded when what he really wanted to know was who she’d been with at the bar. Cody Ryan had been released from the hospital. Had he felt up to going to the bar his first night home?

“What you asked me to do,” she snapped, clearly not liking the tone of his voice.

“I believe I asked you to stay close to home.”

“Before that, you asked me to keep my ear to the ground with my old friends,” she said. “Emery texted me. He said it was important.”

Jaden pulled off his hat and raked a hand through his hair. Not Cody. He hated that he was jealous. He had no right to be, but that didn’t stop him.

“Sorry. Why don’t you go back into the bar? I’ll join you when I’m finished here.” He pulled on a latex glove before opening an evidence bag. She watched him remove the screwdriver from the tire and drop it in the bag.

“I’d rather stay out here,” she said as he secured the bag in his SUV, then opened her car door and pulled the lever that opened her trunk. “Emery says he didn’t kill Rob because he owed him his life.”

As he changed her tire, he listened to the story she said Emery had related to her in the bar. When she finished, he asked, “Why didn’t he come to me with this? Why you?”

“I asked him that. He didn’t think you would believe him.”

Jaden couldn’t argue with that. Being suspicious came with the job, but he found himself more interested in where Emery had taken off to from the bar.

“Doesn’t it seem suspicious that he gets you into town, takes off suddenly, and you find your tire punctured in the lot?

He didn’t tell you why he had to leave so quickly? ”

She shrugged, arms crossed over her chest, and looked upset that he wasn’t more interested in Emery’s story about seeing Rusk on Halloween night at Starling. “He said a friend needed him. Why would he flatten my tire?” Good question, he thought. “You don’t believe him, do you?”

“I didn’t say that.” He replaced her jack and loaded the ruined tire in the back before slamming the lid. “You’ll want to get a new tire tomorrow.”

“Thanks for your help.” She started toward her car, clearly intending to get in and drive home. But she’d have to get him to move out of the way to do so.

“You have no idea who called Emery?” he asked.

“No.” She frowned. “Maybe. It sounded like he was talking to a woman.”

Jaden nodded. “One of those girls from Halloween?”

She shook her head. “Older, more like someone he knew well. But I’m just going by his tone of voice. That’s all I could make out.”

* * *

Olivia realized that Jaden seemed in no hurry to leave. What was he waiting for? “You know I wouldn’t have called unless—”

“You needed me. You can always call. I hope you know that.”

The cloudy darkness felt almost intimate as they stood looking at each other. The music coming from the bar seemed louder than it had been. The neon bar sign threw shadows across the parking lot. She stood only inches from him, feeling the intensity of his gaze.

“You’re in my way,” she said, her words coming out in a whisper.

“Remember this song?” he asked, cocking his head to listen to the music coming from the bar.

As if Olivia could have forgotten the song, let alone forget being in his arms slow dancing. It had been something they’d done often when they were dating. A song would come on, and no matter where they were, he would reach for her.

Like now. He reached for her in the darkness as she said, “We used to dance to this.”

Without a thought, she slipped into his arms. He drew her close, the two of them moving to the rhythm as they danced between the two vehicles as if they’d been doing it for years.

She could feel his breath in her hair. She closed her eyes, relishing his hard body, the strength of his arms around her.

This was the one place she’d ever felt truly safe and secure.

In his arms, she’d had no doubts. She’d known what she’d wanted and needed—something she apparently couldn’t have since he’d broken off their engagement.

The song ended and she pulled back to look up at him in the dim glow of the bar sign.

The urge to kiss him was so strong that she felt herself leaning in, her lips only a breath away when a horn blared, making them both jump apart.

Headlights washed over them as a pickup pulled into the parking lot.

Jaden swore under his breath. “We need to get you home. I’ll follow you.”

It was exactly what she wanted, yet she started to tell him it wasn’t necessary. One look at his expression and she knew it would be a fight she’d lose. It was a relief. She nodded since she’d been dreading the drive home.

Jaden opened her car door. His hand brushed her shoulder as she climbed in, sending shivers up her arms. They’d been so close to kissing. Why did she believe in her heart that with one kiss, he would know that they belonged together?

Foolishness, she told herself as she started the engine and pulled out, Jaden right behind her. The glow of his headlights behind her seemed to warm the dark autumn night even more as she drove toward home.

Her body still quaked, emotions running hot and wild.

Being in his arms… Holding her like that, dancing, he had to remember how good they were together.

She couldn’t get the almost-kiss out of her mind or the ache of disappointment that they’d been interrupted.

She wondered if Jaden was feeling the same way right now and shook her head.

You need to tell him how you feel.

“Now? I’m a suspect in his murder investigation. Do you really think right now is the time?” she demanded of herself.

No answer, which was an answer in itself, wasn’t it?

“You really need to quit talking to yourself, too,” she said and glanced in the rearview mirror to see his headlights. They stayed a safe distance behind her until she turned into her mother’s driveway and parked.

Jaden pulled in behind her. For a moment, she thought he might get out, but instead, he flashed his lights and then left.

She felt bereft as she watched his vehicle lights disappear down the road. “Don’t let one dance make you think anything has changed,” she said to herself. She was still a suspect and would be until the killer was caught.

But she knew it wasn’t just that keeping her and Jaden apart. She’d known this wouldn’t be easy. Wasn’t that why she hadn’t gone straight to Jaden when she’d returned home? She hadn’t been able to stand the thought that he might turn her away and not hear her out.

Patience, she told herself with a sigh. But even as she thought it, her only other option had to be something besides hanging out here at the house with her mother watching her every minute, wondering what she was doing with her life.

She needed to figure out who’d killed Rob, who’d attacked Cody, who’d flattened her tire.

And maybe why Emery had left the bar so fast when he’d gotten that call.

As her mother came out on the porch, she cut her engine and lights, and climbed out, determined to clear herself.

* * *

Jaden cursed himself all the way back to town.

What was he doing? Just racing headlong toward heartbreak.

He’d broken off the engagement because he’d felt in his heart that Livie wasn’t ready.

Did he really believe that something had changed?

She’d come back to town and gone straight to her old boyfriend.

Her going out with Cody the minute she’d hit town… What more proof did he need?

But dancing with her, holding her in his arms, almost kissing, had felt so right. He’d wanted that kiss desperately. Like one kiss was going to chase away any doubts he still had.

Yet just before they’d almost kissed, he’d looked into her eyes and he’d known heart deep that she still loved him. He couldn’t be wrong about that. Not that it meant she’d ever want to be the wife of a small-town deputy.

He slammed his hand into the steering wheel.

He didn’t have time for this. He had a job to do.

Determined to concentrate on work, he recalled what Livie had told him about Emery.

He didn’t know what to believe. Emery’s story sounded like boys would be boys.

Did he believe Elden Rusk had planned to kill Emery and Rob with a shovel?

He thought of the boogeyman from his nightmares while living in Starling. Maybe.

Rusk had scared him as a boy. It was the man’s eyes. When they lit on you, it felt as if he could smite you on the spot. Jaden had been terrified of him. He couldn’t imagine what he would have done if Rusk had ever brandished a rusted shovel at him.

Yet something felt off about Emery summoning Olivia to the bar to tell her about his and Rob’s run-in with Rusk—especially with someone flattening her tire.

Could it have been some kids looking for trouble?

Unfortunately, he didn’t believe it. Krystal?

Maybe. He cursed at the thought since he’d told Livie that he had handled it.

The woman kept crowding his thoughts, reminding him of her in his arms, in his bed, always in his head and still lodged deep in his heart. He needed to stay away from her, but he was working a murder investigation—and Livie was right there, right in the center.

He should never have taken her in his arms to dance.

He should definitely have not almost kissed her.

Especially in public and not in the middle of an investigation involving her.

He didn’t know who had been in that pickup that had pulled into the bar parking lot, but he knew how quickly word spread in this town.

The deputy and his suspect just a breath away from kissing in the parking lot would be all over town by morning.

The worst part was that he had wanted that damn kiss more than his next breath and now he couldn’t get it out of his head.

He kept remembering their deep, long kisses, the passion they’d ignited, their need for each other.

Olivia Brooks had done more than stolen his heart. She’d ruined him for any other woman.

So why in the hell hadn’t he ignored his doubts and married her? If he’d offered to follow her to her job— He pushed the thought away. She hadn’t wanted that, or she would have suggested it. She’d needed her freedom to chase her dream. She’d needed it more than him. But what about now?

He knew he wasn’t going to be able to sleep. It didn’t help when he got a call the moment he walked into his rental.

Elden Rusk had been found.