Page 39 of The Aster Valley Collection, Vol. 2

DECLAN

My back teeth were going to break off from the clenching.

As soon as we were alone in the car, Finn opened his mouth to speak. I could tell he was going to make an inappropriate comment, so I cut him off before he could say anything. “Cameras,” I growled, reminding him we were being recorded for posterity.

I spent the drive back to town lecturing myself about being exactly where I’d known this would go all along.

Compromising my ethics on behalf of an actor, for god’s sake. Just like all of my fellow officers in LA who’d gone down in the corruption scandal. And I’d been oh-so smug. As if I had the moral high ground.

Declan Stone would never cross that line for a celebrity.

Ha. The irony. Here I was making up bullshit just to get the man out of his job because I was worried about him.

Batshit terrified is more like it.

I bit back a sigh. I was a fucking idiot, but it was my own fault. I’d let this happen.

“You know I didn’t steal some old lady’s Buick, right?” Finn said softly from the passenger seat. I hadn’t been able to bring myself to put him in the back of the vehicle like an actual suspect.

“I’m not talking about it,” I ground out.

“Just tell me where you found false witnesses. At the diner? That’s pretty rich.”

I gripped the steering wheel tighter to keep from throttling him.

“They aren’t false witnesses.” Even if they had been easily misled by the stupidly simple “disguise” of a Hot as Heller ball cap.

A souvenir that was currently being sold at a hundred different locations in town, including the gas station next to the sheriff’s department.

“Why would I even do something like that? Jesus.”

“Celebrities get bored. They do stupid shit.”

He turned to stare at me. “Ahh, there’s that asshole chip on your shoulder. I almost missed it for a minute. Almost.”

“Am I saying something that’s not true?”

“Mpfh,” he said before slumping down in his seat and crossing his arms. He looked tired. And dirty. Like he’d been on the mountain all day working hard.

I reached into the center console and pulled out a cold water bottle before passing it to him without a word.

“Thanks,” he murmured. He cracked it open and took several large swallows. I almost wrecked the fucking vehicle watching his slender throat work.

“Are there beds in the jail? I could go for a catnap.”

I loved that he wasn’t scared. I selfishly hoped it meant he trusted me. He shouldn’t have. But if he did, that was nice.

“Yes. It doesn’t have a kitchen, though, so we’ll have to pick you up some dinner on the way through town.”

Finn’s lips curved up in an absent smile as he watched the warm colors of the sunset paint the town outside the passenger window. “Does the Greek place have a drive-thru? I could go for some hummus.”

I bit back my own smile. He was a damned delight, and I was a goner. This man had me wrapped around his little finger.

“I didn’t want you on the mountain after dark,” I admitted gruffly.

“I know.” He turned and gave me an affectionate grin. “And I kind of want to smother you in ki…” He glanced at one of the cameras in the dash. “My gratitude right now.”

I cleared my throat. “That would be… inappropriate. But, ah… nice.”

There’d most likely never be a reason for anyone to view the dash cam footage, but I still didn’t want an official record of my goofy infatuation with Finn Heller.

Later, when he was long gone, I would want to keep the memories to myself, held tightly in the deepest part of my heart where I already knew they would live on forever.

I swung into the Greek place and told him to wait in the car while I grabbed us some food. After placing a quick call to the overnight dispatcher to get her order, I went inside and waited for the food.

What the hell was I going to do with Finn when I got him to the office? It wasn’t like he was a serious suspect for the Brainthwaite joyriding case. I was going to have to make it clear to him he was free to go. Would he feel obligated to return to the set and let them put him on that rock face?

Nerves twisted my stomach as I waited for our orders to be ready, but then damned if that cocky bastard didn’t make the decision easy for me.

“Sheriff?” Castor said from behind the restaurant counter.

He pointed past my shoulder to the scene outside the restaurant.

There, framed by the large plate glass window of Kozani’s was a scene I wouldn’t have believed if I wasn’t watching it with my own eyes.

That blond-haired shitty sidekick of Finn’s had pulled open the passenger door to my vehicle and was screaming in Finn’s face about something I couldn’t hear.

By the time I processed what was happening, Finn had punched the kid twice in the face and shoved him on the ground.

I raced outside to intervene only to find Finn whaling on the kid on the hard asphalt.

They both had rips in their shirts and bloody noses.

I reached for the radio on my shoulder to call Janine for backup.

I was sure I could break them up—both men were much smaller than I was—but I was definitely not transporting them both in the same vehicle afterward.

I grabbed Finn around the waist and hoisted him off the other man. “Hey, hey, cool it.”

“Let me go,” he growled. “You don’t know what he did. What he said to me.”

“Doesn’t matter. Words aren’t the same as punches. Stop. Stop .”

Finn’s voice had a tinge of hysteria in it. Something bad had obviously gone down between the two of them, but this wasn’t the way to solve it. He wrestled to try and get out of my hold, but I pulled him back against my chest and stepped away from Kix. Several witnesses raced over to gawk.

Kix turned a vicious expression on Finn. “You’re going to regret this. I’m pressing charges. See what that does to your perfect fucking pristine reputation.”

Finn’s hand on my forearm went from trying to shove me off to holding on tight. I wasn’t even sure he realized it. He held my arm firmly against him like he was scared of letting go. “Dec…”

He was breathing heavy, and his rough voice broke on the word. Whatever this was about, it had cut him deep.

I moved him back toward the vehicle, only this time, I had to put him in the back. There were too many witnesses, and I needed to make sure Kix didn’t run off.

“Get in there and catch your breath,” I said, moving him as gently as possible into the back seat of the SUV.

He shot me a glare. “If you so much as mention a blank piece of fucking paper…”

I closed the door before he could finish the sentence.

Kix was already on his feet, making a scene. One hand swiped at the blood on his lip while the other pointed aggressively at me. “You’d better fucking arrest him. You were a witness. I didn’t touch him! He came at me, and I was only defending myself.”

I held out my hands in the universal “calm down” gesture and tried to keep my cool when my inner caveman wanted to pummel the kid just for daring to upset Finn.

I had it bad. It was clear I couldn’t be the officer in charge of this case. I was way too personally involved to be objective. Where was my backup?

“Take a breath,” I told him. “Let’s let cooler heads prevail. Do you need medical attention?”

His eyes darted to Finn and back to me. I could see the calculations the kid was making in his mind. His injuries weren’t serious enough for a hospital visit, but would it help an assault case? Would it help a media campaign?

Castor had run out of the restaurant with a first aid kit. “No need, no need. Looks like a simple case of a split lip and maybe a shiner. Bruises and scrapes. Boys being boys, eh?”

Now that his masculinity had been challenged by the older man, Kix gave up. “I’m fine. Whatever. But I am pressing charges.”

My backup finally arrived in the form of Rolly Kepplow, who I’d had to keep on the force due to the simple issue of being shorthanded with all of the fans in town for the Gold Rats shoot.

“What’s going on, Sheriff?” he asked, stepping out of his vehicle and eyeing Kix with a combination of suspicion and awe. I already knew how much of a celebrity fan Rolly was, so this came as no surprise.

“Physical altercation between two males,” I said, moving into work mode. “This man would like to press charges. The other is already detained in the back of my vehicle. I suggest taking them both in to take reports somewhere more private. Hopefully we can sort this out at the department.”

Kix eyed Rolly wearily. “You’re not taking me in. I’ll come down there to file a report, but not in the back of your cop car.”

Rolly looked at me, and I nodded. “Escort him in his own vehicle.” I looked around to see where he was parked. It was only then I realized he’d shown up in the McLaren. Fucking Christ.

I returned to my vehicle and leaned in. I already knew Finn legally owned the car since I’d run the plates that first night.

“He’s here in the McLaren. Do you?—”

“Are you fucking kidding me? He stole my fucking car? Is he for real?”

Ooookay, so he wasn’t cooled down yet. He’d obviously crumpled up the plain piece of white paper and set it on fire.

“Are you pressing charges, or are you letting him drive it to the department?”

Finn looked at me like I was two beats shy of a melody. “I am pressing charges. Big ones. All the charges.”

I bit my tongue to keep from laughing. He was so goddamned cute, I couldn’t stand it. Seeing him angry made me want to kiss his face off for some reason.

I didn’t think he’d appreciate it at the moment, and I didn’t really want to lose my job in a giant scandal either.

“Hang tight,” I told him before returning to Kix.

“Sir, it appears you are here in a stolen vehicle. Deputy Kepplow, please arrest this man on suspicion of auto theft. Once you’ve secured him in your vehicle, I’ll need you to arrest the other suspect in my vehicle before we take them both in to get this sorted out. ”