Page 85 of The Deputy's Secret Double

“Why?” he asked instead. “What happened?”

Price thought of the earrings. The blue one with a scratch.

He thought of her telling Winnie she was sorry to him.

He slammed his hands on the steering wheel as he answered.

“Because JJ is making a mighty move and turning herself in to him.”

The sheriff was all alarm. It had nothing on the storm of emotions raging within Price.

“Why would she do that?” Liam asked.

Price cussed low.

“Because she finally found her brother,” he said. “It’s Josiah Teller.”

He had no doubt that now JJ knew, she was going to sacrifice herself to keep Josiah safe.

And Price couldn’t—wouldn’t—let that happen.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

JJ had exactly two cards left to play.

The first was the obvious one. The card she knew she would most likely play in the end.

Josiah Teller was her brother. She had found him all thanks to the earring her mother must have left with him before she passed. JJ didn’t need any more proof. She didn’t need to see him again, to talk to him. She had been lucky enough to already share a few conversations with him during the week he had been in the hospital.

She also took to heart the fact that without meaning to, she had already saved her brother when she had found him in the field. Everything after had been bonus.

It also made her heart soften a little more to realize that the man seemed to have had a happy life before trouble had found him. She had been through his house—though maybe not as thoroughly as she would have liked—and seen a life well-lived through the years.

Pictures of people smiling, hugging and celebrating. He had hobbies. Art supplies had filled his guest bedroom, something that now made JJ smile. It would have tickled their mother to know that despite her lack of patience with arts and crafts, her son seemed to thrive at it. He also seemed to be a fan of reading, something their father had been avid at. She hadn’t been able to search all the books, but it looked like he tended to gravitate toward science fiction. Something that JJ actually loved herself.

It was a small thing, but it felt like a lot at the same time.

Josiah was a little bit of all of them, even if he didn’t know.

JJ took that solace with her to play that first card.

Like Riker before her, she would try to make a deal with a Cole to keep the people she loved out of harm’s way. Winnie, to be exact. Price by extension.

No one would ever need to know that Elle and Able Ortiz had had two children. Once JJ gave herself up, that was it.

Price wouldn’t be happy but she was confident that, no matter what, he would keep Josiah a secret too. He would look out for him as well. Maybe that was why JJ had told Winnie the story of the earrings. She wanted to leave a breadcrumb or two so Price would find his way to her brother.

He’s going to be so mad at you, JJ thought.

But JJ had already decided to play the second card, and once she did, there was no turning back.

JJ walked up to the Colt Bar and Grill’s front door. They weren’t open yet but the sign on the door said they would be in two months. There was a grand opening party being planned too.

JJ took a quick look around the building and parking lot. It wasn’t remote but the establishments closest to them was a gas station and a Subway that faced the opposite direction. Two cars were in the lot. She had snuck out of her house with a bike she’d kept in the back. That bike she looked at once more before she knocked on the tinted door.

It wasn’t long before that door opened.

A man she had never seen before gruffly told her that they were closed.