Page 2 of Warrant (The Berserker’s Rage MC: Wyoming Chapter #1)

Ainsley

M y door slammed open, leaving me blinking in surprise as the woman flew into my office like a tornado, and all I could do was watch.

“Hi!” she all but sang.

Shaking the hand she held out, I bit the insides of my lips to hold back my amusement. There wasn’t time to return her greeting because she just plowed on through.

“I’m Harlow Roth. The Mayor of Sentinel. I wanted to stop by and welcome you to town.”

“Thanks, I-”

“It’s about damn time Sheriff Denison retired,” she said, cutting me off. “And I’m so glad the town is continuing on with this theme.” She gave me a warm smile. She was all energy and positive vibes.

I liked her.

“Theme?”

“Oh yeah,” she said with a laugh. “A couple years ago they started voting in women to be in charge of Sentinel.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Really?” I asked, tone skeptical. “Why’s that?”

She shrugged. “They didn’t like the way the town was being run.

I promised in my campaign to make sure that the ranchers were heard more.

To go to bat for them.” She shrugged. “Last mayor was fine, but he didn’t seem to care that ranching is the backbone of this town.

I was elected and I haven’t looked back since. ”

“Nice,” I replied. Motioning toward the chair on the other side of my desk, I said, “I just got into town yesterday.”

“I know,” she said, her green eyes shining with amusement. “You know everything in a small town.”

“Bigger than where I came from,” I told her.

“Where’s that?” she asked.

“Small town, west of here on the state line,” I told her.

“I was surprised when I got your memo, wanting to get on the election ballot for a town you didn’t even live in.”

Smiling at her, I nodded. “I assumed I had you to thank for that. I was a deputy back home. My uncle is the sheriff. He was the one who told me Denison was retiring and that I should consider moving here. Didn’t think I’d have a shot in hell since I didn’t live in town and no one knew me.”

“Well, Bill Rankin put in a good word for you,” she said with a wink. “Actually, what he told me is I’d be a fool to exclude you.”

“I figured there was no way,” I admitted. “Since most places have a residency clause.” Bill had been my uncle’s best friend since they were kids. It didn’t surprise me he’d done what he could to help me.

“Eh, you met the Wyoming residency clause. Just because you didn’t live in Sentinel didn’t mean you couldn’t do a good job.

Or so I told the County Commissioners when I spoke to them and convinced them to put your name on the ballot.

Besides, no one else was stepping up. Why not let you have the job? ”

“Well, I’m really appreciative,” I told her.

“What made you decide to leave home behind and start over here?”

“I want something of my own.” Her brows went up at that. “I’ll forever be grateful to my uncle,” I continued. “Learned everything I know about law enforcement from him. But I wanted my own place. Somewhere that I didn’t know everyone and they didn’t know me.”

She nodded in understanding. “I get that.”

Sucking in a deep breath, I wondered how she’d even gotten me to open up this quickly. I wasn’t the type to spill my guts to others.

A knock on the door interrupted us and I motioned for the deputy to open it. Owen stuck his head in, looking a little…irritated. “Someone here to see you, Sheriff.”

“Okay,” I said. I didn’t like being the center of attention, but that was going to be unavoidable for the next few months until the townspeople got used to me. I stood up, then frowned as the man from last night walked in.

Good Lord he was pretty. And worse, he knew it.

Pretty was too feminine to describe him, but what the hell?

It wasn’t untrue. He had a handsome face, and a charming, and disarming, grin.

There were tattoos down his arms and over the backs of his hand.

He even had one across his throat. Not that I could see most of them today.

The wind was blowing hard out there today so he was wearing a black hoodie under his leather cut, but I’d seen them last night.

He should look like a thug. But he didn’t. It was those glittering blue eyes that watched me like I was prey and he was the predator. He was dangerous, but he wasn’t a common thug.

His brown hair was cut close on the sides, and was just a little longer on top. My eyes swept over him. One of the first things Sheriff Denison had warned me about was the local motorcycle club.

“Bunch of misfits,” he grunted. “But they mostly keep to themselves.”

Something told me they did a lot more than that, but that Denison was willing to turn a blind eye to it all.

“Oh, hey, Warrant,” Harlow said, grinning at him. “I was just introducing myself to the new sheriff, but I need to go.” She paused at the door as Warrant stepped out of her way. “You need to come out to lunch with us sometime.”

“Us?” I asked.

“Those women I was telling you about.” She winked, patted Warrant on the chest, then left as quickly as she’d come.

“She’s…nice,” I said, searching for something to say when he just kept staring at me.

“Yeah, Harlow’s good people.”

Okay.

“Uh, what can I do for you…Warrant?” I frowned when I said his name.

“It’s what I can do for you…Sheriff,” he said, echoing my earlier hesitation. He clearly wanted my name.

Wasn’t happening. I was already too interested in this guy. He was too good looking. Too charming. Distance was the only thing I needed from Warrant. I had too much to focus on to be spending time thinking about men. And I’d spent far too much of last night thinking about this man.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He nodded at the filing cabinet. “Thought you wanted inside that monstrosity?”

The cabinet took up the entirety of the wall behind my desk. Monstrosity was a term for it. I was willing to admit, if only to myself, I was dying to see what was in there.

Putting my hands on my hips, I studied him. “You think you can get in it?”

“That’s right.”

“Without destroying it?” I asked, tone suspicious. He struck me as the type to manhandle the cabinet until it gave in. I wasn’t sure he was capable of finesse. It didn’t matter that I didn’t really know him. I was good at reading people.

He grinned at me and pulled a gun out of the back of his jeans.

My hand hit my holster as my mouth popped open in shock.

His laughter filled the room as he re-holstered his weapon and held up his hands in surrender. “I’m kidding.”

Narrowing my eyes on him, I let my hand drift off my service weapon as I scowled at him. “Very funny.” Everyone in Wyoming had a gun. So, it wasn’t that he had one that had shocked me, but that he’d pulled it out like that.

“Shoulda seen your face,” he said, tossing a grin my way, then moving closer so he could study the filing cabinet.

“You have a concealed carry permit for that…right?” I asked.

“Course I do. What’d ya take me for?”

His eyes landed on mine and my mouth went dry.

What was it about this guy? Back home I was friendly with everyone.

Grew up with them all, but I’d never had this kind of reaction to any of the men there.

Hell, even at the academy, despite being surrounded by gorgeous men, they hadn’t affected me quite like this.

I wasn’t a virgin. I knew what lust was when it hit me, but this seemed like…

more. No. That was stupid. I stepped aside as he brushed closer, looking at all the different locks on the beast he was studying.

“A key would be easier,” I muttered, irritated that I had to ask for help at all.

That Denison had ‘forgotten’ to leave the damn keys here.

Something told me it wasn’t a mistake. It was a last ditch effort on his part to have control over something.

“Would be, but Mrs. Denison has been waiting on her Bali vacation for fifteen years,” he said, amusement tinging his words. “They aren’t coming home any time soon.” He turned his head and stared at me. “So you want me to open it? Or not?”

“You some kind of locksmith, or something?”

“Or something,” he said with a chuckle. “But I can get you in there. Wouldn’t take much to get the old locks out, then I can head over to the hardware store and get you new locks with their own keys.”

He’d bent down to examine one of the lower locks and I let my eyes wander down a little too far. Men weren’t supposed to have nice asses like that. Most of them were flat as a piece of board and seemed to only get flatter as they aged. Not Warrant’s.

My eyes darted back to his face as he straightened and focused fully on me. “I don’t want to waste your time,” I told him. “I can call the local locksmith.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Gerry is three sheets to the wind by now and won’t be answering your call for about a week.”

“How do you know?” I asked, looking at my watch. It was eleven a.m.

“Everyone knows Gerry runs a week behind. Always.”

Sighing, I placed my hands on my hips, just above my gun and my radio and scowled at the cabinet. “Fine. What do you charge?”

“A favor.”

I stared at him incredulously. “I’m not owing you a favor. I don’t even know you.” My eyes drifted down to the tattoo on his throat. “You could be some criminal for all I know.”

“Well, you might think of me as one, but I wouldn’t consider myself a criminal.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked him.

“Fine. Dinner,” he countered without bothering to answer me.

“Same thing,” I growled at him. “I don’t know you.”

“That’s the point. Gives us a chance to get to know one another,” he said with another one of those charming smiles that threatened to have my damn panties going up in flames.

“How about I just pay you money,” I said from between gritted teeth. “Like normal people.”

He cocked his head and studied me. “Normal people tend to go on dates.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I stared at him with my most unamused look.

“Dinner,” he insisted. “Or you can wait on Gerry. He might pick up in a day or two.”

Sighing, I tipped my head back in agitation. “Fine,” I muttered. “If you can get me into this thing, I’ll go to dinner with you.”

“Nice doing business with you, Sheriff,” he said with a grin as he sauntered out of my office.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

He paused at the door, his eyes sparking with amusement. “Miss me already?”

I gave him a look of disbelief. “Are you ever serious about anything?”

“Rarely. Where’s the fun in that?” He jerked his head. “I’m going to go grab some tools. Be back in a couple hours.” His eyes dropped to my name tape, that said A. Zimmerman. “Abby.”

“Not even close,” I told him, biting back my grin. He wasn’t going to guess my name.

“Hmmm,” was all he said as he walked out.

I sank down into my chair. “What the hell are you thinking? Agreeing to go out with a biker? That’s not going to start you off right in this town.” But my heart was doing a little happy dance inside my chest. That wasn’t a good sign. And my panties…they had gone up in smoke.

I was used to the way small towns worked.

Warrant coming back in a couple hours, rather than getting started right away, was par for the course.

If you wanted to live rural, you gave up certain things, like access to your choice of restaurant.

You got what the town had. Though Sentinel had a nice selection of places to eat. They even had a fast food burger joint.

Speed was another thing you gave up on. You were put on a list and whoever the repairman was would get to you when he got to you. No telling how they chose their jobs for the day. You just counted yourself lucky when the job got done.

I was willing to put up with Warrant for the day if it meant getting my hands on whatever Denison kept in this filing cabinet.

I knew the cold cases were in there. And I did plan to take a look, but my gut told me something else was in there.

And my gut never led me wrong. It was why I’d become a cop.

Sitting down at my desk, I started going through emails as I waited on Warrant to get back. I was trying to convince myself that I was restless because he was going to be annoying me all day. But I knew, deep down, I wasn’t irritated. I was excited to spend time with him.

Damn it. I was excited to see him smile again. I’d known this man for all of two minutes and for some reason he made my pulse race.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I needed to get a grip. There wasn’t time to date. And he wouldn’t be suitable even if there was. I needed to win over the hearts and minds of my new town. And I needed to keep my heart and mind under lock and key. The last thing I should be doing is entertaining a man like Warrant.