Page 37 of Wild Card (Foster Bro Code #2)

Dalton

My phone buzzed half a dozen times while I made the drive over to the Fieldhouse to meet Chloe and Zach for a beer.

The past day and a half had been surreal. One minute, I was a deputy storming out of his job, and the next, I was a candidate for sheriff.

I’d thought saying yes was the hard part, but it turned out there was a lot of work ahead.

I’d spent yesterday morning filing paperwork, fielded phone calls from the mayor’s friends for most of the afternoon, then been pulled into an impromptu campaign planning meeting last night.

And when I wasn’t doing that, I was gathering all the evidence I could on Dallas’s illegal activities—which involved calling in a favor with Ava to get my old reports and snooping around his garage to confirm he really was the hit-and-run driver—so the mayor could work the problem behind the scenes.

I hadn’t seen Axel since our talk on the porch, and it was nagging at me. He had given me the courage to take this step. I wanted him by my side. But he had his work and his animals and his brothers, and it wasn’t fair to disrupt his life with all this election madness.

Still, I fired off a quick text after I parked at the Fieldhouse.

Dalton:

Grabbing a beer with a couple of deputies to talk about the future before I go pack up my stuff at the station. Want to join us?

Axel:

Sorry, got work

Dalton:

Dinner later?

…

…

He was thinking too hard about that answer. I decided to jump ahead.

Dalton:

Let me rephrase. I’ll see you for dinner.

Axel:

Okay, Sheriff-to-be. No need to get all authoritative on me.

Dalton:

You like it. You always have ;)

Dalton:

Now, behave boy, or there will be consequences for you tonight.

Axel:

Promises, promises

I tucked my phone away with a smile, feeling more grounded now that I had plans to see Axel, and headed into the sports bar.

Chloe waved a hand from a table back by the dartboard. I nodded that I’d seen her, then swung by the bar to order a beer from the owner, Gail.

She pulled a Blue Moon, then waved away my ten-dollar bill. “This one’s on the house, Sheriff .”

She winked.

“Don’t jinx me, Gail. There’s a whole election to get through.”

She gave a throaty laugh. “Oh, honey, you’ve got it in the bag. Hale is an old, washed-up airbag. You’re young and…” She ran her gaze over me. “The very image of the strong, handsome sheriff everyone wants to envision.”

I doubted most folks envisioned a gay sheriff with a boyfriend, though. Not that I’d let that stop me. I wasn’t going back in the closet or asking Axel to step aside. I’d already told Mayor Prince as much. Folks would vote for me as I was, or they’d be stuck with Hale. Simple as that.

I took a seat beside Chloe and across from Zach. “Hey, guys. Thanks for agreeing to meet up.”

“Sure,” Chloe said. “Gotta make a good impression on the new boss.”

Zach chuckled, shifting nervously. “Too late for me.”

“You’re both good deputies. We’re not here so you can prove yourself. We’re here so I can.”

Zach looked surprised. “What do you have to prove?”

“That I’ll be a better sheriff than Hale, for one.”

Chloe snorted. “That’s a given. You’ve been the true leader of the station since I started.”

Zach nodded. “That’s true.”

He was subdued, eyes focused on his beer rather than on me. Obviously, something was bothering him.

“What is it, Zach? I want you to be honest with me. That’s why we’re here. If you don’t want me for sheriff…”

“It’s not that,” he said, flicking a quick glance my way before averting his gaze.

I glanced at Chloe to see if she knew what was up. She only shrugged.

“Spill it, Deputy,” I ordered in that authoritative voice that Axel enjoyed so much.

“I was a coward!” Zach blurted, ears turning red. “Ava knew something was going on in that office, and I should have done something.” He looked at Chloe. “I should have done what Dalton did. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “Hale is intimidating. I get it.”

Zach’s jaw tightened. “I’m an officer of the law. I can’t let bullies intimidate me.” He sucked in a breath. “So if your first act as sheriff is to fire me, I’ll understand. Maybe I’m not fit for the uniform.”

“Zach…” Chloe said, voice pained. “I could have kicked Hale’s ass if I needed to. I was just as intimidated as you were. He has a lot of power over us. I don’t blame you for hesitating.”

“Well, I do,” Zach said.

“Zach, when I walked in, you and Ava were talking about Chloe being in there with the sheriff. You were still processing the situation. If I hadn’t shown up, you would have done exactly what I did.”

“I don’t know,” he said, sounding dubious.

“Either way, the problem was Hale,” I said firmly. “Your sheriff should be looking out for your best interests. That’s why I invited you both here today. I want to hear what you think would make your jobs easier and safer.”

“You’ve done the job longer than us,” Chloe pointed out.

“And I’ve got a lot of ideas,” I said. “But if I take this job, I won’t just be serving and protecting the county. I’ll be serving both of you. I don’t take that responsibility lightly.”

Losing my partner still weighed on me. It always would. But Axel had been right. The best way to honor him was to make sure my colleagues were as safe as they could be.

“Well,” Chloe said thoughtfully, “I don’t like the way Hale is always closed off, the door shut. It makes it harder to approach him about problems.”

“Open-door policy seems fair.” I took out my notebook and flipped it open to write that down. “What else?”

Zach haltingly contributed a concern about how long it took to replace damaged equipment. I wrote that down too.

Once they got going, there was a lot more to say. About the patrol protocols, staffing schedules, the reporting system. We finished our beers, and my notebook was full of ideas by the time our hour was up.

“This has been great, guys. Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” Zach said earnestly. He was in his early twenties, still young enough to be passionate and enthusiastic about the job.

I’d watched Hale’s unethical practices dim his idealism over the past two years, and it was damn sad.

Today, there was that old spark of excitement in him, though.

“It’s been a long time since anyone cared what I thought. ”

Chloe nodded. “I haven’t been here long, but it’s nice to be taken seriously. You’re gonna be a great sheriff, Dalton.”

We parted ways in the parking lot, Chloe heading for work—she’d stuck to soda at the bar—and Zach driving home because he was off duty.

I followed Chloe’s patrol car back to the station. Even if I became sheriff, it would be a few months before I worked there again, so I wanted to pack up my belongings.

When we went inside, Ava waved us over to her desk. There was yelling echoing from the sheriff’s office. Hale’s voice could be heard through the door, though I couldn’t make out more than a few curse words.

“What’s going on?” Chloe asked.

“The mayor is in with the sheriff,” she said. “He showed up about half an hour ago. They’ve been closed up in there ever since.”

My heart lurched. What was the mayor’s play here? Had he shown the sheriff my evidence on Dallas and confronted him?

I wasn’t sure if that would help anything unless the mayor had some serious leverage. He’d mentioned he wasn’t powerless, though…

The yelling reached a fever pitch, and suddenly, the office door flew open. It wasn’t the mayor but the sheriff who stormed out.

His face was bright red, and there was a box in his arms containing photo frames, the signed baseball he was so proud of, and other belongings.

He glowered at me as he neared. “You wanted my job so damn bad? Well, now we’ll see if you can really handle it.” He scoffed. “I give it three months before you crumble under the pressure. You’re fucking soft, Harvey, and they’re going to eat you alive.”

“Maybe they will,” I said. “But I’ll go down as a man of principle. Which is more than I can say about you.”

“Fuck you,” he growled. “Fuck the mayor.” His voice grew into a shout. “Fuck this whole fucking town!”

He stormed past, slamming out the glass doors.

Ava and Chloe exchanged wide-eyed looks. “So what does that mean? Is there still going to be an election?”

“I don’t know,” I murmured.

The mayor had lingered in the sheriff’s office while he left. Now, he emerged and strode over to me. “Didn’t expect to see you here, Harvey.”

“Didn’t think I’d see you either.”

“You’ve probably gathered that Sheriff Hale is resigning.”

“Is that what he’s doing?” Ava said faintly. “He seemed rather angry for a man leaving by choice.”

Mayor Prince smiled sardonically. “He was reluctant, but he eventually agreed there was no other wise course of action for him.”

“How did you pull that off?”

“I am very persuasive, and I have friends in high places,” he said. “It was time for Hale to go.”

So, the mayor had leverage, then. More than my old reports, I’d wager. There was no other way Hale would have left.

“So, what now?” I asked.

“As of now, you’re the acting sheriff,” he said. “You’ll still have to run for election, but you’ll run as the sitting sheriff. Should be an easy win.”

My heart thumped. “Are you serious?”

Mayor Prince handed me an envelope. “Sure am, Sheriff Harvey. And I thought as your first act as sheriff, you might like to execute this search warrant.”

I opened the envelope, tugged out the warrant to read it, and laughed when I saw the sheriff’s address printed on the side.

Dallas lived in an apartment with street parking only. A little fieldwork under the radar had confirmed he was keeping his car in his dad’s garage. I had the bastard now. I’d have legal means to document the damage to the car and confirm that he was the driver in that hit-and-run weeks ago.

“Thank you for this.”

Mayor Prince slapped my arm. “Don’t thank me. Just go get your man, Sheriff. It’s time we clean up the mess Hale has made. You can start with this one.”

As soon as he was gone, Ava and Chloe turned to me.

“Did that just happen?”

“You’re sheriff!”

“What’s on the search warrant?”

I grinned as I handed it to Chloe. “How would you like to help me arrest the sheriff’s son?”

Her eyes went wide. “It would be an honor, Sheriff.”

“Let’s go, then. Ava, keep me apprised of anything urgent.”

“Will do.”

I tossed the keys to Chloe. “You drive. I need to tell my boyfriend I’m the sheriff.”

“Holy cow, you’re the sheriff!” she crowed. “We need to celebrate.”

“Trust me, finally nailing Dallas is all the celebration I need.”

She laughed as she climbed into the patrol car. I buckled up and called Axel while she drove. I’d had enough texting bullshit.

It rang three times, four times. Clicked over to voicemail.

“You know what to do,” Axel said on the recording.

Beep.

“Damn it,” I muttered.

The call would have to wait. I didn’t intend to give Axel the news on a voicemail or a text. We’d haul in Dallas and get him processed, and then I’d see Axel and give him the news—even if I had to cuff him to the bed to make it happen.