She felt that bit of butterflies in her belly at seeing Jake again. She had a hard time sleeping all week, thinking about him and his comment about being friends. She knew he liked her. Hell, she found him to be pretty damn sexy. But she was trying to keep a low profile.
When she met his brother Hal, she was surprised at how her body reacted the same way. The man was very sexy as well. Good genes must run in the family. She had seen a picture of all the McCurran men, and even the third brother, Billy, was attractive, and big, too. She had yet to meet him, but feared she would feel an attraction, too.
Something she learned quickly living around this town was that men shared their women. There were ménage relationships everywhere, and they even had families, worked regular jobs in the community, and no one seemed to care, especially not the traditional couples. That knowledge had given her some pretty interesting dreams the last few nights. But that type of life was a fantasy, a relationship she surely would fail at because of her lack of trust. There had to be some serious trust and commitment for a relationship like a ménage to work and to last.
As she cleared her head of the thoughts, she stopped to assist a few guys with their drink orders.
“So, Smiley, what do you like to do when you’re not working here?” some guy Alex asked.
“Oh, I keep busy,” she said, placing their beers down in front of the three men. All of them were watching her.
“Like what? What do you like to do for fun?” the other guy asked.
“Well, right now I’m working on fixing up my house. That should keep me busy day and night for quite some time. Excuse me a minute, guys.” She smiled then walked a little further down the bar to see if Hal and Jake needed new beers. Theirs were getting low.
“Good evening, Sheriff. You two need two more beers?” she asked, and Hal nodded.
“Hey, I thought we discussed the whole sheriff thing the other day at your house?” he asked, saying it kind of loudly. She noticed that the guys who were flirting heard, and now they looked at Jake and Hal. Jake just gave a nod and a smile. The three men headed away from the bar. She wondered what just silently went down here as she filled the two beers and placed them next to Jake and Hal’s other mugs. Both men downed the remainder in the other mugs and she removed them.
“Well, I didn’t want to not show respect for your public position,” she said as she stared at him. He looked good tonight. Really good, even though he was growing a little gruff along his chin and cheeks. It made him appear older, seasoned, experienced, and rather intimidating. She swallowed.
“His friends call him Jake,” Hal stated. When she looked at him, he was holding the mug with his large hand as he held her gaze with his bold, blue eyes.
“I thought we discussed the whole friends thing, too.” She winked.
“Sweetheart, you’ll come to realize that I’m pretty damn stubborn. I want something, or I offer something, I expect the one I’m offering it to take me up on it. Now, everyone can use a friend, especially when they’re new in town. So you remember that.”
“Yes, Sheriff, Jake, I will.”
“So, I heard you tell those guys that you’re working on your house. What are you doing? Painting?”
She placed her hands on the brass bar below the shelf and started to tell Hal about dry walling, tearing down the walls, doing the electrical work, and renovating.
“Holy shit. You know how to do all that?” he asked, sounding impressed.
“Sure do, but it’s a lot harder than I remember.”
“Where did you learn how to do that?”
“Oh I picked it up here and there. It’s not too bad, and if I get stuck, I have books I brought and collected over the years, and there’s always the Internet.”
“Speaking of the Internet, you and I need to talk,” Jake told her.
“About what?”
“It seems that the video surveillance from my department was downloaded by a few morons, and it may or may not be running freely on the Internet.”
“What?” Her heart caught in her throat, and she looked around and then tried to calm her reaction. She didn’t want to let them know that this was bad. She was trying to stay low key. Shit.
“Will you excuse me, please.” Before they could answer, she grabbed Jerome’s arm and whispered that she needed a minute and then she hurried out the back. She was in the back room by the emergency exit door. She looked around and no one was there, so she pulled out her cell and made the call.
“Alonso, it’s me. I have a potential situation.”
“Again? Now what?” he teased her.
“That incident at the sheriff’s department was recorded on a surveillance video and some jackass uploaded it to share with friends and it may be on the Internet.”
“Oh shit. Who the hell would do that, one of the deputies?”
“I guess one of the deputies. I know the sheriff didn’t do it. He just informed me now at work. What should I do? I mean, do I need to leave here? Relocate? I’m kind of worried.”
“No, just calm down. The likelihood that they’re still looking for you is probably slim. We haven’t had any sightings at all. In fact the Feds haven’t either. There is some chatter about potential political corruption that could be related to Carlucci, but considering he’s dodged the whole hired hit man thing, I’d say nothing is brewing.”
“What about the hit man, any word on him?”
“As far as we know, he’s still out there, but his mug was sent to every police department and law enforcement agency across the United States. Maybe I should call the sheriff and give him the heads-up.”
“No. The sheriff can’t know. No one can. I have a bag, and things ready if I need to get out of here in a hurry. I can’t believe this is happening. When is it going to be over? When am I going to get my life back and not have to live in constant fear?”
“I don’t know, Michaela. I know you are scared. Listen, I need to get back to work. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Take care.”
“Bye.”
She hung up the phone and then slammed her hand against the door.
“Michaela?”
She shot around and saw Burt standing there. He looked angry, concerned, and she realized that he had heard her phone call.
“What’s going on?”
She attempted to speak and he held up his hand.
“Don’t lie to me. I knew something was going on. I have an instinct for this kind of thing. You’re in trouble?”
“I don’t really want to talk about it, Burt. I can’t tell you.”
“But you’re scared, and you’re alone. You’re hiding from someone. Was that the police?”
She looked away and started to head past him. He stopped her by gently taking her hand into his. She paused, shocked at not only how she instantly thought of Burt as a father figure, but also how quickly her heart ached for not being able to accept his help or even reassurances. She had trained herself to be resistant to everyone. But she didn’t want to hurt Burt’s feeling.
“I like you, Michaela. I have a natural ability to see a good person when I meet one. Whatever ya might have done won’t matter to me. I can help you and all you have to do is let me. It’s that simple, lassie.” His brogue, his deep voice, his height and size, just like his sons seemed to have inherited from him, was enough to make her loosen her tongue.
“A detective. But please, Burt, the less you know, the better.”
“You going to leave town?” he asked, releasing her arm.
She ran her hands over her face and then leaned against the wall next to the door. “I don’t know. I really don’t know what to do. But I can handle it. Just like I’ve handled everything else that’s been dished out to me. I’d better get back to work or Jerome is going to give me hell,” she said and smiled.
“Jerome answers to me,” Burt countered as they headed out through the doorway together.
“I thought you two were partners?”
They came back to the bar and it was more crowded than before.
“We are, but I own a little more than half and that makes me the head honcho. We’ll talk later.” He squeezed her shoulder and gave her a wink. She smiled, thinking how nice he was, and as she turned toward the bar to take some drink orders, there were Jake, Hal, and some other big guy just staring at her and then at their father and then back at her again.
She tried to act unaffected by their stares and good looks, but it wasn’t easy, the moment she heard Jake’s voice.
“Michaela, come here, please.” She swallowed hard and then approached where they sat.
“We thought you left,” Hal stated and he seemed angry.
“No, I was just taking a call and then talking to your dad.”
“It didn’t look that way,” the other guy stated. When she looked up toward him, standing this much closer than before, she realized who he was.
“Hey, you’re the other son. Billy, right?”
“That’s right, sweetheart.” He reached his hand out to shake hers. As her much smaller hand was encased by his large one, she felt the tiny fluttering in her belly, and her eyes widened. She pulled away and pretended to wipe down the counter.
“Do you guys need another round?” she asked, and Hal nodded.