Nolan hadn’t expected her attitude, but he never did take the time to know Josie, not when he only wanted the curves hidden in her yoga pants. He smiled, offering her a seat that she immediately refused.
“A majority of my campaign signs were pulled from yards during the night,” he said. “The rest I had stored in my family’s barn. Someone burned the lot of them on the edge of my family’s property.” Nolan sipped the coffee Chief Craig offered, grimaced, and set it down. “I’m not a betting man. I only put my chips down when I’m expecting to win. But…given the circumstances…”
Josie bore the insult to her grandfather’s debts with more poise than I did. She didn’t back down. “You’re going to accuse Maddox of vandalism…why? Just because he’s in town?”
“It’s a serious crime when a politician is targeted,” Nolan said.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake. Maddox didn’t do this.” She pointed at me. “Tell them.”
“I didn’t do it,” I said, for all the good it’d do.
“Josie.” Chief Craig edged between her and Nolan, just as a precaution. “You might want to do Maddox a favor and call his parole officer and lawyer.”
“He didn’t do it,” she said. “Why would he jeopardize his parole? When would he have done this? What evidence do you even have?”
The chief hid his smirk. “Maddox was on Mayor Rhys’s property.”
“No, he wasn’t!”
Son of a bitch. Why did it take me this long to see through Nolan? He wouldn’t piss on his own campaign just to toss me in jail overnight. They’d never get enough evidence to prove it was me, and that worked for him. He wasn’t after me.
He struck at Josie.
Nolan took too much enjoyment from this. I’d have broken his damn neck if he smiled any wider at her. “Maddox was at my barn yesterday.”
“I don’t believe you.”
This hurt more than getting cuffed and slammed into a cell. “Sweets, I was there. I was doing a job.”
If it were any other gig, I would have tried to impress her with my work ethic. Anything, no matter how small, was worth it if I could prove to her I wasn’t a complete deadbeat with a record who couldn’t hold a job unless he was holding a gun.
I hadn’t told her about Nolan because I didn’t want to piss her off.
Ironies of ironies.
“You’re working for Nolan?” Her voice caught somewhere between disbelief and rage. “Why?”
Nolan answered for me. “I hired him to rewire my barn lights. He did a job and was paid for it.”
“Why would you hire him?”
“Oh, well, before his arrest, I paid him to do all sorts of odds and ends for me.”
It was a strange feeling to watch another man break my girl’s heart. Nolan did it masterfully. Deliberately. He watched as every passing second struck her like a slap to the face.
“You’ve worked with him before?” Josie whispered to me. “Even now? You…you helped him?”
“I needed the work, Sweets.” Wasn’t that the same excuse every asshole gave to justify his ends? “I figured I’d fix his barn and get some…extra money.”
Chief Craig raised an eyebrow. That bastard knew exactly why I took the job, and he practically salivated over the thought of another grand in his pocket. And why not? Either he got money from me or he got his dick sucked by a woman too doped up to realize when she was getting abused.
“I didn’t set the signs on fire,” I said. “I was in and out of his property during the day. I came back home. Stayed in.”
“This happened during the night,” Chief Craig said.
“So?”
“Where were you last night?”
Nolan listened too intently, imagining why Josie squirmed. That little fucker meant for her to admit it aloud. He had warned me to stay away from her as part of our agreement for my parole. He treated her like she was his property, like she belonged to him and I trespassed. Now he’d shame her and make her explain where she spent the night.
That was easy. She stayed in my arms, in our bed.
Having orgasm after orgasm as she rode me throughout the night.
But I doubted she wanted him to know that.
“I was at home,” I said.
Chief Craig cleared his throat. “Is anyone willing to…substantiate that claim?”
Josie lowered her gaze. She had no reason to look so humiliated. So scared.
“He was with me.”
“All night?” Nolan interrogated her behavior more than mine.
“Yes.”
“Are you sure? You couldn’t know where he was at all times. What about when you slept?”