Accidental Knight: A Marriage Mistake Romance(95)

“You’re sure there’s no mistake?” I ask Gary.

“Certain. I’m at the sheriff’s office right now. I came over to talk to Rodney, but Shelia said he was busy, and then told me about it herself. Secretly, I might add. He’s gone, Drake. This isn’t on the public record yet, so –”

“Understood.”

Only, it fucking isn’t making sense at all. I just can’t get it through my head.

He can’t be dead. Avery Briar would’ve never have let that happen. I’m already considering alternatives, insane ones, a ruse or a jailbreak or a drug to make him look dead, or some shit.

Then my line beeps and I look at the screen. Shit.

“Looks like Wallace is calling me right now. I’ll call you back.” I click off before Gary answers. “Hello?”

“Drake? You aren’t gonna believe this,” Wallace says. “Hell, there’s no easy way to say it, so here it is. We found Holden Metzer – aka Adam Briar – dead in his cell this morning.”

It’s like I’m hearing it for the first time. The news just punches my gut with disbelief.

Funny how I’m this upset by a lowdown piece of demon shit being flung back to his maker, but it’s because I don’t believe that for a second.

“From what?” I ask quietly.

“Don’t know yet. Coroner is on his way. I’d say overdose, but I can’t figure out how he could’ve gotten his hands on anything. They were strip searched on arrival and haven’t had any visitors. No room for contraband whatsoever.”

“Have you called Briar?” I ask.

Wallace clears his throat. “No. We have to proceed carefully, Drake, do it by the book. He’s never admitted Adam was his son. We booked him under a fake name, fake socials, everything. When I mentioned the last name once, asked if they were related when Adam came up in an old database, he said no. Adam never admitted it either. Said he’d never seen Avery until he stopped them on the side of the road.”

My gut churns pure hell. None of this makes a damn lick of sense and still doesn’t. “You believe ’em?”

“Don’t know. Nothing came up in background searches, and no fingerprints matched, but...clearly there’s something slimy here. I just can’t put my finger on what.” Wallace sighs. “Gonna be a real spectacle, too, the second the press finds out. Nothing’s ever happened like this in Dallas before. Not in my jail.”

Part of me sympathizes. The rest of me is just too pissed.

“What about the other boy? That beady-eyed little partner of his missing a finger?” Feeling eyes on me, I glance over my shoulder.

It’s Bella, watching me out the window. A smile tugs at my mouth.

I never remember wanting to spend a whole day in bed, but it hit me this morning.

“He hasn’t said a word,” Sheriff Wallace tells me. “Didn’t even make eye contact when I told him about Adam.”

Needing to keep my focus, I turn so I can’t see the house. “They were in separate cells, weren’t they?”

“Yeah, big ol’ concrete wall between them, too. The preliminary hearing’s tomorrow on their case.”

My fingers curl into a fist. “What about a lawyer? Anybody come to see them?”

“Yep, a court appointed guy, and they were watched the entire time he visited. Got it all on camera, I’ll be reviewing the footage soon.”

I don’t know what to think, but I know Avery has his hand in this. Somehow. “When will you get the coroner’s report?”

“Probably at least a week. They’ll have to send the body out to Dickinson for a proper look,” Wallace answers.

Damn it, he’s right.

The town doesn’t have those kinds of resources, and never needed them, not even during the boom. It hit here fast, just like it did elsewhere, and land and resources spun up tight in nothing but oil and too little infrastructure.

Even Dallas got hit when the boom backed off. Thankfully, North Earthart’s been a million times more successful than the two-bit operations that sprang up in other North Dakota places, and left them ghost towns.

I doubt even Gary knows about the old mine Bella inherited with this ranch. The ground underneath it still has mineral riches Jonah always said he could tap with modern methods. North Earhart owns the mineral rights, too, but the old man always said he’d leave ’em for somebody younger and wiser, seeing how he’d just done oil all his life.

“I’ll keep you posted,” Wallace tells me. “And...I’m sorry, Drake. I know it’s real sour, having it go down this way. I know how bad you wanted to put this bastard kid away.”

“Thanks.” I click off, scroll back to Gary’s number, and call him.

“Wallace thinks it was an overdose,” I say when he answers.

“I know. I’m on my way to visit their lawyer.”

“You know him?”

“I did in high school. I’ll call when I know more, after I feel him out.”

Bella walks out of the house just as I hang up. She’s wearing jeans and another plaid shirt, looking as big a cock tease as she did the last time we went out.

Even when I’m in this state, I’m torn between picking her up and carrying her back in the house, then straight upstairs to my room. So I run for the pole shed to hide because I need to do some serious thinking without my dick doing it for me.