Close To Danger (Westen #4)(4)
“Tell Deputy Jason thanks for the extra blanket last night,” Earl said as he folded up the blanket he’d been wearing and left it on the chair. He shrugged on the wool pea coat and pulled the thermal gloves out of the pockets, then held his hand out to Wes. “Guess I’ll wander over to the church. Pastor always starts his mornings early.”
Wes stood and shook the other man’s hand. “You need anything, Earl, you just let me know.”
“And if I hear anything you need to know, I’ll get in touch.”
Wes shook his head as he watched the Vet shuffle out the office door onto Main Street. Earl might be homeless, but he managed to keep his eyes and ears open for odd bits of information he might think useful to the sheriff’s office. Just like other residents of Westen, Earl had found a home and meant to help keep it safe, in his own way.
And while his boss, Sheriff Gage Justice and his new wife, fellow deputy Bobby Roberts-Justice, were on their honeymoon, it was up to Wes to keep Westen safe. The past two weeks since the Christmas wedding of the pair had been mostly uneventful.
Mostly.
The only unusual occurrence had been Bobby’s sister, Chloe Roberts, spending the night in his bed. He’d brought her home from the wedding too drunk to take care of herself, let alone drive. It had taken all his willpower to simply strip her out of her bridesmaid dress and ease her beneath the covers. The image of her in her red bra and panties, as well as the silkiness of her skin beneath his fingers, haunted him ever since.
The office clock chimed nine.
Time to check in on Chloe.
Sitting at his desk once more he pulled out the special computer he’d brought with him when he’d left the agency. Opening it, he quickly connected to the dark web, double checked his security settings then opened the tracking program that was monitoring the sexy lawyer’s movements.
Hell, he knew it was an invasion of her privacy, but when she’d been in Westen for the wedding she’d spent half the time looking over her shoulder. He’d all but forced her to tell him why. Even as she told him she suspected someone was following her, she’ tried to convince herself otherwise. He hadn’t bought her excuses for a moment. Therefore, he was doing his best to protect her from hundreds of miles away. Once Gage and Bobby got back in town this afternoon, he planned to head to Cincinnati and find out who had her spooked.
He pinged her phone, as expected she was headed to either her office or the court house—her usual haunts. The woman was definitely a creature of habit. Not a good thing when you have a stalker. The alarm on the backdoor chimed, warning that someone was coming inside. Quickly, he closed the laptop and stowed it in his backpack next to his desk just as Gage and Bobby came in from the rear of the station.
“You’re in early,” he said, raising to shake hands with his boss and hug his fellow deputy. “Thought you’d come in later today.”
“Someone doesn’t think Westen can keep standing if he’s not checking in at the office,” Bobby teased, slipping her arms around her new husband with a grin. “It took all my efforts to keep him from calling you daily for updates while we were on our honeymoon.”
“And she got quite creative in her efforts,” Gage said with a lift of his brows.
“Gage!” Bobby smacked her husband playfully in the chest, her face turning beat red.
At the same time Wes held up his hands, shaking his head. “TMI, boss.”
Gage laughed, hugged his wife before heading to his desk. “So how were things here while we were gone?”
“Other than bringing Earl in from the cold to sleep last night, the only real problem has been your ex-wife over at the courthouse jail,” Wes said, leaning back in his chair. “Seems she’s a vegan and refused to eat anything made with animal products.”
All humor left Gage’s face. “Bet that went over well with the jailhouse staff.”
As part of the county sheriff’s department, the officers who ran the jail were under Gage’s supervision as much as the deputies and office support staff in both places. Since the sheriff had been out of town, guarding the woman who’d tried to kill Bobby the day before their wedding had fallen onto Wes’s shoulders for the past two weeks.
Wes shrugged. “Let’s just say we had a little talk. Even so, she went a few days before she realized this is a small town and you eat what you get or you don’t eat.”
“Has she gotten a lawyer yet?” Bobby asked.
“Well, that’s a whole new problem,” Wes said, picking up a pen and clicking it a few times.
Gage ran a hand over his face. “Do I want to know?”
“So far she’s refused the county public defender. Which after talking to Wayne Downing is probably a good thing, since the man has no desire to represent the woman who tried to kill the town’s favorite deputy.” He grinned over at Bobby.
She shook her head and asked, “So, Maura hasn’t been arraigned?”
“Oh, she was arraigned. Judge Rawlins made sure it was within forty-eight hours.” Wes paused and grinned at his boss. “Just about the time your plane took off for the Cayman islands. He wanted to be sure you wouldn’t be anywhere near in case she managed to make bail.”
“Since she’s still locked up, I take it she didn’t?” Gage asked.
“Seems Maura’s little shenanigans last spring where she screwed the DEA, literally, hid evidence from her boss the State Attorney General and was partially responsible for nearly blowing up Westen—”