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Hell, he hated admitting that he missed those late night calls, just as he came off duty, requesting a ride from the restaurant where she was helping Alex’s lover back to the bar she owned. The woman was a managerial whiz kid, yet she had come here as a high school mathematics teacher five years before.
She was an enigma to him. She messed his head up every damned chance she had, and he wasn’t a man that liked having to question parts of himself that he had never questioned before. He’d made a decision before he returned to Kentucky, and now he had no choice but to stick with it. Until this was finished, there was no time for the emotions Rogue Walker inspired in him. There was no time for love.
And what the hell was he doing thinking about love? He was eleven years older than the spritely little hellion and ages older in experience. The last thing he needed was to allow his heart to get mixed up in the roller-coaster ride he’d have with her.
“Let me know if you need any help then. ” Alex nodded. “Rogue works tonight and then the next two afternoons at the restaurant if you’re wondering about her schedule. ”
A mocking smile tilted Alex’s lips as Zeke stared back at him silently. He didn’t have a damned word to say to that.
When Janey had opened the restaurant to six nights rather than four, Rogue had signed on to help her with it until she could find a dependable manager.
Alex chuckled, moved to his car, and slid inside before putting the vehicle in gear and driving off. Turning, Zeke surveyed the vehicles in the meadow and watched as his deputy loped back to him.
“Coroner is ready to collect the bodies and forensics is ready to release them. You ready?” There was the slightest sarcasm to Gene’s voice.
“Tone down the sarcasm, Gene, you’re pissing me off,” Zeke told him. “If you have a problem with how I run my office, then say so up front. ”
Gene’s lips tightened as he glared back at Zeke. “You’re turning into an asshole, Zeke,”
he accused him. “You’re throwing away good taxpayer money on a cut-and-dried case of murder-suicide. You act like those Walkers are scions of the county and you have proof of murder. ”
“They’re citizens of this county, and they paid their tax dollars,” Zeke informed him. “I figure we can allot a certain amount of it on making certain what happened here; what do you think?”
Gene was one twitch of the lip shy of a sneer. “Well, you obviously don’t need me here wasting my time, too. I’ll head back to the office while you oversee this. ”
“You’ll head out on patrol,” Zeke told him softly. “I have this to take care of. File your report before you go off duty, and I’ll check it over when I come in later. ”
Gene’s blue eyes glittered for the barest second with calculation. “Gonna go question that Walker girl? She’s family to this rat trash, Zeke. ”
“Another word and you’re going to regret it,” Zeke snapped. “Haul your ass out of here and get on patrol. I don’t need your advice or your opinion on the Walkers or this investigation. ”
“Murder-suicide doesn’t constitute an investigation,” Gene argued, his face flushing beneath the hot spring sunlight. “Son of a bitch, Zeke. Just ’cause you have a thing for Rogue Walker don’t mean her family ain’t still gutter shit. ”
A thing for Rogue Walker. There it was, that knowledge that obviously someone had mistaken his friendship with Rogue for something more than what it was. Simple friendship, he told himself.
So why the hell was he forcing himself to hold back, to keep from curling his fists and plowing them into his deputy’s sneering face?
“You need to take a few days off,” Zeke said carefully. “Several actually. Until you can rein in your mouth, Gene. I’ll file the papers when I get back to the office. Maybe, in a few days, we can discuss your problems with how I run my department and my life and whether or not you can keep your damned nose out of it. ”
Otherwise, the man was going to be sporting a broken nose. Before he could follow through with that thought, Zeke strode away from his deputy and headed to the trailer, where the coroner was having the bodies removed.
It was a damned shame, Zeke thought. Those two boys, as wild as they were, weren’t the murder-suicide type. For the most part, Walkers were just ornery. Not lazy so much as fun loving and laid-back. They played hard, worked as much as they had to, and had fun. They weren’t troublemakers, and they weren’t violent. But they were valuable sources on a silent investigation that was still ongoing. And they had been murdered.
“Sheriff. ” The coroner, Jay Adams, nodded as Zeke stepped up to him. “I’ll autopsy, just to be sure drugs didn’t play a part, but it looks pretty conclusive in there. ”
Jay was middle-aged with a full shock of bright gray hair and thick gray brows. His weathered face was creased with laugh lines and his hazel eyes were somber. He’d been coroner as long as Zeke had been sheriff, and he was damned good at his job.
“I appreciate it, Jay. ” Zeke nodded as he watched the assistants load the bodies into the coroner’s hearse.
“Think we need to pull in the coroner’s investigator from the city?” Jay asked then. “We could transport to their facilities. I could get you more information. ”
Zeke crossed his arms over his chest and rubbed at his jaw for long moments before nodding. “I’ll clear it through the chief. ” Alex wouldn’t argue the decision; he knew as well as Zeke did what they were looking at. “Transport to their facilities and see what we can get. ”
“Your gut is working on this one, huh?” Jay grunted. “Hate it when it does that, Zeke.
Means we’re gonna end up squabbling with city hall. You know how they like to mess with things. ”
“Yeah, I know,” Zeke breathed out roughly, wishing he could trust Jay, that he could discuss his suspicions with the older man. “But like you said, my gut is burning, Jay, and I don’t like it. ”
