“Affirmative.Witnesses say they saw a Jeep dragging something from that location.”
I punched the gas harder with my foot.Dragging something.Grier was dragging something from the florist shop, and I honestly didn’t know if it was a somethingor a someone.I wouldn’t have been surprised if my woman had decided to hog-tie Hilary and drag her ass back to the farm to feed to the piglets.
“I’ll check it out myself.No need to involve anyone else,” I told the dispatcher, Naomi, and then hung up before she could say more.
Sweat broke out on my brow, rolling down my neck and back.Clenching my hands around the wheel, I hit the lights, thankful I’d gotten them installed in my personal vehicle.There wasn’t much traffic so early on a Sunday, but the old-timers would be on their way to Aggie’s for their daily gossip session.
I blew past the diner doing a hundred and ten, swerving around two cars and a truck, slapping my horn the whole time.The last car was still in my rearview mirror when the calls started flooding in.Dispatch, a deputy, three different MC brothers, and my mother.All of them, one on top of the other.
“Where?”I snarled when I connected to Dispatch.
“We have a 10-80 at…” Naomi read off Hilary’s personal address as the location of a domestic disturbance.“Deputies are 10-23.But we have five other callers.All with conflicting details.Request you divert your priority from the 10-37 to this, Sheriff.”
“On my way,” I bit out, doing a sharp U-turn and gunning it.As soon as I disconnected the call, I accepted an incoming call from Max.
“Your deputies have Grier at gunpoint.”
Hands tightening around the wheel, I swallowed the shot of fear that hit me.“You have eyes on the situation?”
“Yes, with six other brothers at the ready.I’ll let you take point on this, considering who is involved,” my uncle said quietly.
“If they so much as breathe wrong in her direction, take a headshot,” I commanded and disconnected.
A block away, I saw the two deputies.One was parked on the street, the driver’s door open, using it as a shield as he pointed his gun right at Grier.The second cruiser was on the lawn in front of Hilary’s house, the officer in the same stance.Behind them, Hilary was swinging a baseball bat at nothing, screeching something about Grier being unhinged.
My sirens were still going, causing the two officers to look my way.I came to an abrupt stop right behind Grier’s Jeep and jumped out.“Stand down!”I roared at my men.“Stand down now!”
“But, Sheriff—” Otis, who was parked on the street, started to argue.
“We got a call—” Carlos talked over him.
“I said, stand down!”I bellowed, the sound causing Grier to flinch.My heart was pounding so hard against my ribs, I wondered if this was what a heart attack felt like.If anything happened to her, I was going to kill both those motherfuckers.I jogged over to her, shielding her body with my own, facing the men and making sure to keep Hilary in my line of sight.“Put your guns away, or I promise you, losing your jobs won’t be the only thing you’re going to have to worry about.”
Slowly, Carlos lowered his weapon.Otis followed the command more reluctantly, and they both holstered their guns.
“Did either of you even assess the situation before deciding lethal force was the best option?”I yelled at the two deputies.“When was the last time either of you needed to shoot someone?”
For them, the answer was never.Crime was low in Creswell Springs, and it had nothing to do with the two bumbling idiots before me.Primarily, the MC took out any risks to the community before any of my deputies even became aware of a potential disturbance.Other than the random loud noise complaint regarding a college student, they didn’t get many calls for action.
“Hilary called me,” Otis explained.“Said someone was trying to kill her.”
“That lunatic destroyed my roses!”Hilary shrieked, storming toward us.I shifted, keeping my body a wall between her and Grier.“That unhinged, spoiled little bitch destroyed my prize-winning bush.”
Using the bat, she pointed at the mangled plant on the lawn.
“Arrest her!”Hilary yelled, her voice hitting a pitch that caused a dog to howl in the distance.“She vandalized my property.”
Behind me, Grier hadn’t moved or spoken.I stepped back until I could feel her body pressed into mine.Her hands clutched at the back of my shirt, and I felt her trembling.But she was alive.Thank you, God, she was alive.It was all I wanted, all I fucking needed.
With my heart finally slowing down to a more stable rate, I cocked a brow at the hostile woman in front of me.“Do you have proof of that?”
“Of course I do.It’s right there.”She pointed at it again with the bat, swinging it wide, nearly hitting me with it.“Look at my beautiful roses.”
Giving the plant a disparaging glance, I shrugged.“Just because it has roses on it doesn’t mean it wasyourroses.That could be any number of rosebushes.My mom has two of them in her backyard.Miss Hester helped her plant them when I was ten.”
Hilary hissed and swung the bat again, this time pointing it toward me.“She ripped it out of the ground in front of my shop and dragged it here, where she unloaded it in my front yard.”
“Again, do you have proof?Security surveillance?CCTV access?Maybe eyewitnesses?”Her mouth opened and closed like a fish.Even if she had all that shit, I’d make it disappear.“You can’t go around accusing people of crimes they didn’t commit without proof, Hilary.That, in itself, is a crime.As is threatening a LEO with a weapon.”
