Page 12 of Hard Rain

Next, signing paperwork.

Then already reaching for evidence bags before somebody asked.

Fast. Precise. Mentally three steps ahead of everybody else in the room.

Same as always.

Which was probably why Axel stopped worrying about the details once Whip got involved.

He shoved Bobby through the holding cell doorway just as movement near the front desk caught his attention.

Sheriff Tomas Mercer crossed the office toward Whip, wearing a grin wide enough to show teeth. Dark hair still damp from the rain. Broad shoulders filling out the tan sheriff’s jacket while deputies automatically moved around him.

Whip looked up from the paperwork and grinned right back. Easy. Natural.

That easy smile hit him strangely hard after the silence at the house all week.

This was better.

Felt like seeing something he’d been missing.

Axel’s grip tightened automatically.

Bobby chose that exact second to hesitate.

His forehead bounced off the cell door with a loud clang.

“Jesus Christ!” Bobby yelped.

“Oops,” Axel muttered without a shred of remorse, shoving him the rest of the way inside before slamming the cell door shut.

Then he headed straight back toward Whip.

“You bringin’ me gifts now, Tauber?” Sheriff Mercer asked, stopping beside Whip and holding out a large coffee cup. Steam curled into the air between them.

Whip laughed softly and took it. “You finally trying to romance me properly?”

“That depends. Is it working?”

Axel scowled so hard his face hurt. The irritation came fast enough to piss him off all over again. He looked around for something to break besides Mercer’s face.

The sheriff chuckled, eyes on Whip.

Apparently, neither one of them remembered he was standing right there.

Whip’s grin widened.

Sheriff Mercer leaned one elbow against the counter like he had nowhere else to be.

Funny. He could think of about fifty places the man ought to be.

“You free Saturday? Ducks game’s on?”

College football. Right. September.

Whip hated sitting through an entire game unless somebody bribed him with beer and food.

Hmm. Maybe a trip to the store was in order.