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“Badgers?”
Strange covered a grin. “I think he means moles.”
“Badgers are better. You smoke badger from hole and badger tries to kill. Mole is just ugly. I do not understand why to call it mole.” He sighed. “It’s all right. I will teach you better ways.”
“You have a plan?” she asked him. “What is it?”
“Not to be so impatient. We have old saying in Russia. Too many cooks in the kitchen makes for soup that blows up in face. These things to be taking time.” The Russian stood and looked at Wolfe. “I will to be contacting when I am more sure. You understand?”
The sheriff nodded. “Make sure you do, Markov.”
“Yes,” Alexei said.
“I’ll walk you out to your car.” Dylan Strange stood from his chair and turned back to Wolfe. “Sheriff, if you need anything from me, give me a call.”
Nicole watched as the big, might-be-just-the-slightest-bit-insane Russian and the former CIA agent left the sheriff’s office. This wasn’t what she’d been expecting to find when she’d decided to come to the tiny town of Destiny, Colorado.
Charlie Blake, Destiny’s deputy, turned to her. “We have to make sure you are protected.”
None of this made any sense to Nicole. “It’s been three months since I filed that report. If I was in danger, why wait so long to contact me?”
The sheriff of Swanson County took a seat behind his desk. “I’ve been working with a man by the name of Nate Wright. He’s the sheriff of Bliss County, Colorado. He’s a former DEA agent, and since drugs are what brought Katherine White to Destiny in the first place, he’s been using his old contacts to look into the case for me. He also introduced me to Alexei Markov. Alexei spent ten years working with the Russian mob before making a deal with the feds to testify against his old bosses. His testimony brought down one of Russia’s biggest families and the people they were working with here in the States.”
Nicole remembered it well. The trials had been headline news for months.
The sheriff took a sip from the coffee mug on his desk before continuing. “Markov encouraged me to hold off before contacting anyone in your department. He suspected the Mitrofanovs had officers on their payroll and he didn’t want to tip them off. When he was sure your commanding officer was clean, I called him. Almost immediately, Markov’s street contacts came back with word that Niklaus’s men were looking for you. By that time you were already on the road here.”
So Internal Affairs was right about the corruption in her precinct. How far up did it go? She couldn’t just sit back and wait. She needed to start investigating, start asking questions.
“We can keep you safe while Markov works out his plan,” Wolfe assured her. “I’ve got two men in mind for the job. Their place is very remote. They live off the grid. No one will be able to find you there.”
She wasn’t the type of person who sat back and waited while others took care of everything. Besides, she’d spent two years as a beat cop in Chicago. She knew how to take care of herself. “I don’t need protection, Sheriff.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Either you do as I say, Flowers, or I will be forced to call your commander. Does he know you came to Destiny right after being suspended? I bet he doesn’t. He’s looking for a reason to take your badge right now. Don’t give it to him.”
“Jason, calm down.” Charlie ran a hand through his hair, obviously frustrated. “It’s for your safety he’s pushing this, Nicole,” he added in a softer tone.
She’d come to Destiny to do real police work but now was being forced into protective custody of sorts. The sheriff was a serious by-the-book kind of guy. If she pushed him too hard, he would call her commander and a whole bunch of worms would come crawling out of the can, things she didn’t want to deal with right now.
More than anything, she wanted to keep her job, her badge, her dignity—what was left of it. Her grandfather had told her that a good cop knew when to lay low and when to rush in. This was definitely a “lay low” time.
“Take me to your two men, Sheriff. I’ll see what I think of them and then I’ll let you know my decision.”
“You’ve got a deal.”
* * * *
Sawyer Coleman finished repairing the ceiling where some D-clamps had been pulled out by an overexuberant submissive at Phase Four, Destiny’s world-renowned BDSM club. “All done.”
“Thanks so much for this.” Mr. Gold held the ladder. “With Sarge in New Mexico for the next two weeks, this room would’ve been closed until he got back if you hadn’t fixed it. I can’t have debris falling on members’ heads. Not good, since it’s booked solid by the Stones and their new woman, Amber.”
“Glad to be of help for my bosses.” Sawyer didn’t really think of Emmett, Cody, and Bryant as employers, though on paper that was exactly what they were to him and his brother, Reed. They owned the Stone Ranch, and he and Reed kept it running—ranch hands in title but lovers of the land in reality. He was happy for the Stone brothers. The change in them was evident to everyone in town, including him. The rugged cowboys were completely in love with Amber.
The Stone brothers were more like family to him, as were Eric and Scott Knight. His and Reed’s sister worked for the Knights at TBK, their billion-dollar company. Erica was the youngest and only female of the entire group of the original Destiny orphans. The plane crash that had taken all their parents had united them together in a strange way. Well, that and the O’Learys’ kindness to all of them after the tragedy.
“Aren’t you done yet?” Reed asked, walking into the VIP playroom. He held his Stetson in his hand. Thankfully, there weren’t any subs around since it was still a few hours before the club went into full swing. Women seemed to love Reed’s wavy blond hair as much as his blue eyes, and his brother didn’t mind using that to his advantage whenever he could. Reed was two years his junior but just as good a Dom as he in every way. Reed was happy to wear the badge of “man-whore,” which most in the club called him. “We’ve got to get back up the mountain right now or we’re going to have to bunk with Erica in town again.”
His brother’s urgency was clearly false. Reed wasn’t anxious to get back to work.
