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But he did. It was plain to see. Hale’s every instinct was firing off that this was the man who was after him. “It’s me. You’re after me. You sent that woman to look for me. Did she trash the cabin or did you do it?”
A fine flush crossed the man’s face, and he stepped back, his hands still wet. “You’ve mistaken me for someone else. I don’t know you. I don’t want to know you. You’re nothing to me.”
The words were said with far too much emotion for them to be true. This man hated him. He wasn’t usually good at judging a person, but the loathing came off this man in waves. “What did I do to you? I don’t remember you at all. If you tell me what I did, I might be able to clear things up.”
The man simply turned and started walking away.
Hale couldn’t let that happen. “You took a shot at me a couple of days ago, and you sabotaged my car so I had an accident. I know what you’re doing.”
The man turned slightly. “Fuck you. You know nothing.”
He slammed out of the bathroom and into the hallway. Hale followed. He needed to figure out who this guy was. “I want to know why you’re coming after me. I deserve to know. The police want some information out of you, too. We have footage of you talking to the woman who asked for my address at the lodge.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He moved into the dining room. “I’m staying at the lodge, but I assure you there’s no woman in my life. My ex-wife taught me to stay as far away from women as possible. Gold diggers every single one of them. I’m not making the same mistakes my father made.” He stopped in front of the steps that led up to the bar section of the restaurant. “And as for whatever yokels make up the police force here, I sadly doubt they can ask me anything of value. So you can tell them to fuck off. They can talk to my lawyer.”
Now Hale was getting somewhere. “She’s been here, too, hasn’t she?”
The man had obviously been about to dismiss him again, but he stopped. “A lawyer’s been here?”
Oh, he hadn’t known that. “Yes, and I’m talking to her tomorrow. I’ve got a meeting set up and everything. You want to tell me what this is about?”
The man seemed to think about that for a moment, and then a nasty sneer came over his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He leaned in, his voice going low. “I would watch myself if I was you. I’m a powerful, wealthy man. You fuck with me and I’ll be tempted to fuck with you. Or maybe that whore cop you’re fucking. Do you want me to fuck with her? You want me to show her what a real man can do?”
He wasn’t sure why, but he saw red. Words were words. They could hurt, but he didn’t care what anyone called him.
Oh, but he cared about her.
He heard Max yell something and then gave in to his rage.
* * * *
Elisa was still fuming hours later. She’d shown up at Trio just as Hale was being led out in handcuffs by Cameron Briggs. As if that wasn’t enough of a shock, Van followed after him, along with Max Harper, both being led to county patrol cars by the sheriff himself.
She’d been ready to pick them both up, maybe have some dinner and then a good long session in bed because the day had been rough, and now she had to deal with bailing them out of jail, which was also her workplace.
“That is a huge mistake, my friend,” Max was saying from behind the bars of one of the two cells they had at the Bliss County Sheriff’s Office. “Don’t skip dinner. It’s free. Even if you gotta shove it down your throat, order it. It’s the only way we have to stick it to the man.”
“I’m not hungry, and the men here are not the ones I want to stick it to.” Hale sat beside him on the bench, his expression blank.
“It’s too late. You missed dinner,” Nate said, frowning as he looked the sad trio over.
That had Max sitting up and fast. “That’s not fair. It’s barely nine o’clock.”
“Yep, and Stella’s closes at nine today,” Nate replied. “You know we have a strict treaty when it comes to who gets to feed the inmates of Bliss County. Tonight is Stella’s turn. The good news is Gemma’s got protein bars for everyone.”
Gemma looked up from her desk. “They’re barely expired.”
Everyone had come back in to work for this debacle. “I want to know what happened.”
“Hale tried to kill a tourist,” Cam explained. “Or at least that’s what we were told by the bystanders. I know this is going to surprise you, but he hasn’t been very talkative.”
