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“He just kept driving. I don’t see him anymore.”
Shep turned his sirens off. “Did you get his license plate number?”
“No. Sorry. It happened too fast. It was electric blue. Sat low to the road. That’s all I can tell you.”
“Probably one of those custom jobs the Paddocks keep churning out.” His voice grew calculating. “Might not hurt to pay a visit to Jace Countryman. He knows cars better than anyone else around.”
“I’m not sure how forthcoming he’s going to be.” Prim chewed her lower lip at the mention of the Comanche who ran the Triple J Auto Body Shop just outside the gates of the rez. “Last I heard, he’s been dating Alina Paddock.” She was Levi Paddock’s niece. She’d grown up on the rez, then taken off to race cars. From the sound of things, she was pretty good at it, too.
“Yeah, I heard that, too,” he mused. “Still might not hurt for me to have a talk with Jace. He’s always stayed on the right side of the law.”
“Just be careful,” she pleaded, looking both ways before pulling back onto the highway.
He didn’t answer, probably because he was mulling over the growing race car population on the rez. There were probably a dozen of them now, zipping and zooming up the streets.
“Alina hasn’t been back in town for long. The timing of her return is a little suspicious, don’t you think?” Prim was proud of the fact that she’d noticed. She’d only been training with Shep and his dogs for a few weeks, but he already had her thinking like a sleuth.
“Listen to you, Watson,” he teased.
“And the nearest race track is over thirty miles away in Overton. I looked it up,” she bragged. “So, what’s Alina really doing here?”
“Hopefully just visiting family.”
“For over a month?” Her voice rose with incredulity.
“Yeah, Adriel Montana said he and his crew are keeping an eye on her. I should probably?—”
“Get some rest,” she interrupted. “That’s what you should do. I’m sorry I distracted you on your way home.”
“Your safety is not a distraction!” He sounded incensed that she would even suggest such a thing.
“I’m fine now. Please get some sleep, Shep. I need you to be fine, too.”
He grunted. “Wouldn’t you prefer a tired version of me at tonight’s training session?”
“Like one very wise search and rescue trainer once said to me, I’d rather you take care of yourself. There’s no reason you have to interrogate Jace right now. That can wait until you’re firing on all pistons again.”
“It’s not an interrogation,” he scoffed. “All we’re going to do is chat.”
“Call it whatever you want, Shep.” There was no point in arguing with a tired policeman. “The result is the same. You’ll extract the information you want from him before he even knows what’s happening.”
“Your confidence is touching.” His voice grew caressing.
“That was my way of saying I’m glad we’re friends.” She smiled as she approached the gates of the rez. “I don’t ever want to be on your bad side, deputy.”
“Friends who kiss,” he reminded silkily.
She blew him a noisy kiss before disconnecting the line. Rolling down her window, she flashed her ID at the scanning machine. The gate bar rose to allow her through.
No sooner had she reached the other side did her phone started ringing again.
Smiling, she connected the call without looking down. “Miss me already?”
“Uh, I’m going with …yes?”
The jovial tenor splashed over her like a bucket of icy water. Her ex-fiancé was just about the last person on earth she’d been expected to hear from.
“Ashton?” She hated how brittle her voice sounded.
