Chapter 28 Pieces
Pieces
Shane spent the rest of that day in unhurried, uninterrupted bliss.
Early on, he fielded a call from Chesterton, who mostly wanted to know if he was okay and to arrange a sit-down for the following day.
Protocol. This was followed by a text from Marjorie telling Shane people had dropped off meals, which she’d left at his back door.
Hailey had put up signs at Mountain Coffee announcing the store was closed indefinitely due to a family emergency.
The signs would stay up until the lab techs from a neighboring county had completed their work.
When Amy had asked why they needed to get inside, Shane had explained that they had to make sure it was safe for her, her staff, and her customers.
“Even in small quantities, those drugs are lethal, and those guys weren’t exactly treating it with hazmat kid gloves.
” While she understood after he explained, she couldn’t help but worry about the café’s future after customers saw hazmat trucks in the parking lot and people decked out in astronaut suits going in and out of her place.
“Nothing we can do about it,” Shane had said as he’d laid a kiss on her head.
“If I don’t get reinstated and your business tanks, we’ll move to Hawaii and surf all day, eat pineapples, and blow each other’s minds all night.
” He’d pulled a laugh from her. “Do you even surf?” she’d asked.
“No, but I’ll have lots of time on my hands to learn.
” She hadn’t questioned the blowing-each-other’s-minds part, and that was reason enough to make him smile.
Truth was, he still had SAR to keep him busy, and paid administrative meant deposits would continue showing up in his bank account.
Until the investigation was wrapped up, though, worry over the final findings would lurk in the back of his mind.
But he wasn’t going to dwell on that today.
Not while he had Amy to himself and they had nowhere to be.
Most of their day was spent unhurriedly lolling in bed without a stitch on, exploring each other, talking, cuddling, laughing.
God, he loved that. He loved how comfortable she was in her own gorgeous skin, and how she seemed to want him as much as he wanted her.
They couldn’t get enough of each other. And it was about so much more than sex.
He’d never felt so connected before, so complete, so fulfilled, yet somehow larger at the same time, as if having her in his world had expanded it exponentially.
He’d finally found his reason. Was it wrong that it had come on the heels of ending a man’s life?
No. Not when it also came on the heels of almost losing her.
He suspended the horrific events of the last twenty-four hours and savored making love to her until they dropped from exhaustion and drifted off in contentment, their limbs and hands entwined.
A few times during the night, she awakened him with whimpers as she slept.
He pulled her into his arms, and she clung to him with a fierceness almost too big for her body.
To the best of his ability, he soothed away nightmares he expected would haunt her for a while.
She didn’t know it yet, but he planned on being the one beside her every night to chase away the bad dreams.
The following morning found him showered, shaved, and dressed in civilian clothing in the parking lot of the Sheriff’s Department.
He felt naked without his service weapons and the badge he’d had to turn over.
Emotions knotted like a fist in his chest. He sucked in a breath and steeled his spine, unsure how his co-workers would react to him.
Would they be pissed he was getting paid and siphoning off their staffing budget while they had to pick up the extra load from his “leave”?
He would understand if they were upset. Would they look at him and judge?
Label him trigger-happy or as an unbalanced law enforcement officer who shot first and asked questions later?
He sucked in a lungful of cold, crisp air and stepped into the office that had been his home away from home for ten years.
As usual, the place was sparsely staffed.
Gunderson manned the admin desk again—did the guy really have nothing better to do with his time?
—and Shane spied Donna behind her window.
Gunderson stood, and just as Shane thought he was going to extend his hand for a shake, he began clapping instead.
This brought more people from other parts of the office, and they clapped too.
Even Donna got up from her post and beamed him a huge smile.
The clapping grew louder, with a few whistles and cheers in the mix.
Someone shouted out, “It’s Hawkeye O’Brien!
” Shane gawked, overwhelmed and overcome.
Chesterton rounded the corner from his office. “That’s enough! What if a civilian were to walk in here right now and see you all acting like nutburgers? Get back to work.” He stopped and looked around. “Why are all of you here anyway? Are we having a staff meeting no one told me about?”
“We came to show Hawkeye, er, Deputy O’Brien our support,” one of the senior deputies announced.
“Yeah,” another one laughed. “He saved our favorite coffee shop owner and the rest of us from terrible coffee.”
“You don’t like the coffee here?” Chesterton seemed genuinely surprised.
Groans and moans rose up.
“Then learn how to make a decent cup!” he barked. “O’Brien, with me.”
Shane’s ears blazed as he followed the sheriff, passing his co-workers as he went.
He smiled, exchanged a few fist bumps, and mouthed thank-yous as he went, grateful Chesterton had saved him the trouble of addressing them individually.
Any words he could have mustered would have caught in his throat.
Chesterton motioned for him to shut the door and take a seat. Shane did, rubbing his clammy palms along his slacks.
The sheriff leaned back in his executive chair. “State police wrapped up their scene work. Ballistics, photos, the whole nine. They’re handling the criminal investigation. My job’s on the admin side, and I can’t do a damn thing until they hand over their findings.”
Shane nodded. Not unexpected, but it didn’t make the knot in his chest ease.
“Meanwhile, you’re on administrative leave,” he confirmed. “With pay. It’s not a suspension, but you don’t wear the badge, you don’t drive a county cruiser, and you don’t so much as flash your ID until this clears.”
“Understood. Any idea how long?” Shane stopped breathing.
Chesterton steepled his fingers. “Could be a few weeks, could be longer. Depends on how fast the state boys and the DA move. You know how it goes—one file on top of a pile a mile high.” He leaned forward, elbows on the desk.
“Look, I read the preliminary report. From where I sit, it looks clean. Bad guy was about to drive a knife through our councilwoman, you fired, and you stopped him. End of story. But until the suits put it in writing, this is how it has to be.”
Shane’s jaw worked. “So I just sit around while everybody in town thinks I’m off on a paid vacation?”
Chesterton pointed toward the closed door.
“You think that standing ovation means they’re treating this as you being off on a paid vacation?
I can’t speak for anyone else in this town, but those guys and gals are going to act like your personal PR team.
” His eyes softened under his bushy brows.
“I know this is eating at you. But better to be benched for a while than thrown back out there with this hanging over your head. You’ll get your badge back.
In the meantime …” He hesitated. “Keep your head down. You can’t talk about this.
No fielding questions in front of a crowd at the Miners Tavern, or anywhere else, for that matter. ”
Shane smiled grimly. “That’s the downside to small towns. Nothing stays quiet.”
Chesterton’s mouth quirked. “You got that right. Look, go home. Rest. When the state clears you, we’ll set you up with a psych eval—standard check-the-box stuff—and then we’ll have you back patrolling the mountain roads.
Until then, you’re still one of the best damn deputies I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Don’t forget that.”
Wow. Shane took a moment to find his bearings.
“I’m sorry, sir. I know this comes at a bad time.” When the sheriff cocked an inquiring eyebrow, Shane continued. “I mean, with the election coming up.”
“Is there a good time for crime, Deputy? If so, I’d like to know about it. I will say this. At least I can tell our supporters we cut off one of the tentacles of whatever this thing is, and that one of our own saved a councilwoman from a grim fate.”
A swell of pride uncoiled some of the knots inside Shane’s rib cage. “That reminds me, sir. What’s the story with the 10-50 yesterday at marker six-three?” When Chesterton didn’t respond right away, Shane added, “Stolen beige pickup?”
The sheriff scoured his desk and plucked a piece of paper from a pile.
He scanned it. “Driver ID’ed as one Eugene Delacroix.
Nickname ‘Duke.’ Micky Allen has confirmed he was set to meet them at the rendezvous point with more narcotics.
They’d diverted him from the coffee shop because, obviously, their cover was blown after they kidnapped Councilwoman Caufield. ”
“You think there’s more to this operation?”
Chesterton nodded. “You can bet your life on it. But we have a few people in custody now who might be able to help us dig into the heart of this thing. Allen’s singing his lungs out, though he doesn’t know much.
Brown, on the other hand, might lead us up the food chain a little higher.
” Chesterton looked up at him from beneath his thick brows.
“Good work, Deputy. You might want to consider running for this office someday.”
Shane didn’t hide his surprise. “Sir?”