Chapter Three
Price couldn’t say with confidence that he was all that great at understanding the subtleties of women. He didn’t have much experience in that department, if he was being honest. Sure, he’d gone on a few dates in the last several years but none of them had exactly panned out.
For one, he wasn’t good at being quiet. He was a talker.
Had been since he was a kid, would be until he was old and gray.
He could probably trace the reason why he loved to chat back to his mother, queen of the talkers.
Rest her soul—she wasn’t gone but she was constantly driving her second husband up the wall in their home in Las Vegas—she filled every space in a conversation to the brim.
“It’s amazing what you end up hearing when you talk too much,” she’d always say. “Shows you who people really are when they realize they can’t keep you quiet too.”
Price had thought the sentiment was ridiculous. Still, he’d managed to pick up the trait.
He listened, sure, but talking was his bread and butter.
That hadn’t always been appreciated. Especially on his dates. Though, that also could have had less to do with him dominating the conversation and more that he was dating in Seven Roads. The same place he’d been born. The same place his dates had also been born.
It was hard to connect with someone who knew every little thing about you.
From knowing about the unfortunate peeing incident in kindergarten to Jimmy Johnson pantsing you in eighth grade to your grades, fashion choices and tripping during high school graduation.
Then there was the fact of holding the single father title at the age of nineteen.
Price was never, not even for one second, ashamed of being a dad. He had never said one bad word about Winnie’s mother, and he had never regretted his choices about either one. But he had another rule: if someone spoke about either with any negativity, they were out.
That was why, now in his thirties, he was still single.
It was also why he wasn’t as confident as he normally would have been, standing across from JJ Shaw.
First, he didn’t know her. A rare occurrence in town.
Second, she did that thing that he believed women had a special power over.
She smiled.
A smile that slowed his mental gears for a moment.
It looked nice but…there was something else there.
Though, maybe that was just Price still off his game from his earlier fight. Or the fact that some strange man was standing at her door.
Price hoped the smile he tugged on was a reassuring one. He took a small step back and jerked his thumb over his shoulder to the car.
“Hey, I’m Winnie’s dad,” he said in greeting. “I’ve been sent to help with some car trouble?”
JJ surprised him with a little laugh.
“I was actually about to start googling things. So I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited at the help.” She held out her hand. “I’m JJ. Sorry for the trouble.”
Price accepted her hand and shook. There were a few callouses on her palm. It was an odd contrast to the cheery dress that made his own outfit look dark.
“I’m Price, and it’s no trouble,” he responded. “There’d really be trouble if I didn’t come. Winnie talks highly about you.”
JJ stepped back into the house a little to slip on some sandals. They were strappy and made her taller. He had to adjust his gaze a little to meet her eyes again. She averted that gaze quickly as she spoke.
“Oh, that’s sweet of her. We haven’t had many shifts together yet, but I have to say she’s a fun one when we do sync up. And I’ve definitely heard good things about you. From Corrie too.”
She pulled her keys off a hook on the wall and stepped outside. Price made room for her and then some as she walked over to the car in the drive.
“I’m afraid to know what Corrie has to say about me,” he admitted. “One time, I accidentally stepped on the back of her shoe and the next day she had the whole school calling me Big Foot. That name stuck for years.”
She laughed again but kept her gaze ahead.
“Well, she hasn’t been calling you any names around me,” she said. “All I hear are stories about your work. You’re a sheriff’s deputy, right? That must be exciting work.”
It hadn’t been for years, not until the current sheriff had stumbled upon a homicide after Blake had returned to town.
Since then, there had been a shift in the workforce, as with the residents of Seven Roads.
It was like they had all been given a wake-up call that said while their town was sleepy, that didn’t mean it couldn’t also be dangerous.
Price had gotten involved in the last bit of danger, and so had Winnie. It was another reason his earlier scare upset him so much—it worried Winnie. Most likely more than she had admitted.
“It has its moments,” he replied.
Where others might have asked more, JJ changed topics to the mission at hand. She gave Price the keys and let him roam around to try and figure out why it wouldn’t start.
A few minutes later, he was thankful that he knew enough about cars to notice a spark plug cable had come loose. He put it back, happy with himself, and asked her to try and start the engine.
She obliged but was slow getting into the driver’s seat.
When she noticed his attention, she looked a little embarrassed.
“I’m in the middle of renovating a house and it weirdly always makes me sore,” she explained.
“You’re renovating a house?” He hadn’t heard that news.
She paused, a slight wince crossing her face, and nodded.
“It’s why I came to town.”
Where he expected some more, JJ gave him less.
She settled into the driver’s seat and started the car. Which succeeded.
Price gave a thumbs-up.
“Looks like that was our issue,” he said when she was back out of the car.
JJ was back to the original smile she’d worn when answering the door.
It was polite.
But it felt off, still.
“Thank you so much for helping,” she said. “You saved me a lot of trouble and I’m sure Corrie will appreciate it. I’m actually already late helping her.”
Her gaze, once again, cut away from him.
Was she shy?
Did he make her nervous?
No matter the answer, Price realized it wasn’t his business. Whether he was making her uncomfortable or not, he needed to leave. Instead of forcing them both to make small talk, he decided to give them an out.
“I’m just glad it was something I could help with.” He clapped his hands together and took a step back. “If that’s all, I’ll leave you to it. I have some work to wrap up at the department.”
This time, dark eyes swung to his with a quickness that nearly froze him to the spot.
“I didn’t realize you were still working right now.”
He laughed and pointed to his jaw. JJ might not have been keen to look him in the eye, but he had already seen her sneak a peek at the bruise.
“I have a bone to pick with someone and the sooner I pick it, the better this town will sleep.”
JJ’s eyes widened. He waved off what must have been concern.
“Don’t worry. I know I don’t look the most professional but believe you me, I don’t suffer an offense long.”
He nodded to her, said he hoped she had a good rest of the day and did another little nod when she thanked him again. It was true he was going to look for the meaning behind Josiah’s break-in, just as he was going to find the intruder, but for now he was going to go home.
Seven Roads might have been more interesting in the last year or so but that didn’t mean it was a hustling, bustling place. He could take his time with this one. Or, at least, take a few hours.
So he fixed JJ Shaw in his rearview mirror and pointed his truck in the direction of Crawley Court, ready to make the five-minute drive home full of music and a few low cusses as he remembered someone had landed a good hit on him.
But no sooner was he out of the neighborhood that he got a call.
It was Rose’s number.
Price answered with an annoyed threat.
“If you’re calling to rub it in again or make some joke about me being a punching bag, I’m going to hang up.”
Rose wasn’t.
Her voice was hard. Her words were fast.
“Something happened to Josiah Teller. There’s a ton of blood in his house and he’s nowhere around.”
“What? What do you mean there’s blood?”
Price was already mentally switching routes.
There was movement on Rose’s side of the call. Someone was talking in the background, but she answered him first.
“I came back to take better pictures of that damn hole of yours and instead found the front door smashed open and enough blood through the bottom floor to tell me someone was fighting for their life.” She must have moved the phone.
Static pulsed between them for a moment.
Then her voice was nothing but cold. “Darius is already out looking for him, but I can’t believe, if this was Josiah, that he’ll last long wherever he is. ”
Price gripped the steering wheel. His knuckles went white.
“I’m on my way.”
* * *
JJ switched her high-heeled sandals for flats the second Price Collins was gone.
Deputy Collins.
“How bad is my luck?” she asked the house, grabbing her purse and then locking up behind her.
As far as she could tell, Price, at the very least, hadn’t seemed too suspicious of her.
Not of her car troubles, the pain she had been unable to hide or her appearance.
She wasn’t sure how aware of her height, or eyes for that matter, he had been during their run-in earlier that day, but was glad he had gone when he did.
She didn’t like being caught off guard, and she had been twice that day.
And by the same man too.
It was unsettling.
JJ tried to push the feeling off as she started her drive to the café. Like she often did on her way into and out of work, she let her mind wander down a familiar path. The list of five addresses she had memorized before coming back to Seven Roads.
Josiah’s house had been low on the list. JJ had only moved it up when she heard about someone digging in his backyard by chance that morning while picking up some milk from the grocery store. Josiah had been wondering to the cashier if he should call the sheriff’s department. Apparently, he had.
Their speed and attention had definitely surprised JJ. She should have waited to do her own search until they had come and gone.
But…if anyone had been snooping around Josiah’s home… Did that mean that it really could be him?
That possibility had lit a fire under her backside. So much so that she had been careless. Price sneaking up on her had been the first and—she vowed—last time she let her guard down.
JJ rolled her window down, put her hand out the window a little and sighed into the humidity that came in.
Despite her clumsiness, she believed she’d executed a thorough search.
Josiah didn’t have a safe, so his official documents had been easy enough to find.
Nothing was out of the ordinary or suspicious.
Even his personal laptop had been boring, aside from a heavy indication that he was a more than avid gamer.
He had a family photo album next to his coffee table and those pictures were of people that JJ didn’t recognize at all.
Though, she had taken her own picture of some of the faces, just in case.
The only thing she hadn’t had a chance to check had been the backyard.
If Josiah had been hiding something, would he have buried it?
And, if he had, then who had dug it up?
Why had Josiah reported it if so?
JJ didn’t often drink, but she sure felt the urge as her frustration rose. At the same time, however, she was thankful for it. If she was having this much trouble finding her brother, then hopefully that meant they were too.
She took that thought to heart again and focused on her drive.
It wasn’t until she was passing the Lawrence Neighborhood entrance sign that she realized she had taken the long way to the café.
It was the road that led between Lawrence and Becker Farm.
A nice little drive with scenery that opened up to fields and trees on either side. Good for a cluttered mind.
JJ decided that today must have been a coincidence. That Josiah Teller wasn’t special, just someone who had made a big deal out of nothing. She would go to the next person on the list in a few days, after her run-in with Price settled down.
Her gaze wandered from the trees at her right to the field on her left. There were no other cars on the road ahead or behind her, so it was a leisurely thing to do.
It was a miracle she saw him at all.
Movement in the field pulled her attention. At first, JJ wasn’t sure what she was seeing. She lifted her foot off the gas pedal and squinted at the thing stumbling toward the road.
When she realized it was a person, stumbling through the tall grass, she put on her hazards and pulled off onto the shoulder.
It wasn’t just a person. It was someone who was obviously struggling.
They moved a few steps, fell a little, caught themselves and then kept coming.
It wasn’t until she was out of the car, cell phone in hand, that they saw her too.
The man stopped.
He said something but she couldn’t hear him.
Then he dropped.
JJ’s reflexes had her across the road, over the wire fence and streaking across the distance between them with efficient speed. She was barely out of breath when she made it to the man’s side.
She had 9-1-1 up and ringing the moment she saw he was struggling.
He was covered in blood. From head to toe.
His eyes were closed. He didn’t move as JJ asked after him.
It was only after the dispatcher answered that JJ made another startling discovery.
It wasn’t just a man.
It was Josiah Teller.