Chapter Sixteen
Improvising came quicker than either of them expected.
“When I offered to help, this wasn’t what I thought you meant.”
Price was ducked down, one shoulder tucked against a wall, the other facing an open field. JJ was in front of him in the same stance. Instead of turning to address him, though, she swung her hand back. It wasn’t a slap, but it hit her mark.
Her hand covered his mouth.
“You wanted to be here so hush.”
The sudden contact threw him off, but he still smiled against her palm. The sweet image of JJ Shaw had been one he’d already found interesting. Once the act had dropped? Well, he was finding this JJ to be entirely entertaining.
Even when she had them doing something that wasn’t exactly on the up-and-up.
JJ dropped her hand and used it to point ahead of them.
“Your friend said Boyd lived in the barn, right? That’s the new one?”
By his friend, she was referring to the son of the owner of Becker Farm.
Instead of willy-nilly breaking and entering, he had tried to use casual conversation to get information on Anthony Boyd’s whereabouts.
It had made for a slightly awkward conversation in the beginning, but Price had saved it by an excuse of potentially needing help with future home renovations.
Anthony Boyd’s strength was well known, considering that had been one of the main reasons a grump like Old Man Becker had hired someone not from his bloodline.
“He’s not in town, though,” the junior Becker had told Price over the phone. “He and Dad are in Alabama for a livestock auction. They won’t be back until Monday. Want me to get Boyd to call you then?”
Price had thanked him for the offer and said he’d reach out again himself.
That had green-lit JJ Shaw, who was currently sneaking her way across the back of one of the storage buildings on the Becker Farm.
“If no one’s home, this might be the easiest and quickest way we have to look at what we need,” JJ had said, coaxing him outside of the western gate of the farm.
“If it’s not Boyd? Then no one will ever know we were looking for anything.
No one gets suspicious and no one’s in potential danger. It’s a win-win.”
Now she waved an impatient hand back at him.
“He said new barn, right?” she repeated. “Is that the one right up there?”
Price hadn’t seen the new barn in person, but he definitely knew where the old one was. He nodded and pointed.
“We should see it once we turn the corner.”
True enough, the moment they rounded the storage building they had a straight sight line to a structure that Price hadn’t seen before.
It was all traditional on the outside—red and white, stall doors tall and wide, and all types of tools and equipment parked on the dirt patch outside—but the junior Becker had taken the time to talk about how it was unlike any of the buildings on the farm.
He’d been proud to say that he had approved Boyd’s living quarters, located as an apartment on the second floor.
“I’m assuming those stairs lead right up to the apartment.” Price pointed to the stairs on the outside of the barn. JJ bobbed her head this way and that for a moment.
“I don’t see any security cameras mounted anywhere.”
Price snorted.
“And you won’t find any on the property,” he said. “Old Man Becker likes his privacy. Even from himself. He’d sooner do rounds every hour on the hour than let electronics and the internet do it for him.”
JJ nodded and didn’t talk after that. She led the way across the open land with surprising speed. Though, maybe it wasn’t that surprising to Price anymore. She had been the one in the mask who had managed to outrun him at Josiah’s.
The same person he had fought.
The same person who he’d managed to hit pretty decently.
Then, a few hours later, he had been helping her with her car like nothing had happened.
Price mentally paused.
A new thought occurred to him, but he kept it quiet for the moment.
They took the stairs careful but quick. JJ already had her handy-dandy bag opened and her lock-picking tools out. Price snaked a hand past her and tried the doorknob first.
It turned with ease.
“I thought you said he wasn’t home,” JJ whispered in a rush.
Price opened the door.
“He’s not, but I’d bet living on this land gives you a false sense of security,” he said. “Because who would be reckless enough to tempt fate when it comes to ticking off the Becker patriarch?”
He went past her and into the dark space. When he flicked the light switch on, he was already impressed.
The apartment above the barn was indeed an apartment. Small, but nice. There was a full kitchen that opened into the living room and a small nook beside it that housed a desk and chair for a workspace. Two doors were open at the back wall, showing the bedroom and the bathroom, respectfully.
No one jumped out and yelled at their intrusion.
Nothing but them moved at all.
“This is nice,” Price had to comment aloud. “Good for Boyd.”
JJ lightly pushed him deeper into the room so she could turn and shut the door behind them. He heard the deadbolt slide across behind him.
“Go ahead and take it in so we can start taking it apart,” she said. “Let’s see if we can find where he keeps his important documents first.”
Price wasn’t a fan of going through someone else’s private things, but he had to admit that JJ’s method of searching was…different than what he had expected.
She was like a surgeon, but a surgeon who didn’t know which type of surgery they would be performing yet.
There was a precision to her, a methodology she was adhering to that was clearly in her head.
Her eyes were sharp, her gloved fingers nimble.
She was taking in the details but at the same time, it felt like she was discarding them the second she realized they were of no use to her.
It still wasn’t right what they were doing, but of the not rightness it wasn’t bad.
Or you’re only okay with it because she’s JJ.
The thought pushed itself to the top of his mind in a flash.
It caught him off guard enough to physically wave his hand through the air like he was clearing it out.
JJ caught the motion.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Price sidestepped a real answer and got to the other thought he’d pushed aside earlier.
“So you were doing this when I came to Josiah’s, right?”
“I was actually on my second round, worried I missed something,” she said with a nod. “I would have tried to restrain you to do it but thought better of it since I’d already done a thorough search. Plus, you ended up being a pain.”
There was a hint of humor in her voice.
“A pain who showed up on your doorstep a few hours later.” Price eyed a collection of books near them. None looked to fit the bill of what they were looking for. “Which, now that I think about it, I’m realizing your car breaking down was probably an excuse you told Corrie to get out of working.”
He saw the corner of her lips turn up. She put the papers she had been looking through back on the desktop.
“Let’s go see if there’s a safe or something similar in the bedroom,” she suggested.
Price put his head back and chuckled.
“Wow,” he breathed out. “How did I not notice it was you? And here I thought I was observant.”
“To be fair, I don’t think most people would have thought it was me behind the mask. I also put on heels.”
He followed her into the bedroom.
“Heels?”
She nodded.
“When I realized who you were when you came to my house, I put on heels so I was taller than when we fought. I was worried too many similarities might really push my luck.”
Price remembered her sandals and their wedged height when he’d first officially met her that day. They had looked nice with her dress.
Turns out they were specifically to keep his suspicions at bay.
Price shook his head.
“You sure are something, Miss Shaw.”
She was already at the side of the bed, opening the nightstand.
“I’ll take that as a compliment, Deputy Collins.”
They spent the next few minutes searching in silence. Anthony Boyd didn’t have a safe or any kind of area that had a collection of seemingly important things. He was a spartan guy, all things considered. The pictures he had displayed were no exception.
“He put up all of the typical events,” JJ observed. “Graduation, birthdays and a few candids of who looked like friends. Have you seen any pictures of his dad, though?”
Price tapped one on the dresser next to the bed.
“Here. It’s the only one though.”
JJ sidled up to him. She peered down at the picture.
“He might just not be good at pictures,” Price noted. “Just because he doesn’t have a lot with his parents, doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything there.”
JJ sighed.
Price thought back to her home from earlier that morning.
Maybe home wasn’t the right word. It was a house. A place where she slept and ate but living? It had reaffirmed the description that he’d come up with for the woman already.
Ghost.
She was going through the motions of living while trying to stay detached from the very same people.
What if she did find her brother? What if she did take down Lawson and his group?
Would she really not tell her brother who she was?
Would she just disappear from his life?
From Seven Roads?
From Price?
Her hand startled his thoughts. The fabric of her gloves curled into his palm.
If her expression hadn’t changed so drastically, Price might have mistaken the move as something else. Instead, she was facing the open door, tense.
“Did you hear that?”
No sooner than she asked, he heard the front door rattling.
He shared a quick look with JJ. Her eyes were wide.
Someone was coming in.
* * *
They just tried the doorknob. When the door didn’t give, the movement stopped. Price didn’t. He took JJ by the waist, she assumed to shuttle them into the closet or under the bed to hide next, but then stayed himself.
His hand rested on her hip while his gaze was glued to the door.
She wasn’t doing anything differently.
JJ watched as the doorknob shook a few more times then went still.
There were only three options now: unlock the door, break the lock to open the door or walk away.
She knew which option she preferred. It was one thing for her to be caught in Anthony Boyd’s apartment. It was an entirely different matter for a deputy of the law to be caught. That was without all the messy questions of why they were together too.
Maybe she could distract whoever came in while Price hid.
Maybe they both could hide.
Maybe—
“They’re walking back down the stairs.” Price’s voice was low.
JJ strained to listen.
It was faint but he was right. She could hear retreating footfalls against the wooden stairs outside.
“Why would they leave?” she asked, more to herself than him.
They shared a look.
Then they were moving in tandem to the only window that lined the left wall.
JJ was nimble in moving the simple curtain over the kitchen sink just enough to get a view of the side yard below.
She couldn’t see the end of the stairs, but the two men were easy targets as they walked across toward the front of the barn.
Adrenaline shot through JJ faster than lighting to a rod deep in a storm cloud.
She couldn’t get a good view of the face of the shorter man, but the one in dark joggers and tennis shoes had a face she wouldn’t forget.
“He’s the one we fought at Jamie Bell’s,” she said, voice pitching higher than she meant to. “Why are they here? Are they following us?”
Price’s expression went razor-sharp.
“Let’s find out.”