Chapter Eighteen
The world had a funny way of still turning, no matter what JJ was feeling.
She could be confused, happy, healthy, bleeding, disgusted, enraged, missing her mama, craving ice cream, thinking about that one smell of disinfectant that only ever seemed to exist in the hospital hallway…
She could be in a plane, on a couch, wearing a fancy dress or hanging upside down in car drenched in rain with a sea of glass beneath her hair…
And it just didn’t seem to matter to the world at large.
It kept turning. It kept going.
It kept leaving JJ in its dust to figure it all out so she could catch up before the next swing got her.
She was standing behind a two-way glass, staring into an interrogation room and looking at a man handcuffed to the table. His world had him angry, frustrated, defiant. All three were written on his face and spelled out clear in how he fought everyone tooth and nail since he’d been arrested.
“He wouldn’t give us a name and we can’t find him in any database.
” Sheriff Weaver’s badge was shining on his belt.
He seemed to be handling his world in stride.
Ever since the call with Price, he hadn’t taken a step he didn’t want to take.
Not even when it had come to Price explaining that they couldn’t give answers to everything just yet.
That just yet wasn’t going to extend that much further, though, if JJ had to guess.
Especially since she was about to show the man in charge that she wasn’t just some bystander.
Instead of being helpless at the window, JJ sighed.
“I think we need to talk now, if you don’t mind.”
A few minutes later and JJ’s world brought her to a small room with a big table. The sheriff sat in a chair at its side, Price stood near its head and JJ felt lost in between. Her arm hurt, her leg was already bruising, and everything she had worked for felt like it had already crumbled.
The best she could do now was hope to be standing again when the next swing around came for her.
JJ started by tapping her cell phone on the top of the table.
“I can find out who that man is, most likely, but I need to ask for something first.” She started in the last place she meant to. Bartering with the head of the law when she was in no position to do so.
Sheriff Weaver, to his credit, didn’t immediately shut her down.
“I would really appreciate if we could not connect me with any of what’s happened,” she continued.
“Any mention of my name in reports or posts or interviews. I’m not saying make it where Price was alone during everything, but just don’t put JJ Shaw in any kind of writing.
Ideally, call in the people who saw me today and ask them to keep my name out of their mouths too. ”
Sheriff Weaver tilted his head a little. He’d been rumored to be a quiet, loner of a man until he had met his now-wife, just as he was also rumored to be a no-nonsense man when it came to his job. JJ could see that no-nonsense man coming through now. He spoke right to the point.
“My people don’t talk idly. I don’t either. That said, I don’t think a person in this town could promise that your name won’t come up one way or the other.”
JJ sighed again.
“But we can slow talk down, at least,” she said. “It could give me time to…adjust.”
Price took a step closer to JJ so that he was facing the sheriff more directly at her side.
“I’ve already talked to everyone who saw her. They said they won’t say anything.”
JJ cast a quick look at Price.
How long had they been separated that he had that time?
He had been with her when the EMT had bandaged her arm. He had been with her when Detective Williams and Deputy Little had shown up. He had been with her when they had found the man she’d fought.
When had he left her side?
She had seen how tightly he’d hugged Winnie when they made it to the department. How all of him had dragged down in relief that she was really okay.
Was she missing time in between?
JJ didn’t ask. The sheriff looked between them. She couldn’t read his expression.
Was she even trying to?
JJ’s phone sat on the table between them.
She didn’t want to use it; she knew she would.
“I know someone who might be able to find out who that man is,” she went on. “But before I do, I have to warn you that he’s a source I need to protect. I would like for my name to stay out of all of this, but I need his to stay absolutely clear of it. Will that be okay?”
She added the last part to feel more polite but, the truth was, even she heard the lack of wiggle room in what she phrased as a request.
Sheriff Weaver didn’t kick up a fuss.
“I’ll respect your terms as long as it doesn’t run the risk of harming anyone. Yourself included.”
That wasn’t a quick no.
That wasn’t a permanent yes.
JJ had little room to ask for more.
“Let me make the call and then I’ll tell you everything,” she added. “I’ll be right back.”
The sheriff okayed the move. JJ wasn’t sure what she would have done had he not. She felt like the world definitely wasn’t slowing down as her feet led her to the only room in the department that she thought would keep her shielded from the growing anxiety in her chest.
The ladies’ room had two stalls inside, and both were empty. JJ felt a tinge of disappointment. She didn’t have to pretend to be okay for a little longer. She didn’t have to play her role as calm and mysterious.
She didn’t have to pretend that she wasn’t spiraling.
Instead, she was faced with her reflection.
The bandage along her arm was long. She had been lucky to only get the long cut. Lucky that it hadn’t needed stitches. Her shirt was ruined, stained beyond saving, but it was her phone that pulled at her attention like a beacon in the darkness.
She went to her contacts, but couldn’t go past the first name on the list.
Dad.
A wallop of anguish slammed into JJ’s chest. She didn’t want to see herself anymore.
She grabbed the sink with one hand and clutched the phone to her chest with the other as she moved out of the mirror’s scope.
Her back hit the tiled wall between the sink and the wall with a painful thud.
She closed her eyes as a lump formed in her throat.
She smelled her strawberry shampoo.
The sound of the door opening made her open her eyes.
JJ could feel the part of her used to putting on a mask try its hardest to bring up a polite smile and a reasonable excuse for why she was all but crying in the corner of the bathroom, covered in blood and clutching her phone.
But then she saw who had come inside.
She watched as Price turned around, shut the door and locked it.
She watched as he walked slowly to the spot in front of her.
She watched as he fixed her with a look that was as quiet as velvet.
Then he took her face in his hands.
“Thank you.” His words were soft but genuine. That confused her even more.
“For what?” she asked.
Price ran one hand down so his index finger and thumb could hold her chin.
“You’ve spent so much time trying to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible but, today, you didn’t hesitate to put yourself in the middle of it. For Winnie.” He sighed. A small smile turned up the corner of his lips. “That was a mighty move, Miss Shaw.”
JJ expected another thank you. Instead, she got something else entirely.
Price pressed his lips against hers in a kiss that was gentle. Quiet. Velvet.
It was only when he broke it that JJ realized she had broken first.
All the stress of the last few hours, the last few days, the last few years, pushed JJ down into Price’s chest. She was crying soon after.
Price was simple with his actions as he was with his kiss.
He wrapped his arms around her and didn’t say a word.
* * *
“I’d say what you did was make some dang questionable choices but, I guess, at the end of the day I might have done the same.”
The sheriff ran a hand down his face. They were in his office, but neither was sitting down.
Liam was leaning against the corner of his desk and Price was leaning against the wall.
Both had their bodies tilted toward the door.
They didn’t want to be overheard and had already buttoned up once when Winnie had come in asking for money for the vending machines.
Now they were alone again to circle the same drain they had been circling the last half hour.
“I would have looped you in had I thought it would do more good than harm,” Price admitted. “I thought we still had time.”
It was a sticky situation, no matter who had done the sticking.
After JJ had made the call to her source, she had sat down and told her story to Liam while Price sat at her side.
Her telling the sheriff had been a different experience from when she had told him.
She’d been completely detached. Maybe because she was tired.
Maybe because she was hurt. Either way, it came out as if being read off a teleprompter by a newscaster finishing off a twelve-hour shift.
It had been a far cry from the woman he had held in his arms in the bathroom.
“Up until now, there’s been nothing to grab on to either,” Price pointed out. “We were already looking for Josiah’s and Georgie’s attackers. All I got a day before you was the backstory.”
Sheriff Weaver actually snorted.
“I have a feeling you have a few more details than me. Miss Shaw in there might have given me her story, but don’t think I didn’t notice the few nudges you sent her way.”
He wasn’t wrong.
When JJ had been about to mention her break-in and subsequent fight with Price at Josiah Teller’s, Price had put pressure against her.
He trusted the sheriff and knew he was a lot more lenient when it came to going off the books in certain situations but, in that moment, Price had found himself oddly protective.
JJ had gotten the hint and left the search out as well as her intention to conduct one at Jamie Bell’s house. Instead, she had simply stated her findings as definitive “They aren’t my brother” statements for each.
Marty Goldman’s adventure had been a bit different.
Just as Lawson Cole’s name and attack had changed the game for the sheriff while Winnie’s mention had changed the players.
What Price had told JJ in the bathroom had been true.
He recognized what she had done, even if the others didn’t.
When the man in the woods had lied about having Winnie, he had unknowingly forced JJ to pick her anonymity or the immediate action of making sure his daughter had been, and would continue to be, okay.
Price hadn’t been in those woods. He hadn’t seen her have to decide, but the best he could guess was that she had made the decision in record time.
Not only that, she had gone up against an armed man with nothing more than her hands to try and get to Winnie as fast as possible.
JJ Shaw had already sacrificed a normal life to try and save a man in secret. Now, she had sacrificed her identity at just the possibility that his daughter was in danger.
The least Price could do was protect as much of that identity as possible, even if that meant withholding from his friend, his boss and his colleagues.
JJ Shaw had told the truth to help him.
Lying to protect her?
Price had decided that was the least he could do.
Now he fixed his friend with an apologetic smile but didn’t tell him he was wrong.
Sheriff Weaver, to his surprise, returned his own smile.
“I know it might be a strange thing to say, but sometimes you remind me of my wife,” he said.
Price placed a hand to his chest.
“Considering your wife’s nickname is Sheriff Trouble, and she’s one of the most epic people I’ve ever met? I’m honored.”
The sheriff rolled his eyes.
“While she is those things, I meant the whole calculations thing.” Liam tapped his head. “You’re talking to me, but your numbers are running all around the people you’re trying to keep safe. I’m even guessing you already have a plan to try and do that, with or without any of our help.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Since he had seen that Winnie was alright, Price had already started putting together a list of what happened next. Some of the items on that list had been dependent on how the sheriff would react to their news.
And how Lawson Cole would react to two of his lackeys being in custody.
“My main priority is making sure that Knife Guy’s bluff of having Winnie doesn’t ever become a reality,” he pointed out.
“If we can do that while running down Lawson Cole and his group while keeping JJ and her brother out of harm’s way, I’d be counting my blessings every day for the rest of my life. ”
The sheriff nodded. Any teasing friendship disappeared. He was nothing but the sheriff when he spoke again.
“We’ll hope that JJ’s source comes through and can tell us who our man in custody is. Ideally, they’ll know who the guy she sent to the hospital is too. Though, we won’t be able to see him for a good while. Last I heard he might not make it.”
They hadn’t talked about it yet, but the fact was that JJ hadn’t just fought against the man in the woods.
She’d nearly killed him. Though he had gotten his licks in on her before she had gotten the upper hand.
Price had spent the better part of an hour trying to convince her to go to the hospital.
The only reason he hadn’t been more forceful about it was thanks to the EMT who had taken a good look at the cut before bandaging it.
“As for Anthony Boyd and Connor Clark, I’m reading Darius in on the bare-bone facts when he gets back,” Liam continued. “Between the two of us, we can try to figure out where they came from.”
This was a point of contention.
The urge to protect JJ flared again.
The sheriff must have sensed it. He held up his hand in a stop motion.
“Your lady isn’t the only one who can be clever when she wants to be,” he added. “We’ll keep everything low profile as well as keeping JJ’s name away from all of this. Trust me.”
The tension in Price’s shoulders lessened but only minimally.
Liam’s seemed to tighten.
His voice came out with undeniable command.
“Don’t think though for one moment I’m letting you continue running around this town playing detective without a badge for it,” he said. “It’s time for you to leave. As of right now, Price Collins, you are officially benched.”