Chapter Six
When Bree’s name had come back clean in the report, Tanner immediately went to the station and ran it again himself.
It had been clean again.
After going home and sleeping for twelve hours, he’d come back to the station and run it again.
And yet again, nothing.
Bree Daniels was a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record and nothing to make anyone wary.
Everything about her seemed legitimate. She was twenty-four years old, a little younger than he would’ve thought, but being a mother of two probably made someone grow up quickly.
She’d never been married and, as she’d said, had no run-ins with the law, barring the shoplifting incident.
There was no reason to think she was anything other than what she said she was: someone making changes in her life that hadn’t worked out the way she thought they would.
But Tanner couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a lot more trouble surrounding her than that. Every instinct he had—honed by his ten years of law enforcement—told him there was more to Bree Daniels than met the eye.
A battle waged inside him between his sworn duty to protect Risk Peak and all of Grand County, and this unfamiliar need to help Bree with whatever danger was at her heels.
Because no clean record was going to convince him that she wasn’t frightened of something.
So here he was a week later, having his second cup of coffee at the Sunrise, just like the last seven mornings.
Mr. and Mrs. Andrews had taken to just ignoring him, since they knew he was there in a half-official capacity.
In the unspoken battle between team Bree and team Tanner, they’d obviously chosen her side.
Tanner wasn’t surprised. It was hard for anyone not to be protective of the quiet woman. Not to mention Bree could’ve been Jack the Ripper and the Andrewses would’ve loved her because of the babies.
Tanner sipped and watched the woman in question.
One thing was for sure: she was becoming more fragile, not less so.
In the week since he’d talked to her at her apartment, she’d lost weight, despite Mrs. Andrews’s insistence that she eat, and the circles under her eyes had become more pronounced.
Maybe the babies kept her up all night. It couldn’t be easy having infant twins, even though they seemed pretty manageable during the day.
Mrs. A walked up beside him and refilled his coffee cup, both of them watching Bree clear off the table that had just been vacated.
“You’re worried about her,” she said.
Tanner turned slightly toward the older woman but kept his attention on Bree. “I thought you weren’t talking to me.”
Mrs. A shrugged. “Only if you’re going to spend your time trying to convince me Bree is dangerous. You watch her like she’s a suspect.”
“It’s my job to keep the people of Risk Peak safe.”
And while he couldn’t deny his attraction to Bree, he definitely didn’t trust her.
Mrs. Andrews’s lips tightened. “I’ll be sure to let you know if she, or her two obviously trained miniature assassins, show any sign of evildoings.”
Mrs. A was about to revert to the silent treatment. Tanner touched her arm. “Bree looks more tired, don’t you think?”
She let out a sigh. “Like the weight of the world is on her shoulders.”
“Is that normal for a new mother, do you think? Maybe it’s postpartum depression or something. Or maybe the babies don’t let her get sleep at night.”
“Well, she’s going to get sleep tonight. I already told her Dan and I are going to keep those babies so she could get a full night’s rest.”
“She agreed to that?”
Mrs. Andrews nodded. “Shows you how desperate she is, doesn’t it? But I told her how the whole world would look different if she just got some good sleep.” She shrugged. “Then I threatened to fire her if she didn’t take us up on the offer, although I don’t think she believed me.”
Mrs. A left, and Tanner continued to observe Bree from his stool. She studiously ignored him, sweeping up the restaurant, pausing every once in a while to kiss or coo at the babies, who sat with Mr. Andrews and some of the couple’s friends who were stopping by more often.
Having adorable twin babies that needed to be cuddled was good for diner business.
And Bree was a hard worker. Nobody minded helping her, since she was working so hard.
And just like that, he was back to that battle within himself again. On one hand, she was exactly what she seemed to be: a down-on-her-luck single mother.
On the other hand...
What the hell was up with that piece-of-junk flip phone of hers? He had one because that was the choice the department had made concerning official phones. No smartphones.
But why would Bree have one so basic? Hers looked like it would barely even call or text.
He’d never seen her use it even once, but she always wanted it in her possession.
He’d seen panic fall over her features a couple of days ago when she realized she’d left it in the back.
She’d rushed to the kitchen and came back out clutching it to her.
It was like she was waiting for a call that never came.
But from whom? And about what? Was that what was causing her to look more weary and fragile with each passing day?
Or was that all in Tanner’s head?
All his colleagues at the sheriff’s office teased him about how much time he spent studying Bree. He took the good-natured ribbing with a smile. They thought he had a crush on her and joked about him being obsessed.
They weren’t wrong.
But he couldn’t let it go.
Tanner took his last sip of coffee, put some money on the counter and left. He wasn’t surprised when Bree didn’t acknowledge him.
What was he expecting? That she would run over to him and spill all the secrets she was keeping?
Tanner needed to pull his head out of his ass. The sheriff had entrusted him and made him the captain of the entire southeastern section of Grand County three years ago. There was a whole office full of people who looked up to and expected leadership from him.
So he damn well better start acting like the seasoned law enforcement agent he was, rather than a high schooler with a crush.
He headed to the office and found the rest of his day taken up with the mundane tasks of keeping his section of the county running smoothly.
But Bree was never far from his mind.
Later that night when Ronnie Kitchens, one of Tanner’s deputies, called in sick, Tanner agreed to take his shift even though it meant working a double. Anything was better than sitting at home with his own thoughts, knowing Bree was alone in her little apartment tonight.
His thoughts about her were inappropriate enough without the temptation of potentially acting on them. Focusing on work was much better.
He was out doing a normal town drive-through, proud of himself for keeping well away from Bree’s apartment, when he glanced over at the library parking lot as he drove past.
Then did an immediate double take, letting out a string of curses inside his Bronco.
What the hell was Bree’s car doing in the small, secluded parking lot of the Risk Peak’s library?
His immediate inclination was to swerve in there and confront her, but he forced himself to keep driving so she wouldn’t notice him. His Bronco was an official vehicle, but unmarked. Anybody around town would know it was him immediately, but maybe not her.
Was she meeting someone?
He circled around the back of the library, turning off his lights and killing the engine in the grocery store parking lot across the street. She wouldn’t spot him unless she turned around and really looked.
He grabbed the binoculars in the back seat and looked through them to get a better view. It was definitely Bree in the car, and no one was with her.
Yet.
She was working on a laptop. Why the hell would she be sitting in her car outside the damn library at one o’clock in the morning working on a computer?
He stayed in his car, watching and waiting, for hours. She never got out, and nobody ever came to her. Just stared at the computer.
Finally, around 4:00 a.m., she turned her car back on and drove off. Tanner followed from behind, lights still off in his own vehicle, thankful he knew the roads well enough to drive this way.
But all she did was go back to her apartment.
Tanner stayed in his vehicle, lights still off, as she went inside. He was tempted to confront her right at this second, but he knew she wouldn’t tell him anything.
She hadn’t broken any laws, so he had no grounds to officially question her anyway. The best he would have was loitering.
He wanted to pull on his hair. Why, on the one night in particular when she was supposed to get as much sleep as possible, would she spend half the night sitting in her car outside the library working on a computer?
Not meeting anyone. Not talking on that phone of hers.
There were too many things about her that didn’t make sense.
Was this what his father had felt before the teenager he’d been trying to help fifteen years ago had ultimately turned on him and killed him?
Dad had gone to pick up the kid in Denver, trying to get him out of a dire situation.
Tanner’s parents had sat Tanner and his siblings down the day before and told them the kid might be staying with them for a while.
That sometimes helping a stranger was the right thing to do.
Then the kid had shot his dad, point-blank, when Dad showed up to help him. Trying to gain a foothold into the local gang.
The kid himself had been killed two days later in a shootout with the police when they’d come to arrest him.
Had Dad had any inclination that the kid was going to turn on him? Had he felt the storm brewing but decided to ignore it? Up until the second a Glock 17 was pressed against his forehead, had Dad thought everything was going to work out?
Tanner wasn’t going to need a Glock against his own skin before he recognized the danger in front of him. He already saw it.
Bree Daniels might be spotless on paper, but she was damn well trouble in flesh and blood. Deadly, wrapped in big green eyes and a fragile appearance.
One Dempsey man had died because he’d refused to see the truth.
Tanner wouldn’t be the second.