Chapter 13
Cal typed in his credentials to pull up N-DEx, a national criminal database for law enforcement, while Jules hovered beside him biting a fingernail. “Do you know his middle name? Date of birth? Anything to help narrow down the results, find the right guy?”
“Middle name is Kevin.”
She waited while he input that information, then she gave him his August birthdate, and he noted she’d memorized this information, hadn’t needed to look anything up on her phone or other files.
“Previous residences?”
She supplied that data as well, and he ran an initial search.
Hamilton’s previous arrests quickly filled the computer screen, along with the circumstances for dismissed charges, releases on bond, other complaints filed against him.
Jules leaned close to read over his shoulder, and he caught a whiff of a sweet floral scent that tantalized him.
He shoved aside the buzz of his arousal, refocusing on the task at hand. But when she reached past him to tap the screen, her breast nudged his shoulder. His libido shifted into overdrive. His skin tingled as if he’d touched a live wire.
“What’s this? I didn’t know about that.”
Clenching his back teeth, he narrowed his gaze on the monitor where she pointed to an arrest in Idaho for drug possession.
He opened a new screen with details of the arrest and read aloud the highlights.
“September of last year. Traffic stop for speeding. Officer smelled marijuana.” He angled a glance to Jules, “that’s probable cause, so he conducted a search of his car.
Small amount of marijuana, hydrocodone and drug paraphernalia were discovered.
Charges reduced, and Hamilton received only public service. ”
She flicked her hand toward his computer screen. “See? He gets away with a slap on the wrist. Every. Damn. Time!”
Cal acknowledged her concern with a grunt, while his mind mulled other angles. If Hamilton was still using drugs, could he have any connection to the local dealers? Was there any chance this side mission to help Jules could pay off with unexpected benefits for Wyatt and his task force?
Jules waggled a finger at the monitor. “Keep scrolling. What else is in there on him?”
They continued reading through Chase Hamilton’s record, finding one other drug charge when he was in high school and the full history of Hamilton’s brushes with law enforcement in relation to his stalking Abby.
He could understand Jules’s frustration, since time after time, he was questioned and released.
But the man was on Cal’s turf now. He would not so easily ignore the pattern of repeated behavior. He’d promised Jules to help get a menace off the street, and that was what he intended to do.
Jules was a jumble of nerves all day at the gift shop, feeling especially testy with tourists who left her displays in a mess or who complained about prices or asked questions about things for which the shop had signs displayed in plain view.
When she analyzed what had her so jumpy, she had to face the fact that the plan to tail Chase Hamilton this afternoon wasn’t the source of her jitters.
She, in fact, had a bad case of Cal-Colton-itis.
Thoughts of the rugged sheriff had plagued her last night and kept her restlessly turning in bed.
Today, her mind wandered to the moments they’d shared at his office the day before, not because of the work they’d done—fact finding as they built their case against Chase—but because of ridiculous details that she’d been far too aware of.
His hands as he typed on his computer. The scents of soap and aftershave that hung in his office, branding it his. The cut of his stubble-dusted jaw.
And, most irritatingly, how his hands might feel on her skin. How the tang of his aroma danced through her and left her nerves tingling. How she longed to stroke her fingers along the scruff on his cheeks and graze his lips with her tongue.
“Excuse me!” The somewhat hostile voice roused her from her daydreams of Cal and snapped her back to the gift shop. A man wearing a scowl waved a handful of postcards at her. “Are you going to check me out or not?”
When the hour finally arrived for Cal to pick her up, she wished Bonnie good luck, reminded her to turn on the security lights and lock up when she closed and hurried out to Cal’s Wrangler.
She climbed in the front seat of his Jeep, trying to ignore the whiff of warm, sexy male that greeted her.
Bad enough that the mere sight of him now stirred a hum of longing at her core.
She tried to push aside all of the distractions Callum Colton presented and focus on the mission ahead.
Tonight they needed to track down Hamilton and see what sort of evil he was up to after hours.
“He should be getting finished with his route in the next couple of hours, according to the dispatcher I spoke to. The company he drives delivery for has its warehouse on Third Street,” she said. When she met his odd expression, she paused. “What?”
“First, you look especially beautiful this afternoon,” he said, giving her a slow, seductive look.
Her heart jolted, and a wave of sweetness flowed through her like warm honey. She glanced down at her blue jeans and simple pink blouse, and plucking at her sleeve, she asked, “This old thing?”
“I mean you, Jules.”
Her voice fled, and she felt her cheeks heat.
When was the last time anyone had told her she looked nice? Other than the occasional randy wolf whistle on the street, she couldn’t remember. That his tone of voice and expression both sounded sincere made his compliment nestle deep inside her. Finally, she managed a soft, “Thank you.”
“Second,” he continued as if he hadn’t just shaken the foundations of her goal to emotionally keep him at arm’s length, “I’m already locked and loaded.” He pointed to the screen of his Jeep’s GPS that showed the address of Red Grove Food Distributors on the local map.
“Good.” She gave him a nod and made a production of fastening her seat belt, buying herself a moment to find her footing again.
You look especially beautiful…
Good grief! Why did such a simple compliment have her insides whirling like a carnival ride? She kept her gaze focused on the passing scenery while she calmed the jitters dancing in her gut.
“I’ve tried before to follow him home after work, but I was so paranoid about him seeing my car and realizing I was following that I ended up losing him every time.”
“Just as well. I don’t want you getting in over your head without backup.”
She shot him a frown. “In over my head? Are you saying you don’t think I can handle myself, or that I’m too stupid to figure out how to—”
“Hey, hey, hey!” He waved a hand to stop her. “No one is calling you stupid. I’d never presume to suggest someone earning an advanced degree in chemistry is stupid. But…”
Her eyebrow sketched up.
“What would you do if he did spot you, and he confronted you? I want you to stay safe.” He shot her a pointed glance. “Which leads to my next point. If we are able to track him tonight and see anything of note, you stay in the car. Let me handle him. I’m the one with the badge.”
She compressed her mouth and twisted her lips. She didn’t like being sidelined before they even started.
“Got it? I want to hear your verbal agreement, or I’m turning around now.”
She heaved a sigh that let him know how her concession disgruntled her. But was she in a position to buck him on the point? “Fine.”
Several employees of Red Grove Food Distributors were leaving the facility for the day when Cal parked across the street amid the other cars in the neighboring industrial pipe company parking lot.
Jules took out her cell phone and pulled up a photo of Hamilton. She angled it for Cal to see. “I know you saw him at the gift shop, but as a refresher, this is what he looks like.”
Cal took out his own phone and showed her the screen he’d recently pulled up. “Not my first rodeo, darlin’.”
Hamilton’s grim face stared at her from a previous mug shot.
“I did some homework on my own after I dropped you off last night. I wanted to get to know our target a little better for my own reasons. I hate to tell you, but he doesn’t currently appear to even have an unpaid parking ticket.
I’d hoped we could nab him for some minor infraction. But there was nothing outstanding.”
She let a growl rumble from her throat as she glared at him. Then his gaze darted away, and his body tensed. “Looks like we got here in the nick of time. Isn’t that him there in the blue shirt?”
She shifted on the front seat and craned her neck to scan the employees’ lot across the street. Her pulse jumped when she spotted him, and her stomach roiled. “Yes.”
She practically snarled the answer, feeling the heat of fury rise in her blood.
Lord, how she wanted to surge from the Jeep and confront the man who’d made Abby’s life a living hell.
Only Cal’s presence beside her and the knowledge that such rash action could ruin any chance of finding justice for Abby kept her anchored in her seat.
She watched him climb into a small, rusted-out pickup.
“White truck,” she said, flapping a hand to hurry Cal. “Go, go, go!”
“Give it a second,” he replied, his hand on his ignition key.
“You’re going to lose him!”
“Trust me, Jules. I’ve got this.”
She clenched her back teeth as Hamilton pulled out of the food distributor parking and headed down the street out of view.
Trust him? Trust him? She wanted to trust Cal, but how could she when every other person she’d ever asked for help, from the first time she asked the courts to declare her emancipated from her mother at age sixteen until this moment, had let her down. Trust was in short supply.
But she choked back the snarl she wanted to unleash and sat on her hands as Cal pulled sedately onto the street to follow Hamilton. She spotted the white truck several blocks ahead and kept a vigilant gaze on it. “Can’t you go any faster?”