Chapter 19
Rick
Keenan and I stood on the edge of the trail that snaked through most of the inhabited part of White Valley, a misty blanket hanging low over the small town below us. The morning dew had begun to dry on the grass and flowers. The sun was just beginning to break through the cloud deck, the morning still quite cool. I was dressed in a dark suit and Keenan in a light gray one, both of us looking somewhat out of place in the small mountain town.
“They get you fixed up at the inn?” Keenan sipped from his stainless-steel insulated cup.
‘Fixed up’ was a relative term, especially at a place like that. The bare-breasted maid wearing a thick leather collar and an eighteen-inch silver chain linking her five-inch heels together was only the first clue that the place was most definitely not one a man experienced every day.
The woman’s name was Shawna, if I remembered correctly. Big tits, some of the longest, reddest nipples I’d ever seen, and a warm, winning smile made for quite the impression.
It was exceedingly hard to remember what she’d asked me when she’d knocked on the door to our room. Perhaps it was to ask me if I needed extra towels or anything else to make me comfortable? I’d never encountered housekeeping wearing nothing more than a long black skirt and slutty fuck-me pumps before. The implication that she was prepared to offer much more than mere towels to ensure I enjoyed my stay wasn’t at all difficult to pick up either.
The fact that Genie had been sitting on the other bed in the room when the woman showed up hadn’t seemed to faze Shawna one bit.
But Genie hadn’t taken the encounter with anything approaching Shawna’s nonchalance.
“Are you kidding me?” Genie had said, as soon as Shawna had left. “What is this place?”
I spun around on her, giving her a cool, admonishing look. “The kind that expects outsiders to maintain their composure. Do you get me?”
She’d given me a look as if I’d physically slapped her. “I… didn’t mean… anything.”
“We’re supposed be discreet on this job. Sending out a search party for your jaw every time you see something a little unusual isn’t going to instill much confidence in my clients that we can give them that. You’re going to see some sights today. So, get your shit wired tight, Genie. Or I’ll do it for you. Across your cute little ass.”
I’d left her in our room to get ready for our nine o’clock meeting, accepting Keenan’s invitation for a morning stroll in the meantime.
As Keenan paused to watch the sun try to break through the clouds, I remembered again the fetching sight of the buxom Shawna.
The town had a certain reputation. The woman had more than confirmed it.
“So, the uh, maid at the inn?”
Keenan glanced at me over his cup as he sipped. Then he smiled. “She’s interesting, isn’t she?”
“You could say that. Anything I should know there?”
Keenan shrugged. “Walter runs the place. Walter Storey. That’s actually his wife.”
“Shawna?”
“Yes, he enjoys her performing menial work. And he goes to great lengths to ensure his guests enjoy their stay as much as possible. She’s not exactly hard on the eyes, is she?” Keenan’s brow arched slightly. “Did you, uh, partake?”
“Not following.”
“Shawna. Did you use her? Considering what I know you prefer, I can’t imagine you didn’t at least avail yourself of that woman’s tits. They’re God-given works of art.”
“No.” The very thought of even touching the woman didn’t sit well with me.
Because the only woman in that town I wanted was the one I’d brought with me.
Keenan seemed genuinely surprised. “No? You’ve got the willpower of a stoic, Trafford. Her… special service is kind of the worst kept secret in town. Everyone knows what comes with one of the rooms there. Storey can hardly be blamed for pride in ownership—of both his woman and his establishment.”
Holy shit.
“This town,” I muttered, shaking my head.
“You have no idea,” Keenan drawled. “Look, before the meeting, I’ll take you and Geneva for a little stroll. Give you a tour. Promise it’ll be, ah, worth your while.”
Of that I had no doubt.
“Shall we?” Keenan set off walking down the trail, and I followed. He decided to change the subject. “I think we should bring in someone else to help us with this. Someone who knows this area and its people better than even I do.”
I nodded in agreement. “Makes sense.” They needed all the help they could get. “Who is it?”
Keenan glanced back at me as he walked, his gaze lingering on me a heartbeat longer than it needed to. “Ford.”
I gave a low whistle. “You sure about that?”
Ford Matthis had been the sheriff of White Valley for going on twenty years. Roughly the same age as me, he was a gruff, no-nonsense sort of man, but his heart was, generally, in the right place. I’d met him a time or two, long ago, but we definitely did not travel in the same circles.
Never had.
“He’s who we’re meeting with today. Sorry for the short notice, but I wasn’t even sure he’d agree to talk to you at all. You understand, I’m sure.”
“Sure do.” I took no offense at it. He was the law, and I worked—generally—outside the boundaries of it.
It was just the way things were.
“Ah, here we are,” Keenan said, a note of pleasure in his voice. The sun finally broke through, a bright beam of it angling down from a gap in the clouds, illuminating the western side of town. “God’s eye. Don’t see one of those every day.”
I took a moment to admire it too, my only regret that Geneva wasn’t there to enjoy it along with me.
Keenan’s voice sobered as he set off down the trail again. “Once we talk to Ford, we’ll have a better idea of what we’re facing. The sooner we get this sorted, the better.”
I nodded in agreement, following Keenan on our descent along the trail into town. My thoughts moved to similar cases I had worked on before. I suspected the answers to the problem lay somewhere in the small town itself, but there wasn’t yet enough to draw any conclusions.
Keenan was a good man, and I respected him. He was smart and resourceful, which was part of the reason why it was so odd that he’d asked someone like me to help him.
“Come on,” Keenan said. “We’ll worry about this shit when we need to. Let’s get your Girl Friday, then we can walk over to the meeting. I might be able to show you a little something on the way. But we have to hurry.”