Chapter One #3
After I graduated from the Academy and without my mother’s knowledge, I’d searched for my father and discovered he’d been arrested yet again—and involved in multiple prison altercations.
He’d been moved several times but my persistence—coupled with a few contacts in the Department—led me to finding him in an upstate prison.
All during our first face-to-face, he’d cried.
The hard edges of my pain had softened because of all the years we’d lost. He might have been locked up, but at least I’d had him in my life.
I made a vow to come every month but never told my mom. She wouldn’t have understood.
In the course of my visits, we’d talked, and he was filled with regrets for his actions but had never blamed my mother for keeping me away.
“I was stupid and made mistakes, and your mom had enough of my screw-ups. It’s not her fault.
Don’t be angry with her. I wouldn’t have wanted you to see me this way.
I put her through enough. But I swear, Emerson, I wasn’t using at the time they arrested me.
I swear on my life. There’s lots of stuff I never told you, and I still can’t.
It’s too dangerous—powerful people are after me.
I don’t want you to get involved. But please don’t ever forget I love you. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Chest tight, I drank my beer. The main impetus for my moving upstate had been to be closer to him, yet only a year after I’d started working in Appleton Falls, he’d gotten shanked in the showers and died.
I’d barely known him, yet I’d felt as though I’d lost a piece of myself. I’d never be whole again.
The door opened, and my heart sank. Starr and Ross walked in, followed by Teegan and Bradford. Who the hell had I pissed off that I’d have to suffer more this night? I must’ve had a damn spotlight on me because despite the bar being packed, they all immediately noticed I was there. Alone.
“What the hell, Kane? What happened to your date?” Bradford asked. “She looked like a sure thing.”
“We had fun, and she went home.” I drank more beer.
Starr swung himself on the barstool next to me. “Too much woman for you to handle, Emmy? No surprise there.”
God, I wanted to smack that smug look off his face.
“Fuck off,” I growled and took out my wallet. “Theo, here you go. Thanks.” I handed him a bill.
“It’s all right, Emmy. You’re still making up for lost time.” Starr’s eyes danced.
That fucking nickname. I couldn’t outrun it.
I’d tried, but now it had followed me here.
But I wouldn’t tell him to stop. If Starr knew something bothered you, he’d only turn up the heat.
And if there was one thing Dominic Starr knew how to do, it was push my buttons.
He’d been getting under my skin since high school.
Burning with a combination of humiliation and anger, I kicked my stool away, sending it clattering to the floor. The bar quieted as I challenged Starr. “I told you to fuck off. Stop talking to me. Don’t even look at me.”
Nose to nose, I stood close enough to see the thin black rim circling the irises of his cold eyes and the faint scar that ran from below his cheekbone to his jaw. I was the only one in Appleton Falls who knew how he’d gotten it, and that pissed him off.
He reached for his beer, took a drink, and wiped his hand over his lips. “I’m not. You’re the one in my face.”
I wanted to punch him in that perfect jawline. He knew it too, and something dark and dangerous brewed in those bright-blue eyes I’d been seeing in my dreams since high school.
My cheeks hot, I left the bar without another word and sat in my car, too wound up to drive.
I gripped the steering wheel so hard, my hands cramped.
I struggled for control. Of all the damn towns in the state, why did Starr have to end up in mine?
From the moment Starr had appeared in Appleton Falls, I’d considered leaving, but I loved it here.
Jet was like the brother I’d always wished for, and except for Starr, I enjoyed the camaraderie of the other guys in the sheriff’s department.
Coming from a small apartment where I could never escape the noise of the neighbors, the city outside my window, or the ugly shit inside my head, I relished the quiet and peace of Appleton Falls. I’d found my place.
Then that bastard Dominic Starr had arrived and screwed it all up for me.
He’d forced me to remember the inadequacies of my teenaged years, when he’d been the prince of our high school while I’d been the joke.
Why he’d ended up where I’d moved to remained a mystery to me, especially with what I knew about his past. Since I was seventeen, Starr had taken up residence in my head, and by moving away, I thought I’d finally excised his presence, until he walked into the station house and my life became a tangled mess.
In the rearview mirror, I watched as a crowd spilled out onto the deck.
Starr had his arm around Jeanette, the hairdresser, while Lila, a paralegal in the DA’s office, held hands with Bradford.
A bunch of other people from the bar were also in their group, listening to Bradford and Starr talk—something those two loved to do, especially if it was about themselves.
“Probably making a simple traffic stop into the takedown of a major criminal ring, knowing them,” I muttered to myself.
A huge roar of laughter rose, and with that, I started the engine and drove out of the lot. I’d had enough of the Dominic Starr Show for the night.