CHAPTER SEVEN #3
Shadows passed over Roger’s face, the pain that came with having someone close to you betray you. And God, I knew what that felt like. Roger swallowed, his throat working with the action. “No. The election.”
My brows rose. Roger was filling in as interim sheriff, but there was an official election coming up in a couple of months to permanently fill the seat.
“You need an endorsement?” I asked, wondering why the hell he’d want one from me.
It wasn’t as if my brothers and I had a great reputation. Not with who our father was.
“I was actually coming to see if you might be interested in running.”
I came to a full stop, my keys dangling from my finger. “I’m sorry, what?”
Roger shot me a grin. “I was coming to see if you might be willing to run for sheriff.”
“Have you been drinking this morning?”
He let out a low chuckle. “No, I have not been by the Boot for morning shots. I’m serious, Kol. People respect you, especially after you stuck to your guns and found Nova when everyone else gave up.”
When everyone else gave up. Those words echoed in my mind like a cannon being shot off in an empty room. Because the rest of the world had given up. When her friendship bracelet was found in a grave with a decomposing female body of the right age, they’d thought it was her.
But a little niggle of doubt had grown inside me—one that reminded me of the joy Travis had gotten out of messing with people in the worst possible ways. So I’d wondered if maybe she was still alive.
I’d studied the maps and started working outward from his property, day after day, until I found the signs: a worn path, evidence of footsteps, drag marks. And then, I’d found her.
Nova.
Barely alive. A shell of a human. Someone who hadn’t wanted to keep fighting.
But she had.
She’d become a phoenix.
We still didn’t know exactly why he’d taken her out of her cell. To heighten the game? To leave her to die once he planned to take Brae as a replacement? There were so many unanswered questions, and each one was darker than the last.
I cleared my throat as if that would clear all the memories.
It didn’t. They would be burned into my brain for the rest of time.
“I have no interest in playing the political game of sheriff. And even if I did, you know at least half this town either despises me and my brothers or is terrified of us.”
Roger’s mouth thinned. “Half this town are idiots.”
My lips twitched. “Likely. But it still takes them to get elected.”
He ran a hand through his hair, tugging on the ends of the strands. “Fuck.”
I could see it then, the true strain. “What’s going on?”
Roger let out a sigh that carried a massive weight. “Some asshole from Deer Creek is running. From what I’ve heard, he’s Miller two-point-oh.”
Someone like our power-hungry ex-sheriff was not something any of us wanted to repeat.
“Why the hell aren’t you running?” I asked. “You’re the one who’s been putting the department back together, making sure people have the support they need, going back through Travis’s and Miller’s cases.”
More shadows swirled in Roger’s eyes. “He was my best friend.”
I knew Roger wasn’t talking about Miller. As much as people were angry about the ex-sheriff’s involvement in the drug ring, that had nothing on Travis’s actions.
Travis had not only kidnapped and killed citizens of Starlight Grove, but he’d also embedded himself in the lives of their loved ones. He’d pretended to provide comfort when he was the source of their agony.
“You didn’t know,” I said quietly.
Roger shrugged. “Maybe not. But I should’ve seen something.”
I knew that feeling so damn well. And it messed with your head something fierce. “Roger. He was a psychopath. He knew how to assimilate. How to charm and manipulate. Not a single person in his life saw it. Not even Cora.”
Roger jerked at her name. Because we all felt what she’d endured. The ultimate betrayal. It was something I wasn’t sure she’d ever recover from.
“A part of me still doesn’t believe it,” he whispered hoarsely.
“I know how that is. Trust me, I do. But we just have to keep moving forward. And the Juniper County Sheriff’s Department deserves someone like you leading it. Someone like you putting the pieces back together so we can have a department we trust.”
Roger nodded slowly, jerkily. “I want to do it. I just …”
“Don’t know if you can?”
“Don’t know if I can,” he echoed.
“You’ll do it. It’ll be hard as hell, but you’ll do it.” I had no doubt.
Roger nodded again, this time with a little more force and certainty. “How are things going with the case?”
I let out a long breath. “Sherri just put Pete on as my second.”
“Hell,” Roger muttered, knowing exactly what a douche Pete was. “Sorry about that. Let me know if I can help. I’m flagging any potential case matches as we revisit everything.”
“Thanks. That’s all you can do right now.” But I prayed he wouldn’t find any more matches. Because with every additional victim came a new firestorm of media coverage and another chance for it all to be thrown in Nova’s face.