Detour (The Getaway Series Book 5)

by Jay Crownover

  I crossed my arms defensively over my chest and narrowed my eyes at Case Lawton. When it came time to elect a new sheriff, I didn’t regret casting my vote for him—anyone was better than his father—until right this moment. In all the years following his explosive divorce, and rude, threatening behavior afterward, we’d managed to maintain a proprietary distance from one another. It was a delicate dance we both knew all the steps to, but tonight, he was the one who showed up when I hysterically called to report the break-in and vandalism. When I first caught sight of him, I wondered if he’d shown up just so he could gloat.

  My heart and my head had always had a very complicated battle going on when it came to Case Lawton.

  My head liked to remind me that he was the only person who’d ever made me waffle in my convictions—and look the other way when the law was possibly compromised. I’d never done anything with the information his ex-wife handed over, not just because I couldn’t prove it, but also because deep down I didn’t believe it. Since taking over the sheriff’s job from his father, Case had been nothing but law abiding. He was a stern yet fair enforcer of the law.

  But my heart—the squishy, too soft thing—begged for me to make the first move, to mend fences and shift the dynamic between us if he ever gave me an opening. My heart never seemed able to fully let go of the memory of the young man who made such a difference when I was so alone.

  “Aside from you? No. I don’t have any specific enemies I can think of off the top of my head.” But I was an attorney, and I did handle a lot of divorces and custody cases. Unfortunately, that meant there were often spouses and parents who felt like they were getting a raw deal on the other side of the courtroom. Not unlike the large man prowling around my office. Why was it still hard to breathe when I was this close to him? Shouldn’t I have shaken that particular quirk loose by now? It’d been almost a decade since we’d said a civil word to each other.

  “What about your husband? I heard you were separated. Is it an amicable split?” Case moved toward a particularly large puddle of paint on the floor. Crouching down he touched it with a tip of his finger. His hand came away smeared with red. “It looks like you just missed whoever was in here. The paint didn’t even have time to get tacky.”

  I huffed out a sigh that sent my dark fringe of bangs dancing across my forehead. Case was the last person on the planet I wanted to discuss my impending divorce with. In fact, I didn’t want to talk about my failed relationship with him at all but realized my soon-to-be ex-husband was bound to be a suspect. Sadly, David was not a man prone to acts of passion or rage. He was unfailingly calm, wholeheartedly steady, endlessly kind, and the divorce had been all my idea, not his. He was still stalling over signing the papers, even though I’d filed for divorce over eight months ago and moved out of our shared home in Loveless’s only gated community over a year ago. David was still holding out hope I’d have a change of heart, even though I knew all the way down to my bones I wouldn’t. We were done, but that didn’t mean he would trash my office.

  “Yes, the split is amicable. David would never do anything like this.” In the nearly twelve years we were together, the man had raised his voice to me only twice. Once when I told him I was done with the emotional turmoil of trying to conceive, and the second when I walked out our front door.

  “You recently left the law firm he runs with his father and uncle. Is there any bad blood there?” Case asked the question matter-of-factly, but I felt like he was digging, trying to find a sore spot to push on. I knew somewhere inside he was thrilled my first few steps of independence were being sabotaged in such a graphic, unmistakable way. When I failed, he considered it a win. He’d proven that fact over and over again when we’d clashed in court during the last several years.

  I bit back another sigh and fought the urge to tap the toe of my pointy, high-heeled boot. “The Barlows didn’t want me to leave. I’m good at my job, and starting my own practice means competition in court and a fight for clients’ money. They know many of my clients are going to follow me to my new practice. But we’re family. They supported my decision.” Well my father-in-law did, even if he didn’t fully understand it. David didn’t want me to leave the practive any more than he wanted me to leave our marriage, but my choice wasn’t about him.

  Opening my own practice, taking on cases I wanted to handle, working with clients who really needed me—not just the ones who could afford me—were all steps I needed to take to no longer simply be known as David Barlow’s wife. Somewhere along the line, well after I’d become a Barlow, I’d forgotten exactly who Aspen Keating was and all about the things she was determined to accomplish. I was desperate to find the old Aspen again.

  Case grunted a noncomment and walked over to the window, where a collection of offensive slurs were painted. The red paint started to drip, making the glass look like something out of a horror movie. He cocked his head to the side, and I ordered my eyes not to trace over the broad lines of his back and the way his tight backside delightfully filled out his too-tight jeans. Now that he was the sheriff, he no longer had to wear the all-tan uniform. He still had on the ugly shirt, but the rest of his outfit was casual, jeans, black cowboy boots, and a black Stetson. He still managed to bleed authority and control in just a partial uniform, and I hated how he seemed to take up all the space in the room. It was completely illogical to still harbor an unkillable attraction to a man who made it abundantly clear he could barely stand the sight of me. In fact, David had cruelly thrown my fascination with Case Lawton in my face the day I left him. It was the one and only time he’d ever mentioned what I thought was my secret crush on the sheriff, but it was enough to make me double my efforts to keep Case out of sight and out of mind.

  “These words have any merit? Were you seeing someone on the side? Does your husband have a reason to be jealous?” Case looked at me over his shoulder while waving a hand at the ugly words dripping garishly down the glass.

  I arched an eyebrow in his direction and lost the fight to impatiently tap my foot. I also gave up on the battle to keep from rolling my eyes at his perpetually condescending tone. “Ex-husband. And no, our relationship didn’t end because either of us was unfaithful.” Though I had to silently admit there were occasions when I had no clue where David was. Those times had increased with frequency in the last few years, making my decision to leave even easier. “I told you, David has nothing to do with this. I have no idea who could be behind it.”

  “Why did you come back to the office so late tonight?” His turned and looked at the toppled filing cabinets. “It looks like you may have interrupted whoever was in here when you showed up.”

  I felt like he was accusing me of something, so I automatically bristled. “I told you, I forgot a file I wanted to go over before going in front of the judge tomorrow. My mother called when I was leaving for the day, and I got distracted. I spoke with her, decided to make myself dinner, and when I sat down to go over my notes realized I had left the file in my office. When I got here, the front door was open, and I could smell the paint. I called your office and waited until you showed up before coming inside.” I knew enough to not go inside. I didn’t want to give Case, or any of his deputies, cause to accuse me of tampering with a crime scene.

  Not that I believed Case was a dirty cop like his father. He may have been under Conrad Lawton’s thumb for too many years to count, but after his father cost him the custody of his son, Case was done with everything having to do with Conrad Lawton. He’d made it his mission to get the patriarch of the Lawton clan out of office, a task that took several years, but Case had accomplished it. Now he was working his ass off, day in and day out, to undo all the damage his father had done while using the sheriff’s office as his own personal playground. However, Case still resented me, loathed me, blamed me. He might believe wholeheartedly in justice and law, but I wouldn’t put it past him to use whatever small mistake I made against me.

  “I keep client files in there. I suppose someone could
theoretically want them if I’m representing their spouse in a separation. Divorces can get ugly, especially in a small town.” Everyone knew everyone else’s business, which was why I wasn’t surprised Case knew about my impending divorce and the fact that I’d left my previous practice. There were very few secrets in Loveless. Even fewer of them when you stood out like a sore thumb.

  “Any of your current cases nastier than the others? Have you been getting threats? Or has anything unusual happened that you may have written off as part of the job?” He rubbed his thumb along the line of his chin and turned sharp, arctic blue eyes in my direction.

  It wasn’t fair. He really shouldn’t have been allowed to age as well as he had. It would be much easier to hate him back if he’d ended up haggard and slightly thick around the middle like his father. Instead, I’d watched from afar as Case got better and better over time. He was harder, more rugged and masculine than he’d been in high school, and more broody and moody than when he’d returned from the military. He even looked good with the very faint hint of silver starting to thread through the stubble on his chin and in his neatly trimmed sideburns. The rest of his hair was thick and jet-black. It was a striking combination with those bright blue eyes of his. He’d always been a bit of a heartbreaker, but now he was something beyond that. A heart destroyer, or maybe even a heart annihilator. He crushed the delicate things without even trying. I knew it well. Mine had been one of his first victims.

  I shook my head and tapped my toe impatiently once again. “Nothing too weird. And I don’t have a case I can think of that would lead to such a volatile reaction.” The only odd thing in my life recently was my mother calling me once a day to try and talk me out of leaving David.

  She’d never been particularly interested in anything I was doing with my life until I left my husband. As soon as I told her I was asking for a divorce, she turned into a helicopter parent and couldn’t be any more up in my business. She was driving me nuts. I wanted to believe she only cared about my well-being, but I knew there was more to it than that. The woman hadn’t even pretended to be sympathetic during the years of struggle while David and I tried and failed to conceive.

  I wasn’t sure if my soon-to-be-ex had enlisted her help, or if she was being super annoying of her own volition. Either way, I was over it. If my mother tried to convince me I was going to die alone one more time, I was going to lose it. Tonight, I’d finally told her enough was enough. I couldn’t listen to it anymore. She’d been irritated and hung up on me, but that was nothing new.

  My father passed away a few years ago, and my mother almost immediately remarried. Her new husband was another cold, emotionally distant man, much like my father had been. Only this one liked to play around in the stock market and had varying degrees of success. My mother didn’t hesitate to ask for money when he had a bad month, and I never hesitated to hand it over. I didn’t doubt she was concerned that, without David’s half of the income, her easy access to my cash would be much more limited.

  I saw her briefly on the occasional holiday—which was plenty for both of us. The only thing I’d ever gotten right in my life as far as either of my parents were concerned was marrying into the Barlow family. Both my parents loved David and his parents. Well, they loved their money and the clout their name carried in Loveless. Once I had David’s ring on my finger, I was finally living up to my potential, and I think they were shocked someone from old money was willing to take on the weird girl from the city who had a penchant for all-black clothing and an unending desire to fight for human rights. I was as far from a southern belle as any woman could get, but David loved me anyway. Which was why mother was berating me for letting such a good catch slip through my fingers. I would eat glass before telling her David wasn’t as great as she believed him to be.

  David was a nice guy, a decent lawyer, decent in bed, but he was predictable. Any given day I could map out exactly what our interactions were going to be like, the words we were going to say to each other. It had all become so comfortable and boring. I felt like I was suffocating on the expected.

  Except tonight was anything but predictable and expected. I never would’ve believed Case and I could spend this much time in an enclosed space without bloodshed or tears. It was the longest I’d been this close to him in years, and the longest stretch of time he had tolerated me. It was weird and oddly thrilling. It’d been far too long since anything in my life had taken me by surprise.

  Case turned around, so he was facing me, and I shook myself out of my thoughts. He cocked a dark eyebrow and laced his thumbs through a couple of belt loops on the front of his jeans. A muscle twitched in his tanned cheek, and his eyes flicked over me. Slowly, the usual irritation he showed when we clashed started to bleed into the blue of his gaze. I gave him credit for keeping his cool and being professional up until this point, but it seemed like he’d reached his limit of courtesy.

  “You have to give me something to go on, Counselor. I find it hard to believe there’s no one in this town you’ve pissed off enough to trash your new office. We both know you’re a pit bull in court and will do whatever it takes to get your clients whatever it is they are asking for…no matter how unreasonable the request may be.” His top lip curled up a tiny bit before he forcibly made his expression blank and unreadable once again. “You tend to piss people off without even trying. There has to be someone who’s threatened you, tried to intimidate you. I need a name, Aspen.”

  I flinched when he said my name. He didn’t use it often, and when he did, I was torn between being thrilled and annoyed at how he always made it sound like a dirty word.

  Losing what little hold I had left on my temper, I threw my hands up in the air and scowled at the big man in front of me. “The only person in this entire town who I absolutely know has a grudge against me, and who regularly tries to intimidate me, is you, Sheriff.” I waved a hand around the carnage that used to be my work space. “So, unless you want to start by investigating yourself, I don’t know what to tell you.” Frustration was evident in every word, but Case seemed totally unmoved by the outburst.

  He reached up and tipped the brim of his cowboy hat back with his index finger. He shot one more look around the room and lifted his broad shoulders and let them fall in a careless shrug. “I’ll send the tech team in to dust for prints, but I can’t guarantee we’ll get anything. I’ll see if the coffee shop across the street managed to get their cameras fixed yet. Maybe they recorded whoever broke in. You’re gonna have to take a few days off while we get things sorted.”

  I narrowed my eyes even further. “I have to have access to my case files. I have to be in court for the next few days.” I looked at the smeared paint. It was going to be a bitch to clean once it dried, and I silently wondered if that was part of Case’s plan. He would never pass up an opportunity to make my life more difficult than it already was.

  “You can take what you need. See if you can figure out if anything is missing while you’re at it. Get the locks changed when you get a chance and think really hard about who might be behind this. If you give me a name or two to chase down, it would be helpful.”

  He sounded totally disinterested in figuring out who had trashed my office, but at least he wasn’t brushing me off. If I had a name to give him, I would. I honestly couldn’t imagine anyone being this angry at me. I was going to have to look through my current cases and see if any one of the spouses on the opposing side stood out as a possible danger. I represented plenty of women, and the occasional man, trying to leave an abusive relationship, but mostly it was couples who simply grew tired of the work it required to keep a marriage together.

  I hurried under Case’s watchful eye, gathering what I’d need from the mess. I was careful to avoid the paint smeared everywhere, but the words smeared across the window kept catching my attention. When I was younger, I’d gotten used to people labeling me. Weirdo, freak, odd, strange, off, different…they all were used more frequently than my actual name throughout high sch
ool. By everyone, aside from the man whose gaze I was currently avoiding. He always called me Aspen until that day on the stairs when he got the divorce papers. That was when things changed.

  But it was strange to see such strong language staring back at me now. Harsher words that weren’t even used to describe me in high school. The words were meant to wound and send a message, but they were so off base it was ridiculous.

  I dated here and there through college, where the boys were more open-minded and accepting. Then I’d met David at a fund-raiser within months of coming back to Loveless. We were both in the field of law, both back in a small town after attending college in a big city, both looking for something serious and finding it within each other. He was the only person I was with for over a decade. Not that I would find those words appropriate in any occasion, even if my bedroom door was open to all comers.

  Shaking my head at my wandering thoughts, I clutched the files to my chest as I followed Case out of the building. He was on his phone, ordering someone to come over and snap pictures and dust for fingerprints. I felt pretty dismissed, so I turned on the heel of my very expensive boot and started to walk to where my Audi was parked in front of the building. Everything in my arms nearly went flying all over Main Street when Case’s heavy hand fell on my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks with a jolt.