by Dave Daren
“I’ve just received news that the poll workers have finished their count,” she said, and the entire room seemed to stand on a razor’s edge.
I don’t think a single person breathed as the other reporters made similar announcements. I felt Clara’s hand tighten around my arm, and I dropped my hand down to curl around hers and squeeze right back.
“David Vaneck is the new sheriff of Crowley,” the woman said.
The cheers that exploded into the room were deafening. I only realized after a moment that I was cheering as well. Every issue I’d had with Thompson over the course of the last year flashed in front of my eyes like some sort of supercut memorial. It felt like I couldn’t breathe, and that I could breathe for the first time, all at once.
Brody and Evelyn seemed to be reeling with the same emotions I felt coursing through my body as I looked over at them. In fact, it seemed like every damn person in the room had jumped to their feet with the announcement, and I was no different. I reached up and pushed my hands through my hair as I gave a shocked laugh.
I’d hoped we would win, but I had to admit that I had my doubts. I couldn’t believe that David had done it.
David had moved over toward the microphone and tapped it once with a finger as if to silence the still celebrating crowd so he could give his victory speech.
I looked down at Clara as she gave a gleeful laugh of her own and looked up at me with wide, ecstatic eyes. I wanted to kiss her so damn bad.
So I did.
I reached up and tucked one of my hands at the nape of her neck, just under the thick curtain of her hair, and tilted her head up toward mine as I bent down and pressed my lips to hers in an almost frantic movement.
It wasn’t one of those movie sort of kisses. It was sudden, unplanned, and maybe a little unromantic, but that didn’t make it any less damn good.
Her lips were soft under mine and tasted like mint chapstick, and they fit perfectly against mine. One of her hands drifted out to rest against my hip. and it was then that I forced myself to pull away before I could let things go any further than that.
I opened my mouth to say something as I looked down at her. Our noses still practically brushed against each other, and I wanted to kiss her again.
I opened my mouth to say something. What, I wasn’t exactly sure, but something. But Clara cut me off before the words could cross my lips.
“Let’s get food after this,” she said as a wide, ecstatic smile pulled taut across her face.
I nodded in agreement as I struggled to find my words still.
Luckily for my pride, I didn’t have time to say anything before David finally started his victory speech.
“Wow,” he began, and he sounded truly shellshocked. “I can’t believe that we got here in so little time. I’m grateful to each and every one of you for believing in me and giving me the chance to bring Crowley into the light.”
David gave a clearly shocked laugh as he worked to keep his composure. I was thankfully able to see over many of the heads in the room, and so I was actually able to see him as he stood on the stage in the Town Hall once again and gave his speech.
“I didn’t plan a very long speech,” he admitted with another laugh that the crowd echoed. “But, I’m going to stay true to my word. I’m going to reform the sheriff’s department and stand true to my anti-corruption platform.”
The smile on my face was so wide it nearly hurt my cheeks. I let my eyes wander from David as he started to rattle off his long list of thanks toward a small flash of movement just in the wings behind David.
My blood ran cold.
I blinked once, then twice, and then a third time to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.
But I knew better than to think I was simply being crazy as I remembered what David had said to me all of those weeks ago before the first debate.
He’d told me community leaders and business owners had reached out to him to offer their help, and I remembered how that statement had set off the alarm bells in my mind for a reason I couldn’t figure out at the time.
I felt sick to my stomach as I put it all together at that moment and couldn’t help but wonder if I’d just replaced one crook with another.
I stared in unabashed horror as the realization sank in.
Samuel Higgins stood in the wings behind Sheriff David Vaneck like a guardian angel, with a vicious, victorious smile painted across his cunning face.
End of Book 2
Autor’s Notes
Thank you for reading my novel! If you enjoyed it, and you’d like to read another story about Archer’s new practice, please leave a quick review by clicking on this link.
Amazon will not update readers when an author comes out with a new book unless you follow that author on the store. So please make sure you click this link and then click on the follow button. Once you follow me on Amazon, you will get an update email from them a few weeks after my next book comes out.
If you want to get notified of my books the day that they come out, make sure you join my newsletter on my website. Then I’ll email you as soon as they are published.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Dave Daren
