Ride-along (Bounty County Series Book 1)

by Maren Lee

  Brenden leaned in to talk with Justin, “So, Sierra tells me it was Kari and Crystal who started the fight with Chloe. She walked by and they grabbed her by the hair and started wailing on her. You done fucking around with Kari?”

  “Boss, I've been done with that. It was a one-time thing and it was awful.”

  “Alright. Might be a good thing to make that clear to Kari when Chloe isn't around.”

  “I will definitely fucking do that.” He sipped his beer.

  Chloe and Sierra returned with shots and Lane too. Conner Parish was right behind them with his hands on Lane’s hips.

  Jake muttered under his breath but loud enough for everyone to hear, “Oh for fuck’s sake.”

  Ah ha. That explains it. Justin quickly figured that Jake was pissed because Lane was here. And perhaps even more pissed off because Lane was here and hooked up with someone else.

  Lane smirked at Jake and flipped him off. Seriously, those two were oil and water. Fish and bicycle. But there was no denying the attraction between the two of them.

  Jake grabbed Wendy...Wendy? No, Whitney? Whatever. Jake huffed, “Let’s go,” and pulled Whatever away from the table. She tried to be polite and say goodbye, but Jake was on a tear. She shrugged as he pulled her away, “See you all later!”

  Lane followed Jake with her eyes as he left. When Jake was finally out of earshot, the girls started laughing. Justin wasn’t privy and wasn’t sure he wanted to be, so he ignored it. Chloe took her shot and slammed the small glass on the table.

  “Well I think I've had enough excitement for the night!” Everyone agreed. “Justin, take me...home.” She winked. “Lane, do you need a ride or do you have other plans?” Chloe looked to Connor, then back to Chloe.

  Lane replied, “I'm good, if this handsome cowboy will give me a ride?”

  Connor's eyes lit up like Christmas morning, “I’ll take you for a ride anywhere you want to go.”

  Chloe put her hand in Justin's. “Well, then. That settles it.”

  They all said their goodnights and parted ways.

  Chapter 14

  The house was dark and too quiet. The only noise she could hear was the thumping of Avery’s tail on the side of the kennel. Chloe’s stomach rumbled loudly as she flipped on the lights in the quiet house. Justin laughed at her, and then his stomach joined hers.

  “Shit, Chloe. I didn’t even think about dinner tonight. I’m starving.”

  “I didn’t think about it either. The cocktails and pretzels seemed to keep me full for most of the night. Let's see what we can fix up for a,” she paused as she looked at her watch, “an actual midnight snack.”

  Chloe opened the fridge. They had plenty of fresh veggies, some cheddar cheese, and a couple of chicken breasts she had already pre-prepared for salads. Genius! “How about nachos?” she said with hope in her voice, because nachos sounded really fucking good to her and she did not want to make anything else.

  Justin looked at her like he wanted to kiss her all over.

  “That. Sounds. Amazing. I am so in love with... nachos.”

  Okay, wait a minute. Was he just about to tell me he loves me? Brush it off. He clearly is not ready, Chloe. “Um, yeah. Me too. It’s one of my favorite late night snacks after an evening of drinking.”

  The stood alongside each other in the kitchen. She chopped tomatoes, he shredded cheese. Everything in this moment felt right to her. These last few days had been so amazing with him. They were working through the bullshit and able to come out happier than either of them had been in a very long time. Instead of focusing on the possible negatives of the situation -- her stalker and his apparently inability to tell her how he really felt -- she decided to just enjoy the present moment. She was still going to guard her heart, though.

  “Veggies chopped. Babe, will you reach up there and get me the chips, please?” She batted her eyelashes at him.

  “How can I say no to that sexy face?” He kissed her forehead and walked to the cupboard. “And what would you like to drink with our snack, darlin’?”

  “Hmmmm, hawaiian punch sounds amazing to me right now, but we don’t have that. So how about some ice water?”

  “Well those are certainly two completely different beverage extremes. You are so weird. I lov… love ice water.”

  Did he just almost say it again?

  “You love ice water?” Chloe asked, doubt clearly in the tone of her voice.

  “Who doesn’t?” He fumbled with the cutting board. “I’ll just go see if there are any movies on for us at this hour.” He kissed her briskly and practically ran to the living room.

  Holy shit. He loved her? But he was clearly really afraid to tell her. Well, he better man up, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to say it first.

  Chloe brought in the overloaded plate of nachos into the living room with a couple napkins for them. Justin was looking at her as if she grew a third eye or something.

  “Is there an issue that I'm unaware of?” she asked him.

  He snapped out of it and shook his head, “What? No. No issues.”

  “Then why were you looking at me like that?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like I just threw one of your toys in the garbage.” She pointed to the mantle.

  “Okay, first, they’re not toys. They’re model cars. Huge difference. Second, I'm sorry I gave you a face, I didn't mean to. I was just confused by sharing a plate. I've never done that before.”

  She gave him a look that clearly said, “Seriously?”

  Trying quickly to appease her, Justin said, “But I'm totally up for trying this out with you.”

  Chloe laughed. “You’re ridiculous. Fine. So you just aren't used to sharing your food. That’s fine. We can work through that.”

  “What do you mean ‘work through’?”

  “Like when we are out at a restaurant and I don't want an entire order of chili fries, but I want a few of yours, you’ll share with me, right?”

  She could see him struggling to find the right words.

  “Um. Sure. Or we can order two servings of chili fries and I will just take home the ones you can't eat and have them for a snack later.”

  “Oh my God, seriously?” Chloe laughed again. “Okay, so we don't need to worry about this now. But can we just practice sharing while we watch the movie. What’re our options?”

  He seemed excited to show her, “We have: Pulp Fiction, Dances With Wolves, You've Got Mail, and Super Troopers.”

  “Wow, one from almost every genre. I vote Super Troopers.”

  “Coming right up!”

  He popped the DVD in and jumped over the coffee table to land on the couch next to her. He just kept getting cuter and cuter. She pulled the tray of nachos closer to them. She grabbed a chip and made sure to get all the fixings on it. Without even thinking, she fed him the nacho.

  He gladly took it all in one bite. “See? Sharing! You’ll like it!”

  He smiled at her and kissed her with sour cream covered lips.

  “Mmmmm. Delicious.” He kissed her again. “I can get used to this kind of sharing.” He pulled her close to him and they settled in for the movie. This man was turning into everything she could have hoped for.

  ➰

  Justin woke to a loud thump. He bolted up and looked around. It took him a minute to assess his surroundings. It was dark in the living room. The movie on the television was long finished and the screen glowed with its eerie blue inactivity screen. He and Chloe had fallen asleep together on the couch. She was still soundly asleep. He looked at his watch. It was just before 4:00AM.

  He carefully slid off the couch to figure out where the noise had come from. He first checked on Avery. She was sound asleep on the floor. He’d fallen asleep before he could get her in her indoor kennel, so that wasn’t where the sound had come from. The kitchen was the way they left it; nothing had fallen to the floor. He turned on the back porch light and peered out the window. Still nothing. He knew that he hadn’t imag
ined the noise.

  The inside of the house was clear of any reason for a loud thump. Chloe hadn’t moved. The only noise coming from her was the soft sighs she let escape while she slept. The last place he needed to check was the front porch. He turned on the light and opened the door slowly and looked up and down the street. Again. Nothing.

  As he went to shut the door he noticed an object out of the corner of his eye. What the fuck? He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A large butcher knife stabbed into the door holding what looked like a photo. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He’d found her. Justin couldn’t believe that the suspect was so close. He knew he needed to get Chloe out of the house and somewhere safe as quickly as possible. As he turned to go back into the house he tripped over a thick manilla envelope. Bending down quickly, he grabbed the package and headed back inside and immediately checked all of the locks. He quickly and quietly closed all of the blinds and curtains.

  He called dispatch and informed them of the situation, speaking softly so as not to wake Chloe. One of the deputies was on his way to collect the knife and photo. Justin would meet them at the door to hand off the package. There would also be an undercover officer on watch until they left the house and there would be a tail with them at all times when they were in the vehicle.

  While Justin waited for his co workers to get on scene, he decided to see what was in the thick package. It was a yellow manila envelope that looked as though it was taken out of a dumpster. He pulled the tattered seal of the envelope back and peeked in. More photos. Justin flipped through them quickly. Holy shit. There were photos of Justin and Chloe almost everywhere the two of them had been together. Shit. The two of them in his patrol vehicle outside of the Lodge. This psycho had been so close to them the entire time. Fuck. He felt rage building inside him. This piece of shit stalker! The thought of anyone wanting to hurt Chloe -- his Chloe -- made Justin’s blood boil. How could he have been so close? How did he not see him? Looking over at Chloe’s beautiful sleeping face gave him the urge to pick her up and curl her into his arms, but he didn't want to wake her. He would wait until after he had gotten everything squared away with the undercover before he woke her.

  Justin’s cell phone alerted that both the deputy and the undercover were out front. He gave Chloe a soft kiss on the top of her head, quietly stood up, and headed toward the front door. Her innocence and faith in people made him ache. He knew the truth and he lived it every day. Unfortunately, Justin came across some real scum bags at work. There were bad people out there. Thinking about one of those bad people taking advantage of Chloe tore him to pieces. Never again. She was his firecracker angel and she deserved to be treated that way. The door let out a small creek when he opened it; he hoped she’d stay asleep while he figured out their next move.

  ➰

  It was Smitty who came to the door to take the report and collect the evidence. Justin looked up and down the street non-stop while they stood on the front porch. As soon as the knife was pulled free from the door, Justin was able to get a better look at the photo of them. Shit. It was of them tonight at the Cadillac Ranch Club. The knife was strategically stabbed through Chloe's neck in the photo. This motherfucker was twisted. The photograph hadn’t been taken that long ago. Where would an out-of-towner have found a place to print a photo at this time of night? The FedEx store on Glenmont was the only place he could think of. He’d have Brenden call to pull the security footage there.

  After Smitty finished looking around the house -- inside and out -- he briefed Justin on the surveillance. Jake was in the back a block over and Wesson was out front. Both were undercover. They would stay until Justin and Chloe were ready to leave.

  Time was of the essence now. The manhunt for this stalker piece of shit needed to happen as quickly as possible and all hands were needed on deck. But he still didn’t want to scare Chloe. After talking with Brenden, it was decided that they wouldn’t tell Chloe about this event or any of the details about David Sullivan that they’d recently learned. She had been ready to leave town to protect her family and Justin after she received the voicemails. Justin definitely didn’t want her to do anything like that now. It was too dangerous. Brenden also felt it would be best to keep her out of the loop so that she didn’t change her normal behavior and somehow tip off the suspect.

  Justin thanked Smitty for his help and then walked him to the door and locked up behind him.

  He showered quickly. There would, unfortunately, be no time for a shave or bathroom nookie today. He threw on a shirt and some shorts; if he was dressed for work this early, Chloe would know he'd been up for quite a while. He didn’t want to have to go into too many details.

  Now for the hard part. How was he going to get Chloe up and ready quickly without telling her why? It was 5:30am now, but still dark. They’d only just recently gone to bed. The only excuse he could think of was that he was called out and they had to leave immediately. But Justin was afraid that Chloe would want to know the details of the call. He was a pretty terrible liar. It didn’t really matter what he told her, he was going to have to try and play it cool to keep her from asking questions. But he still needed to get her up quickly.

  Breakfast! That’s it! She’ll be up in no time. Justin began opening and closing cupboard doors, maybe a little louder than necessary, but it would get the job done. He had just loaded the toaster when her sweet face peeked around the corner.

  “Good morning, noise maker.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed the middle of his back.

  “Morning Beautiful. I went above and beyond with breakfast this morning: toast and eggs.”

  “Wow. Just wow. You didn't have to do that for me...so loudly,” she laughed.

  He buttered the toast and dished up some eggs on a plate and handed it to her, “For you.” He buttered his toast and put the rest of the eggs on his plate, about twice as many as he’d given Chloe, “and for me.”

  “Thank you, Jus’. It’s nice to wake up and have someone to eat with.” She took a bite of toast.

  Shit, she called him Jus’. She used that name when she wanted to get busy. There was no time for that right now.

  “...Even if it is O-dark-thirty. Seriously, what are we doing up so early? I feel like I just closed my eyes a few hours ago.”

  Keep it cool, keep it casual, “You know, work and stuff.”

  “Work and stuff? That sounds so exciting, Justin.” Her tone was so sarcastic, but her smile with it was completely genuine. The sass in her attitude assured him that she was comfortable.

  “Stuff can be pret-ty cool, Chloe.”

  “What kind of stuff is pret-ty cool at 5:30 in the morning? I think my blood alcohol content is still above the legal limit.”

  Justin laughed. “I just need to get a head start on the day, love.” Shit. Did he just call her that? Maybe she didn’t notice. Nope, not a chance. Her eyes got soft. Damn. “I’m sorry I woke you from your beauty sleep, but you don’t really need it anyway.”

  “Quit being sweet. I’ll get ready. But sometime today or on our way home, can we swing by the store so I can get the stuff for the lasagna tonight? I promised you a home cooked meal. Nachos don’t count.”

  Fuck. He had completely forgotten she was going to make him lasagna tonight. Shitty timing.

  “Um, I’m sure we could work that in.” He knew the words coming out of his mouth were a complete lie, but he had no choice but to appease her.

  Chloe finished the last of her toast and cleared her plate. She poured herself a cup of coffee and headed for the front door.

  Fuck. Fuck. “Where ya going?”

  She looked at him like he was going crazy, “To see if the paper is on the front porch?”

  “Nope! Got it already!” he shouted.

  “So...where is it?”

  “Oh, it’s in the bathroom on the counter.” His large frame blocked her body in the hallway; she couldn’t make it to the bathroom without going through him first.

  “Okaaaaay...Is it safe i
n there for me to go get it?”

  There was no time for coffee sipping and paper reading. They had to get dressed and get to the station. “Um. I blew it up in there this morning already. You do not want to go in there,” he used as an excuse. Great, Justin. Just great. Resort to talking about stinking up the bathroom. “Let me go check for you first.”

  “Um...thanks, Justin. And gross. You totally just ruined any chance for morning sex.”

  We don’t have time for that anyway!

  There was no time for dawdling and reading the newspaper either. How was he going to get her out of the house fast? As he opened the bathroom door his eyes went to the newspaper and then to the toilet. Oh no. No. He couldn’t do that. Chloe called out to him, “Well?”