Small-Town Face-Off

by Tyler Anne Snell

  Mara let out what she thought was a quiet sigh. One that let the outside world know she was having an internal battle.

  “We need to talk about everything that happened.”

  She opened one eye and looked over at the sheriff. He was frowning something fierce. Mara closed her eye again.

  “I don’t want to,” she admitted. “Not right now, at least.”

  “But, Mara—”

  “Billy, please, don’t,” she interrupted. “There’s only so much a person can deal with all at once. I just want to get back and see my daughter. Okay?”

  The Bronco lurched to the side. Mara’s eyes flashed open to see Billy cutting the wheel. They’d made it into Riker County according to a sign they’d passed a few miles back, but that didn’t mean Mara recognized the Presbyterian church or the parking lot they now were turning into.

  “What are you doing?” Mara asked, anger coming to the forefront of her question. It was misplaced, she knew, but that didn’t stop it from turning her cheeks hot or spiking her adrenaline enough to make her sit up straight.

  “We’re going to talk,” Billy said, parking in a row of cars already in the lot. A few people were meandering near the entrance to the church but didn’t seem interested in them.

  “What do you mean we’re going to talk? Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?”

  Billy put the car in Park, took off his seat belt and turned his body enough that he was facing her straight on. His mouth was set in a frown and yet, somehow, it still begged to be touched.

  To be kissed.

  Mara shook her head, trying to clear the thought, as Billy confronted her.

  “You’re shutting down,” he said, serious. His eyes had changed their shade of green from forest to that of tall ferns bowing in a breeze.

  “I don’t even know what that means,” she said, keeping her eyes firmly on his gaze.

  Billy’s expression didn’t soften. He wasn’t interested in playing nice anymore. Before he said a word, Mara knew where the conversation would eventually lead.

  “What you just went through can’t have been easy and now you don’t want to talk about it? Even with me?”

  “Even with you?” The last shred of emotional sanity Mara had started to fray. “You know everything I do about this case. You heard everything my father said in there. Beyond that, there’s nothing you have to do to help me. It isn’t your job to make sure I talk about my feelings. We aren’t together, Billy. Not anymore.”

  For whatever reason, using Billy’s words from earlier against him made Mara break further. She unbuckled her seat belt and fumbled for the door handle. Tears began to blur her vision.

  “I-I need a moment,” she said before Billy could get a word in edgewise. Mara opened the door and walked out into the heat.

  And swiftly away from the Riker County sheriff.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mara had to think. She had to walk. She had to move so the pain of everything wouldn’t settle. Her father’s words, Billy’s words, Beck’s words all rattled around in her mind. Taunting her, comforting her, threatening her. Why couldn’t life have stayed simple? Why had her father turned out the way he had? Why had she fallen in love with the one man Riker County had needed to protect it?

  Mara made it out of the parking lot and to a small park beside the church before she heard footsteps behind her. She’d spent the short walk trying desperately not to cry. The strain already was pushing in a headache.

  Sure, it made sense to be upset about everything. Her father had just chosen himself over her and her child. But what bothered her the most was that, at the moment, all she could do was think about Billy.

  “Mara, stop.”

  A hand closed around her arm and gently held her still. Mara blinked several times to try and dissuade any tears from falling. Instead of turning her around, Billy stepped into view.

  Mara felt the sudden urge to take his hat off and put her hand through his hair.

  It all hurt even more, knowing with absolute certainty that she’d never stop wanting Billy Reed.

  “Talk to me,” he prodded. He lowered his head to look into her eyes more easily.

  “Why haven’t you asked me?” Mara blurted before she could police her thoughts. “Why haven’t you asked one single question about why I left or why I didn’t tell you about Alexa?” Billy dropped his hand from her arm. A piece of her heart fell with it. “Just ask me, Billy. At least one question. Please.”

  Tears threatened to spill again, but Mara stilled herself, waiting for an answer. This time, they weren’t interrupted and Billy asked a question Mara hadn’t expected.

  “Would you have ever told me about her?”

  Mara realized then that there would never have been a good time to talk about the choices she’d made. That, at the end of the day, she’d kept one heck of a secret. One that would hurt someone, no matter what. Billy’s expression was open and clear as a bell, but she knew his tone well enough to realize it was a man waiting for bad news.

  She had already hurt him with her silence. It was time to tell him the truth.

  All of it.

  “You may not believe me now, and I don’t blame you for that, but I never meant to keep her a secret in the first place,” Mara started. A breeze swept through the park. She wrapped her arms around herself, even though she wasn’t cold. “I found out I was pregnant with her two days before you became sheriff. You remember how quiet I was then? You kept asking me if I was okay.”

  She watched as Billy slipped back into his own memories.

  “I thought it was because of your dad,” he admitted. “He’d just gotten sentenced.” Mara gave him a sympathetic smile. His eyes widened. “Why didn’t you tell me then?”

  “I planned to, at dinner that night,” she said. “I wanted everything to be nice... But I forgot to get eggs for the cake.”

  Billy’s eyebrow rose in question. Why did that matter? he was most likely wondering.

  “Do you remember Donna Ramsey? The woman we saw at the coffee shop?” Billy nodded. “Well, I went back out to buy eggs and ran into her. She wasn’t happy at seeing me.” Mara remembered the look of absolute hatred burning in the woman’s eyes. It wasn’t a look she’d ever forget. “Do you know that her husband died overseas? And that her daughter was all the family she had left in the world?” Mara didn’t wait for Billy to answer. “Kennedy Ramsey killed herself when her girlfriend overdosed on Moxy. Donna was the one who found her.” Mara felt her face harden. Her vision started to blur with the tears she couldn’t stop. Caught between anger and sadness, she couldn’t tell which emotion had its claws in her heart at the moment.

  “I didn’t know that,” Billy admitted. “But around then it was hard to see all of the repercussions.”

  “Well, Donna’s hatred for me is one that I saw up close.”

  “It wasn’t your fault what happened,” Billy asserted.

  “If I had come to you earlier about my father—” she started.

  “It could have taken us just as long to figure out how to trap him,” he jumped in. “Despite our intentions, your father was a very clever man. Two weeks might not have made any difference at all.”

  Mara shrugged.

  “Either way, Donna let me know I was just as much to blame as my father was,” Mara continued. “She told me that she would never accept me in Carpenter or Kipsy and neither would anyone else. To prove her point, the cashier who had overheard the exchange refused to check me out.” Mara tried a small smile. “That’s why there was no cake at dinner.”

  “But—”

  “I didn’t want to tell you that night because all I could think about was Donna, all alone, cursing my family’s name,” Mara explained, cutting him off. “And so I decided I’d tell you the next day, but then you spe
nt it with Sheriff Rockwell and were so excited that, once again, I decided to wait. I wanted you to celebrate to your heart’s content. You’d waited so long for the opportunity to be sheriff.”

  Mara was getting to the part that she’d once thought she’d never tell Billy. But, standing together now, Mara finally felt like she could tell him everything. She didn’t want anything left unsaid. She wanted a clean slate again.

  She needed it.

  “I was going to tell you after the ceremony because I couldn’t keep it in anymore. I was scared but excited,” she continued. The dull throb in her side started to gnaw at her, as if opening up emotional wounds was somehow affecting her physical ones. “I was at the ceremony, standing in the crowd, off to the side, where I hoped no one would notice me. But then someone did. He asked me if I was proud of you—and I was, Billy. I was so proud of you. And he used that against me. He told me that as long as we were together, everything you had worked for would fall apart when people found out about us. The daughter of a man who nearly destroyed the county with the new sheriff sworn to protect it. Billy, I looked up at you and you were so happy, and I couldn’t get Donna out of my head and—” Mara couldn’t help it. A sob tore from her lips and she began to cry. Overcome with emotions long since buried, she finally got to the heart of the matter. “And, Billy, I believed him. If I stayed, I was sure people would hate you because of me, and I just couldn’t take that. I’d rather live with the guilt of being Bryan Copeland’s daughter than knowing I was the reason you lost your home.”

  Billy remained quiet for a moment. His expression was unreadable. Even to her. Every part of Mara felt exposed, raw. Leaving Billy Reed had been the hardest thing she’d ever done.

  She waited, trying to rein in her tears. Then, like a switch had been flipped, Billy smiled.

  “But Mara, you’re forgetting something,” he said, closing the space between them. He put his hands on either side of her face, holding every ounce of her attention within his gaze. Every hope she had of the future, every regret she had from the past. All at the mercy of the dark-haired sheriff.

  “What?” she whispered, tears sliding down her cheeks. Billy brushed one away with his thumb, his skin leaving a trail of warmth across her cheek.

  “You are my home.”

  Then Billy kissed her full on the lips.

  Finally, Mara Copeland felt peace.

  Unlike their shared moment earlier in the day, this kiss was slower. Deeper. It seemed to extend past her lips and dip into her very core. If he hadn’t been holding her, Mara was sure she would have fallen. The kiss was affecting every part of her body, not excluding her knees. They trembled with relief and pleasure and promise as the kiss kept going.

  If they had been anywhere other than a public park, it might have gone even further, but reality broke through the fantasy quickly. Billy pulled away, lips red, eyes hooded and with a question already poised.

  “Wait, who talked to you at the ceremony?” Billy asked. “I respected your wishes for us to be a secret until things settled down. I only told the people who needed to know and I trusted all of them. They wouldn’t have told,” he added, sure in his words.

  Mara let out a small sigh. She didn’t want to create any bad blood between the sheriff and one of his deputies. Marsden had only told her his opinion. She had been the one who had listened to it.

  “Deputy Marsden,” she confessed. Billy’s body instantly tensed. Mara rushed to defuse his anger. “He seemed really concerned. I think he was just looking out for you. You can’t get mad at someone for loyalty.”

  Billy didn’t appear to be listening to her. His eyes were locked with hers, but he wasn’t seeing her.

  “What is it?” Mara grabbed his hand. She squeezed it. “Billy?” The contact shook him out of his head. He didn’t look like he’d be smiling any time soon.

  “Marsden held no loyalty or fondness for me,” he growled. “The last order of business Sheriff Rockwell attended to before I stepped in was letting Marsden go. That was one of the reasons Rockwell wanted to talk before the ceremony. If he found out about us, it was by accident. I never would have told him. Gene Marsden is not a good man, and the last I talked to him, he cursed my name.”

  “What?” Mara asked, surprised. She didn’t remember hearing about Marsden being fired. Then again, it wasn’t like she had stuck around to get the news, either.

  “I’d completely forgotten about him. He was with us when we arrested Bryan. He must have heard your father when he was cursing my name about being with you. He—”

  They both heard the noise too late, both wrapped up in their conversation.

  “Sorry to interrupt.”

  All Mara had time to do was watch Billy tense.

  Beck had the element of surprise and he used it swiftly. He pointed the shotgun right at Billy’s chest.

  “We’ll just call this take three for the day.”

  * * *

  BILLY WAS LOOKING at the wrong end of the barrel of a shotgun. Holding it was Beck, smiling ear to ear. Billy noticed a cut across the man’s cheek, and he took some small satisfaction that he’d probably caused it not more than four hours ago.

  “Hey there, Sheriff,” Beck said, voice calm. “How you doing this fine day?”

  When Billy had turned, he’d put Mara behind him. Even though she was out of the line of fire, that didn’t mean he felt good about their situation. Especially since Beck was holding a shotgun. It would be hard to shield Mara from a shell blast from only a few feet away.

  “Hadn’t figured I’d see you again any time soon. I thought after shooting up your truck you’d be long gone,” Billy admitted. “Where is your friend? I’d like to repay him for the knock on the head he gave me.” He glanced over Beck’s shoulder to see if anyone at the church had noticed that there was a man holding a gun on them. But no one seemed to be any the wiser.

  “Oh, look at you, always the dutiful sheriff. In a bad situation and still trying to fish for information.” Even though there was humor in his tone, Beck’s hold on the gun was serious. Billy’s own gun was burning in its holster. They never should have left the car. He never should have pulled over. Not when none of the deputies had found even a trace of the truck. But, when Mara was involved, Billy’s actions didn’t always make sense. He cursed himself. He’d let his guard down again. There was no excuse for that. “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you. I’m not here to answer your questions or theories or even suspicions. I have work to do.”

  “You’re not as clever as you think,” Mara said at Billy’s shoulder. He was proud that her voice was even.

  That’s my girl.

  Beck’s smile turned to a smirk, a transformation that gave away the pleasure he must be feeling holding a gun on them. So far he’d shown he didn’t believe in an even playing field. Why should now be any different? He was just going to have to find out the hard way that Billy was the kind of man who would go down fighting, especially when there was someone to fight for.

  “You don’t think I’m clever enough?” Beck asked. “Because I’ve been so bad at following you, hurting you and pulling guns on you? Or am I not that clever because I haven’t killed you two yet?”

  Billy’s muscles tingled in anticipation.

  If he could close the gap between him and the end of the shotgun, he might be able to grab it and move it enough that Mara could run for the car. If he was faster than the shot, that was. If he could disarm Beck or manage to get his own gun out, he could end this. Once and for all.

  “Sheriff, calm down,” Beck chided. “I’m not going to kill you or Miss Copeland right now. Maybe down the line, if it becomes an issue, but not right now.”

  “Then put down the gun,” Billy ground out. It made Beck laugh.

  “Don’t mistake mercy for being an idiot. I still have a job to do right now. I didn’
t just follow you to have a little chat, now, did I?”

  “What do you want, then?” Mara asked.

  “Funny you should ask, Miss Copeland. Considering it’s you.”

  “I don’t think so,” Billy cut in. “You’re not taking her.”

  “Oh, but Sheriff, I am. And, what’s more, you’re going to let me.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Billy didn’t like the confidence the man in front of him was exuding. There was no shaking of his hands as he held the gun, no quiver or tremble or even a fluctuation in his voice. Standing outside, in a public place, holding a gun on a sheriff and a civilian, Beck should have been showing some signs of anxiety or nervousness.

  When, in reality, he was showing none.

  Which meant one of two things. He was either stupid or he had one hell of an ace up his sleeve.

  “And how do you figure that?” Billy asked. “Because I’m here to tell you, that’s a tall order you’re placing.”

  “It’s because I know your secret,” Beck said, simply. “And I intend to use that to make you two do exactly as I please.”

  Billy didn’t need to see Mara to know she reacted in some way to Beck’s threat. He himself had tensed, despite trying to appear impassive.

  “Secret?” He didn’t want to play into Beck’s game but, at the same time, he didn’t really have a choice.

  “If I hadn’t already known you two were an item, I would have guessed by that kiss just now,” Beck pointed out. “You two really are terrible at hiding this thing.” He nodded to them when he said thing.

  “So?” Mara said. “We kissed. How are you going to make me leave willingly with that?”

  “I can’t.” Beck shrugged. “But luckily that’s not the only secret you two share. In fact, right now my associate is looking at that other secret of yours. She’s pretty cute, you know.”