Bourbon Springs Box Set: Volume II, Books 4-6 (Bourbon Springs Box Sets Book 2)

by Jennifer Bramseth

  God, the nerdy guy was good!

  CiCi was barely able to steal looks at Walker through half-lidded eyes heavy with the thick haze of desire. His fingers, his movements, his touch were magic and produced the most delicious sensations to all the right places. She almost felt sorry for Jana for having lost such an able lover.

  Almost.

  Because Walker was hers now. He’d chosen her.

  CiCi spiraled up to a precipitous height and spasmed around Walker’s fingers. She clenched and ground herself against him as she came while Walker never once relaxed the pressure of his hand. Her orgasm was so intense that she could only whisper his name during her descent back to reality.

  The next thing of which CiCi was aware was Walker’s gentle kisses on her face and cheeks. She nuzzled her face into his chest and dozed.

  CiCi sighed deeply and put a hand to Walker’s face. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure.”

  “Actually, I think it was mostly mine.”

  After some more cuddling which involved CiCi’s hands exploring Walker’s broad chest, they both went to the bathroom in the basement before heading back upstairs. Walker needed more time to get his erection under control, so they sat together a little longer on the old brown couch while CiCi recounted stories she’d heard of the old judge who used to like to nap in the evidence vault. There was no time to grab lunch now, although the hour had been passed far more enjoyably than had they shared a meal.

  As they boarded the elevator, Walker said he needed to be on his way and that he’d call later to discuss plans for Saturday. She immediately started to ponder what to wear and resolved to make sure she had a clean thong for the big date. Then she thought why bother at all with undies? It was sure to be hot on Saturday—in more ways than one.

  The elevator doors opened, and they were deposited on the first floor in the lobby. What had been a sweet and sexy encounter turned embarrassing when CiCi locked eyes with Brady, who was standing at the sheriff’s station talking with one of the sheriff’s deputies. CiCi felt her face burn as she watched recognition spread across Brady’s face as to where she had been with Walker. The elevator buttons clearly indicated that they had ascended to the lobby from the basement level.

  Walker gave her a quick kiss to the cheek, said good-bye, and left through the front doors. The moment he was gone, Brady burst into laughter.

  “Oh, shut it!” She turned to catch the elevator but, finding it unavailable, made a dash for the stairs.

  Brady followed, catching up with her in the stairwell.

  “C’mon, CiCi.” Brady sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

  She stopped on the first step with her hand gripping the rail. “Too late.”

  “Your secret is safe with me,” he said in a low voice.

  “Oh, please. I don’t have a secret,” she hissed.

  “Not from me you don’t because guilt about something was plastered all over your face,” he said. “You were in the basement, which I happen to know can be a nice place to visit on occasion.” His teasing presumption irked her, and she started to climb the stairs. “Wait, CiCi. Honestly, I’ll keep it to myself. You’re just lucky Kyle wasn’t around to see what I saw. Think about that for a sec—he’d tell Hannah in a heartbeat, and then half the county would know you were in the basement with—”

  “And what about Rachel?” she demanded, trying to ignore the possibility that Hannah would find out about her tryst in the basement with Walker. “Can you please not blab about what you think or suspect you saw to your wife? Then again, what am I asking? It’s not like you two were good at keeping your own secrets.”

  “And that wasn’t a secret we should’ve kept,” Brady acknowledged and took a few steps to follow her up the stairs. “But I have your back. I won’t tell a soul.”

  CiCi returned to her office on the second floor to the welcome news that the air-conditioning had been fixed and that a small cluster of dead raccoons had been removed from the attic. The auditors, however, remained in the conference room. The good news was that they hadn’t bothered anyone, nor had they asked where she had been. CiCi hoped they would be done with their work in the next few days and life in the Craig County Courthouse would return to normal, whatever that meant.

  And after the fun in the basement with Walker, CiCi knew she’d just entered a new normal in her relationship with him: he’d attained the rank of serious boyfriend. And the possibility that he wanted to be more to her than that thrilled her but scared her too.

  Because Jana was still out there.

  As much as she’d loved hearing Walker put Jana in her place and seeing him walk away from her not once but twice, the fact of Jana’s presence troubled her. Granted, it was no longer so worrying that she was willing to completely ditch Walker and move on. But Jana was a complication that CiCi would have preferred not exist.

  CiCi figured she was going to have to tell Walker soon about what had happened with her father and husband. Those men were two peas in a pod. And she hoped like hell that Walker couldn’t be lumped in with those two miscreants.

  But before that rather heavy conversation, CiCi was going to look forward to and enjoy the big date she had with Walker to the Old Talbott Tavern. It was going to be a hot night.

  * * *

  Walker drove to work in a mood he had never experienced: giddy, happy, and extremely horny.

  Everything with CiCi had somehow resolved itself—and damn had it been fun in that evidence vault with her! He couldn’t wait to find another soft spot upon which to place that luscious figure of hers.

  Like maybe a bed.

  But there was a cloud on the horizon in the form of Jana.

  He knew he needed to talk to Hannah or Bo about his ex-wife. He didn’t want to cause Jana trouble, but he also had to protect himself as well as his incipient relationship with Madam Clerk.

  Walker arrived at the distillery, found his reserved spot unoccupied, parked, and went to find Hannah in her office.

  “Got a minute?” he asked and shut the door behind him.

  Hannah turned from her computer. “Of course. What’s on your mind?”

  “I need to talk to you about Jana.” She beckoned him to sit, and he did so. “First, what I told you Saturday was true. I don’t have a problem working with Jana—as long as she understands some boundaries.” He paused and sighed. “This isn’t easy to talk about.”

  “I know. I’ve been there,” she said, and he understood Hannah was referring to her own divorce experience. “But you can trust me. And I need to be aware of what’s wrong, if there is anything wrong.”

  After pausing again briefly to collect his thoughts, Walker began. “Let me tell you about the past so you can understand the present.” Hannah nodded, and he continued. “Jana and I were happy for several years, but we started having arguments and drifted apart. No third party, just fighting. We broke up a few times, then reconciled. Eventually, I pulled the plug on the marriage. We got divorced, and we generally cut off communication. Not because we were angry—but because it hurt. We probably talked a few times on the phone about things, like division of property, but those talks were few and far between. I hadn’t seen her for well over a year until I saw her here at the distillery on Saturday.”

  “So what’s the problem?” Hannah asked. “You two seem amicable enough.”

  “I can work with her provided she keeps her distance. And by that I mean I suspect she wants to try to reconcile again. But I’m not interested.”

  “But why do you think she wants to reconcile?” Walker briefly recounted the text he’d received from Jana and how she’d behaved at the courthouse but left out the part about CiCi seeing the text. “I can’t guarantee she’ll leave you alone, Walker. But if she doesn’t, you tell me and she’ll be gone. We’re going to call her tomorrow morning and make her an offer.”

  “I don’t want to get her in trouble.”

  “If Jana bothers you in the way you fear sh
e might, she’ll be making her own trouble,” Hannah said sternly.

  * * *

  “Can you come over to the office at four?” asked Harriet.

  “This sounds ominous,” CiCi said.

  After the day had turned around—that point being when she’d been at the mercy of Walker Cain’s talented hands—CiCi had breezed through the afternoon without a seeming care in the world. It was still hot in the courthouse, although the air-conditioning had started to make a difference in the uncomfortably warm temperatures indoors. And the stench from the dead raccoons was a little bit better, or maybe she’d gotten used to it. The auditors continued to leave her and the staff unmolested as they picked over the records they had requested to review. She’d been in a decent mood until Harriet’s call.

  “It’s not bad, but I don’t want to talk over the phone either,” Harriet said. “How’s that for vague?”

  “Perfect,” CiCi admitted, “but it does little to make me feel better.”

  CiCi told her staff that she would be out for a short while but back before closing time and to call her at once if the auditors so much as hiccupped. Since Harriet’s office was less than a block away, it took CiCi all of five minutes to get from her office to Harriet’s building.

  “So what did they find?” CiCi asked as she fell into a chair. “I’m assuming I’m here because you’ve got bad news.”

  Harriet took the seat opposite CiCi, again choosing not to sit behind the desk when talking to her client.

  “The head auditor on your project called me around lunchtime. They’ve already found accounting irregularities.”

  “What? Our accounting firm has reviewed all our books for every year that I’ve been the clerk and—”

  “They found some problems dating back ten years ago.”

  “Ten years? Ten fucking years? You are kidding me!”

  Harriet shook her head. “Sadly, no. They can do this, CiCi. They can reach back up to twenty years if it suits their fancy.”

  “But I wasn’t even the clerk back then!”

  “I know, but it doesn’t matter,” Harriet said.

  “But I bet they know my mom was the clerk then, don’t they?”

  “Of course they do. And, yes, they might try to blame you for those problems simply due to the family connection. I’ve seen it happen in other counties.”

  CiCi had been sitting on the edge of the chair but fell back, defeated. She put a hand over her eyes and collected her thoughts for a few moments.

  “What’s the worst-case scenario?” CiCi asked, continuing to shield her eyes.

  “Removal, followed by possible criminal prosecution for official misconduct.”

  “What’s likely based upon what we know right now?” CiCi asked, trying not to react to the horrific possibilities Harriet mentioned.

  “Some kind of monitor from the state auditor’s office. They’d probably come down here every month and inspect your accounts and review certain internal procedures when it comes to handling money.”

  CiCi allowed her hand to fall from her face. “This could destroy me politically, not to mention personally.”

  Harriet looked at her lap. “I know,” she said. “Can you think of anyone out to get you? Someone who wants to run against you?”

  “No,” she answered truthfully and shook her head, causing her curls to bounce. “Haven’t heard a thing.”

  “Then what we’re dealing with is a bunch of bureaucrats being bureaucrats. And that’s worse than a political opponent or known enemy going after you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because if it were only politics, we could say that, and people would accept that explanation. They’d chalk it up to finger-pointing and bad blood. But when you’re dealing with bureaucrats that have no obvious ax to grind, the public tends to give that more credence. They think there’s no bias in the investigation and maybe there could be something to it.”

  “So what should I do?” CiCi asked wearily.

  “Keep your head down and do whatever the hell the auditors want.”

  12

  Both CiCi and Walker were so distracted by the excitement of their planned Saturday evening date at The Tavern that they almost forgot the BourbonDaze committee meeting scheduled for late Saturday morning.

  As it turned out, CiCi wished they had forgotten the meeting—held in a small back room at Over a Barrel—because it was at this event that Jana Pogue was formally introduced to the community as the new heritage director for Old Garnet Distillery.

  Hannah attended the meeting to do the introductions and tell the committee members about Jana’s arrival. “I’m sure she’ll be on the committee next year,” Hannah declared after addressing the group and introducing Jana.

  And in that case, there’s no way in hell I’m going to be on next year’s committee, thought CiCi. She’d more than fulfilled her civic duty by serving on the committee for the past five years, and even though her reason for finally bowing out was less than mature, CiCi saw Jana’s likely future participation as the sign she needed to finally walk away from further responsibility.

  Hannah left after Jana’s introduction, saying she needed to get to the distillery to help with tours, but the new heritage director stayed to watch. Mercifully, it was a short meeting and Jana said nothing and sat quietly to one side, observing and taking a few notes.

  The meeting broke up, and CiCi and Walker met outside to talk about hitting The Windmill for lunch.

  “Two dates in one day?” CiCi asked after Walker had made the suggestion to patronize their favorite diner.

  “Sure, why not?”

  “Because I don’t want to stuff myself at The Windmill with whatever wonderful kind of pie they have today. I’m holding out for the bread pudding at The Tavern.”

  They were discussing the time they were going to leave for Bardstown when Jana exited the deli and walked up to both of them, leading to the interruption of their conversation with awkward pleasantries, followed by an awkward pause.

  “May I ask a favor of you both?” Jana asked, biting her lip. CiCi shrugged in acquiescence as did Walker. “Will you both have lunch with me?”

  “Why?” CiCi asked before thinking the better of the blunt question.

  “Because it’s obvious you’re a couple,” she said, looking them both up and down. “And everyone in this town already knows it or will know it.”

  After exchanging a surprised look with Walker at Jana’s request, CiCi let him respond.

  “Considering that I work for Hannah Davenport, I can guarantee you that most of Craig County probably already knows it,” Walker acknowledged.

  “Exactly. And I’m the new gal in town who just happens to be the ex of the master distiller up at Old Garnet.” She paused and took in a very long breath. “Frankly, you two could make or break me in Bourbon Springs. All I’m asking is that we all just be seen together talking, eating, anything.”

  Walker looked to CiCi, and she sensed he was going to defer to her wishes on this unusual and rather impertinent request. The problem was that on its face the proposal was reasonable. If CiCi refused, Jana could easily paint her as the unreasonable one.

  From the glance he shot her, CiCi could tell that Walker wasn’t comfortable with the idea of the three of them breaking bread together. That was just as well. He really wasn’t needed.

  “I’ll eat with you,” CiCi agreed. “But I don’t think Walker needs to join us. Why not make it just us girls?”

  CiCi’s message to Jana was clear: you can be seen eating with your ex’s new girlfriend and being all friendly-like, but you won’t get the honor of eating with Walker. Even though at the moment Jana was being outwardly friendly, CiCi recalled the nastiness of the conversation between the ex-spouses in the courtroom, and her guard was up. She wasn’t going to be manipulated by Jana, but she wasn’t going to be a bitch to her either.

  “Well, okay,” Jana agreed, her pleasant demeanor fading a little.

  Walker grinned at
CiCi, took her hand, pulled her to him, and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll call you later this afternoon,” he promised and was off.

  “Shall we?” CiCi said to Jana and gestured back to the deli door.

  The women reentered the deli and stood in a short line before ordering.

  “What’s good here?” Jana asked as she eyed the menu on the wall behind the register.

  “Everything,” CiCi answered. “But go for the roast beef sandwich. It’s made with Old Garnet au jus sauce. Eat that and you can tell Hannah you’ve been sampling the wares before you even start work.”

  “That’s a good idea. Thanks.” She paused to consider CiCi for a moment.

  “What?” CiCi asked, noticing Jana was looking at her with puzzlement.

  “Sorry. I guess I didn’t expect you to be… I don’t know…,” Jana stuttered.

  “Nice?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “I thought I might as well try to do the real thing rather than fake it. It’s easier and a lot more fun.”

  Jana thanked her again, and CiCi pointed out the décor on the floor of the deli—barrels painted all over the place, each one marked with the name of a different distillery in the central Kentucky area.

  Jana pointed to one of the images on the floor behind them. “There’s Wilderness Trace, where I used to work.”

  CiCi looked down. “And you’re standing on the barrel which represents the distillery where you will be working.”

  They were both standing on top of an image of the biggest barrel, which was directly in front of the register. It bore no name, but it had no need to announce its affiliation beyond the large garnet motif in the middle of the illustration.

  They reached the register, where Jana took CiCi’s advice and got the roast beef sandwich.

  “And go ahead and order your bourbon balls now before they run out,” CiCi encouraged in a whisper. “They go fast. Best in town. Get ’em while you can.”