by Kait Nolan
“So Judd seems to be pretty over the top protective today, even for him. Did something happen?” Livia asked.
Autumn had left out that part of the story. The details of the night were being kept under wraps as the investigation continued. “Someone tried to break into the house last night.”
“You had a prowler?”
Autumn jolted. “Mark. I didn’t hear you.”
He stood, one hand on the book drop door, his returns still in the other. His eyes were wide and horrified. “That’s horrible. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Boudreaux scared him off.”
Mark looked blank. “Boudreaux?”
“Judd’s dog.”
He gave that owl-like blink behind his glasses. “You’re staying with Judd?”
She could see him trying to work out a scenario where that wasn’t as bad for him as he thought. It was time to nip his little crush in the bud.
“I am. And listen, Mark, I need to tell you, I’m with Judd.” She did her best to soften the news with a smile.
“Oh.” His cheeks colored. “I—didn’t know. I, um, congratulations?” he finished awkwardly.
“Thanks. And I’m sorry. You’re a great guy, I just…we’ve been on the edge of this for a long time.”
“No, sure. Of course.” He dropped the books into the return. “Best of luck to both of you.”
With a tight wave, Mark beat a hasty retreat, his camera bag beating against his legs.
Livia watched him go. “Poor guy.”
“I feel like I just kicked a puppy.”
“It was a kindness in the long run. No one’s ever going to steal you from Judd.”
The thought sent her back into the warm and fuzzy. “No. No they won’t.”
~*~
“No, we sure haven’t had anything like that come through the mailroom the last few weeks. Pretty sure we’d remember one of the inmates getting girl porn.”
Judd remembered Autumn’s insult over that description and bit his tongue. She’d given the department an earful on the subject during their briefing the other day. Correcting the head mail guy at Parchman Prison on the finer points of why erotic romance was not porn was not relevant to the investigation. “I didn’t figure it would be that easy. Can you go back further? The book was actually released nearly a year ago.”
“Records don’t go back that far, and we wouldn’t have made note of it if they did.”
“But as you said, you’re pretty sure you’d remember something like this coming through. Can you ask the rest of the mail room staff if they remember anybody getting this or something like it at any point in the past year?”
“I can ask, but don’t get your hopes up. We got a fair amount of turnover in people.”
“Can I get a list of employees who’ve left in that same time span? And also a record of his correspondence for the duration of his incarceration?”
By the time Judd hung up the phone, he wasn’t feeling great about the lead panning out. But he had some names of people to chase down. Names he’d have to hand over to his officers if he had a chance in hell of making it to his brothers’ birthday on time.
Shutting his office door, he closed the blinds and traded out his uniform for street clothes. His administrative duties as Chief had kept him chained to his desk most of the day. This was the only part of the investigation he’d been able to actively participate in, and not being out there, being the one to follow the leads, was making him twitchy. It was part and parcel of the job, but damn it, this investigation was about Autumn. He didn’t trust anybody else to do it right.
Not for the first time, Judd thought about that offer from Bill Riggs. That investigator position with the Wachoxee County Sheriff’s Department was looking really damned appealing about now. But it wasn’t where he needed to be. Until Jebediah was put away again, he needed to be here, in control.
After handing off his list to the rookie, Corbett Raines, who was benched from active duty until he healed up from his cow encounter, Judd headed over to The Daily Grind to pick up Autumn. She was head down over her new laptop. A legal pad full of scribbled notes lay at her elbow, along with evidence of at least two coffees and the lemon bars she loved.
“Are mass caffeine and sugar your usual fuel for writing?”
“I’m stress eating.”
The moment she lifted her head, Judd could see the strain around her eyes. He went immediately on alert.
Autumn laid down the pen and rubbed at her temples. “Despite multiple redundancy backups on my cloud drive, the book is simply gone.”
“Gone?”
“I should’ve been able to roll back to a previous version…something. But it’s like it never even existed on their servers.” Frustration vibrated in her tone. “That was months of work just…gone. Poof.”
“Is anything else missing?”
“A chunk of other files that weren’t really that important. Some stock photos I can redownload from the vendor. A few spreadsheets. I don’t know what happened. Maybe they got corrupted when my laptop cooked in the fire and were purged from the system. Either way, I’m going to be starting from scratch.”
Judd bent to press a kiss to the lines between her brows. “I’m sorry. My day was a lot of dead ends too.”
“It’s probably for the best. I’m going to be changing a lot anyway and this way I won’t get hung up on keeping stuff for the sake of keeping it.” She sent a tired smile up at him. “At least the day will end with cake.”
“I won’t tell Mom you’ve been binging on lemon squares.”
“You could tell her I’ve had an entire dozen of them and she won’t care, she’ll be so excited about us.”
“What exactly are we going to tell them?”
Autumn packed her things. “Do we need to tell them something specific?”
“I feel stupid saying we’re dating.”
“After twenty-five years, I think we can safely skip that step.”
“Well, I’m not going to up and announce I’ve had my wicked way with you.”
She grinned. “Pretty sure they’ll deduce that within five seconds of seeing us together.”
“Deducing is not the same as confirming.”
Sliding from the booth, she shouldered her bag. “You weren’t this squeamish when you were sleeping in my bed in high school.”
Judd wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Nothing was happening in your bed in high school.”
“More’s the pity. We need to swing by Whimsy and Wishes on the way. We’ve got just enough time before they close to pick up the twins’ birthday presents.”
“When did you go shopping?”
“I saw them a couple of weeks ago and called this afternoon. Sabrina said they were still in stock, so I bought two over the phone and had them wrapped.”
He opened the front door of the cruiser for her. “In this middle of all this, you remembered to get something for my brothers?”
“They’re family. Besides, if I hadn’t bailed on our original shopping trip, this would’ve been done by now. I know you. You’ve been way too caught up in the investigation to even think about it.”
Judd had been planning on offering apologies and find time to get something by the weekend when the bigger, non-family party was happening. He circled around and slid behind the wheel. “They threatened to kick my ass, you know. If I didn’t fix things with you.”
Autumn’s face went soft. “Awww.”
“That makes you gushy?”
“They love me. And they know I love you.”
“You told them?” He didn’t know how he felt about her discussing them with Leo and Eli.
“Didn’t have to. They’ve got eyes. The only one surprised by that kiss yesterday was you.”
“It was a helluva kiss.” He clasped her hand and brought it to his lips. “For the record, I’ve never been so happy to admit I was wrong.”
She tipped her head against his shoulder. “Do you feel weird flippin
g this switch between us?”
He considered the question. She’d always been the center of his world. The only thing that really changed was the physical benefits and the freedom of being honest with himself—and everyone else—about how he felt. “Not a bit.”
She straightened as his phone started ringing, and Judd immediately regretted the loss of her touch.
“Hamilton.”
“Hey, it’s Cam Crawford. Got a minute to talk about this requisition you submitted?”
City Council. Shit. Judd put the car back into park. “I’ll make one.”
“Do you really want to try to push this through right now?” Cam asked. “I mean, with the totaled cruiser, that’s far and away above the department’s budget.”
Judd felt a headache set up behind his eyes. “The cruiser was an unfortunate accident and replacing it is a necessity. So is this training seminar in Jackson.”
“Are you sure it’s a good time?”
The timing was crap with the ongoing investigation, but he had hope that things would be wrapped up by the time the seminar rolled around in two weeks. “I submitted the requisition before the car. The fact is, the course isn’t being offered again for six months,” Judd said.
“But you’re proposing sending nearly everyone in the department. What about covering the shifts for that day?”
“Sheriff Riggs has already agreed to lend a few of his reserve officers to help bridge the gap in coverage for both days. Look, Cam, I know it’s shit timing, but the bottom line is, my people need this training.”
The city councilman, who’d been a couple years behind Judd in school, sighed. “All right. I’ll push it through.”
Judd made his requisite statements of appreciation and hung up, resisting the urge to drop his head to the steering wheel.
“I knew you were going to hate the administrative crap,” Autumn said, reaching over to rub at the tension in his neck.
“I appreciate you not hitting me over the head with that when I got the job. But, God, I despise it.”
“Cake will make it better,” she said. “So what happened to the cruiser?”
By the time they made it to his parent’s house, the scents of grilling meat wafted from the backyard. Judd’s stomach rumbled, reminding him he hadn’t had time for more than half a sandwich at lunch. They let themselves in without knocking, weaving through the house and out to the back patio.
As soon as his mother saw Autumn, she shot to her feet. “Oh, thank God. After last night, I was worried you wouldn’t come. And I didn’t know where you were staying or—”
Autumn winced and crossed over to hug her. “I’m sorry I worried you. I should’ve called to let you know.”
Over her shoulder, Patty looked to Judd, a question in her eyes. He was aware of his dad and brothers giving him The Eye.
“Autumn’s not moving out and she’s not leaving Wishful,” he announced. Short and to the point. That would work, right?
His mother pulled back to look at Autumn. “You’re not?”
Autumn beamed. “I am not.”
“Really?”
“Really really. Promise.”
Patty shot her hands into the air. “Halleluia! Finally.” She grabbed Autumn and led her into a brief little dance. “When do I get to hit number seven on my speed dial?”
Autumn threw back her head and laughed. Her hair was alight in the setting sun and her eyes sparkled with the most unadulterated joy he’d ever seen in her. God, she was beautiful. And she was finally his.
He really had been an idiot.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. Judd’s still catching up.”
“Who is number seven on your speed dial and what am I catching up on?”
Autumn waltzed over and brushed a quick kiss over his lips. “Don’t worry about it.”
Oh, like that didn’t make his curiosity ten times greater?
His brothers strode over and simultaneously thumped him on either shoulder.
“What was that for? I fixed it.”
“Took you long enough,” Leo said.
“Moron,” Eli muttered.
Judd rolled his eyes and grabbed them both in a headlock, one under each arm. “Happy birthday, dweebs.”
He grunted as they thumped him in the ribs, struggling to escape, but he was still bigger and better trained.
“Boys,” his father’s warning tone rang out, and they all straightened.
“Dude, is that a bite mark on your neck?” Eli asked.
Autumn’s head whipped around, her eyes wide, cheeks going pink. “I did not—”
Eli laughed. “Made you look.”
She goosed him in the ribs. “You are an ass, little brother.”
“You love me.”
“I do. And because it’s your birthday, I won’t even steal your cake for that remark.”
“Ribs are ready,” Patty announced.
More teasing and shuffling ensued. Autumn trailed his mom into the house, helping carry a tray. As everyone trooped inside after the food, Judd caught sight of his mother’s phone on the picnic table. With a glance after his family, he snatched it up and pulled up her contacts. Swiping over to favorites, he scanned down to the seventh number.
Reverend Paul Prescott.
His mother had the preacher on speed dial?
Judd let the implications of that sink in. Then he texted himself the contact. They’d see who needed to catch up.
Chapter 13
Darcy played the flashlight over the file. Every single girl on this list had withdrawn from the university. Every one was completely on her own. No one to report her when she went missing. Skimming further down the list, Darcy saw a half dozen new names.
Prospective targets?
She snapped a picture with her phone. As soon as she got out of here, she’d get Cooper to run a check on all of them. If she was right, this woman was feeding a list of easy prey to the human trafficking ring, sentencing these girls to prostitution or slavery. Or worse.
A hand curved over Autumn’s shoulder. She yelped and tugged out her earbuds to find Judd trying not to laugh.
“Sorry. I guess you didn’t hear me. Liam and Riley are here.”
“Already?” She automatically hit save on the file.
“It’s 6:30.”
“Shut up. It is not.” But the clock on her laptop confirmed it. “Crap, I’m not even ready.” She shot out of the straight-backed chair she’d set in front of a table in the guest room and nearly hit the floor because her legs had gone to sleep.
Judd caught and steadied her. “Slow down. It’s fine. We need to get you a proper desk and a chair that won’t murder your back.”
Autumn leaned into him as he rubbed the feeling back into her lower extremities, lingering perhaps longer than necessary on the curve of her butt. “Maybe we can run to Lawley this weekend and see what we can find.”
“Sounds like a plan. The book’s going well, I take it?”
“I am in the zone! Twenty-five thousand words in a week. As soon as I stopped fighting the inevitable that Darcy ends up with Cooper, it just started flowing. It’s practically writing itself. They just got a huge break in the case, finding the woman in the Student Affairs office who’s on Manigault’s payroll.” Pulling away before she forgot about their dinner guests, she raced next door to their bedroom. “Five minutes!”
Their bedroom. Funny how quickly it’d become that.
Judd followed, propping himself in the doorway to the closet as she quickly stripped off clothes.
“You should go keep Liam and Riley entertained.”
“They can entertain themselves, and why would I deprive myself of getting to see you naked?”
“I’m not naked.”
“You could be.” The rumbling promise in his voice seemed to reach out and stroke her.
Autumn froze, her mind trapped by vivid images of exactly what he could do to her in this closet.
His hands skated over the curve of her hips
, pulling her closer so he could lay a trail of kisses along her throat. “We haven’t gotten to the closet yet.”
“Mmm. Don’t distract me again.”
“But I like distracting you.” He’d done it often, keeping that promise to make up for lost time. After so many years of waiting, it seemed they were both insatiable.
But she was not going to give in and have a quickie, while their friends were downstairs. She shoved him back. “Out. I’m going to finish getting ready. Alone.”
Judd lifted his hands and grinned, entirely unrepentant. “I’m going. I’m going.” He backed out of the closet. “But you could be coming.”
She threw a shoe at his head and missed. Laughing, he shut the bedroom door.
God. Now she’d be thinking about this closet all through dinner. Which was entirely his evil plan. He’d have to pay for that later. But she was grinning herself as she changed clothes. She loved this playful side of him. He’d been so serious, so controlled for so many years, she’d almost forgotten the devilish streak. Not that he’d relinquished an iota of that staunch control, but as she was reaping the benefits on an entirely different level, she was hardly in a position to complain.
Swiping on a quick coat of mascara, she called her makeup done and headed downstairs.
“There she is!” Riley immediately caught her up in a hug. “I’ve missed you.”
“Sorry I haven’t made it by. Things have been kind of crazy lately.” Between the investigation and Judd, she’d had little freedom or time to herself.
Riley glanced outside to where the guys were hauling a picnic table down by the water’s edge. “If you didn’t hole up with Judd, I’d be questioning your sanity right now.”
“I think he’s made it his personal mission to outdo Cooper and reenact every love scene I’ve written,” Autumn admitted, her cheeks heating to fire engine red.
“Be still my beating heart,” Riley sighed. “So, how’s it going? Is it weird? Going from friends to lovers?”
“No. No, not at all. It’s good.” The whole transition had, in fact, been almost seamless, and that made her nervous.
Riley just arched a brow. “You’re finally with the guy you’ve been in love with your whole life, and all you’ve got is ‘good’?”
