"Hi! Are you a cop?"
Crunch shushed her.
Behind us, two more police cruisers pulled alongside the shoulder. I looked at Crunch and MacKenzie.
Crunch nodded. "I'll step out," he said. "We don't want any trouble, Jed. Not with my daughter sitting right here."
Jed nodded to Crunch. "That's smart."
Crunch stepped out of the driver's side door, and I looked at the two officers approaching the passenger side.
"You send the entire goddamn police force over here, Jed?" I was two seconds away from walking around to the other side of the van and putting my fist in Jed’s face. But I reminded myself of June. And MacKenzie.
Jed smiled. "You'll need to step out of the vehicle too."
"My kid is right here," Crunch said. "Seriously. Have some courtesy."
"There's a female officer, she'll look after MacKenzie."
One of the other officers approached the other side of the vehicle. “What seems to be the problem here, Sheriff Easton?” she asked.
“Driving erratically,” Jed said. “Suspected under the influence. Put your hands on the car, Sir.”
“Screw you, Jed.” But I put my hands on the car. The last thing I needed right now was for anyone to get shot by a trigger-happy small town cop who was pissed off because I was seeing June.
“Well, look what we have here,” Jed said, from behind Crunch, holding up a dime sized bag of white powder.
“You’re going to plant that on him, because June chose me over you? What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked.
“Search the vehicle,” he ordered the other officer. “Possession of an illegal substance, known members of organized crime. Let’s see what else they have on them.”
I stood, unmoving, hands cuffed behind my back, as the other officer rummaged through the glove compartment.
“You’ve got to be kidding me with this bullshit, Jed.”
Jed turned back to look at me as he pushed Crunch toward the cruiser behind us. “I’m more serious than a fucking heart attack, Axe.”
June
God, I just loved days like this. I inhaled deeply, trying to fill my lungs with as much mountain air as possible. Days like this, they just smelled of summertime. Being up here alone, well past the ridge now, brought me right back to being a kid again and riding up here. Riding was one of those things I didn't know I had missed so much until starting back up again. Going up to the ridge that day with Cade had awakened a part of me that I didn't know was dead.
Being with Cade had awakened a part of me I didn't know was dead.
Hearing him say he loved me had awakened that part of me.
I didn't know where things were going with him, or what was going to happen. I didn't know what his plans were with the biker gang, and I didn't ask. Hell, I hadn't even told him I loved him yet. I wasn't sure of it myself. The uncertainty was exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. I was filled to the brim with fear and doubt, but this time I was choosing to not let my fears rule my life.
I was choosing to not be a chickenshit.
I felt free for the first time in years.
When Cade and I finally came up for air this morning, he'd said he wanted to take a drive into town to run an errand. And I'd jumped at the chance to get a ride in when Stan had asked if I wanted to check on the upper pasture for him. When I'd left, Stan and April had ingredients for baking spread out across the entire kitchen and Stan was promising to teach her how to make cinnamon rolls. Which meant that when I got back, there would be enough cinnamon rolls to feed a small army. I was practically salivating now, thinking about it.
All in all, this was a pretty fucking great day.
I rode slow, coming back toward the ridge. The horse had worked up a lather on the way up, and she needed a break. As I came up toward the ridge, I saw smoke rising up over the other side, plumes of grey and black soot against the vivid blue sky.
My heart leapt in my throat. It was probably just a small brush fire or something, that was all.
Axe
"MacKenzie will be fine," Jed said. "She's in the other room, coloring with one of the female deputies. But we need to have a chat."
"Don't say anything, Axe," Crunch said. "If you're arresting us, we'll just take that attorney now." Crunch sat back in the chair, looking like he had seen the inside of an interrogation room so many times that it was old news for him. Of course, this wasn't exactly an interrogation room- it looked like it doubled as a room for office space, since we'd kicked one of the deputies out of it when we came inside. The sheriff's office in West Bend wasn't exactly large enough to warrant much space.
Or to take too fucking seriously.
"No, Jed isn't formally arresting us, are you Jed?" I asked. "This is entirely off the books, isn't it?"
"If we're not being arrested, we can go then, right?" Crunch asked.
"Axe and I need to have a conversation," Jed said, his eyes trained on me.
"Yes," I said. "Let's have a conversation, Jed. You drag us down here, in front of Crunch's four-year-old kid, for what? So you can prove how badass you are, a fucking sheriff in a town with a couple thousand people? Way to flex your muscles. Let's have a fucking conversation."