Chapter Three – Avery

“Sheriff.” Avery stared down Brad, who had brought backup with him. She was only vaguely aware of the guy behind the sheriff, although he seemed very aware of her. If he were a dog, his tongue would be hanging out.

Brad broke eye contact with her, and turned his attention to the man behind him. “Are you OK, Jacob?”

“I am.” Jacob took in a deep breath, forcing the air into his lungs as if he’d been thumped in the stomach and was winded.

“Do you want to wait outside?” Brad turned around and spoke to Jacob. Avery couldn’t hear what was being said, but Jacob nodded, and Brad patted him on the shoulder and chuckled.

“Thanks for the sympathy, but I’ll stay,” Jacob said sarcastically, making Avery frown. Were they talking about her?

“You realize this all got a whole lot more complicated?” Brad said and then turned back to Avery.

“Everything OK?” Avery asked with a smile. She was not going to force them into seeing her as anything other than a professional. Which she was. Although she was not exactly here on police business.

“Yeah, Jacob just needs a moment.” Brad nodded, and then seemed to remember why he was here. “Avery, could I speak to you?”

“What can I help you with, Sheriff?” Avery took the backpack she had chosen and walked over to the counter, where she placed it next to the other items she needed for her trek. With or without backup she was going to track her suspects. Just track them. If she couldn’t confront them, she would have to take photographs, and hand them over to Lonnie. He might be able to identify the supplier.

“Maybe we should talk privately.” Brad nodded to the guy who owned the store. “Mike, how you doing?”

“Good, thanks, Brad. You?” Mike began scanning her goods, his attention on his job, trying to pretend he wasn’t listening to police business. Even though he was.

“I’ll just be a couple of minutes and then we can talk all you want.” She handed over her credit card. Brad was right, this was no place to talk. For all Avery knew, Mike might be in on the drug deal. Or at least be friends with Manny Maxwell and Joe Hislop. She didn’t want them tipped off.

Paranoia came with the job. At least where she came from. Was it different here in Bear Creek?

“OK, we’ll wait outside.” Brad hesitated, and lowered his voice so Mike couldn’t hear. “If you run, I will track you down.”

“And what would be the charge?” Avery shot back.

“I’ll think of something.” Brad sighed heavily and looked back to Jacob, who was watching them intently from the doorway. “Look, I know what you intend to do, and I want to help make that happen.”

Avery looked him square in the eyes and nodded again. “You have my word, I’ll be out front as soon as I’ve paid for these.” She nodded toward Jacob. “Your friend looks sick. Is he OK?”

“Yes, he’ll be just fine. He’s had a shock, that’s all.” Brad smiled again and walked toward his friend, escorting him out of the store.

“Here we go.” Mike handed Avery her receipt and credit card, studying her closely. “You plan to go up into the mountain?”

“What makes you ask?” Avery put her card and receipt in her purse and collected her goods.

Mike pointed at her purchases. “It’s not rocket science.”

“I guess not, sorry.”

“I can recommend a guide if you are. Those mountains are not for the inexperienced.” Mike sounded sincere, and she switched her full attention back to him.

“I may take you up on your recommendation. First I need to speak to the sheriff, and the guy who’s with him.” She turned to leave. “You know who he is, the other guy?”

“Sure, he’s the local ranger, Jacob Malvern.” Mike leaned on the counter, a little too close for comfort. Then he inhaled deeply. “Have you been a naughty girl?”

Avery’s skin crawled at his words: they were somehow dirty, making her want to go and take a hot shower. Instead, she slapped her hand down hard on the counter, making Mike jump backward. “Are you harassing me?”

“Nope.” He held his hands up in defense. “Just trying to help ya out.”

“I appreciate that. But I don’t appreciate the attitude.” Avery glared at Mike until he lowered his eyes and pretended to be busy with inventory. “Have a good day, Mike.”

“You too.” His tone didn’t exactly convey his words, but she didn’t care. However, his attitude had placed her in a predicament. There was no way she was going to take him up on his offer of a guide. No way at all. She knew how to handle herself, and was trained in unarmed defense. But if she were outnumbered…

“Shall we go across the street and grab a coffee?” Brad asked as soon as her feet hit the sidewalk.

“Not to your office?” Avery asked, hitching her new pack on her shoulder. It felt too new, it needed breaking in, and she wished she’d come prepared, but when she got a lead on her suspects, she hadn’t expected to end up climbing a mountain in her near future.

“Nope, I think neutral territory would be best.” Brad waited for her to agree before crossing the street, and then he turned left and headed toward a coffee shop with tables outside.

“You’re the local ranger,” Avery said to Jacob, who looked a little pale, but no longer looked as if he were about to puke.

“I am. Jacob Malvern.” He nodded, his eyes fixed on her. What was it with this town, were they all perverts? “Brad said you are on the trail of a couple of drug dealers.”

“Did he?” So the sheriff had been spilling her story all over town. Great.

“Yes. He thinks you’re going to go after them.” They reached the coffee shop, Brad had already gone inside, and Avery was about to follow, when she turned to look back at Mike’s store. As she did, one of the display stands in the window rattled as if it had been shoved. The guy was watching her. Or watching the sheriff. Whichever it was, it made her uneasy.

“I am.” She walked into the coffee shop, which was dim compared to the bright sunshine outside. After a second, her eyes adjusted, and she walked over to Brad, who was ordering coffee.

“What can I get you?” Brad asked. He’d already ordered for himself and Jacob, which told her these two knew each other well.

“Americano, black.” She pulled her wallet out of her pocket. Avery was not a purse-carrying kind of a gal. She traveled light, and kept her essentials where they could not get lost.

“I’ll pay,” Brad insisted.

“I don’t want it to look as if the local sheriff is bribing me.” She kept her tone light, and luckily Brad took it for what it was, another icebreaker. Jacob smiled too, but he still looked a little out of it. Pity, he was one hell of a guy, the kind she would like to have on her side if she got into a tight spot on the mountain. Tall, dark, and handsome, those traits did not detract from his strong hands and lithe movements. This guy was fit, and she bet he could take care of himself.

And her. If she needed looking after, which was not on her agenda. Avery hated relying on other people, particularly men. Over at Holloway County she’d had to fight to be seen as one of the boys. Pity, she had likely blown it over helping Lonnie.

Not the time to think about the past. She could deal with that when her vacation was over. Helping her dad’s old partner on the force was the right thing to do. Whatever the cost.

Avery had known Lonnie since forever. She’d grown up with him sitting across the dinner table from her father. With no family of his own, Avery’s family had adopted him, and Lonnie had repaid them by rescuing her father when he got trapped inside a derelict building that collapsed. Her dad had never worked again. Medically discharged with nerve damage in his spine, it was Lonnie who had taken Avery under his wing when she joined the police force as a raw recruit.

To Avery, chasing down this drug ring only repaid a small portion of the huge debt she owed Lonnie.

Pushing her worries to one side, she concentrated on what was immediately before her.

And she did not mean the muscles of the mountain ranger.

“Come on, let’s go find a table,” Jacob said, and ushered her toward the back of the coffee shop.

“Are we hiding?” Avery said uneasily. If Lonnie was right about someone high up in the department being in on this drug ring, or whatever it was, could Brad and Jacob have been coerced into getting rid of her? Was that what was wrong with Jacob earlier, he didn’t want to get his hands dirty?

“Mike seemed to be taking a lot of interest in you. Or us.” Brad set the coffee down on the table. “I’d sure like to know which it is.”

Brad’s concerned attitude made her trust him. And if this was going to work out, she was going to have to trust someone. “I’m new in town, you tell me. After all, you were the one who said Bear Creek was a special place, with none of the problems of other towns.” Avery sipped her too-hot coffee, needing to feel the buzz of caffeine in her brain. It had been an early start, and a long drive, with not enough coffee in between.

“Mike took over the store about a year ago,” Brad began. “That’s about right, isn’t it, Jacob?”

Jacob was staring at her again, but quickly looked at Brad. “About that. He bought it when Lars left Bear Creek to go back home.”

“So you don’t know him well?” Avery asked, recalling his weird behavior; she’d never been sniffed in her life. Not like that, as if she were…dinner. She shuddered.

“No, he’s not come onto my radar,” Brad admitted. “I don’t routinely run background checks on the townsfolk, but I’ll go back and do one as soon as you two leave.”

Avery placed her coffee mug down on the table. “You two? You mean me and the ranger?”

“I do.” Brad nodded, looking at Jacob with some concern, but the ranger seemed to have shaken off whatever had been wrong with him. Maybe he’d had a heavy night drinking, and Brad had gotten him up out of bed to come meet her.

“You spoke to my boss?” Avery wanted to make sure she was definitely not being set up.

“I made enquiries. Turns out you are on vacation.” He let the statement hang in the air, and so did Avery. Brad gave a small smile before continuing. “It just so happens you’ve decided to take that vacation in Bear Creek, and our local ranger has agreed to give you a guided tour of our mountain.”

Avery smiled. “Cute. I like you, Sheriff Brad.”

Brad nodded. “Not what you were thinking when you left my office earlier.”

“No, it was not.” She tilted her head and smiled at him. “I’m nothing if not honest, and so I’ll tell you, I figured I was on my own, that you were so convinced your town was perfect, that you would rather let Manny Maxwell and Joe Hislop go than let Bear Creek be implicated in a drug ring.”

Brad leaned forward, his voice low. “I’m sheriff here, and I vouch for ninety percent of the population in town. Including the kids in the retraining programs. But the other ten percent, those that are new, or visiting? I don’t pry into their lives unless they warrant it.”

“Forgive me, I’m not a small-town girl. Where I come from, most people don’t even talk to their neighbors. Let alone the police.” Avery could like a town like Bear Creek. She could like it a lot. Her eyes slid sideways to Jacob. “Are you going to stare at me the whole time?”

His head jerked around. “Nope. Sorry.”

“I can trust him, can’t I?” Avery asked, jerking her thumb at Jacob.

“With your life.” Brad stood up. “Now, you two kids have fun. Jacob, you have the satellite phone. Call me if you need assistance, and one way or another I’ll get it to you.”

“I understand.” Jacob stood up and faced Brad. “Take care of yourself. I know you’re shorthanded.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I can rustle up a posse if I need one.” Brad sauntered out of the coffee shop, calling a goodbye to the woman behind the counter.

“Small towns, gotta love ’em.” Avery fixed her eyes on Jacob. “So, Ranger, what’s the plan?”

“The plan is you walk out of here, get into your car, and leave town.”

He spoke with a really serious expression, and for a moment Avery thought he was sending her away. “You are telling me to get out of town?”

He nodded. “Do you have a GPS?”

“Sure.”

Jacob pulled a napkin toward him, and dug into his pocket for a pen. “Go here. I’ll meet you there. I want everyone in town who might be watching to think you left alone.”

“You mean Mike?”

Jacob shrugged. “He might just think he has a shot with you. There may be nothing more to it than that. We’re not going to take any chances.”

Avery got up. “I agree.” She slid past Jacob, heading for the door, her blood pumping in her veins. At last she had people on her side. At last she had a shot at clearing Lonnie’s name.