Last Stand Sheriff Read online

  Saying it out loud created the same shock she’d felt the first time her father had told her about the eldest Nash sibling running for sheriff. When he’d won, well, that had been a much stronger shock.

  The boy wilder than the horses her father used to tame had become the man put in charge of policing the entire county.

  “Don’t worry, you’re not the only one surprised by the news,” he said. “Though I am impressed at your reaction. Last time we saw each other you were more on the reserved side.”

  Remi couldn’t help but laugh at that.

  “I was a mouse,” she exclaimed. “It took college for me to open up and see the virtue of speaking my mind. Something I assume you can relate to.”

  It was Declan’s turn to laugh.

  “Being the sheriff has shown me the value of holding your cards close to your chest.”

  Remi leaned back to mirror his stance.

  “Well, it looks like we might have switched personalities since we last saw each other.”

  Even though she said it, Remi didn’t believe it. People couldn’t change their stripes. Not when it came to someone as wild and bold as Declan.

  The waitress appeared at their table, took Remi’s order and was kind enough to give her a hand towel to dab off the excess water. Declan was polite enough to keep his eyes north of her potentially see-through shirt. Sure, he’d been wild when they were younger, but his mama had still raised him right when it came to respecting women.

  “So what brings you to this diner?” Remi got around to asking. She looked at the folder beneath his hand. “Is it work related?”

  Declan took the folder and slid it beneath his cowboy hat.

  “I was actually on my way to one of my deputy’s rental cabins for a long weekend.” He pointed out the window. The rain had, of course, lessened a minute or two after she’d entered the diner. “You see that—”

  “You mean Fiona?” she finished. Like the cowboy hat, Declan had had that truck for years and years. She’d recognize it anywhere and probably would have earlier had it not been raining so hard when she’d pulled up.

  Declan smirked.

  “Yeah. Fiona.” He sighed. “She finally decided to have a fit. I was going to call my roadside assistance when the rain died down since, well, I don’t know much about cars.”

  “Except stealing them from Rodney Becker’s garage to prove you were smarter than him,” she added.

  Declan lowered his voice but there was humor in it.

  “Listen here, Huds, you promised you’d take that one to the grave.”

  The way Declan said the nickname he’d used for her when they were in high school, all rumbling baritone, made some of the heat at seeing him swirl around again. She held up her hands in surrender.

  “I keep my promises. But, may I point out, you’re not in Overlook right now. In fact, you’re not even in Wildman County.”

  He shrugged.

  “You can’t be too careful about these things. You know how powerful talk in town can be. One slipup and that’s all we’ll hear about for years.”

  He said it in a joking way, but she heard the resentment deep in his words.

  Remi was an Overlook native. Her parents had been born and raised in town, and she and her brothers had been born and raised there, too. It was impossible to keep people from talking in a small town, but when it came to the Nashes it was an entirely different ball game.

  After what had happened to the triplets, the family had been become famous. A horrible fame that, as far as she knew, hadn’t gone away despite the years that had passed.

  Remi’s coffee showed up at just the right time, and the two of them spent the next half hour talking about the people they’d gone to school with, old friends and annoyances, and what had been going on with their respective families. They hit all the social cues that were expected of a conversation between old acquaintances.

  He was sorry to hear about her parents’ divorce, and she was happy to hear about his siblings’ marriages and kids.

  He could barely talk around his laughter about Clay Reynolds being arrested for public intoxication after his girlfriend bought him a fake lottery ticket, and she admitted, with much shame, that she’d dated Matthew Shaker for a year after running into him on campus.

  He seemed interested in what her stepfather, Dave, did for a living, and she genuinely was excited that Claire’s Café was expanding into the shop next door due to its popularity.

  It wasn’t until he excused himself to call about Fiona that Remi realized she didn’t want the conversation to end just yet.

  So when he said that a local mechanic couldn’t look at his truck for a few days and would tow it back to Overlook instead, she decided she could take an hour detour back to town.

  As long as he’d be with her.

  “I don’t want to inconvenience you,” he said at her offer of driving him back. She waved off his concern.

  “You’re the one who’s going to listen to me talk about my work dilemma all the way there,” she said. “May I remind you that I’m an accountant so, honestly, you might just want to ride with the tow truck driver.”

  Declan smirked.

  Hot dog, what a sight.

  “I’m always being asked about my job, I’d love to listen to someone else’s for a change.”

  They paid their bill, made arrangements for the tow truck and then headed back to the town they’d both had a mind to leave that morning.

  Then the rain went from crummy to bad to worse. It was only when they were between Kilwin and Overlook that they admitted defeat and pulled into another parking lot.

  This time it was for a surprisingly nice motel.

  “Fun fact,” Declan said, pointing in the direction of the vacancy sign. “My sister-in-law is good friends with the woman who owns this place.”

  “Then I bet you could get us a good deal on a room, huh?”

  Remi had meant it as a joke.

  Yet, when she looked at Declan, his cowboy hat on his head and a smirk on his lips, she wasn’t quite sure of her own intentions.

  She’d always wondered how a kiss between them would feel.

  When Declan’s eyes moved down to her lips, she had a suspicion he was just as curious.

  Chapter Two

  A month later and Declan’s patience was spread so thin it was damn near transparent.

  “Cooper, you called me out here, not the other way around,” he reminded the always-a-little-left-of-the-law young man. “I have a press conference in a few hours that I need to prep for. I don’t have time to just be shooting the breeze.”

  They were outside the local hardware store, standing in the parking lot between Declan’s truck and Cooper’s little sports car. Declan was wearing his uniform and had his sheriff’s badge hanging on his belt. The black Stetson on his head had just been cleaned. Cooper had on a well-worn Nirvana graphic tee, hole-ridden jeans and an expression that said he needed some prodding to get to talking.

  “Come on, Coop,” he added. “I’m not a mind reader over here.”

  The man, twenty-two, cut his eyes to the lot around them and sucked on his teeth a second. Then he got to the point.

  “Okay, well, don’t get your panties all in a twist, but I’ve heard a rumor that I don’t think you’ve heard yet.” He shrugged. “Since you helped me out of that dumb warrant last year I figured telling you about it would be a good way to say we’re even.”

  Declan cocked his head to the side, instantly curious. There weren’t many rumors that didn’t make it to every pair of ears in Overlook. Considering Cooper lived in town, Declan couldn’t imagine he hadn’t already heard it, too.

  A day without talk about the Nash family, especially over everything that had happened in the last few years, was rare.

  “I’m listening.”

 
Cooper stood up straight, no longer leaning against his car, and dropped his voice a little. Declan couldn’t help but angle forward.

  “You know the Waypoint, right?”

  Declan nodded. It was a bar in the city of Kilwin, twenty minutes from Overlook. The clientele had been mostly law enforcement back in the day. Now it catered to the crowd in the newly erected business plaza across the block from it. A family friend who was a detective with the Kilwin Police Department had said the new vibe was too modern and trendy for him. Declan hadn’t been there in months.

  “Well, for the last month or so there’s been a lot of talk about what happened to your family. You know, with the, well you know.” Declan nodded again. There was always some kind of talk, even in Kilwin, about the triplets’ abduction, despite it having taken place decades ago. That wasn’t anything new.

  What Cooper said next was.

  “Some guy keeps talking about a note in the wall at the cabin and everyone who knows the story keeps telling him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But he just keeps talking about that darn note in the wall, preaching it like it’s gospel. It’s probably nothing but I thought I’d let you know.”

  “A note in the wall,” Declan repeated, still not sold.

  Cooper shrugged.

  “He said it’s in the hallway and hidden real good. Said it took the law a while to find it, but I didn’t remember hearing that.”

  There had never been a note found in a wall or otherwise at the cabin where the triplets had been held in the basement apartment. Considering it had been swarmed with law enforcement for months, and revisited by his father for years, Declan was sure he would have known about any note that had been found.

  “It sounds like you were listening to a drunk guy wanting attention,” Declan said.

  Cooper shrugged again.

  “Listen, if it had been Piper or that Grant guy who are always trying to rope you into their pyramid schemes, I wouldn’t have said anything,” he said in defense. “But this guy only ever had one beer in front of him, and it was mostly full. And his suit was so high-end he just kind of seemed to have his crap more together, you know?”

  Declan had spent his career in law enforcement learning how to perfect his facial expressions and body language. How to control it so it didn’t betray how he was really feeling. In that moment it took all his training to keep his face impassive and his body from visibly tensing.

  “That bar has a lot of men in suits, though,” Declan said, playing the devil’s advocate, careful not to get ahead of himself. “I’m sure more than one of them has their crap together.”

  “Not like this guy. This dude looked like he belonged on a magazine cover. He looked way out of place there.”

  Declan’s phone started to vibrate. He pulled it out to see a text from his chief deputy, Mayne Cussler. They needed to prep for the press conference.

  He sighed.

  “I have to get going,” he said. Then, with a little more politeness he addressed the young man directly. “Thanks for the info. I do appreciate the effort.”

  Cooper nodded with a smile.

  “Just trying to stay in the sheriff’s good graces!”

  “I thought you were trying to repay a debt?”

  “Can’t I do both?”

  He laughed and got into his car. Declan, despite the text, hung back as Cooper disappeared down the road.

  A note in the wall.

  A man in a bar.

  A man in a fancy suit.

  The last two Declan had run into over the past few years. In fact, a man in a bar had been a detail in the chaos that all three of his siblings had gone through in their personal lives recently.

  There had always been a man in a bar who had given bad ideas to bad people.

  A man in a fancy suit? They’d run into a few of them, too. Most recently, a man in a high-end suit had gotten tangled up in a dangerous situation with Desmond and his then girlfriend, now wife, Riley. One who actually bore the same scar that the triplets’ abductor had had. Though he wasn’t the man who had done it, that had been the last new lead they’d had in years.

  But a note in the wall of the cabin where they were held?

  That was a new one.

  And coupled with a man in a suit at a bar?

  That was too enticing not to investigate.

  Declan put his truck into Drive and moved out onto the road, pointing in the direction that would lead him to that cabin. His phone started to vibrate and he was ready to stall, when he saw the caller ID wasn’t one he recognized.

  “Nash, here,” he answered.

  “Hey, Declan, it’s me.”

  That voice gave him a split reaction.

  Confusion and primal excitement.

  Remi Hudson.

  He hadn’t seen her since she’d dropped him off at the ranch.

  The day after they’d stopped at the motel.

  “Well, hey there, Huds. How’s it going?”

  Hesitation, silent and as loud as could be, was his answer. Declan moved the phone away from his face to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.

  It hadn’t.

  Remi finally responded.

  “I’m, uh, actually in town and was wondering if we could get together?”

  She sounded different. Distracted.

  It made his gut go on high alert.

  “Yeah, sure. I have a press conference in two hours. Can it wait until after then?”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s fine. Can you just call me back when you’re ready? I’ll be at my dad’s but would prefer to meet up somewhere else.”

  That didn’t surprise Declan. During their last meeting he’d gotten the impression that she was having some issues with her father, Gale, and her brothers. He hadn’t pried and he still wouldn’t when they met up.

  “How about I call you when I’m done and we can meet at my house?”

  “Okay, great. Yeah, okay. Well, I guess I’ll talk to you later.”

  Remi ended the call before Declan could say another word.

  For the next few minutes he wondered why she sounded so off, but when he turned onto the road that eventually led to the cabin, all thoughts flew back to the past.

  Declan tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

  Being haunted by the past was never a good feeling.

  * * *

  REMI FELT LIKE she was about to vibrate out of her skin with nerves. Which wasn’t like her at all. Not anymore. Not since she’d grown up.

  Yet, there she was, driving up Winding Road toward the Nash Family Ranch that sat at its end while the butterflies in her stomach hitched a ride for free.

  It was only December 10, but it felt like a lifetime had passed since she’d last been here dropping Declan off at his house. She’d been lucky then to avoid his family all while she and the sheriff had been able to avoid talking about what they’d done, several times, at the motel. That had been fine by Remi.

  She’d always wondered what it was like to kiss Declan outside of a teenage dare and she had found out. Along with a few other exciting things.

  Declan hadn’t seemed put out in the slightest at their time together, or that it had to end.

  They had separate, nonintersecting lives. The only reason they’d run into each other in the first place at the diner had been a fluke. Nothing more, nothing less.

  Sure, the entire ride back to her home in Nashville had been filled with thoughts of the man. She’d compared the quiet, reflective Declan to the wild child she’d grown up with. She had tried to recall every piece of gossip about his life since she’d moved away after graduation, and she’d kept thinking about the move that had made her see fireworks. Remi would also be lying if she didn’t admit thinking about Declan had become a routine thing. Maybe not every second of every day, but occasionally she
’d found that her mind had wandered right to a cowboy with a gruff exterior and the softest lips she ever did kiss.

  Then it had happened.

  The heat. And not the good kind of heat. The kind that made her feel sick and worried that she was somehow dying from some rare disease. One second she was fine with a capital F. The next she was opening her windows and sticking her head out into the cold night air.

  When it happened two more times over a few days, Remi had done the only sensible thing.

  She’d googled.

  Her anxiety had gone through the roof as sicknesses she was sure she suffered from filled her computer screen. It just about soared when one answer in particular kept recurring.

  That’s when she became a mathematician. One who tore through the house looking for her phone and its calendar app. When the numbers didn’t match up, she ran them again.

  Then she’d given herself a pep talk about the stress of the huge life-changing decision she’d just made.

  It was stress.

  That was it.

  That was all.

  “Stress my butt,” Remi told the inside of her car now as she passed under the ranch’s entrance sign with a snort. Remi might have become a woman ready to say what was on her mind, but that didn’t mean she was always eloquent about it.

  The Nash Family Ranch had several things in common with the Hudson Heartland, and Remi never got tired of admiring both.

  The Nashes owned several hundred acres of the most beautiful fields, stretches of forest, natural bodies of water, as well as picturesque farmhouses, barns and a stable. In the distance the rise and fall of mountains could be admired. From Hudson Heartland those mountains were closer. Remi and her brothers had spent many a hiking trip out on them.

  The main difference between the ranches was the number of homes on the properties. On their property there were only two. The biggest, a four-thousand-square-foot house was where she’d grown up and where her father and brothers lived now. On the other side of the ranch stood the second home, which belonged to Jerri and Margot Heath. In a role reversal that had been quite the talk of Overlook when it had first happened, Margot was the stable master while her husband kept the main house clean and the useless-with-cooking Hudson brood fed. Their son, around Remi’s age, hadn’t felt comfortable with the arrangement as he’d gotten older. The moment he’d turned eighteen he’d moved out west.