Page 3 of Home Town Knight

Oh boy.

I took another sip of green tea, reminding myself of my early bedtime.

“So you came to Colorado for the snowboarding?” I asked Dean, who grinned as he shook up the Mai Tais.

“More or less. I hop around in the winters. Sometimes Park City or Jackson Hole, then back to Vail or Monarch. But my season came to a crashing halt in January when I broke my ankle. Figured I’d hang around closer to Tex’s neck of the woods. And this hotel was hiring a bartender.”

“I told you to apply to Last Refuge Tavern,” Tex grumbled. “They would’ve hired you in a second.”

“Last Refuge?” I asked. “I have a reservation there to stay in one of their cabins. I was supposed to be there tonight, but I got held up by the weather. I thought it would be safer to stop here for the night. Last Refuge is so beautiful online. Perched on that mountainside?”

Tex pointed at me. “See, she has good taste.”

“She does. Which is why she beat you to that last special.” Dean winked at me, but it was more friendly than flirty. He poured the contents of his shaker into a couple of glasses, garnishing them with maraschino cherries and lime wedges.

“First time in Hart County?” Tex asked.

“It is.”

“What do you think of it so far?” He had asked with a small measure of pride in his tone, as if my answer would reflect on him.

“No complaints yet.”

“If you’re headed into Hartley tomorrow, you should stop by Jessi’s Diner. Same ownership as the Last Refuge Inn & Tavern. Great food.”

“I just might do that, thanks.”

“Traveling for business? Or is this a vacation?”

I stirred polenta around my plate. Usually, I was the one on the other side of the questions. But I hesitated to say I was a reporter. He’d want to know why I was here, what I was investigating.

As Tex had noted before, this was a big county. But itwasn’t populous. Only around twelve thousand permanent residents, according to my research. It was likely that every single one of them knew, or knew of, Sheriff Owen Douglas.

I was the outsider. I didn’t know much about the sheriff, and that alone irked me. Despite being quoted in plenty of articles and press releases, he had zero social media presence. His office had a website and a Facebook page, sure. But Sheriff Douglas himself seemed to prefer staying under the radar. I hadn’t been able to find a single photo of him online. How was that even possible? Not much to be found about his background either. He’d only been sheriff for a couple of years, and I knew he was on the younger side. Still, I assumed he was a bully with a permanent sneer who cared more about protecting his cronies than the public. My source had shown me evidence of a public official on the take. Exactly what I intended to investigate.

Starting tomorrow. Tonight, I was off the clock.

I had been quiet for way too long, and he said, “You don’t have to answer that. I’m interrupting your dinner. I’ll let you enjoy it.” With a polite smile, he started to turn away.

“No, it’s all right. Just got lost in my thoughts about work. But I’mnotworking tonight, and that’s what I’d rather focus on.”

“Same here.” His smile went lopsided and dazzling. Andwow, it hit me right in the chest. I resisted the urge to rub away the tightness at my breastbone.

Suddenly, shouts and the crash of breaking glass erupted behind us.

I jumped up from my barstool, only to find two large men in camo barreling straight into me.

CHAPTER TWO

Owen

This night had takenseveral turns already. One moment, I was smiling at the pretty blond beside me. And the next, a brawl had broken out behind us.

Without even looking, I knew it was the table of troublemakers in the corner. Those guys had already been pretty far gone when I’d shown up. My buddy Dean hadn’t cut them off fast enough.

Not the kind of shit I wanted to deal with on a night off.

At the sound of breaking glass, I glanced back to find two burly men grappling with one another. They could’ve been brothers for their similar build and clothing choices. One had his hands at the other guy’s throat. They’d already knocked aside a table and some chairs, their trajectory carrying them in my direction.

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