Page 253 of His Virgin Romance Series

“Now that the weak links are gone, maybe we can re-establish some laws around this town. If the gangs here expect to be left alone, then they’ll have to follow the fucking law and behave themselves.”

I smiled at the less than subtle warning in the sheriff’s tone. For all my mistrust of the police force, I had started to like this man. He was blunt and rough around the edges, and he didn’t inspire a lot of trust from the start, but he had the sort of personality that grew on you.

“In any case,” the sheriff continued. “With Ghost gone, the men loyal to him who were involved in Abby’s abduction have been put away. Some have managed to get out of town, and the rest are still loyal to Godwin. Once he’s gone, there’s not going to be much of a club left.”

“There’s always someone ready to step into the leader’s shoes,” I pointed out.

“As long as they abide by my rules, we won’t have a problem.”

I nodded. “Understood.”

“How is Abby?” the sheriff asked, taking me by surprise.

Apparently, she had made an impression when she had come in for questioning. Even though I had come with her, I had been forced to sit outside for almost two hours while she spoke to the cops.

“She’s… holding up,” I said. “She told me what happened once, and now she says she doesn’t want to talk about it again.”

“She feels guilty,” the sheriff said. “For killing him.”

I gritted my teeth together. “I don’t know why,” I said. “He had it coming. He would have raped and murdered her if she hadn’t killed him first.”

“You forget she’s not like you,” the sheriff told me. “This is not her life. And sometimes when you’ve lived this way for long enough, you forget that it should be a hard thing to take another man’s life… whether or not he deserves it.”

I knew he was right, and I understood that Abby was processing through this in her own way. But sometimes I felt helpless, and that made me impatient.

“I came here to thank you,” I said awkwardly. “For your help.”

“I didn’t do it as a favor to you,” the sheriff told me. “I did it because there was an innocent civilian who had got caught up in your mess. I questioned some of your boys too.”

“I’m aware.”

“I found nothing concrete enough to hold any of them,” the sheriff told me. “But if I do, nothing will stop me from bringing them in.”

I nodded. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”

He looked at me calmly for a second, and then he stretched out his hand to me. “We can work together, Ryder,” he said. “We can co-exist peacefully.”

“I agree,” I nodded, shaking his hand.

I left the station moments later and drove back to the clubhouse. The boys were scattered around the place, but I wasn’t interested in talking to any of them. I just wanted to get upstairs and check on Abby, but Devon cornered me just before I was about to go upstairs.

“Hey, I wanted to speak to you about something,” Devon said.

Sighing inwardly, I turned to him. “What about?”

“You want to sit down first?” he asked, noticing how impatient I was.

I suppressed my frustration and sat down in the living room. Red and Bones left the room surreptitiously, giving us a little privacy, and I knew they suspected what Devon wanted to talk to me about.

“So… about Abby?”

“What about Abby?” I asked, hating this conversation already.

“I found this little town in Maine—”

“What?” I interrupted harshly.

“What?” Devon asked, in confusion.

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