Page 56 of Valor

Heather yawned delicately behind her hand and her eyelids drooped. She hadn’t taken a break for three hours and they’d both missed lunch. Soon, they’d miss supper too. His shift had officially ended an hour before, but he couldn’t clock out just because of his schedule. He had to make sure Heather had somewhere to go or he’d worry about her all night.

“You ready to call this an evening? We can come back tomorrow and look more.” He glanced at his watch to remind her they’d been there a long time. “You should probably eat, too.”

As if on cue, her stomach rumbled quietly. She immediately covered her belly, and her cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink. “I’m sorry. How embarrassing.” She stood and closed the binder that had taken all her attention since she’d brought it out hours before. “Can I take this with me? I can do more hunting on my computer.”

He nodded, reminded that he still wanted to look at that. “I know this isn’t usually how things are done, but I have a spare room in my house. My dad uses it when he stays with me, but that’s rare. It’s clean and you’d be safe for the night. Tomorrow, we can find a better solution.” He waited to hear her expected resoundingly negative reply. She’d made it clear that her father’s ideas about Allen were shared.

“You want me to stay with you?” Her voice squeaked as her brows plunged at the center.

He shrugged briefly. “I don’t have any other options unless you’d like to stay with Oliver or take your chances at a hotel.” He hadn’t thought about the elderly man who had protected her earlier.

Heather wrinkled her nose. “The hotels are out. Both are doing post-summer cleaning after their busy season. I don’t want to stay with any friends because my car is easy to spot. Oliver is nice, but he told me he walks in his sleep. I’ve seen him outside at night with his shotgun. If he forgot I was supposed to be there, I don’t think he’d hesitate to shoot me. He’d feel awful about it, but accidents happen.”

If that was true, he should talk with Oliver about getting a gun safe. His job was to protect all the citizens, even from themselves. “I’ll deal with that information another day. Why don’t you grab a change of clothes if there’s a drawer in your room that looks untouched? I’ll order a pizza, and we can pick it up on the way out of town. You look exhausted and you’ll need rest to figure out this puzzle.”

She gave a quick nod, agreeing way more readily than he’d expected. “I have nowhere else to go. Thanks for offering. I know you’re uncomfortable with me after what my dad did.”

He laughed as he pointed to the open stairwell to the basement a few feet away. Tucked inside a board that ran along the wall were the signs Ed had used to tarnish Allen’s name during the election. Those signs, the way they were worded, had led him down a long road. One he didn’t want to discuss with anyone, and especially Heather. “Uncomfortable might be an understatement.”

She bit her lip, turning it red, then released it. “If it makes this any easier for you, I don’t know why Dad was so certain you wouldn’t make a good sheriff. This is hard on me because I trust my father implicitly, but you haven’t done anything to make me not trust you today. Honestly, even before today. Not a single person in town has said a negative thing about you since you took office. Clearly, the town didn’t believe him. You were still elected.”

Coming from the beautiful woman who happened to be the daughter of his only enemy, that meant a lot. “Thanks for that.” He held the door open for her and led her out to his car. With his hand on his pistol, he kept an ear out for any sounds and watched for any signs of people. Unlike earlier, cars waited outside nearby homes. People sat near windows, enjoying the last almost warm weather before the winter cold and snow. No one would be able to drive down this block without being seen now.

“There’s safety in numbers,” Heather mumbled. “I hadn’t noticed until Oliver mentioned it, but this block is full of families who work all day or are at school. No one is home until after 3:30.”

Which was why they’d been safe in the house that hadn’t been earlier. There was too much risk someone in the close-knit neighborhood would notice strangers. “If we return here tomorrow, let’s do so after four when everyone is home again,” he said.

She laughed as she headed for her car and pulled out her purse, an overnight bag, and her camera case. “My computer is in my bag. I was doing a shoot over in Deadwood, up at the Mt. Moriah Cemetery.” She yawned again.

He opened her door and reached for his phone, chuckling as he put in his usual pizza order through an app and hit send. He hated cooking, so a bachelor had to do what was necessary to survive. That meant ordering pizza regularly.

He came around the front of his car and slowly took a breath. Heather wouldn’t want to eat pizza every few days like he did. She was probably very healthy, judging by her size and slender figure. Nope, he needed to stop his thoughts from going anywhere near the daughter of the man who hated him and how pretty she was. She was all wrong for him.

After picking up the pizza and heading to the edge of town to the house he’d purchased after leaving his childhood home, indecision roiled his insides. Heather had nowhere else to go. He needed to make sure nothing else happened to her. That didn’t make offering his own home easier.

He set the pizza box down on his table, took off his gun belt and put it in his safe near the front door. Jasper, his retired K9, came up from downstairs and sniffed Heather’s feet.

“Is he going to hurt me?” She held all her belongings high, protecting them from the shepherd.

“Not unless I tell him to, and I won’t.” He grinned at her sudden change in expression from fear to a snort of laughter.

“I guess if you wanted to get back at me, now you know how. I’ve never had a dog and I’m afraid of them. He’s huge.”

“I should’ve warned you.” He hadn’t thought about his dog frightening her. His only thought had been about her need for a safe place to stay. “He’ll help watch and listen for anyone. Then again, no one would ever guess you’re here and my address isn’t public knowledge for a reason.”

He’d purposely rented a PO Box and only used that for his mail. When he’d purchased his house, he’d put his dad’s name first on the deed, so his father’s name would show up if anyone searched for his address on the county tax website. Even an officer needed privacy sometimes.

Heather hesitated, then rested her hand on the dog’s head. “He’s softer than I expected.” She laid her bags down on the sofa and took a deep breath. “I don’t mean to be rude, but can we eat? I’m starving.”

“Absolutely.” He pointed out the bathroom so she could go wash up and he took the time to do his own washing and setting the table in the kitchen. He’d even use real plates instead of paper since he had a guest. Hopefully, tonight wouldn’t be one of the nights his dad showed up looking for a place to crash unexpectedly.

Heather came out and tentatively looked at the table. He realized she didn’t know which seat to take and didn’t want to sit in his. “Any chair is fine. I don’t mind.” He opened the box of pizza. Normally, he’d opt for something covered in meat, but he’d chosen pepperoni and green peppers instead, thinking she might like at least some vegetables. “Hope I ordered okay.”

Heather laughed. The first full laugh he’d heard from her. “It’s great. Dad and I usually order pepperoni and mushrooms. This is pretty close.” She took the smallest slice from the pie.

Allen bowed his head and prayed to himself, then was surprised to find Heather with her head bowed when he looked up. He’d never seen her at his church, so he’d assumed she wasn’t a believer. “Do you attend church here in town?” The nearest large town was Rapid City, and that was an hour away.

“I do. It’s the one on the east end of Wall.”

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