Page 79 of The Moment They Can Never Forgive
She’d called the Lyntacky Sheriff Department because the more she thought about this room and that safe, the more she believed no one knew it was here. Sheriff Dans was someone she trusted, and it was him Leah had wanted to talk to.
But it had been Dan who answered her call and then turned up at her house. When she’d seen him standing in uniform on her front step, talking to Hudson, she’d wanted to run back to the kitchen. She hadn’t. Leah never ran from anything, but the urge was there.
He was one of those men who looked really good in a uniform. Broad shouldered with long muscular legs, the clothes sat well on him. She knew he also looked good naked, but she stomped down that thought real quick.
Following Dan down the stairs, she entered the room.
“Nothing down here except that safe,” Leah said.
“Looks like it,” he agreed, bending to study it. He took gloves out of his pocket and pulled them on. Then Dan got on his knees and crawled under the table.
“What are you looking for?”
“There’s something back here.”
He climbed out with a brown folder in his hands. “It’s on your property. Do you want to open it?” he asked her.
Leah stared at it for two seconds and then shook her head. She didn’t know what was in there, but had a gut feeling that it wouldn’t be good.
Dan placed it on the table. Leah moved to sit on the bottom step and watch as he flipped open the folder.
“What did you find?” she asked a few minutes of tense silence later.
He looked at her over his shoulder, and with that one glance, she knew the news wasn’t going to be good.
“Not sure I understand that yet. But I’ll get my uncle out here, and he can take a look.”
“You know something, don’t you?” Leah asked.
Ignoring her, he then read slowly through each piece of paper in that folder, and her stomach twisted itself into more knots. When he was done, Dan then walked around the space again.
“Did you take anything out of here, Leah?” he said when he’d finished.
“No.”
His eyes shot to hers briefly.
“I know you don’t believe me, Deputy, but if I’d wanted to hide this, whatever the hell it is, I wouldn’t have called the station. I haven’t removed any evidence, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“I’m not accusing you of anything, Leah, just asking questions. It’s what we do in my business before we put cuffs on people.”
Leah exhaled the breath she’d been holding and wondered if it would always be like this between them now. A battle of words, and not very nice ones. If they weren’t touching each other that was.
“You still got that chip on your shoulder when it comes to authority, then,” he said.
“I don’t have a chip on my shoulder,” Leah lied. In fact, she did. A large potato-sized one, especially when someone accused her of anything. She’d had enough of that growing up.
She watched as he ran his fingers under the table edge. Crouching, he searched underneath and then came out holding a book small enough that it fit in his hand.
“What’s that?” Leah asked.
“I’ll read it and let you know,” he said, his eyes already on the first page.
She waited in tense silence until he looked at her again.
“What does it say?” Leah was sure her stomach was about to empty at the look in his eyes.
“I need to?—”
