Hell.
“Better stay away from us, creeper,” Lily hissed at Steel, “or I’ll tell the nice cop all about you.”
Steel wished he was far away from them already. Since Eric worked for the Chance Creek sheriff’s department, he had no idea Steel worked undercover for Silver Falls. From his point of view Steel was a thirty-something-year-old creep hitting on a bunch of teenage girls.
If that didn’t establish his reputation as a bad guy, he didn’t know what would.
“Eric?” a woman’s voice called out from somewhere across the street. “I thought we were meeting at the Top Spot Café!”
Oh, hell, Steel thought when Stella came into view around another parked pickup truck. This got worse and worse. What was she doing in Silver Falls?
Meeting Eric?
Were they an item now?
“What’s she doing here?” Lily echoed and turned to her friends. “I know that lady. This is lame; let’s get out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Sue said.
“You’d better. That’s Stella Turner. She works for the sheriff’s department, too. You want her all over us? Calling our folks?”
Sue pouted, fiddling with her long brown hair, but Lily’s words must have hit home. “I guess not.” She stood up.
“Come on.” Lily grabbed Lara’s arm and tugged her along. Sue followed unhappily, all of them moving quickly down the block.
Steel got moving in the opposite direction, but when Stella called out, “Steel? Is that you?” he stopped in his tracks. She’d made it to his side of the street, and her gaze followed the young girls hurrying away from him toward the center of town. “What… are you doing?” she asked uncertainly.
“Yeah, Cooper? What the hell are you doing?” Eric moved to Stella’s side protectively. Steel burned to shove him away and take his place. He’d known Stella since they were kids, and when he’d moved back to town, he’d immediately been attracted to the woman she’d grown into. What right did Eric have to claim her?
“Minding my own goddamn business,” Steel growled at him. He had to get out of here before his temper got the better of him. Like it or not, he had to maintain his cover, even if he’d like to explain everything to Stella so she’d stop looking at him like that.
He would have liked to see where the girls went, but he couldn’t follow them with Stella and Eric watching, so he stepped onto the sidewalk, prepared to cross the street.
Stella moved closer to Eric, and regret twisted Steel’s gut. Was she afraid of him? She never had been before.
“Why were you talking to those girls?” she asked.
Because he had a job to do. He couldn’t say that, though. “What’s wrong with talking to some pretty girls?” he forced himself to ask as if he was the low-life she clearly thought he was at the moment.
Stella’s mouth dropped open, then she snapped it shut into a tight frown.
“You’d better keep away from those minors,” Eric warned him, stepping in front of her protectively. Stella’s frown deepened, and Steel knew her well enough to see she wanted to assert her ability to protect herself but also wasn’t sure she should.
The whole situation would have been funny if it wasn’t so damn awful.
“I will if they keep away from me.” Steel headed for the truck he’d parked some blocks away, knowing he’d done enough damage to tarnish himself in Stella’s eyes for a lifetime. The morning had been a bust. He was no closer to answering the question of why girls like Lily and her friends were frequenting the pit and why they kept turning up dead.
Time to go home, if he could call his stupid trailer that.
“Hold it right there, Cooper,” a voice called out behind him. Not Eric’s—or Stella’s, thank God—but almost as bad. Ned Haverstock was walking toward him, Daniel Ortiz right behind them.
Oh, fuck me, Steel thought. He spotted their cruiser down the block. How long had they been watching this action unfold? Were they afraid Eric would discover what he was doing if they left the situation alone? Had someone called the Silver Falls sheriff’s department to report him loitering around?
He allowed himself a look back and affirmed Eric and Stella were still watching.
“Heard you were bothering some little girls,” Ned said loudly. “A concerned citizen called it in.” He was enjoying this, Steel thought. The man marched right up to him and now was trying to tower over him—which didn’t quite work seeing they were of a similar height. Steel had no doubt Ned meant to have a good laugh about this later at the sheriff’s department.
“Like hell,” Steel growled.
“You like them young, huh?” Daniel pressed him, leaning in, too.
“Fuck you,” Steel said.
“Don’t talk to an officer of the law like that,” Daniel said.
“I’ll talk to you dumb shits however I want to.” To them this was all a game, wasn’t it? He’d heard them talking before when they thought he wasn’t around. Speculating on the real reason the boss kept him around. It wasn’t like his undercover work had turned up much yet.
“That’s it, I’m taking you down to the station,” Ned said. “Turn around. Hands behind your back.”
“Are you serious?” Steel asked him. He lowered his voice. “Just shove me around a little and let me go. I’ve got stuff to do.”
“Holden’s watching,” Ned murmured back. “Play it up a little. Let’s give him a show. He’ll go back to Chance Creek and tell everyone what a hardened criminal you are.” He shoved Steel against the sheriff’s cruiser they’d driven up in. “Resisting just makes this harder,” he said aloud.
Steel thought he heard Stella protesting. The last thing he needed was her coming to try to help, so he went limp. Allowed Ned to handcuff him and lead him
