“All right.”
Benjamin headed downstairs and the grimace melted from Isabella’s face.
“We never seem to catch a break, do we?” Isabella said.
I chuckled.
“Every moment we’re together is a break to me, so these interruptions can keep on coming for all I care.”
She beamed at me, dusted off her hands, and extended a hand to me.
“Let’s go down to dinner. And try to keep your eyes off me. It’ll give the game away if they see you looking at me like that.”
“The only way to stop me would be to take my eyes out.”
“Then look all you want. I intend on giving them a lot more to see before much longer.”
She approached the door but I stood in the middle of the room.
“Aren’t you coming?”
“I’ll, uh, catch up.”
“Catch up?”
I grimaced at her as her eyes drifted down to my groin and a smile lit up her face.
“Nice to know I’ve still got it.”
With me, she would always have it.
If I went downstairs with this thing in my pants, my corner of the dining table would be several inches higher.
“See you downstairs.”
She kissed the palm of her hand and then patted me on the front of my pants.
She gave me a wink and sashayed out of her room.
I doubted my meal would still be warm by the time I calmed down.
At least there was always dessert…
Liam
I threw my head back and downed the shot.
I slammed a fist on the bar and hissed as it burned my throat on its way to the bottomless pit of my stomach.
I’d downed half a dozen already and I had no intention of slowing down or stopping soon.
“Another,” I snapped.
Bill approached on the other side of the bar with a note of caution in his stance.
He leaned forward and whispered so the other patrons couldn’t hear him.
“Uh, Sheriff, I don’t think you should—”
“I don’t pay you to think,” I growled. “I pay you to pour that liquid from that container into this one. Do you think you can handle that?”
Bill still didn’t move.
He’d been shooting me concerned glances all afternoon and was beginning to test my patience.
“Fill it,” I ordered.
The good thing about being a small-town sheriff was it made you the lord of the kingdom.
Even if I didn’t own these people, I owned the quality of their lives.
If they wanted peace, they needed to do what I said when I said it.
Bill was in great danger if he thought he could do the exact opposite.
He picked up the bottle from under the counter and filled my glass.
He knew the rules.
“Leave the bottle,” I said gruffly.
He hesitated but did as I said.
I needed the bottle.
I had plenty to drink myself into a stupor about.
The girl of my dreams had chosen someone else.
A stranger.
The antithesis of local law enforcement.
I got the jump on him and he still got the better of me.
I was the sheriff.
These kinds of things weren’t supposed to happen.
I was the guy in charge.
I was the one everyone feared.
And he’d pinned me to the wall and raised me as if I weighed less than an empty bottle.
I should have pulled my pistol on him instead of reaching for the length of timber.
I thought it would feel better to administer the injuries by hand.
I’d been a fool.
But how was I supposed to know how things would turn out?
Someone slapped me on the back, jerking me from my self-pity and spilling my drink.
“Hey Sheriff, how’re things hanging?”
That was it.
This was the final straw.
I was at my wit’s end and I couldn’t take it anymore.
The utter lack of fear.
The lack of respect for my office.
I leaped off the barstool and shoved the guy back.
His jovial grin disappeared instantly and looked from me to Bill.
“Don’t look at him!” I snapped. “Look at me! What am I? Invisible?”
“No,” the guy said. “I… I didn’t mean anything by it. I just… wanted to see how you were doing, that’s all.”
I didn’t want someone to wonder how I was doing.
What did it matter to him anyway?
I leaned in so close I could make out his whiteheads.
“Who sent you in here?” I snapped.
“Nobody. Look, I obviously rubbed you up the wrong way. I apologize. I’ll get my beer and leave you in peace.”
By now, the billiard players had stopped with their games and watched the scene taking place.
They were going to get a mouthful of lead if they weren’t careful.
So, I’d better teach this one a lesson so the others didn’t get the same idea to interrupt me.
One loss for the day was already one too many.
I shoved the guy against the wall and seized him by the lapels of his shirt.
Even up close I couldn’t identify him.
None of his features jogged a memory.
I pinned him against the wall and hefted him up, but could only manage a few inches.
Try as I might, I couldn’t lift him bodily the way Clint had done with me.
And him only with a single arm!
How had he managed to do that?
There was no way.
It was physically impossible.
Unless…
Unless he was a genetically modified super soldier…
Maybe my story, half-borrowed from last Friday night’s movie, wasn’t so far-fetched after all.
Maybe he was a genetically engineered super-spy!
Yes, it was beginning to make sense now.
How else could he have got the better of me?
How else could he have taken my beating and have nothing to show for it?
Or maybe Isabella’s hoochie bestowed men with superpowers…
That damn slut.
I’d given her nothing but the best of me.
I’d worked my way up to sheriff without a single qualification to my name.
No shortcuts for me.
Did she think just any asshole could do that?
Did she think I was a loser?
Well, fuck her!
There was more going on here than anyone realized.
And I was the one to get to the bottom of it.
I didn’t care what it took.
I was going to discover the truth.
I released the man’s collar and eased him back down to his feet.
He kept his eyes on the floor and turned to slip away with his tail between his legs.
But he couldn’t get off with it that easy.
Unable to let the guy off, I hammered him in the jaw
