Oak, Sophie - Found in Bliss [Nights in Bliss, Colorado 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (32 page)

He’d expected to get sick of Bliss and leave one day, but the place had wormed its way into his heart, warming him where he’d thought he’d had nothing left but cold.

He had to get his shit together. He loved Holly. Hell, he was even beginning to be really fond of the big Russian.

He couldn’t leave. Not when he’d found his home.

And his home was really loud.

The phone continued to ring as though the person on the other end of the line knew he didn’t like to pick it up and wouldn’t take no for an answer. What was he thinking? He had to answer the damn phone.

He picked up. “Bliss County Clinic.”

“Hey, Doc. I was wondering if you were there. This is Roger.”

“Long-Haired Roger or Roger?” They got pissed when you confused them, and without the visual confirmation of hair, Caleb found it difficult.

“Oh, this is Roger from the shop. I was calling about your truck.”

Ah, Long-Haired Roger. The bald one. “Got it. What’s the word?”

“Well, it’s the strangest thing. The brake fluid leaked out.”

He’d figured that out already. “And how did that happen?”

“Well, it looks like someone cut the line. Or it was a real careful critter. You know, sometimes monkeys can use tools. I saw that on Animal Planet the other day. But we don’t really have any monkeys around here. And I don’t care what Mel says. I won’t believe we have a Sasquatch until I see him. And Sasquatch is probably really big. Someone would have noticed him under your truck.”

Long-Haired Roger, who in Caleb’s mind might also be called Rambling-On Roger, continued, but Caleb didn’t really hear him. Someone had really cut his brake line. Someone had tried to kill him and nearly gotten Holly instead. What the hell was going on?

“Leave the truck. The sheriff needs to see it.” He was going to have to pull Nate Wright into this.

“I already called him. I thought it was real odd. I know Holly was in the truck. Now, Caleb, I know you’re a little touchy, but I thought you liked Holly. Everyone around here is taking bets on when you’ll finally ask her out.”

He closed his eyes in frustration as he heard a siren go off. “I didn’t try to kill Holly. Holly is my…my girlfriend. Look, just fix the truck when the sheriff releases it and send me the bill.”

He hung up and walked to the door. The siren had gone dead, but he could see the faintest hint of red and blue lights filtering through the blinds. He prayed Nate hadn’t jumped to the conclusion that the town doctor wanted to murder his café crush. It seemed incomprehensible, but nothing was impossible in this town.

He couldn’t make out who was yelling, but they were damn serious about it. He put down the antibacterial spray and went out to the waiting room. The ivy Nell had left looked sad and lonely. It was the only bit of color in the white and gray room. He’d bought a painting because Holly had talked him into it, but it had been taken into evidence after the Russian mob incident, and he hadn’t really looked for another since.

He lifted one of the blinds, hoping Nate wasn’t storming the clinic. The sheriff of Bliss stood in the parking lot, his hands on a woman’s elbows, locking her arms into a pair of not-padded handcuffs. What the hell?

Caleb strode out of the clinic, not bothering to put on his boots. He was happy he’d felt weird cleaning in the altogether, or Nate Wright might have been getting to see more of him than he wanted to. As it was, he’d only put on his jeans. He was sure he looked like a disheveled crazy as he jogged across the thin lawn toward the parking lot.

“Nate, what the hell is going on?”

Nate looked up, a frown on his face. “You know this woman?”

He turned her around. She was a slender woman with brown, plainly cut hair. He searched for the name Alexei had given her. Jessie. She’d been with a dark-haired man. If he’d guessed, he would have bet they were a couple. “I met her a little bit ago. I think she said her name was Jessie.”

She’d also been in Trio the night before. He’d noticed her. Her eyes had almost constantly been on Alexei, though she’d held hands with the man she’d sat with.

“Yes, my name is Jessie Wilson, and I was with Alexei Markov.” The woman didn’t plead. She sounded pissed off. “It’s kind of my job. If you will just check the badge in my back pocket, we can clear this up.”

Nate nodded and Cameron Briggs came up behind the suspect. He quickly pulled a wallet from the woman’s back pocket and opened it up.

“It claims she’s Jessica Wilson, and she’s a US Marshal.”

“Sheriff, the aliens know all the best forgers,” a familiar voice said.

Caleb turned and suddenly Mel was standing beside him. The older man wore coveralls, a thermal shirt, and sneakers. He was never without his trucker hat. It was lined with heavy-duty tinfoil to keep the death rays away.

“She’s an alien?” Caleb asked. It was a decent bet. Mel assumed most outsiders were aliens.

“No idea. I don’t think so. She doesn’t have the look. And I didn’t see her wearing one of the amulets the Els wear. She could be an Anakim. You would know them better as Elders. You see, the Elders are actually about nine to eleven feet tall, but they wear these amulets that molecularly condense them down to regular size. I don’t see the amulet. And she’s neither reptilian nor one of the Grays. I think she’s a real, live human asshole.” He turned toward Caleb expectantly. “Although we should probably check her just in case. You could do an exam. Check for a prehensile tail.”

“I am not checking anyone’s tail, Mel. She’s human.”

“Hey!” Jessie’s partner ran across the street, holding his hands up in the universal sign for “don’t shoot me.” “My name is Michael McMahon. I’m a US Marshal. That’s my partner, Jessie.”

“I tried to explain to this small-town asshole that I’m doing my job. I was waiting for you when I saw someone playing around with that little Ford over there.” She gestured back to the parking lot where Alexei had parked Holly’s car.

Caleb felt his stomach turn.

Michael managed to convince everyone to let him pull his badge out of his pocket. He flashed it around. “We’re Alexei Markov’s handlers. We followed him when he left Florida because there’s still some danger to him. Even though technically he left the program, Jessie and I wanted to stick close to him until the appeals court hands down its verdict on two of his cases. We’ve been following him around. Though we’re supposed to keep a low profile.”

Jessie practically snarled at him. “Do not blame this on me. Alexei drove that car around all day. Was I just supposed to let some asswipe mess around with it? He was suspicious.”

Nate turned to Mel. “Did you see this man?”

Mel shrugged. “I only saw her, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t have missed something. She was under the car.”

“Because the man had run off. I’m not sure if he was a bad guy or not. I couldn’t exactly chase down a tourist who was tying his shoe. I had to check. I think he did something. It looks like there was something attached to the bottom of the car.”

The door to the clinic opened, and Alexei stood there. Caleb didn’t miss the way his right hand snaked behind his back. There was little doubt that his partner was hiding the gun he carried. Alexei reholstered the weapon and walked out. Caleb saw the slats to the blinds open.

“Holly, it’s safe. You can come out,” Caleb yelled.

“I tell her to stay in bedroom. Our woman needs her hearing checked,” Alexei grumbled. He caught sight of the Marshals, and his face fell. He turned to Nate. “I can explain.”

Nate waved him off with a roll of his blue eyes. “I can take a wild guess. You couldn’t keep your dick in your pants long enough for the US legal system to work its way through all the fuckers you put in jail. The Marshals are trying to keep you alive.”

“Alexei?” Holly walked up to Alexei, her feet bare and her hair still tousled. “Is that true?”

Alexei turned to Holly, his face grave. “That is truth, what sheriff say. Though I was going to grovel a bit more. I would not have come for you if I do not think it is safe.”

“Well, we might have to rethink that,” Nate said as he uncuffed the female Marshal. “I had a nice talk with Long-Haired Roger. Someone tampered with Caleb’s truck.”

Holly’s hand was suddenly in his. He heard her startled gasp. “Oh, god. Someone tried to kill me.”

“Or Caleb.” Deputy Briggs pulled out a tablet and started making notes. “It was Caleb’s truck. And now Holly’s car in front of Caleb’s clinic.”

“But I be driving car around.” Alexei’s accent had gotten deeply thick again. Caleb was starting to get his tells. When Alexei got emotional, his accent was almost too thick to understand.

“You didn’t drive my truck,” Caleb pointed out.

“No. But I stand by it for almost an hour before I walk in yesterday morning. I watched Nell walk in. I was a little afraid to be talking to you. What if someone saw me and thought it was my truck? What if there is someone in town trying to get to me? What if they learn how much it would hurt me if they got to Holly or you instead?”

Caleb squeezed Holly’s hand, noting Alexei was holding her other hand. It felt right.

“Sheriff, she checks out.” Logan swaggered onto the scene. He seemed to have gotten control of himself, but there was a red rim to his eyes that bespoke of many nights’ lost sleep. “She is who she says she is, though her boss was surprised to find out she was in Colorado.”

Jessie took back her badge. She shoved it in her pants and glared at the sheriff. “We’re doing this under the radar. I think it’s too early to take him out of the program. Look, we spent a lot of time with the big guy. He was supposed to settle down in Boca Raton under the name Howard Solev. He had all his papers. He was supposed to be a recent immigrant working for a security company. We worked hard to set up a safe life for him. Imagine our surprise when he disappeared. I knew he had someone he cared about here. Arrest me for giving a crap.”

Nate stared down at her, giving her the same look Caleb had seen him give speeders and other minor irritants. “Look, Marshal, here’s what I know. I know that someone deliberately tampered with Dr. Burke’s truck.”

“Don’t let Long-Haired Roger discount my Sasquatch theory. I think they’re rising up against industry and big business, Sheriff. I don’t think they like gas-guzzling trucks,” Mel said seriously.

Nate expression never changed. “I will keep that in mind. Cam, be sure to place environmentally friendly Sasquatches on the board of suspects.”

Cam grinned. “Will do, Sheriff.”

“What is wrong with you people?” Jessie asked.

“Not a damn thing,” the sheriff replied. “Now, my second problem is that I have US Marshals in my town who don’t do me the courtesy of informing my office that they’re here and working a case. Don’t give me that bullshit about caring about him. You’re carrying a gun, and you’re more than willing to use it. You owe me the courtesy of letting me know what’s going on.”

“Yes, we do, Sheriff.” Michael seemed to be the more reasonable of the two. “We’re sorry. We honestly didn’t think anything would happen to him. We’ve been keeping tabs on him from a distance. This town seems pretty good about protecting its own. We didn’t even have to step in when Ms. Lang’s son showed up. He almost immediately had six men on him.”

“I liked that part.”

Caleb looked to his left. Nick stood there with a cup from Stella’s. He took a long drag from the straw. Caleb noted that the Farley boys were with him.

Nick grinned at him. “Look, I made friends. They’re showing me all the cool spots.”

“Like the place where all the girls bathe naked because they think no one can see them,” one of the brothers said.

Nick shook his head. “Yeah, I wasn’t so interested in that one. And the nudists are way funkier than I would have thought. But I liked the Feed Store Church. And there were a couple of people miming their distaste for Wall Street on the square. That was pretty awesome.”