Always A Lawman. Delores Fossen

Empathy. Hell. More than that. Sympathy. Something that she darn sure wouldn’t want him to feel. “And you do know if I’d had any suspicions ten years ago about what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have let you leave my house?”

      She nodded, sighed. Jodi looked up, their gazes connecting, and for just a split second, it seemed as if the last decade melted away. He caught a glimpse of the girl. The very one who’d had a thing for him. That thing was still there; Gabriel could feel it, but it was buried beneath the scars and the pain.

      He got another flood of memories then. The heat in his own body. He’d never told Jodi that he’d wanted her that night. Wouldn’t tell her, either. Because it wouldn’t help. In fact, it could make things worse with them going through the “what could have been” scenarios.

      Their eye contact continued, and Gabriel could feel that old attraction becoming a simmer again. Thankfully, the simmer turned chilly when he heard voices in the hall.

      “I need to see the sheriff and my client now,” a woman demanded. It wasn’t a shout but close enough so that Gabriel had no trouble hearing her.

      She was no doubt Billy’s attorney. Good. That meant Gabriel could get on with the interrogation.

      Gabriel threw open the door and came face-to-face with Cameron and a brunette who was dressed to the nines. She had a briefcase on the floor next to her pricey shoes. She certainly didn’t look like someone who worked cheap, and that piqued his interest, and suspicions, even more. There was no way Billy could pay someone like this.

      So, who was footing this bill?

      “I’m Mara Rayburn,” she said. Her voice had lowered a couple of notches, but she didn’t sound very happy about this visit. “You’re Sheriff Beckett?”

      Gabriel nodded, but before he could say anything, she took his hand and slapped some papers in his palm. “That’s a court order to transfer my client to a psychiatric facility where he belongs.”