fix for Jeremiah. To help him in a way that, admittedly, would benefit me as well.”
“It’s quite honest of you to say so.”
He shrugged and offered me a half-hearted smile. “I am a politician, after all.”
My personal phone chirped, and checking the text messages, I saw it was Jeremiah, telling me he was waiting for me on the steps of the police station. “I have to go, but I’m glad we talked.”
“I look forward to hearing from your client.”
“Well, I’ll warn you again, don’t expect a windfall.” I texted Jeremiah back before meeting Merrell’s gaze. “Because you’re not my client.”
“I understand. I’ll still appreciate the call.”
“Good.” I stood and offered him my hand.
He stood as well, and we shook; then I turned and headed back toward the police station. When I got there, Jeremiah met me at the bottom of the steps.
“Where were you?”
“Merrell Barrett overheard me talking on the phone, deduced who I was, and introduced himself. We walked a bit and chatted about my client buying Kingman’s. I told him I was going to make sure they lowballed him.”
He snorted. “At least you prepared him.”
“Everything go all right with Creese?”
“Yeah.” He looked a little worse for the wear, so I took his hand in mine because he needed the comfort. “He told the truth, and I was right there beside him for every word of it. It was good. He was worried about me being banged up, but I told him I’d be fine by next Monday for our regular appointment.”
“Good.” I leaned in to kiss his cheek, loving the feel of the beard against my lips, then led him toward the car. I saw Merrell Barrett walking down the sidewalk toward us, looking a bit hesitant, like he didn’t know whether to keep going or stop and wait for us to get in the car and drive away. “Did you want to take a few minutes to talk to Merrell yourself?”
He glanced over at the mayor-elect, who lifted his hand in greeting and then turned away, only to be stopped by a cluster of young women. “No. I can’t imagine whatever he wanted to talk about was that important. I mean, how could it be? We’re not friends.”
“No, you’re not,” I agreed, squeezing his hand tighter.
“But speaking of friends, I want you to go with me to meet Zack so we can check on my bike.”
I must have made a face.
“What? You don’t wanna meet Zack?”
“No, Zack I want to meet, but we need to have a talk about your thousand-year-old bike. ADA McCauley is under the impression it’s unsafe.”
He scoffed loudly. “Like McCauley knows shit about motorcycles.”
“I’ll ask Zack what he thinks, then.”
He definitely didn’t want me to do that.
As it turned out, Zack was going to have to keep the bike longer than he originally expected to, because he was making more than a few safety alterations to it. While Jeremiah was off petting his baby, I offered to put the cost of the upgrades on my credit card, but Zack assured me Jeremiah paying for the carburetor was enough. The rest he was doing because, as he said, he loved his friend, who was as warm and fuzzy as a deranged porcupine. I appreciated that imagery quite a bit.
Later, back at the hotel, I did some work while he took a nap. When I looked up a couple of hours later, I found him staring at me from the bed.
“What are you looking at?”
“I’m looking at you, Cam.” His voice was gravelly and rough, and the whimper came out of me before I could stifle the sound. “I like looking at you.”
“You do?” My heart was now in my throat.
He grunted. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I appreciate it, I really do.”
I cleared my throat. “I know that.”
His grin was wide. “Awfully sure of yourself.”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be? I know you appreciate me, the same as I do you. It’s nice to hear but not necessary.”
“It is necessary,” he insisted. “So get used to hearing nice things, you understand?”
“If you insist.” I stood up and crossed to the bed, climbed on and crawled over to him, dropping down close beside him so I could stare into his eyes.
He put his hand on my face, smoothing over my cheek with his thumb. “You gotta drop me at the apartment tomorrow morning after we check out so I can start laundry and put things away. Plus, I gotta go get those