Storm Damage - C.P. Smith Page 0,22

and not some catty attempt to flirt with him. “Good.”

“What do you mean you can’t find Josh?”

Logan turned at Skylar’s outburst and moved her direction.

“What about the fieldhouse, Jake?” she questioned.

When he reached her side, he pulled the phone from her hand and put it to his ear. Skylar looked shocked at his interference and tried to grab her phone back, so Logan turned so her phone was out of her reach, and barked out, “Jake?”

Silence.

“Storm?”

“Talk to me.”

More silence, then, “Josh never made it to school.”

The front door opened loudly and light spilled inside. Logan turned his neck and found a police officer standing in the doorway with his arms crossed, and he was glaring at Logan and Skylar.

Christ. Ty must have filed a complaint.

“Keep looking around the school, and we’ll look in town. Call your sister in an hour and check-in.”

Logan disconnected and handed the phone back to Skylar, who was still looking at him like he’d grown two heads. She was used to carrying the world on her shoulders. Taking care of her brothers was second nature. But all that ended today. It was high time someone took care of her for a change.

“What’s up, Duke?” Jamie called out.

The officer scanned Logan from head to toe, then directed his attention at Skylar. “You need to come down to the station. I picked up Josh for possession of a controlled substance without a prescription.”

“For what?” Skylar cried out.

“Weed,” Duke answered. “The idiot was caught smoking a joint by Ethel Clyde. He also had a bag of weed on him when I arrived and he doesn’t have a medical license to use.”

Five

Battle Scars

LOGAN STOOD IN the corner of the one-room Ennis police station, watching Skylar argue with Police Chief Duke Remington. Drab gray walls and a standard-issue desk graced the office. It was housed in City Hall—a small spartan building just off of Main Street—along with the mayor’s office, zoning commission, library, and ambulance service.

Logan had passed through plenty of small towns over the last six months, and most worked the same way. The police force was small. Typically, only a few officers. It seemed this town was no different. The chief of police, and only officer in Ennis, Montana, was Duke Remington. In his late forties to early fifties, with a beer belly and thinning hair, the chief’s coloring matched the walls. Along with the shortness of breath he’d noted on their walk over to the station, Logan figured he was a heart attack waiting to happen.

“I demand you let Josh go, Duke.”

Remington hiked his leg on the edge of his desk and crossed his arms. He seemed unaffected by her demand, almost tickled with how she ordered him around. “I heard about Chance.”

Skylar stiffened her spine at his reply. “Then you know if the county CPS hears about this, Chance won’t be my only problem. Please, Duke, you and my father were friends. If the roles were reversed, he would help your son, not make an example of him.”

Remington looked over her shoulder at Logan and scanned him again with a shrewd eye. “Who’s he?”

Skylar looked back and blinked in surprise, as if she hadn’t known he was there.

When Remington had announced he had Josh in his jail, Skylar had marched out of the bar without saying a word. Logan wasn’t about to let her face the police on her own, so he’d left Max with Jamie and followed behind the pair as they’d argued all the way to the police station two blocks away.

Logan grinned at Skylar then stepped forward and offered his hand. “Logan Storm.”

Remington took it, pausing when he caught sight of Logan’s tattoo peeking out from under his sleeve. “You Delta Force?” the man asked, holding Logan’s eyes with steely focus.

Logan nodded. “Ex-Delta Force. I discharged six months ago.”

“Hell, son, glad to meet you.” Remington said this while he pumped Logan’s hand in a vigorous shake. “Her daddy was army. He’d be pleased to see she’s found a military man.”

Skylar had been watching their exchange, peering curiously at his arm, until Remington referred to Logan as her man. She jerked her head up at the implication they were together and stuttered, “He’s my new bouncer, not my man.”

“Bouncer?” The chief looked between them with a scowl. “I thought Ty handled—”

“Ty is no longer welcome at Big Sky Saloon,” Logan stated, interrupting.

Remington’s mouth pulled into a sly grin. “I see.”

Logan had no doubt he did. He also had no doubt Jordan had already called half