Chapter 19

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

B elle had never been kissed with this level of precision, with this much tenderness, with so much feeling pouring from the man in front of her. Harry had claimed not to have a lot of girlfriends and not a super mega ton of experience—his words, which had made her smile—but he sure kissed as well as he sang and played the guitar.

Her skin prickled in the best of ways, and after several more strokes of his mouth against hers, she somehow remembered that she and Harry stood in the semi-shadows at his cousin’s wedding. He seemed to remember it at the same time, and he pulled away and ducked his head.

Gone was his cowboy hat. As the breath in Belle’s lungs returned, she pulled in a slow breath through her nose, trying to reason through what had just happened. She’d kissed Harry Young .

The Harry Young.

The country music sensation currently recording his third album—or would be soon. She thought of the file she’d taken back to the Sheriff just this past week, and it had taken a whole lot longer than a weekend to think about the undercover assignment.

The truth was Belle didn’t know what to do. She’d made a pros and cons list, and they’d come out even. She’d petitioned the Lord, and He’d been frustratingly silent. In fact, the message Belle had gotten more than once was simply, Decide, Belle, and I’ll be with you.

“Okay?” Harry asked, bringing Belle back to the present. Back to the way he held her perfectly in his arms. Back to how easily he centered her, and Belle looked up into his dark eyes.

She’d put him on both the pro and con side of her undercover assignment. The pro side was he didn’t even live here, so it wasn’t like she had to tell him when she disappeared. He would be very busy for the next year, recording his album and planning his studio tour. She knew his uncle and manager had gotten that approved from his record label. And Morris had started to set up the venues around Coral Canyon where Harry would play and live-stream his concerts instead of traveling from city to city and playing at stadiums and arenas.

Belle thought it was brilliant, actually, in today’s day and age where everyone seemed to be attached to a device twenty-four hours a day. There would be a cover charge, but there would be no limit. No capacity to be reached. So the tickets could be cheaper, and more could attend. She couldn’t wait to see how many people watched Harry Young’s first live-streamed “world tour concert.”

“Yeah,” Belle said with a smile. “More than okay.”

He looked up and out onto the dance floor, his hand sliding to take hers. She fell to his side as he stooped to pick up his cowboy hat and put it back on his head.

“I don’t think I have anything to do the rest of the night,” he said. “Maybe we could sneak away early.”

Belle shook her head immediately. “No,” she said, “I’m not taking the blame for that.” She nodded over toward the tables on her right. “In fact, your father is looking straight at us, and he probably knows you’re trying to plan an escape.”

Sure enough, Trace Young got to his feet, never looking away from Harry and Belle, and Belle’s whole face heated as she thought about his dad watching them kiss. Harry grumbled something under his breath and said, “Let me go talk to him.” He walked away and met his dad halfway to where they loitered in the shadows just off the dance floor.

No, Belle would not be taking Harry from this wedding. His relationship with Bryce and Codi and everyone here in Coral Canyon meant more to him than she currently did. And while Belle could fantasize that might shift one day, in reality, it hadn’t yet.

She hugged herself and looked up into the sky, where she found the beautiful pinpricks of light—the stars, God’s creations.

“Help me to know what to do,” she prayed.

Ben had started making plans to insert someone into the Bison and Buffalo Casino, whether it be Belle or not, and she would need to decide in the next couple of weeks. She thought of her cats and her house, and Belle knew her fellow officers would take care of anything she needed them to so that she could pack a couple of suitcases and move into a furnished apartment in northern Wyoming and go undercover.

“Hey, so turns out we can’t leave yet,” Harry said as he returned. “Do you want to dance?”

“Are we really going to dance this time?” she teased.

Harry threw his head back and laughed, then said, “Yeah, we better, because my daddy said we weren’t being as discreet as I thought.”

He grinned at Belle, and though a measure of horror moved through her, she still let him take her hand and lead her onto the dance floor. She eased into his arms like it was the most natural thing in the world. And as they danced in Dog Valley, it didn’t matter that Harry was a great big star. Right now, he was simply her small-town dance partner.

“All right,” Belle said as she muscled Flower into the cat carrier. “Now listen, you guys are going to be so happy with Jenny, okay?”

Belle could admit she shed a few tears over having to rehome her cats, but her cat sitter had told her that she’d take all three of them, and she couldn’t be upset about that. It felt like a gift from God that Belle would be turning her nose up at if she did. “You guys already know her,” Belle said as she put the half-full bag of cat food in a plastic bin.

She went around her house and picked up all the cat toys that had been left out. Jenny had already taken a box of those, as well as Mister Miles’s scratching post and all of the cat beds. How they’d even survived here for one more night without any of their things in the spare second bedroom, Belle had no idea. Cats really could be picky and finicky. And right now, Mister Miles yowled from inside the cat carrier.

“You’re fine,” she told him as placatingly as possible. It was a mantra that she’d gotten used to in the past week or so since Bryce’s wedding. She’d get up in the morning and go to work, and she’d tell herself she was fine.

You’re fine , she told herself. It’s all going to work out.

You’re fine , she’d think as she drove to the Sheriff’s office. You just need to make a decision.

You’re fine , would stream through her mind as she put a microwave meal in for her solitary dinner at night. The answer will come.

Belle believed all of those things, she really did. And while she still hadn’t told Ben that she wanted to accept the undercover assignment, she had started making arrangements to do so. Heck, rehoming her cats had only taken a single phone call.

She’d emailed a real estate agent about putting her house up for sale, and they would be meeting on Monday morning .

You’re fine , Belle thought. Everything will be ready when you are.

She took the bin out to her car and started it, as the sun had been shining brighter and longer and hotter as they crept toward June. She took the cats out second, put them on the front seat, buckled the cat carrier in, and only allowed herself one sniffle as she rounded the hood of her car to get behind the driver’s seat.

She drove to Jenny’s house in her sundress and sandals, and she dropped her cats off with plenty of smiles and reassurances that Jenny would send loads of pictures.

If Belle went undercover, she wouldn’t get any of them. She wouldn’t have her same phone number anymore, or her same device. Everything would be new, everything would be changed, everything would be different.

With her cats in their new home and Belle’s heart pinched against her ribs, she drove to church. She didn’t always get to attend due to her work schedule and the demands on her time and energy, but she’d found herself going more and more often in the past couple of months as she contemplated the next step in her life. She sat alone as usual, in one of the side pews, and she let the music uplift her, feed her, calm her until the pastor took his place in front of the microphone.

“Who was it, brothers and sisters?” he asked. “Who left the ninety and nine to go off and find the one?”

“Jesus,” someone called from the crowd, and the pastor grinned at them.

“It was Jesus, our Lord and Savior.” He seemed to take in the whole congregation at the same time, a unique trait of this pastor. “Do you ever feel like you’re just one of the hundred sheep and your wool is the same color as everyone else’s, and God really doesn’t see you?”

Belle found herself nodding because yes, she felt exactly like that. Among the huge sky in Wyoming and all the beautiful stars and the millions of pine trees, how could God possibly know what she needed? With all the animals who needed Him, and all of his children—men, women, boys, and girls—how could He possibly know that she hurt and that she needed help?

She did often feel lost, alone, and afraid. And while she usually could take a bold step and find the light again, she had really been struggling these past couple of months.

“Jesus was about connecting with the one ,” the pastor said. “The individual. When he was with groups of people, He felt a tug on His robes, and He helped the woman with her bleeding issue. He saw the one .”

He swung his gaze toward Belle, and it seemed as though his eyes hooked into hers. “When the woman taken in adultery was being stoned, he found her. He saw her. He helped her. Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father know each personal trial and tribulation. They know the one. He seeks after the one who is lost, the one who is hurt, the one who needs Him most in that moment.”

The pastor smiled and moved on, and Belle wondered if he’d been looking just at her or someone else. It didn’t matter. His words rang with truth and peace in her heart, and she suddenly didn’t feel so alone, so scared, or so invisible.

“He will bring you back to his fold,” the pastor said. “If you will let him be your Shepherd. So let Him guide you. Let Him direct your steps. Let Him warn you of the pothole in the left lane, or the cliff on your right side, or the pit that has been covered with leaves just ahead, because He is the one who seeks after each of us individually.”

Belle reached up and brushed at her eyes. She got into law enforcement so that she could seek after justice, so that she could provide a sense of closure and healing and peace to victims and their families. She loved her role in missing persons even though it didn’t always end up right, good, or well.

She fought for the most amount of justice possible, and she wanted to keep doing that. She thought of Tyson’s reports of women and children being used as money mules. And as she sat there in church and listened to the pastor’s warm, honeyed voice continue to preach about the Savior, Belle had her answer.

She needed to go undercover.