Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Beau sat at his desk in the Jessup Peak sheriff’s office, the small space dimly lit by the faint blue glow of the computer screen. His fingers tapped steadily against the keyboard as he finalized the details for the warrant. The steady hum of the outdated hard drive buzzed faintly in the background, but his focus remained sharp.

The warrant was necessary. Everything Teddy Van Meter had done screamed desperation and manipulation. The way he had cornered Abbie at her grandfather’s ranch the day before—his aggression, his veiled threats—had only solidified Beau’s instincts that Teddy was hiding something. Beau’s gut told him there was a web of deceit surrounding Teddy, and he intended to untangle every thread.

He leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair as he stared at the completed document on the screen. A search warrant for Teddy’s office and home. If there was any evidence tying him—or anyone he was connected to—to the fires and sabotage at the Carter ranch, this was how they’d find it.

The door to the station creaked open, and Sheriff McMasters walked in, his coffee mug in hand. “You look like a man on a mission,” the older man remarked, taking a sip from his steaming cup.

“I am,” Beau replied, swiveling his chair to face the sheriff. “Warrant’s ready. I just need your signature, and then take it to the judge. Then, we can make a move on Teddy Van Meter’s office and home. Something tells me he’s not just playing real estate mogul for kicks.”

McMasters nodded, setting his mug on the edge of Beau’s desk. “You think he’s behind all the trouble at the Carter ranch?”

Beau hesitated for a moment. “If he’s not directly involved, he knows who is. People like him don’t get their hands dirty unless they have to, but they always have someone willing to do the work for them. The fire, the cut fences, the missing livestock, all of it—it’s a calculated campaign to back the Carters into a financial corner making it easier to use their misfortune to force them to sell.”

McMasters studied him for a long moment before picking up a pen and signing the warrant. “You’re good at this, Elliott. Almost makes me wish you were sticking around longer.”

Beau offered a tight smile, but the sheriff’s words stirred something in him. He’d avoided thinking too much about what came next, about what leaving Jessup Peak really meant. But with every step of this investigation, every moment spent with Abbie, that gnawing sense of unfinished business grew stronger.

“Thanks, Sheriff,” he said simply, standing and grabbing the warrant. “I’ll call some of the neighboring county’s deputies and get started on this.”

“Let me know if you need more tactical backup,” McMasters replied, his tone gruff but warm as Beau headed for the door. “My buddy over in Kissing Springs owes me a few dozen favors.”

“Will do.” Once he was outside, Beau’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and saw his commander’s number light up.

Beau answered on the second ring. “Hey, you that anxious to get me back?”

Bucky chuckled. “Actually I am. You wrapped up your case already?”

“Working on it. Should be done by the end of the week though. Getting ready to execute a search warrant at the perp’s home and business.”

“Glad to hear it,” Bucky replied. “You’ve been out there playing cowboy long enough. I need you back in the real world where you’ll have cases that’ll get your blood pumping. None of these horse’s asses got half the instincts you do. I can’t believe Janet exiled you while I was out of the picture. Trust me, that little dig at my authority isn’t going to go unnoticed.”

Beau’s grip on the phone tightened. “Yeah, can’t wait to get back to arresting the bad guys and giving Janet shit.”

But even as he said the words, a part of him felt the insincerity of them. Nabbing the bad guy was the kind of work he’d always thrived on, the work that defined him. So why did the thought of getting back to it make him feel so unhappy? It didn’t make sense, but there were more pieces to the puzzle Bucky didn’t know.

“So, why did you call?” Beau asked as he opened the door to his truck and hoped in. “Like I said, I’m getting ready to issue execute a search warrant and the rest of the team are waiting on me.”

“I just wanted to make sure timewise you were still on track to return to work,” Bucky said. “I got a lot of cases stacking up I don’t trust to anyone but you. Oh, and don’t forget—drinks are on you when you get back.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Beau replied with a grin, though his mind was already drifting elsewhere. “See you next Monday and does your doctor know you’re still plannin’ on drinkin’ after that heart attack?”

Bucky grunted. “Don’t you worry about my doctor. He knows what I want him to know.”

“It’s your life, Bucky, but I’d sure as hell hate to see you go, that is unless you leave me that Clint Eastwood’s autographed copy of Dirty Harry,” Beau teased.

“Ha! I might have left that to Janet,” Bucky teased back.

“I’ll hunt you down in the afterlife, you traitor,” Beau threatened.

Bucky’s tone grew serious. “Just get your ass back here. I need you.”

The call ended and Beau slipped his phone back into his pocket as he climbed into his truck. The plan was clear. Half his team would serve the search warrant on Teddy’s office. The other half on his home. They would look for evidence, seize it, and turn it over to the district attorney at the county seat. Everything else—his feelings, the unresolved tension between him and Abbie—would have to wait.

But as he drove through the quiet streets of Jessup Peak on his way to get the judge to sign the warrant, Beau couldn’t shake the nagging thought that Abbie Carter wasn’t the kind of woman who slipped easily out of a man’s mind, and the more time he thought about her, the harder it would be to forget her when they no longer resided in the same little town.

An hour later, he was on his way back to the office, his signed warrant in hand. The drive gave him time to mentally work through the logistics of the search while his thoughts wandered back to Abbie. She was smart, tough, and frustratingly independent.

Everything about her was a challenge, and Beau had never been one to back down from a challenge. But she’d made it clear how she felt. Jessup Peak was a pit stop for her, a detour before returning to her real life in Manhattan. And Beau couldn’t blame her. She had a future mapped out, a partnership at a prestigious law firm, a career that mattered.

But damn it, she mattered too. To him. And the more time he spent with her, the more he wanted to find a way to tell her that. Not that it would change anything. He couldn’t ask her to give up everything she’d worked for, and he wasn’t even sure he wanted to. The woman was a force of nature, and he admired that about her.

Still, the thought of leaving without telling her how he felt left a bitter taste in his mouth. But for now, he had a job to do, and that was the one thing he could control.