Tempting The Sheriff

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Petroski stuffed the remainder of his sandwich in his mouth and complied. Vaughn holstered his weapon and fit the cuffs on the guy’s jelly-smeared wrists.

Meanwhile the sheriff set down the knife, stepped on the handle and pulled her cuffs free of her belt.

“Didn’t you hear me?” Sadie cried. “You broke my leg. Don’t think I won’t sue.”

“Bruised it, maybe,” the sheriff said. “But I didn’t break it. Drop your leg and turn around.”

“You’re going to arrest me?” Sadie pushed upright, shoved her long red bangs out of her face and stomped her injured leg. “What the hell for?”

“Property damage,” said her brother, through the remains of his sandwich.

“Screw you!” shouted Sadie. “It’s my house, too.”

Sheriff Tate fit her cuffs on a fuming Sadie. “Mr. Petroski, I need you to go with Deputy Fulton. He’ll find someplace quiet where you can tell him your side of the story.”

Vaughn led John Petroski down the porch steps and around the side of the house. Petroski was much calmer away from his sister. He admitted he’d brandished the knife at Sadie, then set it on the counter. She’d grabbed it and run for the door, shouting that she was going to “tell on him.”

Jesus. “You two are how old?”

Petroski scowled, then jerked his head at the house. “What’s she got coming?”

“Aggravated assault.”

“Give me a frickin’ break. I just told you, she wasn’t threatening the sheriff.”

“She was brandishing a weapon. That’s called physical menace.” When Petroski swore and kicked the side of the house, hard enough to dent the siding, Vaughn narrowed his eyes. “We going to have to put you in leg irons, too?”

“Don’t you worry, Deputy. I’ve got him covered.” Audrey Tweedy approached from the rear corner of the house, lip curled, eyes squinted. She carried a spray bottle of oven cleaner in one hand and a can of WD-40 in the other. “And you.” She pointed the can at Petroski. “Stop putting holes in the house, or I’ll drop my offer by ten percent.”

Petroski snorted. “If anyone deserves to be arrested, it’s this old bag. C’mon, man, she’s trespassing.”

Audrey lowered her weapon and grinned. “Sell me the house and I won’t be.”

They settled the Petroskis in the cruiser, escorted Audrey back to her own property and bagged the knife. Back at the station, Vaughn waited for a chance to pull the sheriff aside. She’d arrested both Petroskis for disturbing the peace and handled the processing and paperwork without any visible aftereffects from a situation that could have landed her in the hospital. Or worse.

Her attitude worried him. It also pissed him off.

The moment she returned to her office, a mug of coffee in one hand and a stack of paperwork in the other, he followed her in and shut the door. “I know you’re smarter than what you pulled today. You have to be.”

With slow and careful motions, the sheriff set her coffee on her desk and pushed her shoulders so far back it was a wonder she didn’t topple over.

She had grit. He admired it, and he resented it. His job here wasn’t going to get easier anytime soon, which made it damn inconvenient that every time he saw her he wanted to back her up against the nearest wall and practice his search-and-seizure skills.

“You don’t know me,” she said.

He sure as hell wanted to. “I won’t get a chance, either, you keep taking idiotic gambles like that.”

“Do I need to remind you who’s the sheriff and who’s the deputy here?”

He shook his head, and let his gaze linger on her chest. “Don’t worry. I see the badge.”

Her arms twitched, as if she wanted to fold them over her chest. “Exactly what do you think I should have done differently?”