Justice Reborn (Cowboy Justice Association Book 8) (21 page)

Evan didn’t have a chance to answer before a car appeared on his long driveway, pulling up behind the SUV.

The unexpected visitor drove a nondescript sedan that made Evan instantly suspicious. Cars like that were driven by government people.

He ought to know. He’d driven every American made four-door, boring as hell vehicle in his career. Supposedly it made him blend in to the surroundings, but the cars were so plain it was almost a calling card.

“Go inside the house, honey.” Evan put a hand on her arm. “Upstairs in the bedroom where it’s cool. We have company.”

He felt a tremble run down her arm and he dropped a reassuring kiss on her temple. Even before reinforcements had arrived, he wasn’t planning to let anyone near her but now he knew he could actually keep her safe. These were three of the best cops he’d ever had the pleasure to work with. They knew their business and he’d trust them with his life.

“Who is it?” she whispered, trying to see through the windshield even as he blocked her view.

“I don’t know and that’s why you’re going upstairs.”

“I’ll stay there with her,” Dare offered, placing his hand on Josie’s arm. She allowed herself to be led into the house and hopefully upstairs.

But she was far from safe as only Evan was currently armed.

Seth, Evan, and Reed stood shoulder to shoulder as if a wall between their visitor and the house. The driver’s door of the sedan opened and a long leg clad in skinny jeans and ankle boots appeared and then a second. Evan knew those legs and the person they were attached to. He inwardly groaned and stepped forward, giving his friends a put-upon look that told them they could stand down.

But Josie needed to stay in the house.

“Marisa, I had no idea you were coming today.”

Evan greeted his former partner as she climbed out of the car. Along with her dark jeans and boots, she was wearing a white blouse with sleeves that were rolled up almost to the elbows. An oversized brown leather handbag that matched those boots was thrown over her shoulder, finishing off the ensemble. To this day, Evan had no clue how Marisa could stay so unwrinkled. She’d probably been in the vehicle for hours but she looked like she’d just pulled on her clothes.

“That’s because I didn’t tell you. I was afraid you’d have a million excuses as to why I shouldn’t come. So give me a hug and tell me all about your handsome friends. Oh hello, Seth. It’s been a long time.”

Of course Marisa would notice them. Evan quickly introduced her although she’d already spoken to them on the phone about trying to convince him to return to the Marshal Service. She gave Seth a hug and he looked quite uncomfortable about the whole thing. Presley and Seth had never warmed to Marisa.

Tugging at her collar, Marisa nodded toward the house. “I’ll never get used to the heat down here. How about we go inside and catch up?”

Evan had a feeling
catch up
meant something very different to each of them.

“And you always overdressed for the climate,” Evan observed, pointing to her boots. “Sandals probably would have been a better choice. Shorts too, for that matter. You’re off duty, after all.”

“Shorts and sandals? I don’t think so.”

Some things never changed and Marisa was one of them. She loved her blue jeans and would probably be buried in her favorite pair.

“It won’t be much better in the house, I’m afraid. No air conditioning.”

Evan almost laughed at Marisa’s appalled expression. It spoke volumes about how close their friendship was that she didn’t bother to hide it. After all, they knew some awfully intimate things about each other after working together almost daily for two years.

Her eyes went wide and she seemed to gaze at the house in a whole new light. Not a good one. “How can you live there without air conditioning? It’s going to be absolutely miserable in a couple of months.”

Evan laughed and pointed to the upstairs. “I have a window unit in the bedroom but I don’t think all of us would fit on the mattress. How about we head back into town? We can sit in the air conditioned diner and have a cool drink.”

He’d whisk Marisa off to the diner and the other men could keep Josie safe while he was gone. The last thing he needed was for his former partner to get a close look at Josie and start asking uncomfortable questions. Hopefully Marisa would simply think Josie was Reed’s woman.

“That sounds like a perfectly wonderful idea. Is everyone going?”

Evan glanced back at his two friends but they’d already figured out the plan. Seth and Reed shook their heads and mumbled something about calling their wives and checking in with the office. It sounded plausible enough and Marisa seemed happy with the explanation.

“Let’s just take your car.” Evan moved toward the passenger door and elbowed Reed on the way, the other man giving him a grin of understanding. “I’ll even let you drive.”

It was a running joke that Evan liked to drive everywhere but today he simply wanted her out of his driveway and he didn’t care how that happened. He’d listen to her sales pitch about returning to the marshals and then nudge her home to Tampa. He had no intention of going back and he was going to make that crystal clear this morning and stop all this nonsense. She was sticking her nose into his personal life and dragging his friends along with her.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“T
hey’re gone,” Reed, or maybe Seth, called up the stairs. Josie didn’t know their voices well enough yet to tell them apart through a closed door. “You can come down if you want.”

Dare shrugged and grinned. “Up to you. It’s awful nice in this cool air. We didn’t sleep much last night between the flights and the drive so I could curl up on this floor and nap.”

A knock and then the door opened, Reed sticking his head in. “I heard that, Dare. No way are you taking a nap. Just because Evan left doesn’t mean we don’t have work to do. We can get started on those lights and cameras but if you want to stay in the cool a little longer, you can install those motion detectors on the windows.”

Giving her a wink, Dare lumbered to his feet, seemingly unconcerned about being scolded by his friend. “Sounds like a plan. Josie, have you ever wanted to learn how to install motion detectors and cameras?”

Sitting by herself didn’t sound like fun but asking these men all sorts of questions about Evan? That was tempting.

“How did you know? I’ve always wanted to learn how to do that. It’s on my bucket list.”

“Then it’s your lucky day,” Reed laughed, turning back to the stairs. “Let’s see how much of this we can get done before Evan gets back. Hopefully he’ll be able to shake Marisa off after a coffee and a piece of pie.”

That’s how Josie found herself handing tools and supplies up to Seth who was perched on a ladder leaning on the side of the house. He was installing some lighting and a camera that could be remotely accessed from a laptop or even a phone.

“So how long have you known Evan?” Josie asked casually as she held the Phillips screwdriver up for him to grab. Apparently she wasn’t acting all that sly because his lips curved into a knowing smile.

“You can just ask me, you know. What do you want to know about Evan? I’ll tell you what’s common knowledge. But deep dark secrets are off limits. Not that I think I know any, actually.”

Josie fidgeted, shuffling her feet before speaking. “Who is this Marisa and why is she here?”

Grimacing as he tightened a screw, Seth didn’t answer immediately, appearing to formulate his answer. That only served to make her feel more nervous about the woman who had shown up unexpectedly today. Marisa must be someone important if Evan’s whisking her away from the house was any indication. Clearly he didn’t want her and Josie to meet.

Finally Seth stopped and leaned against the metal railing of the ladder. “Marisa is Evan’s former partner at the Marshal Service. And his friend too.”

“A good friend?”

“If you’re asking if they’re friends with benefits, I don’t know the answer,” Seth chuckled. “That’s a question for Evan himself. I do know they worked closely together for a few years and that she’s been trying to get him to go back to the marshals. She even called me to try and convince me to talk to him. She called Reed too.”

This Marisa sounded like a real busybody.

“Evan doesn’t want to go back.”

“That’s true but from what I can tell, he doesn’t know what he wants instead. I think Marisa believes that it’s better that he does something than nothing.”

Josie could honestly say she didn’t care what Marisa believed or wanted.

“He’s not doing nothing,” Josie protested. “He works hard every day. It’s not like he’s kicking back at the beach or lounging around the pool. He does things. Lots of things.”

She didn’t mention the writing Evan had been doing, not sure that he wanted anyone else to know about it.

“I’m sure he does,” Seth laughed, turning back to the camera he was mounting under the eaves. “Marisa is an ambitious person and sometimes she doesn’t see that other people aren’t as driven as she is. Evan will let her blow off some steam and then tell her how it is. They have that type of relationship. He’s not going to let her continue this line of thinking.”

“You don’t like her.”

Seth sighed and stopped working again. “I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to. Your body language said it all.”

“She’s a nice person, she really is. It’s just that she can be a little…what’s the word I want? By the book. When she was helping Presley, she didn’t convey much sympathy or emotion. It was as if Presley was just another assignment. Just another case file.”

Josie was liking this woman less and less.

“What happened with your wife?”

“Her stepsister tried to frame her for arms dealing and then murder her with a car bomb. Evan put her in witness protection with me. That’s how we met.”

Holy shit. And I thought I had it bad.

Seth’s lips were curved into a smile and whatever memories he was thinking about obviously made him quite happy. These sheriffs had a strange idea of fun.

Wait…car bomb? Arms dealing? That was the second story that Evan had written. Either Seth was leaving out a whole bunch or Evan had embellished a whole heck of a lot.

“Sounds romantic, but I bet there’s more to the story.”

“There is but that’s for another time. If we’re here long enough I’m betting you’ll hear a bunch of stories with and without Evan. You’ll be screaming for mercy in a few days, mark my words.”

She doubted that. Evan was a fascinating man and he had very interesting friends.

“I’m not clear as to why this Marisa is bugging Evan about going back. Is she lonely or something? She doesn’t like her current partner?”

Seth cursed softly as he tried to position the camera but it kept veering to the right. “If he went back they wouldn’t even be partners. He’d be riding a desk and she’s a field agent. From what I’ve been able to gather, he’d have a team of agents under him but he doesn’t want to deal with the unending government bureaucracy.”

Josie remembered a particularly dicey interaction with the DMV a few years ago so she couldn’t disagree with Evan’s sentiments. Dealing with that day in and day out would drive even a calm, laidback guy like Evan around the bend.

“So what does she get out of it then if he comes back?”

Seth shrugged and then grunted in satisfaction. The camera had been successfully installed. Only a half a dozen more to go.

“Maybe she just wants to see him happy.”

Wrinkling her nose, Josie took the tools from his hands so he could climb down the ladder. “Maybe. Or perhaps I’m a cynical woman. I’ve simply found that if someone is so persistent about something there’s usually a reason. And that reason is that they benefit somehow.”

Wiping his hands on a small towel, Seth chuckled at her assessment. “You are cynical for someone so young but you might have a point. Although I can’t imagine what the benefit would be. Hell, maybe she is lonely.”

Or Marisa was looking to deepen her relationship with Evan. What better way than to have work in common again? Was she in love with him?

“I’m not all that young. I’m thirty.”

“And I’m pushing forty. Trust me. Thirty looks young from here.” Reaching down into one of the boxes, Seth held up another camera. “Are you ready to do this again? We’ve got one on every corner of the house—now we need to place them around the perimeter of the property and at the end of the driveway to see anyone who might drive by.”