out last night?”
“Yeah. I was fishing out Buford Point way when I saw the storm brewing. Came in a bit earlier than predicted, but isn’t that the way it always goes? I’d packed up most of my stuff an hour earlier, figuring the weather would screw me out of another hour like it always did, but I still caught the front end of it before I made it back to town.”
“It was moving that fast?”
“A good clip. I was doing twenty miles an hour or so, faster when I got a straightaway, but it moved in quicker than I could run through the channel. Probably a good forty-mile-an-hour wind blowing southwest pushing it. ”
Colt sighed. “Which means this boat could have traveled fifty miles or more by drift alone, and just during the storm.”
Harley nodded. “That sounds about right.”
Colt heard the engine of Jadyn’s jeep before it rounded a corner and emerged from the woods. She parked next to Colt’s truck and headed over, giving Colt a wave as she approached.
Colt held in a second sigh. The sight of Jadyn St. James in jeans, a T-shirt, and hiking boots, wearing no makeup and with her long dark hair in a ponytail, sent him to a mental state he hadn’t experienced since high school. Without a single bit of effort on her part, she was the sexiest woman he’d ever met. He’d been fighting his attraction from the moment he laid eyes on her at that first crime scene, but stubbornness had finally given way to desire and he’d kissed her.
He wasn’t sure what he’d expected from it. Maybe he’d been hoping that it would feel all wrong, and then he could apologize for his presumptuousness and things could go back to normal. Normal for Mudbug, anyway. But instead, that one kiss had terrified him. And that was something a Southern man did not admit, especially when he was the sheriff.
Fortunately, he’d had to leave the next day for a law enforcement conference that had lasted a week. He’d hoped the time away would clear his head of Jadyn, but instead, he found his thoughts constantly drifting back to her—during workshops and dinners, and even in his dreams. On the drive back to Mudbug, he’d finally decided it was time to put up or shut up. Either he believed all women were bloodsucking vipers like Maria or he believed a woman could be good-looking and capable, and still be warm-blooded.
This was the first time he’d seen the very warm-blooded Jadyn St. James since he returned from the conference. And aside from the problem the wrecked boat presented, Colt was almost relieved that their first meeting would be over business. Working a job together was a much better way to ease back into interaction with Jadyn—get him on firm footing until he could decide how to approach the elephant in the room.
“Morning, gentlemen,” she said as she stepped up.
Colt introduced her to Harley, whose eyebrows lifted when he caught the “new game warden” part, but he was smart enough to keep any opinions he had on the matter to himself.
“You thinking it got caught in the storm?” Jadyn asked.
Colt nodded and recounted the conversation he and Harley had about the wind speed and direction.
Jadyn blew out a breath, and Colt knew she’d already processed the variables and come up with the same conclusions he had. That was another thing—Jadyn was smart, which made it impossible to dismiss her as just another good-looking broad.
“Can you put out a request for any missing persons bulletins for the surrounding areas?” she asked him.
“I’ll put it on the wire and make some phone calls as soon as I get back to the office.”
“Great. I’ll give Marty a call and see if he can get this out of the cove and towed to his shop. Maybe I’ll be able to find something in it that tells me who it belonged to.”
“Hell,” Harley said, “if the guy’s missing, surely someone’s looking for him.”
“Really?” Colt asked. “If you went missing, how long before someone would know?”
Harley
“Yeah. I was fishing out Buford Point way when I saw the storm brewing. Came in a bit earlier than predicted, but isn’t that the way it always goes? I’d packed up most of my stuff an hour earlier, figuring the weather would screw me out of another hour like it always did, but I still caught the front end of it before I made it back to town.”
“It was moving that fast?”
“A good clip. I was doing twenty miles an hour or so, faster when I got a straightaway, but it moved in quicker than I could run through the channel. Probably a good forty-mile-an-hour wind blowing southwest pushing it. ”
Colt sighed. “Which means this boat could have traveled fifty miles or more by drift alone, and just during the storm.”
Harley nodded. “That sounds about right.”
Colt heard the engine of Jadyn’s jeep before it rounded a corner and emerged from the woods. She parked next to Colt’s truck and headed over, giving Colt a wave as she approached.
Colt held in a second sigh. The sight of Jadyn St. James in jeans, a T-shirt, and hiking boots, wearing no makeup and with her long dark hair in a ponytail, sent him to a mental state he hadn’t experienced since high school. Without a single bit of effort on her part, she was the sexiest woman he’d ever met. He’d been fighting his attraction from the moment he laid eyes on her at that first crime scene, but stubbornness had finally given way to desire and he’d kissed her.
He wasn’t sure what he’d expected from it. Maybe he’d been hoping that it would feel all wrong, and then he could apologize for his presumptuousness and things could go back to normal. Normal for Mudbug, anyway. But instead, that one kiss had terrified him. And that was something a Southern man did not admit, especially when he was the sheriff.
Fortunately, he’d had to leave the next day for a law enforcement conference that had lasted a week. He’d hoped the time away would clear his head of Jadyn, but instead, he found his thoughts constantly drifting back to her—during workshops and dinners, and even in his dreams. On the drive back to Mudbug, he’d finally decided it was time to put up or shut up. Either he believed all women were bloodsucking vipers like Maria or he believed a woman could be good-looking and capable, and still be warm-blooded.
This was the first time he’d seen the very warm-blooded Jadyn St. James since he returned from the conference. And aside from the problem the wrecked boat presented, Colt was almost relieved that their first meeting would be over business. Working a job together was a much better way to ease back into interaction with Jadyn—get him on firm footing until he could decide how to approach the elephant in the room.
“Morning, gentlemen,” she said as she stepped up.
Colt introduced her to Harley, whose eyebrows lifted when he caught the “new game warden” part, but he was smart enough to keep any opinions he had on the matter to himself.
“You thinking it got caught in the storm?” Jadyn asked.
Colt nodded and recounted the conversation he and Harley had about the wind speed and direction.
Jadyn blew out a breath, and Colt knew she’d already processed the variables and come up with the same conclusions he had. That was another thing—Jadyn was smart, which made it impossible to dismiss her as just another good-looking broad.
“Can you put out a request for any missing persons bulletins for the surrounding areas?” she asked him.
“I’ll put it on the wire and make some phone calls as soon as I get back to the office.”
“Great. I’ll give Marty a call and see if he can get this out of the cove and towed to his shop. Maybe I’ll be able to find something in it that tells me who it belonged to.”
“Hell,” Harley said, “if the guy’s missing, surely someone’s looking for him.”
“Really?” Colt asked. “If you went missing, how long before someone would know?”
Harley