His dad added, “With the current D.A. retiring, we need someone.”
“Ask Jackson Wilde. He’s from here. Makes sense. Besides, I like being a defense attorney.” Not entirely true, but it was a living.
“Do you love your too-big caseload, son? I never know what city you’re in until you tell me. How many cases do you have in Reno? In Vegas? Hell, even in Elko you’re working at least three.”
“Elko may be small but it’s flooded with people who need my help. Don’t worry, Pop. I’m not taking any new cases.” He took another bite of his lunch and saw someone he didn’t expect to be in Wilde come through the diner’s entry.
Sheriff Lyle Byrd of Elko County walked straight up to them, not waiting for Anna or Danielle to lead him to a table or booth. “Wayne, where is Alex?” the overweight lawman demanded.
Brandon didn’t like Byrd’s tone or the look in his eye. The sheriff of Elko wasn’t a man to be trifled with. The man had a cold-blooded way of working cases. Though Brandon had never been able to prove it, yet, he believed Byrd had planted and tampered with evidence on several occasions to make convictions stick, whether the accused was truly guilty or not. “Why do you want to know where my brother is, Sheriff?”
“What are you doing up here in Wilde, counselor?” Byrd asked with a smirk.
What an ass. “Lunch with my dad, if you must know, but you haven’t answered my question.”
“I don’t plan on answering it either.” The sheriff turned to his father. “You’re a lawman now, Doc. Time to start acting like one. Where is Alex Champion?”
“You have a warrant, Lyle?” his pop asked.
“I just need to question him and the woman he was with in Elko Saturday night.”
Woman? Had Alex made the move on Shelby like Justin had? Was Sheriff Byrd looking for her, too? “What do you want to question them about?”
“I’m here on official business, young man.” Byrd frowned and then looked at his dad. “Why the cat and mouse, Wayne? Have you forgotten where you came from? It isn’t here.”
“I am the sheriff in Silver County, Lyle. Not you. Either you answer Brandon’s question or you can go back to Elko.”
“Look, I’m working on an attempted murder case. People saw your son and a blonde woman talking to the victim Saturday night in Elko. The attack occurred at noon yesterday. Some recognized her as a Wilde girl. Do you know who she might be?”
Brandon had seen that look in Sheriff Byrd’s eyes before. Now he’s going to try to pin this on Alex and Shelby. He must act and fast.
“Let’s take this to my office, Lyle,” his dad said, glancing at Brandon for a split second. “We can sort it all out there.”
His pop knew the Elko sheriff’s reputation as well as he. His father was clearly giving him some much-needed time, if only a little, to get a plan together.
* * * *
Shelby sat reading her book from one of her favorite authors, Sophie Oak. But she really wasn’t reading it at all. Her attention was on a certain lawyer who was sitting three booths away with Sheriff Champion and his wife, Connie. Brandon Champion was just as sexy as his two brothers. Taller by a half inch than even Justin. Every time he smiled, she saw his lone dimple on his left cheek, just like Justin’s.
God, Brandon was devastatingly beautiful. She glanced back at her book when his dark eyes locked on hers for a moment. Her heart was racing. Why was she being so foolish?
She was a girl from Wilde. To Elko men, that meant she was a woman from the proverbial “other side of the tracks.”
It would never work for Brandon. It would never work for Alex or Justin either. The Champions all wanted different things than she did. One man. One woman. That was what the outside world deemed normal.
She wasn’t about to settle. It wasn’t fair to them or to her, though her heart was so on board with pursuing the impossible dream. Was it because of her night with Alex? God, being with him had been so amazing. Her submissive side had responded to him even during the vanilla sex. Odd. That had never happened before to her.
Apparently, a lot of odd things were happening lately.
Shelby had been shocked to see the sheriff from Elko walk into Norma’s and head over to the booth where Wayne Champion sat. Wayne was the acting sheriff for Silver County, so it didn’t make sense that the sheriff from Elko County would be here.
What had shocked her was the reaction she s
aw on Brandon’s face. He was clearly not a fan of Sheriff Byrd. Most in her hometown knew the past history that had occurred between Byrd and the Strong and Wilde families. Bad blood.
But people from Elko seemed to adore the man. Byrd won every election by a landside no matter who ran against him. Why did Brandon and his dad have obvious disdain for the sheriff?
Byrd walked out of the diner with Wayne and Connie.