No Quick Fix (Torus Intercession 1)

“Oh, you’re not going to hurt anybody else, and as the new sheriff of this town, the first thing I’m gonna do is make all three of you pay for what you did to Mr. Bannon.”

“Sheriff!” Reed yelled at me. “Have you lost your—”

The large picture window to the right of me exploded, glass and wood flying in every direction as Huck flew by me, landing in a crouch, gun drawn.

“Anne, get down!” I roared at her as Huck fired.

I leaped toward Duvall, who pulled the trigger as I hit him. Both of us fell in a scramble of limbs, but Duvall was slammed against the floor first, with me coming down on top of him, and the force winded him and knocked the gun free.

Rolling to my feet, Duvall’s Beretta in my hand, I yelled for Huck. “Clear!”

“Clear,” he echoed me, picking up Reed’s gun before walking to the kitchen, working his bad shoulder as he moved.

I heard Reed moaning, figured he was fine, and then looked down at Duvall. “If you get up, I will shoot you in the head. Are we clear?”

He nodded from where he was spread-eagle near the front door. Mr. Cahill was in a fetal position near him, hands over his head, not moving. I walked over to him, checked for a weapon, found nothing, then darted across the room to Anne, who was crouched behind the coffee table.

“You okay?” I asked, easing her up. I brushed her hair out of her eyes and made sure she was steady on her feet.

“Yes, I—Brann are you—where’s Reed?”

“He’s fine,” I assured her, tipping my head to Huck, who was back from the kitchen with a dishtowel that he bent and pressed to Reed’s shoulder before moving the man’s other hand to apply pressure. “You can’t die from that.”

She nodded quickly, looking at Huck as he reached us.

“You all right, ma’am?” he asked gently with that whiskey-sounding voice of his that reminded everyone of sex.

“Oh,” she sighed, staring at him, all doe-eyed and vulnerable. “Yes. Thank you.”

He made a face. “It was fine. Brann had it. I wouldn’t’ve even come in, but he might’ve taken a bullet protecting you, and I can’t have that.”

“You have glass in your hair,” I told him, “and you probably tracked it all the way to the kitchen. We’re gonna be vacuuming for hours.”

“Blame the assholes with the guns,” he groused at me. “So since you’re not the law in this town yet, who am I calling to pick these guys up?”

“Who told you about that?”

“Emery and the girls.”

I nodded, arching an eyebrow for him.

He squinted at me, looking bored.

“What’s happening right now?” Anne asked us both.

“Is that what you want?” He was staring at me, his blue-green eyes steady, unwavering, waiting for what I would say.

“Of course that’s what I want.”

He sniffed once, pulling his phone from his back pocket. “That means us, here, and you might be the one stuck with me long-term ’cause I’m not going again.”

Translated from Huck into English, it meant that if I wanted him here, then Ursa would become his new home, but I had better not change my mind because this was it and I was stuck with him. Forever.

“Good,” I said simply, giving him a quick pat on the shoulder. “We’re all set.”

“I get no hug?” he said, holding his phone to his ear.

“What part of ‘covered in glass’ don’t you get?”

“This is fuckin’ Colombia all over again,” he muttered with a roll of his eyes.

“How much coke were you covered in?” I snapped, scowling at him. “We had to hose you down for hours.”

He wasn’t listening to me anymore, instead talking to whoever was on the other end of his call. “Yeah, I’ve got the former deputy of Ursa here bleeding on the floor of my friend’s living room. We need an ambulance, and we’ve got two more guys ready to go to jail.”

“Tell ’em not to kill themselves getting over here.”

“You heard him. The new sheriff of Ursa says you can take your time. We’ve got this.”

Seventeen

By the time Emery and the girls got back from the diner with Winston—they had run into Mal and Jules and their boys—there was a maid service completing the cleanup of the house, and I was finishing up with Sheriff Thomas and Sergeant Tavares from Whitefish.

Tavares had brought twenty of his men, all of whom, along with Tavares, were very pleased to hear I would be taking over the sheriff duties from Thomas, earlier than normal, in the first week of December. Starting off my tenure by closing a homicide investigation was impressive, to say the least.

“It will also give Mrs. Bannon some closure.”

I was glad about that.

“Brann!” Emery yelled from the sidewalk, where the Whitefish officers were holding everyone, not letting anyone through to the house unless they got Tavares’s okay.