Jessy shivered with fear but tried to hide it. She didn’t understand why they were acting this way? Especially Lincoln. His mood changed too quickly. It made her head spin. She had been right to resist his offer of friendship.
“Of course. Lily wouldn’t lie.” She felt her own anger rise. “You saw how frightened she was, Sheriff. Why would she make that up? There were footprints and cigarette butts to prove someone was out there.”
Lincoln leaned against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. Gone was the friendly, sweet look he had in his eyes lately. He was back to the old Lincoln who watched her as if she was about to steal his family china. “What is going on here?”
Lily came bursting in through the door, looking pale and frightened. “What happened, Jessy? I was told to come here right away. I had to get Amy to cover for me.”
The sheriff gestured for her sister to take the seat next to Jessy. Lily grabbed Jessy’s hand and squeezed it.
“Did you find the creep spying on us? Who was it?” Lily asked, her voice trembling with fear.
“I haven’t,” the sheriff answered. “I did some digging though, and much to my surprise Jessy and Lily Simmons don’t exist. Care to explain that?”
Jessy gasped out loud. Her heart started beating at a fast rate and she felt sweaty despite the cold air in the room. “Why would you look into our background like that?”
Abel looked at Lincoln briefly, then back at the girls. “When I knew my brother had a romantic interest in you, Jessy, I figured I’d better make sure you were legit.”
Jessy looked at Lincoln with shock. He looked just as scary as his brother, like he could easily strangle her. “Romantic? That’s crazy, Sheriff. We are, or were, friends and nothing else.”
Lily jumped off her chair. “Oh God. Did you look us up on the internet or call the New York police?”
“Both,” Abel answered in an unapologetic voice. “But I am the one asking the questions here. Who are you and why are you in my town? What kind of trouble do you plan on causing? Let me tell you I will not have it.”
Jessy felt her heart sink. Jagger would know where they were now. If the sheriff just did it within the last hour they still had time to run. Damn it, she hadn’t gotten paid yet. She felt panic take over her mind and her chest hurt with fear.
“Simmons was my mother’s maiden name. Our first names are real,” Lily spoke up, looking scared, too. She looked at Jessy as if waiting for her instructions. Jessy stood up and stood next to Lily’s chair. She gripped the back of it tightly, willing her knees not to buckle and cave.
“We didn’t come here to cause trouble.” She was glad she had not trusted Lincoln now, but she still felt her heart ache. For one brief moment, she had forgotten her vow of a staying away from men and their drama. Hadn’t she told Lily there was no such thing as a prince coming to the rescue? She had forgotten her own words. It had been swept away by one man’s good looks. She was the shallow one, not Lincoln.
“We’re leaving town. We haven’t committed any crimes, Sheriff.” Jessy snapped, not caring if they were upset by her bad attitude.
“You lied, Jessy. Is Jessy even your name?” Lincoln finally spoke up angrily, looking like he was going to take a step near her. Lily immediately jumped up and stood in front of Jessy.
Jessy ignored the loud thumping of her heart. “Yes. My name is Jessy.”
“Then why lie? What is your agenda here? I may have let your false innocent act fool me for a second but no more. I knew you were trouble from the moment I laid eyes on you.” He walked up to her, getting in her face. His eyes were narrow with anger and the nostrils of his nose flared. Jessy flinched and covered her face with her hands in case he hit her.
He looked shocked and took a step back. “I w
asn’t going to hit you, Jessy.”
Jessy released the breath she had been holding. Abel looked just as shocked. He was standing behind his desk. He lost some of his anger. “Are you running from someone? An abusive boyfriend?”
“No boyfriend,” Jessy answered, feeling her sister’s hands clutching her t-shirt. They were both trembling. “Yes, we are running, but we didn’t mean to bring trouble here. We love Brook Hollow. All we wanted was a peaceful life, a fresh start, but that was naïve of us to think we could run from our troubles.”
Jessy heard Lily sniff and hold back her sobs. “We should leave town, Jessy. Jagger is going to find us now.”
“Who is Jagger?” the sheriff asked her softly. He always lowered his voice when speaking to Lily, but his voice had been all hard and threatening when speaking to her. Men. Just because Jessy wasn’t as petite and shy as her sister, did not mean she couldn’t use some sympathy. She wanted the Lincoln she had gotten a brief glimpse of to hold her and tell her it was going to be okay. Men were unreliable. The first sign of trouble and they ran to cover their own asses.
“They should know,” Lily whispered in her ear.
Jessy sighed and sat back down in the chair. Lily was right. They should be prepared. She explained about her mother’s cancer, her dad drinking, and his gambling debt.
“So you had no idea he was gambling?” Lincoln sounded suspicious, and Jessy hated that he questioned her integrity.
“I was kind of busy working my ass off and nursing my mother,” she answered with an attitude. She barely had time to sleep some days. Watching her father’s habits had not been a priority.
Lily nodded in agreement, giving Lincoln a mean look. “Jessy had to drop out of college and it wasn’t fair. My dad was a worthless jerk even before he died. Instead of dealing with his life, he preferred to get drunk. Jessy took care of us, Officer Ramirez. Don’t you dare put the blame on my sister. She did nothing to cause any of this. We just wanted to live our lives as best as we could. We didn’t ask to get involved in my dad’s mess.”