Shaking his head Preston set DeShaun’s paperwork into the old pile. He knew the man was rotting away in jail in New York, playing bitch to whichever man would give him the drugs they snuck into the facility. He sifted through a few more images and statements, but nothing was connecting the dots. Harposia herself could wield a mighty sword while locked away in her facility, but he didn’t think she had that far enough of a reach to start an entirely new union. He just needed to figure out how the cartel in Georgia knew every step the FBI was taking. There was a link somewhere and he was sure that Damon Durcett played a part.
He was so lost in his work, trying to piece together different segments of the case that he didn’t hear the door to his office open or notice that Shelly was standing right before his desk. He looked up at her, a ready smile on his face, but Preston frowned when he saw her gaze trained on the image of DeShaun sitting on top of the stack on his desk.
“What’s this?” Shelly asked as she lifted the paper and began reading it. He knew when she read that he had been the lead agent because a fury like no other beamed from her. Shelly’s body began to tremble as she curled her fingers around the paper.
“Shelly, I can explain.”
“I asked you what this is,” she seethed.
Sighing, Preston explained that it was the official FBI documentation from her exes arrest and the subsequent arrests made to tear down a drug, weapons, and human trafficking cartel.
“And you were a part of this? You were one of the ones that stormed into my apartment and arrested us?”
“No, Shelly. It wasn’t like that.” Preston dashed around his desk and tried to pry the paper from her hand, but she wasn’t having it. Her eyes were scanning over the official statement that he made along with DeShaun’s.
“It was a mistake that you were tied into this. I was one of the ones that pushed for your release.”
“And I should believe you?” she shouted. “My God, you’ve been lying to me from the start, Preston. You were an FBI agent and now you’re what, the town sheriff and an agent on the side? Do you even realize that you tore my family apart before it had even begun?”
“Shelly, you know that isn’t’ true,” he said, focusing on her latter statement. “DeShaun had been the one to tear your family apart. I was the one that arrested him because he sold me a twelve-year-old girl high on so many drugs she didn’t even know her name. You were wrapped up in something that you had no idea was going on, and I’m sorry for that, but I will never apologize for arresting that piece of trash.”
She seemed to take a few seconds to calm down and Preston wasn’t sure if he should be worried or not.
“Is this the mission you went on? To put your life on the line to play connect the dots?”
“Shelly, it’s not like that,” he tried to explain but knew he was failing miserably because she wasn’t wrong. He did put his life on the line to find the bad guy. The scars and wounds on his body proved that time and time again.
“I can’t do this with you, Preston. When does it stop? When do you decide that the bullets are too much or when the bullets aren’t enough? And the lies. Since day one of meeting you, it’s been a lie. And you know what’s worse. I’ve been lying to myself all along. I told myself that my instinct was wrong, that I could trust you, that I could feel things for you. What an idiot I am,” Shelly said as she slapped the paper back on the desk and stormed toward the door.
“Shelly, wait!” he called out, and thankfully she halted at the door but didn’t turn around to glance at him. “I’m sorry for everything, but you have to know that I love you. That I’m in love with you.”
The air crackled around them and Preston prayed that she’d hear the honesty in his voice, the need in his plea, but they went unanswered as she took a step forward and out of his life for good.
Somehow he had fucked it all up good when he knew he should have taken Dylan’s advice and told her right away, but being back in Carson with her in his arms was too addictive of a reward. Preston had been afraid of her reaction, and now he had lost her.
“Fuck!” he shouted from where he stood in the middle of his office, his hands delving into his blond strands of hair.
“Sir?” a voice sounded from around the corner and now he had the embarrassment of his employee witnessing his demise. “Can I get you something?”
“Just go. Leave early. I want to be alone,” he told her as he slammed his door closed, shutting himself off from the world.
***
Shelly was a mess as she stomped out of the police building. She had been planning on surprising Preston at the office since he was working late nights that week and she wouldn’t see him much. He was so lost in work that he didn’t even hear her call out his name as she stepped inside. Something had drawn her eye to the papers on the desk, her gaze immediately falling on the picture of her ex.
She wasn’t even angry at first, just a bit confused. But even from upside down, she could see Preston’s name and his pseudonym listed as the lead agent. Every emotion within her snapped at that moment. She couldn’t hold back and unleashed years of pent-up rage and fury at the man she had been falling in love with.
That was the worst part of the entire ordeal, he had confessed he loved her and she wanted so desperately to tell him the same, but things had changed. In the course of five minutes, everything she knew of her past had changed.
Preston knew her, he had been the man with the piercing blue eyes that had barged into her apartment. He had been the one that had shocked DeShaun enough for her boyfriend to release his hold of her neck. He had been the one that rushed to her side as she fell to the ground blacking out from lack of oxygen. She had never seen him again after that moment, but she had heard all about Sheriff Savage whenever she visited Carson. He had always been busy or working, and now she wondered if he was keeping his distance on purpose.
Shelly walked past Wake and Bake, swiping the tears that flowed freely down her cheeks. Someone inside the bakery must have noticed her fallout because the suddenly felt arms wrap around her waist.
“Shelly, what’s wrong?” Sydney asked. The petite blonde looking concerned as Shelly worked to catch her breath between sobs.
“It’s Preston, he-,” Shelly began but Sydney quickly interrupted.
“Is he okay? He’s not hurt, is he?”