Things We Never Said (Hart's Boardwalk 3)

The girls called after me as I rushed out of the bookstore, but I didn’t want to be around anyone. I had to plan. Somehow, I had to make Michael see he and I were a bad idea while I kept him and Dana apart without him suspecting it was jealousy.

It wasn’t jealousy.

It was friendship.

Okay.

It was jealousy too.

However, there had to be a way to do this without making it seem like it was jealousy.

It was Day Four, as Michael was calling it. Day four on the job in Hartwell and he was getting antsy not seeing Dahlia. Time was almost up on that. Striding into the station that morning, two coffees in hand, Michael said hello to Bridget and a couple of the deputies. As he turned down the corridor that led to Jeff’s office, he saw Deputy Freddie Jackson coming toward him.

The deputy’s eyes narrowed on Michael and as they neared each other, Freddie’s gaze moved past him, determinedly not looking at him. Michael noted the way his hands clenched into fists at his sides. For a man who had been smart enough to cover his own ass for years, his reaction to Michael wasn’t smart.

“Deputy,” Michael acknowledged him.

Jackson’s expression was full of loathing. He didn’t return Michael’s greeting.

Shaking his head, he continued toward Jeff’s office.

Jeff believed Jackson was taking payoffs from the Devlin family in return for providing them with information he picked up at the station and city hall. Jeff suspected Jackson was the one who’d bugged his office. Moreover, he was concerned about complaints of trumped-up charges filed by Jackson over the last two and a half years. He’d pulled people over for speeding, had claimed to find drugs in a car in one situation, and charged another with drunk and disorderly. Things that were hard to prove either way without reliable witnesses, of which there were none in these cases.

The drugs could have been planted by Jackson, but there was no proof. The people he’d charged were people with businesses in Hartwell, people who had ended up either selling to Devlin or getting into bed with him in the business sense. Jeff believed Jackson was helping to intimidate and harass the people whose businesses were of particular interest to Devlin.

Moreover, Jeff suspected Jackson had been covering up crimes committed by the Devlins, including an attack on Bailey Hartwell last year. The eldest Devlin son, Stu, had broken into Bailey’s inn wearing a ski mask and when Bailey caught him in her office, he attacked her. She was adamant it was Stu, but there was no evidence to prove it. The idea of someone attacking Dahlia’s friend pissed Michael off. The fact that Jack Devlin started sleeping with Bailey’s sister Vanessa, who owned a share in Hart’s Inn, which led to Vanessa offering to sell her sh

are of the inn to Ian Devlin, only substantiated Bailey’s claim that it was a Devlin who attacked her that night. Jeff explained Vanessa had sold her share to Bailey’s fiancée instead, thankfully cutting the Devlins out. Still, they were a shady family, and the idea they had a cop on the payroll didn’t sound too farfetched.

Jackson’s edgy behavior since Michael’s appearance seemed to confirm Jeff’s suspicions. Thankfully, making Jackson edgy was one of the goals of bringing Michael in. The deputy was a smarmy little shit but from what Michael could tell, he wasn’t stupid. Merely arrogant.

He’d left no paper trail of his crimes. But that arrogance had tripped him up because he’d put himself on Jeff’s radar. Still, they needed him to make mistakes. If he thought Michael was closing in on him, he just might.

Michael knocked and then strode in with a coffee for the sheriff. Morning coffee together had quickly become their ritual.

“Passed Jackson,” Michael said as he sat down in the chair opposite Jeff’s desk. “If looks could kill, I’d be fuckin’ ash right about now. He’s edgy around me.”

“Good.”

“You got an unmarked car Jackson won’t recognize?”

Jeff lifted an eyebrow as he sipped his coffee. “You thinking of tailing him?”

“Think I need to. If he’s as nervous about my sudden appearance as he seems to be, then he’ll likely go to the Devlins in a panic. He’ll want reassurance from them.”

Jeff nodded. “I’ll get you a car. In other business, Kell Summers just got off the phone. He’s a councilman, and he does the events around here. The Winter Carnival is in two weeks, and the theme of the parade is Disney. Kell wants you to dress up as Mr. Incredible.”

Not sure he’d heard right, Michael didn’t respond.

The sheriff chuckled. “Do you even know who Mr. Incredible is?”

“I have pseudo-nephews,” he said, thinking about Levi and Leo. “So, yeah. I’m also thinking you’re not actually asking me to do this. Put on a fuckin’ leotard?”

He scowled. “No. I think it’s ridiculous Kell even suggested it and I told him no. It’s hard to keep you under the radar in a small town, but we can do our best. Putting you in a fucking parade is the last thing we need or have time for right now. As it is, I had a hard time trying to dissuade my deputies from taking part, but if they want to, I can’t stop them.”

The thought made Michael’s insides shrivel. “Yeah, there’s no fuckin’ way I’m doing it. That’s not why I’m here.”

“Kell knows that now. Heads-up, though. He told me Dana Kellerman would try her best to persuade you because she’s playing Mr. Incredible’s wife.” Jeff quirked an eyebrow. “What’s that about? She sniffing around you?”