Dustin manages to piss off Jordan and he storms out of the computer store. Unfortunately not out of Dustin's life. Roy steps in and gives Dustin a lift. So what now? Find out in this week's chapter of The Sheriff. Don't forget to visit the other Briefers and see what's up with them. Their links follow my tale! Enjoy!
“So what did he say? When does he intend to do this thing?”
Roy asked as they drove away from the computer store. “Or has he changed his
mind?”
“I wish.” Dustin slumped in the seat. He kept a careful
watch on what traffic there was around them. He didn’t want to have Jordan see
them together, although he didn’t think that was really likely. “He said it’s gonna happen tomorrow tonight.
After midnight, when I get off. He said he’d be there then.”
“Is he bringing anyone else?”
“I dunno, he didn’t say. It wouldn’t surprise me, though. I
think it makes him feel like a big man, having those two idiots who’d do
anything he tells them to. Like they were his gang of something.” And didn’t
that hit a little too close to home?
Roy fell silent for a moment. “Did he say anything about
seeing you in the meantime? Before tomorrow night, I mean?”
Dustin was surprised by the question. He glanced up at Roy,
but the lawman’s expression was impossible to read. Handsome but stoic. “Naw,
he’s too pissed at me right now, I think. I’m just afraid he’ll change his mind
and come looking for me, for a little…” He left the thought unfinished. He
didn’t want to admit to Roy what Jordan might be looking for. He didn’t even
want to think about having sex with Jordan —not now, not ever.
“Well, then, maybe you should be somewhere he can’t find
you,” Roy suggested.
“Easier said than done,” Dustin blurted out without
thinking. Not like he had friends he could turn to, not the way his cousin had.
He knew if Denver asked, he could count on any one of them—Rye, Slim, Marshall,
Lee, even Roy…
Dustin was jerked from his self-pity party when Roy suddenly
pulled his truck into a nearby parking lot, turned around, then pulled back on
the road, headed in the direction they’d just come from. It didn’t take long
for Dustin to figure out where they were going. Damn. Roy was sick of him, he
was gonna dump him at home. He didn’t think he could feel any lower than he did
at that moment.
He wasn’t about to argue with him, though. And he wasn’t
going to try to push his company on him. Those days were over, the times when
he tried to force Marshall to be with him. No, he’d learned his lesson on that
one. He sat in silence until they reached the apartment building. He was going
to ask if Roy was still planning on being there the next night, in case he’d
completely changed his mind, and maybe he was on his own, when Roy spoke first.
“Go grab some clothes, enough for a few days, just to be
safe.”
What? Why?
“He won’t think to look for you in Burnham,” Roy explained.
He threw the truck into park and turned toward Dustin, leaning on the steering
wheel as he looked at him. “Hell, I’m willing to bet he doesn’t even know where
Burnham is. You can just lie low there until tomorrow.”
Dustin was dumfounded. Why was Roy being so nice to him? Oh
yeah, the case he was working on. He’d said he thought Jordan was involved in
the other robberies. That would probably look good for him and Sheriff Sinclair
both. He needed to not read anything into it.
“You sure?” He was offering Roy the chance to back out. He
would understand if he did, no hard feelings. He just had to be sure this was
what Roy wanted, for his own sake.
“I said it, I mean it,” Roy affirmed. “By the way, you’re
still getting the couch.”
Dustin couldn’t help but smile at that. Despite the somewhat
gruff exterior, he knew there was a good heart underneath. One he was learning
to appreciate more and more. What a damn shame he was straight. Oh well,
couldn’t be helped. He’d just have to take what he could get for now. And right
now what he wanted was to stick with Roy as much as possible, even if he knew
it would end badly.
to be continued
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