Page 44 of Deadly Oath

“I’m not going to ask what you need those for,” Connell says dryly. “None of my business, honestly. Is there anything else you need from me?”

I shake my head. “I appreciate you coming through so quickly.”

“Anything for an old friend.” Connell grins, the smile not quite meeting his eyes, and I’m well aware why. Connell and I go way back—he’s part of the reason I was able to secure the sheriff position in Rivershade—but men like us can never quite consider each otherfriendsin the purest sense. There’s always the possibility of betrayal, the weight of too many secrets, the knowledge that we’re both in a world that encourages us to look out for ourselves.

Connell knows what I could do to him, too, if he ever rolled over on me. So I don’t worry about that. But that knowledge, in and of itself, makes true friendship between us impossible.

“Thanks again,” I tell him, getting up smoothly. Connell doesn’t move from the booth, and I can feel his eyes on me as I go. I get backto my truck to wait until Sabrina texts me that she’ll be ready to go shortly.

I’m waiting outside of the building when she comes out. I get out and open the door for her, and she gives me a quick, almost grateful smile as she climbs in. It startles me, and I feel momentarily thrown off as I go around to hop back into the driver’s seat.

“I need to pick up a prescription,” she says, glancing over at me. “It’ll take about an hour before it’s filled.”

“Let’s get lunch then,” I suggest. “I know a few good places. There’s a nice Mexican restaurant nearby, or a sushi place?—”

“Sushi,” Sabrina says immediately. “It feels like it’s been ages since I had that.”

“Sushi it is, then,” I tell her with a smile, putting the directions in. I’m glad she needed to wait in town for another hour. A bit more time with her away from home and the reminders of what’s been happening there is exactly what I need to get things back on track with her.

The sushi place that I take her to is small, a relaxing little restaurant with a trickling indoor fountain and soothing music, along with low tables and the scent of eucalyptus filling the air. Sabrina asks for water and a miso soup when the waitress comes by our table, looking back at me as I order the same.

“Is this another date?” she asks, a hint of teasing in her voice, and I raise an eyebrow at her.

“Do you want it to be?” It’s a loaded question, one that is about more than just this date, and I think she knows it. That chilliness that sprang up between us during the visit to the jail is still lingering, and I want to know if she wants to keep moving forward.

Sabrina bites her lip. “I think so,” she says softly. “I—I talked to Marie. This is all new to me. You freaked me out a little with how you handled things. With that man.”

“More than a little, I think.” I take a sip of my water. “You were pretty pissed at me.”

Sabrina swallows hard, nodding. “I just—I didn’t think you had itin you. To do that to someone. And I didn’t know how to feel about it, knowing that you did.”

“You’d be surprised at a lot of things about me,” I remark, setting the glass back down. “But there’s only one way to find them out.”

“I know.” Sabrina worries at the paper covering her chopsticks, tearing it to shreds, and then breaking the chopsticks apart. “I keep saying I want to take this slow. But I guess I don’t really know what that means, relative to anything else. I’ve never dated before. I’ve never done anything like this before. And we keep blowing past every line that I try to say that I want to approach slowly. So I guess—” She looks down at the menu in front of her, chewing on her lip. “Let’s just take it at whatever pace feels right.”

Her expression is as vulnerable as what she’s saying, and it tugs at something unexpectedly in my chest. Sabrina isn’t the person I thought she would be. I see that more and more with every moment I spend with her—that though she may have grown up privileged, she isn’t the spoiled brat I expected. But in the end, that doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t change anything.

We eat our sushi while chatting about nothing of any real consequence, Sabrina asking me for advice on how to safely use the trails behind her house to run, and me asking her if there’s anything else in her house that she’s noticed that needs fixing. “Your landlord isn’t going to send anyone out to do it,” I warn her. “So you might as well tell me. I’ve heard plenty about the man that that house is rented from—he won’t spend a penny to fix it up if he doesn’t have to.”

Something crosses Sabrina’s face, a fleeting expression that I think I can make sense of, though I keep my thoughts about it to myself. She nods, looking at me narrowly across the table, a bit of that old suspicion on her face again.

“Why would you do that?” she asks quietly. “I’m not going to fuck you in exchange for you doing nice things for me. If we do—that—again, it’s because I want you as much as you seem to want me. So why go to all of this extra trouble? I don’t think you want anything serious with me.”

She says it flatly, as if she doesn’t care, but I catch the tiny quiver in her voice. She might want to believe that it doesn’t matter to her whether or not this thing between us becomes anything, but it does. I can see that it does, deep down.

A smile spreads across my lips, and I lean forward, careless of anyone else in the room who might be watching as I reach across the table and press my thumb against her lower lip. It’s slightly damp from her last sip of water, cool beneath the pad of my thumb, and she shivers at my touch. “Princess,” I tell her quietly, “you have no idea what I want.”

Irritation and desire both mingle in her eyes. “You’re not going to tell me, either, are you?” she asks, her tone slightly annoyed, but there’s a playfulness in it, too.

I smirk at her. “Not yet.”

Sabrina lets out a sigh as she eats her last bite of sushi, setting her chopsticks down. “We should go pick up my prescription,” she says, leaning back, and I can tell that she’s finished with the conversation for now. Which is a relief, because I don’t particularly want her to keep digging further.

I have secrets, too. And I’m not ready to reveal them to her yet.

Sabrina is mostly silent on the drive home. “Thanks for the ride,” she says as she gets out of the truck, as if she thinks that I’m just going to drop her off and leave her here. Instead, I kill the engine and get out, chuckling as she looks at me with one eyebrow raised.

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