Page 16 of Never Stay Gone
Jealousy tore through him, a searing wash of it, like he’d walked into a waterfall of the oil-slick feeling.
“Shane,” Alejandro called out from behind the bar.
Shane shook off the image of Dakota and maneuvered through the crowd, ignoring the sidelong looks and the smirks hidden behind beer bottles. He’d heard it all before. When he and Shelly first got together, back when she was a shiny new woman in town, fresh-faced and glowing with daddy’s pride and credit line, word was that Shane could never keep someone like her. She’d fallen for the strong, silent deputy, the whispers went, but she’d fall out of that fascination faster than she’d fallen in.
Once, he’d had the town’s respect. Once, people had looked at him and expected greatness, had expected that he’d put Rustler on the map. To this day, he didn’t know who was more disappointed when he limped back home: himself, his father, or the town gossips.
Shane bellied up to the bar and leaned his elbows on the polished oak, flexing his knee behind him and trying to stretch the aching joint. Alejandro eyed him up and down, a faint grimace on his face. Alejandro had long, black hair parted down the center, and he always wore the same thing: black undershirt, plaid button-down open in the front, faded blue jeans from the nineties, and a broken-in pair of cowboy boots that had kicked more than a hundred drunks off the saloon’s porch, leaving them to fight their own shadows and bad tempers in the street.
“How’s the leg?” Alejandro asked.
Shane ignored the question, like he always did. “I thought you weren’t going to serve Shelly like that. She drinks too fast.”
“Look, you see how crowded it is in here, yeah?” Alejandro nodded to the packed house. Canned music was playing over the speakers as the band took a breather at a corner table. If possible, more people had filled the room in the few minutes Shane had been outside. “AndI’mnot the one who needs to get Shelly’s drinking under control.” He fixed Shane with a pointed look.
“How do you want me to take that?”
“Take it however you want to. Shelly has been in here a lot more in the past six months, and at first, it was her and her girlfriends getting excited about the wedding planning. I served them a lot of champagne and congrats, you know? But she hasn’t been in with a wedding magazine in a while. She’s not celebrating anymore.” He frowned. “You two okay?”
How the hell could Shane answer that? His jaw flexed, and the muscles in his cheek clenched and relaxed like a strumming guitar string. He felt the heat of a stare coming from somewhere down the bar. From where Dakota sat.
Alejandro shook his head. He grabbed a billholder from beside the register and set it in front of Shane. “Shelly said everything was on you tonight. Her and her friends. It was supposed to be some kind of date night?”
Shane sighed as he pulled out his wallet. “Yeah, it was supposed to be.” Minus Danielle and Misty, of course. But why wouldn’t Shelly have fortified her defenses, stacked the deck against the possibility Shane would be late? Exactly like he was.
Alejandro took Shane’s debit card and ran it, then came back with the signature slip. Shane put a twenty on the bar top after he signed.
“I heard about the bodies you recovered in the desert,” Alexandro said. “Some kind of mass grave.”
“Whole place talking about it already?”
“You know how it is.” Alexandro shrugged and pocketed the twenty. “You sure it wasn’t an Indian grave?”
Shane thought back to the corpses, the still-decaying flesh. There were older bodies, too, but Shane didn’t think they were hundreds of years old. “Don’t think so. I know I’m not the best deputy around, but I can tell you it wasn’t that old.”
“You’re not that bad, Shane.” Alejandro winked, trying to cheer him up. Shane snorted. “Dakota’s back too, huh?”
That’s what had finally brought Dakota back. Not Shane. No, never Shane. A dead girl, someone close to the governor.
Betty’s raucous laughter broke over the bar. Shane flinched. “Can’t talk about the case. You know that.”
“People are already talking. You want that I should listen? See who’s saying what about what?”
“Sure.” Shane set his foot down, testing the weight he could bear on his bad knee. It was still killing him. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you anything in return.”
Alejandro’s grin slid sideways. “Aw, hell, it’s always worth a try.” He started, as if noticing something under the bar top. “Oh, shit. Almost forgot. Shelly left this in the bathroom. Jenna brought it out.” He passed over a cell phone encased in white silicone with a liquid glitter float filled with charms: high heels and pink lipsticks and golden XOs.
“Again?” Shane groaned.
“Also, I don’t want to be prying or nothing…” Alejandro’s voice trailed off.
“Just say it.”
“When I grabbed the phone, the screen turned on. I think Shelly was getting some text messages from a guy.”
“She can text anyone she wants.”
“Yeah, well, maybe these are texts a fiancé wouldn’t exactly want his girl receiving.” Alejandro shrugged. Backed away and held up his hands. “Then again, who am I to say? I don’t know what you guys got going on.”
