Page 55 of When You Got a Good Thing (Misfit Inn 1)

Xander had himself under control by the time he made it to the station. He’d spent minimal time there the past week, coming in after hours to complete reports, update files. The moment he walked in, everybody stopped talking.

“Morning.”

Clyde Parker, the other Stone County Deputy, opened his mouth, but before he could blurt out whatever fool thing had crossed his mind, Leanne dug an elbow into his gut.

“Hi, Xander,” she said.

Jarvis nodded. “Mornin’.”

“We’re, um, just about ready to start the briefing.” Essie chewed her lip, which left a hot pink smudge on her teeth.

Nobody knew how to act. And why should they? Chances were this place was on the verge of World War III.

Xander crossed over to his desk, depositing his service weapon in the lock box in the bottom drawer. No reason to walk in there armed. This was a professional meeting.

The door to his father’s office opened, and Buck called a gruff, “Let’s get this thing started.”

Everybody filed in. Xander took a position on the far side of the office, well out of Buck’s reach. Not that he expected the old man to take a swing at him, but he wanted to remove temptation. His dad gave him a long look, face inscrutable, before launching into the briefing. Xander listened, took notes as necessary. He answered questions asked of him and generally maintained a professional demeanor for the duration of the meeting. It was a reasonable facsimile of a normal day.

Every single person in the room knew it wasn’t a normal day.

Xander had no idea what details Essie and Leanne may have shared with the others. They all gossiped like a bunch of teenage girls most of the time, so he was willing to bet everything that was on file and at least some of Essie’s personal recollections. Certainly they all knew he’d stormed out to confront his father and that he’d been avoiding Buck ever since.

But the détente couldn’t last.

As the meeting reached its natural conclusion, Buck dismissed everybody. “Xander, I need to talk to you about the county fair. The mayor’s wanting to change the parade route this year.”

It was a weak excuse and everyone knew it, but Xander knew he couldn’t put this off forever. So he stayed put as his coworkers left the office. Essie was the last one out. The door shut behind her with a quiet click that might as well have been the hammer of a gun.

“The fair’s not until June,” Xander said.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about the fair.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you have to say.”

“How the hell am I supposed to apologize if you keep avoiding me?”

“Apologize? Really? You think you can fix this with an apology?”

“It’d be a start.”

“Drop in the bucket, Dad. Do you even know what you’re apologizing for? Or is it just that you’re sorry you got caught?” A new thought occurred to him. “You’re up for re-election this year. Imagine what your constituents would have to say about such a flagrant abuse of power.”

Buck went pale. “It was a mistake.”

“A mistake? Copying down an address wrong from a driver’s license is a mistake. Transposing the numbers for clocked speed on a ticket is a mistake. Failing to properly mirandize a suspect in custody and emotionally blackmailing her for personal reasons is a gross misuse of the badge. Do you know what you did to her? Because it wasn’t just sending her away from me. You gave her an impossible choice. You damaged her relationship with her sisters, with her mother. She barely got to see Joan over the past decade because you made her too scared to ever come home. And now Joan’s dead and she can’t ever get that relationship back.”

“She didn’t have to leave the country—”

“Don’t you dare. She left because if she’d been anywhere stateside, I would’ve found her. She left because you made her think that if she so much as breathed wrong, you’d destroy her relationship with her family and arrest her on a felony. If anybody deserves an apology and restitution, it’s Kennedy. I hope you do try. You owe her that. And I hope she spits in your face. Because you deserve that. See, I’ve clarified for her all the lies you told, all the little manipulations of the truth. She’s not running scared anymore. She’s here to stay. With me. So you’d best get used to it.”

“Xander, I—”

“Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I’ll do the job, but every shred of respect I have for you as a father and as Sheriff is gone. From this day forward, you’re dead to me.”

Without another word, Xander strode out.

Chapter Fourteen

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