Page 97 of The Coppersmith Farmhouse (Jamison Valley 1)
“No.”
I drove nervously from the hospital to the station. My stomach was in tight knots. Walking in, I headed straight to Jess’s office. I gave out quick waves to everyone but I didn’t bother to stop.
Every other time I’d come to the station, the blinds to Jess’s office had been open. Now they were closed shut. When I got to the doorway, Jess was behind his desk, his head in his hands, propped up by both of his elbows.
“Hi,” I said, closing the door behind me.
The look on Jess’s face was devastating. His eyes were red, like he’d been rubbing them all day. His hair was a mess, sticking up in all directions from running his hands through it over and over. The only time his hair looked like that was when we were in bed together and the person running her hands through his hair was me. That look was sexy as hell. This was absolutely not.
I walked around the edge of his desk and straight into his space.
He turned his chair to face me with his legs spread wide. Once I was close enough, his arms came around my waist and he pulled me into the space between his legs. The top of his head went straight into my belly and his hands spread out on the small of my back.
I wrapped my arms around him, my fingers diving into his hair. Then I bent down to kiss the back of his head. I didn’t say anything, just held onto him as he held onto me. He’d tell me when he was ready.
“Wes was found murdered this morning,” he said.
I gasped and my muscles tensed.
Murder in Prescott? Things like that weren’t supposed to happen here.
And it wasn’t a nameless, faceless person. It was Wes. I knew him. Not that I was his friend. But still, I knew him.
As I was trying to process Jess’s words, he leaned away but kept his hands at my back.
“What happened?” I asked.
He propped me up on the edge of his desk so we could face each other. Sadness poured out of his blue eyes.
“Silas called me this morning. He was driving on an old county road out by his place and saw a body in the creek off to the side of the road. Went to check it out, saw it was Wes,” he said.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a second and took in a breath. I needed to be strong for Jess. This was my chance to prove to him, and myself, that I had what it took to be a cop’s girlfriend. Jess trusted me to be that person. I didn’t want to let him down.
Jess was going to be holding up the whole town. Everyone would count on him to make Prescott safe and put the killer behind bars. He’d take on the weight of all of Jamison County to make that happen.
I buried my fears deep and steeled my spine.
“Went up there, saw Wes in the creek. From the looks of it, he’d been there all night. Blood everywhere. Three different stabs to his gut,” he said.
“Stab wounds?”
He nodded.
“Do you have any idea who did it?”
He nodded again. “Coroner had just pulled up when Milo called, sitting here at the station. Said some kid had just walked in to report a murder.”
“The killer walked into the station?”
“No, it was a witness. Christ, Georgia. He was just a kid. Nineteen, twenty maybe. He was fucking flipped out and spilled the whole story.”
“What happened?”
“He was over at a friend’s house. Smoking meth. Getting loaded. When it got late, the place cleared out except for this woman and an older guy he’d never seen before. This woman starts bragging about how she knows Wes and can score them more drugs.”
At the mention of Wes’s name, he dropped his head and took a minute to collect himself.
I couldn’t imagine how he was feeling. He had known Wes a long time, even if they were enemies.
