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John opened the door, stepped out of the office, and with a click of the latch left Zeke alone with that final thought It was a thought that should have filled hi whenever ely, the dread wasn’t there now

He shook his head at the thought of that, grabbed up his hat before strapping on his weapon and heading for the door

"Kendal, radio Gene and infor out I’d like to meet up with hi shift," he told his secretary

"Gene called in while you werewith Mr Walker He had to take the rest of the day off to take his wife to the doctor in Louisville"

"Alicia all right?" he asked

Kendal nodded "It was a checkup, but she wanted Gene to go in with her I think they’re going to visit with their daughter Willa while they’re there"

Zeke nodded at that "I’ll head on out then"

"Sheriff, you had a call from Teddy Winfred He asked that you stop by his place when you can"

Zeke stopped and turned back to her "Teddy lives on the road that leads to the Walker twins’ place, doesn’t he?"

Kendal’s expression sobered "About two miles"

"I’ll head out there now"

"Sheriff," she called him back as he started to head to the door

"Yeah?" He turned to her again, seeing the worry in her blue eyes

"He asked me to make certain no one knew that he asked you to come to the house

And he asked that you keep it to yourself"

"Did you tell anyone he called?"

She tilted her head and stared back at hily "I didn’t even tell Gene when he called in"

"I’ll head on out there then" He nodded "Let the deputy on duty tonight know that I’m on call if he needs me"

"Will do, Boss" Kendal flashed hi the hallway to the exit

Minutes later he was in the Tahoe heading out of toard the Winfred place

Teddy Winfred was eighty if he was a day He didn’t venture out of his mobile home often and he didn’t like visitors He’d damned near run Gene off with his cane when the deputy dropped by to question him after the Walker twins’ bodies had been found He was also a close friend with Callie Walker

Heading out to the Winfred place had put his plans to drop by Rogue’s aparth The past two days had been hectic, for hiue as she worked at the restaurant well past closing He’d picked her up after work and returned to her apartht, but there was still an edge of tension between them that he hadn’t had tioing to helpto be more trouble than he orth and definitely more than Zeke wanted to put up with at thelike his father, Calvin Walker, then he could beco Calvin Walker had been a hellion when he was younger, more often in trouble than not, simply because he hadn’t knohen to keep his nose out of others’ business It hadn’t surprised Zeke at all that Walker had become a lawyer, and one in Boston nonetheless Zeke bet he kept all the feathers ruffled there

He grinned at the thought of it He reood decade and a half older than Zeke was He also remembered how much his father and Gene’s had hated the other man

James Maynard had been Thad Mayes’s deputy for several years when Thad had held the sheriff’s office The two men had made it a point to harass Calvin as often as possible They considered it a game, a way to feel superior Thad hadn’t always run his office with any sense of justice Unlike Zeke, he had seen it as a means to power, a way to keep others beneath him, and a way to ensure that he was accepted in the upper-class level of the county at the time

Thad’s dreams hadn’t been Zeke’s, but his father had drawn him into the dark underbelly of that life anyway He wasn’t the county’s sheriff; he’d been Dayle Mackay’s sheriff, and what Dayle wanted, Dayle got When Dayle had ordered Thad to prove Zeke’s loyalty to the League, Thad had done it in a way that had destroyed the boy Zeke had once been

Blood stained his hands It wasn’t innocent blood, but it was still htmare for the fourteen-year-old child he had been at the time And it still held the potential to destroy hiacy that Zeke was still soh those years, Gene had always been a phone call away A friend that knew the darkness and shared it with Zeke For a while, Zeke had been certain that Gene had gotten out of the League

Recently though, Zeke had been forced to wonder if that were indeed true

There were times Zeke wondered if Gene would ever be fully out from under his father’s thuht Gene was his own ht Jonesy to mind Danny Jones was another wild card, and one who had been a part of Thad Mayes’s inner group of friends at one tiroup when he had defended Calvin Walker against Thad Mayes and James Maynard That had finished Jonesy’s friendship with Zeke’s and Gene’s fathers

That inforation the previous year It was in the files his contact in Washington had finally gotten for him Jonesy had once been ruue when he had learned what it was and hoould affect his friendships and his life He’d chosen the friendships and had been targeted by Thad several tiue had found herself in trouble after arriving in Soue was involved with Zeke, Jonesy felt threatened, both personally and for Rogue That didn’t excuse his treatet how Jonesy had bruised Rogue’s delicate ar about his teer that drove Jonesy There was soe<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>