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The girls called after me as I rushed out of the bookstore, but I didn’t want to be around anyone I had to plan Somehow, I had to make Michael see he and I were a bad idea while I kept hi it was jealousy

It wasn’t jealousy

It was friendship

Okay

It was jealousy too

However, there had to be a way to do this withoutit seem like it was jealousy

It was Day Four, as Michael was calling it Day four on the job in Hartwell and he was getting antsy not seeing Dahlia Ti into the station that et and a couple of the deputies As he turned down the corridor that led to Jeff’s office, he saw Deputy Freddie Jackson co toward him

The deputy’s eyes narrowed on Michael and as they neared each other, Freddie’s gazeat him Michael noted the way his hands clenched into fists at his sides For a h to cover his own ass for years, his reaction to Michael wasn’t smart

“Deputy,” Michael acknowledged him

Jackson’s expression was full of loathing He didn’t return Michael’s greeting

Shaking his head, he continued toward Jeff’s office

Jeff believed Jackson was taking payoffs fro them with information he picked up at the station and city hall Jeff suspected Jackson was the one who’d bugged his office Moreover, he was concerned about coes filed by Jackson over the last two and a half years He’d pulled people over for speeding, had claied another with drunk and disorderly Things that were hard to prove either ithout reliable witnesses, of which there were none in these cases

The drugs could have been planted by Jackson, but there was no proof The people he’d charged were people with businesses in Hartwell, people who had ended up either selling to Devlin or getting into bed with hi to intimidate and harass the people whose businesses were of particular interest to Devlin

Moreover, Jeff suspected Jackson had been covering up cri an attack on Bailey Hartwell last year The eldest Devlin son, Stu, had broken into Bailey’s inn wearing a ski ht him in her office, he attacked her She was adamant it was Stu, but there was no evidence to prove it The idea of so Dahlia’s friend pissed Michael off The fact that Jack Devlin started sleeping with Bailey’s sister Vanessa, ned a share in Hart’s Inn, which led to Vanessa offering to sell her sh

are of the inn to Ian Devlin, only substantiated Bailey’s claiht Jeff explained Vanessa had sold her share to Bailey’s fiancée instead, thankfully cutting the Devlins out Still, they were a shady family, and the idea they had a cop on the payroll didn’t sound too farfetched