Larger Than Life by Alison Kent (read the beginning after the end novel .txt) 📕

the other man's gaze—and to be taken aback when he did. His visitor looked like shit.

Holden's pupils were dilated, his nostrils quivering, his hair standing up on his head like a porcupine's quills. He ran his hand through it again, advancing, his dress shirt wrinkled like he'd slept in it for days. "The Mitchell girl has disappeared again."

"Oh, really?" Yancey couldn't say he was going to mind watching this one go down, though the attorney's appearance suddenly made a hell of a lot more sense. "Is her family coming after you for legal malpractice?"

"Her parents are reporting her as officially missing. You have all the information in front of you along with a warrant signed by Judge Ahearn." Holden jabbed a finger into the papers Yancey had dropped on his desk blotter. "The warrant authorizes a full search of the Big Brown Barn and the residence of Nevada Case."

"And what am I looking for?"

"Evidence relating to Liberty's disappearance or the whereabouts of any of the girls who have vanished from the township."

"That so." Yancey settled back in his chair and unfolded the creased and rumpled pages. The warrant was real enough, and had him wondering again how far the judge's nose was stuck up Wagner's ass. "Well, let me take a look and make sure everything's in order—"

Holden snatched the papers out of Yancey's hands, slammed the wadded sheets down on the desk in his fist. "I wouldn't come here if everything wasn't in order. The girl is gone. My car is gone—"

"Did you file a stolen car report?" Yancey interrupted the interruption to ask.

"No. I did not." Wagner shoved one hand to his waist, rubbed the back of his neck with the other. "Liberty took my car. She was seen by your own postmistress driving it onto the Case property. I don't plan to file charges. I want both found and returned to me."

Well, now. Wasn't this interesting? Yancey spread the documents out on his desk. "Returned to you? Not to her parents? When I released her into your custody on Friday, it was because you said you were taking her home. To her home, Wagner. To her parents." He brought his head up, cut the other man with his sharpest gaze. "Doesn't sound to me like that's what happened at all."

The attorney paced the room. His answer chilled the room. "What happened after we left the Barn is between me and my fiancee."

Yancey wasn't sure whether to choke or to sputter or to vomit now before he ate lunch and the mess was worse. "Your fiancee? Liberty Mitchell? What the fucking hell are you talking about, Wagner? The girl's young enough to be your daughter."

"Whom I choose to marry is none of your business, Sheriff."

"It is if you're marrying her without parental consent. She's underage, you prick."

"I'm an attorney, Munroe. I know the law." Holden stopped pacing, stood behind the visitor's chair. "All of our documents are in order."

Yeah. And how many of them were forged? Yancey folded the warrant that was unfortunately not and got to his feet. "Too bad you don't know how to keep your fiancee around until after the ceremony. Or maybe it's that she's not as anxious to share your bed as you are to crawl into hers."

Holden lunged across the desk. Yancey dodged. The pencil mug fell to the floor and shattered. The desk blotter slid, carrying Wagner over. The attorney sailed headfirst into the chair, grunted, crumpled, caught his breath, and rolled up to lean against the back wall.

Yancey didn't even look down. He was afraid if he did he'd piss himself laughing. What a fruitcake. What a fucking moron. Marrying a seventeen-year-old girl? The man deserved to look like the ridiculous fool that he was.

Picking up the warrant, the sheriff left his office and headed for the building's exit. Stopping in the open doorway to settle his sunglasses into place, he called back to his secretary, "Kate, radio Jason and Levi. Have them meet me out at the Big Brown Barn. And check with Wagner in there. See if he needs a Band-Aid."

Mick was packing his Rover, having just shoved a chunk of antibiotic-laced coffeecake down FM's throat, when he heard the cars pull into Neva's drive. Cars plural. Lights flashing, sirens off. All three county vehicles belonging to the sheriff's department.

Jesus bloody hell. What now? Sunglasses in place, he reached up to smooth the sport strap around his head, reached down to ostensibly tie his boots. While he was there, he checked the accessibility of both his knife and his gun. This bunch of cowboys was working his very last nerve and he was in a Boy Scout preparing state of mind.

He'd spent a large part of the morning just this side of the New Mexico border, working out logistics with Rabbit for the other man to pick up that half of the Spectra assignment. Mick would do what he could on this end to find Jase Bremmer's connection to the money train while Harry would see about finding the clone brothers and the rest of their kind.

Mick had also arranged his own networking system to keep tabs on Liberty's movements, one he'd decided not to share with Neva quite yet. What she didn't know couldn't hurt her. What he didn't tell her, she couldn't unintentionally spill when the bad guys shoved bamboo shoots under her nails.

Besides, he couldn't tell her what he'd done without telling her about the Smithson Group. He wasn't ready to do that. His number one priority, however, was to make sure no one got to his woman.

Because she was his woman. And she had been since she'd hefted his half-dead backside off the side of the road. He'd been working on figuring it out when she'd cut off his clothes in the clinic. But that night she'd spent in his bed it had all come together.

She was everything he wanted, all that he needed. He was getting damn close to loving her, or