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

Munroe to wedge through once his underling used the crowbar to pull back the layers of cotton candy insulation.

Or it would've been wide enough. Except then Levi ran into the back side of the Sheetrock. The sheriff shook his head, turned to look at Neva. "You still telling me this is nothing but a wall?"

"Looks like a wall to me," she said and shrugged.

He glared, glanced at Levi, and held out a hand for the crowbar. The deputy passed it over. Munroe took a step back and swung. Powdery white dust sprayed and settled as he swung again and again. Chunks of wall tumbled. The sound echoed off the rafters overhead.

Mick stood at Neva's shoulder and watched the dorm room come into view. "I cannot believe this," she whispered as the hole grew larger, wider. Then she growled harshly as Wagner peeked through and made a noise that sounded like an admonishing cluck of his tongue. "I swear, if I had my gun? I'd shoot that man right out of his ego."

"The cleanest kill's right between the eyes," Mick said without thinking, catching himself in time to shrug and add, "Or so they tell me."

"They being your fellow mule deer hunters?" she asked, not waiting for a response but turning back to watch Wagner follow the three officers into the room. "I guess this is it. The end of my road. I can't believe it. I wanted to take down Earnestine Township and go out in a blaze of glory—not through a stupid hole in the wall."

She started forward but he stopped her, pulling her around and crushing her with his kiss. She gasped, and he bruised her, but she quickly caught up, pressing herself to him and pouring him full of her fear. Her body trembled, as did her mouth. He even felt the shudders in her tongue.

He took it all, there in that musty, dirty, cobwebbed room, took her dread and her panic until he felt her strength rise, until he sensed her apprehension fade. When he pulled away, there were tears in her eyes. Soft ones that dug in and cut out his heart. She owned him, body and soul, and it wasn't what he'd expected.

It was nice. Damn nice. And it only got better when she took his face in her hands and told him, "I love you, Mick Savin."

He didn't have a chance to respond. She slipped away and into the safe room. He followed, pulling up the rear. Once inside where they joined the others, Munroe glanced back. The sheriff ordered them to wait with Wagner by the room's newly made entrance and not to touch a thing.

Mick didn't take orders well and touched Neva, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and keeping her close, telling her physically what he couldn't say in the middle of this crowd. He felt strangely impotent anyway, as if holding her was nothing compared to what she'd given him. But it was the best nothing at the moment he could manage to do.

They watched the three lawmen make their way through all three rooms, searching beneath furniture, through cabinets, behind appliances, above, underneath, and inside every nook and cranny in the place. It didn't take long. The rooms were fairly spartan. There wasn't much that couldn't be seen by just standing and looking around.

"There's nothing here, boss," Jason was the first to admit, coming back from the sitting room through the kitchen and into the dormitory where Mick and Neva waited. Where Wagner had pushed away from the same wall where they leaned, as if drawn toward Liberty's bed.

"Don't be so quick to give up, Deputy," the attorney advised, staring down to where a thin gold chain lay half-hidden beneath the pillow. Holden lifted it away, lovingly retrieved the necklace, and dangled it over his palm. "I gave this gift to my fiancee three days ago. On Friday night. After we left the barn."

Sheriff Munroe was halfway across the room when Levi called out, "Hey, Sheriff! I think you'd better see this." Munroe stopped, looked at the necklace Holden held, ordered Jason to collect the evidence, and returned to the sitting room as if all hell was breaking loose in there.

Neva followed, and Mick was right behind, arriving to find the sheriff standing and staring at the sliding panel above the desk and the wall beside it. Both had been opened. The lawman glanced toward Neva and asked, "What's at the bottom of the staircase?"

She brought the backs of her fingers up to scratch beneath her chin. "It goes into the shop. This is an apartment, Sheriff. Like Candy's. The cameras let me keep an eye on the house if I work up here during the day. I just don't like everyone knowing it exists."

Munroe didn't bite at the bait of her explanation. He pointed at both deputies. "Search Ms. Roman's place. Now. And go through the barn again. If the Mitchell girl was hiding up here, she could be anywhere."

"Sheriff, please—"

"And confiscate the computer equipment," he said, cutting her off, glancing over, lifting his handcuffs from his belt. Then, as she gasped, he said, "Neva, I'm afraid you're going to have to come with me. I'm placing you under arrest."

Neva stood facing Mick, the bars of her county jail cell between them, the smell of wet concrete and pine cleaner hanging in the air. Being here did not make her happy, but at least she had the place to herself. One of the only advantages to being arrested in a county with very little crime because of so few able to pay.

Right now, the crime on her mind was her own, involving Liberty Mitchell. Moving closer to her visitor, who Yancey had allowed in out of consideration to his wife's good friend, Neva curled her fingers around the cold hard metal and whispered, "Please tell me she's safe."

Mick blinked. That was all. No verbal assurance. No nod. She didn't need anything more. She blew out a