The Highlander Next Door Read Online Free PDF Page A

headed home fairly early, since most of them had to be back at work by sunrise. But even before the barmaids could wipe down the tables, a new wave of men and women would come tromping in, hungry and thirsty from spending the day hiking and fishing and cruising Bottomless on tour boats, as well as browsing the steadily growing number of craft shops all vying for their tourist dollars.
    Though slightly larger in population and sitting at the southernmost end of the new Bottomless Sea, Turtleback Station was actively—even aggressively—competing for those very same dollars. That is, except when the two towns had called a ceasefire in their little tourist tug-of-war long enough to vote on sharing a police force. There’d been a bit of an uproar, though, when the Turtleback councilmen had learned Niall had been given free housing in Spellbound, and had argued that since they were larger and therefore more vulnerable to crime, the police chief should be stationed in Turtleback.
    Not that either town had a station yet. Hell, Niall had had to rig his own pickup with a siren and lights and radio, and even supply his own gun.
    The Spellbound councilmen had in turn argued that Turtleback was thirty miles closer to the county sheriff’s office (which was still over sixty miles away) and already had a deputy living in town—conveniently forgetting that Jason Biggs was responsible for patrolling nearly four hundred miles of county roads. And then the councilmen, backed up by a second citizen vote, had offered to contribute
sixty
percent of the combined law enforcement budget—assuming anyone could call covering salaries and gas an actual budget. And so because the good people of Turtleback were apparently more frugal with their dollars than worried about getting robbed, Niall was living in the Crisis Center’s dooryard and using his truck as a mobile office until he had a stationary . . . station in each town, into which he would eventually post three more full-time officers.
    Niall waited until Jasmine finished handing out everyone’s drinks, then softly tugged on her apron before she could leave. “Wait up, lass. Does Macie not usually work Thursday evenings?”
    “Usually,” Jasmine said with a snap of her gum. “But she called me an hour ago and asked if I’d come in and cover the rest of her shift.”
    “Is she ill?”
    The questionably legal-aged waitress shrugged. “She looked fine to me.”
    The only reason Niall wasn’t questioning the girl’s age was because he knew Vanetta was too sharp of a businesswoman to risk losing her liquor license by hiring a barmaid who wasn’t even old enough to drink.
    Jasmine stopped chewing and leaned closer. “I got the feeling Macie left to meet someone,” she whispered loudly to be heard over the din of many conversations. “My guess is she snuck off to see her baby’s daddy, since Everest said the guy was in here earlier.”
    “Why do you say she’s sneaking off?” Mac asked, his grin implying he wasn’t the least bit apologetic to be eavesdropping. “Macie is a grown woman.”
    Jasmine looked at him in surprise. “You’re kidding, right? Have you
met
Warden Callahan? The woman would have a cow if she knew Macie was seeing the guy she ran away from and would probably go after him with that bear spray she carries.” The girl shot Niall a smile. “Wouldn’t it be ironic if you had to arrest the new crisis counselor for assaulting a man? Bet you wouldn’t mind tossing
her
in jail, if you had one.”
    Okay, then; apparently his neighborly little war was becoming as public as the Kents’. “It’s Miss Callahan’s job to protect her residents,” Niall said, not unkindly. “Sometimes even from themselves.” He held up his hand when Jasmine started to protest. “I know Johnny wasn’t abusive, but Birch might be worried he’ll try to talk Macie into going back to the colony. And I’m sure she wouldn’t have a problem with the two of them meeting at the