Lawson pulled into a parking spot in the lot behind Town Hall. He switched off the engine but didn’t make any move to get out of the vehicle. Neither did I. He glanced over at me. “I’m sorry this is happening.”
“You and me both.” I looked up at the building.
“None of this is your fault.”
I shifted in my seat. I wasn’t so sure about that. “I needled Dan.”
Lawson rested his hands on the wheel. “He’s a douchebag. Giving back a little of the bullshit that spews from him is understandable. And it doesn’t mean he’s justified in pulling this. Truth is, I think he’s miserable and just wants everyone else to be, too. I heard Jane left him last week.”
“Good for her,” I muttered. I didn’t know the woman well, even though we’d all grown up together, but she seemed kind enough. Though she was the shy type who blushed whenever you looked her way—not a match for Dan at all.
I stared out the window, my gut churning. “I probably should’ve let you go see Adam alone. I knew he’d get to me. Just seeing his face would do that.”
Lawson made a humming noise. “Probably should’ve. But if he’d hurt the woman I loved, I’d have needed to have that conversation, too.”
I glanced over at my brother. I wasn’t sure Lawson had ever truly been in love. He’d thought he was once. And he’d never forgiven himself for falling for the wrong woman. But I wasn’t sure he’d ever actually loved her. He’d been young and infatuated, sure, but I didn’t think it went beyond that.
My phone rang, breaking into my thoughts. Holt’s name flashed on the screen. I tapped two icons. “Hey. You’re on speaker with me and Law.”
“You guys have privacy?”
I looked at Lawson. A question like that didn’t scream good things. “Yeah, we’re in his SUV outside Town Hall.”
“Good,” Holt said. “That Westchester is a real prick.”
Lawson turned in his seat. “We knew that already.”
“He put that investigation firm on Nash.”
Annoyance flickered. “That’s not all that much of a surprise, I guess.”
“They found out about Dan’s complaint against you with the town. It’s in the report,” Holt informed us.
Lawson cursed. “He knew that a second complaint would likely get more traction.”
My jaw worked back and forth. “He also knows it’ll get to Maddie. That she’ll blame herself for this.”
“We may have to go public with the information we have about him,” Holt said. “My guys are still digging, but we can slip it to the press anonymously. It might be the one thing that’ll get him to back off.”
But it would mean exposing Maddie. Because the press would look at his fiancée and wonder if she was one of his victims. She’d experienced that kind of attention before, after her father’s attack. It had only been local, but it had still made her beyond anxious and self-conscious.
“I can’t do that to Mads,” I said quietly.
Both Lawson and Holt were silent for a few beats and then Holt spoke. “Just keep it in our back pocket in case things get worse.”
“Sure.” But I knew I wouldn’t. I loved being a cop. It brought with it a sense of purpose I’d been missing in my life for so long. The fact that I could help people like Maddie before things got that bad had been something I desperately needed. But I’d give that up a million times over if it meant protecting Maddie.
“I’ll keep digging and let you know what we find,” Holt said.
“Thanks.”
“Good luck today.”
My fingers tapped the back of my phone. “Text you after.”
“You better.”
I disconnected and looked at Lawson. “We’d better get in there. Don’t want to be late to my disciplinary hearing.”
He stared back at me. “Maddie is really lucky to have you.”
Something burned deep in my chest. I wasn’t sure there was a compliment that would’ve hit me harder. “I’m the lucky one.”
“You both are.”
I shoved my phone into my pocket and opened the door. “Let’s get out of here before we start singing Kumbaya.”
Lawson chuckled and climbed out of the SUV. “Wouldn’t want that. Your singing voice would break all the windows.”
“Like yours is any better? Pretty sure you failed choir.”
He grinned. “I got an A for effort, though. I really went for those high notes.”
I shook my head. God, I was lucky to have the family I did. My siblings would do anything for me, and I knew it.
We strode across the lot and into the building. Being that we were such a small town, it housed several facilities: the mayor’s office, some meeting rooms, including one for town council meetings, a courtroom, a handful of offices for those who worked for the town, and a community hall.
Lawson turned down a hallway that would take us to one of the meeting rooms. Anxiety gnawed at me, and I took a deep breath, trying to calm the worst of it. The last thing I needed was to bite someone’s head off in there.
Lawson lifted a hand to knock on the door, then paused. “You ready?”
I nodded. “Let’s get this over with.”
His fist connected with the door in two short raps.
“Come in,” a feminine voice called from inside.
Lawson opened the door, and we walked in, shutting it behind us. My throat went dry as I took in the five people sitting on the opposite side of a long conference table. The setup being this official put me on edge.
“Thank you for coming, Nash. Lawson,” Mayor Higgins said, gesturing for us to sit.
The fifty-something woman had been mayor for several years. I didn’t have any issues with how she ran things, but I knew she was very aware of the optics of every situation. I could only imagine that this one had her pulling her hair out.
Lawson and I lowered ourselves into chairs opposite the council.
Mayor Higgins looked down at a stack of papers. “There have been two complaints brought against you, Nash. One for inappropriate conduct and favoritism, and the other for harassment.”
My gut twisted. The way she read those out made it sound like I was a creep.
She looked up at me. “These are very serious charges.”
I laced my fingers on my lap. “I agree. And I’m sure once you investigate, you’ll realize they can’t be substantiated.”
The mayor leaned back in her chair. “I’m glad to hear you’re confident of that.”
One of the older men on the council, Peter Tolle, studied Lawson and me. “I am, too. Goodness knows Dan McConnell is nothing but trouble.”
“But,” Mayor Higgins cut in, “we can’t afford even a glimmer of impropriety.”
Lawson cleared his throat. “That’s why we have procedures for these kinds of things. I was present for both alleged incidents and can testify that there was no behavior that warranted these charges.”
“You’re also his brother,” another woman on the council, Henrietta White, said. “And this Adam Westchester has a stellar reputation.”
My fingernails dug into the backs of my hands to keep from saying something that would come back to bite me.
Lawson kept a neutral expression, but I knew it cost him. “That may be the case, but he has also been accused of domestic abuse on a number of occasions.”
Mayor Higgins straightened in her chair. “You have proof of this?”
“Two cases were settled out of court, and the other never went to trial. But we have a statement from Madison Byrne about his abuse.” Lawson slid a piece of paper across the table.
The mayor scanned the sheet. “I’m sorry to hear about this. Did she press charges?”
I shook my head. “She didn’t want to deal with the public spectacle that would cause. But she agreed to us giving him an informal warning.”
Mayor Higgins’ lips thinned. “Very little of this is something we can use to prove he might be trying to cover up a crime. Three cases that were never seen to completion and a statement by the accused’s ex doesn’t say much.”
I bit the inside of my cheek.
Lawson straightened. “It shows a pattern of behavior.”
The mayor held up a hand. “Nash also shouldn’t have been anywhere near Adam Westchester when it came to investigating something that had to do with his girlfriend.”
“She wasn’t my girlfriend at the time,” I interjected.
Mayor Higgins sent me an exasperated look. “Your close friend, then.”
“Mayor, this is a small town. If my officers couldn’t investigate something they had a personal tie to, nothing would get investigated,” Lawson argued.
“That’s pushing it a bit,” she replied with a sigh. “We’ll look into all of this. But we have to do a thorough investigation.”
“I understand,” I said, trying to keep my voice even.
Mayor Higgins shuffled her papers. “I’m afraid we’ll have to suspend you while that investigation is conducted.”
And just like that, the rug was pulled out from under me.
