Mitch looked at his watch as he was running back to his house to check his time. He was pushing for an hour even and he was ahead of pace today. Though it was his day off, he kept the same routine, up by five am, review the night shift's incident reports, stretch out, and run. Keeping in shape was paramount to him, especially now, as Sheriff John Redfeather had a heart attack that led to a triple bypass surgery, and he was slow on the mend. Mitch checked up on him daily, whether by phone or a casual stop-by. John was nearing sixty-five, so Mitch did not know if his friend and mentor was planning to run for sheriff again. Not that Mitch coveted the job and all its hassles, but his friendship with all the deputies was more akin to being his extended family.

  John had run unopposed for twelve years before his last term when a former Clark County Deputy who had just moved to Nowhere ran in opposition. James Maccabee ran a huge campaign running on, of all things, stricter gun control. That did not sit well with most of the residents in Wake County. Most residents in Nowhere were all for it, which was no surprise. They believed that stricter gun control meant less crime, which is quite the opposite of how it goes. Wake County's crime rate for violent crime was in the single digits. Gun-related ones were next to nothing. Mitch can only recall two murders in his five years as a deputy. If John does not run in two years, everyone will look to Mitch to run, and he will be more than happy to take that mantle.

  There will be some adjustments to his life that are not already present. He will have to deal more with the County Board of Trustees and the County Commissioner than he already does. As Interim Sheriff, Mitch only must deal with them regarding paperwork for pay for the eight deputies he has and answering the questions of why overtime was needed in certain incidences. He knows John has fought with the Board many times about their budget, which has not changed in all the years he has been there, to no avail. The Board will not come off that money to raise the budget for the department for any reason. Nowhere's Police Department has three times the staff, four times the budget, much of the newest equipment, and they get newer vehicles every other year.

  Mitch looked at his watch again and then to the right side of the road to see his house coming up. He glances to the left toward Jesalyn's house to see a black Cadillac Escalade turn onto the road, headed toward town. He saw that the license plate read CAIN 5. That meant his holiness, the would-be King of Nowhere, had visited her. The Cain Family practically ran Nowhere, and they were not shy about letting people know just that fact. Mitch crossed the road and headed to her house to check on her. Knowing that Edgerton Cain was in town and flexing his newly inherited kingship, Jesalyn might need to be aware of the ways to manage Edgerton.

  As he ran down the paved road toward her house, he wondered how she was as she had alluded during their first meeting; she was dealing with more problems than most people deal with. Having lost his wife when Hayleigh was five years old, he could sympathize with her grief to a point. He really could not imagine losing his entire family in one fell swoop. Jesalyn looked like she was exhausted yesterday when he left, but he fought against checking in on her when he came home. He did not want to appear overbearing and did not want to look like a stalker. She was sitting on the porch steps smoking a cigarette and holding a gun as her right knee was bouncing up and down lightly; he slowed down approaching her holding his hands out. "Rough Morning?" he asked with a concerned tone.

  "You might say that," she answered flatly, exhaling a stream of smoke as she looked at him with a perturbed look on her face.

  "I didn't mean to intrude I'll just go home," Mitch replied as he started to turn back.

  "No. No. Please sit. I'm sorry, just annoyed at the pompous nerve of some people," Jes apologized as she took a deep drag from the cigarette and then coughed.

  Mitch chuckled as moved to sit down. "Those things will kill you; you know."

  "So will two to the chest if the placement is good," she said before she took a lighter drag and exhaled.

  "I see you have met Edgerton Cain," he said. "How did that go?" Mitch asked, concerned more for her than him.

  "Chuck almost met God for judgment," Jesalyn stated with an eerie tone and an even more frightful glance at Mitch. "Then Mr. My Dear Girl got read the riot act. Jesus! Do all high-profile men act like they walk on water and want you to kiss their hairless asses?" she commented, completely annoyed.

  "Did he bear it? How was it? I've always wondered if he moisturizes it?" Mitch cracked a joke to ease her tension, adding in his best mock schoolgirl-enamored look for effect.

  Jes burst out laughing so hard at one point she snorted. "Yes, and it smelled of Eau de Pepe la Pew," was her reply, as she laughed even harder for a long moment. Several long moments, as every time she tried to recover, she would burst out again.

  Mitch laughed with her as her laugh, even the small snorts as she tried to recover were contagious and cute. He could not help being captivated by this woman. The few times he had seen a genuine smile from her seemed to light up her deep blue eyes. He tried not to stare, but he felt almost hypnotized by her. "Ahem! So honestly, do I expect a call from the NPD Chief?" he asked, still lightly chuckling.

  Jesalyn took a deep breath and flipped the cigarette butt out in the yard. "I hope not. I hate to have to call a lawyer already," she stood up and she looked at him. "You look like you could use bottled water and a towel. Come in and I'll give you the details," she requested as she cocked her head toward the front door.

  "Okay, Miss Masters," he acknowledged her request as he stood up.

  Jes looked at him as he got up. He was more fit than she first thought. He was not Uber-ripped, but you could tell he worked out regularly. His black wife beater hugged his chest nicely. The Airborne Ranger Paratrooper wings emblem tattooed on his right shoulder had faded a bit, but you can tell whoever did the work was very good. Mitch's legs had good definition, at least what she could see of them from under the baggy basketball shorts he was wearing. "You know if we will work this thing between us as friends. How about you call me Jesalyn or Jes," she commented.

  He smiled at her, "Okay, Jes," he replied, "You can call me, Mitch," he offered, "When I'm not in uniform."

  Jesalyn smirked. "Plaid flannel and tight wranglers are standard issue uniform?" she asked, not meaning to say tight as she hastened toward the front door as she bit her lower lip while her cheeks turned a pale crimson and then she made a low-toned Muppet noise.

  Mitch was stunned for a second. She checked him out. He quickly recovered, noting her embarrassed noise, noting she may not be ready for gentle flirting just yet. "Yeah, well, it's the newest thing in urban tactical fashion, just so you know," he played it off casually.

  ____________________________________________________________

  James Hill drove the mile-and-a-half dirt road to the Yeager House. Kevin Pardin dispatched him to investigate yet another black wolf sighting. If he were not on the Sheriff's shit list, he would run the shift and he could have sent Larissa way out here in the boonies. James has been trying hard to gain everyone's respect back since the allegations that he had sexual relations with Heidi Anderson, a seventeen-year-old hottie with a body of a sports model. The allegations are true, of course, save for the fact he is not the father of the child growing inside her. He would not even have to mess around if his estranged wife would get her act together and come home.

  A proud traditional Catholic, James did not believe in divorce for any reason. Just as he did not believe in contraception though, because of a low sperm count, his wife, Mary Anne and he were having a tough time of conception. He became elated when Mary Anne surprised him with a positive pregnancy test. He was finally going to be a father right until right before her third month when she fell victim to a spontaneous abortion. It devastated them. They prayed together; they went to counseling together, but the more he tried to fix them, she withdrew farther away from him. To where the rare time he could convince her to make love it was cold, emotionless, and unsatisfying. The tension mounted to a boiling point and finally blew up into a heated argument that ended with her leaving him.

  A lonely man will do dumb things to ease the pain of a lonely heart. Getting drunk at a bar where an underage girl slipped in with a fake I.D. would be one of them. Plying her with drinks, then taking advantage of her was another. Yet another would keep it up for a couple of months on the down low. What helped his case, in his mind, is she had a history of being loose. They had caught Heidi several times by one or both of her parents with young men in the act. Heidi simply did not care; she had several men and women of various ages she saw sexually during their brief trysts.

  James slowed the car as he arrived at the Yeager house. As he undid the seatbelt, he grabbed the mike from the radio. "Operations. Charlie 116. Over," he spoke.

  "Go ahead, 116. Over," Kevin Pardin replied.

  "Arrived at the Yeager property. Initiating investigation of the complaint. Over," James said.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  "Roger that, initiating an investigation of the complaint. Be safe," was the response.

  "Will do. Over. Out," he said as he replaced the mike on the radio and then exited the Jimmy after turning it off. Eileen Yeager met James on the porch. The wife of William 'Bud' Yeager was in her mid-sixties and looked worried. "What's got you long in the face, Eileen?" he asked.

  "Bud went out with Henry over three hours ago looking for that black wolf. They have not been back since. Bud has a heart condition and Henry isn't good in a tough situation. Can you check on them for me? They went out by the tree line out back," she stated with a fearful look in her eyes.

  James smiled at her to ease her worry. The Yeager's had been a rock-solid backbone to the community of Nowhere and the surrounding area for as long as he can remember. "Not a problem Eileen, I'll bring your guys back safe and sound," he assured her. James walked back to the Jimmy and retrieved his shotgun before heading back behind the house. He wondered why Bud would take Henry with him. Henry was their youngest daughter's son who had Down's syndrome. The only reason James could think of was Henry was freakishly huge at five foot ten and as broad as James himself. The boy was twice as strong as he looked and loved his Papaw and Mamaw so much that it was not a promising idea to agitate Henry by implying anything other than good things about his grandparents.

  As James came upon the tree line, he felt something in his gut. The uneasiness made him bring his shotgun to bear. He racked the pump handle to chamber a round and proceeded slowly into the forest. He was but five yards into the dense trees when he heard soft sobbing from farther in.

  ___________________________________________________________

  Mitch watched Jesalyn field strip down Larissa's Glock 17 in less than three seconds. The three of them were around the Island in Jes' kitchen as Ruby was cooking breakfast for them all. What started as Mitch stopping by to check on Jesalyn had graduated into an impromptu meet and greet of sorts. Mitch's mother had planned to come over to introduce herself and Mitch's daughter Hayleigh, but he thought that was going to be later in the day. Larissa had called Mitch to see if he could look at her service weapon to figure out why it all of a sudden would not fire. He asked Jes if it was okay if Larissa stopped by, as by that time Ruby and Hayleigh had shown up. Jes said yes and now here they are, and Mitch let out a low whistle of amazement at Jes' ability. "That was quick," he said with surprise in his tone.

  Jes smirked "I have done stuff like this since I was like seven years old," she commented as she inspected the recoil spring of the Glock.

  "Seven... really? Why would a seven-year-old even need to know something like that?" Larissa asked, completely bewildered. The Latina deputy was embarrassed. Larissa did not have any prior military service to help her when she became a deputy. She barely passed law enforcement at the vocational school she graduated from.

  "My dad was a Navy Seal. I would watch him clean the weapons he owned all the time. He taught me how because I was curious when I was a kid. I was shooting a.22, learning all the gun safety rules, and shooting techniques around eight," Jes explained in a matter-of-fact tone. "Your recoil spring has seen better days, but that wouldn't cause it not to fire. Cycling issues yes but not failure to fire," she explained as she took the slide a lightly shook it next to her right ear.

  "Cycling issues?" Larissa queried.

  Mitch looked at Jes somewhat apologetically. He had planned to get a few of the lesser experienced deputies together and hold a basic weapon care lesson, but between his duties as sheriff and home, he had not found the time. "Failure to feed, failure to eject, and stove piping are some of the most common cycling issues you can encounter," he explained to Larissa. "So, you are thinking what, Jes a bad firing pin?" he asked her, having noted the frown on her face.

  "Broken," she raised the slide to his left ear and shook it lightly.

  He heard the small rattling of metal inside and nodded his head. "Yep. I'll go to my house and see if a have any spare parts. If not, I'm going to have to loan you my Glock 19 until I can afford to order some parts," he said to Larissa as he went to grab his keys.

  Jes placed her hand on top of his and looked at him. For a second, there was a nervous excitement that came from the touch. "I have a complete kit of replacement parts in one of the gun safes you helped bring in. Let me fix this for her," she said with a slight nervousness in her voice.

  "It's my responsibility to maintain all the equipment the department uses. I can't ask that of you," Mitch replied, sensing her nervousness matched his own. There was something between them he would like to explore with her, but Jesalyn was still grieving, and he did not want to mess it up by attempting to do so too early.

  Jesalyn raised her hand, signaling for him to stop. "It's the least I can do for all the help you gave me yesterday; besides, I wouldn't be a good law enforcement advocate if I didn't," she said, looking into his deep brown eyes with her sparkling blue ones.

  Mitch nodded in acceptance of her offer as she scurried off to the back room to fetch her kit.

  Larissa elbowed him lightly in the side. "She's perfect for you," she said. Larissa had known Mitch since she was a teenager. He was, in fact, the reason she got into law enforcement. Larissa had to watch him struggle with his grief when he lost Carrie, his wife. It still amazed her at his resilience, though there was one dark moment afterward he bounced back with a lot of support from the entire department and his family.

  Mitch looked at Larissa and motioned for her to pipe down. "I appreciate it if you keep that to yourself for now," he requested quietly.

  Ruby had turned around to look at the pair. "She is right, and you know it, Mitch, but I understand what you mean," she stated also quietly. Her son's wisdom was one of his strongest characteristics, but having watched his interaction with Jesalyn, a mother knows when her child has fallen in love. Though Ruby adored her now passed daughter-in-law, she could not imagine her son living alone forever. With her brief interaction with Jesalyn, it was clear to see that the young woman was hurting badly, but characteristically, like her father, she was putting up a brave front. Jesalyn walked back into the kitchen area with an ammo box and a small plastic container. Ruby looked at Jesalyn lovingly. "Biscuits are almost done, Jesalyn," Ruby commented." That going to take long?"

  "No, ma'am. It'll take maybe three minutes," Jes replied as she set the ammo box down and opened it. The ammo box had dense foam in it and it meticulously organized various parts in cutouts for each part. Jesalyn then opened the small plastic container to reveal a small toolkit. She selected a small screwdriver and picked up the Glock slide placing the flat tip at the corner of the backplate of the Glock, she pressed down on the backplate sliding it off as the flat of the screwdriver caught the firing pin from shooting out under its spring pressure.

  Hayleigh, who had been watching her cartoons on her iPad, looked up and came over next to her dad and watched the pretty lady intently. She thought Jes was cool. She liked Superhero High School as much as Hayleigh did. They even liked Kitty Noire as their favorite character. Jes had even lent her some authentic manga books that were in English for her to read. "Whoa! She knows what she's doing," Hayleigh commented.

  Jes chuckled at Hayleigh's comment as she tilted the slide to reveal the firing pin was indeed in two pieces. "There be the culprit," she stated. Jes looked at it closely besides it being broken. The tip of the pin that hit the primer to ignite a round was severely blunted. "I'm surprised your gun even fired with the tip being this rounded out," Jes commented as she showed Larissa the tip.

  Larissa looked at the part in Jes' hand. "Honestly, I didn't know you could break the gun down that far," she replied to Jes.

  "I can teach you. I'm a certified Glock Armorer," Jesalyn offered as she selected a shiny new firing pin assembly and placed it back in the gun after applying a drop of gun oil. Using the screwdriver again, she held the pin down as she slid the backplate back on. She picked a new recoil spring and assembled the slide back and placed it on the frame of the Glock just as quickly as she tore it apart.

  "You'd do that for me?" Larissa asked, shocked at the offer.

  Jes raised the Glock and pointed away from everyone and manipulated the slide back and forth a few times, smiling as the firearm's action pleased her. "Of course. Everyone who owns or uses a gun for duty should be as familiar with it as much as possible," she said in a happy, matter-of-fact tone. She raised the Glock to get a sight picture. Jesalyn frowned as she hated the cheap plastic sights that came stock on the weapon. She pulled the trigger dry firing the gun as there was no loaded magazine in it. "What are the Sheriff's Department's policies on upgrades to duty guns?" she looked at Mitch as she asked.

  Mitch looked bewildered for a second. It was just something about her eyes that transfixed him. "No standing policies because our budget barely covers replacement parts. Hell, the only reason I carry my gun is that it is my gun and I have extra parts if something breaks," he recovered quickly as he replied. "I mean, just about every deputy uses their own personal weapon for duty carry," he added.

  "Breakfast is ready," Ruby said as she slid a plate of scrambled eggs, sausage patties, breakfast potatoes, and a large biscuit split in half, covered with sausage gravy in front of Jes and Hayleigh.

  "Oh Wow! You trying to make me fat?" Jes joked.

  "That barbeque bacon cheeseburger didn't do any damage to your figure," Mitch said and visibly winced at his comment.

  Jes looked at him and felt the heat of her cheeks rise. "Well, in my defense, I had eaten nothing larger than a power bar for days," she tried to recover. Deep down, she knew Nate has been dead for over a year now. She found Mitch attractive but felt guilty still for thinking so.

  "Well, you're beautiful, Jes. I want to grow up to be like you," Hayleigh stated with her mouthful of eggs.

  Jes's heart fluttered with joy at the comment. She often wondered what having a child would be like. To be a mother was not a foreign thought to her. It was something Nathan and her were talking about after he finished his contract work with the CIA, but now it seemed a 'too far in the future to conceive' idea." Thank you, Hayleigh," she smiled at the little girl.

  Mitch's cell rings to interrupt the joyful moment. He picks it up and looks at the screen. "Why is Pardo calling me?" he says aloud as he takes the call. "Yeah, what's up, Pardo?" he asked.

  You did not need to be a mind reader to know that whatever it was; the situation was grave. Jes noted the shock and awe look from Mitch. She knew from her experience as both an MP and Operative that a call like he was receiving could only mean big trouble was going down. A small part of her was dreading what was going to come next. She understood duty comes first, but this unscheduled meeting was holding back the loneliness that was eventually coming after they all leave.

  "Dammit, Pardo, get Eugene rolling out there now. I must grab my gear before I head out. I'll have Larissa roll out now." he said sternly, then disconnected the call.

  "What's going on?" Larissa asked as she took her Glock from Jes, who had handed it to her.

  "James went out to the Yeager place to check out another wolf sighting. Eileen just called in a said she heard a lot of shooting coming from the back property. Pardo can't get James on the radio, but she said there was a lot of howling come from back there too," he summarized.

  "You are thinking of a rabid pack?" Larissa asked, with concern on her face. She did not respect James currently, but she does not want to see him hurt.

  "Seems that way. I need you to roll out. I'll get there as soon as I can," he ordered.

  Larissa looked at him slightly nervously. "I had Maggie drop me off. She needed the car today for grocery shopping," she said. "I didn't want to use the department's vehicle since I was off duty," she explained

  .

  "Fuck!" Mitch shouted.

  "Daddy!" Hayleigh chimed up.

  "Sorry, baby, I apologize," he said.

  "I can take her out there," Jes offered

  Mitch looked at Jesalyn and shook his head." I can't ask that of you. I don't know what is going down out there. Can't put a citizen in danger," he stated.

  Jes understood what he was saying, but something in her was saying he needed all the help he could get now. "One. I'm offering my help. I have experience in law enforcement. Two. Larissa is only armed with a handgun. She is going to need a shotgun at the very least. I have a kit rigged up she can use," Jes explained.

  "I would appreciate the loan of equipment, but I still can't place a civilian in danger," Mitch countered.

  Jes looked at him with a cocked eyebrow and a determined look on her face. "Even as interim Sheriff, you have the authority to temporarily deputize anyone if you feel the need is great. Now, are you going to keep wasting time arguing with me, or are you going to deputize me?"