Page 25

I knew when I saw him in town today that he was going to do something to make me mad. I just hadn’t thought that I would be escorted to prison by Black with all of my neighbors with me. And no one to blame but myself.

Black closed the door in my face and walked away, giving me a fine ass view of his ass on the way.

Five

She’s feisty and noncompliant.

—Black’s secret thoughts

Black

“That’s a mess,” Gentry added.

Gentry was one of my newest deputies, and also a member of the Dixie Wardens MC with me.

He was also getting to be one of my closest friends.

“I couldn’t agree more,” I grumbled. “That meeting should’ve been open to the public.”

“It should’ve been,” Gentry agreed. “You know damn well that you and I would’ve been pissed had we not been able to attend a town meeting that affected us.”

“Nothing I can do about it,” I admitted. “They were asked to leave, didn’t, and there are consequences for their actions.”

“Maybe, but we’d have done the same thing to get them to listen to us,” Gentry muttered darkly. “And they’re right. Any traffic wouldn’t be affected that direction. If they want to access Sawtooth from Bear Pass, they’d take the loop around. Not that stupid little side road that’s barely wide enough for two cars to pass. Plus, the hills and curves would also require the speed limit to stay lower. The only people that use that road are people that live on it.”

“Agreed,” I said. “There’s got to be more to it.”

There always was.

That was probably why they wanted this meeting to be private.

Just because the citizens were barred from going, didn’t mean that I was, though.

So I went back to city hall—which happened to be attached to the sheriff’s department holding facilities—and used the back entrance to go back.

When I got there it was in time to hear one of the board members, Jack Roy, bitching about my most hated member of Bear Pass’s city council, Amile Johansen, kicking the people out and having them trespassed.

“It literally said that today’s meeting was open to the public,” Jack growled. “Then you changed it at the last second. Why?’

“Because we can’t make this decision lightly, and I didn’t want the vote to be swayed by public opinion.” Amile rolled her eyes.

“That’s literally the whole point of all of this.” Jack threw up his hands. “Literally. This is a public forum. So the public can come here, hear our opinions, and we hear theirs!”

Agreed.

I leaned my shoulder against the pillar at the back of the room.

Gentry joined me on the opposite side of the same pillar.

“Now we’re going to have nine really pissed off people that we needed to play nicely no longer willing to,” another member of the board, Cady Matthews, sniped. “Amile, cut the shit. What’s going on?”

Amile sighed. “I’m in a race to annex that particular stretch into the city of Sawtooth.”

“Okay…” Jack waited for more.

“And there’s a new ski resort going on at the end of that road.”

“What new ski resort?” Cady asked. “That’s the first that I’m hearing about a ski resort.”