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Over the years, she’d made herself invaluable to the other misfits of Sawtooth and Bear Pass.

Ol’ Jack was one of those people.

One time, a couple of years ago, Jack had a heart attack in his truck and had slammed the truck he was driving into the side of a mountain.

Jessamy, having come upon the accident, had pulled Jack out of the cab of the truck and done CPR on him until fire and rescue could arrive to take over.

The only reason Jack lived was because Jessamy had gone above and beyond.

He was the reason that Jessamy got bailed out every time she found herself in my jail.

“I have your permission not to press charges?” I asked. “The rest of the board won’t throw a shit fit?”

“That’s not the kind of publicity that we need,” Jack murmured. “Your misfit might be a part of the ones arrested today, but the rest of ’em are functioning members of society. The town hears that they got arrested for going to a town council meeting, we’ll have a riot on our hands. It’s bad enough that we’re already fighting the tourism issues.”

My misfit.

Why did that fucking fit?

And why did the thought of her being ‘my’ anything make my heart race?

His mention of “tourism issues” were actual issues.

It was like the town council was so focused on bringing in tourists that they forgot to care about the people that made it their home. The people that elected them to their positions. The people that they were supposed to care about.

It was funny, because Sawtooth was so much different from Bear Pass.

Bear Pass was all about the tourists, the next best thing. The hottest. The newest. The one and only thing that was going to be more, more, more.

Meanwhile, you traveled ten miles in the other direction, and you got a slower way of life. One that didn’t scream ‘come here for a vacation’ but ‘come here to live forever.’ One that was focused on families and working a job that you loved.

Bear Pass was literally the exact opposite of anything you ever wanted as a place to live permanently.

Jesper County was one of the biggest counties in Montana, covering over fifteen thousand square miles. There were several towns in the area, but most of them were tiny mountain towns like Sawtooth with a simpler way of life.

“Have a good one, Sheriff Black,” Jack called over his shoulder as he shouldered out the door.

The same damn door that was accidentally “propped” open, allowing the citizens to storm their city hall meeting.

I rolled my eyes at the conniving old man and said to Gentry, “Let’s go let our citizens free.”

But only one would be getting a ride home.

Six

Hmm, that’s a bit too harsh. Let me put ‘LOL’ on the end of it.

—Jessamy’s secret thoughts

Jessamy

The door of the jail cell slammed behind Zee and I, Black giving me a “be good” look on his way out, and I headed straight for my usual spot in the corner where I had a wall on both my back and my left side.

“You been here before?” Zee laughed.

“A time or twelve,” I admitted. “More than I should have been, thanks to my psycho brother.”

Her eyes went a little flinty. “You shouldn’t call someone psycho.”