Hearts of Iron by Laura Day Page A

legitimate, he might have let things lie. Let the law have Miller; as long as they got out of his way, they’d stay out of theirs. But he wouldn’t let scum take over his town. He sure as hell wouldn’t allow them to intimidate his lady. Lance planned on getting rid of them. He just wasn’t sure how to go about it.
     
    Since he and Katie had made up, it became even more important for things to go… smoothly. He couldn’t face her with blood-stained hands. She radiated goodness, in spite of her irresistibly dark bedroom style, and he wanted to deserve her.
     
    Besides, killing just caused too much trouble for everyone. Killing the law was downright stupid. “So Sheriff, seems you pissed off the wrong doctor today. And Doc is my lady. You piss her off, you find yourself in a huge pile of the brown stuff. You hear me?”
     
    The sheriff shook, fear behind his eyes, without answering. He’d felt a little pain in Lance’s absence. Lance, in reply, flicked a knife open and traced the tip along the sheriff’s jawline and down his throat. “I said, you hear me?”
     
    This had the desired effect: the sheriff nodded frantically and mumbled, “Yeah, yeah.”
     
    “Here’s what’s gonna happen. You leave town, make your excuses to your bosses. Say there wasn’t enough money to be made in Miller, say the people here are too poor. Say what you like. But you leave Miller and you stay gone and you make it sound as unappealing a prospect to anyone else who thinks they can come here and mess up the state of play. You come back, alone or with more lawmen for… revenge , or anything like that, and we’ll get more of our boys to track down your families and close every one of you fuckers down.” He kicked the sheriff’s leg hard to make his point. “Got it?”
     
    The sheriff coughed out in pain. “Ah!”
     
    When gibberish passed through his gag, Lance removed it and said quietly, calmly, “You wanna talk to us now, huh? Then talk.”
     
    The sheriff looked at all the guys standing ready to beat him to a pulp if he didn’t do as they said. “We’re good with those terms. Nothing interesting around here anyhow, like you said. And we’re not into your kind of trouble if there’s no money to be made. That right, men?” He asked his deputies, who were even more terrified, their faces drained of all color.
     
    “Y-yeah,” they said, nodding and mumbling with wide eyes.
     
    “Good,” declared Lance, replacing his knife into his vest pocket. “You’re not as thick as you look.”
     
    Josh grinned, loving the control they had over a sheriff and three deputies.
     
    “Load them up in the truck and drive them out of state somewhere,” he told Josh. “Leave them at the nearest motel, but keep their guns and choose two of the best cars to sell to cover two people’s medical bills.” He kicked the sheriff’s leg hard again. “I offered yours to Dan, the guy who got his nose broke.”
     
    “No way,” said one stupid deputy, without thinking it through.
     
    Lance swung around and smashed him in the stomach with his fist so hard he fell to the floor gasping, still tied the chair. “You complaining?”
     
    Sheriff looked down at his deputy and said, “Fucking deserved that, you dick.” Then he turned to Lance and said, “Take his car, he’s a jerk.”
     
    Lance didn’t like how he turned his back on his own. “I’ll be taking yours, Sheriff, like I said. It’s not my style, but I figure I could get a few thou’ for it. Stab another man in the back in front of me and I’ll take your wife, too.”
     
    His deputy smiled, or tried to, while he gasped for air. The sheriff remained tight-lipped, staring at him.
     
    Josh hoisted the deputy off the floor and Craig and the others started to drag the chairs to the truck. They would be easier to transport tied up that way. “I’m gonna like selling your cars,” Josh laughed. “Your hardware’s cute too. Maybe my girlfriend could use