For Love & Bourbon by Katie Jennings

can’t give you free reign of the office at the risk of you tampering with evidence.”
    Frustration filled her at the patient look in his eyes, like he was kindly scolding a naughty child. “I need that paperwork or else I can’t pay my employees.”
    “Gotcha. Tell me where it is and I’ll get it for you.”
    She let out a huff of breath and pointed at the top drawer of the receptionist’s desk. “It’ll probably be with Dolly’s stuff.”
    “Right.” Cooper yanked open the drawer, pulled out some paperwork. “This it?”
    “Yeah. Thanks.” Ava accepted the documents, tucked them under her arm. She watched him carefully, wondering how to go about getting information from him. Since it’d worked before, she settled on being flirtatious. She angled her face up to his and gave him a slow, sugary smile. “So, Agent Lawson, how’re you liking Fox Hills so far?”
    Over her shoulder, Cooper saw Marco’s eyebrows shoot up.
    Clearing his throat, Cooper settled on the edge of the desk. “It’s good. Nice little town. Friendly people.”
    “Except that sheriff guy. What’s his name?” Marco cut in, snapping his fingers. “Brad. Billy…”
    “Beau,” Ava supplied with a snort of laughter. “Why am I not surprised he came sniffin’ around here?”
    “Strutting around is more what he did,” Marco recalled. “Came in acting like he was one of us, like he had some right to know what’s going on just because he wears a badge. I told him if he wanted to help out he could start by getting me a sandwich from next door.”
    “He didn’t like that,” Cooper mused. His eyes met Ava’s. “Beat his chest a bit and made a few empty threats, but we got him out of here.”
    Ava grinned. “Good for you. Here I thought I was the only one brave enough to put him in his place.”
    “What’s he gonna do? Call the cops?” Marco joked, biting down on his cigar.
    “So what did you tell him about the investigation?” Ava asked.
    Cooper and Marco exchanged looks. Cooper spoke first. “Not much.”
    “Just the tax fraud stuff and the…what was it again?”
    “Nice try.” Cooper got to his feet, gave her shoulder a friendly pat. “Look, I know you want answers. You won’t find them here.”
    Ava frowned as he started to lead her out of the office. “So what am I supposed to do, then? Just sit around and wait for you to finish whatever the hell it is you’re doing?”
    “What you should do is go about your life like normal and forget we’re even here,” Cooper advised, opening the door for her. His face was serious now as they locked eyes. He reached into his coat pocket and handed her his business card. “If you need anything else, just give me a call. My cell’s on there.”
    She wanted to crumble up his card and throw it back in his face, but withheld the urge and pocketed it instead. “Fine. Goodbye, Agent Lawson.”
    Keeping her temper painfully in check, she stepped out into the midday sun only to watch it disappear behind a cluster of storm clouds. Thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance and had the hairs standing up on the back of her neck.
    Great, she thought. She was no closer to getting answers than when she’d shown up.
    On the bright side, at least she could spread the word around town that Beau had gotten his ass handed to him by the Feds.

    COOPER WATCHED out the window as she drove away.
    “So I guess her old man decided not to tell her,” Marco said, twirling his cigar around in his fingers.
    “Guess not.” Cooper stuffed his hands into his pockets, then spotted the clouds rolling in. “Might get a storm tonight.”
    A sly grin played over Marco’s face. “She’s a spitfire, isn’t she?”
    “Who?”
    “That Ava chick.”
    Cooper gave a half-hearted shrug and headed for Ty’s office, not wanting to discuss it. “She’s okay.”
    “She’s more than okay. That’s a woman who’s fine and damn well knows it, too.”
    Sitting behind the desk, Cooper tapped back into the