Her Lawman Protector

by Patricia Johns

  Liv turned the letter over, then sighed. She might as well open it—she needed to do something to get rid of this jittery feeling. She tore it open and scanned the contents. She frowned, then read it again.

  “What?” Jack asked. “What is it?”

  “My property taxes have been reassessed,” she said, her breath catching in throat. “I owe five times what I did before.”

  How was that for pulling her out of the moment? How on earth was she going to pay this? One of the perks of opening her store in a small town was that the property taxes were affordable. But with this kind of jump in what she owed... Her mind was zipping through the arithmetic. She’d had a very slim margin before, but now—

  “Do you mind?” he asked, holding out his hand. Liv numbly passed the letter over, watching him read it. Then he looked up at her, his expression confused. “What changed?”

  “Nothing that I know of!” she retorted.

  “Something changed.” Jack tapped the paper against his palm. “The town wouldn’t raise property taxes for no reason. These are directly related to the land’s worth.”

  “It has to be a mistake,” she said, shaking her head. “There is no way my store is worth that. We have a few tourists but not enough to drive up the values that much. Trust me—if it were worth what that letter says, I’d have sold and taken the money.”

  “Yeah?” Jack raised an eyebrow, and she could feel the questioning in his look again—like he was suspicious of her or something. But that was crazy. She was the victim here. “It might not be a mistake at all.”

  “It has to be,” she retorted. “Jack, what do I do? I can’t pay this!”

  “First things first,” he said, pulling out his phone. He took a few moments, scrolling through his browser, then he tapped in a phone number. “I know a guy who is a tax assessor in our county—”

  “You do?” She looked skeptical.

  “I have all sorts of useful contacts,” he replied. “Give me a minute, would you? I’ll check into this.”

  Liv sank into the couch, listening to the low rumble of Jack’s voice as he talked on the phone. She was tired all of a sudden. So very tired. Coming home to Eagle’s Rest was supposed to be her chance to breathe, her chance to get back to her roots, to herself. She was tired of being the ex–Mrs. Kornekewsky. It was time to embrace being Liv Hylton again and to chase a few of her own dreams. Evan had taken away too much, and he owed her a fresh start, at the very least.

  But ever since she’d arrived back in her hometown, she’d been dealing with a stalker, and now a financial crisis threatened her store. She didn’t have extra money—it had all gone into her business. Living in Denver had been easier, ironically enough. She might have had her ex-husband in town and all the reminders of the marriage she’d lost, of the baby she’d lost...of her hopes trampled. But in the midst of the clutter of her old life, at least no one had been threatening her safety! Had she come this close to living her dream as a bookstore owner only to have it torn away at the last minute? Liv leaned forward, resting her face in her hands.

  Maybe she should just do what the letter-writer wanted and get out of town. It would be easier...if that really would satisfy the person. But what if he followed her and tried to chase her out of her next home. Not knowing what this was about was the hardest part of all. What could she possibly have done to make anyone hate her this much? It made no sense!

  She heard Jack say goodbye, then he came back into the living room. He crossed his arms over his chest and chewed the inside of one cheek.

  “I have a few answers,” he said.

  “Oh?” Liv looked up hopefully.

  “The tax assessment is legitimate,” Jack said. “All the properties in this area have had their values reassessed because of some minable resources under our feet.”

  “Minable resources...” Liv frowned. “What kind?”

  “Gold. Apparently, there’s all sorts of it. It’s hitting the news now.”

  “Gold! That doesn’t seem possible.” She felt suddenly breathless. “Well...there was this journalist years ago who made a wild claim that there might be something here, but he was disgraced, and... This really doesn’t seem possible,” she repeated.

  “Why not?” he asked. “Eagle’s Rest used to be a gold miner’s town, didn’t it?”

  “Yes, that’s true,” she said, “but besides the little bit they found panning the river that runs out of the lake, there wasn’t much gold here. The town collapsed and only revived as a tourist attraction for skiers.”

  “Well, they missed something, because this land is now incredibly valuable.”

  This little shop was worth some actual cash? It was hard to believe, and Liv took a moment for that to sink in. Jack was looking at her—his direct gaze pinning her to the spot. He was waiting for her reaction, she realized.

  “I don’t know what to say,” she said feebly.

  “This doesn’t...explain anything for you?” he asked.

  “Explain what?” she demanded, shoving herself off the couch and rising to her feet. “What, Jack? What am I supposed to suddenly understand? I’m sick of this—the constant demand that I pull the answers out of my head, out of my past, out of thin air! Figuring out the criminal element is supposed to be your job, not mine!”

  “Liv, someone wants you out of town. Maybe even dead.” He raised the most recent threatening letter, flapping it in front of her. “Someone wants you out of here...and so far, you’ve been holding out on me.”

  “I’m not!” she snapped. “Why don’t you believe me?”

  “Because this is personal. This is no random attack. And I think you’re protecting someone.”

  “Evan?” She laughed bitterly. “You honestly think I’m protecting Evan?”

  “He tried to buy your parents’ land below value,” he said.

  “I can’t explain that,” she replied tiredly.

  “So you’re willing to toy with your life?” he shot back.

  “I’m not toying with anything! I still have no idea what’s going on, but apparently, you do know something.” Anger rose up inside her, effectively capping the fear that was threatening to boil over. “Yes, he’s been buying up land around here, and maybe this does explain that. But how was I supposed to know about it? I left him all those little plots of land in the divorce! It was all mortgaged, anyway. What did I want with all that debt? And he was happy to keep it! It looks like it’s worth a whole lot now, though...”

  “Looks like.”

  “You know far more than you’re admitting to, but you won’t tell me! So which one of us is holding out?”

  Jack stared at her and she met his eye, glaring right back. He pressed his lips together in a flat line, and she could see the anger in the set of his jaw. But he was controlling it.

  “Would you tell me if you were involved with something that got out of hand?” he asked after a moment.

  He suspected her of something. That was what this was. He was here to protect her, but somehow he’d gotten the wrong idea.

  “What do you think I’ve done?” she asked breathily. “I thought you were here to protect me!”

  “I am.”

  “Jack, I’m telling you the truth.” He had to believe her. “I have no idea what’s going on, and if this is connected to my ex-husband in any way, I have no interest in protecting him. But I also have no interest in blaming him for something he didn’t do. I’m just trying to start over here! But it seems like you know something about him that I don’t, so—has Evan done something? Is this land he’s been buying up a legal issue or something?”

  It wasn’t inconceivable, she realized. Evan had always been the kind of man who had secrets, and she hadn’t kept tabs on the banking like she should have.

  Jack sucked in a long breath, then slowly shook his head. “If there was something that went wrong..
.something you might have gotten involved with, not knowing how bad it would get—” he sighed “—it would be better for you if you told me now. I could help you.”

  “Jack, there is nothing to tell you.” She searched his face pleadingly.

  “Okay.” He nodded briskly.

  “Do you believe me?” she asked.

  “I didn’t mean to spook you. I’m sorry.”

  That wasn’t exactly an answer.

  “But did Evan do something?” she repeated.

  “You’d know better than me,” he said with a faint shrug. “And you say he hasn’t.”

  “I say he hasn’t done anything to my knowledge,” she corrected him. “There’s a whole lot I probably don’t know.”

  “Fair enough.”

  So that was it? Jack was letting it go just like that? He’d been solid and logical. He’d been her protector...and now he was being shifty, too.

  Was she going crazy? Or was there something much bigger going on that she hadn’t seen?

  “I’m going to go make another call,” Jack said, hooking a thumb behind him. “I’ve got an officer coming by to pick up the letter, too, so I’ll meet him out there.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  Jack tucked the letter into a plastic bag and pulled open the front door. “Lock it behind me,” he said gruffly. But when his eyes met hers, they softened. “Okay, Liv?”

  Liv nodded, and when he pulled the door shut behind him, she flicked the dead lock into place.

  Nothing made sense anymore, including Jack. And that scared her most of all, she realized, because Jack had been the last person she could fully count on. He’d been the sane one in the middle of all this craziness. She’d been leaning on him, looking to him, trusting his instincts...

  What on earth was happening?

  * * *

  JACK’S BOOTS THUNKED against the stairs as he trotted down to the main floor. He felt antsy, itchy, like there were crosshairs working over his back.

  There were bugs in Liv’s apartment recording that conversation, and Jack knew he should be mentally going through exactly what he’d said. Had he said too much? That was the problem with Liv—he couldn’t keep his professional distance from her, and he forgot himself a little too easily. She wasn’t a friend, or a buddy, or a woman he could date. She was a suspect.

  He’d gone too far—pushed her to confess. But he’d had his own reasons for that, too. If she came forward now, told them everything she knew, it would go better for her. It would show that she was willing to cooperate before being nailed with whatever charges that would stick.

  And yet even as that occurred to him, he had an image in his mind of Berto pleading for his own innocence. I didn’t do it! I don’t know what’s happening! He wanted a career chasing down dirty cops so he could set a few wrongs right, but he wasn’t willing to lambaste an innocent woman in order to get his chance!

  Jack reached the bottom of the stairs and pushed open the door, stepping out onto the street. The cold, fresh air swept around him in a welcome embrace. He’d been sweating, he realized.

  A woman was walking by with a preschooler in tow. She gave him a cordial nod, and Jack’s gaze slid past her to the cars parked along the street. There were only three, and they were all empty.

  Whoever had dropped off this most recent note had come and gone. But he had to wonder...did they know about the notes the police had been planting? Or was this a weird coincidence? Because Liv’s cousin Tanya was in communication with her ex-husband. She could have passed that information along, and Evan might have decided to contribute to the fun.

  But why now? Like Liv said, her ex had been friendly lately. She and Evan seemed on rather good terms considering the fact that they were divorced, so why would Kornekewsky suddenly decide to scare her to pieces with a seriously creepy note?

  Jack’s mind was spinning. Or—and this was a possibility—she was innocent, and she really was getting jerked around from all sides. He was wary about believing that one because he wanted it to be true. And that was the problem from the start—Jack was emotionally involved with this woman. And he was supposed to be keeping that under control.

  When Jack looked at Liv, he didn’t just see an accumulation of evidence or lack thereof. He saw Liv—a beautiful woman, a sharp mind, a sweet soul. He’d thought he could separate his attraction to her from the case, but this wasn’t just attraction. Yes, she was beautiful—alluring, voluptuous, ever so kissable. But he wanted more than simply getting her into his arms. He wanted to protect her, to soothe her fears, to make her smile. He wanted to hear her ideas, enjoy her company. None of that pointed to a purely physical attraction.

  And he’d started to worry about what jail would do to her. All signs had suggested she was involved in her ex-husband’s schemes, but Jack had gotten to know her over the last couple of weeks. He’d dealt with a lot of shady characters in his time. They all claimed innocence and lied through their teeth, but Liv wasn’t like them. The kind of fear he saw in her eyes couldn’t be faked. Even though she’d had her name on those accounts, and even though she’d delivered some documents, it was possible that she’d been manipulated.

  It was also possible that he was being manipulated.

  A police cruiser drew up to the curb, and Jack opened the front door.

  “Here’s the evidence,” Jack said. “It was handled as briefly as possible.”

  McDonald accepted the bagged note, turning it over a couple of times as he looked at it. “Pretty, pretty Liv...” McDonald grimaced. “This is a departure from the ordinary.”

  “Yes, it is,” Jack agreed. “I don’t like it. Something’s up.”

  “I’ll bring it in,” his colleague said. “Do you need any more assistance?”

  “No, I’m good. I’m just doing a perimeter check, then I’ll go back up and see if some time has made Liv more inclined to talk.”

  “Sounds good,” McDonald replied. “I’ll let the chief know.”

  Jack slammed the door and gave McDonald a nod. He didn’t want anyone else nosing into this, he realized, because he wanted to be sure first. He needed to know what was going on.

  The cruiser disappeared around the corner, and Jack pulled out his cell phone. He dialed the chief’s number. It rang once, then the chief picked up.

  “That you, Talbott?”

  “Yes, sir, it’s me,” Jack replied. “I’m curious to know if Tanya has been in contact with Evan Kornekewsky in the last few days.”

  “We’ve checked her phone records, and there have been several phone calls from suspicious numbers,” the chief confirmed. “If Evan is making the calls, he’s using burner phones, though, because we can’t seem to catch him.”

  “He’d know how to evade surveillance,” Jack said.

  “As well as the rest of us,” the chief said with a bitter laugh. “What’s your sense here, Talbott?” the chief asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jack replied. “But Liv just received a letter from the town informing her that her property value has skyrocketed, and she owes a large chunk of change in property taxes.”

  “There have been some news stories this morning,” the chief said. “The value of the land around here just jumped due to minable gold.”

  “And Liv looks genuinely upset. She can’t afford to pay the new taxes.”

  “It’s genius,” the chief said ruefully. “If she can’t afford her taxes, the only solution is for her to sell.”

  “It would seem, except there’s been no offer to buy her out, as far as I know. She’s simply sitting on this property, unable to pay her taxes.”

  “Hmm.” The chief sucked in an audible breath. “Okay, let’s review what we’ve got here. Liv Hylton moved from Denver back to Eagle’s Rest, where her ex-husband, Evan, has been applying pressure to elderly landowners in the area. Her name was on all the accounts
used for buying and selling. She has been reported to be the one to hand-deliver documents for signing to at least two of the complainants. She’s hosted a chess night in her store for a group of older people including Nate Lipton, who was the first resident to report being pressured to sell his house at a deep loss. And now, suddenly, she’s receiving notes we haven’t planted... Any chance that one of the homeowners who lost their investment is getting some revenge?”

  “It’s always a possibility,” Jack admitted. “She’s scared, and I’m willing to bet she’s as confused as she claims. I’ve pushed her really hard, and she’s not cracking.”

  “Jack, I’m going to point something out here—” the chief began.

  “I’ve gotten too personally involved,” Jack concluded.

  “Yes.”

  “I know.” Jack sighed. “And I see all the evidence against her. It’s circumstantial, though, except for delivering those documents. It’s possible that she didn’t know the pressure her husband was putting on these people. At least that’s what her lawyer will surely argue.”

  It might even be what Jack would argue at this point.

  “Unless you can get a confession,” the chief pointed out.

  Jack was silent, considering. “I put on some pretty big pressure in there to get her to talk, so I’d better back off for a bit. I don’t want to spook her.”

  “I’ll trust your instinct there,” the chief replied. “She’s going to need to sell—and if she turns to her ex-husband and suggests that others do the same, we’ll have collusion.”

  It was genius...and it would have spun right past him.

  There was a shuffle behind him, and Jack’s heart thudded to a stop. He slowly turned. Liv stood in the open doorway, her clear green gaze fixed on him, her expression stunned. He hadn’t heard that outside door open, and by the look on her face, he wasn’t going to be able to save this. He pulled his phone away from his ear, and the chief said something he didn’t make out.