Wanted by the Illinois State Police: Kayla Marie Jenkins
Crime: Suspected Murder
Last Location Seen: Wilson Bus Terminal, Wilson Kansas
Approximately five foot five inches, red hair, hazel eyes. Last seen wearing black slacks and a red winter coat. Anyone who thinks they have seen Ms. Jenkins or knows of her whereabouts please contact Officer David Tyler of the Chicago Police Department. Do not approach suspect as she is extremely dangerous and may be armed.
Underneath the transcript was a picture of Kayla. It took him a moment to recognize her because in the picture she had long, fiery red hair. He sucked in a breath, awestruck by the shiny copper strands cascading around her face and over her shoulders. The pounding of his heart drowned out every other noise in the station. Kayla had been right to cut and dye her hair, though he wanted to rage at the loss of something so beautiful, she would have been recognized in an instant with such memorable hair. She was smiling in front of a plain blue backdrop. It looked like a school photo, and he remembered she mentioned she was a kindergarten teacher.
Fear gripped him. The police were widening their search for Kayla. For the APB to reach Peak Town, it meant they were gunning full force for her. He glanced around the office. Jason and Tim were already gone. The young deputy had not mentioned the APB. Did that mean he didn’t see it? Checking faxes was technically Ryder’s job as sheriff, so it was safe to believe no one saw the picture claiming she was wanted for murder.
Carefully, he folded the paper and picked up his coat, draping it over his arm so he could covertly stuff the APB in the jacket pocket. No one but him had seen it, and it was going to stay that way. He was damned glad the fax came in today when he was at work. If he hadn’t been there when it arrived, someone else might have seen it. With her dye and cut job, Kayla did look different, but it wouldn’t take long for someone to recognize her from the wanted poster. Particularly if it was hanging in the police station day and night.
“I’m heading out for a bit. Call me if anything urgent comes in.”
Mrs. Billings raised a brow, but nodded. He was sheriff; he didn’t have to explain to anyone where he was going.
Ryder threw his coat on as he headed out of the office and into the cold winter air. Once he was inside his truck, alone, he pulled out his cell and placed a call.
The phone rang twice before a familiar, sweet voice came on the line.
“What do you want, butthead? I’m in the middle of something.”
He chuckled at his sister’s not so sweet response. “I need a favor.”
“Sure big brother. Just so you know, this is like the tenth one this year. You owe me so big.”
He rolled his eyes even though she couldn’t see it over the phone. He loved his little sister, but she could be such a brat sometimes. “Yeah, yeah. I know.”
“So, what’s the favor?”
“I need you to check out the Chicago PD and see if they put an APB out on a Kayla Jenkins.”
There was a pause on her end of the line.
“Does this have anything to do with that David Tyler guy you asked me to look into the other day?”
He’d called his sister asking her to check into the cop’s files the day after Kayla confessed her situation to him. With Liam and Julie checking into the guy, one of them would hit on something. He hoped.
“Yes, it does.”
“Are you in trouble, Jake?” Her voice trembled with worry.
Ah, damn. He never wanted to upset Julie. Since his father died, his entire goal in life had been to take care of her and make sure she never had to worry about anything, ever. Too bad his independent kid sister didn’t make it easy on him.
“I’m fine, Julie, but someone I…care about might be in trouble. Can you just check for me?”
“Hold on.”
He heard some clicking over the phone, the sound of fingers typing away on a keyboard.
After a moment, Julie came back on the line. “Okay, I see a local APB for her, but nothing that would have reached out as far as Colorado. What’s the contact number?”
Ryder grabbed the paper from his pocket and read off the number on the bottom of the fax.
More clicking, then, “That’s not the station’s number, or their fax. Give me one more second.”
Suspicion started to build as he waited for his sister to confirm what he’d already suspected.
“Okaaaaay,” Julie drew the word out. “That number is the personal cell phone of one Mr. David Tyler.”
Sonofabitch.
“It’s not listed anywhere with the department, but I managed to do a reverse look up online and tracked it to Tyler.”
The bastard was searching for Kayla under the guise of the Chicago Police Department. He wanted to find her before anyone else did. That only meant one thing. A cold thread of unease climbed up Ryder’s spine.
David Tyler wanted to kill Kayla.
The man didn’t want her brought in alive. She could tell her side of the story. Officer Tyler couldn’t allow that to happen. By the looks of this APB, he was aiming to find Kayla before his superiors…and take her out.
Over my dead body.
“Jake,” his sister’s soft voice spoke in his ear. “I haven’t been able to find much on this Tyler guy, but what I did find isn’t good.”
“You found something?”
He heard a shuffling of papers on his sister’s end.
“Yes. I managed to get a sealed record from when he was sixteen. It was expunged from his file since the crime was committed when he was underage.” A low growl came over the line. “It shouldn’t have been, but the guy has a very influential and rich family.”
“Crime?” He gripped his phone so tight the plastic case cracked in his hand. “What did he do?”
Julie’s sad sigh shot straight to his heart. “He beat up his girlfriend at the time.”
Dammit!
He knew an act of rage like the one Kayla described couldn’t have been a first time thing. Violence like that didn’t just show up. It grew.
“What happened?” He was unable to keep the anger from his voice.
“It says a sixteen-year-old David Tyler got into an argument with his eighteen-year-old girlfriend at a party. They were both drinking and yelling, then the record states David hit his girlfriend in the face with an empty beer bottle. It broke her jaw and lacerated her cheek, requiring ten stitches.”
“Why the hell isn’t that bastard in jail?”
“It looks like he was sentenced to a hundred hours of community service and required to pay all the girl’s medical bills.”
“Which I’m sure his daddy paid.”
“Yes,” his sister agreed. “I would also hazard a guess his father also paid for the high-priced lawyer who brokered the deal. I’ve heard of this guy, and he’s a rat. It’s guys like him that give credence to all those stupid lawyer jokes.”
Bad cops, bad lawyers, it really sucked when the people you were supposed to trust turned out to be scum.
“The lawyer, a Mr. Simms, used the fact that both teens were drinking as an excuse for David’s behavior. He also said since the girl was eighteen and of legal age, David should be treated like the minor he was. He was, and I quote, ‘too young to know the consequences of his actions.’ Jeez, it looks like this guy pulled every trick in the book to get Tyler off.”
“So, David Tyler assaults a woman, gets away with it, and then joins the police force years later? Unbelievable.”
“The record was sealed since he was a minor at the time.”
Minor or not, violence like that needed to be dealt with, not swept under the rug. His blood boiled thinking about people twisting the system to get away with crimes.
“Is this Kayla Jenkins the one you’re trying to help? Did he hurt her, too?”
Yes, but not in the way his sister probably worried about. David Tyler hurt Kayla by taking away the most important person in the world to her. His violence had not disappeared; it’d
just lain dormant. It wasn’t the alcohol, or his age, it was the man. Ryder would be damned if he let David get away with it this time.
“Don’t you worry about it, kiddo. I’ve got it all under control.”
He heard his sister scoff. “I’ll worry if I want to, old man.”
“Email me that file, will you?”
“Already sent. And I’ll keep digging. See what else I can find out about David ‘Douchebag’ Tyler.”
He laughed at his sister’s crude humor. “Thanks, but be careful, okay? This guy is bad news.” The last thing he wanted was for Julie to get caught in the crossfires of this whole mess.
“Yes, sir, Sheriff.”
“Smartass.”
“Lame brain.”
A smile curved his lips. “Love you, kiddo.”
“Love you, too.”
Ryder held the phone to his ear until the dial tone sounded. He always let his sister hang up first. A thing he did ever since he moved away from home. He never wanted to end a conversation in case she had more to say. Another aspect of becoming the man of the house before his time.
Worry still eating him, he placed another call, this one to Cupcakes Above the Clouds. Maggie texted a little while after he left the ranch to say she and Lizzy were headed into work at the bakery and were taking Kayla with them. It was a popular shop in the middle of town, so he hadn’t been worried. Now that he knew David was searching for Kayla so openly, he was.
The phone rang once before it was picked up by Tony, the shop’s part-time employee. “Cupcakes Above the Clouds. How may I help you?” he asked in his accented English.
“Hi, Tony. It’s Sheriff Ryder.”
“Sheriff Ryder, how are you? Would you like to place an order for the station?”
“No.” As much as he would love to go by and see Kayla, he feared if he saw her, he wouldn’t want to let her out of his sight again. “I was just hoping to talk with Kayla.”
“Señorita Jenkins, sí. I will go and get her.”
The young man was always so polite. The immigrant nephew of the Denning brothers’ head ranch hand was trying to get citizenship. Tony was a hard worker who always lent a helping hand to those who needed it. Ryder wished the young man luck in his endeavors. He believed the kid would make a great asset to the country.
“Hello?”
Once he heard the sweet, melodic voice come on the line, the tension and fear filling his body evaporated. “Hey, sweetheart. How are you doing?”
“Great, actually. Lizzy and Maggie are really nice, and these cupcakes are amazing.”
He chuckled, warmth filling him to hear her in such a cheerful mood. “I know. Maggie makes a mean cupcake.”
“You’re telling me. I’ve already eaten four, and I would go for a fifth, but I don’t want to spoil dinner. Maggie keeps talking about what she’s going to make and it sounds delicious.”
“If Maggie’s making it, I’m sure it will be.”
There was a pause. Then she asked in a soft voice, “Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine.” Not really, but he didn’t need to worry her. He wanted to tell her about the APB and what his sister found out about David’s past, but not over the phone. Later, when they were together, and alone. “I was just calling to check in. See how you were doing.”
He heard a small sigh of relief. “I’m great.”
“Good, good. I’ll be by in a few hours to pick you up. Then we’ll go to the Denning Ranch for dinner.”
“I’ll save you a cupcake. I helped Maggie make a batch of Mint Madness Cupcakes. She, um, said they were your favorite.”
He could almost see the cute little blush that rose over her face when she got embarrassed.
“You made my favorite cupcake?”
“Well, I, ah, Maggie made them. I just helped.”
He lowered his voice to a sexy growl. “Can’t wait to taste them.” And you. “I’ll see you in a few.”
He waited until she hung up, listening to the empty air space, imagining Kayla baking something special for him because it was his favorite. That woman was something special, and he was going to do everything in his power to keep her safe.
Chapter 17
“Elizabeth Hayworth, you put that cupcake down right now!” Maggie shrieked from across the kitchen.
Lizzy winked at Kayla. “You see, I told you she’d notice.”
Kayla shared a grin with the saucy, pregnant woman as she placed the Caramel Surprise cupcake back into the cardboard take out box.
“You’re no fun, Maggie.”
“You’ve had six already,” the baker complained with a frown.
“I’m eating for two.”
“That baby needs more than sugary pastries to grow big and strong. I’m making my crockpot chicken potpie with a spinach salad for dinner tonight, and I don’t want you to be full of sweets. My little niece or nephew cannot live on cupcakes alone. And neither can you.”
“No, but it’s sure delicious trying.”
Kayla tried to smother her smile, but at Maggie’s scowl, she followed Lizzy into howls of laughter.
Unable to fight them, the baker threw her hands up in the air. A smile cracked her frown, and soon she was joining in the gales of hilarity.
It was nice to laugh again. She hadn’t laughed this hard since the movie she went to with Jen where the cops pretended to be college students.
At the reminder of her friend, and cops, her laughter died and tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. How could she be here laughing when Jen was gone?
It’s not fair.
Her best friend should be here, too. If anyone in the world embodied the saying “full of life” it had been Jen. Happy, carefree, and so friendly…
“Hey, are you okay?”
At Maggie’s question, she glanced up. The other two women had stopped laughing, their smiles turned down in concerned frowns. Oh great, now she was a party pooper. She hadn’t meant to bring the mood down.
“I’m fine.”
“Yeah, ’cause I always cry when I’m fine, too,” Lizzy said with a snort. “Wait, scratch that. I actually cry all the time now for no reason at all, but I have my baby making hormones as an excuse. Fess up, honey. What’s wrong?”
Maggie sent her friend a warning look, but Kayla didn’t mind the mother-to-be’s nosiness. In some ways, Lizzy reminded her of Jen.
Desperately needing that connection again, the bond of sisterhood, she answered as best she could. “I-I recently lost my best friend, and it’s been tough without her.”
Both women gasped.
“Oh you poor thing.” Maggie grabbed her in a fierce hug.
She could do nothing to stop the tears from spilling over, and Lizzy reached over and handed her a tissue.
“Thank you.” Pulling out from the embrace, she dabbed at her eyes.
“You know, you two remind me of her, Jennifer. Jen was always so sweet, taking care of everyone, cooking meals.” Her lips trembled with a shaky smile. “She was also the friendliest person I have ever met. If it wasn’t for her, I would have spent every night sitting at home watching Law and Order reruns.” Warmth entered her body as good memories washed over her. “Jen made me go out to bars, movies, art shows. She got me out of my element and into new things.”
“Sounds like she was a wonderful person,” Maggie said softly.
Lizzy nodded. “I wish we could have met her.”
“She would have loved you both. Anyway, spending time with you guys today, it kind of felt like a little part of Jen was here with us.”
The bell over the front door chimed. The shop had closed an hour ago. Which meant it could only be one person. Heartbeat racing, she wiped her eyes, trying to erase any evidence of her emotional outburst.
“Hello? Anybody here, or did Lizzy kick everyone out so she could eat all the cupcakes.”
“I heard that Jake Ryder. No more cupcakes for you!”
He came around the corner, and Kayla’s breath caught
in her throat. His long, black hair was pulled back into a braid emphasizing the sharp jut of his cheekbones. It should have been feminine, but it wasn’t. It made him look strong. The hard plains of his face fierce and beautiful, he looked good enough to eat. Strange, since she was in a place with the most scrumptious food she had ever tasted, and all she wanted to take a bite out of was the man standing ten feet away from her.
He leaned in to give Lizzy a little squeeze. “You know I’m only joking, honey. Hi, Maggie.” He gave the other woman a brief hug as well.
“Hey, Ryder. How was work?”
At the mention of work, his smile dissipated. A dark cloud passed over his face, but it was gone in an instant. A small tremor of fear passed through her, but she pushed it away. He was the sheriff. If something bad happened at work, it didn’t necessarily have to do with her situation.
“Nothing too exciting. Old man Miller’s fence broke. He lost a few cows, but Tim and Jason found them. I called the guys at the lumber yard, and they agreed to donate some time and supplies next week to help Len fix his fence.”
“Above and beyond, this guy.”
“Yeah, Ryder, you’re a regular hevior.”
“That’s not a word, Lizzy.”
“Yes it is. Hero and savior all wrapped up in one fantastic package. Don’t you agree, Kayla?”
Yes, she did.
The women were laying it on thick, but they didn’t have to. She knew how amazing Ryder was. The man took her in without knowing who she was, opened his home to her, and when he discovered her secret, he promised to help her instead of turning her in. She still couldn’t fully believe how amazing he was. Every morning, she expected to wake up in a cell, having dreamt this wonderful warrior and his willingness to help her.
“How are you doing, sweetheart?” he asked softly, coming to stand in front of her.
“I’m great.”
His brow furrowed as he traced a finger down her still damp cheek. She reached up and grabbed his hand, squeezing reassuringly.
“Really, I’m okay.”
Those chocolate brown eyes stared deeply into hers, like he was gazing into her soul. What was this connection between them? Deep and a little bit scary.
Love on the Risky Side Page 11
