“Caleb!”
The deputy gave her a smile that reached into every part of her body and warmed it. His golden hair was in tangles and he looked a little worse for the wear, but there he was. Alive.
“I thought you were—” she started, already fighting tears. Caleb closed the space between them, interrupting her with a kiss.
“But I’m not,” he said after they parted. “I’m right here with you.”
Alyssa wanted to stay within the warmth that Caleb seemed to always make her feel, but the reality of where they were set back in.
“You shot Dupree before he could kill me,” she realized.
Caleb’s expression pinched. “Not exactly.”
He guided her to the steps of the pool and waited to explain when they were out of the water. The night air made her cold, but she didn’t care. Not when Caleb was with her.
“I heard the gunshots in the house, but I got out here too late,” he admitted.
“Then who shot Dupree?”
“Norman did.” He walked them onto the grass, away from the pool and deck. Away from Dupree’s body. Voices sounded from the house. Caleb didn’t flinch, which made her assume he’d had backup this time around. “It’s not that surprising if you think about it,” he continued. “He wanted to protect you.”
A range of emotions crossed Caleb’s expression. Some were a mystery. Others weren’t.
“And I can’t blame him for that,” he said with the smallest of smiles.
That warmth within her heated, but she still needed to know what had happened while she was underwater. “Where is he now?”
On cue Norman’s wail carried over to them. It was followed by a voice she recognized as the sheriff’s.
“After he shot Dupree he turned on me,” Caleb explained. “I was able to get his gun away without killing him. Then I went in after you.”
That sobered Alyssa.
“Good,” she said. “I want him to be able to pay for what he’s done.”
Caleb nodded. “And he will. Of that the sheriff will make sure.”
Alyssa might have been cuffed, soaking wet and mostly blind, but in that moment she felt something she never thought she’d feel.
Closure.
* * *
ALYSSA HAD HER head hung over one of the biggest cups of coffee Caleb had ever seen. He watched her from the door of the conference room for a few seconds, marveling at how beautiful she was, before he took a deep breath and sat down next to her.
“I need to tell you something,” he jumped in. “Something I should have told you a lot sooner.” Alyssa turned to him, eyes widened in surprise. He hoped they wouldn’t turn away from him completely when he was done.
“I was a beat cop in Portland when my current partner and I got a call to a town house in the suburbs,” he started. “When we got there a neighbor said that he’d called because he had heard this man beating his wife almost every night and couldn’t take it anymore. He said the screaming was so loud it woke him up. So we investigated.” Normally just thinking about that night would awaken a new surge of anger, but somehow looking into Alyssa’s eyes made him feel calm. “Long story short, the wife was pretty bad off but didn’t want to press charges. I tried my best to convince her to at least leave for the night, but she kept looking back at her husband, clearly terrified. And that’s when he looked at me and said, ‘She knows she deserved it.’”
Alyssa sucked in a breath. Caleb took one of his own. “Something in me snapped,” he admitted. “I threw one punch and before I knew it my partner was pulling me off the man and he was going to the hospital. And that’s why I was transferred here. I lost control.”
Caleb averted his gaze. He thought he could handle it if Alyssa realized she’d made a mistake in getting close to him, but now the thought wasn’t one he wanted to face.
“Caleb, look at me.”
A warm hand guided his chin to turn toward her.
“I can’t pretend to know what it’s like being in law enforcement. To go into dangerous and occasionally heartbreaking situations, forced to see the world at its worst sometimes. But what I do know is that you had the chance to kill a very bad man tonight and no one would have blamed you, and yet you didn’t.” A small smile pulled up the corners of her lips. It was soft and sweet. Just like her. “You wanted him to face justice, the right way. And because of that decision, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. What you did in the past is already done. All you can do now is move on and become better for it.”
She moved closer, and that smile grew. He welcomed her lips, once more, against his. “Plus, I’m here to tell you that if you were looking for some kind of redemption, I think you more than found it here.”
Epilogue
“So, everyone has a pool going on you.”
Caleb looked up from his desk and couldn’t help grinning. Sheriff Reed had once been a man he didn’t understand, but after what they’d been through he was a man Caleb not only respected, but liked. “Oh yeah? What kind of pool?”
“On whether or not you’ll stay.”
Caleb eyed the clock over the man’s shoulder, still grinning.
“I actually just ended my shift,” he answered, closing the file on his desk and standing. “So technically I’m leaving.”
Reed laughed and followed him as he made his way out to the lobby. His blazer was slung over his shoulder. “How convenient. I’m on my way out too.”
It had been three weeks since the night Caleb had thought he’d lost Alyssa. And he hated to think it, but he realized he would have, had Dean Cranston not grown a conscience. He’d sent a list of every employee laid off from his plant, and thankfully Norman Calloway had been the only Norman on the list. From there it had been easy to look up his address out on the cusp of Carpenter. The house he’d built for his wife, Barbara. The house he couldn’t afford when he’d been laid off. The sheriff had had the pleasure of talking to Barbara after the arrest. She’d admitted to leaving Norman high and dry when he couldn’t accommodate her lifestyle and she never looked back.
According to the psychologist assigned to his case, that was when Norman decided he wanted to gain back the control he’d lost. One night he approached an angry man at the bar and promised him revenge if he helped him steal blueprints from a safe-deposit box Norman knew Cranston used. Dupree had agreed easily. While he wasn’t an employee of the plant, his father had been. Their family, like Norman’s, was shattered because of it.
However, when he’d bumped into Alyssa at the bank, all the stress of what he was doing finally pushed him into a new reality. One where a woman loved him so much that she cheated death just to stay with him. In the year that followed he worked on his plan, believing it was the last obstacle between them, but at the same time began to devolve. His stability took more hits as parts of his plans backfired.
The sheriff believed that if Norman didn’t spend his life in prison, he’d at least spend it in an institution. Far, far away from Riker County.
“What’s your bet?” Caleb finally had to ask Reed as they walked out of the building.
“You mean do I think you’ll stay in Riker County or go back to Portland?”
“Yeah. Will I stay or go?”
The sheriff was already grinning. They paused on the sidewalk.
“First, answer me this,” he said. “What are your plans tonight?”
Caleb felt his eyebrow rise. “Alyssa wants to try out the new Chinese place that opened up off Main. We’re meeting Robbie and Eleanor there. Why?”
Reed let out a laugh. “That’s why I think you’ll stay.”
Caleb snorted.
“Because of Chinese food?” he hedged, already knowing exactly what the sheriff meant. However, the man didn’t answer. Instead he turned his attention over Caleb’s
shoulder with a look that was nothing but glee.
“Well, hello, Miss Garner! I do believe that you’re going to help me win a bet.”
Caleb turned in time to see Alyssa confused. She looked between them.
“A bet?” she repeated.
“Don’t worry about it,” Caleb jumped in, trying not to laugh. “The sheriff just had too much coffee today.”
“Speaking of coffee,” she started. “I was hoping to grab a cup from the café before we take Sergeant to the dog park, if that’s okay with you?”
“Sounds great to me.”
Alyssa beamed.
They said goodbye to the sheriff and parted ways in the parking lot. Caleb slipped his hand in hers as they walked. It was warm and perfect.
While the danger had ceased in the last few weeks, his feelings for the woman next to him hadn’t. So, while the department might be taking guesses at whether or not he was going to stay, Caleb already knew the answer.
“Hey, Reed,” he called across the lot, stopping the man before he got into his Bronco. “You’ve already won the bet!”
The sheriff just laughed.
* * * * *
Look for more books in Tyler Anne Snell’s
THE PROTECTORS OF RIKER COUNTY
miniseries in 2018.
And don’t miss the previous title in
THE PROTECTORS OF RIKER COUNTY series:
SMALL-TOWN FACE-OFF
Available now from Harlequin Intrigue!
Sheriff Flint Cahill can and will endure elements far worse than the coming winter storm to hunt down Maggie Thompson and her abductor.
Read on for a sneak preview of
COWBOY’S LEGACY,
A CAHILL RANCH NOVEL from
New York Times bestselling author
B.J. Daniels!
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Cowboy’s Legacy
by B.J. Daniels
SHE WAS IN so fast that she didn’t have a chance to scream. The icy cold water stole her breath away. Her eyes flew open as she hit. Because of the way she fell, she had no sense of up or down for a few moments.
Panicked, she flailed in the water until a light flickered above her. She tried to swim toward it, but something was holding her down. The harder she fought, the more it seemed to push her deeper and deeper, the light fading.
Her lungs burned. She had to breathe. The dim light wavered above her through the rippling water. She clawed at it as her breath gave out. She could see the surface just inches above her. Air! She needed oxygen. Now!
The rippling water distorted the face that suddenly appeared above her. The mouth twisted in a grotesque smile. She screamed, only to have her throat fill with the putrid dark water. She choked, sucking in even more water. She was drowning, and the person who’d done this to her was watching her die and smiling.
Maggie Thompson shot upright in bed, gasping for air and swinging her arms frantically toward the faint light coming through the window. Panic had her perspiration-soaked nightgown sticking to her skin. Trembling, she clutched the bedcovers as she gasped for breath.
The nightmare had been so real this time that she thought she was going to drown before she could come out of it. Her chest ached, her throat feeling raw as tears burned her eyes. It had been too real. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d almost died this time. Next time...
She snapped on the bedside lamp to chase away the dark shadows hunkered in the corners of the room. If only Flint had been here instead of on an all-night stakeout. She needed Sheriff Flint Cahill’s strong arms around her. Not that he stayed most nights. They hadn’t been intimate that long.
Often, he had to work or was called out in the middle of the night. He’d asked her to move in with him months ago, but she’d declined. He’d asked her after one of his ex-wife’s nasty tricks. Maggie hadn’t wanted to make a decision like that based on Flint’s ex.
While his ex hadn’t done anything in months to keep them apart, Maggie couldn’t rest easy. Flint was hoping Celeste had grown tired of her tricks. Maggie wasn’t that naive. Celeste Duma was one of those women who played on every man’s weakness to get what she wanted—and she wanted not just the rich, powerful man she’d left Flint for. She wanted to keep her ex on the string, as well.
Maggie’s breathing slowed a little. She pulled the covers up to her chin, still shivering, but she didn’t turn off the light. Sleep was out of the question for a while. She told herself that she wasn’t going to let Celeste scare her. She wasn’t going to give the woman the satisfaction.
Unfortunately, it was just bravado. Flint’s ex was obsessed with him. Obsessed with keeping them apart. And since the woman had nothing else to do...
As the images of the nightmare faded, she reminded herself that the dream made no sense. It never had. She was a good swimmer. Loved water. Had never nearly drowned. Nor had anyone ever tried to drown her.
Shuddering, she thought of the face she’d seen through the rippling water. Not Celeste’s. More like a Halloween mask. A distorted smiling face, neither male nor female. Just the memory sent her heart racing again.
What bothered her most was that dream kept reoccurring. After the first time, she’d mentioned it to her friend Belle Delaney.
“A drowning dream?” Belle had asked with the arch of her eyebrow. “Do you feel that in waking life you’re being ‘sucked into’ something you’d rather not be a part of?”
Maggie had groaned inwardly. Belle had never kept it a secret that she thought Maggie was making a mistake when it came to Flint. Too much baggage, she always said of the sheriff. His “baggage” came in the shape of his spoiled, probably psychopathic, petite, green-eyed, blonde ex.
“I have my own skeletons.” Maggie had laughed, although she’d never shared her past—even with Belle—before moving to Gilt Edge, Montana, and opening her beauty shop, Just Hair. She feared it was her own baggage that scared her the most.
“If you’re holding anything back,” Belle had said, eyeing her closely, “you need to let it out. Men hate surprises after they tie the knot.”
“Guess I don’t have to worry about that because Flint hasn’t said anything about marriage.” But she knew Belle was right. She’d even come close to telling him several times about her past. Something had always stopped her. The truth was, she feared if he found out her reasons for coming to Gilt Edge he wouldn’t want her anymore.
“The
dream isn’t about Flint,” she’d argued that day with Belle, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a warning.
“Well, from what I know about dreams,” Belle had said, “if in the dream you survive the drowning, it means that a waking relationship will ultimately survive the turmoil. At least, that is one interpretation. But I’d say the nightmare definitely indicates that you are going into unknown waters and something is making you leery of where you’re headed.” She’d cocked an eyebrow at her. “If you have the dream again, I’d suggest that you ask yourself what it is you’re so afraid of.”
“I’m sure it’s just about his ex, Celeste,” she’d lied. Or was she afraid that she wasn’t good enough for Flint—just as his ex had warned her. Just as she feared in her heart.
* * *
THE WIND LAY over the tall dried grass and kicked up dust as Sheriff Flint Cahill stood on the hillside. He shoved his Stetson down on his head of thick dark hair, squinting in the distance at the clouds to the west. Sure as the devil, it was going to snow before the day was out.
In the distance, he could see a large star made out of red and green lights on the side of a barn, a reminder that Christmas was coming. Flint thought he might even get a tree this year, go up in the mountains and cut it himself. He hadn’t had a tree at Christmas in years. Not since...
At the sound of a pickup horn, he turned, shielding his eyes from the low winter sun. He could smell snow in the air, feel it deep in his bones. This storm was going to dump a good foot on them, according to the latest news. They were going to have a white Christmas.
Most years he wasn’t ready for the holiday season any more than he was ready for a snow that wouldn’t melt until spring. But this year was different. He felt energized. This was the year his life would change. He thought of the small velvet box in his jacket pocket. He’d been carrying it around for months. Just the thought of it made him smile to himself. He was in love and he was finally going to do something about it.
The Deputy's Witness Page 19
