Lawman Protection

by Cindi Myers

  One lawman is determined to keep his enemies close…and an innocent woman even closer…

  A killer lurked in the Colorado wilderness, and now Captain Graham Ellison had some reporter sniffing around the crime scene. And not only did Emma Wade know the victim, she never dropped an investigation once she started it. But all Graham saw was an independent streak that would get the gorgeous redhead killed. As much as he didn’t like allowing a civilian access to his case, he needed to keep Emma close if he also hoped to keep her alive. And he very much did. After all, she was an innocent victim who needed his protection. Nothing more. Or so he kept telling himself.

  “I’m not a callous jerk, no matter what kind of first impression I gave you.”

  She patted his hand, which still rested on the table in front of her. “You still have a chance to redeem yourself.”

  By the time the waiter brought the check, Graham felt almost comfortable with her. He debated asking her out for a real date, but decided to wait. He’d be sure to see her again; the case gave him a good excuse to do so.

  He walked her to her Jeep and lingered while she found her keys and unlocked the car door. “Here’s my personal cell.” He wrote the number on the back of his business card and handed it to her. “Call me anytime.”

  “About the case—or just to talk?” Her tone was teasing.

  “Either. Maybe you’d like to give me your number?”

  She smiled and opened her purse. But she never had a chance to write down her number. The loud crack of gunshots shattered the afternoon silence. Her screams rang in Graham’s ears as he pushed her to the ground.

  LAWMAN

  PROTECTION

  Cindi Myers

  Cindi Myers is an author of more than fifty novels. When she’s not crafting new romance plots, she enjoys skiing, gardening, cooking, crafting and daydreaming. A lover of small-town life, she lives with her husband and two spoiled dogs in the Colorado mountains.

  Books by Cindi Myers

  The Ranger Brigade series

  The Guardian

  Lawman Protection

  HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

  Rocky Mountain Revenge

  Rocky Mountain Rescue

  HARLEQUIN HEARTWARMING

  Her Cowboy Soldier

  What She’d Do for Love

  Visit the Author Profile page at

  Harlequin.com for more titles.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Graham Ellison—Captain of The Ranger Brigade, this FBI agent has little time to waste with the journalists who want to criticize his methods and interfere with his pursuit of justice. He’s used to being in command and doesn’t know how to handle an independent reporter he can’t control.

  Emma Wade—The reporter has devoted her career to seeking justice for crime victims. The tall, curvy redhead intimidates some men, so she appreciates the powerful Ranger captain who is willing to stand up to and spar with her. But she won’t let her attraction to Graham keep her from prodding him to do everything in his power to find a missing TV anchor.

  Lauren Starling—The popular prime-time anchor for a Denver news channel has been missing ever since her car was found abandoned at an overlook in Black Canyon in Gunnison National Park a month ago. With no evidence of foul play and rumors that Lauren suffered from depression in the wake of a divorce and trouble on the job, the Rangers fear she may have come to the park to commit suicide.

  Bobby Pace—The private pilot, anxious to pay the bills piling up from his son’s cancer treatments, flew for anyone who would pay him. Working for the wrong client may have cost him his life.

  Richard Prentice—The infamous billionaire has made a career out of manipulating state and federal government officials, but The Ranger Brigade refuses to bend to his will. Is Prentice the power behind the recent crime wave, or are his criticisms of the Rangers justified?

  Valentina Ferrari—The part-time model and daughter of the Venezuelan ambassador to the US has been linked romantically with Richard Prentice in the press.

  Senator Peter Mattheson—The senator from Colorado is leading the charge to disband The Ranger Brigade.

  The Ranger Brigade—An interagency task force of law enforcement officers charged with fighting crime on public lands in southwest Colorado, including Black Canyon in Gunnison National Park, Curecanti Wilderness Area and Gunnison Gorge Wilderness Area.

  For Mike

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Excerpt from Leverage by Janie Crouch

  Chapter One

  “Would you rather face down half a dozen reporters at a press conference, or shoot it out with drug runners in the backcountry?”

  FBI Captain Graham Ellison gave his questioner, Montrose County sheriff’s deputy Lance Carpenter, a sour look. “Is that a trick question? At least with the drug runners I’ve got a fair chance. It doesn’t matter what I say at these press conferences. The media puts the spin on it they want.”

  “If the questions get too tough, just look menacing and tell them the safety of local citizens is your primary concern.” Carpenter clapped Graham on the back. “You’ll do great.”

  Graham eyed the crowd of reporters, cameramen and news trucks waiting in the parking lot outside the trailer that served as headquarters for The Ranger Brigade—the nickname given to an interagency task force addressing crime on public lands in southwest Colorado. “The safety of citizens is my primary concern,” he said. “Or one of them. I have a lot of concerns—and I don’t need reporters telling me how to do my job, or wasting my time listing all the ways I’m doing it wrong.”

  “I don’t think you’ve got any choice in the matter this time.” Lance studied the gathering over Graham’s shoulder. “Prentice and Senator Mattheson forced your hand.”

  Graham let out a low growl and shifted his focus to the newspaper that lay open on his desk. Twin headlines summed up his predicament: Mattheson Calls for Dismantling Task Force read one. Prentice Readies for Battle declared the other. Peter Mattheson, senator from Colorado, was on a crusade to “get the feds out of local law enforcement business” and “stop wasting money on federal boondoggles.”

  Richard Prentice, a billionaire who’d made a career out of buying up environmentally or historically valuable properties, then blackmailing the federal government into paying top dollar to save the parcels, had filed a lawsuit to force local authorities to allow him to develop property he owned at the entrance to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

  Graham’s bosses in Washington had “suggested” he hold a press conference to address both these issues. “We’d better get out there before they start making stuff up,” Graham said. He straightened his shoulders, opened the door and stepped out into a hail of shouted questions.

  “Captain Ellison, have you spoken with Richard Prentice?”

  “Captain Ellison, has the death of Raul Meredes slowed drug trafficking in the area?”

  “Captain Ellison, how do you respond to Senator Ma
ttheson’s criticisms of the task force?”

  Graham stood on the top step of the trailer and glowered at the gathered media. Flashes around him let him know his scowling face would be in newspapers all over the region tomorrow. More than one news account had described him as “a big bear of a man.” He hoped this time they’d look at him and think “grizzly.” He scanned the crowd for a familiar face, some reporter he knew who’d let him ease into the grilling with a softball question.

  A cameraman moved to one side, adjusting his angle, and a woman took advantage of the opening to step forward. Digital recorder in one hand, notebook in the other, she was clearly a reporter, but not one Graham had seen before. He wouldn’t forget a figure like hers. She was tall, with a generous chest and curvy hips, a wild tumble of strawberry blond hair and full lips in a perfect pink bow of a mouth. Her eyes were hidden by fashionably large sunglasses, but he had no doubt she was looking right at him. And frankly, he couldn’t stop staring at her. Forget the fragile, stick-figure women so popular in magazines and on television—here was a real-live, flesh-and-blood goddess. Here was a woman he could embrace without crushing, one he could kiss without getting a crick in his back, one...

  “Captain Ellison, what are you doing about the disappearance of Lauren Starling?” the woman asked, her voice husky and deep, carrying easily even in the crowd.

  At her words, his fantasy vanished like a puff of smoke. She wasn’t the perfect woman—she was a reporter. And judging from the frown on her face, she didn’t think much of him. “So far it has not been determined that Ms. Starling is a missing person, or that she is, in fact, missing in our territory. We are working with the Denver police to try to determine her whereabouts.”

  “You don’t think finding her car abandoned in the National Park, not a half mile from where we’re standing right now, points to some connection between her failing to show up for work two weeks ago and ‘your territory?’”

  Lauren Starling was the popular nightly news anchor at Denver’s number two news station. Three weeks ago, she’d failed to return from a few days’ vacation and park rangers had discovered her car abandoned at an overlook in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. “Denver police are in charge of that investigation and they are keeping us apprised,” Graham said. What he wished he could say was that, for all he or anyone else knew, Lauren Starling was in Mexico with a secret boyfriend. “At this point we have no evidence of foul play.”

  Twin lines, like the number eleven, formed between the woman’s eyes and her mouth turned down in disapproval. Clearly, she didn’t think much of his answer. Too bad. He had bigger things to worry about than one woman who the Denver cops had hinted was more than a little flighty. His officers were keeping their eyes open for any sign of Ms. Starling, but he wasn’t losing sleep over her.

  “Captain, did the death of Raul Meredes put an end to drug trafficking on public lands?” A reedy man Graham recognized as being from the local county paper asked the question. Meredes had been in charge of a large marijuana-growing and human-trafficking operation based in the National Park. Identifying him as a key figure in the recent crime spree had been the task force’s biggest achievement thus far. Unfortunately, Meredes had been murdered before they could question him. The crime rate in the area had dipped following his demise, but Graham sensed the lull represented only a marshaling of resources, in preparation for another surge.

  “Mr. Meredes played a major role in the crimes going on in this area,” Graham said. “But we don’t believe he was the one supplying the money and man power for the operation. We’re still trying to track down that individual.”

  “Do you think Richard Prentice has any connection to criminal activity in the park?”

  Graham wasn’t sure who asked that question; it came from the back of the crowd. Had someone leaked the task force’s suspicions, or had Prentice himself sent someone to test how much the Rangers knew?

  “We have no reason to believe Mr. Prentice has anything to do with the crimes in the park,” he said. Prentice was a jerk and a thorn in the side of federal and state officials in general, but being nasty and unpleasant didn’t make a man a criminal. Which didn’t mean the task force wasn’t watching him very closely. But Prentice had a lot of money, and a lot of lawyers, so they had to tread carefully, which meant not airing their suspicions to the press.

  “What do you think of his plans to build a housing development at the entrance to the park?” asked the stringer for the Telluride paper.

  “I don’t think my opinion on the matter is relevant,” Graham said. “I have bigger things to focus on at the moment than Mr. Prentice’s battle for public opinion.” He glanced at his watch; he’d been standing up here only five minutes. How much longer before he could make his escape?

  “What do you have to say to Senator Mattheson’s charges that a multi-agency task force is an ineffective and expensive way to address problems better handled by local law enforcement?” The question came from the female reporter. She’d removed her sunglasses to reveal hazel eyes fringed with long, dark lashes. But there was no warmth in those eyes for him.

  “I would remind Senator Mattheson that local law enforcement requested help from the federal government in addressing the multiple crimes that seemed to be originating from federal lands,” Graham said. “Law enforcement on public land has always been the purview of federal park rangers and the various federal agencies who oversee various federal regulations, from ATF to Border Patrol. This task force brings members of those agencies together to pool resources and provide a more focused approach to addressing crime in a vast and largely unpoliced area.”

  “But in three months you’ve only made one arrest, and you’re no closer to identifying the person responsible for this crime wave,” she said.

  “Real life isn’t like television, where every case is wrapped up in an hour,” he said, barely reining in his annoyance.

  “And you don’t think Lauren Starling’s disappearance has any connection to the other crimes within the park?” she asked, recorder extended toward him.

  “I believe I’ve addressed the question already.” He turned away, aware of her gaze boring into him.

  “Captain?”

  He turned and found Lance, cell phone in hand. “I think you’d better take this call,” the deputy said. He handed the phone to Graham, then stepped forward to address the reporters. “We’re going to have to wrap this up now,” he said. “Thank you all for coming.”

  At first, Graham thought the sheriff’s deputy had manufactured the call, as a ruse to end the press conference early. Points for him, Graham thought as he turned his back to the reporters and spoke into the phone. “Ellison here.”

  “Captain, Randall here.” Randall Knightbridge was the Bureau of Land Management’s representative on the team. His voice was strained, putting Graham on alert; this was no fake call.

  “What is it, Randall?”

  “Marco and I were patrolling in the Curecanti Recreation Area and we came upon a plane wreck. It looks recent—within the last day or so.” Marco Cruz was with the DEA, probably the best tracker on the task force—well, the best, except for Randall’s dog, Lotte. “A Beechcraft Bonanza,” Randall continued. “One casualty—the pilot.”

  “Give me your coordinates and I’ll send a team right away.” Graham pulled a notepad and pen from the front pocket of his uniform shirt.

  Randall rattled off the GPS coordinates. “You probably want to come with the team,” he said.

  Graham tucked the notebook back into his pocket and glanced over his shoulder at the departing press. The curvy blonde was trailing the pack, headed toward a red SUV parked at the far end of the lot. For a moment he was transfixed on the tantalizing sway of her backside as she moved away from him. Too bad she was a reporter...

  “Captain?” Randall’s voice recalled him from his fant
asies.

  “I’m here. What were you saying?”

  “I said, there’s some interesting cargo here you’re definitely going to want to see.”

  * * *

  EMMA WADE STARED at the captain’s back through the windshield of her Jeep Wrangler—broad shoulders, muscular arms and yes, a very nice rear end. In other circumstances, he was exactly the kind of guy she’d go for—big enough that she wouldn’t feel like an elephant next to him. Strong. Intelligent. Too bad he was a jerk.

  He finished one call and immediately made two more, then barked something at the sheriff’s deputy at his side. She was too far away to hear the words, but the tension in his expression and body language made her sit up straighter. Something was up.

  Graham Ellison and the deputy headed for a black-and-white FJ Cruiser parked on the side of the task force trailer. Emma fastened her seat belt and started her vehicle. The press conference had been a bust as far as gathering any new information, but she didn’t have to go home empty-handed. Wherever the captain was headed, maybe there was a story there.

  He could refuse to answer her questions at the news conference, but he couldn’t keep her off public land. Fresh anger rose at the memory of his easy dismissal of the idea that Lauren Starling might be a concern of his precious task force. The police had had the same attitude ten years ago, when Sherry had turned up missing. The next thing Emma knew, she’d been attending her sister’s funeral. She gripped the steering wheel of the Jeep until her knuckles ached. Captain Ellison might think he’d heard the last from her about Lauren, but he was wrong. She wouldn’t let another family suffer the way hers had if she could help it.

  She eased off the accelerator, letting the Cruiser get farther ahead. Unpaved roads made following easy—she could track the plume of dust that rose behind the speeding vehicle, her own vehicle hidden by the dirty cloud.

  When the Cruiser’s tracks turned off the road, headed across the prairie, she hesitated only a fraction of a second before following. The Jeep bounced over the rough terrain, rattling her teeth, and she prayed she wouldn’t blow a tire. They were headed away from the canyon that gave the park its name, across an expanse of rocky ground pocked with sagebrush and piñon trees, deep into the roadless wilderness area where few people ventured. All that largely unpatrolled public land had proved attractive to the criminals who’d taken advantage of sheltered canyons and abandoned ranch buildings to plant marijuana, manufacture methamphetamine and smuggle people and illegal goods. Hence the need for the task force, though public opinion wasn’t convinced that the influx of law enforcement had been much of a crime deterrent.