Taking Aim at the Sheriff (5 page)

“No. She’s not.” And Jericho gave Laurel a warning glance. She didn’t say anything, but she also didn’t stay put. Not exactly a compromise since he didn’t want Laurel in the same general area as the pair.

“Laurel, we need to talk,” Theo said. He threw off Jericho’s grip but didn’t go closer.
“Alone.”

“Then talk. But it won’t be alone,” Laurel added. “Whatever you have to say, you say here.”

Laurel took the words right out of Jericho’s mouth. Except he’d intended to glare more than she had. Theo sure added some glare and snarl though—he aimed it at Jericho—before turning back to Laurel.

“Certainly you must know by now that calling off the engagement was a mistake,” Theo said to her. “You’ve upset your father. Us. And yourself.”

“Upset?” Laurel threw her hands in the air. “Gunmen attacked Jericho and me. That’s why I’m upset.” She walked toward them. “If you know anything about those gunmen, tell us.”

“Of course we don’t know anything,” Dorothy insisted. “Now, get Maddox and come home with us. We’ll make sure you’re both safe.” The woman paused. “Where is Maddox, anyway?”

“He’s already safe,” Jericho assured her.

Partly true. Jax was back there with Maddox, and a gunman would have to break into the back exit or come through the front to get to them. Still, Jericho wasn’t about to share that with these two.

A staring match started between Theo and him. Dorothy joined in on it, but Jericho pretty much ignored her and focused on Laurel’s ex.

“You think Theo here could be in on the attacks?” Jericho asked Laurel. He knew the question would rile mother and son. And it did.

Dorothy made a sound of pure outrage. “Theo had nothing to do with this. He loves Laurel. He only wants to marry her and be a father to Maddox.”

“Maddox already has a father.” Laurel’s voice was hardly more than a whisper, but it was obvious Dorothy heard it loud and clear. She jerked back as if Laurel had slapped her.

“It’s true,” Theo said, his voice quiet, as well. “We’ll discuss it later, Mom.”

Okay, so Dorothy didn’t know about Maddox’s paternity, but like Jax, she had no trouble putting two and two together. Except in Dorothy’s case, there was more disapproval than Jax had shown.

A lot more.

“Later,” Theo warned his mother when it appeared she was ready to launch herself at Jericho. He gently took hold of his mother’s arm. “Laurel’s tired and upset,” he repeated, as if making a point. “I can talk to her in the morning when her head is clearer.”

Jericho tapped his badge, pulling the lawman card, and he put his gun back in his holster. “You’ll talk to me. And not in the morning. You’ll do it right now. Is Herschel behind the attacks?”

“Of course,” Dorothy answered without hesitation. “Who else?”

Jericho was thinking the
who else
could apply to the woman asking the question. And her hulk of a son. “If you disapprove of her father so much, then why insist Laurel marry Theo?” he asked.

Dorothy gave him an isn’t-it-obvious? huff. “Because they’re right for each other, that’s why. And besides, even if Theo isn’t Maddox’s biological father, he’s been a father to him. He deserves to raise that little boy.”

“Theo’s hardly seen Maddox.” Laurel went to Jericho’s side, stared at Dorothy. “For that matter, Theo’s hardly seen me over the past six months.”

Six months? The more Jericho learned about this unholy union, the less he liked it. Soon, very soon, he’d want to know why Laurel had gotten involved with the guy in the first place.

“Theo hasn’t seen Maddox or you much because he’s been working out of state, that’s why. And I’m betting Theo’s seen more of Maddox than his so-called birth father has.” With that zinger, Dorothy added a smug nod. No doubt to rile Jericho.

It worked.

However, Jericho reined in his temper so he could try to get some usable info from these two clowns. Except he realized it would have to wait a second or two when he heard footsteps. They weren’t coming from the break room but rather from the side hall where the holding cell was located. The man who appeared was wearing a pricey suit like Theo’s.

DeWitt’s attorney, no doubt.

“Did you get your client to talk?” Jericho asked him.

The lawyer didn’t introduce himself, didn’t even spare Jericho a glance. “I’ve advised him to remain silent. If he’s smart, he’ll listen.” He went past Dexter and let himself out. He shut the door so hard that it shook the nearby Christmas tree and sent the sparse ornaments jangling.

A moment later, Mack, the other deputy, came out from the holding-cell area. “DeWitt’s all locked up.” He volleyed his attention between Theo and his mother. “Want me to arrest somebody?”

“Not yet. Maybe soon.” Jericho turned back to Theo. “Okay, I’ll bite. If you know Maddox isn’t yours, then why would you want to marry Laurel?”

Theo looked at Jericho as if he’d sprouted horns. “Because I love Maddox and her, that’s why.”

Maybe. But something about this felt as wrong as wrong could feel. “I don’t know all of what’s going on, but I suspect there’s either money or power involved. Money and power you’ll lose somehow if you don’t have your ring on Laurel’s finger.”

Bingo.

Dorothy got some fire in her dust-gray eyes. Theo’s teeth came together for a moment. Neither of them, however, jumped to volunteer anything.

However, Laurel did. “Theo and my father were involved in several business deals. Major ones. And some of the investors pulled out when I broke off the engagement.”

All right. Now,
that
was motive.

“How big were these business deals?” Jericho asked.

“Millions,” Laurel provided.

Yeah, definitely motive.

“A misunderstanding, that’s all,” Theo insisted. “A few of the investors were worried that I didn’t have Herschel’s backing. I do. And once that’s made clear, then they’ll pony up the money again.”

“So, you’ve got Herschel’s backing even if he’s trying to murder the woman you want to marry?” Jericho concluded.

“My mother accused Herschel of wrongdoing. You didn’t hear that from me. And you won’t,” Theo added. “Because I don’t believe Herschel would do anything like this.”

Interesting. Dorothy’s reaction was interesting, as well. She turned those frosty eyes on her son.

“If Herschel’s not behind this, then who is?” Jericho asked Theo.

“You and your family maybe,” Theo answered. “From everything I’ve heard, none of your siblings or your mother wants you involved with Laurel.”

They didn’t. But Jericho had no intention of admitting that to this beefed-up jerk. He tapped his badge again. “I’m a lawman. My brothers are all lawmen, too. That means we’re not into attempted murder or other assorted felonies. Now, talk. If not Herschel, then who? And this time, I want your answer to make sense.”

Theo’s mouth tightened. “You’d have to ask Laurel. I suspect she was involved with someone else, or she wouldn’t have ended our engagement. Someone who’s angry enough to want her dead.”

Laurel cursed, something he’d rarely heard her do over the years. “There was no one else.”

“Right.” Theo shot Jericho a glare.

“It appears you’ve got something to say to me?” Jericho challenged.

Oh, Theo wanted to say plenty, all right, but Jericho saw the moment the man reined in his manicured claws.

Dorothy, however, appeared to be sharpening hers. “When you look at other suspects, look at a businessman named Quinn Rossman.”

The very man involved in the money laundering scheme that Herschel was trying to use to have Laurel arrested. Theo clearly knew the name, too. Clearly didn’t like his mother mentioning it, because he glared at her.

A glare that the woman ignored. “Rossman’s the one who’ll take the biggest financial loss because of these failed deals,” Dorothy added.

So, the claws weren’t for Jericho but for this Quinn Rossman.

Laurel nodded. “Quinn Rossman will lose several of those millions, but like everyone else involved in this, I haven’t found anything to link him to what’s going on with the attacks.”

“Then, keep looking,” Dorothy insisted. “You don’t have to worry about his moron of a partner, Diego Cawley. He doesn’t have the stones or the brains to do something like this.”

“Mom,” Theo whispered. And it was indeed a warning. “You’ve said enough.”

Jericho didn’t agree. He wanted to hear a whole lot more. “You seem to know plenty about these two, Rossman and Cawley. How much do you know about their money laundering deal?” He stared at Dorothy, waiting for an answer.

“She knows nothing about that,” Theo snapped, and he took his mother’s arm. “If you want to question us further, then contact our attorney.” He rattled off his lawyer’s name and left, practically dragging his mother with him.

“Want me to stop them?” Mack asked.

Jericho gave it some thought, and while it would give him some instant gratification to grill Theo like a common criminal, he wasn’t likely to get any other answers from the pair. Not tonight, anyway.

“No, let them go,” he told Mack before turning to Laurel. “You need to be back in the break room. Away from these windows.” They were bullet resistant and the blinds were pulled all the way down, but there was no sense taking any chances.

Laurel motioned toward the break room. “What about the door that’s in there?”

“It leads to the parking lot, and it’s reinforced and locked. Wired to the security system, too. If anyone tries to come in that way or through the windows, the alarm will sound.”

Apparently satisfied with that, she nodded. However, Jericho and Laurel had only made it a few steps when he heard a thudding sound coming from the other side of the building.

From the holding cell.

Both deputies went running in that direction. Jericho nearly followed them but instead decided it was wise to move Laurel into his office just off the hall. There was a single window in there, but it stayed locked. It was also bullet resistant and wired to the security system.

“What’s going on?” Jericho called out to the deputies.

No answer. But he could hear them moving around and cursing. What had gone wrong now?

“Wait here,” he ordered Laurel.

With his gun drawn, Jericho hurried to the other hall, and he didn’t have to go far before he saw the deputies in the holding cell. His first thought was that DeWitt was trying to escape.

But he wasn’t. DeWitt was sprawled on the floor.

Dead.

Chapter Six

Laurel opened her eyes and nearly bolted from the bed. It took her a moment to realize where she was.

In the guest room at the Appaloosa Pass Ranch that the Crocketts owned.

Not Jericho’s place, either, but the main house. Where most of his family still lived. The same family who despised her. And they had reasons for hating her. Her father’s possible involvement with Sherman Crockett’s murder, and now she’d kept Jericho in the dark about Maddox.

Her being here would only rub salt in a still-open wound.

Along with possibly bringing the danger to their doorstep. The danger was still there because they didn’t have the answers to stop it. Answers they definitely wouldn’t get from DeWitt, the man who’d rammed into Jericho’s truck.

That’s because DeWitt had committed suicide.

The cause of death was a dose of poison that his lawyer had likely slipped him. Of course, last she’d heard, the lawyer was nowhere to be found. The man could have been another hired killer like the ones who were already after her.

Yet, Jericho had insisted on bringing Maddox and her here to the ranch. Despite her objections. He’d said they could discuss it after a good night’s sleep and by then she would see that this was the right move.

Well, it was morning, the sunlight seeping through the edges of the blinds, and Laurel still wasn’t convinced coming here had been the right thing to do.

Easing out of the bed, she glanced down at the borrowed T-shirt she’d used as a gown. Maybe Jericho’s. But thankfully, it didn’t carry his scent. She already had too many reminders of the man without having that.

She checked on Maddox, who was still asleep in the crib in the corner of the room. Thankfully, Jericho hadn’t had to go to any trouble to find the crib. It was already set up because Jax’s fifteen-month-old son sometimes stayed over. Also thankfully, Maddox had slept through the night. Probably because he’d been as exhausted by their ordeal as she’d been.

Laurel looked at the clock on the nightstand, almost seven, and she hurried to the adjoining bathroom so she could grab a shower. Even though the steamy water felt heavenly on her tight muscles, she stayed in the shower only a couple of minutes because Maddox would be up soon. Someone—Jericho’s mother, Iris, or maybe the housekeeper—had left her clean underwear and toiletries.

Since she hadn’t gotten any clothes from her house, Laurel was forced to put back on the jeans and red sweater she’d worn the night before when she had gone to Jericho’s house to ask him to marry her. Clearly, that plan hadn’t worked.

Nothing had.

She’d need a change of clothes soon. And a change of location. That meant hiring bodyguards and moving Maddox to some kind of safe house. No way could she stay at the Crocketts’ ranch another night.

Laurel hurried back into the bedroom and practically skidded to a halt when she spotted Jericho. She hadn’t heard anything to indicate he was in the guest room. But there he was.

Holding Maddox.

“I didn’t hear him wake up,” she said. “I didn’t hear
you
.”

Jericho looked up at her, a half smile on his face, but the smile vanished as quickly as it’d come, and he made a manly sounding grunt. It took Laurel a moment to realize that had something to do with the fact that she was still pulling down her sweater. She hadn’t exactly flashed him, but since her bra was nothing but flimsy white lace, he’d gotten an eyeful. She quickly fixed that.

“I heard Maddox and came in to check on him.” Jericho turned his attention back to the baby.

“He was fussing?” She wanted to kick herself for not hearing it. And for taking a shower. And for the bra peep show.

“Not exactly. He was just moving around in the crib. I tapped on the door, and when you didn’t answer, I came in to make sure he was okay.”

Well, Maddox certainly wasn’t fussing now. Jericho had taken off his badge, and Maddox was playing with it. Smiling, too. And yes, it was the same half smile that she’d just seen on Jericho’s face.

She went to them, expecting Maddox to reach for her, but her son clearly was more interested in the badge and the man holding him.

“Tar,” Maddox babbled. His attempt at saying star—the shape of the badge. Something that Jericho had obviously already taught him. But that wasn’t all Jericho had done.

“You changed his diaper?” she asked when she saw the fresh one Maddox was wearing.

Jericho nodded. “He’d stripped off the other one. When I came in, he was bare-butt naked.”

Not unusual. Maddox often did that. In fact, she was surprised he still had on the cotton T-shirt, since he’d recently learned to pull that off, as well.

“Anyway, I found the diaper bag and put a fresh one on him,” Jericho finished.

It was as if she’d stepped into an alternate universe. “You know how to change a diaper?”

Maybe her tone was a little insulting, because she got a flash of a scowl. “Jax is a dad. We’ve all had some practice.”

“Of course.” In fact, since Jax was a widower and worked both at the sheriff’s office and the ranch, he and his son probably spent a lot of time here.

But not now.

She’d heard Jericho say the nanny had taken Jax’s little boy to relatives who lived out of the county. Wise move, considering it wasn’t safe to be around her. Still, it meant Jax wasn’t with his son right now, and with Christmas so close, she figured Jax wasn’t happy about that.

She certainly wasn’t.

“How is Jax?” she asked. “I mean, since his wife died.” And not just died. His wife, Paige, had been murdered by a vicious serial killer called the Moonlight Strangler, who’d been murdering women for over three decades.

“Jax’s dealing as best he can.” As if it was the most natural thing in the world, Jericho took a pair of overalls from the diaper bag and put them on Maddox. “It’d help if we could catch the bastard who killed her. Well, it’d help Jax to better deal with her murder, anyway.”

What Jericho wasn’t saying was that the Moonlight Strangler had more than one emotional hold on his family. The killer was also the biological father of Jericho’s adopted sister, Addie. So, yes, catching the Moonlight Strangler would give Jax and plenty of other families some much-needed justice, but if and when that happened, it wouldn’t be easy for Addie to have to deal with the man who’d fathered her.

Of course, other than Jax’s wife, the Moonlight Strangler had left Addie and her adopted family alone. And even more, it was rumored that the serial killer had developed an eerie attachment to the Crocketts and had even helped them solve a recent case where Addie had been in danger.

“Jax’s son is much too young to remember his mom,” Jericho added a moment later. “I guess that’s both good and bad. He doesn’t remember she was killed. And it helps that Jax has family to step in and try to fill the void.”

“You’ve stepped in,” she pointed out. “I just hadn’t expected you to be a hands-on kind of uncle.”

All right, that earned her another scowl. She was batting a thousand in the piss-off-Jericho-this-morning department.

But then Jericho shrugged and smiled when Maddox looked up at him. “Guess that means you didn’t expect me to be a hands-on kind of father, either. Well, expect it because that’s exactly what I’ll be.”

That sounded like a threat. And it probably was. Laurel hadn’t thought for one second that she could tell Jericho about Maddox and that he’d then quietly step away.

Jericho wasn’t the
quietly
type.

But she also hadn’t expected to feel, well,
this
. Maybe a little jealousy. Was that it? Apparently so. For eighteen months, it’d just been mainly Maddox, her mother and her. Theo and her father had rarely been in the picture. Laurel hadn’t braced herself nearly enough to share Maddox with his own father.

Nor had she braced herself for being so close to Jericho again.

She’d thought that over two years would be enough to make herself immune to him. No such luck.

“There should be a vaccination that women can take for when they’re around men like you.” She hadn’t intended to say that aloud. It just slipped out. And she thought maybe Jericho would be puzzled by it.

But no.

She got that brief half smile again. The one that turned her brain to mush and made her feel like a hormone-raged, sixteen-year-old girl again.

The heat came. Of course it did. Sliding through her. Jericho dropped his gaze to her mouth, and even though there were still several inches of space between them, she could have sworn she felt him kiss her.

“Yeah,” Jericho said. He didn’t look any happier about this heat than she was. But he looked just as affected.

Good grief.

Laurel shook her head to clear it. “I’ll need to make other arrangements for a place to stay.”

“Already in the works. But I figure we’ll be okay here for a while.”

She didn’t like the sound of that. “How long is awhile?”

Jericho’s forehead bunched up. “As long as it takes. Maddox’s safety has to come first, agreed?”

Laurel nodded, but her agreement was just for the Maddox-coming-first part of that. “As long as it takes?” she repeated. “Because you know I can’t stay here. Your family—”

“Won’t be a problem. They know I’m Maddox’s father. I told all of them.”

All of them, meaning his mother, three brothers, his sister and her fiancé. Laurel had expected it, of course. News like that wouldn’t stay secret for long, especially since Jericho was close to his family.

“They’ll hate me now even more for keeping Maddox from you all these months,” she said on a heavy sigh.

“Well, it didn’t earn you any gold stars.” He tipped his head to her face. At least, she thought it was her face. She realized he was actually looking at her mouth. “That won’t, either.”

“That?” Again, it was something she shouldn’t have asked out loud. No need to clarify anything when it came to her mouth and his.

“That,” he verified, and touched her lips with his index finger. Like the previous look, it felt very much like a kiss. “We’re good together like
that
, but it’s the only way we’re good together. My family knows it, and they won’t want me tangled up with you again.”

It was true. They were good together when kissing. And in bed. But they couldn’t live in bed forever, and the real world always came crashing in. After all, she’d always be Herschel’s daughter, and in the eyes of his family, she would always be the one who helped her father get away with murder.

Too bad it was partly true.

If she’d just figured out a way to stop him. Or at least have found some evidence that would lead to his arrest. But nothing.

“Don’t worry,” Jericho added. “No one will object to you being here.”

Only because of Maddox. And it made her wonder—would the Crocketts soon want her out of the picture?

Probably.

That wouldn’t happen. Despite the mess she’d made of her life, Maddox was her son, and even though he had Crockett blood, she wouldn’t just let Jericho push her out of their son’s life.

“I’m bringing in your father for questioning this morning,” Jericho tossed out there.

That got her attention. “You talked to him?”

He shook his head. “Only spoke to one of his lawyers and told him if Herschel didn’t come in, that I’d put out a warrant for his arrest.”

Her gut twisted. Not because her father shouldn’t be questioned. He should be. But an ultimatum like that was like poking a stick at a bed of rattlers.

“Maddox and you will stay here while I talk to him,” Jericho went on. Not really a request. More of an order. “Chase and Levi will be coming to the ranch, to make sure you’re safe.”

“But what about you? Someone tried to kill you, too.”

He tapped his badge. “That goes with the territory.”

As arguments went, that one sucked. Because she was the reason he was in this
territory
.

“Talking to my father won’t help,” she reminded him. “In fact, prepare yourself because he’ll probably have some out-of-county lawman with him who’ll insist on you turning me over to him so I can be arrested or locked up in a mental hospital.”

“Yeah, I figure he’ll try to pull something like that. But I’ve got three hours before the meeting, and I’m hoping between now and then we can find something to connect him to the hired guns who’ve been coming after us.”

“Good luck with that.” Sarcasm aside, she meant it. And then she had a thought. “Maybe while you’re with my father, I can somehow get into his office and find something. Not just connected to this, but also to your father’s murder. My mother’s death, too.”

Jericho didn’t shake his head. He just gave her a flat look to let her know that wasn’t going to happen. “Just in case he’s the one who wants you dead, let’s not make it easy for him.”

“Just in case?” she repeated. “You’re thinking maybe it’s not him, after all?”

“I’m thinking there are other suspects. Theo and his Mommy Dearest. Diego Cawley and Quinn Rossman. And no, adding Theo to the suspect list doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that he’s your ex-lover.”

“My ex-fiancé, not my lover,” she corrected without thinking.

She should have thought first.

Because Jericho honed right in on that. “Something you want to tell me, Laurel?”

“No.” And she was certain of that. Best not to get into why she’d allowed herself to accept a proposal from Theo. Jericho already thought too little of her, and that wouldn’t help.

Besides, it wasn’t any of his business.

Though Jericho’s look said differently. Still, he didn’t press it, thank goodness. “Levi called earlier about those two men, Rossman and Cawley, who were involved in the money laundering deal.”

“And?” she couldn’t ask fast enough.

“Lots of shady deals but no arrests. Also, just as you said, there’s no obvious link to your father.
Obvious
,” Jericho repeated. “But one of Rossman and Cawley’s companies did business with Theo’s mother. And I’m not talking about the deal your father’s trying to use to put you in jail. This was something that happened well over a year ago.”

“How’d Levi find that?”

“Apparently, the FBI had Rossman and Cawley under surveillance for a while. Nothing turned up, but the agent kept track of all the men’s contacts. Dorothy was one of them. So were you.” Jericho paused. “Who did the initial paperwork for the money laundering deal?”