The Sheriff's to Protect

by Janice Kay Johnson

Genres: Police Procedurals; Romantic Suspense

Synopsis

A lawman must move beyond the past
when a killer targets a woman and child…

When Logan Quade takes over as Sage County sheriff, protecting Savannah Baird, his best friend's sister, and a little girl doesn’t come with the job. The lawman has reason to be concerned, especially with danger waiting around every corner. But when her brother’s killer targets the beautiful horse trainer and the toddler in her care, Logan puts his own life on the line to keep them safe. And refuses to give up on the family he’s always wanted.

From Harlequin Intrigue: Seek thrills. Solve crimes. Justice served.

Release date: January 23, 2024

Publisher: Harlequin

Print pages: 256

Sample

Chapter One

The phone call came out of the blue, as Jared’s always did. About to start work, Savannah Baird had just turned off her ringer, so it was pure chance she saw his name come up before she stowed the phone in the pocket of her fleece vest. The timing was lousy, but since she heard from her brother only a couple of times a year, she never sent him to voice mail. She wasn’t all that sure he’d leave a message.

She accepted the call, said, “Hey, Jared,” and then to the groom on the other side of the fence holding the young Arabian horse’s reins, “I have to take this. Can you walk him?”

He nodded.

Jared said, “You there?”

“Yes.” Savannah turned away from the fence and headed into the cavernous covered arena, currently empty, where she could sit at the foot of the bleachers. “How are you?”

“Uh...tell you the truth, I’m in some trouble.”

His hushed voice scared her right away. She pictured him hunched over his phone, his head turning to be sure he was still alone. The picture wasn’t well formed, since she hadn’t seen him since he was a skinny sixteen-year-old. The couple of photos she’d coaxed out of him via text refused to supplant in her head the image of the boy she’d known and loved so much.

“What kind of trouble?” she asked.

“Better if I don’t tell you that, except...” Now he sounded raw. “I’ll try to run, but I think they’re suspicious.”

They had something to do with illegal drugs. That was all she knew, except a couple of years ago he’d said something about redeeming himself. She thought Jared really had gotten clean, but too late; he’d been caught up in a shady business and not been allowed to escape. Or maybe he didn’t want to. Unless he was attempting to bring down his employer? Savannah had never dared ask, afraid if she did, he’d quit calling at all.

Now he said with unmistakable urgency, “I should have told you this before. I have a daughter. Almost five. Her mother has problems and got so she couldn’t take care of her. I’m all she has.” He made a sound she couldn’t identify. “Vannah, will you take Molly, at least until I straighten things out? I have her stuff packed. She’s a good kid.”

Staggered, all Savannah could get out was “A daughter? In five years, you couldn’t tell me?”

“I lost touch with her mother. I kept thinking...” He huffed. “It doesn’t matter. She’s mine, and I don’t know what they’d do to her. At best, she’d end up in the foster care system.”

Savannah knew who was at the root of his problems: their parents. Specifically, their father, who hadn’t just been hard on Jared, he’d seemed actively to dislike him, while their mother’s efforts to protect her brother had been ineffectual. Meanwhile, she’d been Daddy’s little princess. The contrast had been painful, and nothing she’d been able to do had ever made any difference. The astonishing part was that he mostly hadn’t blamed her.

Now there was only one thing she could say.

“Of course I’ll take her. Can you bring her to me? Or...where are you?”

“Still in San Francisco. Can you come here?”

“Today?”

“Yeah.” The tension in his voice raised prickles on her arms.

She glanced at the phone. “Yes. Okay. It’s early enough. I should be able to drive to Albuquerque and get an afternoon flight. When and where shall we meet?”

“Call me when you get in.” He paused. “No. If things go bad... Ah, come to Bayview. It’s not the best part of the city, but we can make the handoff fast.” He gave her an address.

Never having been to the City by the Bay, she had no way of envisioning the neighborhood. Thank goodness for GPS.

“Yes, sure. I’ll rent a car.”

“Thank you. Molly is everything to me.” His voice roughened. “Make sure she knows I love her. I’d have done anything for her. I just wish I’d done it sooner.”

“Don’t sound like that! You’re smart. You’ll get yourself out of...of whatever mess this is. In fact, why don’t you come with me, too? You know I’m working in really remote country in New Mexico.”

“Maybe I’ll try.” 

He didn’t believe himself. She could hear it in his voice. Now even more scared, she clung to the phone. “Jared?”

“I love you,” he said and was gone.

The beginning of a sob shook her, but she didn’t have time for fear. She had to talk to her boss, the owner of this ranch dedicated primarily to breeding Arabians and training them for show as well as cutting, barrel racing, roping and the like. A stallion that stood stud here had been a national champion four years ago. Ed Loewen had made his money in software, using it to follow his dream. He wouldn’t be happy that she had to take off with no notice, but he had kids and grandkids of his own. He’d understand.

Not that it mattered. She would go no matter what.

In fact...she hustled back to the outdoor arena and let the groom know she wouldn’t be riding Chopaka after all. Then she jogged for the house.

---

SAVANNAH’S FIRST STOP after picking up the rental car was a corner convenience store to buy a can of soda and a few snacks. She added extras in case Molly was hungry. Then, the afternoon waning, she followed the voice coming from her phone. Take this exit onto another freeway. Stay in the second lane from the right. Exit. Left onto a major thoroughfare. Traffic grew steadily heavier.

Once she broke free of it, she was winding through the city itself. Another time, she would have paid more attention to the Victorian homes or tried to catch glimpses of the bay or the graceful arches of the Golden Gate Bridge. But the light was going, and fog rolled in off the ocean, making visibility increasingly poor. She couldn’t have said when she realized that she’d entered an area of a very wealthy city that “isn’t the best.” Vacant storefronts and graffiti were the first clue. Small groups of young men with the waistbands of their pants sagging below their butts clustered in groups at corners. None of them would get far slinging a leg over the back of a horse, she couldn’t help thinking. Or running. When she slowed for lights, she didn’t like the way heads turned and she was watched.

Why here? Did Jared live in the neighborhood? If this was his home address, why hadn’t he said? But her gut told her this was nowhere near his usual stomping grounds. He wouldn’t want anybody he knew to see him transferring his darling daughter to another person.

The daughter, she thought uneasily, who could be used to apply pressure on him. Probably not his sister; whoever lurked in his secretive world had no reason even to know he had a sister.

I’m imagining things, she tried telling herself stoutly, but it didn’t help much as night closed in, muffled by the thick, low fog. She could see lights on porches and lit windows in the few businesses still open as if through a filter. She imagined Jack the Ripper’s London had looked rather like this.

Oh, for Pete’s sake—her real problem was that she’d never spent time in a major city. The buildings crowding in, the sense she was wandering a maze,

made her feel claustrophobic.

GPS instructed her to make another turn. Without the guidance, she might have passed the street. The next storefront she saw had Gone Out of Business spray-painted on plywood nailed up to cover a window.

GPS was telling her she’d reached her destination. Not the store that had gone out of business, but two doors down. A dry cleaner’s, closed for the day. No other car waited for her at the curb.

With a shiver, she signaled and pulled over, her eyes on her rearview mirror. She seemed to be completely alone on this block. Had Jared been held up? If only there was a streetlight closer; the recess in front of the door was awfully dark. Except...something huddled there.

Oh, God. Savannah was out of her car without having conscious thought, rushing across the sidewalk toward the child who crouched in the door well, hugging her knees and peering up at Savannah.

A small, shaking voice said, “Are you Auntie Vannah?”

Savannah choked back something like a sob. “Yes. Oh, honey. You must be Molly.”

The head bobbed.

“Where is your daddy? I thought he’d be here.”

The face she could see was thin and pinched. “He...he had to go. He promised you’d come. He said I shouldn’t move at all. And I didn’t, but I was scared.”

“I don’t blame you for being scared, but I did come.” Tears wanted to burn her eyes, but she blinked them back. “Once we’re in the car—” locked in the car “—I’ll call him.” She summoned a smile. “The pink suitcase must be yours.”

“Uh-huh,” her niece said in her childish voice. “Daddy left this for you.”

This was a duffel bag that didn’t appear to have much in it. Did it contain a few changes of clothes for himself in the hopes he could wait and hop into Savannah’s car for a getaway? Or was it really packed with more for this little girl? She’d look later. Her priority now was Molly and getting her safely away.

Savannah helped her up and, without releasing her hand, led her to the car. At Molly’s age, she should probably sit in the back, but Savannah lifted her into the front seat anyway. She wanted to be able to see her face, to hold her hand. Then she popped the trunk and stowed the two bags before rushing to get in behind the wheel and hit the lock button.

Just as she did, a car with lights that seemed to be on high beam approached, hesitated, then passed.

Savannah started the car. “Let me drive a little ways.”

A few blocks later, she found a small grocery store with several cars parked in a small lot. Feeling a bit safer, she joined them, set the emergency brake and said, “Okay, let’s call your daddy.”

Molly watched anxiously, listening to the multiple rings, then the abrupt message.

“Jared. I’ll call you when I can.”

Savannah said, “I have Molly. Will you please call? As soon as you can?” 

She waited for a moment, as if he’d magically hear and rush to answer. Since it wasn’t as if he was listening to messages in real time, she set her phone down and focused on this child who had just become her responsibility.

A little girl who had no one else.

It was chilly enough this evening that she wore a pink knit hat pulled over her ears, but Savannah could see that she had long blond hair. It must be Jared who’d braided it into pigtails, although strands were escaping. She couldn’t be sure, but thought Molly had blue eyes, like he had. Savannah’s had been blue when she was young, but eventually turned more hazel, just as her pale blond hair had darkened.

Otherwise, she couldn’t see Jared in the scared face looking back at her, but that was hardly surprising with the inadequate light and the stress they were both feeling.

“Your daddy is my big brother. He probably told you that.”

Molly nodded.

“He wants you to come home with me, at least for now. Until we hear from him.” When, not if. “So right now, we’re going to get a room at a hotel near the airport, and I’ll buy us tickets to fly in the morning back to New Mexico, where I live.”

What would she do with a child this age while she worked? she wondered in sudden panic, but that worry could wait.

“Okay?”

“Daddy said to do what you told me,” Molly said as if by rote.

Savannah smiled. “Are you hungry?”

“Uh-huh.”

She reached to the floorboards on the passenger side and produced the grocery sack. “I have some snacks in here to hold you. Once we find a hotel, we’ll get dinner.” There had to be some restaurants open late in the vicinity of the airport.

Molly peered into the bag and tentatively reached in, producing a bag of Skittles. Savannah’s stomach grumbled, but she decided to wait until they were out of this neighborhood, at least. She felt as if eyes watched them.

Paranoid, but...why had Jared had to go so urgently he’d leave the little girl who was his “everything” alone in a dark doorway in a sketchy part of the city?

As soon as he called, she’d demand answers. In the meantime, she entered the address for a hotel she’d noticed by the airport into the maps app on her phone. She gratefully followed instructions even as she flickered her gaze from one mirror to another as well as to the road ahead, watching for...she didn’t know what.

---

MY NIECE.

Unable to sleep yet, Savannah had left the one nightstand lamp on. They had a room with a single queen-size bed because she’d asked Molly whether she wanted her own bed.

She’d shaken her head hard.

So there she lay, a small

 lump almost touching Savannah, as if she wanted the reassurance of cuddling, but wasn’t quite brave enough to commit to it. After eating a tiny portion of her cheeseburger and fries at a Denny’s, she had changed from saggy pink leggings and a sweatshirt that was too big for her into a nightgown Savannah found in the pink suitcase. Her toothbrush and toothpaste were in there, too, as well as a pink hairbrush with long blond strands caught in the bristles. Jared had packed several days’ worth of clothes, but no alternative to the worn sneakers his daughter had worn, and only one toy, a stuffed rabbit that Molly had latched right on to, and now held squeezed in her arms as she surrendered to sleep.

Savannah knew she should go through the duffel bag, but she felt deep reluctance. When they got home was soon enough, right?

Except...it wasn’t, and she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she saw what he’d left for her. There had to be a message, right?

She eased herself carefully off the bed so she didn’t awaken Molly. The bag felt absurdly light when she picked it up and carried it to the comfortable chair by the window. The zipper sounded loud to her ears, but the child didn’t stir.

Most of what she pulled out initially was Molly’s: more clothes, a pair of sandals, a couple of games in boxes and a yellow-haired doll with...yes, a shoebox full of doll-size changes of clothes. Something bumped her hand, ...