LITMIR.BIZ

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ambulance. Both were in front of Sandy’s parents’ house, and there were several lawmen milling around in the yard.

      Before Jericho even pulled the truck to a full stop, Laurel tried to bolt out, but as he’d done at the house, he caught onto her arm and stopped her.

      “I have to get to Maddox,” she insisted.

      “No. You have to wait here,” he ordered. “And I mean it.”

      With his gun already drawn, Jericho threw open the door and made a beeline toward the tall, lanky man on the porch. Laurel recognized him—Sheriff Cooper McKinnon. Like Jericho, Cooper had had some run-ins with her father, but she hoped that wouldn’t prevent him from doing his job and saving Maddox.

      Laurel did wait in the truck. Several painful seconds. As long as she could manage. And then she got out, running toward the two sheriffs. Another lawman in the yard, a deputy, tried to stop her from getting closer, but she batted his hands away.

      “My son is in there!”

      “It’s okay,” Cooper assured the deputy. “Let her through.”

      Laurel didn’t take the time to thank him or to respond to the glare Jericho was giving her for disobeying his order. She rushed past the men and hurried into the house. The room was dark, only a corner lamp for illumination, so she needed a moment for her eyes to adjust and take everything in.

      Some of the furniture and a Christmas tree had been toppled over. Things were strewn around. Evidence of the struggle that’d taken place here.

      Then her heart bashed against her ribs.

      Because she saw the blood. On the floor. And on the front of Sandy’s white T-shirt.

      “Oh, God.” Laurel’s gaze flew past her friend and to the medic.

      Who was holding Maddox.

      “He’s all right,” Sandy quickly told her. The medic repeated a variation of the same thing.

      Laurel didn’t believe either of them. She hurried to her son, praying there’d be no blood on him. There wasn’t. She took him from the medic’s arms, trying to check every inch of him. Maddox didn’t cry, didn’t seem upset, but he did look a little confused about what was going on.

      “He wasn’t hurt,” Sandy insisted.

      Laurel shook her head. “But the blood.”

      “It’s mine.” Sandy lifted the sleeve of her T-shirt, and Laurel saw the angry gash on her friend’s arm.

      That gave Laurel a new burst of emotions. Concern and the sickening dread that she’d put her friend in danger. “I’m so sorry.”

      Sandy shrugged. “I just got grazed by a bullet, that’s all. Nothing serious. The medic will stitch me up, but I wanted him to check out Maddox first.”

      “The kid’s fine,” the medic assured her. He goosed Maddox in the belly and went toward Sandy to start examining her.

      “I can’t ever thank you enough,” Laurel told the woman.

      “No thanks needed.” Sandy’s attention went to Jericho. “But I’d appreciate it if you caught the scum who did this.”

      Jericho nodded. “I will.” And it sounded like a promise. One that Laurel hoped he could keep.

      “Boo-boo,” Maddox said, pointing to Sandy’s arm.

      Since Laurel didn’t want him to see that, she sheltered his face against her shoulder and moved to the other part of the room.

      And practically ran right into Jericho.

      The moment seemed to freeze. Or maybe she felt that way because Laurel’s feet suddenly seemed anchored in place. But then, Jericho didn’t move, either. He just stood there, his attention fixed on Maddox.

      Maddox gave him a wary look, his gaze sliding from Jericho’s cowboy hat, face and finally to the shiny badge on his shirt. Maddox smiled.

      Jericho sure didn’t.

      Laurel saw all the emotions go through his eyes. The love, instant and strong. The fear that he’d come so close to losing him. And finally the hatred. Not aimed at Maddox but at her.

      For keeping Maddox from him.

      “We need to leave,” Jericho said to her. Not easily. His jaw muscles were as hard as granite.

      Well, they were until Maddox smiled again.

      Jericho’s expression softened a bit. Then it softened a lot when he reached out and touched his son’s cheek. That seemed to be the only invitation Maddox needed, because he reached for Jericho and that badge.

      But Jericho didn’t get a chance to take him.

      Because Cooper stuck his head through the partially opened door. The lawman’s attention went straight to Jericho. Then her. “My deputy caught one of them,” Cooper said. “It’s not good.”

      No. Laurel wasn’t sure she could handle any more bad news tonight.

      “What’s wrong?” Jericho asked, walking closer to his fellow sheriff.

      “I have to get all of you out of here now,” Cooper insisted, glancing at both Jericho and Laurel. “The kidnapper we caught told my deputy that more men were on the way here, and they have orders to shoot to kill.”

       Chapter Five

       Shoot to kill.

      Not exactly orders that Jericho had wanted to hear, but it’d gotten Laurel, Maddox and him hurrying away from the scene and to the sheriff’s office in Appaloosa Pass. That wasn’t exactly ideal for a toddler, but it would have to do until Jericho could make other arrangements.

      And put an end to the danger.

      The first would be a whole lot easier than the last.

      Sandy didn’t have any info about the kidnappers, and the one captured kidnapper was no longer talking, other than to tell them that those shoot-to-kill orders were meant only for Laurel and him. Jericho felt no relief about the fact that Maddox had been excluded in that hit plan because the baby could have easily been hurt in the attack.

      Someone would pay for that.

      Herschel, no doubt. But it was going to be a bear to prove his involvement.

      Too bad Jax hadn’t found the two gunmen in the black car who’d followed Jericho after the attack at his house. Jericho had indeed wounded at least one of them, because his brother had found blood on the road. But neither the car nor the men had been there by the time Jax arrived.

      Not good.

      He needed all these thugs in jail to up their chances of finding information to stop Herschel. Or anyone else who might be involved in this.

      Jericho finished up his latest round of calls and made his way to the break room at the back of the building. Hardly living quarters, but there was a small bed that he and the deputies sometimes used when pulling double shifts. Tonight, however, Laurel and his son were sleeping in it.

      It might take a while before those words—his son—didn’t sound foreign to him. Not because of his feelings for the baby. No, he already loved the little boy. But his son was still a raw reminder that Laurel had kept Maddox from him.

      Jericho didn’t knock on the door because he didn’t want to wake Laurel and the baby, but when he stepped inside the room, he saw that only Maddox was on the cot. The little boy was on his stomach, snuggled in some blankets. No snuggling for Laurel. She was pacing.

      And crying.

      Jericho saw that right off, though she did quickly wipe away the tears and turn from him. He shut the door so the noise from the squad room wouldn’t

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