Harlequin Intrigue, Box Set 1 of 2 (5 page)

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 disturb Maddox.

“Sandy just called,” Laurel relayed before Jericho could say anything. “The doctor at the hospital checked her out and released her. She's on her way to Houston to stay with friends, and she told her parents not to come home until she's sure it's safe.”

That was a smart move. The hired guns probably wouldn't go back to her place, but there was no sense taking that kind of risk, especially since they might see Sandy as a possible witness who needed to be eliminated. Jericho made a mental note to call Houston PD and arrange for some extra security for her.

“Please tell me the kidnapper you arrested is talking,” she added. “And that he's got evidence to lead to my father's arrest.”

“Afraid not.” But she already knew that would be the answer. If he'd gotten big news like that, he would have come straight to her with it, and he darn sure wouldn't have been sporting a scowl.

A scowl that faded considerably when he went closer to his son.

Hard to scowl when looking at Maddox's face. Jericho could see so much of himself in the boy. Some of Laurel, too.

“What about the other man?” she asked, walking to Jericho's side. “The one who tried to run you off the road. Is he talking?”

Jericho had to shake his head. “We know from his prints that his name is Travis DeWitt. He's got a record, a long one, but so far we haven't been able to connect him to your father.”

“There's probably a connection.” Laurel gave a heavy sigh and turned away from him again when she swiped at more tears.

She had plenty of reasons to cry. Someone had tried to kill her tonight, and that
someone
apparently wasn't giving up.

Part of him wanted to put his arm around her and try to comfort her. Thankfully, that part of him didn't win out, because the last thing he should do was have Laurel in his arms. Despite the bad blood, the attraction was still between them, too. No sense flaming that kind of heat when it would only make things more complicated than they already were.

She went to the table, picked up a notepad and handed it to him. “Those are the names of the people involved in the money laundering deal.”

The deal that Herschel was using to try to have her arrested. There were only two names: Quinn Rossman and Diego Cawley.

“I've tried to dig up anything on them, of course,” Laurel continued. “But so far, nothing. I thought it was just a simple real estate deal.”

Because her father had no doubt wanted it to look that way.

“That's also the time line, as best as I can remember.” She pointed to some dates, times and a brief description of phone conversations she'd had with Rossman and Cawley. “I didn't have any face-to-face meetings with either of them.”

Jericho checked through the time line and saw that something was missing. “I'll need the exact dates of your mother's death and when you broke off your engagement.” Because one or both of those could have triggered what was happening now.

While Laurel jotted down those dates, Jericho fired off a text to his brother Levi, who was a cop at the San Antonio Police Department, and asked him to run background checks on both men. Maybe Levi could dig up more than Laurel had. He also told his brother that he'd be faxing him a copy of the time line Laurel had just provided.

“So, what happens now?” she asked, handing him back the notepad.

Good question. But Jericho didn't have anything remotely resembling a good answer. “We keep looking for the idiots who attacked us. Keep looking for anything we can use to stop Herschel.” He paused. “Please tell me you've got some dirt on him. Any kind of dirt that I can use to start legal proceedings for an arrest.”

“No.” Another heavy sigh. “Within minutes of Theo telling him that he wasn't Maddox's father and that I'd broken off the engagement, all my computer files and backups disappeared. They were corrupted by a virus that someone triggered.”

That someone was no doubt one of Herschel's lackeys. “What about paper files?”

She shook her head. “All missing. By the time I got to my office, everything was gone.”

Herschel had worked fast. But then, he'd probably had this backup plan ready to go for years just in case Laurel turned against him. Still, there was something about this that didn't make sense.

“You must have known your father would retaliate when you stopped being the perfect daughter.”

“I did. But I didn't think he'd go this far.” Her voice broke, and again Jericho had to stop himself from lending her a shoulder to cry on.

Hell.

He only managed to hold himself for a couple of seconds, and then, as if it had a mind of its own, his arm eased around her and pulled her closer. Until they were touching far more than they should. Of course, any kind of touching was out between Laurel and him. That didn't stop him.

Nope.

Jericho just waited until she wrestled with more of those tears. Thankfully, it didn't last long. But it was long enough for his body to get really stupid ideas about the touching.

“Sorry,” Laurel said, and moved away from him.

Jericho got the feeling that the apology extended to a lot of things. Things he didn't want to get into right now since he was still seething over the fact that Laurel had kept his son from him. And all because she was afraid Herschel would have tried to kill him.

Which Herschel would have tried to do.

All the more reason to figure out how to put that idiot behind bars.

“I guess you didn't know Theo was going to tell your father the truth about Maddox when you broke off the engagement?” Jericho asked.

“I figured he would. Just not so soon.” She pushed her hair from her face. “I wasn't thinking straight. My mother,” Laurel added.

Yeah, he figured her grief for her mother had played into this. From all accounts, they'd been close.

“So, after your mother's death, you decided...what?” Because Jericho was having a little trouble filling in the blanks. “That you didn't want to live by your father's dirty rules?”

Her gaze slowly came to his. “I think my father murdered my mother.” No tears this time. There was a totally different emotion in her eyes and voice.

Anger.

And lots of it.

“You said she died from cancer,” Jericho pointed out.

“I think he helped her death along with an overdose of pain meds.” Laurel folded her arms over her chest. Started pacing again. “My mother wanted me to break off my engagement to Theo. She wanted me to leave and tell you the truth about Maddox.”

Jericho didn't cheer out loud, but he was on her mother's side on this. “She was right.”

“She was. And I think my father eavesdropped on our conversations and arranged for her to get an overdose of painkillers. Yes, she was sick. Very sick. But the chemo was working, and she wasn't so much out of it that she would have taken too big of a dose by accident. I think my father might have put them in her food or something.”

That gave him a new surge of anger, too. Herschel preying on a sick woman because she wasn't toeing the line. “Was there an autopsy?”

“No. And my father had her cremated the same day she died.”

Jericho wanted to curse. Hell. Now they were looking at murder. Two counts of it, since he was certain Herschel had also been responsible for his father's death.

“I was grieving,” Laurel added, “and by the time I figured out what might have happened, it was already too late. Any evidence proving his guilt was cremated with my mother.”

Which Jericho was betting wasn't an accident.

There was a soft knock on the door, and a moment later Jax opened it. “DeWitt's lawyer is here.”

Good. Maybe the lawyer would convince his scummy client to talk.

Jax walked closer to them, and his gaze slid from Jericho to Laurel. Then to Maddox.

“He's your son.” There wasn't a shred of doubt in Jax's voice. “How long have you known?”

“A couple of hours.” That alone said plenty, but his brother deserved a whole lot more, especially since Jax knew the emotional wringer he'd been through over the years with Laurel and her father. “Herschel's trying to get custody.”

Jax didn't look surprised, just as disgusted as Jericho was. “By trying to eliminate Laurel and you?”

“It looks that way. Herschel has dirt on Laurel to have her arrested.” Jericho handed Jax the notepad with the time line and names. “I need that faxed to Levi so he can try to help with the threat of Laurel's arrest. But Herschel also has fake dirt to have her committed to the loony bin. Laurel wants me to marry her so she can transfer custody of Maddox to me.”

His brother didn't say anything for several moments. “So, you'll marry her?”

That question just hung in the air, and before Jericho could even attempt an answer, he heard voices in the squad room. Loud ones.

“Wait here with Laurel,” he told Jax, and Jericho drew his gun.

Bracing himself for another attack, Jericho hurried out of the break room and down the short hall to the squad room. But there was no attack. Their loud-talking visitors—a tall, bulky-shouldered man and a gray-haired woman—didn't appear to be armed. However, one of the deputies, Dexter, was frisking them, and neither seemed especially happy about that. The unhappiness went up a significant notch when the man's gaze landed on Jericho.

“Sheriff Crockett,” he said like venom.

Jericho didn't recognize the guy, but venom like that was almost certainly personal.

“Theo James.” Jericho put some venom in his voice, too.

“We want to see Laurel now,” the woman demanded. And there was no doubt that it was a demand.

“And you are?” Jericho made sure he sounded like the sheriff when he asked that question.

“Dorothy James. Theo's mother.”

Of course.

He didn't see much of a resemblance. Maybe because of the woman's slight build. She looked on the frail side, and her skin was as thin and white as paper. Unlike her son, who towered over her and had a tan despite it being the dead of winter.

Jericho knew that Theo James was a lawyer, like Laurel, but he could have passed for a bouncer. A well-dressed one, though. Jericho figured that suit had come with a big price tag. Ditto for the haircut. And it looked as if he'd had a manicure. As a general rule, he didn't trust men who had manicures.

Of course, he hadn't needed a manicure to feel that way about Theo James.

And Jericho was certain that jealousy wasn't playing into this.

Almost certain, anyway.

“Why do you want to see Laurel?” Jericho pressed.

Dorothy wasn't the sort of woman to hide her emotions. She huffed, glared and generally looked ready to run right over him to get to Laurel. “We heard about the attack, and I want to make sure she's okay. She's my son's fiancée.”

“Ex-fiancée,” Jericho corrected.

Oh, that did not please either Theo or his mom.

“The breakup is all just a misunderstanding,” Theo answered. “And a temporary one. Once I speak with Laurel, we can sort it all out—”

“I doubt that. What do you know about the attack?”

“I don't like your tone,” Dorothy snapped. “Are you implying we had something to do with it?”

Jericho stared at her. “Did you?”

“No!”

Man, the woman could yell, and all in the same breath, she belted out a denial and a threat to slap him with a defamation-of-character lawsuit. However, Theo wasn't denying much. That's because he had his attention nailed to the hall. More specifically, to the doorway of the break room where Laurel was standing.