Heroes In Uniform (275 page)

And she wouldn’t let Devan or the more recent betrayal by Charlie ruin that for her.

“You okay, beautiful?” he murmured as he slid into a seat next to her and put one hand on her leg.

She smiled at him and nodded. “I’m wonderful. I heard there’s a shortage of hamburger buns causing a riot outside, though. Shouldn’t you be out there laying down the law and all that?” she asked, laughing at the scowl she got in response from him.

“I’m off duty, woman,” he said, then reached for his phone. “I came in to text Shane to see if he can get more rolls.”

“Already texted him,” Katelyn said, and she saw the moment when his eyes saw her text and he processed what she’d seen. He froze. If anyone else in the kitchen had seen it, they didn’t let on. John looked up at her and she could see the stricken expression in his eyes. She could read the panic. He had to know she would figure out the lie the minute she saw Shane and his texts.

“Kate….” he started.

She leaned into him, lacing one arm around his neck to pull his ear in close. “I’m fine. Perfect. Wonderful. I promise,” she whispered and then pulled back to let him see her eyes, to let him know she was telling the truth. She
really
was okay. Because she trusted him. “Tell me about it later,” she said with a small kiss.

The look on his face was almost comical. “Okay,” he said, drawing out the word. “We’re good?”

“Very good. Go back outside. We’ll be out with more food in just a bit,” she said, her smile genuine.

Everlasting: Epilogue

John didn’t tell Katelyn the whole story later that evening. He told her part of it. The part where he planned to take her on a surprise trip to San Antonio the following weekend. He wouldn’t tell her why he’d needed to go all the way there to plan their trip ahead of time. He didn’t tell her what he had in store for her. But, she was okay with that.

And, the story will make for a great one to tell the grandkids someday. John planned a weekend on the River Walk in San Antonio—a river lined with hotels, restaurants, and walkways. A river steeped in romance. He had booked a room in one of the oldest hotels along the river, and made a reservation for dinner at one of the fancier restaurants. But it was the detour on the way to dinner that had Katelyn in tears.

They passed by a tiny island, if you could call it that. It was no bigger than the kitchen in Katelyn’s father’s bungalow back in Evers. She found out later it was called Marriage Island. They stepped onto the island from a stone walkway that connected it to the side of the River Walk. The large tree that shaded the island was flanked on either side by two benches—one stone and one carved of wood— each engraved with a heart design on the top.

John pulled Katelyn to the island and sat her down. Laughter bubbled up inside her as he dropped to one knee and she knew. This was what he’d come down here to plan. He’d come to choose the right spot to ask her to marry him. And there was no way she wasn’t saying yes. She loved this man with all her heart. He was her home. Her family.

John opened a small ring box and the solitaire diamond on the plain platinum band took Katelyn’s breath away. It was exactly the ring she would have chosen for herself.

“I wish I’d been able to ask your father for his blessing before he went, but I’d like to think he’d approve,” John said.

Katelyn smiled down at him as tears streamed down her face. She nodded. Her father would definitely approve.

“Katelyn, will you do me the honor of being my wife?” John asked and she smiled again at his formal manners. He may be a New Yorker, but somewhere along the way, he’d become a southern boy at heart.

“Yes,” she said, and nodded again as she let laughter and tears flow freely. Her chest was so full of love and hope and peace. She knew with this man, with this love, she’d found her
everlasting.

—The End—

About the Author

Lori Ryan

Lori Ryan is a
NY Times
and
USA Today
bestselling author who writes contemporary romance with a twist of suspense. Her books range from sweetheart to steamy in heat level. Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and has fallen in love with writing. She is the author of the Sutton Capital Series; the Evers, Texas Series; and the Triple Play Curse Novellas, a set of novellas with sexy baseball players at their core as part of Bella Andre's Game For Love Kindle World.

She lives with an extremely understanding husband, two wonderful children (with another on the way!), two mostly well-behaved dogs, and a lone little cat in Austin, Texas. It's a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn't change a thing. She loves to connect with her readers. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to her blog.

Oh, and if you've read Lori's books and loved them, please consider leaving a review on the site where you purchase it. Writers live and die by their reviews and Lori promises to do a happy dance around her office every time you write one!

loriryanromance.com

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Additional Books by Lori Ryan

EVER HOPEFUL
: Book One in the Evers, TX Series

LEGAL EASE
: Book One in the Sutton Capital Series FREE

THE BILLIONAIRE’S SUITE DREAMS
: Book Four in the Sutton Capital Series

BARELY DANGEROUS

by Nina Bruhns

Barely Dangerous: Chapter One

The Trinity Forest, Northern California

August

Body parts lay scattered on the ground in an unholy tangle of bones and rotting flesh. Lieutenant Blue Wolf Cooper carefully picked his way over the meadow, taking in the stinking jumble of remains. Rage exploded inside him.

Damn it to hell
. Being a lieutenant in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s elite Special Operations Unit, Coop had seen a lot of bad kills. But this was one of the worst.

Suddenly, the sound of cautious footsteps crunched through the silent morning.

Now what
?

He scanned the area and ducked noiselessly under a mass of overgrown bushes. With the ease of a veteran hunter, he blended effortlessly into the background, making himself next to invisible. Even the best tracker in his grandfather's band would have difficulty spotting him.

A woman walked slowly into the meadow. She gasped at the destruction laid out before her, then clamped both hands over her mouth. He didn’t blame her.

As usual, the poachers had shown no restraint or respect. They had savaged three magnificent black bears—a mother and two cubs—severing paws, cutting out gall bladders and other organs, slicing off random hunks of meat. They had even taken the head of the mother bear. In a final act of barbarism, the butchered remains had been left for scavengers, scattered across the clearing.

An unbidden urge to shield the unknown woman from the repulsive sight flared through Coop. Along with another, totally unexpected and purely male reaction.

As the woman slumped against one of the towering pines that ringed the meadow, her breasts rose and fell with quickened breath. Even from this far away, he could tell she had a body that didn’t quit. Legs that went on forever. Curves that should have big yellow danger signs on them. She had an interesting face, all hollows and angles, framed by a halo of wispy blond curls. And holy shit, those breasts...

Damn
. A man could drown in a woman like that.

He was about to step out from his hiding place to let her know he was there...but at the last second, an inner instinct stopped him, telling him to stay put and watch what she did.

What the hell was she doing at his crime scene, anyway?

She glanced around edgily. Covering her nose with her shirt tail—a U.S. Forest Service uniform shirt, he noted—she pushed off the tree and stepped gingerly between the carcasses of the slaughtered black bears, her attention on the ground.

Coop frowned. This investigation fell under the jurisdiction of the CDFW, not the Smokeys. And how did she know about the kill in the first place? It had only been called in a few hours ago.

Silently, he pulled his cell phone from the pocket of his fishing vest as she completed a circuit of the grisly crime scene, still searching the ground as she went. Something caught her eye and she bent over, peering closely at a small object that Coop couldn't see from where he was hidden. Before he could hit the button for his cell phone camera and zoom in on it, she had pulled out a bandanna and scooped up the object, depositing it in her shirt pocket.

What the
hell
did she think she was doing? She was tampering with evidence!

His
evidence.

The woman’s body jerked up at a sudden flurry of sound, but notched back down when she realized it was only a squirrel and a blue jay fussing at each other.

Really? Strolling through bloody mounds of bear guts doesn’t faze her, but a scene straight out of Snow White nearly gives her a heart attack?

His mind zeroed in on the unthinkable. Could the poacher who killed these bears be a
woman
?

One working for the Forest Service?

Jesus
. In all his years with Fish and Wildlife, he'd never run into a female poacher who actually pulled the trigger or wielded the knife—or in this case, the ax. He had a hard time believing a woman was even capable of the wanton destruction in that meadow. Sexist? Maybe. His grandfather, Jimmy Blue Wolf, would say, to do that a woman would have to have a grizzly bear spirit. Or have gone windigo.

Coop agreed.

However, this woman didn’t seem that hard or cruel—her initial gasp told him as much—or out-of-control. If she was involved in this, it would make more sense that she was just on the periphery.

The grumble of a motor cut through the quiet forest. Probably Jack.
Great timing, partner
. The snarl of Jack's piece-of-crap ATV increased as it labored up the hillside, bringing the woman upright.

Coop snapped several photos of her as she took one last look around the clearing.

A small, white blemish on a nearby tree captured her attention. A long trail of sap spilled from it, running down the trunk. She hurried over to it.

Quickly swiping his camera to max magnification, Coop saw a small, dark hole piercing the exposed area.

“Yes!” she murmured.

“No!” he wanted to shout.

God
damn
it. A frigging
bullet
? The only ballistic evidence found in all the butchered bear cases he and Jack had investigated this summer, and
she
had to find it?

Along with whatever it was she’d picked up with the bandana. Another bullet, maybe?

He was just about to step out from his hiding place and arrest the damn woman, when, again, some instinct stopped him. He made a split-second decision.

She was the best lead he had right now on these poachers. Hell, the only lead. He'd have to sacrifice the pieces of evidence to gain the bigger picture. She should be easy enough to trace through the Forest Service—assuming she really worked for them—and he might even recover the evidence if he moved fast enough. Hopefully, she’d lead him to her accomplices...and hang herself in the process. If she was innocent, she'd turn in both objects to CDFW on her own. Either way, he’d know what side of the law she stood on.

He watched as she reached down to her boot, whipped out a small knife, and stuck it in the tree to one side of the bullet. He narrowed his eyes. The small blade wouldn’t make much of a dent in a bear, but interesting that she carried a weapon.

The noisy engine of Jack's ATV fighting its way up the primitive access road suddenly sputtered to a halt, close by.

Biting off a curse, the woman abandoned the bullet in the tree, then slipped back into the dark woods, disappearing as quickly as she'd arrived.

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Two

Coop slowly unfolded his tall frame from the bushes and looked around the kill site in disgust. How could people do this to innocent creatures? Violence of any kind was abhorrent to him. He had been brought up to believe cool logic and calm words could solve even the most explosive problems.

Not that he had always been able to follow that wisdom. Especially when he was younger. He was better now. Less volatile. More focused.

He loved his job working undercover with the spec ops unit. Most people didn’t have a clue that the Department of Fish and Wildlife was such a badass branch of law enforcement. But wardens carried guns, and had statewide jurisdiction and arrest authority. In fact, the CDFW had more law enforcement powers than any other state agency, including cops. Not only could Coop nab you for fishing without a license, he could also arrest you for speeding or for murder. Fish and Wildlife had their own CSI labs, high-tech toys, K-9 units, as well as tactical teams for land, sea, and air. In a day’s work he could jump out of helicopters, drive motorcycles, ride horses, fly, dive, shoot bad guys, and rescue kittens from trees.

Yeah, Fish and Wildlife wardens were certified American heroes.

Too bad they were also understaffed, underpaid, and undervalued by the suits in Sacramento.

But none of that mattered. For Coop, protecting this beautiful state and its natural resources was more of a calling than a job. He wouldn’t trade it for anything the world.

This case, however, was proving more than frustrating. He’d been sent in undercover as a sports writer to the little town of Marigold, deep in the Trinity National Forest, to ferret out and nail whoever had been poaching black bears here all summer, no doubt selling the bear parts to the Far East. These three kills made the ninth slaughter in the Trinity this summer—four bears in less than a month. He needed to catch these scumbags. And fast. Because it was happening on federal lands, already the FBI was rattling chains to take over.