Branded by the Sheriff. Delores Fossen

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      She ignored his bark. Faith wouldn’t make herself an open target, but she wanted to be in a position to defend herself.

      “Do you see anyone out there?” she barked back.

      She clamped her teeth over her bottom lip to stop the trembling. Not from fear. She was more angry than afraid. But with the gaping holes in the window, the winter wind was pushing its way through the room, and she was cold.

      “No. But if I were a betting man, I’d say your brother’s come back to eliminate his one and only remaining sibling—you.”

      “Maybe the person outside is after you?”

      He glanced back at her. So brief. A split-second look. Yet, he conveyed a lot of hard skepticism with that glimpse.

      “You’re the sheriff,” she reminded him. “You must have made enemies. Besides, my mother and sister have been dead for over two months. If that’s Darin or their real killer out there, why would he wait this long to come after me? It’s common knowledge that I was living in Oklahoma City and practicing law there for the past few years. Why not just come after me there?”

      “A killer doesn’t always make sense.”

      True. But there were usually patterns. Her mother and sister’s killer had attacked them when they were alone. He hadn’t been bold or stupid enough to try to shoot them with a police officer nearby. Of course, maybe the killer didn’t realize that the car out front belonged to Beck, since it was his personal vehicle and not a cruiser. Therefore he wouldn’t have known that Beck was there. She certainly hadn’t been aware of it when she had been in that shower. Talk about the ultimate shock when she’d seen him standing there.

      Her, stark naked.

      Him, combing those smoky blue eyes all over her body.

      “Dreamy eyes,” the girls in school had called him. Dreamy eyes to go with a dreamy body, that toast-brown hair and quarterback’s build.

      Faith hadn’t been immune to Beck’s sizzling hot looks, either. She’d looked. But the looking stopped after the night he’d given her a Breathalyzer test at the motel.

      A lot of things had stopped that night.

      And there was no going back to that place. Even if those dreamy looks still made her feel all warm and willing.

      “I hope you’re having second and third thoughts about bringing your daughter here,” Beck commented. He still had his attention fastened to the front of the house.

      She was. But what was the alternative? If this was Darin or her sister’s slimy ex, then where could she take Aubrey so she’d be safe?

      Nowhere.

      That was a sobering and frightening thought.

      But Beck was right about one thing. She needed to rethink this. Not the job. She wasn’t going to run away from the job. However, she could do something about making this a safe place for Aubrey. And the first thing she’d do was to catch the person who’d thrown those rocks through her window.

      She could start by having the handwriting analyzed. Footprints, too. Heck, she wanted to question the taxi driver to see if he’d told anyone that he’d dropped her off at the house. Someone had certainly learned quickly enough that she was there.

      “I think the guy’s gotten away by now,” Faith let Beck know.

      He didn’t answer because his phone rang. Beck glanced at the screen and answered with a terse, “Where are you right now?” He paused, no doubt waiting for the answer. “Someone in front of the house threw rocks through the window. Check the area and let me know what you find.”

      Good. It was backup. If Nolan Wheeler or whoever was still out there, then maybe he’d be caught. Maybe this would all be over within the next few minutes. Then she could deal with this adrenaline roaring through her veins and get on with her life.

      Faith waited there with her fingers clutched so tightly around the pepper spray that her hand began to cramp. The minutes crawled by, and they were punctuated by silence and the occasional surly glance from Beck.

      He still hated her.

      She could see it in his face. He still blamed her for that night with his brother. Part of her wanted to shout the truth of what’d happened, but he wouldn’t believe her. Her own mother hadn’t. And over the years she’d convinced herself that it didn’t matter. That incident had given her a chip on her shoulder, and she’d used that chip and her anger to succeed. Coming back here, getting the job as the assistant district attorney, that was her proof that she’d risen above the albatross of her family’s DNA.

      “It’s me,” someone called out, causing her heart to race again.

      But Beck obviously wasn’t alarmed. He got to his feet and watched the man approach the window.

      “I see some tracks,” the man announced. “But if anybody’s still out here, then he’s freezing his butt off and probably hiding in the bushes across the road.”

      The man poked his face against the hole in the window, and she got a good look at him. It was Corey Winston. He’d been a year behind her in high school and somewhat of a smart mouth. These days, he was Beck’s deputy. She’d learned that during her job interview with the district attorney.

      Corey’s insolent gaze met hers. “Faith Matthews.” He used a similar tone to the one Beck had used when he first saw her. “What are you doing back in LaMesa Springs?”

      “She’s going to be the new assistant district attorney,” Beck provided.

      That earned her a raised eyebrow from Corey. “Now I’ve heard everything. You, the ADA? Well, you’re not off to a good start. You breeze into town, your first night back, and you’re already stirring up trouble, huh?”

      The huh was probably added to make it sound a little less insulting. But it only riled her more. She’d let jerks like Corey, and Beck, run her out of town ten years earlier, but they wouldn’t succeed this time.

      She would continue full speed ahead, and if that included arresting her own brother, she’d do it and carry out her lawful duties. Of course, because of a personal conflict, the DA himself would have to prosecute the case, but she would fully cooperate. It helped that she had been estranged from her mother and sister. That wouldn’t help with Darin. It would hurt. But duty had to come first here.

      Beck reholstered his gun and glanced around at the glass on the floor. “Secure the scene,” he told Corey. “Cast at least one of the footprints, and I’ll send it to the lab in Austin. We might get lucky.”

      “You think it’s worth it?” Corey challenged. But his defiance went down a notch when Beck stared at him. “It just seems like a lot of trouble to go through considering this was probably done by those Kendrick kids. You know those boys have too much time on their hands and nobody at home to see what they’re up to.”

      “There’s a killer on the loose,” Beck reminded him.

      That reminder, however, didn’t stop Corey from scowling at Faith before he turned from the window and got to work. He grumbled something СКАЧАТЬ