Two deputies pointed weapons at him. “Police! Freeze!”
Shock rolled through him.
Sheriff Garrison came in behind them. “Good work, Deputy Carrington.”
Good work, Deputy Carrington? Bree?
The words sliced his heart up and fed it to the wolves.
Quinn whipped his head around to her. His blood pressure spiked, sending blood bursting through his veins, oozing from the bandages, pounding through his head.
She looked as shell-shocked as he felt. Her mouth opened to speak, but no words came out as she shook her head slowly. What was that look in her eyes? Regret that she’d been caught?
“You called the cops on me?”
He didn’t wait for her reply and instead hung his head. He couldn’t look at her. He wouldn’t look Bree Carrington in the eye. Maybe not ever again. He thought she understood what he was up against, especially since Julia was working with them to get at Declan. But Bree had Stevie back, and now she wanted to keep her job.
He didn’t blame her. How could he?
Still, when she was in danger, and Stevie, too, Quinn had been willing to give his life. He thought that might have earned him at least a little loyalty in return.
In the parking lot in front of God and everybody, his wrists were cuffed, and he was ushered over to the sheriff’s county vehicle and forced into the back seat.
Humiliated. Betrayed. He could only blame himself. He’d been the one under a spell—Bree’s spell. She was beautiful inside and out. Mesmerizing. He had never truly gotten over her. And that had been his biggest mistake.
In his peripheral vision he could see her red hair spilling over her shoulders. His chest felt like it had a hole in it. How had he let her in like that? He thought he’d guarded himself better. He forced his eyes up, looking at anything but Bree, careful not to telegraph that he was looking for someone.
Somewhere in the parking lot, Julia was probably driving up with their fast food. When she saw what was happening, she would hang back for the time being to regroup and figure out what to do next. No sense in her landing behind bars, too, just from her association with him. No telling what Bree would tell them. Maybe Bree had called the police because she truly thought Quinn would be better protected. Regardless, he wished he hadn’t involved Julia. She could also be in danger, but she was a completely capable agent, and now...his only hope.
He made the mistake of looking out the window and caught sight of Bree standing in a group of deputies, flashing blue and red lights painting colors over them. She glanced his way and caught his eye, her gaze pleading, her head subtly shaking.
Smart move, Bree.
He hadn’t seen it coming.
Just like he hadn’t seen it coming with Declan—who’d framed him. He hadn’t actually thought the guy would go that far.
Groaning, he shoved thoughts of the deputies bursting through the door to arrest him to the far shelf in his mind. It only infuriated him. Tired of counting the old tiles on the ceiling, Quinn rolled to his side. Pain jarred him, the hard cot an insult to his body as he turned. He should insist they take him to the hospital, but he didn’t have the energy right now. And truthfully, in his current predicament, he was safer here than in a hospital. Might as well get some sleep until the next round. He needed to rest and heal and figure out how he would take down Declan.
Except he couldn’t sleep.
God, why have You abandoned me?
Or maybe it was Quinn who’d abandoned God when his parents died. And then every tragedy after that seemed to push him further away. Still, that day he’d seen Bree on the boat and the men had shot her, Quinn had begged God to protect her. To let Quinn reach her in time.
And he had.
Thank You...
Two sets of boots with a purposeful stride warned him of incoming enemy fire, heading his way. He should get up and face this, but he remained where he lay. Several other inmates took up cells in the small county jail. Maybe the incoming fire was for them and not him.
But keys jangled at Quinn’s cell door. He rolled over and sat on the edge of his cot before he was made to sit up. He couldn’t take any more bruises or torture, but he reminded himself this was the county jail. He wouldn’t be tortured here. The sheriff was a good man and just doing his job, even though he was seeing things from his own narrow perspective.
With his good eye he watched Deputy Woodbridge unlock the cell. Another man stood next to him.
“Quinn Strand.”
Quinn stood to his feet. “Who are you?”
“Agent Shepherd.” The man flashed a badge. DEA. “What? Don’t recognize it?” Sarcasm laced Agent Shepherd’s tone.
Oh, great. One of those.
“Hold your wrists out, please.”
Quinn did as he was asked, hating every second of his loss of freedom. The deputy cuffed him. “You’re going with Shepherd here.”
The sense of foreboding filled his gut. “Is that right?”
Shepherd shoved him out the door. He almost collapsed but fell against the bars and hung on.
“Easy now,” the deputy said. “Strand’s been through a beating. Can’t you see?”
“Then why isn’t he in the hospital?”
The deputy didn’t respond to Shepherd’s question, because it was more rhetorical, and the deputy seemed a tad intimidated by Shepherd. Understandable. He led them down the long hallway, Quinn’s squeaky sneakers joining the clomping boots. The deputy opened a side door to reveal a vehicle parked and waiting, presumably Shepherd’s.
Quinn didn’t exit. “Deputy Woodbridge, I prefer to stay in the county jail. I don’t believe Shepherd is who he claims to be.”
“Good one, Quinn,” Woodbridge said. “You just keep trying.”
Quinn wasn’t going to go through the door so easily. “Call the DEA. Call Stan Rollins, my superior. Check this man’s credentials. Do that before you send me with him, please.”
“He has the authorization papers in order for the transfer.” Still, Deputy Woodbridge looked between the two men.
Shepherd sent the deputy a condescending look. “You really are a country bumpkin if you’re going to let this guy fool you.”
“Go on, Strand. Get out of here.” The deputy assisted Shepherd in forcing Quinn toward the vehicle. Shepherd practically threw him in the back. His head felt like a sledgehammer had gotten the best of him. Of course, he would be dead if that were true. Right now, he wished he was.
Wait, no, he wanted to live. There was a reason to live, though at the moment, he wasn’t sure what it was. And he didn’t have long to live if he didn’t find a way out of this.
“You’re not DEA.”
“No? What makes you think that?”
“Who sent you?”
“You should have stayed in hiding. Now that you’ve resurfaced, you’re causing all kinds of problems. But don’t you worry. I’m the problem solver.”
* * *
Sitting in the stuffy room where they often questioned suspects, Bree felt like a prisoner herself as she paced the small space. She would have preferred they have this heated conversation in the sheriff’s office. Would the sheriff go as far as arresting her, too? Because right now, she could think of several possible charges.
How could this have happened? She rubbed her eyes.
“Bree, please calm down and hear me out,” Sheriff Garrison said. “I’m your boss, and I consider myself to be a friend and a mentor to you. You’re a good deputy. I know about you and Strand. You’ve had a thing for him—dated him in high school, too, I believe.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” she asked.
The way he shrugged, it almost looked apologetic. “I thought you were getting caught up in something emotional.”
Right. He probably wouldn’t be having this talk with one of his male d
eputies. “Well, that wouldn’t make me a very good deputy, now would it?”
“That’s my point. You are a good deputy, but sometimes tragedy strikes or trauma hits. You went through a terrible experience in those woods, Bree, and then with Stevie being abducted. Sometimes we can’t think with a clear mind. We make mistakes.” Hurt flickered in his gaze.
Bree was ashamed that she hadn’t trusted him with Stevie.
“If you’d stayed home and rested like I asked, or had even seen the counselor immediately like I requested, then maybe you wouldn’t have gotten so caught up with Quinn that you let him drag you down his dark, lonely road.”
His words stirred the fury inside. “His road is the road to justice, Sheriff. You would see that if you would only listen. But instead you’re making things up as you go. You made it sound like I called you. Like it was all my idea.”
“Well, of course. Bree, I’m trying to protect you. I needed the others to believe you were working on bringing him in. Imagine, Bree, what it looks like that you’re working with a man who has a warrant for his arrest. Of course, I gave everyone the impression you were just doing your job and you had called me. As far as everyone knows, our plan was to bring Quinn in and you were holding him there for us to arrest him.”
She eased into the chair. “I was holding him there to patch him up after he was tortured by the men who kidnapped my nephew. I had to get Stevie back. They said no cops. Quinn... He traded himself for Stevie. He risked his life. Does that sound like the behavior of someone leading me down some sort of dark path? He’s an innocent man, Sheriff.”
“I know you believe he is. I know you want to believe he is.”
“You don’t think someone who would trade his life like that, walking in there for Stevie, is a hero?”
“He might be a hero, but there’s also the warrant to consider.” The sheriff scraped a hand down his face. He was running out of patience. “You’re not making this easy for me to help you. You’re muleheaded. Did you know that?”
Bree wasn’t going to give up. She had to fight this with everything she had. “Look, Sheriff, if you think I’m a good deputy then please listen to me and believe me. A warrant out for his arrest does not mean he’s guilty. There’s more going on here—things you don’t know—and Quinn’s in a lot of danger. Keep him here in a jail cell to protect him until we can bring the true criminal to justice. Don’t turn him over. Ask Agent McKesson.” Bree wasn’t certain she should have brought Julia into this, but she was desperate. “She knows the truth and has been helping us.”
“Yes, she has been helping you. Who do you think called me to tell me where you were?”
“Wha—” The news was a punch to her gut. “No. Why would she do that?” Bree hadn’t even considered it.
“She, like you, wants protection for Quinn. She said so on her call. If only you had trusted me enough.”
“I overheard you, Sheriff. You were using me to get to him. I heard you in the hallway. ‘Bree is going to bring him to us. Be aware, she doesn’t know that’s what she’s going to do.’”
He hung his head. “I’m ashamed, Bree. Ashamed that I said those words. But at the time, I thought you were traumatized. So let’s get on the same page now. I don’t see any other way if we want to keep working together, do you?”
Another punch to her gut.
A nice way of threatening her with losing her job. She deserved it. “Okay. Sure. What’s your plan?”
“Whatever the DEA wants with Quinn isn’t my business, so much as the men who shot my deputies. I want those men. I want to know who they are and I want them incarcerated. I don’t want them in my county. Tell me everything you know, Bree, and I do mean everything, so that we can get on top of this before another deputy gets shot, or someone else gets killed.”
“Or abducted.”
He let his head bob. “Sorry about little Stevie. But you’re right. We don’t want anything else like that to happen. I’m going to record our conversation, all right?”
“Okay.” Bree told the sheriff everything from start to finish while she prayed nothing she said would bring more danger to Quinn. When she’d shared every detail she could think of, she released a sigh. “I hope that Julia called you because she truly felt this was the safest place for Quinn. There was so much at stake, and he’s in no shape to defend himself. The reason I didn’t call you at first was because I was afraid for Stevie’s and Dad’s lives. And because Quinn was afraid that once the wrong person, someone in law enforcement, learned he was either in the area or, in this case, behind bars, they would come for him, and he wouldn’t be able to protect himself.” She eyed the sheriff. “Is that going to happen, Sheriff? Please tell me you’re going to protect him.”
Sheriff switched off the recorder and hit the intercom. “Janet? Send a deputy to bring Quinn Strand here to see me. I’m in the interview room.” Then he turned his attention back to Bree and chuckled. “You don’t have to worry about that, Bree. We’ll protect him as long as we can.”
“That won’t be long. You’re going to have to turn him over to those who issued the warrant.”
“Not if I have charges of my own, which I’m working on. That process could take a while. Give us some time to figure this out.”
“Do you believe me then?” she asked.
“I think you believe it. I’m holding out for the evidence that proves something decisive either way. He saved Stevie and he protected you, and that goes a long way. It tells me something, so I want to give him the benefit of a doubt.”
Bobby opened the door without knocking. “Sheriff?”
The sheriff frowned. “Where’s Strand? I asked for someone to bring me Strand.”
“He isn’t here.”
“What are you talking about?”
“They took him.”
The sheriff stood. “They? Who’s they?”
The deputy paled. “DEA. Had the paperwork authorizing the transfer.”
SIXTEEN
In a daze, Bree exited the sheriff’s department and headed to her vehicle in the parking lot.
Snap out of it. Quinn needs you. She couldn’t let herself dwell on the way that her department had failed so magnificently. The knowledge could break her if she wasn’t careful. She sucked in a breath and hurried the last few feet to her county vehicle. She wasn’t in her uniform, but time was of the essence.
They looked at the security footage of the bouncer-looking guy leaving with Quinn. Special Forces, if she had to guess. Quinn could usually hold his own, except he wasn’t in the best condition right now. Physically or emotionally, if he really thought Bree had made that phone call.
She was still stunned to learn that Julia—the agent he had trusted—had made that call.
The paperwork had been correct, but the sheriff contacted Stan Rollins, the man Quinn had mentioned, and learned it wasn’t an authorized pickup, after all. All the information had been forged in their system and in person. They weren’t able to identify this man.
Or if the DEA did know who the mystery man was, they were keeping it to themselves.
So now Bree and other deputies were looking for Quinn. She hoped she wasn’t too late. Other vehicles left the parking lot in search of their abducted inmate and the man who took him right out from under their noses.
She’d never seen the sheriff so incensed, even after what she’d put him through.
She forced back the tears. Now wasn’t the time to get emotional. She really had to work on pushing that side of her away.
With the key fob, she unlocked the vehicle and glanced up. Across the street she spotted a familiar woman learning against her car.
Julia. Bree rushed across the parking lot, crossed the street and got in her face, wanting to rail at her.
In fact, she wanted to punch her.
Julia frowned. “Go ahead and hit me if it w
ill make you feel any better, but I’d rather spend my time trying to help Quinn.”
“Why did you call my sheriff? What were you thinking?”
“It was the only way to protect him.”
“Protect him? He could be dead now. Some guy claiming to be a DEA agent took him.”
“What?”
The incredulity in her voice said it all. Julia really didn’t know.
“He said his name was Shepherd. I’m going to look for him now. That’s why deputies are all speeding out of the lot, or didn’t you notice?”
“Bree, have you forgotten...”
She sucked in air. “Oh! He has a tracker in him.”
“Do you think it still works?” Julia asked.
“Yes. Let’s take my car!” Bree jogged with Julia over to her department vehicle and they got in.
“Hurry up, let’s get moving,” Julia said.
Bree peeled out of the parking space. “I can hurry up and turn right or hurry up and turn left. Where is he?”
“Just a second, I’m still pulling up the software.” A moment later, Julia said, “Take a right, I think.”
Bree swerved out of the parking lot.
God, please help us find him.
“Okay, keep talking. Where is he in general, and then you can give me the details? I should call the other deputies out there. They might be able to find him.” She lifted the radio from the dash.
Julia pressed her hand over Bree’s. “Think, Bree. Those deputies will only lock him up again, which is obviously more dangerous than we knew. This isn’t going to stop. We have to find another way to help him.”
Bree replaced the radio. I sure hope you understand this time, Sheriff Garrison.
Julia stared at her tablet. “Shepherd has a good head start and is already driving out of town. Take the next exit.”
Speeding down a two-lane state highway, Bree took the exit. At first, she had the lights flashing. But then she turned them off. Better not to alert the others if she was going to go down this road with Quinn again.
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