Sheriff

by Laura Scott

  Dazed from Brody’s mind-numbing kiss, she looked up at Angie. “We’d like to adopt these two pups, please.”

  Angie nodded, then went into the usual spiel about the documentation they’d need and the required neutering, but Julianne wasn’t listening.

  Max wouldn’t be happy, but she knew that she and Brody deserved this time together.

  And more.

  SEVENTEEN

  “Hey, Max, what’s up?” Julianne asked, shifting the puppy to her other arm as she listened to Max. She grimaced and looked at Brody as she answered, “Yes, of course. We’ll meet you there.” She ended the call. “We need to head over to the motel to meet Max and Zeke. Results from the lab in Quantico are starting to come in.”

  Brody hated leaving Cooper and Hawk behind, but he understood that Julianne had little choice but to respond to her boss’s summons. “No problem.” He held Cooper a moment longer, then placed the pup back in the kennel with his brother, Hawk. Angie latched the cage door.

  Thunder let out his oddly musical howl as they left the shelter. Brody glanced at the K-9 officer, thinking he understood exactly how the dog was feeling.

  “We’ll be back to get them soon,” Julianne reassured Thunder, patting him on the head as they returned to Brody’s SUV.

  The ride out to the motel didn’t take long. Zeke was pacing the length of the hallway outside the motel room door, looking agitated.

  “What’s wrong?” Julianne asked.

  “The blood we found at the house in the woods definitely belongs to Jake, as does the blood found at the second cabin near the river.”

  Brody couldn’t say he was surprised, after all they’d found Jake’s watch there, too. And Thunder had already proven that the missing FBI agent had been there.

  “I’m sorry,” Julianne murmured, placing a reassuring hand on Zeke’s arm. “Have faith, Zeke, there’s no reason to suspect the worst. I’m sure Jake is still alive. He’s worth more to the Duprees alive than dead.”

  Zeke abruptly shrugged her off and turned away, his fingers clenched into fists. Brody didn’t know the guy, other than from the short time they’d worked together, but he had the impression that it wouldn’t take much for Zeke Morrow to lose his cool.

  “There you are,” Max said, appearing in the doorway. “Did Zeke fill you in?”

  “Yes,” Julianne agreed. “We have confirmation the blood samples belong to Jake, but what about the other evidence we collected?”

  Max’s expression turned grim. “We found trace evidence that matches other samples in the lab. Samples that we believe belong to Angus Dupree.”

  Julianne’s eyes widened. “Angus was actually here in Clover? Not just his henchmen?”

  “That’s what we believe,” Max agreed. “We’re heading back to headquarters, ASAP.”

  Brody’s heart sank, even though this was nothing more than what he’d known was coming.

  “Max, I’d like to stay here for a couple of days,” Julianne said. “To assist in tying up the loose ends of the Otwell case.”

  Max’s gaze darkened with suspicion. “What loose ends?”

  Brody took a step closer to Julianne, wordlessly offering his support.

  “For one thing, we don’t know who the driver of the getaway car was,” she said. “And for another, we need to interrogate former Deputy Rick Meyer to understand what role he played in all of this.”

  “We?” Max echoed, his brow furrowed in a deep frown. “What are you really trying to tell me, Agent Martinez?”

  Brody almost winced at the stricken expression in Julianne’s eyes.

  “Once we’re finished with the Dupree case, I’m considering returning here to Clover, Texas. I need some time with Brody.” The words came out in a rush and Brody reached over to take her hand in his.

  “Really?” Max crossed his arms over his chest. “And here I was thinking of offering Sheriff Kenner a job.”

  Julianne’s eyes widened. “You were?”

  “You were?” Brody echoed in shocked surprise.

  Max nodded. “You were accepted into the program years ago, no reason to believe you won’t be accepted again. We could use someone with your skills, although it’s going to take some time for you to get through the FBI academy.”

  The thought of attending the FBI academy was overwhelming. He’d be starting from the bottom, but when he glanced over at Julianne and saw the shimmering hope reflected in her dark eyes, he knew he couldn’t let her down.

  Not again.

  “I’d be honored to join the team,” he said, reaching out to shake Max’s hand. “But I need to finish up the case I’ve built against Otwell first. I hope you understand.”

  “Of course,” Max said with a nod. The SAC glanced at his watch. “Julianne, as much as I’d like to give you a few days off, I need you to come with us. We’re hitting the road soon.”

  Julianne looked devastated, but Brody drew her close and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “It’s okay, Max needs you more than I do.”

  She turned and hugged him, squeezing tightly as if she’d never let him go. He buried his nose in her luxurious dark hair, inhaling the familiar sweet scent of honeysuckle.

  “I was hoping to stay,” she whispered.

  “Me, too.” He closed his eyes for a long moment. “But I promise I’ll see you soon.”

  She pulled back far enough to gaze up at him. “I’m holding you to that promise, Brody.”

  He gave her another quick kiss, wishing they had more time. “I hope you do,” he agreed. “Because I’m not going to make the same mistake I did six years ago.”

  She smiled then, a tremulous smile. “And you’ll pick up Cooper and Hawk?”

  “Of course. I’ll bring them with me.” He tucked a strand of her long silky hair behind her ear. “Just give me a couple of days, okay?”

  “Okay.” She kissed him, then eased out of his arms. “Ready when you are,” she told Max.

  Her boss was watching them with a speculative gleam in his eye, but he didn’t say anything. “Let’s get ready to roll.”

  Brody turned and walked back to his vehicle. Leaving Julianne wasn’t easy, but knowing he’d see her again, soon, gave him the strength to do what needed to be done.

  Putting the final nails in the case he’d built against Nathan Otwell and his former deputy, Rick Meyer.

  * * *

  Julianne was exhausted by the time they arrived back in Billings, Montana. After Max had provided an update to the rest of the team, Dylan O’Leary pulled her aside. Since she was standing up for his fiancée, Zara, as one of her bridesmaids, she assumed that he wanted to talk about the wedding plans. Instead he asked for a favor.

  “Do you have time to run an errand with me?” he asked.

  Shoving her travel-weary exhaustion aside, she smiled and nodded. “Absolutely. What do you need?”

  “I need to pick up our rings for the wedding,” he confided. “The jeweler just called to tell me they’re ready.”

  “Oh, that sounds like fun,” Julianne agreed. She followed him outside into the much-cooler-than-Texas air. “How is Zara doing, by the way?”

  Dylan didn’t say anything until they were settled in the front seat of his truck. “If you want to know the truth, I’m worried about her.”

  “Worried?” Julianne knew Dylan’s fiancée was currently in training with a group of other potential FBI agents at Quantico. “Is she having trouble with the training?”

  Dylan glanced at her. “More like someone is giving them trouble. There seems to have been a few mishaps.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean?”

  “Several trainees fell when the ropes on the obstacle course broke. Thankfully, there were no serious injuries. Zara told me that she
and several other cadets examined the ropes and believe they were cut.”

  Cut ropes? Julianne had difficulty wrapping her mind around the implication. “Who would do such a thing? At Quantico, no less?”

  “Exactly,” Dylan agreed. “There was also some stray gunfire during a handgun training session. It’s almost as if someone is out to purposefully hurt or sabotage the new trainees.”

  Julianne mulled that over as Dylan pulled into the parking lot of a high-class jewelry store. “It’s possible some of us from our unit could help investigate. Does Max know about this?”

  Dylan shook his head as he slid out from behind the wheel. “No, I haven’t told Max and I’d appreciate it if you’d keep this conversation confidential. Zara and her team want to take the lead on investigating this on their own. After all, they’ll soon be FBI agents in their own right.”

  She grimaced, not liking the thought of Zara and the other trainees being in possible danger, yet at the same time, Max didn’t really have jurisdiction to butt in, either. Their motto was to find and eliminate domestic terrorism and in this case, that meant bringing down the Dupree crime family once and for all.

  “I won’t say anything yet,” she assured him. “But if anything else happens, you really need to confide in Max. Before things escalate to the point someone is seriously injured.”

  “I can go along with that plan,” he agreed.

  Dylan held the door open for her, so she led the way inside. Several long glass cases spanned the room, filled with expensive jewelry, the lights from above causing the stones to sparkle brightly.

  She peered at the glitter of emeralds, rubies and diamonds as Dylan spoke with the manager. When the woman pulled out the wedding rings, Julianne peered over to get a better look. Zara’s diamond was beautiful and she couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to have an engagement ring of her own from Brody.

  Whoa, wait a minute. Sure, Brody had agreed to train as an FBI agent, and she knew that meant he wanted to continue seeing her.

  But marriage? Wasn’t that jumping the gun just a little? After all, he hadn’t even told her he loved her.

  The way she loved him.

  The silent words struck her hard. She loved Brody. The man he’d grown into, confident yet able to admit when he’d been wrong. The protector who instinctively wanted to shield her from harm but treated her as his equal.

  Would they really get the second chance they both deserved?

  * * *

  “Sheriff? Attorney Jeremy Strand is here to see his client.”

  Brody shot out from behind his desk and strode over to where Strand waited next to the dispatcher’s desk. The guy was an hour late, and it was Sunday, so there weren’t any deputies around. He still had two men stationed outside Rick Meyer’s hospital room. The former deputy had gotten an infection requiring him to stay longer. Brody had purposefully reduced the rest of the staff to a skeleton crew to make up for the hundreds of extra hours they’d worked gathering evidence and maintaining roadblocks during the jailbreak.

  “Mr. Strand,” he drawled, raking his gaze over the man dressed in a suit that cost more than Brody’s car. “Kindly set your briefcase aside so I can verify you’re not carrying a weapon.”

  The attorney scowled and set his briefcase on top of the dispatcher’s desk. Brody was about to tell him to remove it, when the attorney whipped out a gun.

  “Stand back, Sheriff,” the attorney said. “And you,” he turned to Sandra, the dispatcher on duty, “Put your hands in the air where I can see them.”

  Brody drilled the attorney with an intense gaze. “You’re making a big mistake, counselor,” he warned, angry that he’d been caught off guard. “Put the gun away, nice and easy.”

  “No! I want you to walk over to open that jail cell, right now!”

  For a moment Julianne’s image flashed into his mind, but he refused to be distracted by the possibility of never seeing her again. No way was he letting Otwell out of jail, not after everything he’d gone through to put him in there, not just once but twice.

  “Okay, hold onto your britches. Let’s just stay calm so no one gets hurt.” Brody was trying to stall for time, but he wasn’t sure doing so would help. It wasn’t as if he was expecting anyone to arrive anytime soon.

  He didn’t dare glance at Sandra, afraid to see the fear and horror in the dispatcher’s eyes.

  Abruptly the door to the building burst open and Brody didn’t hesitate. He rushed the attorney, grabbing the wrist holding the gun and twisting the weapon out of his grasp. Then he wrenched the guy’s arm behind his back and quickly slapped the silver bracelets on, restraining him.

  “Good timing, Hanson,” he said to his senior deputy.

  “Thank Sandra, she’s the one who left the microphone open on the dispatch speaker so I could hear what was going down. Good thing I wasn’t far.”

  Brody shoved Jeremy Strand into the cell adjacent to Otwell’s. After reading the attorney his rights, he glanced between the two men. “Looks like you’ll need a new attorney, Nate. And Strand, if I were you, I wouldn’t try to defend yourself in this case. Not when you have three witnesses who heard you attempt to break Nate out of jail for the second time.”

  Strand glared at him, but exercised his right to remain silent for which Brody was grateful. They’d need to obtain a search warrant on Strand’s vehicle in an attempt to find evidence of either Otwell or Royce being inside recently. If they were, there’s a good chance Strand had assisted with the jailbreak. If not, there was still the fact that the lawyer had tried to break him out of jail today.

  Either way, he believed this was the last piece of the puzzle. Otwell, Meyer and Strand would all end up in jail for the rest of their lives.

  Over the next few days, between caring for the two puppies, Cooper and Hawk, Brody and his next in command, Dan Hanson, tied up the remaining loose ends of their case. Hanson’s attitude had changed dramatically for the better, for which Brody was sincerely grateful. They were able to match up key evidence from all the various crime scenes, connecting everything together in an iron-clad case.

  Not one of the arrested men would be freed from jail for a long, long time.

  When they finished, he looked at Hanson. “How would you like to be the interim sheriff?”

  “What?” Hanson looked dumbfounded. “Where are you going?”

  “Billings, Montana.” Brody broke into a wide grin. “I’ve already given my notice to the mayor. He’ll be glad to know you’ll be stepping in to help take charge in my absence.”

  Hanson looked surprised, then nodded. “I appreciate your faith in me, Sheriff.”

  “Just make sure you keep your attitude to yourself,” Brody warned him. “Don’t let this position go to your head.”

  Hanson actually looked embarrassed. “I’ve learned my lesson, Sheriff. Watching Agent Martinez and her K-9 officer in action was humbling.”

  “Good.”

  After making sure the DA was looped into the evidence they’d found on the case, Brody made arrangements to fly to Billings. He knew he’d have to return at some point to testify, but for now, his plan was to take Cooper and Hawk with him to meet up with Julianne. Almost two weeks had passed, and he was anxious to see her. The days they’d spent apart had been more difficult than he’d imagined.

  He walked into the headquarters for the FBI Tactical K-9 unit, the two puppies leaping around on their leashes, and immediately ran into Julianne.

  “Brody! You’re here!”

  His heart stuttered when she rushed over and threw her arms around his neck. He clutched her close, breathing in her honeysuckle scent as he lifted her off the floor and spun her in a circle before setting her back on her feet.

  “I’ve missed you so much,” he said, before capturing her mouth in a tender kiss.

 
“I’ve missed you, too.” She smiled up at him. “It’s so good to see you, Brody. Oh, and you brought Cooper and Hawk!”

  She bent down to cuddle the pups before rising once again to her feet.

  He stared into her wide, brown eyes, trying to remember the speech he’d rehearsed on the flight over, but the practiced words escaped him. “I arrested Otwell’s lawyer. He was the guy who helped him escape from the prison van,” he blurted.

  “Really? So his lawyer, Royce and Deputy Meyer were helping him. No wonder he was able to escape.”

  “Yeah, but we’ve got them in custody. They’ll never be able to hurt anyone ever again.”

  “So it’s finally over?”

  “Yeah.” He continued to hold her close, unable to find the will to let her go, the pups winding around their feet. “And you were right, the woman’s body we found did belong to Lilly Ramos.” His voice broke for a moment, and he was thankful the old guilt seemed to be gone for good. “She’ll be given the proper burial she deserves.”

  “I’m so sorry, Brody. I’m sure that was very difficult for you.” Her eyes were troubled as they searched his.

  This was the moment of truth. “I’ve spent the last week attending church services and making inroads toward rebuilding my faith.” He swallowed hard. “I’ve learned that God forgave me a long time ago, and the only person I needed to forgive for messing up all those years ago is me. With God’s help, I’ve been able to let go of the guilt of my past mistakes.”

  “Oh, Brody.” Julianne’s dark eyes shimmered with tears. “I’m so glad to hear that you’ve renewed your relationship with God.”

  “Me, too.” He kissed her again, wishing he could whisk her away someplace where they could be alone. But each time he tried for perfect timing, it never happened, so he decided there was no reason to wait a moment longer. “Julianne, I want you to know how much I love you. There’s never been another woman for me, not since you. I always loved you.”

  She swiped at her eyes, her smile hesitant. “Are you sure? Six years ago you didn’t love me enough to believe me over Nate.”