Trouble with a Badge

by Delores Fossen

The SUV was much larger, and the driver used that size when he sped up until the vehicles were side by side. Alexa couldn’t actually see through the heavily tinted windows, but the SUV bashed right into the driver’s side of their car.

  “Hold on,” Levi warned.

  The car lurched to the right as the SUV pushed them off the road and onto the sidewalk. Levi barely missed a concrete bench, but the front of the car bashed into the brick front of an antiques store.

  Again, Alexa flew forward, somehow managing to keep the baby sheltered. But the jostling woke the little girl and she immediately started to cry.

  Levi started to curse.

  Alexa knew why—because they were stopped. They were now sitting ducks. The vehicle was angled so that the front end was against the door of the antiques shop.

  “Call Jericho and tell him what’s going on,” he said, tossing her his phone.

  Somehow, Alexa managed to press the Call button, even though her hands were shaking like crazy. Jericho answered on the first ring.

  “Levi and I are at Saunder’s Antiques Store,” she relayed. “And we need help. There’s one gunman, maybe more.”

  Jericho didn’t ask who she was or why this was happening. Nor did he ask about the crying baby. “I’m on my way,” he said and hung up.

  Alexa took the baby from the seat and tried to soothe her. Maybe the newborn wouldn’t be able to sense the tension and fear in Alexa’s own body. If she did, there was no way she would stop crying.

  Levi drew his weapons. Not just the primary one from his waist holster. He also took out a smaller gun from a slide holster in the back of his jeans and handed it to her.

  “Use it if you have to,” Levi instructed.

  Alexa took the gun from him, but she shook her head. “What are you planning to do?” she asked when he opened the car door. “You can’t be thinking of going out there. This idiot is a killer, and he might have help with him.”

  However, Levi was indeed going out there.

  He stepped out just as the driver of the SUV lowered his window. Using the other side of the car door for cover, Levi took aim at whoever was in the SUV.

  “I’m Deputy Levi Crockett,” he shouted over the cries of the baby. “Step out of your vehicle now.”

  She held her breath, hoping the killer would do just that. Then she might be able to learn why Tasha had died.

  But that didn’t happen.

  Alexa caught just a glimpse of the gun in the driver’s hand before the shot blasted into the car.

  Chapter Three

  Levi cursed and dropped down behind the door. But not far. He stayed high enough to deliver two shots into the driver’s side windshield of the SUV.

  Yes, it was risky because he didn’t know if this armed thug had someone else inside with him. Maybe a captive or hostage. But it was even riskier to let the shots continue with Alexa and the baby inside the car.

  His shots obviously didn’t put the driver out of commission, because the guy fired another shot. Like his other bullet, this one slammed into the door just inches from Levi. That still didn’t stop him.

  Levi fired again.

  And again.

  The shooter had to be dodging Levi’s bullets because the idiot managed to keep firing, too.

  In the distance Levi heard the sirens. Jericho, no doubt. His brother would be there in a matter of seconds, but Levi was hoping to contain this situation before backup arrived. Each shot meant the possibility of things going from bad to worse.

  “Stay down!” Levi shouted to Alexa when from the corner of his eye he saw her raise her head. She looked ready to help him return fire.

  Something he didn’t want.

  He wanted her in as safe a position as she could be considering they were sitting ducks for a shooter. Thank God there only appeared to be one person returning fire, but in this case, one was more than enough.

  Levi saw the slashes of the cruiser lights reflected in the shop’s windows across the street, and a few seconds later Jericho pulled to a stop behind him. Apparently, the shooter had no trouble seeing it, either, because almost immediately the driver threw the SUV into gear and started to speed away in reverse.

  Hell.

  Levi didn’t want him getting away. He wanted this moron in the interrogation room or else dead so that he couldn’t return and launch another attack.

  “I’ll go after him,” Jericho shouted, and he jumped back into the cruiser after glancing into the car. “Get her to the station.”

  Jericho probably hadn’t gotten a good look at Alexa, but it was likely he’d recognized her voice when she had called him for backup. His big brother wasn’t going to like having Alexa back in Appaloosa Pass, especially not with a killer on her trail.

  Well, Levi didn’t like it much, either.

  Just having her here was going to reopen a lot of old wounds about Paige’s murder.

  Levi fired another shot into the SUV, hoping it would stop the driver one way or another. It didn’t. The guy just kept on speeding away.

  Even though Levi wanted to go after this killer himself, he knew it was best to get Alexa and the baby to safety. Then he could leave her with one of the night deputies and go help Jericho haul this guy in.

  “I’m so sorry,” Alexa said the moment Levi got back in the car.

  “Don’t,” he warned her. It wasn’t exactly the comforting tone that she needed right now, but it was the best Levi could manage. Adrenaline was firing through him, and his body was still primed and ready for a fight with the gunman.

  “How’s the baby?” he asked. Since the newborn was crying at the top of her lungs, he hoped that didn’t mean she was hurt.

  “She’s okay. I think the noise scared her, though.”

  Probably. Those blasts had certainly scared him. Not fear for himself. But Levi hadn’t wanted an innocent little baby hurt because he wasn’t able to stop an attack. What he needed to do now was make sure another attack didn’t happen, and that started with getting some info from Alexa.

  Levi said a quick prayer of thanks when he managed to drive the car off the sidewalk and get it back on the road. The collision with the building front hadn’t been a serious one, but it still could have disabled the engine. He didn’t want to have to sit there a moment longer, just in case the shooter circled back and returned for round two.

  Or rather round three.

  According to Alexa, this clown had already killed the baby’s mother.

  “Did you happen to get a look at the shooter’s face?” Levi asked her as he drove toward the station. He didn’t speed because the baby wasn’t in an infant seat, but he didn’t dawdle, either.

  “Just a glimpse. It didn’t look like the man who attacked us at the gas station or the man I hit with the flashlight.”

  So, this could be a backup team of gunmen, because it seemed too much of a coincidence for two separate attacks to happen on the same night.

  Levi pulled the car to a stop directly in front of the sheriff’s office. “Move fast,” he warned Alexa. Just in case someone had managed to follow them. With everything else going on, anything was possible.

  Alexa did hurry. She draped the blanket over the baby, and holding the newborn against her body, they rushed inside the building.

  The night deputy, Mack Parkman, was at the reception desk, and despite the fact he was talking to someone on the phone, he immediately got to his feet and shut the door behind them.

  “You okay?” he asked after he ended his call, but the question seemed to freeze on his lips when his gaze landed on Alexa.

  Since Mack had been a deputy at the time of Paige’s murder, he knew Alexa. He also knew all the dirty little details about what Alexa had done.

  “What the hell happened?” Mack pressed. But then his atten
tion went to the baby. “Do I need to call an ambulance?”

  “Not just yet,” Levi answered. “But go ahead and call a medic to get down here to check out the baby. We’ll also need some temporary supplies—formula, diapers, whatever else a baby needs.”

  “Don’t tell anyone I’m here,” Alexa insisted in a whisper. Probably because she believed the threat those gunmen had told her about local law enforcement offices being bugged. “Not the hospital. And definitely no other lawmen.”

  “Marshal Lockwood called a few minutes ago, right after Jericho left,” Mack explained to them. “He wanted to know if we’d seen Alexa because she’d ditched WITSEC.”

  Alexa sucked in her breath. “Don’t tell him I’m here,” she said and frantically repeated that to Levi. “And I didn’t ditch WITSEC. I think my identity might have been compromised.”

  “Is that why Dexter Conway’s out at the old gas station on Shaw Road?” Mack wanted to know.

  Levi nodded. Dexter was another night deputy. “Any word back on that?”

  “Nothing, but Dexter probably hasn’t had much time to look around yet.”

  True. That gas station was a good thirty minutes from the sheriff’s office and on the opposite side of town from the Outlaw Bar. Still, Dexter should have been able to spot a pair of dead bodies right off.

  Mack took out his phone, but it was an uneasy look he gave Levi. A look with questions attached to it when his gaze slid from Alexa to the baby and then back to Levi.

  “That’s, uh, not your baby is it?” Mack asked.

  “Yes,” Alexa volunteered quickly. “She’s Levi’s.”

  Levi mumbled some profanity and was about to correct that lie, but he made the mistake of looking at Alexa again. She didn’t say a word, but her eyes begged him to cooperate.

  Damn.

  He would. For now. But he’d soon put a stop to all of this, lie included.

  Levi just nodded in response to Mack’s question.

  “Oh,” Mack said. “I hadn’t realized there’d even been anything between you two.”

  There hadn’t been. And wouldn’t be. No way would he get involved with a woman who had a part in nearly destroying his family.

  “I need you to wait with her,” Levi told Mack so he wouldn’t have to explain anything about this relationship Alexa had just manufactured. “I’ll head out and see if I can help Jericho.”

  Mack nodded and made the call to the hospital while Levi got Alexa moving away from the front windows and doors. He took her to his desk in the far corner of the room and had her sit. She didn’t stay still, though. She began to rock the baby, and it didn’t take but a few seconds before the newborn stopped crying and went back to sleep.

  “Just wait here with Mack,” Levi instructed. But the words had hardly left his mouth when his phone buzzed and he saw Jericho’s name on the screen.

  Oh, man. He hoped something hadn’t already gone wrong with the chase.

  “Are you all right?” Levi asked his brother the moment he answered.

  “I’m fine. The driver of the SUV, not so much, though. He’s dead.”

  It was hard not to feel some relief about that. Some. But this meant no answers as to why he’d attacked them.

  “What happened?” Levi put the call on speaker so he wouldn’t have to repeat the news to Alexa. Maybe there wouldn’t be too many gory details. Of course, after everything that’d gone on tonight, she was probably expecting some gore.

  “The SUV crashed into a utility pole,” Jericho explained. “When I approached the vehicle, the driver was already dead. Gunshot wound to the chest. I’m assuming you put the bullet in him?”

  “Probably.” Levi doubted someone else was out there ready to kill the guy. “Was he alone in the SUV?”

  “Yeah, but there’s an infant seat and a diaper bag.”

  “I’ll explain that when you get here.” And it wouldn’t be a lie. Not this time. Despite Alexa’s objections, Levi would tell his brother the truth. He’d have to because unlike Mack, there was no way in hell Jericho would believe Levi had ever slept with Alexa.

  “I’ll be there as soon as the CSIs and ME arrive to deal with the body,” Jericho assured him.

  Alexa actually looked a little relieved. Maybe because their attacker was dead. Maybe because Levi wasn’t going to have to leave her to offer Jericho backup. It also meant it’d be a while before Jericho got back to the office, and seeing him was likely something Alexa dreaded.

  Behind him he heard Mack finish his call to the hospital, but before he could give Levi an update, the phone rang and Mack went over to the reception desk to answer it.

  “It hasn’t been that long since she had a bottle, but she’ll need one in an hour or so,” Alexa volunteered, brushing a kiss on the baby’s head. “Tasha fed her right before...”

  The tears came, and even though Alexa immediately tried to blink them back, she failed. Cursing, Levi rummaged through his desk to find some tissues, and he handed her one.

  “Why’d you stop at the gas station where the attack happened?” Levi asked, hoping this would be the start to figuring all this out.

  “Because we were running out of gas. I didn’t know the place was closed. I also thought I’d managed to ditch the guys following us, but I soon figured out that I hadn’t when the car pulled up behind us. The guy had been driving with his lights off, so I guess that’s why I didn’t see him until it was too late.”

  Since they had the killer’s car parked right outside, Levi would make sure every inch of it was processed. Once they had the identities of the gunmen, then he could work on figuring out why this dirtbag had come after them and put an innocent baby in danger.

  Levi eased down in a chair and motioned for her to continue explaining what happened.

  “When we were at the gas station, one of the men got out of the car. He was the one who demanded we go with him, that it wouldn’t do us any good to go to the local cops. He was armed and came straight for us. We didn’t have a weapon, so I told Tasha to take the baby and run.”

  “And you thought you’d fight this guy off with your bare hands?” Levi knew he sounded skeptical.

  She met his gaze. “I figured I’d give Tasha and the baby a chance to get out of there.” But Alexa quickly turned her focus back to the little girl. “Obviously, I was wrong. The guy shot Tasha in the back of the head. She didn’t fall but more or less crumpled to the ground with the baby still in her arms.”

  It was hard to hear and it was obviously hard for her to say it. “And that’s when you bashed the guy with a flashlight?” he pressed when she didn’t continue.

  Alexa nodded. “I hit him as hard as I could and thought I heard his skull crack. He went out like a light. But then the other guy came out of the car, and I knew I had to get out of there. I grabbed the baby, started running and then sneaked back and got in their car when the guy was trying to pick up his partner from the ground.”

  She was lucky that the second gunman hadn’t just shot her in the head, too. Then, heaven knew what would have happened to the baby.

  “Why were you coming to Appaloosa Pass?” he asked.

  “Like I said, I thought they’d believe it was the last place I’d go. Obviously I was wrong since Lockwood’s already called here looking for me.”

  Yeah, Lockwood. Levi would soon have to figure out how to deal with him. There was no way he could exclude the marshals from this unless he got some solid proof that the lawman was dirty.

  “The medic’s on the way,” Mack relayed when he got off the phone. “He’ll bring baby supplies with him. The other call I got was from Dexter. He’s out at the gas station now, but he doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Definitely no bodies or anything like that.”

  Alexa frantically shook her head and stood, clutching the baby to her
. “Tasha was murdered there.”

  Mack made a sound of disagreement. “Then somebody must have cleaned up the scene real fast because according to Dexter, there’s no blood and no signs of any kind of struggle.”

  “Tasha was murdered there,” Alexa repeated, turning to Levi.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure. I watched her collapse. She was dead.”

  Maybe. Of course, if the woman had only been wounded and wandered away from the scene, then Levi doubted she’d taken the time to clean up her own blood. Plus, where was the man whose head Alexa claimed she’d bashed in with the flashlight?

  “I’m not lying,” Alexa insisted. “Everything happened just like I said it did.”

  Levi doubted even Alexa would lie about a dead body. Still, he wanted proof.

  “Should I get a CSI team out to the gas station?” Mack asked. “We’ve already got one with the DB Jericho found, so we’re stretched pretty thin.” Clearly, he had doubts about Alexa’s account.

  Levi nodded, and he hoped like the devil they found something. Anything. A CSI search like that would put a dent in the budget. While he really didn’t have a choice about ordering such a search, if it didn’t produce results, it was going to make him look like a fool for trusting a woman he shouldn’t be trusting anyway.

  Levi saw the headlights outside the building and figured it was the medic arriving to examine Alexa and the baby. He barely spared the guy a glance. Unlike Alexa. Her attention snapped right to the window.

  And gasping, she stood again.

  Levi soon realized why.

  Marshal Elroy Lockwood walked in.

  Lockwood was the sort of man who tended to grab everyone’s attention just by being there. For one thing, he was big. At least six foot four. And he had the weight to fill out that tall body. He was imposing, and the stare he gave Alexa was equally imposing.

  Except it quickly turned into a glare.

  “Alexa,” he said, and that wasn’t a friendly tone. “Hand that baby to the deputy. Now. Because you’re coming with me.”