Maverick Sheriff

by Delores Fossen

  “She lived in a little place just a quarter of a mile from the creek,” Colt added.

  Jessa didn’t miss Colt’s use of the past tense. “Sonya Eakins is dead?”

  “Yeah,” Colt verified. “SAPD found her body this morning. Killed execution-style.”

  Sweet heaven. This just kept getting worse.

  Cooper cursed. “You’re sure she’s the right woman?” he asked his brother.

  “Pretty sure. Everything you said about her fits. About six months before the flood, she rented the house within walking distance of the creek. She was young, early thirties, and had a long rap sheet for embezzlement and theft.”

  And to think Liam could have been in this woman’s hands. At least Sonya hadn’t hurt him, probably because she’d seen him as goods to sell.

  “I got access to Sonya’s bank accounts,” Colt continued, “and there was a five-thousand-dollar deposit made less than a week after the flood.”

  Well, it wasn’t absolute proof, but coupled with everything else, it was enough to convince Jessa that this woman had sold Liam. That sent her heart racing. Because each piece of this maddening puzzle pointed at only one thing—that Liam was indeed Cooper’s.

  “What about our other suspects—did any of them have cash withdrawals around that time matching the deposit amount that was in Sonya’s account?” Cooper asked.

  “I checked. Didn’t find anything, though.”

  Probably because the buyer had made sure it couldn’t be linked back to him or her, and that would have been easy enough to do for someone rich, like Donovan, or for Hector, who had a thriving law practice. For that matter, Peggy, too, could have had that amount of cash on hand so there’d be no record of it. Now the person—Peggy, Hector or Donovan—whom Sonya had entangled in this black-market-baby deal had likely murdered her or had hired someone to do the job.

  Cooper stayed quiet a moment. “I’ll call you back,” he said to his brother. He hit the end-call button and eased back around to face her. “The person who killed her likely murdered the criminal informant, too,” Cooper mumbled. “A person who has murdered twice isn’t likely to stop.”

  Jessa wished she could disagree, but she couldn’t. “And now he or she has taken aim at Liam and us.”

  The us part she could handle. But she seriously doubted this monster wanted to kill Cooper and her and then leave her son alone. No, they wanted to sell him again or at least make sure no one could connect Liam to the illegal adoption.

  “We need to do something,” she whispered.

  “Yeah.” That was all Cooper said for several long moments. “I have a plan. You’re not going to like it much, but I think this is our best shot at keeping all of us alive.”

  Jessa pulled in her breath, not sure she even wanted to hear this, but knowing there was no guaranteed certainty in any plan they came up with.

  “Whoever’s behind this wants Liam,” Cooper continued. “And we can make this person think that they can have him.”

  “What?” Jessa couldn’t say it fast enough. “We’re not giving them Liam.” She’d die first before she let that happen.

  “No, we’re not. But I want this SOB to think that, and here’s how we’ll do it.” Now it was Cooper’s turn to take a deep breath. “We can pretend that Liam’s had some kind of complication from his surgery and that we’re taking him back to the hospital—”

  Jessa was shaking her head before Cooper even finished. “I don’t want Liam out there, especially at night where we wouldn’t even be able to see our attackers before it was too late.”

  “Liam’s not going anywhere,” Cooper corrected. “But I am. I’ll get out the word that Liam’s running a fever and that I’m taking him to the E.R. Then I could make it look as if he’s in the truck with me.”

  It didn’t take Jessa long to figure out where Cooper was headed with this, and she didn’t like this plan at all. “And then you’ll set yourself up as bait so the kidnapper will come after you.”

  He darn sure didn’t deny it.

  “It’s too dangerous,” she said on a huff. “As you pointed out, this person has already murdered at least two people, and I’m sure he or she would love to add you to the list. Good grief, Cooper, this isn’t a smart plan at all.”

  “It wouldn’t be, if I didn’t take precautions. Which I will. I can take one of my brothers with me, and he could stay low on the seat and out of sight.”

  “While you wait to be ambushed.” Jessa threw her hands in the air. “What if this person just starts shooting? What chance will you have then?”

  Cooper caught her shoulders. “I have a better chance of stopping this idiot than he or she does of stopping me. That’s because I’m fighting for Liam. For me this isn’t about greed or covering a crime. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep my son safe.”

  Jessa felt the same way. Whatever it took. “But this plan could backfire.”

  “Possibly,” he admitted. “That’s why I’d make sure the house is well guarded. I could move all the ranch hands near the house. They’d be armed. Plus, we’d set the security system, of course.”

  “And if the kidnapper is having the house watched, then he’ll know that something’s up.”

  “True,” he answered so fast that it sounded as if he’d already considered that. “But I could keep the ranch hands out of sight.”

  Maybe. But Jessa thought of another problem with this so-called plan, and it was a huge flaw. “If I’m not with you in the truck,” she said, “the kidnapper will suspect it’s a trap.”

  Cooper stared at her a moment and then started to curse. “No way in hell will I let you go out there.”

  She huffed. “But you’d let yourself do this.”

  “Because I’m a cop. It’s my job to take risks.”

  “This isn’t a risk. It could be suicide.”

  “Yeah, if it’s not done right. And the way to make sure it’s right is to be ready. Tucker and I can be armed to the hilt, and if the kidnapper tries to force us off the road or something, we’d be right there, returning fire.”

  Jessa threw off his grip from her shoulders and reversed their position so that she had hold of him. She had to make him see that this wouldn’t work.

  Well, not without her, anyway.

  “If I’m not in that truck, the kidnappers will likely just head here to the ranch. Without you around, they’ll see that as their chance to find out if Liam’s really here. And even if they don’t manage to take him, there’ll be shots fired. Do you really want Liam in the middle of a gunfight?”

  “No.” He backed away from her, cursed and then repeated it. “But it’s only a matter of time before they try to come after him again.”

  “Agreed.” Though it sickened her to think of her baby being in danger again. “And that’s why I have to be in the truck with you. The kidnapper has to believe this is some kind of frantic rush to the hospital. That’s the only thing that’ll prevent him from coming here.”

  She could tell he wanted to argue with her, but he didn’t. Instead, he paced. Cursed. And blew out another of those long breaths. Jessa knew him well enough to hear the argument going on inside his head.

  An argument he was losing.

  “I can’t ask you to put yourself in that kind of danger,” he finally said.

  “You don’t have to ask. Like you, I’d do anything for Liam.” This definitely qualified as anything. “So how would we get out the word that we’re on the way to the hospital?”

  Still, he didn’t jump to answer. Probably because he was still trying to think of another way around this. There wasn’t one, and his profanity let her know he was well aware of that, too.

  “How do we do it?” she pressed.

  Cooper rubbed his hand over his face. “I can make a call to Doc Howland and make sure he lets everyone know we’re bringing Liam into the E.R. I figure the kidnapper has someone watching the hospital.”

  Jessa figured the same thing. Watching the hospital, her house, the
ranch and any other place that Cooper and she might go. That led Jessa to her next question.

  “What if our plan causes a shoot-out at the hospital?” She cringed at the possibility of all those innocent people being caught in the cross fire.

  “The idea is to find this nut job before a shoot-out can occur.” But then he lifted his shoulder. “The best way to do that is to lure him and his goons away from the hospital and to the road where we can stop him.”

  “How? Unless you think Dr. Howland’s phone line is somehow insecure.”

  “It’s possible his line’s been tapped, but we can’t count on it to get the word to the kidnapper. I can use the squad radio to give Reed the false info,” Cooper went on. “Then we can wait about fifteen minutes to make it look as if we’re getting Liam ready to leave, and we can pretend to put him in the truck.”

  The squad radio was a good idea, because it wasn’t secure. People tapped into them all the time. Considering how badly the kidnapper wanted them, he or she would almost certainly be listening to any communication coming in or out of the sheriff’s office.

  However, there was another potential problem.

  “How will you get Colt to the hospital without making it look suspicious?” she asked.

  “I can have him follow along behind us. It wouldn’t be unusual for an uncle to go with his sick nephew to the hospital. Plus, I seriously doubt an extra lawman in tow will prevent this lunatic from coming after us.” He groaned. “And that means you have to get down and stay down if anything goes wrong.”

  “I will, but I want to be armed, too.”

  That tightened his jaw muscles, because it was a reminder that this would almost certainly end in gunfire. Best-case scenario would be for them to see the kidnapper’s vehicle and disable it by shooting out the tires, and then Cooper and Colt could arrest the culprit.

  Worst-case scenario was for the kidnapper and his or her hired guns to be so well hidden on the road that an attack could start before Cooper, Colt or she even knew what was happening.

  Judging from his suddenly stark expression, Cooper no doubt wanted to call the whole thing off, but like her, he knew the bottom line here. There’d been two kidnapping attempts in two days. She could add her car accident to that as well, since that had likely been the first attempt.

  And there would be others.

  Soon.

  “We’re already on borrowed time,” Jessa reminded him.

  Cooper stayed quiet a moment, then nodded. “Come on. Let’s get this started.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Cooper hoped he wasn’t making yet another mistake tonight. Not that he was certain that sleeping with Jessa had been a mistake.

  The verdict was still out on that.

  But while the experience had been pretty amazing, it’d stalled him from thinking solely about how to end the danger for Liam and them. Maybe he could redeem himself with this plan.

  If it worked, that was.

  For that to happen, Cooper had to make sure a lot of things were in place. He’d already called Dr. Howland and Reed to get the word out that he would be bringing Liam into the E.R. He’d told the doc and Reed to be generous with spreading the news, and by now it was probably all over town that Liam had had a medical setback. That was one of the good things about living in a small town. It didn’t take long for people to hear news, both good and bad.

  Step two involved the ranch hands. That had been a little trickier, since Cooper hadn’t wanted to make it obvious that they were standing guard. The hands were instead keeping watch from their nearby bunkhouse but would be ready to respond if anyone tried to sneak onto the property to test if the hospital trip was some kind of ruse.

  Of course, it was impossible to watch the entire ranch, so Cooper only hoped the hands would be looking in the right places at the right time if something went wrong.

  Step three was for his father, Tucker, Rosalie and Rayanne to all be in position inside the house, armed and with the security system activated so they would know if someone tried to break in. Hopefully they wouldn’t be needed, and while Cooper was hoping, he added a prayer that Liam would sleep through all of this. Maybe his son would even wake up in the morning without the shadow of this kidnapper looming over them.

  Step four was finished, too, and it involved Colt. His brother already had weapons in his truck, but he had armed himself with more, along with putting on body armor beneath his shirt. Cooper didn’t figure the kidnappers would just start shooting—if they genuinely thought Liam was in the truck—but he didn’t want to take any additional risks with his kid brother.

  Or with Jessa.

  But she was a different matter entirely.

  Yeah, he’d also had her put on body armor that she had concealed with a bulky sweater, and Cooper had given her a gun, but he wasn’t even sure she could shoot well enough to defend herself. And the body armor sure wouldn’t stop a shot to the head. That meant she had to stay out of the way and as safe as possible once this attack by the kidnapper started.

  The final step was to get more security for the drive from the ranch to the hospital.

  Easier said than done.

  It’d been hard to assemble people he could trust on such short notice, but Cooper had finally called in two sheriffs from nearby towns. They wouldn’t come to the ranch but rather join up with them separately on the drive to the hospital. Cooper had made it clear he didn’t want them to look like lawmen and not to make it obvious that they were doing security detail. The idea was for the kidnapper to feel bold and safe enough to come after them. Jessa included.

  A thought that sickened him.

  After all, this kidnapper had already killed, and he or she wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

  “Don’t second-guess this,” Jessa warned him, as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. Maybe she did. Cooper figured his expression said it all: this could be dangerous as hell.

  “As long as they think Liam’s in the truck, they won’t shoot,” she added.

  Yeah, as long as the ruse worked. If it didn’t, well, Cooper hoped he had enough backup security in place to stop Jessa and the others from getting hurt.

  Colt’s phone beeped, and he glanced down at the text that he’d just received. “It’s from Reed,” he relayed. “He got some deputies from Appaloosa Pass to guard the hospital, and they’re getting into position now. Reed needs to know if you want them visible.”

  “Yes.” Cooper didn’t have to think about that. The last place he wanted a showdown was a hospital filled with people, and the deputies might deter that from happening.

  Cooper waited until Colt had answered the text before he continued, “If we get all the way to the hospital and still haven’t spotted the kidnapper, then we’ll need to turn around and come back.”

  And come up with a different plan.

  Cooper wasn’t sure what that would be yet, but he didn’t want these morons coming anywhere near Liam.

  “You ready, then?” Colt asked.

  His brother was geared up and standing by the back door. The only visible weapon he had was his sidearm, which wouldn’t draw suspicion since he was a deputy, but if the kidnapper got a close look at Colt’s face, then he would no doubt see the concern that was mirrored on Cooper’s.

  And Jessa’s.

  Cooper gave her one last chance. “You can stay here,” he reminded her again. “And I can come up with a plausible lie to explain why you aren’t coming to the hospital with us.”

  That earned him a huff, and she took the bundled doll from Rosalie. “No one would believe that I wouldn’t be in that truck with my son. Besides, the plan’s already been set into motion,” Jessa insisted. “Rosalie found this doll in Rayanne’s and her old room, and with the blankets around it, it’ll look about the right size for Liam.”

  Yeah, the plan was indeed in motion, but that didn’t mean Cooper had complete faith that he could keep Jessa safe. He hated that she had to be in danger, but they were both on the sam
e page here, and that meant putting Liam and his safety first.

  Cooper considered going upstairs to give Liam a kiss, but that felt too much like a goodbye. And he was determined to keep Jessa and himself alive so they could... Well, he wasn’t sure what their future held, but he wanted time and the chance to figure it out without all this danger hanging over them.

  Colt, Jessa and he hurried out the back and didn’t waste any time getting in their respective vehicles. Jessa went through the pretense of putting the doll into a car seat. Cooper didn’t miss the long look she gave the house in the side mirror as he drove away.

  “Where are the sheriffs who agreed to help us?” she asked, also glancing at Colt, who was in his truck directly behind them.

  Cooper hated the tremble in her voice. And her resolute expression when she took the gun he’d given her from her pocket. She was scared and determined to end this. A bad mix, and he prayed that she didn’t have to take any more risks tonight.

  “The first sheriff is about two miles up in a black truck. He’ll pull out behind Colt and follow us into town. The second won’t join us for another five miles.” Still, he’d be close enough to respond if something went wrong. “He’ll be in a silver-gray SUV, which should make it easy to see.”

  “Good.” She nodded, repeated it and kept a white-knuckle grip on her gun.

  Cooper took the turn from the ranch onto the farm road that led into town. Part of him was relieved that the gunmen hadn’t been ready to ambush them so close to the ranch. He didn’t want gunfire anywhere near Liam and the others.

  But then the waiting began.

  Each second crawled by while he fired glances all around them. There were plenty of old ranch trails and farm roads where the kidnapper could lie in wait, ready to attack. He thought of Jessa’s car accident and how fast the driver had managed to come at her. In broad daylight, no less. That was why he had to keep watch and make sure that didn’t happen again. The darkness could hide a killer, and running Jessa and him off the road would make them easier targets.

  “Maybe the kidnapper didn’t get the word about us taking Liam to the hospital,” Jessa mumbled.