Loe raamatut: «The Deputy's Unexpected Family»

Chapter One

Harper Kemp stood in the center of her disheveled shop, Blessings Bridal, gaping at the mess. She had arrived two hours before any of the other shops on Sycamore Avenue opened for the day, hoping to get a little paperwork done, but had walked into this.

The front display window was edged in the sharp lace of broken glass and a chill autumn wind whisked into the shop. The cash register hung open, empty, and several voluminous gowns clung to the mannequins in tatters. Whoever had done this had slashed through the delicate material, leaving the floor littered with beads. The front display case had been smashed, and the velvet nests that once held tiaras, clasps, bejeweled belts and the like now lay vacant, peppered with glittering glass.

Her heart slammed in her chest, and she pulled her ginger curls away from her face as she took it all in. Why hadn’t the alarm gone off when this happened?

Comfort Creek was a small town with an inordinate number of cops roaming the streets due to a county-run sensitivity training course based in the town. It was supposed to be the safest community in Colorado due to their overabundance of officers patrolling the town while they completed their sensitivity training. Tell that to whomever had robbed her.

“Oh, Lord...” It was a prayer, but she was still too stunned to know what to even ask for. She pulled her tortoiseshell glasses off her face and glanced down at her phone. She’d just called the police and given the pertinent information. They’d be here soon, she was assured. She ran a hand through her fiery curls. A few months ago, Harper got custody of her four-year-old goddaughter, Zoey, when her best friend, Andrea, died in a car accident, and she felt like she’d just found her footing again with a daughter to raise...now this.

Harper stepped over the broken glass, already mentally tallying up the loss. Insurance would cover most of it...except Heidi’s dress! The thought struck and her stomach dropped. Her younger sister’s wedding dress was a family heirloom, and no amount of insurance money would cover the sentimental value of that dress.

Harper dashed into the back room and spotted the untouched box high on a shelf. She breathed a prayer of thanks. God must have put His hand over that dress...and she was grateful. Everything else could be replaced. How was that for some perspective?

The bell from the front door jingled, and she heard the tramping of heavy feet.

“Miss Kemp?” a deep male voice reverberated through the store, and Harper turned back toward the retail space. The police had arrived.

“I’m here,” she said, stepping back out. “Thanks for—”

The words evaporated on her tongue. The officer standing in the middle of the mess was tall, muscled and had the same direct gray gaze she remembered from years ago when they were teenagers dreaming of their futures in this town... It was Gabe Banks.

“Hey—” His tone softened. “Long time.”

“Very long time,” she agreed, then smiled feebly. “What are you doing here?”

“You reported a robbery.” He raised one eyebrow.

“I mean in Comfort Creek. I thought you were in Fort Collins.” One possibility bloomed in her mind—that he had somehow found out about four-year-old Zoey. There were enough people in this town who would have pieced it together...

Gabe’s expression grew more guarded, then he shrugged. “Sensitivity training. What else? Comfort Creek has me for two weeks.”

“Oh.” That was reasonable. Comfort Creek saw a constant influx of officers doing sensitivity training. What had Gabe done to garner this honor?

“So...” Gabe pulled out a pad of paper. “What happened here?”

“I have no idea,” she said. “I just arrived, found it like this and called 911.”

“Any idea how much was taken?” he asked.

“Not yet. I’m still kind of in shock.”

He took a few notes, poked his head back outside the door and appeared to be doing his job for a few minutes while Harper stood where he’d left her, feeling in the way in her own shop.

“I heard about Andrea’s passing,” he said as he came back inside. “I’m sorry. She was...special. And I know how close you two were.”

Special. That’s how Gabe referred to a woman he’d dated for a year? Maybe he didn’t feel like he had a right to sympathy for the passing of his ex-girlfriend he hadn’t seen or spoken to in the last five years. And maybe he was right about that.

“We really were,” she said. “I miss her. So does Zoey.”

“That’s her daughter?” Gabe clarified.

Harper nodded. “Zoey’s four. I’m her guardian now.”

Gabe shot her a sympathetic smile, then glanced away. Andrea had never told Gabe the truth about Zoey.

“Did anyone tell you about the father?” she asked cautiously.

“My grandmother said that she was on the rebound after me,” he replied. “Grandma was a little more judgmental than that, but that was the gist of it.”

A flat-out lie, but it was the story Andrea had put around.

“Well, Zoey is a sweetheart,” Harper said. “We’re doing all right, but it’s hard with Andrea gone.”

“Yeah, I can imagine.” A couple of beats passed between them—an awkward pause.

“Anyway,” Harper said, clearing her throat. “Back to the robbery.”

“When did you find this?” he asked, professional reserve back in place.

“This morning when I came in. Ten minutes ago,” she replied. “With all the patrol on these streets, I’m surprised no one noticed it earlier.” She paused, a thought suddenly occurring to her. Gabe was here on disciplinary action—how much authority did he really have? She was tired, had a lot to deal with today, obviously, and didn’t have time to waste.

“Are you supposed to be taking cases?” she asked with a slight frown. “I mean, will I have to repeat this all over again with another officer?”

Gabe shot her a flat look. “Yes, I can take cases. Dispatch assigned me. You want to take that up with the chief? Get a less ornery officer, or something? I’m not here because I’m bad at my job. I’m here for being mouthy with my boss.”

She smiled wanly. “I was just checking.”

“So, we’re okay here, then?” he said, tucking a thumb in his belt. “Because if you’d rather have some other cop take over, I’m sure I can go patrol the school zones or something.”

She heard the sarcasm in that gravelly tone, and she felt heat in her cheeks. He’d always been like this—brash, opinionated and stubborn as all get-out.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” she said. It might be time to let some old resentments go. “It’s been a rough day so far, so maybe cut me some slack.”

He eyed her for a moment, then scanned the scene. “We’ll take fingerprints. I’m not expecting to get too much, though. I noticed both the phone and alarm lines were cut outside.”

“That would explain why my alarm didn’t go off.”

“This was no smash and grab,” Gabe confirmed. “This was planned.”

“In the best-patrolled town in Colorado,” she said.

Gabe didn’t answer. His boots crunched over broken glass as he headed toward the display case. “We’ll need a complete list of anything missing. Descriptions would be good, pictures if you have them. We’ll be watching pawn shops and online sale sites. Whatever they took, they’ll be selling.”

Harper felt her eyes mist. The immensity of the damage and the work ahead of her to clean up was just starting to sink in. She’d have to call her dad—the owner of the store—and tell him what happened, too...

“How much cash was in the register?” Gabe asked.

“Just change—I made the deposit last night,” she replied. “There was about a hundred and sixty dollars in the drawer.”

“Approximately how much was the merchandise worth in the case?” he asked.

“Five or six thousand. Those were all Swarovski crystals.”

“Was there anything under this case?” Gabe asked from across the room, and Harper looked up with a start. The veil—her grandmother’s wedding veil that Heidi was going to use for her wedding...that Harper hoped to wear one day for her own wedding...

“Yes,” she said. “A pink box...shoebox size. It’s not there?”

She crossed the room to where Gabe squatted next to the display case. The space beneath it was empty, and a lump rose in her throat.

“What was in the box?” he asked.

“My grandmother’s veil,” she said woodenly. “It’s not replaceable.”

Harper wiped a tear that escaped her lid and pushed herself back to her feet. She had no intention of crying in front of Gabe Banks. This was all a pretty big shock, and adding a missing family heirloom to the mix was more than she could handle with grace and dignity at the moment.

Gabe rose to his feet, too, and she was struck by the sheer size of him. He’d always been tall, but the past decade had solidified him into steely manhood. This was no longer the lanky, cocky teenager.

“Hey.” His tone softened. “I don’t have a lot to do around here for the next two weeks. I’ll pour all my bad attitude into your case.”

She blinked back her tears. “Would you do that?”

“What else am I supposed to do with my time? I think that’s the idea—give us some peace and quiet to sort out our personal issues.”

“And you want some distraction from that?” she asked with a small smile.

“What can I say—I’m comfortable with my skeletons. That’s why you never liked me much.”

“I liked you fine,” she said with a shake of her head. He raised one eyebrow, and she felt the heat come back to her face. “I just didn’t think you were good for Andrea,” she conceded.

She hadn’t been blind to his charm and good looks back then—she’d just known better than to let herself fall for him, too. All the girls swooned over Gabe Banks. He’d been filled with flirtation and laughter in some moments, and then brooding and distanced in others. What teenage girl could resist such a “complicated” guy? Harper, that’s who.

“Well, you were right about that,” he said. “I wasn’t any good for her. So, no hard feelings.”

At least he recognized that much. Still, she found herself searching his features for Zoey—his eyes, the shape of his ears. Zoey looked a lot like Andrea, but she wasn’t an exact replica of her mother, either. She had dark hair like her dad, and the tiny cleft in her chin was Gabe’s, too. This was Zoey’s father, and she’d have to figure out her next move in that department. So far, she’d been focused on finding her balance as Zoey’s new mother, but she’d never been entirely comfortable with Andrea’s decision to keep Zoey a secret. Zoey would be asking about her father eventually, but Harper was now faced with a dilemma of her own: Should she tell Gabe about his daughter, or should she let it lie?

* * *

Gabe walked around Blessings Bridal collecting evidence and taking notes for the next hour. He’d never been inside this shop in all the years he lived in Comfort Creek, but he’d passed it often enough. Everyone knew the Kemps, and Blessings Bridal serviced all the brides in the surrounding small towns.

Eight other cops arrived to help—far more than needed, obviously, but there wasn’t anything else happening around Comfort Creek, and the temptation to lend a hand was too great for both the other officers and the locals. It took two officers at the outside door to keep curious locals moving along.

From where Gabe stood brushing for prints, he glanced over at Harper. She lingered in the doorway to the back room. Her red curls hung around her shoulders, and her gaze moved from officer to officer, watching them work. Her glasses were off again, and she had the end in her mouth. She was gorgeous, and Gabe pulled his gaze away from her, pushing back the thought.

“Gabe.” Officer Bryce Camden approached, and he rose to his feet, dropping the brush back into a protective plastic bag. He and Bryce knew each other from their days on the Fort Collins force. Gabe met Bryce beside a rack of wedding dresses that appeared to be untouched.

“Any of this look familiar?” Bryce asked.

Gabe glanced around. “It’s definitely not a smash and grab. The phone and security system lines were cut outside. Besides a few display dresses being trashed, these ones are untouched. They knew what they were aiming for. I’m guessing professionals.”

“I had three cases back in Fort Collins that match this MO,” Bryce said. “The cut lines, the small amount of trashing, as if for appearances, and a select amount of highly salable merchandise taken.”

“Anyone caught?” Gabe asked.

Bryce shook his head. “Still at large. But there were other sites hit across Fort Collins—always spread out, and a couple of months between each. They were careful.”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Gabe agreed, the details coming back to him. “I had one of those cases—a jewelry store.”

“They may be spreading to smaller communities where people aren’t quite as security conscious,” Bryce suggested.

It was a definite possibility, and Gabe’s mind clicked through what he could remember of those cases. None had been solved, and the first hit on every store hadn’t been too bad. In and out. Quick. A few things taken. The perps were scoping things out more than anything.

“They always came back for a second hit on every location,” Gabe said. “Within days or weeks. And that’s when they cleaned the place out. There was an old man who was shot, trying to defend his store that second time around.”

“I remember that.” Bryce nodded. “So if we’re looking at the same people, they’ll be back. I’m sure the chief will agree that we’ll need to keep a pretty close eye on the place for the next couple of weeks.”

Gabe signed the bottom of a form he was filling out as first on the scene, and glanced over toward Harper.

“I knew her—as kids. Teenagers. I dated her best friend,” Gabe said.

“Yeah?” Bryce nodded. “That might be useful. Why not offer to help out in the cleanup? Just...be here for a bit.”

Back in the day, Gabe would have jumped at the chance. He’d had a thing for Harper Kemp, but she’d been steps above him. She was smart, cute, had a plan for her future... And he’d been a messed-up teenager whose grandmother ran him down on a nightly basis. He’d asked her out once, and she’d turned him down flat. He hadn’t tried again.

Looking at Harper now with those sad green eyes and her arms crossed protectively over her chest, all those old feelings from years ago came flooding back. Harper never acted like she needed him—or any guy—but she still sparked that protective instinct inside of him. He wanted to offer something, and with this uniform—at least for the next two weeks—he could.

“I could go plainclothes and keep an eye out,” Gabe said. “We want to catch these guys, not just scare them off.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Bryce confirmed. “If we can be ready for their next hit, we might be able to take these guys in. Let me check in with the chief, and I’ll confirm if we’ve got a plan.”

Bryce pulled out his cell phone and walked a few feet away to make his call. Gabe shoved the form into his back pocket. He was here to do his time and then head back to Fort Collins. Period. It was humiliating enough to be back under these circumstances. However, catching a robbery gang might make his stay here less agonizing. He’d go back to Fort Collins as a success, instead of chastised.

“What’s going on?” Harper asked, coming up beside Gabe.

“We’re thinking that this looks similar to a few cases in Fort Collins,” Gabe replied.

“That’s good, right?” Harper brightened.

“Well...” He shrugged. “Not really. They have an MO of returning to the scene and hitting it again a little while later, after they’ve scoped the place out and have a better idea of what they’re aiming at.”

Harper paled. “I have a security system. It didn’t do much good.”

“Like I said, they’re pros,” Gabe said, and when he saw the nervousness flicker across her features, he realized that she needed reassurance, not more reason to be afraid.

“So what should I do?” Harper asked.

At that moment, Bryce headed across the store in their direction and gave Gabe a decisive nod. When he reached them, he said, “It’s a go.”

“What’s a ‘go’?” Harper asked, her attention swinging between them.

“We need a police presence around here for a little while to protect you, but it can’t be too obvious, ma’am,” Bryce replied. “Officer Banks will be here today, and he’ll keep an eye out for your safety and for any...unusual activity in the area.”

Harper froze for a moment, then shot Gabe a quizzical look, one eyebrow raised.

“It’s for your safety,” Gabe said with a small smile. “Besides, this is now about the chief’s orders.”

She’d probably prefer a different officer, maybe even Bryce—safely married and constantly gushing about his toddler daughter. Gabe had already heard more about that baby than he knew about any other kid at the moment, and he’d only been back in town for a day.

“We thought that since you know each other already, it might make things less awkward. Officer Banks has offered to help clean the place up once the paperwork is done.” Bryce’s lips turned up in a small, ironic smile.

“You did?” Harper’s expression softened.

“Yeah.”

“That’s really kind.” Harper sighed. “It would definitely help. Dad’s health hasn’t been great lately, and I’ve been dreading telling him about this. But if I can tell him that we’ve got a plainclothes officer at the store—”

“We’re just about done gathering evidence,” Bryce broke in. “So we’ll be out of your hair in a few minutes. Officer Banks can take it from there.”

Bryce headed toward the front door, and Gabe glanced down at Harper. She was rigid, her spine ramrod straight and her lips pressed together in a thin line. Harper looked slowly up at him. “How much danger are we in, Gabe? Be honest.”

Her green eyes locked on to him, and he felt a surge of longing. It had been more than ten years since he’d had an unrequited crush on this woman, and one look from her still made him wish he could be some sort of superhero for her.

“Significantly less if I’m around.” He shot her a grin. “I’m trained to deal with this stuff. Trust me on that.”

Harper sighed. Did she recognize the difference between a messed-up teen and a fully trained police officer? He was particularly adept in hand-to-hand combat, and he was the best shot in Fort Collins. She was safe in his hands, and he was no longer that kid she couldn’t take seriously. He was every inch a man now.

“Let me keep an eye on the place, and you can focus on the stuff you need to take care of,” Gabe said, adding, “like Andrea’s little girl.”

She nodded, then said softly, “Her name is Zoey.”

“Zoey,” he repeated. It seemed to matter to her that he recognize Andrea’s daughter a little more directly. But he’d never been very good with kids, and it wasn’t going to start now. She could take care of her business, and he’d take care of her. Intimidating bad guys and protecting the vulnerable—that part he was good at. Kids and family were his weaknesses, and yet he was back in Fort Collins where he had his own family history to face.

He could endure anything for two weeks.