Maverick Sheriff (6 page)

“On the count of three, put down your guns,” Cooper called out to the men. He added a quick silent prayer and shouted, “One.”

Cooper checked to see if the men had come to their senses. They hadn’t. They were cursing now and dragging their captive toward Liam’s door. A door they were no doubt ready to bash open so they could take the little boy.

That wasn’t going to happen, either.

“Two!” Cooper shouted.

Everything seemed to happen at once. The gunman darted away from his comrade and reached for the door. In the same motion, he fired a shot at Cooper.

Cooper ducked back, dodging the bullet, but two thick blasts followed. Not from the gunmen. These had come from the other end of the hall, where his brothers were. He looked out, spotted both of them on each side of the corridor. Cooper spotted the gunmen, too.

Both on the floor.

They weren’t dead, but they’d been injured and were writhing and groaning. They were loud, but not nearly as loud as the nurse. Screaming, she bolted away from the men and ran right toward him.

“You’re okay,” Cooper assured her and handed the woman off to Reed. He had to move fast because Jessa started sprinting, headed directly for Liam’s room.

She’d have to go past the men to get there.

Cooper caught up with her, pulling her behind him, and he kicked the men’s guns away from their hands. The moment he did that, a medic came forward. So did his brothers, and Cooper knew the situation was under control. Jessa, however, wasn’t.

“I have to see Liam,” she insisted.

“Yeah, I know.” Cooper felt the same, and he didn’t have the same ties to Liam as Jessa did. She’d raised him. Still, the urgency pressed down on him like a lead weight.

Cooper eased open Liam’s door, and with his gun still at the ready, he peered inside. No other gunmen. Thank God. So he continued to the bathroom.

“Mrs. Wells?” Cooper tapped on the jamb. “It’s Sheriff McKinnon.”

He heard movement, and it wasn’t long before Jessa’s mom opened the door. She was holding a sleeping Liam in her arms.

“Is he okay?” Jessa didn’t wait for her mother to answer. She gently took Liam and pressed a flurry of kisses on his face and head.

“He’s fine,” her mother answered.

But Cooper couldn’t say the same for the woman. She was shaking so hard that she collapsed into Cooper’s arms. “It’s okay,” he assured her. “You’re safe now.”

But for how long?

Cooper didn’t have an answer for that—yet.

“Wait here,” he said to the women, and he went back into the hall to see if he could get some quick answers. Apparently luck wasn’t on his side today, because both gunmen were unconscious. And they were both bleeding a lot. It meant no answers now. Maybe not ever if they didn’t make it through this. Still, it was better than the alternative of having a dead nurse and Jessa and Liam kidnapped.

“Can you handle this?” Cooper asked, his gaze going first to Colt before swinging to Reed.

Both his deputies nodded.

That was the only assurance Cooper needed.

There was a crowd of people now. Medics and doctors who’d responded to treat the wounded men. Some gawkers, too. Cooper picked through the group until his attention landed on Dr. Howland.

“I have to get Liam out of here,” Cooper said. “He’ll need a car seat and his meds.”

The doctor didn’t argue. “We can use my assistant’s car. It has an infant seat already in it. I’ll get her keys and my bag so I can go with you.”

Cooper didn’t argue, either. Despite Jessa’s earlier assurances that Liam was making a speedy recovery, Cooper figured he’d need medical care for a while.

It didn’t take long for the doc to return, and Cooper went back into the room. He pulled the blanket from Liam’s crib and draped it over the toddler.

“Come with me,” Cooper told the women. He positioned himself in front of them as they made their way into the hall.

The wounded gunmen were gone, no doubt on their way to surgery, but there were large pools of blood on the floor.

“Follow us out,” Cooper said to his brother Tucker. It wouldn’t hurt to have some extra firepower if things turned bad again.

With Tucker behind them, Cooper led Jessa and her mother around the blood as best he could, and they followed Dr. Howland down the corridor.

“Where are we going?” Jessa asked. She was holding Liam as if he were a thin piece of glass ready to shatter.

Cooper glanced around to make sure no one was in hearing range. There wasn’t anyone. They had the hall to themselves.

“We’re going somewhere you aren’t going to like,” he mumbled.

Cooper was taking Liam, Jessa and her mother home with him.

Chapter Five

Nothing about this felt right.

Jessa stared down at her sleeping son, thankful that none of this seemed to be affecting him.

But it was certainly affecting her.

The spent adrenaline had left her bone tired, but despite that she hadn’t slept more than a few minutes in the guest room at the McKinnon ranch. Her mind was still wired, and the thoughts of how wrong this was kept going through her head.

Along with the sound of those shots.

She would always hear those. Would always remember how close they’d come to her baby.

And she would never forget that Cooper and his brothers had been the ones to keep Liam safe. Of course, Cooper might have had an ulterior motive for what he’d done.

Because he might believe Liam was his son.

Just the thought of that revved up her heartbeat and caused her breath to go thin. Jessa tried to tamp down her emotions. No need to worry about what might be, and she refused to believe that Liam was Cooper’s lost child. Her life and luck couldn’t take another bad turn like that, and she had to be due for the peaceful life that she’d planned with her son.

Of course, Cooper might be making the same plans.

Jessa glanced at the laptop still open on the guest bed where she had tried to sleep. She’d closed the email containing the background check on Cooper that she’d asked a P.I. friend to do, but she didn’t need to see the report to remember what it’d said.

From all accounts, Cooper had been crazy in love with his wife, Molly, but they’d gotten off to a rocky start. Molly had literally broken her engagement to another man to start seeing Cooper, and the other man—Donovan Bradley—had then in turn tried to have embezzlement charges filed against Molly for the cattle-broker business they’d run together. The charges hadn’t stuck.

But the gossip had.

There were plenty of rumors that Cooper had slept with Donovan’s fiancée just to get back at the man for an old feud between the former friends turned enemies. Jessa had seen photos of Cooper and Donovan together on the high school football team and again on the rodeo circuit—definitely friends in those days—but something had caused a rift. Rumor had it that Donovan had gotten too friendly with Cooper’s aunt, who was close to their age. Another side believed that Cooper was at fault with his sexual pursuit of Molly.

Jessa wanted to believe the rumors. She wanted to believe anything that would help her discredit Cooper, but she hadn’t found a shred of proof that he was anything but a badge-wearing cowboy who actually knew the meaning of justice.

And keeping his jeans zipped.

Unlike Donovan, he hadn’t left a string of broken hearts throughout the county.

Jessa’s phone vibrated, and she silently groaned at the name she saw on the screen. It was yet another badge-wearing cowboy.

County Sheriff Aiden Braddock.

Aiden’s father, Whitt, was the man Jewell was charged with murdering.

Jessa had worked closely with Aiden to bring the charges against Cooper’s mother. For months the investigation had consumed them. Now she had something else more important to consume her—keeping her son safe and making other arrangements that didn’t involve staying on the McKinnon ranch.

Jessa stepped out in the hall to take the call so that she wouldn’t wake Liam, and she nearly ran right into Cooper. He’d obviously just showered. His hair was still damp, and he smelled, well, better than he should have. Something musky and manly that seemed to alert every nerve in her body. Ditto for his cowboy-cop “uniform” of worn jeans, a pale blue button-up shirt and scuffed cowboy boots. His badge was clipped to his belt.

Next to the silver rodeo buckle.

If she’d had any doubts that he was a cowboy, that would have rid her of them.

“That’ll be Sheriff Braddock,” he said, tipping his head to her still-vibrating phone. Mercy. The sight of Cooper had made her forget all about it. “He just called to tell me that Jewell turned herself in to the county deputy and she’s now under arrest.”

Since it wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have in front of Cooper, she let the call go to voice mail. Better to get any details later after she’d worked out some details and rules of her own.

“I didn’t tell Sheriff Braddock or anyone else that you were here,” Cooper added.

Good. For now, the fewer people who knew where she was, the better. “Any updates on the would-be kidnappers?”

“One didn’t make it. The other came through surgery all right but is still too weak to talk. Colt’s posted outside the guy’s door in case someone tries to help him escape. Colt will call to let me know when I can question him.”

Jessa hated those men, but she wished both were alive and ready to spill why they’d tried to take her baby.

Cooper glanced down at her clothes as if he’d never before seen jeans on a woman. And he hadn’t on her. She always tried to dress the part of the D.A. when she went out, even just to get groceries. Yes, it might seem silly, but she wanted to be set apart, wanted the locals to respect her for the job.

But the jeans clearly didn’t get much respect from Cooper.

However, they did garner a long look. One that made her feel as if he was trying to undress her.

Cooper glanced over her shoulder, his attention landing on the crib. “Is Liam okay?”

But he didn’t just ask the question. Cooper slid past her, his arm brushing against hers, and went into the room. He stayed back from the crib, but he could no doubt see her baby’s face. Yes, it was petty, but she stepped between them. However, since he was taller than she was, he’d have no trouble getting a second look.

“He’s fine,” she snapped, her voice still a whisper. “The doctor examined him before he left last night, and your sister came by a half hour ago to check his bandage. She said he was fine, and then she and my mother went to the kitchen to get something to eat.”

His sister Rosalie, who was a pediatric nurse. For Liam’s sake, it was convenient that she was at the ranch with them, but her mere presence was another sticking point. Because the only reason Rosalie was there was to help clear her mother’s name. That put Jessa and her at odds.

In theory, anyway.

But Rosalie hadn’t shown any resentment whatsoever. She’d examined Liam as if he were her own child and had promised to check on him as long as needed.

Hopefully, that wouldn’t be long.

Jessa motioned for them to go back out in the hall. She didn’t want Cooper standing there staring at Liam. Especially staring at him with that hopeful, pained look in his eyes.

Cooper followed her. Finally.

“I’ll need to make arrangements to leave,” she started. But that was as far as she got.

“Not yet. I want you, your mom and Liam here until I have a handle on who’s after Liam and why.”

Jessa groaned. “That could take days or more.”

“Or less,” he quickly argued. “We’ll start with the gunmen, and once we know who they are, then we can work backward to find out who hired them.” He paused a second. “Any idea who that would have been and why?”

She shook her head. “Maybe it’s someone connected to your mother.”

A muscle flickered in his jaw.

“I’m not accusing you,” Jessa explained. “But there are others involved in the murder investigation.”

“My brothers. My dad. And my mother’s three other kids. Yeah, I know what you think of us. I can personally vouch for my brothers and Dad. Rosalie, too,” he added almost hesitantly. “The other two, Rayanne and Seth, are law enforcement officers.”

It wasn’t exactly an endorsement of the last two’s innocence, but there was another player in this.

Jewell.

“Do you think your mother murdered Whitt Braddock?” Jessa came out and asked.

“I don’t care if she did.”

Yes, he did. The wounds were still there. After all, his mother had abandoned him and his brothers. Jessa couldn’t imagine doing that to Liam, but then she also couldn’t imagine being a married woman, having an affair and then killing her lover.

But that was exactly what Jewell had done.

Well, it was what the evidence pointed to her doing, anyway.

“When I was at the hospital giving blood,” Cooper continued, “you said you’d made some inquiries about Liam’s birth parents, so that you’d know the family’s medical history. Who exactly did you contact?”

She blinked and had to think hard to remember that conversation. “My adoption attorney, Hector Dixon. Why, you don’t think he had anything to do with this, do you?”

Cooper lifted his shoulder. “I need to look at all possible angles. Maybe Hector contacted someone who got spooked.”

Even though he hadn’t come out and said it, Jessa knew where this was going. “You think the adoption was illegal—”

“Again, I’m looking at all angles. How’d Hector react when you asked him about the birth parents?”

Jessa opened her mouth to assure him that Hector had reacted as expected. But he hadn’t. “He seemed nervous. Maybe distracted,” she corrected. “He’s a busy man, and I called him out of the blue. He might have thought I was questioning the way he handled the adoption.”

At least she hoped that was all there was to it.

“I’ll get him to the sheriff’s office and question him,” Cooper insisted.

Again, she nearly jumped to assure him that it wouldn’t be necessary, that she’d talk to her lawyer herself. But this was an official investigation now. Besides, Hector might have some idea why this had happened, and if he did, he might know something that would somehow keep Liam safe.