Always The Hero

Introduction (#u9b3a29f4-8202-5104-b51f-59645874b688)

Dear Reader (#ulink_476fc93a-ef8c-5b53-bd51-63ac26e69e88)

Dedication (#u58789937-b946-5bff-8672-c52e4057d2c0)

CHAPTER ONE (#u9ed026f5-384d-531a-8098-2b3c8c7318a8)

CHAPTER TWO (#ud944825b-408c-5f86-8002-47b0b75b63a5)

CHAPTER THREE (#u5ce78a95-0ce6-5b7c-9bd9-4c4ca3bab3b1)

CHAPTER FOUR (#uc00e2692-4524-50d2-abfb-e0c97bbac6e6)

CHAPTER FIVE (#uca8a4075-a2a7-5dc7-ae8e-c5b3703639c4)

CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_3324935b-3032-5141-beec-dd0115eebfe9)

DEPUTY MATT KNIGHT sat at his desk and stared at the divorce papers that had taken him three years to have drawn up. He stared at the black on white print, the familiar words blurring behind tired eyes.

“Just sign the thing already.” Even as he muttered to himself, his fingers tightened to the point of going numb. What on earth was stopping him? It wasn’t as if divorce was some big taboo these days. He certainly wasn’t holding out hope for a reconciliation. How could he when his soon-to-be ex had made it perfectly clear—well before Matt’s discharge papers from the army had been processed—that she’d moved on. There was no ill will. There were no feelings at all. It only made sense. If he was serious about moving on with his life, serious about becoming a father to an abandoned troubled teen, it was time to cut ties and start over.

His stomach knotted. Signing his name was the right thing to do. For everyone. And yet...

If only signing the decree didn’t mean admitting he’d failed. Matt had spent a good portion of his thirty-two years determined to avoid anything close to failure. He couldn’t shake the deadening sensation that writing his name only proved his father right.

He leaned forward, set his jaw. How messed up did he have to be to give credence to anything his long-dead father would have thought, especially when it came to what constituted failure? It was time to make this final break and move on with his life. If he didn’t owe that to himself, he certainly owed it to Kyle Winters. What kind of example would he be setting for the kid if Matt couldn’t put his own past aside? Besides, there were bonuses to starting fresh.

Bonuses like Lori Bradley.

His lips curved as an image of the lush, generous, quiet brunette with eyes as green as spring grass appeared in his mind.

The tip of the pen hovered.

“You can stare at that piece of paper as long as you want.” Deputy Oswald “Ozzy” Lakeman’s voice drifted across the small station house. “Whatever it says, it’s not going to change.”

Matt clicked his pen shut, tossed it onto the desk. He sat back in his creaking spring-loaded chair and swore he heard his divorce papers laugh at him. He looked over and found Ozzy grinning at him before he snapped his teeth through one of those mini carrots he’d been munching on of late.

“I thought you were taking Fletch’s patrol this afternoon,” Matt said.

“I am.” Ozzy leaned back and looked up at the station clock. He clicked his tongue. “Still have a few minutes to bug you. How am I doing?”

“At bugging me? Stellar performance, as always.” The banter came easily, as it had when he was in the army. The soldiers he’d served with had been his friends, his family. At times, he had to shake off the guilt that he had a new family now, a new group of friends while his fellow grunts... He swallowed the bitterness and grief.

Chances were Ozzy appreciated the downtime as much as he did. With Butterfly Harbor’s annual Monarch Festival less than a month away, the entire township was flitting around, prettying up store windows, touching up paintwork, finalizing sponsorship plans and making certain the soon-to-arrive tourists were given the best show possible when it came to the Pacific Coast tourist town.

Everyone was too busy to get into much trouble save for the occasional parking and noise ordinance violations. That was just fine with Matt, but he’d lived long enough—and hard enough—to know the quiet wouldn’t last. “Do we have an ETA on when Luke’s back in the office?”

“Chief’s due back tomorrow morning according to Holly,” Ozzy said, referencing the owner of the Butterfly Diner and their boss’s wife. “We should have a full house again now that Fletch has returned from his honeymoon. Oh, hey, Jasper.” Ozzy glanced up at the teen hobbling out of the bathroom on crutches. “I unearthed a new box of files that need to be digitized. When you’re caught up.”

“On it.” Jasper O’Neill clicked his way over to the desk they’d given him last month and dropped into his chair. “Can’t wait to be off these things.” He leaned over and set the crutches against the wall before logging back on to his computer.

“It’s been almost six weeks.” Matt couldn’t believe that much time had passed since the teen had nearly gotten himself killed playing amateur detective. That Jasper had been the prime suspect in the string of increasingly disturbing break-ins and vandalism had been a driving factor. The kid hadn’t done himself any favors by dressing like death and taking pleasure in making people feel uncomfortable. But when the smoke cleared, the sheriff and his deputies had decided to take Jasper on. The boy’s determination and cleverness couldn’t be ignored. The part-time position with the police department allowed him to continue with his forensics studies, stay out of trouble and earn some serious résumé references.

“Only ten days to go.” Jasper swiped his hand over too-long bangs that covered dark eyes. “Then you guys will have to start taking me on patrol with you.”

Matt grinned. “We’ll see about that.” Personally, Matt was hoping Jasper would be up for renewing his friendship with Kyle. Jasper could be a good influence on him.

Matt pushed his chair back, stretched out his prosthetic leg and waited for the gentle click that, had he not left his actual leg on a dirt road in Iraq, would have felt like a muscle easing into place. “With Luke and Fletcher both out, I guess that means I’m on deck for the town council meeting tonight.” Matt barely resisted the urge to groan. What a way to spend a Friday night. He’d seen the setup coming for weeks; his coworkers’ planned absences that would ensure he’d be the one to make the final push for the sheriff’s department’s contribution to the Monarch Festival. The annual fall event was, at least until the new butterfly sanctuary was built, the town’s biggest claim to fame—and its biggest tourist draw. From the Butterfly Diner, to Harvey’s Hardware, to the Flutterby Inn, businesses were snapping up sponsorships and initiatives like nobody’s business.

While his boss and fellow deputies agreed they needed to participate, they’d also decided to focus on a job that would be of benefit beyond a week’s worth of events and activities. He pinned Ozzy with a determined, hopeful stare. “Unless you’d like to—”

“Not on your life.” Ozzy held up his hands as if shielding himself from a radiation blast. “Not on my life. Not on anyone’s life.”

Jasper chuckled as he tapped away on his keyboard.

“As long as you’re sure,” Matt mumbled. “You could at least come with me.” It made sense. Despite living in Butterfly Harbor for almost three years, Matt was still considered a newcomer. Before becoming a deputy, he’d mostly kept to himself having moved here alone after his separation. Not that he hadn’t piqued his neighbors’ curiosity, but he kept his private life private. As far as anyone in town knew, he was an unencumbered bachelor. Ozzy, on the other hand, had been born and raised here, which meant everyone knew his business. “I could use the backup.”

“No offense, but the only way I’d voluntarily attend the Mayor Hamilton show is if it was a direct order from my boss.” Ozzy visibly shuddered. “Lucky for me, that is not you.”

“But you’re good at throwing me under the bus,” Matt said.

“Yep. You don’t have a history with Gil.” Ozzy ducked his round face out of sight at the mention of the mayor. “And it’s not as if he’d take anything I have to say seriously anyway. I know what he thinks of me.”