Under the Sheriff's Protection

Under the Sheriff's Protection
Delores Fossen

Fast Fiction Suspense - short romantic stories with a twist of intrigueSheriff Rico Geary is having a bad day—two people were found murdered in his town, and the only witness claims to have amnesia. He takes one look at the witness and realizes she's none other than Gina Blake. His estranged wife.But there's no time to find out what Gina is doing in Maverick Springs. Or why she left him so suddenly and disappeared. Because the killer isn't finished in Maverick Springs, and unless Rico Geary can protect her, Gina will be the murderer's next victim….

Under the Sheriff’s Protection

Delores Fossen

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Contents

Cover (#u1925b10f-1724-5b50-8d0c-f53d03ea5f75)

Title Page (#u14b9bdf9-f3a2-55f5-ba14-c09d647f7f0b)

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#u94ceb5bd-3590-5ad1-af2a-209eaebe8fce)

“The woman should be dead,” the doctor told Sheriff Rico Geary. “Don’t know how she made it out of the creek alive. Another minute in that water, and she would have frozen to death.”

Rico heard every word the doc said, but he was multitasking. He had his phone pressed to his ear, waiting for an update from his deputy about the bodies they’d discovered at the same time as the woman.

Murdered. And in his town.

That put a tight knot in his gut. Maverick Springs was known for its cowboys, livestock and small-town living. Folks weren’t used to dealing with a double homicide. Neither was Rico. Yeah, he’d been sheriff for almost two years, since he’d moved here, and he’d dealt with some fatal car accidents. Nothing like this, though. Two strangers with no IDs. Both gunned down on the bridge by the old slaughterhouse.

“The woman has a head injury,” Dr. Cheryl Landry continued as she led Rico through the maze of hospital halls. “It’s not that serious, but I’m not sure how much info you’ll get from her.”

Rico had to get a lot from her. The rancher who’d fished her out of the ice-scabbed creek hadn’t even glimpsed her attacker when he’d responded to the woman’s cries for help. So she was probably the sole witness to the murders. Which meant it was pretty darn certain that it had been the killer who’d bashed her on the head and dumped her in the creek.

“Has she said anything?” Rico asked the doctor.

“Not really. Well, other than asking for you.”

Rico froze for a moment. “Me? She knows me?”

“Apparently. She mumbled your name several times while coming in and out of consciousness.”

That didn’t mean she knew him. His name was on the town’s welcome sign.

Rico’s deputy, Randy Wells, suddenly came back on the line, and Rico pressed his phone to his ear again. “The ME’s moving the bodies to the morgue now,” the deputy reported, “but he said those gunshot wounds to their heads were the cause of death.”

Rico had never doubted that. He’d seen the bodies before heading to the hospital to interview their possible witness. The couple had been killed at point-blank range. Close enough for the victims to have looked their killer straight in the eyes.

What Rico needed from the witness now were the names of the victims, why they’d been killed here in Maverick Springs and who the hell had killed them.

“Run their prints,” Rico reminded the deputy. Because in addition to the investigation, he had to notify their next of kin.

“What’s this woman’s name?” Rico asked the doctor, putting his phone back in his jeans pocket.

Dr. Landry stopped outside a room, and her weary eyes met Rico’s. “She doesn’t remember.”

His jaw went slack. “What do you mean she doesn’t remember?”

“Like I said, she has head injuries. A blow to the head can cause memory loss.”

That was not what he wanted to hear. He huffed, put his hand on his hips. “How long will she be like this?”