The Lawman's Convenient Family

“A stray dog. But he ain’t talking.”

“Very funny.” Zorro’s gaze returned to Julie. “I’m sorry, Lisa. I’m going to have to morph into cop mode.”

Now it was Julie’s turn to tense. He was actually a police officer in real life? A slight uneasiness settled over her, an old habit she apparently hadn’t outgrown. Not that she had any real reason to fear anyone in law enforcement nowadays.

When Zorro removed his mask, revealing the rest of his face, he was even more handsome than she’d imagined him to be. She stood mesmerized, darn near smitten by a face and persona that were movie-star quality.

The cowboy, who’d been frowning when he’d approached, wasn’t bad looking, either. He tipped his hat to Julie. “Would you mind excusing us, ma’am?”

“No, not at all.” Julie took a step back and glanced at Zorro.

A smile dimpled his cheeks, and little gold flecks in expressive brown eyes sparkled as he handed his mask to her. “Hold this for me. I’ll be back.”

She probably should have corrected his mistake then and there, but for the life of her, she couldn’t seem to utter a single word.

As Zorro followed the cowboy out the side door, Julie held on to his mask as if it were a glass slipper and studied him from behind. He was both gorgeous and charming. A dashing ladies’ man, no doubt. She could tell by his self-assurance and flirtatious manner, both of which were interest-snatching and blood-stirring.

They also set off flashing red warning lights. If there was anything Julie avoided these days, it was suave and flirtatious men who thought they were God’s gift to women.

And Zorro, the handsome devil, was too darn sexy to be heaven-sent.

Chapter Two (#u84519651-6202-5f16-98b3-f4229e4ae541)

As Adam followed his old high school friend away from the dance floor, he glanced over his shoulder and took one last look at Lisa, regretting he’d have to put off getting to know her. At least he’d finally had a chance to meet her.

“I’m sorry I interrupted your dance,” Matt said as they slipped out a side door and headed toward the parking lot.

“So am I. I’ve been waiting a long time to meet that woman, and after holding her in my arms and catching a whiff of her citrusy scent... Hell, I need to get back inside before someone else tries to take up where I left off.”

“Hopefully, you can get to the bottom of that break-in quickly.”

“If I can’t, I’ll call into headquarters and have someone on duty come out here.” Adam needed to get back to that gala. And to Lisa.

The buddies crossed the graveled parking lot, their footsteps crunching on the pulverized granite. Unlike Adam, Matt didn’t look any different tonight than he usually did. He was sporting a pair of new Tony Lama boots, though. And he had on a spiffy new Stetson, too. But that wasn’t surprising. Costume parties weren’t Matt’s style.

And normally, they weren’t Adam’s, either. So he’d planned to cut out early, but after dancing with Lisa, he’d changed his mind. Damn, she felt good—soft in all the right places. And she smelled amazing, too. Her perfume reminded him of lemon blossoms.

Matt came to a stop and pointed to a shiny black Dodge Ram, the new registration sticker still taped to the passenger side of the windshield. “There’s my truck.”

The driver’s door was open, the window shattered. On the seat, amidst shards of broken glass, sat a good-size rock.

“It would have been easy enough for you to check and see if that envelope was still there,” Adam said. “Why didn’t you?”

“Because I know how fussy you cops can be about disturbing a crime scene. But something else is definitely missing, which doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

“What’s that?”

“My food. I hadn’t eaten since the crack of dawn, so on my way here, I picked up something to tide me over at Bubba’s Burger Barn. The bag was on the passenger seat, and now it’s gone.”

Adam furrowed his brow. “Someone took your leftovers?”

Matt scoffed. “Hell, it wasn’t table scraps. It was a double bacon cheeseburger with large fries, and I didn’t get the chance to take a single bite. I was going to eat it on the way over here, but as soon as I pulled out of the drive-through, my cell phone rang. And by the time the call ended, I’d already arrived at the party. So I decided to check out the fancy, hundred-dollar food first.”

Adam scanned the area. The ground was still damp and a bit muddy from last night’s rain, revealing small shoe prints—two sets, plus paw prints. All of which were fresh.

“Amateurs,” Adam said. “Kids, most likely. Young ones. You mentioned the dog. It might be theirs.”

“I’m pretty sure it was a stray. It had that scruffy, scrawny look. And it was tricolored—black, brown and what might be white if someone gave it a bath. I saw it when I was parking, and then again when I came back outside to eat my burger, which I figured was going to taste a heck of a lot better than those fancy tidbits they were putting out. That’s when I saw that someone had broken into my truck.”

“Did you notice anyone hanging around or hear anything?”

“No, but if they were anywhere nearby, they would have heard my reaction. I just bought that truck last week. So when I saw the broken glass, I swore loud enough to scare off the mutt. If there were kids anywhere around, they probably hightailed it out of here, too.”

Adam reached beneath the seat, retrieved the yellow manila envelope stuffed with cash and handed it to Matt. “You might want to count it.”

He fingered the thickness. “It feels like it’s all here.” Then he looked inside and counted it.

Apparently the young burglars had only wanted the food. Or else they’d been scared off before they could find anything of value.

Call it a hunch, or the memory of his own personal history, but something told Adam those kids were in some kind of trouble and that he’d better find them. And not just to put the fear of the law into them.

“Do you have insurance?” he asked.

“Yeah, but with a big deductible.” Matt swore under his breath. “Why do you think the damn kids did this?”

“I suspect they were hungry.”

Matt seemed to think on that for a couple of beats. “What are you going to do about it?”

“I’m going to look for them.” And quickly. He wanted to return to the party before Lisa, the sexy intergalactic goddess, decided to leave.

While Matt remained near his truck, picking up the shards of glass and placing them in a burlap sack he’d found behind the driver’s seat, Adam tracked the small footprints to a wooded area outside the grange hall and continued along the path they’d taken until he reached what appeared to be an abandoned, rusted-out paneled truck.

He didn’t have his gun on him, but his gut told him he wouldn’t need it. His steps slowed as he approached the vehicle. When he got close enough, he peered through the grimy driver’s-side window and spotted a young boy, a smaller girl and a scruffy mutt sitting in the cab sharing Matt’s burger and fries. The kids didn’t look much cleaner or better fed than the dirty dog.

As Adam opened the door, the mutt barked, and the children’s eyes widened in apprehension. The dark-haired boy, who was about six or seven, slipped a bone-thin arm around his little blonde companion.

The moment Adam spotted her bruised cheek and her swollen, split lip, she commanded his full attention.

“Hey, guys.” Adam offered his friendliest smile. “What’s going on?”

Neither child uttered a word. The dog, its fur matted, merely cocked its head.

Adam scanned the interior of the dusty, beat-up vehicle. “This is a cool fort you guys have.”

The kids remained silent, eyes leery. Something had them scared, and Adam doubted it was him.

“I know I’m not wearing a uniform,” Adam said, “but I’m a police officer. And I’d like to help you.”