Taking Aim at the Sheriff (17 page)

“There aren’t any more of us, I swear,” the lone surviving gunman insisted, and he repeated his earlier offer. “I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

But Jericho didn’t turn his attention toward the gunman. He went to Dorothy. Leaned down and checked her pulse. He didn’t have to confirm that the woman was indeed dead because Laurel could tell from his expression that she was.

Levi hurried to the gunman, kicking his gun aside and cuffing him. Reese headed out to check on the other gunmen. No doubt to make sure they were dead, as well.

However, Jericho went to her father. Jericho caught onto the collar of Herschel’s coat and dragged him to his feet. “Where’s the proof that you murdered my father?”

It wasn’t exactly a request. Jericho moved until he was right in Herschel’s face.

But Herschel just laughed.

She saw Jericho struggling to hold on to his temper. Laurel didn’t blame him. He’d loved his father, and now Sherman’s killer was right there in front of him.

Despite Jericho’s order for her to stay put, Laurel got out. She was already chilled to the bone, and the gust of bitter wind didn’t help. Nor did the fact that it’d started to snow.

Laurel hurried toward the others and hoped there was a shred of fatherly love left in Herschel. Enough of a thread for him to come clean.

“Where’s the evidence Dorothy had?” Laurel asked him, moving next to Jericho.

Her father’s gaze went from Jericho to her. Then to the wedding ring she was wearing. He smiled. Not an ordinary one. Definitely not one filled with any fatherly love whatsoever. Laurel had always figured he hated her, but that smile and the look in his eyes was all the proof she needed.

Jericho looked ready to unleash his temper and his fists on Herschel, but then his gaze met hers. She could almost see the battle going on inside him. Could feel it. That’s why she was surprised when Jericho took a step back.

“Levi, I need some cuffs.” Jericho’s voice wasn’t exactly calm, his muscles weren’t anywhere near relaxed, but he sounded exactly like the lawman that he was. “Herschel, you’re under arrest for Quinn Rossman’s murder.” And Jericho continued to read him his rights.

“I didn’t kill him,” her father insisted. “And I can prove I was lured to the crime scene so his death could be pinned on me. Hell, I’m betting Dorothy’s hired idiot will tell you the same thing.”

Judging from the gunman’s stark expression, he would do just that.

Levi handed Jericho the cuffs, and he slapped them on her father.

But Herschel only laughed when Levi took him toward the cruiser. “With the lawyers on my payroll, I’ll be out of jail in no time,” her father insisted. “This isn’t over.”

And, yes, it sounded exactly like the threat that it was.

Chapter Nineteen

Jericho cursed the whole white-Christmas thing. It was snowing, and yeah, it was pretty all right. It’d make for a picture-perfect holiday, but with the ice already on the road, it was slowing down the drive to the safe house.

Laurel was next to him in the front of the cruiser; Levi, in the back. His brother was on the phone, but Laurel leaned forward and stared up at the night sky as if cursing it, too. It was a toss-up as to who was the most antsy about getting to the safe house so they could see Maddox. They knew the baby was fine, thanks to several conversations with Jax, but Jericho wouldn’t rest easy until he saw his son. Of course, resting easy was a pipe dream, anyway.

No doubt for Laurel, as well.

They both had nicks on their faces. Both looked as if they’d been through the wringer and back. That’s why it surprised him when she looked at him and smiled.

“It’s still a couple of hours until Christmas,” she said. “We didn’t miss spending it with him. Well, we won’t if the weather doesn’t slow us down too much.”

“We’ll be there soon.”

They were only a few miles away, but Jericho needed to drive around a little longer. The only thing good about going at a snail’s pace was that he could make sure Laurel and he weren’t being followed.

Not that the chances were high they would be.

Jericho hadn’t started the drive to the safe house until the Rangers were fairly sure they’d rounded up all of Herschel’s hired thugs. While the Rangers had been doing that, Jericho had arrested Herschel, and Theo and Dorothy’s gunman who’d surrendered at the scene. All three were behind bars.

“I killed a man,” Laurel said. It wasn’t exactly out of the blue. Jericho figured it’d been weighing on her mind along with everything else.

“You killed a
bad
man,” he clarified. “One who would have murdered all of us if he’d gotten the chance. You stopped him.”

She made a sound of agreement followed by a sigh. Of course, she knew that already, but it would give her nightmares for a while. Him, too. Jericho had gotten a few years shaved off his life when he’d seen her open the cruiser door, putting herself in the line of fire. For him.

“You saved my life,” he added. “Thanks for that.”

Laurel brushed a kiss on his cheek. “And you saved mine. But I need to thank you more than once since I lost count of how many times you saved me.”

He looked at her, barely a glance because he had to keep his eyes on the road. However, he wished he could just hold her.

All right, kiss her, too.

Just being with Laurel would make him feel a whole lot better.

“Keep pressing him,” Levi insisted to the person on the other end of his phone. He finished his latest call with one of the Rangers, but judging from the way he shoved his phone back in his pocket, he wasn’t happy with the outcome of the conversation.

“A problem?” But Jericho hated to even ask. Hated more to hear the answer because it was probably one he didn’t want to hear. “Are Herschel and Theo still behind bars?”

“They’re still there. For now. Theo’s been officially charged with kidnapping Laurel from the sheriff’s office.”

“Good,” she said, but there wasn’t much joy in her tone, and when she settled her head against his shoulder again—something she’d been doing on and off since the drive started—Jericho noticed she was still trembling.

“Dorothy’s gunman is cooperating,” Levi went on. “That’s the good news. The bad news is that he confessed to assisting in both Cawley’s and Rossman’s murders.”

Hell in a handbasket.

That didn’t help Laurel’s trembling. Because she knew what it meant. With that confession, Herschel wouldn’t be charged with those murders.

“Is my father getting out of jail?” she asked.

“Not tonight. The Rangers can hold him for questioning while they go through the evidence we got from Theo. There should be enough in that to make some charges stick for his attempt to have Laurel declared mentally incompetent.”

Yeah, but those weren’t charges for murder. Not for Rossman’s, anyway. And not for Jericho’s father. Levi’s and Laurel’s silence let him know that they were thinking the same thing.

“I’m sorry,” Laurel finally said. She paused. “Can you get the DA to offer Theo a deal? If he knows where his mother put the recording of my father’s drunk confession, then could he exchange that for a lesser sentence?”

“No. I want Theo behind bars for a long time for what he did to you.”

“So do I. But more than that, I want justice for your father. Think it through,” she added when Jericho opened his mouth to argue. “If my father’s out of jail, we’ll never be free to live our lives with Maddox.”

Well, he certainly couldn’t argue with that. “We can get Herschel some other way.”

“Not as fast as you can by having the DA strike a deal with Theo. Theo’s facing several felony charges, and he’ll get years of jail time. My father could get life in prison. Maybe even the death penalty.”

“Laurel’s right,” Levi piped in.

She was. But it felt as if he was minimizing what’d happened to her. Still, Herschel would do far worse than kidnapping if he got the chance. Now that Laurel had rejected him, Herschel would be even more intent on seeing them all dead.

“Make the call,” Jericho told his brother. “See if Theo’s willing to deal, and if he is, contact the DA and work it out.”

That caused Laurel to settle even closer to him. He probably should have told her to tighten her seat belt, but Jericho wanted this contact as much as she seemed to want it.

“You said ‘free to live our lives with Maddox.’ Did you mean it?” Jericho asked.

Laurel lifted her head. Blinked. “Of course.” Then her eyes widened. “Oh, I guess that sounded bold. I need to give you a free pass.”

“Excuse me? What the heck does that mean?”

She glanced back at Levi, maybe to make sure his brother was on the phone and not listening to them. He was. Well, he was on the phone, anyway.

“A free pass for the sex,” she said. “Just so you know, I don’t expect anything because we slept together. And I don’t expect anything because of this.” She lifted her hand, tapped the wedding ring.

“Well, you should.” He said that a whole lot louder than he’d intended. And yes, it got Levi’s attention, but Jericho didn’t care. This conversation couldn’t wait. “You should expect everything from me.”

“Everything?” Laurel asked, sounding very uncertain of what that meant.

Jericho wasn’t exactly certain, either. Not of the details, anyway, but he had a bead on the big picture. “I’m your husband, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

He shot his brother a glare in the rearview mirror when Levi smiled. Maybe the smile meant that Levi approved of this marriage, or maybe it was just that whole thing of him watching his big brother squirm.

“You’d like to keep it that way?” Laurel repeated, still sounding uncertain.

Jericho would have attempted to clarify that, but that’s when Levi’s smile vanished, and he slid his hand over his phone.

“Theo didn’t ask for us to work out a plea deal with the DA for him to get a lighter sentence. He told the Rangers where they could find the evidence against Herschel,” Levi interrupted. “It’s at Dorothy’s house in San Antonio. The local cops are headed over there now.”

That was great news, but that wasn’t a great-news kind of look on Levi’s face. “What’s wrong?” Jericho asked.

“Theo’s on the line, and he wants to talk to Laurel.”

Jericho wanted to growl out a “no way in hell,” but it wasn’t his call, and Laurel reached for the phone before he could say anything.

She jabbed the speaker button. “Thank you for doing the right thing about the evidence,” Laurel greeted Theo. “I appreciate it. So do the Crocketts. But I’m not getting back together with you.”

“I know,” Theo readily admitted.

“But yet you’ll give us the evidence. Why?” she demanded.

A good question. Jericho hoped Theo had a good answer.

“Let’s call it a wedding gift. With no strings attached,” Theo said. “I know you don’t believe me, but I sent those men to save you tonight. I knew my mother was going to try to kill you, and I thought if I could hide you away, she wouldn’t be able to get to you.”

“Laurel was already safe,” Jericho snarled. “You could have gotten her killed.”

“I know that now. And I’m sorry.”

Theo sounded sincere enough, but Jericho would make sure he got the maximum sentence.

“I don’t want you in my life,” Laurel said to Theo.

“I won’t be. Good luck, Laurel. I sincerely hope you’re happy, even if that happiness happens to be with Jericho.”

Laurel didn’t respond. She just handed the phone back to Levi. “You believe him?” she asked.

Jericho was surprised that he did. “With all the charges against him, Theo’s looking at a decade or two in jail. He could have withheld the evidence as part of a plea deal with the DA. He didn’t.”

That didn’t mean Jericho wouldn’t be checking to make sure Theo did all the jail time and then stayed far away from Laurel.

She nodded. “Good. Then, we can get Maddox and move on with our lives.”

There it was again. Not yours or mine.
Our lives.

Jericho liked the sound of that. Figured he would like the sound of it even more when they saw their son. He took the final turn toward the safe house.

The snow was coming down harder here, and the house was already dusted with it. His son would wake up to a white Christmas. No gifts, though. But Jericho would remedy that. Unless the snow piled up, they’d be able to leave in the morning, and he could call the owner of the department store and beg him to open so that Jericho could do a quick shopping trip.

The moment he pulled the cruiser to a stop, the door opened, and his brother Jax came out. As expected, Jax had his bag ready and looked more than ready to leave. And no doubt was. He wanted to get home so he could spend Christmas with his own son.

“Glad you’re in one piece,” Jax greeted them, and then he glanced at the cuts on Laurel’s and his head. “Well, for the most part.”

“Thanks for everything,” Jericho told him. He used his sleeve to wipe the blood from Laurel’s and his face. Best for his mom and Maddox not to see that. “You should get going before the roads get bad.”

Jax nodded, started toward his car but then stopped. “Are you two back together?” But he waved off the question. Smiled. “Of course you are. Heck, you were never really apart. Merry Christmas.”

It was Jericho’s go-to reaction to scowl at a remark like that, but he had to admit to himself that it was true. Laurel and he were back together.

He hoped.

Now he needed to see how Laurel felt about that.

However, Jericho didn’t get the chance to say anything because the door opened again, and his mother gathered the three of them inside. There was a fire snapping and flickering in the stone fireplace, and the deputies were at the small kitchen table drinking what smelled like hot chocolate.

“Where’s Maddox?” Laurel and Jericho asked in unison.

His mother put her finger to her lips and motioned for them to follow her to one of the bedrooms. Levi didn’t follow them. His phone buzzed, and he stayed in the living room to answer it.

There wasn’t a crib in the safe house, but they found Maddox sleeping on the center of the bed with pillows around the edges so that he wouldn’t fall off.

Laurel got to him first, and she pressed a flurry of kisses on Maddox’s face. Jericho soon got his turn, and even though he wanted his son to get plenty of sleep, he wasn’t disappointed when Maddox opened his eyes. The little boy gave a sleepy yawn, but then he smiled the moment his gaze landed on them.

“Da-Da,” Maddox babbled, his smile aimed at Jericho.

Jericho nearly lost it.

“I’ve been showing him your picture and telling him you’re his daddy,” Iris explained. “I hope you don’t mind,” she said to Laurel.

“No, I don’t mind at all.”

Hearing that one word was one of the best Christmas presents he’d ever gotten.

And then he got another one.

“Wuv you,” Maddox said, and he repeated it to Laurel as his eyelids drifted back down.

Jericho couldn’t help himself. He had to kiss his boy again. Laurel did, too. And then they eased out of the room and into the hall. They didn’t close the door, though. They just stood there and watched Maddox sleep.

“Fatherhood looks good on you, son.” Iris gave him a pat on the arm and then did the same to Laurel before she strolled away.

Jericho had so many things to say to Laurel, but the moment he opened his mouth, Levi started toward them. Jericho groaned at the interruption until he remembered they had important business still up in the air.

“SAPD found the evidence at Dorothy’s house,” Levi explained. “It was exactly where Theo said it would be. And yes, in the recording, Herschel does confess to having Dad murdered.”

Jericho’s breath rushed out. Pure relief. Laurel’s reaction was pretty much the same. It’d been a long wait for justice, but it’d finally come.

“My father will be charged with murder,” she verified. “He’ll stay in jail.”

“For a very long time,” Jericho assured her. There was no bail for murder, so he would stay behind bars while awaiting trial. Considering everything Herschel had done, it was another good Christmas present.

And now Jericho had just one more.

Levi had the sense to go back in the living room and give them some privacy. Well, as much privacy as they could have in a small house filled with people.

“You know what I want for Christmas?” he asked.

Laurel obviously hadn’t been expecting that question because she gave him a funny look.

“I want you.” Jericho snapped her to him. Kissed her. Not exactly a chaste kiss, either.

She smiled when he finally broke the kiss so they could catch their breath. “I want you, too.”

That was a good start, but it wasn’t quite enough. So, Jericho kissed her again. He wanted to remind her of what had brought them here.

And it wasn’t just the attraction.

It was something much, much more.

He took out the blue rock. The one she’d used when she asked him to marry her. Or rather, when she’d told him that was the way things had to be. Now, he dropped it into the palm of her hand.