The Protector (8 page)

Less
than an hour later, Blair had a plate full of pizza, a cola, and Cole’s laptop.
She decided she needed some background noise, and turned on the TV. Cole had
not changed much, as all she found were building and cop shows. She quickly
found a cooking show to go with her meal. She powered up the laptop and pulled
up her website, where she kept track of her business. She could at least get
this part of her work done today.

****

Cole
walked into his house, with his stomach rumbling.
Is that pizza?
He opened the door and was sure he smelled pizza,
and Blair. His heart sank.
It’s just her
scent left over from last night
. He stopped and sniffed the air. He smelled
pizza and frowned. Then he remembered he’d sent Harley to here to get the
leftover pizza to share with Ashley. He must have used the oven to heat them
before leaving, and the scent had not dissipated yet. Harley loved the kitchen
here.

 
Cole was disappointed Blair wasn’t here
waiting for him. He loved her, and never stopped. She loved him, too. He had
seen it in her eyes last night. He would find her though, and show her again
and again. As many times as it took until she believed him.

Cole
knew the moment he had seen her that first time after she had come home that he
still loved her. He had been patient with her, letting her settle in and
reconnect with her friends. He felt a little bit like a stalker at night when
he made sure she made it home safely when she closed her coffee shop at the end
of the day. He had sat on a park bench and watched her after dark through the
window. Part of him was he was afraid she would reject him, but he had to see
her. He sat in the sheriff’s office, watching her come and go from her coffee
house. Blair was friendly with people, but he noticed she had built a wall
around herself. Except for those few friends she had, she never let anyone get
too close to her. Cole knew that was his fault. Blair was a kind, loving, warm
woman, but his fear had broken her heart. He would spend the rest of his life
trying to make it right with her, even if she forgave him.

He
opened his gun safe, then stuck his gun in and closed it. The scent of Blair
was still strong in his room. She was driving him mad, and she wasn’t even
here.

 
She had run from him, and he could not find
any clues to show him where. It wasn’t a rejection though. He could sense it.
She wanted him as much as he wanted her. Blair backed off when she needed to
process her emotions. He had put a bulletin out on her car so if she were
spotted the officer that saw her would call it in. No one had seen her. Her
debit and credit cards were also not active. No one’s security footage spotted
her. Chad, his computer guru, knew all about facial recognition, and her face
never once came up.

Where are you?

 
He opened his freezer to pull out a pizza. He
saw the three
cheese
, the super supreme, and Mexican.
“I could have sworn I got a triple meat,” he muttered. “Harley stole my triple
meat. I told him the pizza in the fridge.” He had been looking forward to that
pizza. Whenever he and Blair had ordered a pizza together, she wanted the
triple meat.

Blair
was in trouble for disobeying Michael. She could have been given extra duties
with shifter business and the town, but Michael liked this idea better. Most
times when shifters disobeyed the punishment was light, but the danger it had
put Cassie in made it more serious. Blair needed to be taken in hand, and
Michael felt Cole was the best man for the job. If he was fortunate he would
walk away from this with Blair’s heart once again.

Now
he just needed to find her.
Stubborn fox.

Cole
had been looking forward to dinner with Blair. That would have to wait though.
He could buy another pizza. Hell, he could buy hundreds of pizzas if that was what
it took to win Blair’s heart and trust once again. They would share their pizza
yet. Cole looked around the freezer again,
then
shrugged.

He
stuck the pizza in the oven and turned it on, not bothering to preheat. That
just took longer for the pizza to get hot. Staring at the professional grade
oven made him
miss
Blair all the more. She designed
this kitchen when they decided to sell her house and keep his. It had the
privacy they wanted, and the space for a family.

Blair
loved to work in the kitchen. It didn’t matter if it was cooking or baking, she
loved it. When she turned her baking skills into a business, although she
worried at first, it had not ruined her love of baking. She could spend all day
making turnovers, rolls and cookies, then come home and make a fantastic
homemade supper.
 
Cole had spared no
expense when he picked the kitchen equipment for her.
 

Cole
stared at his reflection in the microwave. “Then you ruined it, you fucking
jackass. You had to be a coward. Got scared like a little cub over a bit of
responsibility,” he reminded himself miserably. He shoved himself away from the
stove. Staring at it would not make the pizza cook any faster, or persuade her
to forgive him any faster.

He
walked towards the bathroom, stripping off his uniform shirt and tossing it
towards the laundry room.

By
the time Cole showered and changed his pizza smelled done. He pulled it out, to
find the crust browned nicely and the cheese melted to perfection. He placed it
on the counter and sliced it up and put the whole thing on a plate. He walked
to his leather recliner and turned on the TV. One of the cooking shows Blair
loved was on, rubbing salt in his wounded pride. “She ran from me.” He growled
for the one hundredth time that day.

He
should have known she would run. He had seen the warring emotions in her eyes.
One moment she surrendered to him, the next she was scared.

Myra,
her best friend, had forgiven him. Why couldn’t Blair?

He
knew what he could do. He would call Myra and enlist her help. Myra, that
little scrap of a wolf, had told him Blair still cared for him. Maybe Myra had
thought up some places Blair could be hiding.

Myra
picked up on the first ring. Her home was noisy as usual indicating they were
busy.

“Sorry,
I didn’t mean to bother you.” Cole should have known she would be busy trying
to get dinner on the table. “Goddess, Cole, you are not a bother. What can I do
for you?”

“Have
you heard anything about Blair?
Any idea where she could be
hiding?”
He winced at his tone of voice. He was a full grown wolf, but
instead he sounded like a little pup whining.

“No,
but I don’t think she went far.” Myra raised her voice over the boys’ laughter
in the background.

“I
haven’t seen any signs of her checking into a hotel or getting gas.” Cole ran
his hand through his hair. He should have known Blair would run, and put a
tracking device on her somewhere. She knew all the tricks to hide her scent, so
tracking her scent would never work. She would run him in circles for the fun
of it. She was such a little troublemaker, but it was one of the things he
loved about her.

“There’s
that, and she made the baked goods today. Grant Marshall saw her and asked why
she was baking. He thought a crowd was expected.
 
I know Blair better than anyone, and she is
not going to trust anyone else with her baking.”

Cole’s
radio went off at that moment. “Hold on a minute, Myra.”

Cole
picked up his radio. “Yes, Cheryl.”

“We
have an abducted human female child. Travis and Brad are out there. They are
confirming the abduction.”

“Shit,”
Cole whispered under his breath. His heart already started racing. The worst
thing a small county sheriff wanted was an abducted child. That last thing
shifters needed was the press and federal law enforcement scouring their
territory for a missing child and uncovering shifter secrets.

“Ok,
Cheryl, I am on my way out there.
 
See if
David Mannis is still working at the Denver field office. I think he is working
Child Crimes in the FBI now. Give him a heads-up about what is going on. If it
comes to it, he will know who to send here.”

“I
am looking that up right now, Cole. I will send him your cell phone number.”

“Thank
you, Cheryl.” Cole let go of the radio. David was a panther shifter that had
chosen to leave his territory to work among humans. Some chose that life, but
many did not like to have to hide who they were so much. David wanted to use
his talents to help everyone, humans and shifters. He loved children
especially, which was why he chose the crimes against children division in the
agency. Cole prayed to
Ilithyia
they found this girl
quickly. Their Goddess could do many things, but she could only hear and speak
through a guardian. She could not drift over the Earth looking for people or
things. She could not control anyone either. She did dearly love shifters
though, and gave them special abilities.

David
could control things for a little while, but if this drew out, or more children
were reported missing, half the damn Colorado division of the FBI would be
here. Then they would also have the press everywhere. It would be a nightmare
waiting to happen.

He
picked up his cell phone. “Myra.”

“I
heard, I hope you find she has just wandered off,” Myra told him before
disconnecting.

Cole
hung up with a sigh and shoved his pizza aside. It could be nothing, but the El
Paso County Sheriff’s Department had three kidnapped girls. One was located deceased,
and two were still missing. He hoped this girl had just run away, and they did
not have a predator here.

Chapter
Three

Blair
sat silently in the attic and watched Cole as he moved about his house. She
nearly came down when he started talking to himself in the kitchen. This was the
real Cole. Once again, that whisper in her heart urged her to give him another
chance.
 
She felt more than a little bit
of guilt while she watched him go through his sad and lonely evening routine.

Cole
was nowhere near as carefree as he used to be, she could see that. He looked as
though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders since he became the sheriff
and
Kelach
, when Warren stepped down.

Myra
had told her that Cole was not happy about taking up the
Kelach
position and Michael’s beta, and she knew Cole was nervous about letting his
uncle down as he always had been, although, Blair had to admit, she’d never
considered he would panic as much as he did. Cole had thought he would not have
to worry about this for many more years. She knew some shifters thought Cole
was too young, but Blair had no idea Cole struggled that much until Myra had
told her after Cole confided in her.

Michael
and Warren had both stepped up to help ease him into the position, and he had
done fine, and Blair knew Cole wanted his uncle to be proud of him, and
everyone, except Cole, knew Warren was proud as he constantly bragged about
Cole’s job as
Kelach
. Cole would never believe and
still thought he had to earn Warren's pride.

The
man she loved so much had changed in many ways.

No,
Goddess no.
I do
not love him anymore
.
I
respect him as a man and the
Kelach
. Yes, that is
much better
.

He
was going through the house as if he was lost. His freezer was full of frozen,
ready to heat and eat store-bought food, and his cabinets full of canned soups,
stews, and pasta. She had not found one thing in his kitchen to actually cook.
It was not good for him to eat that amount of additives.

She
shuddered. Aside from the triple meat pizza that she loved, thanks to a special
memory made with Cole, she never served frozen or canned meals. She preferred
to make everything from scratch. Although she found herself heating up boxed
food more often now, but at least that was homemade.

It
was lonely to cook for
herself
, but she kept in
practice by cooking for the young mothers and elderly shifters. It wasn’t the
same as watching the man she loved enjoying a meal she prepared, but she got
her kicks out of watching the Pleasant Cove shifters and humans devouring her
fresh baked pastries.

She
was also getting hungry, and she couldn’t cook another of Cole’s pizzas. Cole
would notice. If she ate the pizza he cooked, Cole would catch her for sure.
She giggled as she remembered Cole digging through the freezer for the pizza she
had eaten for lunch.

She
was going to have a lot of fun with him about that. She walked into the kitchen
and opened his cupboards again. What else could she eat? She picked out one of
the cans turning it to read the ingredients. No way was she eating canned
ravioli. She preferred to make her pasta from scratch. Her heart ached,
remembering the nights she and Cole made homemade beef ravioli together and the
mess he got himself into with flour all over himself. His beautiful hair turned
white in a puff of flour. How she laughed at his pathetic floured face one
night, until he threw a handful of flour over her. They were too busy making
love to finish making the meal after that.

All
of the memories flooding her were reminding her how much she loved Cole and
making her regret her rash decision to run away. Cole had been hurting and had made
a bad decision. She should have stayed and made him talk to her.
All these years wasted.
That thought
made her sad.

Blair
let her hands fall to her side. There was nothing here she was willing to eat.
There was no way around it. She was going to have to go home. She got up and
put her shoes on, then found his cologne and sprayed the room she had stayed
in. Blair smiled at the thought of what Cole would do to her when she was
caught.
Hiding in his house, eating his food right under his
nose.
It was good for a nice paddling.

That
night spent with Cole was one of the best night’s
sleep
she had in a long time. She missed Cole holding her more than she realized.
Perhaps she should stop being so scared of getting her heart broken and just
take whatever it was that Cole was offering.

She
went out the back door, removed her clothing and stuffed them in the wood box.
It was supposed to be warm tonight, so she hoped Cole would not start a fire
and find them. Goddess knows she would be in for it then, hiding right under
his nose, although as long as too many people did not know about it, she would
be ok.

She
shifted into her fox and ran towards the town. She hoped Mandy left her some
clothes there. Mandy was good about that kind of stuff and often thought of
others, but Mandy also had a life of her own to live.

Elaine
and Carl
Reevers
were Mandy’s aunt and uncle, and
they had taken custody of Mandy after her parents died in an accident. Many
shifters were unsure about an outside human girl coming to live with them, but
one look at the broken little girl grieving her parents had won them over. Now seven
years later she fit in perfectly, and few even remembered she was an outsider.

Blair
paused by the campground when she spotted Cole’s sheriff car. She could hear a
woman crying. Something was wrong. Blair could smell despair thick in the air.
She crept closer, thankful it was dark. She saw a redheaded woman crying, while
a man she assumed was her husband, held her. A little girl sat on a log, with a
blank look of shock on her face.
What is
going on?

As
she got closer, she could just hear the man's voice carrying downwind. “He was
wearing a ski mask, but I could see he had brown eyes, and I could see the skin
around them was white. Other than that, the man had blue jeans, and a gray
hoodie, and was wearing a ski mask. He hit me over the head with some sort of
pipe, and took my daughter, Stacy.”

Cole
was writing down the description. “Did you see the truck?”

 
The man shook his head. “I only heard it start
and knew it was a diesel by the sound of the engine.”

 
The red haired woman had tears in her eyes as
she looked at Cole. “Please find my little girl.”

 
Cole nodded as he said, “I have my finest
trackers out looking for your daughter. I am going to do everything I can to
bring her home to you, unharmed.”

Blair
backed up feeling sick to her stomach. Someone had kidnapped that poor family’s
daughter. The human campers wouldn’t know that Cole had shifters out looking
that could find clues no human could.

Guilt
ate at her a little bit. She had hidden from him in his own house, and to add
insult to injury she had eaten his favorite pizza, too.
He’s at work now, so I will wait until later to talk to him.
Blair
knew there was no running from Cole or Michael. There was no way out of this. Even
if she went back to France, Cole would come after her. Then she would really be
in trouble. Playing hide-and-seek would get her a spanking, but running to another
territory to hide would get her judged. Michael already judged her once for her
actions. He wouldn’t be so nice a second time.

Blair
turned from the scene with warring emotions.
You are being the ass here.
Blair shoved aside her own voice of
reason and paid attention to the trail into town. She made it to her coffee
shop, shifted, and entered the code to unlock the door. Cole would be busy at
the campground for a few hours, which would give her plenty of time to get her
dough started.

Blair
usually lost herself in the simple joy of preparing the dough, but this time
all she thought about was Cole. He had looked so sad and lonely while he had
been cooking himself pizza. Could the other women who came into her coffee shop
be right? Had Cole stayed alone and missed her? She had never paid attention to
him this last year, mostly out of fear. She knew her heart would break if she
saw him taking other women out.

She
felt a hand on her shoulder and whirled around with a scream of surprise

Myra
was behind her, smiling. “I can’t believe I snuck up on you like that.”

Blair
shook her head. “I was distracted,” she said as a way of explanation.

“I
think I can take a guess
who
is distracting you,” Myra
said as she pulled the bag out of the laundry bin.

Blair
snorted in disgust. “The more I try to ignore him, the more I think about him.”

Myra
turned and gave Blair the look she gave her right before she started a lecture.
“Don’t you think you have punished him enough?”

Blair
laughed, feeling guilty once again. She kept thinking the same thing. Not that
she had any plans of admitting that to Myra. “What the hell makes you think I
am punishing him?
 
He left me,
remember?"

“Oh,
I remember, but I am the cause of all of this.” Myra picked at her fingernails
and refused to look up at Blair.

Blair
felt the blood drain from her face. “No, you are not. Why do you even think
that?”

“Because
it was my crying while Warren held me that scared Cole so badly.” Despite the
length of time that had passed, Blair saw tears filling Myra’s eyes. “It is
every mate’s nightmare, being told the one you love is never coming home. I
really wish Cole had been spared from seeing that.”

Blair
shook her head. “You didn’t cause this, Myra. This is my mess. Whatever happens
with Cole and
myself
, all the responsibility is on my
own shoulders, not yours.”

Myra
shook her head. “You two love each other and are just too bullheaded to know
it. When you finally realize that, I will be standing there saying I told you
so.”
 
She looked at Blair with her eyes
still shining with unshed tears.

Blair
understood that look from Myra. She was up to something. She was just as bad as
Michael with her meddling. “You are up to something.” Blair gave her a
suspicious look.

 
“Yes, I am. But you go ahead and keep right
on fighting Cole. I am going to enjoy the show.”

Blair
thought about ordering Myra to mind her own business, but Myra never listened
to her.

****

Silas
Clemmons stood outside of a town that he could not find on any map. His
brother, Levi, had vanished here five years ago. When he called around to
various police departments, none of them had seen Levi. He now knew his brother
had come here to do some hunting before the snow moved in. He’d received an
email with pictures of his brother’s body lying in the snow with a man standing
over him holding a gun. The email explained that Cole Milano, the sheriff, had
shot and killed him for hunting and killing an animal. Those assholes had murdered
his brother for illegal hunting. The outrage burned in his blood. The email
gave specific directions to the town and the best way to get revenge by going
after the sheriff’s woman, Blair. She would be easy to find as she owned and
operated the local coffee and pastry shop.

 
The motherfucker that was the sheriff around
here would understand what it felt like to have someone close to them
dead.
 
Maybe he would torture her for a
while before he killed her. He would record it all, of course. Not only could
he watch it repeatedly himself, but he could know the fucking murdering bastard
would see how his girl died screaming.

****

Cole
looked over the crime scene while keeping in touch with the
cholan
that were tracking the scent of the missing girl. A sick dread filled him that
the killer that had plagued Colorado Springs, had now targeted in his county.
Stacy Bradshaw had come with her family for a weekend trip into the mountains.
It was supposed to be a fun family getaway, and now these people were in fear
for the daughter’s safety. They had good reason to fear. Stacy was ten years
old and unable to defend herself.
 
Cole
had sent the parents to one of the cabins a family around here kept as a rental,
as it was more comfortable than the motel and would give him a chance to head
off any press that might show up.

Thank
the Goddess that David Mannis was in the Child Crimes Division of the FBI. When
Cole had called him and told him the situation, he’d dropped everything and driven
over from Denver. As a panther shifter, David would know how important it was
for federal agents and the press not to stumble onto anything that would cause
suspicion. They had a lot of young shifters here, and they were not always
careful about shifting. One reporter getting a video of a young cub shifting,
and they would be forced to leave their homes due to the people arriving. Some
would be curious and hoping for a video; others would be looking for trophies.