The Sheriff’s Christmas Surprise Read online

  “I’d be careful how I phrase that if I were you,” Rick warned her.

  Olivia felt her back going up. She’d been through a lot these past few days and there was precious little left to her patience. “I’m a lawyer, I don’t get careless with words, Sheriff.”

  “And there’s abandonment,” Lupe chimed in, speaking up for the first time. “You could get this guy for that.”

  The word “abandonment” suddenly sank in. Olivia realized that with her mind racing a hundred miles an hour and going off in all different directions at once, she’d gotten so caught up in finding the baby, she hadn’t asked the sheriff a very basic question. There was a huge chunk of information she was missing.

  “What are you doing with my nephew in the first place, Sheriff? Why do you even have him?”

  “I found your nephew on my doorstep this morning when I was leaving for work,” he informed her matter-of-factly.

  “On your doorstep?” Olivia echoed, stunned. “That’s impossible. Tina would have never let Bobby out of her sight.” She paled as a possible explanation came to her. “Unless something’s happened to her.” Her eyes widened as she caught hold of the sheriff’s arm, a sense of urgency telegraphing itself from her to him. “Sheriff, you’ve got to help me find—”

  “Don’t go getting ahead of yourself,” Rick told her. He thought of one plausible explanation, although it was a stretch. “Maybe your sister figured that what was ahead was too dangerous for the little guy.”

  He was being kind, making up an excuse to calm the blonde with the ice-blue eyes. In his heart, though, he believed that perhaps the woman’s sister had gotten bored with playing house and had decided to abandon her latest toy, leaving him in the first place that came up. Maybe they’d passed his place on their way out of town and impulsively decided to drop the baby off on his doorstep.

  Technically, his mother had done that, Rick thought, leaving him and his younger sister, Ramona, with her mother-in-law. He could still remember what she’d looked like as she’d promised to be “back soon.”

  “Soon” had turned into close to eighteen years. By the time she actually had returned, he didn’t need her, or her lies, in his life. She’d come back too late. He’d grown up with a substitute mother, his tough-as-nails grandmother, molding his life and Mona’s. Maria Elena had been a hard taskmaster, but her heart had been in the right place and she had made him the man he was today. And for that, he would always be grateful to the pint-size martinet.

  “Or maybe Don felt that the baby was dragging them down and he told my sister to get rid of Bobby—or else,” Olivia said.

  “But he is the baby’s father, isn’t he?” Lupe asked, horrified.

  “The baby’s his,” Olivia allowed slowly. “But it takes more than getting a woman pregnant to make a man a father,” she said with feeling, raising her chin.

  Rick saw the anger in her eyes and found the sparks oddly fascinating.

  “That vermin has no more of an idea on how to be a father than a panther knows how to walk around in high heels,” Olivia declared angrily.

  “Interesting imagery,” Rick commented. He glanced down at her feet and saw that she was wearing fashionable shoes whose heels could have doubled as stilts. They had to be around five inches. How did she manage to walk around in them?

  “Feet hurt?” he guessed.

  They did, but that was something else she wasn’t about to admit. Besides, she’d gotten used to the dull ache.

  “No,” she denied. “Why do you ask?”

  “Haven’t seen heels that high since the circus came through a couple of years ago.” He glanced at her shoes again, shaking his head. The women he knew were given to jeans and boots. But on the other hand, he had to admit the woman had a great set of legs. Best he’d seen in a very long time. “They just look like they might hurt.”

  She lifted the shoulder the baby wasn’t leaning against in a partial shrug. Bobby’d fallen asleep and she wasn’t about to disturb him. Olivia lowered her voice. “That all depends on what you get used to,” she told him, the inflection in her voice distant.

  The woman wasn’t kidding when she said she knew her way around words. “I suppose you have a point. By the way,” he said, and extended his hand toward her. “I’m Sheriff Enrique Santiago—Rick for short.”

  There was no way this man came up short in any category, Olivia caught herself thinking before she blocked any more personal observations.

  Where was her mind?

  Impatient with her oversight—names should have been exchanged immediately—rather than put her hand into his, she wrapped her fingers around his hand, automatically assuming the dominant position. “Olivia Blayne.”

  “Olivia?” he echoed. She couldn’t tell if the sheriff was amused or charmed. “Now there’s a name you don’t hear every day.” Amused, she decided, he definitely sounded amused. Why? “What do they call you?” he asked.

  Undoubtedly he was waiting for her to render up a nickname, something along the lines of “Livy,” or maybe “Livia.” He couldn’t possibly be thinking of “Olive,” she thought in horror. That name conjured up the image of a certain tall, skinny cartoon character from her childhood days.

  There’d been a boy in the neighborhood, an older boy—nine to her seven—Sloan something-or-other, who’d teased her mercilessly. He’d called her Olive because she had been that skinny back then. The nickname had turned into the driving force that motivated her to not only put some meat on her bones, but to get fit as well. She’d been relentless about the latter in her teens.

  “Olivia,” she informed him tersely. Only Tina got to call her something else. Tina called her Livy, but right now, Olivia didn’t know if she was up to hearing that name.

  Many thoughts crowded her head. She was far too worried that something had happened to her sister. She was absolutely certain that Tina would have never just left Bobby like that. Not unless she wasn’t around to prevent it.

  Don’t go there!

  If it turned out, mercifully, that Tina was all right, she was going to kill her sister with her bare hands for putting her through this, Olivia thought angrily.

  She took a deep breath, forcing the dark thoughts into the background. Instead, she focused on the infant sleeping on her shoulder. Focused on how good, how soothing that felt, to know that he was safe and that he was here, with her. It allowed her to pretend, just for the moment, that everything would be all right. That Tina was all right.

  “Where are you from?” Rick asked.

  “Dallas,” she told him. A look she couldn’t read came into his eyes. “We’re both from Dallas.”

  That was over four hundred miles away. She was a long way from home. “How did you happen to track them to Forever?”

  “Luck,” she replied. Because she could feel his eyes on her, waiting, she elaborated. “Tina called a friend of hers, Rachel. She told Rachel that she thought she’d made a mistake, but it was too late to change things. Rachel knew I was looking for Tina so she kept Tina on as long as she could. I have a…” Olivia hesitated for a moment, looking for the right word, then settled on “friend at the cell phone’s service center.”

  There was no need to say that Warner had also been someone she’d once cared about until things got too serious, spooking her. For now, maybe forever, she was committed to her career and her sister—and Bobby—and that was more than enough.

  “He managed to get the location of Tina’s last call to Rachel triangulated. I used the coordinates and came here instead of Nuevo Laredo,” she said, mentioning another small town in the area. And then an idea occurred to her as she said the name. “Maybe that’s where they went,” she said hopefully.

  “Easy enough to check out,” he told her. “You have a picture of your sister?”

  Olivia smiled in response. It was a confident smile, the kind that lit up a room, and a man if he happened to be in the path of it, Rick speculated.

  Shifting slowly so that she didn’t wa
ke the baby, she told Rick, “I can do better than that.” Yes, he thought, I’m sure you can.

  The next second, he upbraided himself for his lack of focus.

  She put her hand into her purse, rifling around, searching for the copy of the picture she’d almost forgotten to bring with her. She’d had to double back to the condo in order to pick it up. Finally locating the object of her search, she pulled it out and held it up for him to see.

  “It’s a picture of my sister with the slime.”

  Rick bit the inside of his mouth to keep from laughing. He had a feeling that Olivia Blayne would interpret it as laughing at her and wouldn’t appreciate it.

  Chapter Three

  Rick studied the photograph he’d been handed.

  “Not bad looking, as far as slime goes,” he commented.

  The woman in the photograph looked more like a girl, really, and clearly resembled her older sister. They had the same golden-color hair, like a spring sunrise in the desert. The same bone structure as well, but while on the girl, it appeared almost too delicate, on the woman in the diner, it seemed far more classic and refined. He could see her moving with ease through influential circles in high society.

  Indicating the photograph, he looked back at Olivia. “Mind if I hang on to this for a bit? I’d like to send it out with the APB.” Realizing that he was guilty of just tossing around initials that she might not be familiar with, he began to explain, “That’s an—”

  “All points bulletin,” she concluded for him. “Yes I know. You don’t have to stop to break things down to their lowest level for me, Sheriff. I am familiar with some of the terms used in law enforcement.” And then, because she needed something to hang on to, something to reassure her, despite her facade of confidence and bravado, that Tina was all right, she asked, “Did you happen to see my sister when she was in town?”

  Rick took another glance at the photograph. Though he sensed she wanted to ask him questions about her sister, about her condition and how she’d seemed to him, he’d seen neither of the two individuals she attempted to locate.

  He shook his head. “Sorry, I didn’t.”

  Miss Joan ceased overcleaning the counter and spoke up. “I did.”

  Olivia instantly gravitated toward the owner of the diner. “How did she look? Was she all right?” Though Olivia had never seen any firsthand evidence of it, she strongly suspected that Don had a temper. Without a hovering older sister, he’d be free to treat Tina any way that he wanted to.

  The very thought brought a numbing chill down her spine.

  An intuitive look came into Miss Joan’s kind hazel eyes. “I didn’t see any bruises, if that’s what you’re asking,” the older woman told her. “But your sister did look like she could do with a decent meal and about a day’s sleep. I felt sorry for her, but there wasn’t anything anyone could do.” There was more than a trace of regret in Miss Joan’s voice. “The guy she was with kept her on a real short leash. And he didn’t seem too happy about this little fella fussing and crying,” she added, nodding toward Bobby. “In my opinion, someone needs to take that boy behind the barn for a good whopping.”

  Rick could see the woman beside him growing progressively tenser. Olivia’s hands fisted, even as they held the sleeping baby against her, and her expression hardened.

  “Shooting him would be better,” Olivia murmured with feeling.

  He had a feeling she meant it. The woman certainly wasn’t the squeamish type, he thought. The sooner he tracked down the missing pair and sent them all on their way, the better.

  Sliding off the stool, he saw the question in her eyes. “I’m going to go post that APB, see if anyone’s seen your sister and her boyfriend. You wouldn’t happen to know the kind of car they were driving, would you?”

  Not only did she know the kind of car they were driving, she rattled off the make, the model, the color and the license plate for him in a single breath, right down to the long scratch on the driver’s side bumper.

  “You’ve got a good eye,” Rick commented, impressed. In his experience, women who looked like Olivia Blayne didn’t know their way around cars, much less absorb that much about them.

  “I’ve got a good memory,” she corrected. “Don doesn’t have two nickels to rub together. The car belongs to Tina. I bought it for her when she graduated high school.”

  “Wish I had a sister like you,” Lupe said wistfully. A look from Miss Joan had her going back to filling sugar dispensers.

  Rick hadn’t heard what Lupe said. He was busy studying Olivia, trying to get a handle on her. She sounded more like an indulgent parent than an older sister.

  Aware of the sheriff’s penetrating scrutiny, Olivia called him on it. “What?”

  “Let me get this straight. You bought your sister a car. If I understood correctly what you said, she lives with you and you took in her no-account boyfriend even when you didn’t want to.” Most women Olivia’s age either lived on their own or with a lover, not a younger sister and that sister’s deadbeat boyfriend. At least not if they could afford a place of their own, as she so obviously could.

  Olivia seemed impatient for him to get to the point. “Yes?”

  “Well, looking at those kinds of facts, I’d guess that you were compensating for something.” His eyes held hers. She knew she could turn away at any time, but she decided to face him down. “Were you?” he pressed.

  Her first impulse was to indignantly say no, but she wouldn’t cut this short. She’d always zealously guarded her privacy, hers and Tina’s. Her second impulse was to tell this would-be Columbo in boots and a Stetson that it was none of his damn business and just walk away. But she couldn’t.

  She needed him.

  Finding Tina would take a lot longer if she went about it on her own and the man had resources he could tap. Those resources could prove very useful and time saving in the long run.

  Besides, she assumed that he was familiar with the area. She definitely wasn’t. That all added up in his favor, even if he was too nosy for her own good.

  Since the sheriff continued watching her, quietly waiting for a response, she had to tell him something. Otherwise, she ran the risk of alienating the man. And while alienating people normally didn’t bother her, this time it might prove to be a liability.

  Oh, damn it, Tina, why couldn’t you just stay put? Why are you such a flake? What would Mom and Dad say if they were alive now?

  If they were alive now, none of this would have happened. Tina had adored their father and would never have done anything to incur his disapproval.

  Instead, Tina had become involved with someone who had no redeeming qualities whatsoever, gotten pregnant and then irresponsibly run off. And on top of that, from at least outward appearances, she’d abandoned her baby. Something like that could get her locked up for a long time in a place like this, Olivia thought.

  After a moment’s debate, she decided to tell the sheriff something she didn’t normally share. None of the people at the firm where she worked were aware of this. But maybe if Santiago knew, it would make him go easier on Tina.

  Right now, she could see that he wasn’t about to nominate her sister for Mother of the Year, or even of the hour. And she just wanted to take Tina and the baby home, not hang around to do battle over any kind of charges he would want to bring against her sister.

  Taking a breath and mentally bracing herself for the words she was about to say, Olivia began. “Ten years ago, my parents were gunned down in the jewelry store they operated.” The corners of her mouth curved in a humorless smile. “Gunned down for two hundred twenty-three dollars and seventeen cents. That was all the money that was in the register. The rest were credit card receipts that did the thieves no good.

  “My sister,” Olivia continued grimly, “was in the store at the time, in the back, doing her homework. The gunmen never saw her, but she saw them and what they did. I couldn’t get her to talk for a week.”

  She remembered rushing home from college.
Remembered the awful, empty feeling inside her as she’d identified the lifeless bodies of the people who had once filled the corners of her world so richly, so lovingly.

  “Tina started acting out shortly after that, getting into fights at school. Crying at the drop of a hat. She was always afraid to go out by herself, always looking over her shoulder.” Olivia looked up at him and lifted one shoulder in an almost hapless shrug. “I did what I could to make her feel safe.”

  Rick didn’t follow her reasoning. “By giving her things?” he asked.

  Olivia inclined her head. “Among other things,” she allowed. She could see the sheriff didn’t understand. Most men wouldn’t, she supposed. “Possessions give you a feeling of stability, of continuity. Owning something feels good.”

  Rick laughed shortly. The sideways logic interested him, not that he bought into it.

  “Then Ed Murphy must feel really stable,” he commented. When she raised a quizzical eyebrow in response, he told her, “Ed’s one of Forever’s more eccentric citizens. He’s always pawing through things other people throw out. A lot of that stuff finds its way into Ed’s one-bedroom house. I hear it’s like a rat’s nest in there these days.”

  She didn’t know if he was just relating a quaint story or subtly ridiculing her. Sheriff Enrique Santiago looked like a simple man on the surface—sexy as all hell, but simple—but she had a strong suspicion that beneath those prominent cheekbones was a rather shrewd, logical man.

  For now, she decided to reserve her final judgment, at least for a little while. She hadn’t gotten to the position of junior partner in her rather highly regarded, high-profile firm so quickly by making hasty decisions and snap judgments.

  “About that APB,” she prodded.

  “On it,” he assured her. With that, he turned on his heel and started for the door. When she followed him, shadowing him step for step to the door, he stopped short. “Are you coming with me?”

  She smiled. “Can’t put anything over on you, can I?” she asked in what she hoped he’d take to be a teasing manner. She had to keep reminding herself not to get on his wrong side and that she needed him.