The Protector Read online

  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.