To Faye Ulmer, everyone’s Nana

       I love you.

      CONTENTS

      CHAPTER ONE

      CHAPTER TWO

      CHAPTER THREE

      CHAPTER FOUR

      CHAPTER FIVE

      CHAPTER SIX

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      CHAPTER EIGHT

      CHAPTER NINE

      CHAPTER TEN

      CHAPTER ELEVEN

      CHAPTER TWELVE

      CHAPTER THIRTEEN

      CHAPTER FOURTEEN

      CHAPTER FIFTEEN

      CHAPTER SIXTEEN

      ONE

      “Don’t move or I’ll kill her.”

      Deputy Sheriff Eric Butler did as he was told, since the mustached stranger standing about five feet away had the new waitress at the Courthouse Café held against her will and a revolver pointed at her head.

      “We’re all cool here,” Eric said, nodding toward all the other customers and the three or four employees who had just minutes before been laughing and talking. “Nobody wants to get hurt today.” He silently prayed, asking God to keep everyone safe.

      “That’s good,” the dark-haired, sweating man said, his head bobbing up and down. Then he slanted his gaze around the room where he had ordered the kitchen staff to gather with the customers. In the kitchen, unattended food sizzled and burned on the griddle. “Everybody here, listen to the officer.”

      Acting on instinct, Eric held his hands away from his body and stared down the shaking man, wondering what kind of idiot would try to rob a restaurant right across from the courthouse in the tiny East-Texas town of Wildflower. Any number of cops and sheriff’s deputies ate here every day, and any smart criminal would have scoped the place out in advance to save both himself and everyone else grief.

      Of course, desperate people did desperate things, and this man seemed very near the brink. Eric took in the scene and tried to decide how best to handle the situation.

      Cat Murphy, the petite, no-nonsense owner of Cat’s Courthouse Café, stood just to the left of the man holding waitress Julia Daniels near a wall that gave the culprit a bird’s-eye view of both the entrance door and the kitchen. Cat’s expression showed shock, but her eyes held a kind of resolve that didn’t bode well for the grungy-looking man who’d disrupted the last minutes of the lunch hour. Cat had been married to a police officer who was killed in the line of duty. And given that Julia Daniels was related to Cat and had moved here about five months ago at Cat’s request, Cat sure wasn’t going to stand by and let anything bad happen to her. That made her not only dangerous but impulsive, too, Eric reasoned.

      But right now he was more worried about Julia. He liked her a lot, had even thought about asking her out on a date. So that made him just a tad dangerous, too. Not impulsive like motherly Cat, yet dangerous just the same. But he had to protect Julia and everybody else in here, somehow. Help me, Lord.

      The other diners had stopped eating to stare with fright at the man and woman in the corner of the room. And Eric’s buddy and fellow deputy Adam Dupont was sitting across from Eric, his trigger finger itching from the way the pulse was pounding in his jawline.

      “Steady,” Eric whispered to Adam. “He looks real serious about using that gun.”

      “Shut up!” The robber’s fidgety, shifting gaze moved from Eric to Adam. “I mean it, man. You two need to take out your guns and slide them across the floor.”

      Eric glanced at his friend, sending Adam a silent message. Then he nodded. Best not to argue with the man holding the gun to the blonde’s head. Besides, she looked as pale as a ghost, her big gold-green eyes widening each time the gun was pressed harder against her temple.

      Carefully, with one hand in the air, both deputies took out their weapons. “Okay,” Eric said. “I’m gonna send them both your way.”

      The robber nodded, then waited, watching intently as Eric did as he’d promised. The only sound in the tiny café was that of weapons hitting linoleum and fat hitting the grill as the guns flew across the black-and-white-patterned floor.

      “What do you want?” Julia managed to ask the man, her tone shaky.

      The man holding Julia glanced around, hesitant at first, sweat popping out on his forehead. He eyed the back of Julia’s head so close to his own, then glanced around the restaurant as if he were looking for something or someone. Then his gaze skittered to the counter near the kitchen.

      “I need some cash,” the burly man replied, lifting his chin toward the back of the restaurant. “All of it.”

      Cat nodded. “I’ll have to go behind the cash register. Don’t hurt Julia, okay. You can have the money, but you don’t need to hurt anyone.”

      “Shut up and get it.” Then he pressed the gun closer to Julia’s tousled hair a little harder. “And let me worry about Julia.”

      The robber shifted around, facing Cat as she slowly moved toward the counter in the far corner of the room, forcing Julia to turn. “And if anybody tries anything, I’ll kill her.”

      Eric watched as Julia pivoted around with the man, her willowy frame shaking, her shoulder-length golden hair swishing over her black-and-white uniform. The woman was terrified, but she was cooperating. That showed she had common sense at least. He just prayed she wouldn’t try anything crazy, like fighting this man. He stared at her, willing her to let Adam and him do their jobs.

      Her gaze met Eric’s and held. She seemed to be silently screaming a message at him. He could see the plea in her eyes, could almost feel exactly what she was thinking: What about my little girl? What will happen to her if I die?

      He knew from hearing Julia and Cat chattering away as they worked that Julia was Cat’s cousin and she was a widow with an eight-year-old daughter named Moria. And he also knew that she was a devoted mother. He’d seen both mother and child in church last Sunday.

      He wanted to see both of them there again next Sunday, too. So he held her gaze, hoping he could relay a sense of calm to her. He sat silently, his mind screaming for her to hold on. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise. He inclined his head just an inch, but it seemed to be enough to give her courage. She lifted her chin a notch in response.

      Eric tore his gaze away, then tilted his head toward Adam. They’d worked together for the past seven years, to the point where they could almost read each other’s minds. He hoped Adam was doing that very thing right now. They needed a distraction.

      But they also needed to be very, very careful so no one in here would end up dead.

      Especially the pretty blonde who’d only lived in Wildflower for a few months. Julia might be new to the area and new to the café, but she was already a favorite among the lunch crowd.

      Eric liked Julia, even though he didn’t know that much about her. He surely wasn’t going to sit by and witness something horrible happening to a hardworking, quiet, pretty woman who didn’t bother anyone. No, sir. That wasn’t gonna happen. Not today, at least. And not before he’d had some of Cat’s famous hamburger steak and mashed potatoes.

      Be still and know that I am God. That verse played through Julia’s head, so she stood still and decided to keep her eyes on the deputy sheriff. There was something about Eric Butler that