Her Lawman Protector. Patricia Johns
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CHAPTER ONE
LIV HYLTON CRACKED open a box of books, uncovering glossy paperback covers. The smell of new books never ceased to hit her brain right in the pleasure center. She was still filling shelves in her brand-new bookshop in Eagle’s Rest, Colorado, and she was a stickler for variety. One thing she hated in a bookstore was having access only to the ten top sellers. Sometimes she didn’t want a bestseller. Sometimes she wanted a fresh discovery, a delightful distraction...and Hylton Books was going to provide just that to the tourists who came for skiing each winter and for Eagle’s Rest Lake in the summer.
With the leaves changing to their brilliant autumn foliage, the tourists were gone—an ideal time to be doing the grunt work of opening a new business. She’d have everything streamlined by ski season.
Liv pulled a hand through her hair and heaved a sigh. Her jeans had shrunk one too many times, and they were getting uncomfortably tight. That’s what she was telling herself, at least. She’d gained weight, but she was done with diets. After ten years of marriage, where she constantly struggled to lose weight, she wasn’t doing that to herself anymore. At the age of thirty-two, this was her body—no more punishment.
The newly installed shelves were high—a sliding library ladder attached at one side of the store and could be swept along to whichever point along the wall it was needed. That had been hard to come by, but a local contractor had gotten his hands on an old sliding ladder from an archives building in Denver, and it all had come together rather nicely. Like it was meant to be.
Morning light spilled from the display window onto the front counter, and her gaze drifted toward the creased note that lay next to a pile of mystery novels. She’d found the paper on the floor that morning, shoved through the mail slot. It was a simple piece of computer paper with letters cut from magazines—creepy. The last two notes she’d tossed out, thinking they were a prank by some local kids, but this one had settled into her gut and left her nervous.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Go on back and leave us alone or you’ll regret it.
This note sounded darker than the others and less logical. Warn her about what? And how was she bothering anyone in Eagle’s Rest? She’d been born here, gone to Eagle’s Rest Elementary back when there was only one elementary school in town. Her grandparents, who’d already passed away, had settled here after they got married. Everyone she’d talked to seemed really excited about a bookstore coming to town. So, go back? To Denver, where she’d lived the past ten years with her ex?
The implied snarl and the confusing logic behind the note chilled her. She didn’t think she had any enemies here, but maybe she was wrong about that. Whoever had left this note didn’t seem stable, and who knew what an unstable person would do for their own convoluted reasons? She’d called the police station as soon as she’d read the note, and they’d promised to send an officer down.
Liv flipped through the stack of mysteries, putting the books in alphabetical order. But her mind wasn’t fixed on the work at hand, and she glanced out the front window at the sun-dappled sidewalk. She was waiting for the officer to arrive. It wasn’t that she thought there was some special magic in a cop’s eyes moving over that page. Her ex was a cop, so she knew their limitations, but if they could at least put this into the system, pass around a memo that she was being threatened—something! Maybe she could give local cops a deep discount for shopping at her store and keep a visible police presence on this street. That was an idea.
A small, jagged part of her missed having a cop husband...missed the implied protection. But that was over now, and it was time to face life like everyone else did.
Liv brushed her hands down her hips, wiping the dust from her palms. Behind her, there was a tap on the window. Liv recognized the blue uniform but couldn’t make out a face. In her heart, whenever she saw that uniform, it was Evan’s smile that popped into her mind, and she was left feeling that mixture of heartbreak and anger all over again. Whatever. An officer had arrived. She wanted someone to look at the note and give her an honest answer—should she be worried or not? She crossed the store and unfastened the dead bolt on the front door. She pulled it open, and as the officer looked up, she stopped short.
She knew this cop—but not from Eagle’s Rest. This was one of Evan’s colleagues from Denver. She gave him a quizzical look.
“Hi, Liv.” He smiled hesitantly. He was tall and broad, solidly muscled, and “cop” seemed to ooze out of his pores. He had that professionally distant look about him, both comforting and disconcerting at once. But he had a gentleness around the edges, too. Jack always had been a good-looking guy.
“Jack Talbott?” she said. “What are you doing here?”
“I transferred. I’m now stationed in Eagle’s Rest.”
“Seriously?” That was weird—her hometown wasn’t exactly well-known. “And what did you do to deserve the demotion?”
Cops didn’t angle for small-town positions. They all wanted more action, like in Denver.
“It’s a faster climb to chief in a place this size,” he said with an impish smile. “I requested it.”
That might be true, but it was still a weird coincidence. He stepped past her over the threshold and ran a hand through his sandy blond hair. She was struck by the sheer size of him. How often did he pump weights to be that beefy?
“The place looks good,” Jack said. His brown gaze swept around the shop, landing once more on her.
She nodded, accepting his compliment. It did look good in here, and she was proud of it, but she had more pressing concerns right now. “Are you here for the note?”
“That was the idea,” Jack said. “This it?”
He reached for the paper on the countertop and pulled out an evidence bag.
“I’ve held it, touched it, smoothed it...” She winced. “I’m sorry. Of all people, I should know better than that.”
Jack put the paper into a bag anyway and regarded it for a moment.
“So who’s mad at you, Liv?”
“No idea.”
He looked over at her, and she could see that he didn’t quite believe her. That rankled.
“I don’t know,” she said more firmly. “I grew up here. I wasn’t anyone of consequence. I wasn’t beautiful or cruel. I didn’t even have a boyfriend until I left Eagle’s Rest for college. I have no idea who I managed to tick off.”
“Okay...” He nodded. “If you suspect anyone, you need to tell me, though.”
“Is this serious?” she asked.
“It’s...” He nodded again. “Yeah, it’s definitely concerning. When there are personal threats like this one and law enforcement doesn’t take it seriously enough, that’s when tragedy strikes.”
Liv’s heart sped up, and she crossed her arms over her chest as if that might protect her somehow.
“There were two others. But those were handwritten, and...” She sighed. “Looking back they were probably more useful to you. But I didn’t think they were serious.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. I thought they were kids being dumb, or a prank. The last thing I wanted to do was go to the cops and have some juvenile cousin laughing at me for being so jumpy. They just didn’t seem like an actual threat.”
“Until now.” He lifted up the note.
“Until now,” she agreed.
“Where are the other notes?” he asked.
“The garbage. I just...tossed them.” She sighed. “So who would do this? What do you think it is?”
“Do you