Ever since forensics analyst Shaye Mallory survived a police-station shootout, Detective Cole Walker has felt personally responsible for her well-being. Then another shooter takes aim at Shaye. Cole decides the only thing he can do is stay right by her side until he finds the man who wants her dead.

Cole knows that he must set aside his attraction to Shaye if he’s going to do his job. But as the days—and nights—go on, it becomes harder and harder to resist his feelings. And, as danger moves ever closer to them both, Shaye realizes that her safety might cost her the life of the man she loves.

The Lawmen: Bullets and Brawn

“Shaye!”

“Cole?”

Her voice was weak, but relief hit him hard, a wave that almost took him to his knees. She was alive.

He rounded the second car and found her huddled near the back tire. The flat back tire, Cole realized. The gunman’s final shot must have just missed her.

But relief was short-lived, because she was hit. There was a trail of blood alongside the car, as if she’d dragged herself here. He yanked his cell phone out, calling Monica directly. “Gunman ran east out of Roy’s parking lot, on foot. Male, white, average height and build, wearing jeans and a dark hoodie, carrying at least one pistol. Send backup. And get me an ambulance to Roy’s, right now.”

He barely paused as he knelt next to Shaye, who was abnormally pale, her freckles standing out more than usual against her porcelain skin, her red hair tangled around her face and her pretty brown eyes huge. “Talk to me. Are you okay?”

Police Protector

Elizabeth Heiter

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ELIZABETH HEITER likes her suspense to feature strong heroines, chilling villains, psychological twists and a little romance. Her research has taken her into the minds of serial killers, through murder investigations and onto the FBI Academy’s shooting range. Elizabeth graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English literature. She’s a member of International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. Visit Elizabeth at www.elizabethheiter.com.

It’s amazing to have friends who’ve been by your side since childhood. Robbie Terman, Jaime Pulliam, Julie Gabe and Esi Akaah—this one’s for you!

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Paula Eykelhof, Kayla King, Denise Zaza and everyone involved in bringing Police Protector to readers. Thanks to my family and friends for their endless support, especially my “usual suspects”: Kevan Lyon, Chris Heiter, Robbie Terman, Andrew Gulli, Kathryn Merhar, Caroline Heiter, Kristen Kobet, Ann Forsaith, Charles Shipps, Sasha Orr, Nora Smith and Mark Nalbach.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Acknowledgments

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

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Epilogue

Extract

Chapter One

She’d made it.

Shaye Mallory smiled as she juggled two bags of groceries and headed toward her ten-year-old sedan at the far end of the grocery store parking lot. She’d been back to work at Maryland’s Jannis County forensics lab for a full week now.

A full week where no one had shot at her.

It felt like a good reason for a celebration, so tonight’s trip to the grocery store had included a big carton of chocolate-chunk ice cream. She tried not to feel too pathetic that she’d be having that celebration all by herself on a Friday night in her living room with an old movie and spoonful after spoonful of sugar.

But she’d lived in Maryland for only two years. She’d moved out here for the computer specialist job. She worked with police officers in her role, but bullets had seemed as foreign to her as living alone, far away from her big family. When she’d left the forensics lab last year after the shooting, most of those friendships had eventually lapsed. At the job she’d taken in tech support before returning to the lab, she’d kept mostly to herself. Although she had friends, there wasn’t anyone close enough to tell she wanted to celebrate going a week without being shot at or having a nervous breakdown. And celebrating with her family over video chat seemed way too pathetic, not to mention that it would get them worried about her all over again.

The truth was today was a milestone for her. A year ago, when she’d quit the job, she’d sworn she’d never return. Never walk back into the forensics lab parking lot—one that was shared with the Jannis City Police Department—where she’d watched three officers die. Where she’d hit the pavement, panicking as shots rang out, having no way to defend herself, knowing she was going to be next.

The shiver of fear that bolted up her spine now was just a memory, Shaye told herself, repositioning her bags so she could dig out her car key. She’d worked late tonight, but when she’d arrived at the store, the parking lot had been relatively full. Apparently she’d spent too long inside debating treats because now it was nearly empty. She forced herself not to spin around, not to check her surroundings, not to give in to the paranoia that had caused her more than one moment of embarrassment over the past week.

But she’d done it. She’d conquered her fear and finally called the forensics lab back, finally accepted their offers to return to her old job.

Every single time she’d walked into the parking lot where the shooting had happened, she’d felt a near-paralyzing fear. She’d frozen more than once before stepping out of her car, but she’d done it. And each day she’d paused for slightly less time before gathering the courage to run for the lab.

But everything was getting back to normal now, Shaye reminded herself. Soon—hopefully—she’d hardly even remember feeling afraid.

If only she could say that right now. She stopped ignoring the tingle at the back of her neck and glanced around the vacant lot, dimly lit with bulbs and two cars, barely keeping hold of her groceries as she slid her key into her door. She swore as one of the bags ripped and started sliding out of her hands.

She dropped to her knees, trying to catch the bag before eggs broke everywhere, and then a boom she’d recognize anywhere rang out. A gunshot.

She panicked, and her feet slid out from underneath her, sending groceries smashing to the ground. Then another gunshot split the night air, and pain exploded in her hip.

Dropping lower to the ground, Shaye looked around the parking lot, certain she’d see that same rusted-out sedan with the spinning rims from a year ago cruising to a stop, gang members leaning out the windows with semiautomatics. Instead she saw a lone figure running across the dark parking lot toward her, a weapon in his hands.

Shaye whimpered, her blood racing through her veins so fast her whole body started to shake as blood spread on the leg of her khakis. Not again. And this time she was all alone. No Cole Walker, heroic police detective and star in too many of her fantasies, to save her.

Fear overrode her ability to think clearly as her brain went back to that horrible evening when gang members had tried to get revenge on the police station for investigating them. She’d been dawdling as she’d left the lab, hanging out closer to the station than her own building, hoping for a chance to run into Cole, when the gunfire started. Shoving the memories back, she glanced up at the key in her car door. Could she get it unlocked, get inside and start the car fast enough?

She looked back toward the shooter, who’d made it halfway to her and stopped to line up another shot through the lot’s dim lighting.

Pressing her feet hard against the concrete, Shaye launched herself toward the front of her car. She heard another bullet hit—probably her car—but didn’t stop to check.

Adrenaline pumped so hard she couldn’t feel the bullet wound on her leg, or the nasty scrapes she knew she’d made on her hands and knees when she’d shoved herself along the concrete. She kept going, her heart thudding in her eardrums as she scurried around to the other side of her car. It wouldn’t be a barrier for long, but now he’d have to get closer to hit her.

There was another car ten feet away. If she could make a run for it, dart for new cover while he was trying to move closer, maybe it would give someone inside time to call the police. Or another vehicle would pull into the lot and scare him off. She scrambled to her knees and got ready to race for the other car, but the sound of footsteps pounded toward her too quickly, and she knew she’d never make it in time.

A sob lodged in her throat as she readied herself to make a run for it anyway, one last desperate effort to survive when she knew she was going to fail. She’d lived through the shooting at the lab, actually conquered her fears enough to return to that job, and now she was going to die in a supermarket parking lot.

* * *

“SHOTS FIRED AT Roy’s Grocery.”

The call came in over his radio, and Cole Walker scowled at it, then pressed the button and replied. “Detective Walker. I’m a minute out. Responding.”

He punched the gas as Monica’s voice came back to him, “Aren’t you off duty, Detective?”

It was a rhetorical question, so he didn’t bother answering. A cop was never really off duty.

“We believe there’s a single gunman in the parking lot,” Monica advised him. “Call came in from the owner, who thinks there’s at least one customer out there, too. No other information at this time.”

“Got it,” he muttered, not bothering to key the radio. It didn’t really matter what information they had; with shots fired, they always reacted as though there could be more gunmen. Ever since the shooting at the station last year, calls about gunfire spurred extra caution.

That thought instantly made an image of Shaye Mallory form in his head. He wouldn’t have been anywhere near Roy’s Grocery, except he’d been on his way—uninvited—to her house. And the store was only a few miles down the road from her. His gaze caught on the champagne bottle with a ribbon on it that rolled off his seat and smacked the floor as he whipped his truck into the grocery store parking lot.

The store had crappy lighting, but he zoned in on the shooter immediately. The man glanced back at him, a hoodie obscuring his face, and then darted around one of two cars in the lot, firing at something—or someone—behind it before sprinting around the corner.

Cole hit the gas, scanning the parking lot for any sign of additional shooters. But he saw no one as he raced past the first car. He was ready to continue past the second after the shooter when his mind registered the make and model of the first one—he recognized it. He slammed on the brakes, yanked his truck into Park and had his weapon out of its holster before he’d even cleared the door.

“Shaye!”

“Cole?”

Her voice was weak, but relief hit him hard, a wave that almost took him to his knees. She was alive.

He rounded the second car and found her huddled near the back tire. The flat back tire, Cole realized. The gunman’s final shot must have just missed her.

But relief was short-lived because she was hit. There was a trail of blood alongside the car, as if she’d dragged herself here. He yanked his cell phone out, calling Monica directly. “Gunman ran east out of Roy’s parking lot on foot. Male, white, average height and build, wearing jeans and a dark hoodie, carrying at least one pistol. Send backup. And get me an ambulance to Roy’s right now.”

He didn’t wait for an answer, but tucked his phone against his shoulder, holstered his weapon and found the source of all that blood. It was coming from her right leg, up near her hip. Finding where the bullet had entered, he grabbed the fabric of her khakis and ripped so he could see the wound.

“Hey,” she complained, but her voice was even weaker, and she leaned her head against the car as he prodded carefully around her wound.

It was bleeding badly, but not as badly as it would have been if the shooter had gotten a major artery. He slid his hand down into the leg of her pants around to the back of her thigh and found what he suspected. An exit wound. The bullet had gone straight through.

“How bad is it?” Shaye whispered, her eyelids dropping to half-mast.

“You’re going to be fine,” he promised.

“What’s happening?” Monica asked in his ear. “Backup is close. Two minutes out.”

He cursed inwardly, hoping the shooter wouldn’t be long gone before officers arrived. Two minutes was too long. This guy had shot Shaye. Cole wanted him in handcuffs now.

Monica’s voice sounded in his ear again. “I’m getting that ambulance now.”

“Cancel it.” Cole shifted his weight and warned Shaye, “This might hurt a little.” Then he wiped the blood on his hands onto the leg of his pants and scooped her into his arms. “Shaye Mallory was hit,” he said into his phone as Shaye’s arms went around his neck and she tucked her head against his chest, almost before he saw her wince with pain and clamp her jaw closed.

“I’m driving her to the hospital myself,” he told Monica as he hurried back to his truck, deposited her in the passenger seat and then ran around to the driver’s side. “I’ll call you when we get there. Send me updates as they come in,” he said, then hung up the phone and hopped in the truck, yanking it back into Drive.

As he sped out of the parking lot, Shaye asked, “Were you on your way to a date?”

“What?” He frowned over at her, both at the oddity of her question and the way her voice sounded like she was in a daze.

She gestured to her feet, and he looked down, realizing she was talking about the bottle of champagne on his floorboard, which was still miraculously unbroken.

“That was for you,” he replied, seeing her confusion before he yanked his attention back onto the road and drove as fast as he could through the surface streets toward the freeway.

“For me?”

“Put pressure on your wound,” he said, instead of explaining that he’d gotten it to celebrate her returning to work.

He risked a glance at her as her head dropped forward. As if she’d just realized how much blood there was, she pressed both hands down frantically against her leg.

She was coming out of her shock. He’d seen enough shooting victims to know what was coming next: panic.

He tried to stave it off as he merged onto the freeway and punched it up to ninety. “We’ll be at the hospital in three minutes,” he promised, keeping his tone calm despite the fear he felt. “You’re fine. It’s a flesh wound. I know it looks like a lot, but the bullet went through and you haven’t lost enough blood for it to be a problem.”

He’d seen enough bullet wounds to know when they were life threatening. But he’d also seen enough to know that sometimes they surprised you. He’d seen people operate on adrenaline, actually getting up and running, when their injuries said they should already be dead. And he’d seen minor wounds turn fatal.

Not for Shaye, he promised himself, speeding off the freeway. A few more too-fast turns and then he made an illegal turn into the hospital parking lot and slammed to a stop. He tossed his key at the valet and ran around the other side to open Shaye’s door.

An orderly was coming their way with a wheelchair, but Cole ignored him, reaching in to lift Shaye himself. If it was possible, she looked even more pale and terrified, reminding him of that day almost exactly a year ago and the drive-by at the station. Shaye had been caught in the middle of it all.

“Why does this keep happening?” she whispered, then promptly passed out.

Chapter Two

Shaye woke in a hospital bed, a warm blanket pulled up to her chin and a frowning nurse strapping a blood pressure cuff to her arm.

“How are you feeling?”

She’d recognize that voice anywhere. Shaye turned her head, and there was Cole, perched at the edge of a chair next to her bed, his reddish-blond hair rumpled and concern etched onto his normally laid-back expression.

Embarrassment heated her. Had she actually fainted?

Okay, yes, she was a lab rat, and gun battles—except for the gang shooting that still gave her nightmares—were way outside her experience. But she’d managed to make a run for that second car, hiding until Cole had magically arrived. She’d managed to stay relatively cool until they’d made it safely to the hospital.

Yet she’d fainted in front of Jannis’s best detective, the guy who’d led the charge to bring down the entire gang’s network after that shooting. Cole was one of the bravest people she knew.

And she was most definitely not.

“I’m okay,” she said, surprised when her voice came out weak. She realized just how tired she was.

“We stitched up your wound,” the nurse told her, jotting something down and then taking the blood pressure cuff off her arm. “You were lucky—it went straight through and didn’t hit anything crucial. The doctor is going to want to watch your vitals for a few hours, but then we’ll send you home. You should be feeling fine in a few days.”

Shaye nodded, trying not to focus on the dread she’d felt as soon as the nurse mentioned leaving the hospital. Would she ever feel safe again? Or would everywhere she went become like the forensics lab, requiring her to psyche herself up to leave her house? Tears welled, and she shoved them back, refusing to show any more weakness in front of Cole.

Once she knew no tears were going to escape, she looked over at him, hopeful. “Did they get the shooter?”

He frowned, shaking his head. “Not yet. But we’re already reaching out to the news stations. We’ll be putting out a call for information on all the evening shows. Someone will know something. We’ll find him.”

She shivered, suddenly cold, pulling the blanket tighter around her. Would they really? The department was good. She’d seen firsthand how dedicated they were. But with nothing to go on but a vague description of a gunman? Especially one who’d managed to escape the police’s net?

Cole must have sensed the direction of her thoughts, because he said, “We’ve got officers at the scene now, pulling the slugs from your car. The security camera at the grocery store was just for show, but we’re canvassing the area, hoping someone saw the shooter running away. And we’re checking nearby traffic cameras, too. Unless he lives close by, he must have had a vehicle waiting. Once we find that, it’s over.”

There was a dark determination to his voice that told her he planned to be there to slap on the handcuffs himself.

And what he was saying made sense. Although her job was peripheral—she analyzed digital devices like laptops or cell phones that cops brought to her under the fluorescent lights in her lab—she’d seen how investigations worked.

Roy’s Grocery was in a safe area. There were a lot of independent businesses there, and it was close to family neighborhoods. People watched out for one another. They would report someone running away after hearing gunshots. Logically, that would lead to a location where the shooter had a car waiting, and a license plate they could run through their system to get a name. She’d seen it happen before. She’d seen it work plenty of times.

But she’d also helped with cases where they’d come up empty no matter how hard they tried, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that this was going to be one of those cases. Even worse, she hadn’t been any help at all. All she could say about the shooter was that he was male, probably white, definitely determined to kill her.

“Do you think it was the same people from last year?” She spoke her deepest fear.

Gangs didn’t give up. They didn’t forgive, and they held grudges.

The police had rounded up the whole group, killing some at the scene, then getting the driver from her identification. After that, they’d worked tirelessly to bring down the leadership, being creative by going after them on racketeering charges, using the digital trail she’d found before the shooting, before she’d quit. But was everyone behind bars, or had they missed someone? Had someone gotten out?

With gangs anything was possible, including someone new making a play to bring the group back, to make a name for himself by taking out the key witness in the trial that had brought down the old leadership. Last year she’d worried that she’d never be safe again. There had actually been talk of the Witness Protection Program.

But Cole and his partner had kept at it, even working with local FBI agents in one of the biggest task forces their small department had ever seen. She’d been gone by then, but she’d heard the rumors. Cole had ignored death threats. He’d kept going until he was certain every member was behind bars.

She’d seen the news headlines later that year, too, proclaiming the demise of the Jannis Crew gang. Her fear of returning to the station hadn’t gone away, but at the time, her logical brain had said there was no more reason for her to be scared.

“We’re looking into it,” Cole said, fury in the hard lines of his jaw. “But don’t worry. Chances are this is totally unrelated. You were probably a random victim, just in the wrong parking lot when he happened to be looking for trouble.”

“You think this guy was planning a mass shooting and the parking lot was emptier than he expected?” she asked. Or had Cole arrived before the shooter could head into the building to find more victims, she wondered, staring at the man who’d saved her life for the second time.

She flashed back to that moment when she’d flattened herself to the ground in a different parking lot, certain she was going to be killed. Back then, there’d been three other men in the lot with her, armed men, who’d each taken a bullet before they could unholster their weapons. She’d gotten as low as she could, with nowhere to run, bullets spraying over her head, and then Cole had run out the front door of the station, right into the line of fire.

“It’s definitely a possibility,” Cole said, and she refocused on their conversation.

Mass shooting. This was different from last year, she reminded herself. Except back then, she hadn’t been an intended target, either. Just at the wrong place at the wrong time. How many chances would she get before she ran out of them, or Cole wasn’t around to save her?

A shiver worked through her, and she spoke quickly to change the subject, knowing he’d seen it. “How long have I been here?”

He didn’t even glance at his watch. “A few hours.”

And he’d stayed beside her the whole time? She didn’t need to ask. She could tell from the way the nurse had maneuvered around him when she’d left the room without even looking, as if she’d been doing it repeatedly.

She had an instant flashback to the day she’d arrived in Jannis, having accepted the job as a digital forensics examiner. She’d walked through the station doors, thinking it was connected to the laboratory she was supposed to report to, her palms slick with nerves and her stride quick with anticipation. She’d turned the corner toward security and walked smack into Cole Walker.

She was tall, and in the heels she’d worn that first day with her carefully tailored suit, she’d been close to his six feet. But even in heels, she didn’t have slow or dainty strides. She walked with purpose, so she’d collided with him hard. Enough that the impact with his rock-hard chest had almost sent her to the ground.

The memory made her flush, warming her up, and Cole’s lips turned up at the corners like he could tell what she was thinking. Before he could comment on it, she blurted, “I’m not quitting.”

He looked surprised by her outburst, and, in truth, it had surprised her, too. She’d had no idea she was even thinking it until the words came out, but as soon as she spoke, she realized they were true.

A year ago she’d let the tragedy at the station derail her career. The fact was she’d let it derail her life.

She was scared. But how many times could she be this unlucky?

And she was tired of running from the things that scared her. She met Cole’s gaze, momentarily distracted by the perfect sky blue of his eyes, then felt her shoulders square on the scratchy hospital pillow. “Whatever needs to be done to catch this guy, I want to be a part of it.”

* * *

HAPPINESS BURST FORTH, then instantly warred with Cole’s need to keep Shaye safe.

He’d been thrilled when she had returned to the lab. It had been part of his motivation when he’d called her a month ago, asking for some off-the-books help with a situation his foster brother Andre had been battling. When she’d provided key information to help them nail the guy who’d been coming after his brother’s new girlfriend, he’d seen it boost her confidence again. Even more, he’d seen it remind her how much she loved the electronic chase.

He’d worked with enough forensics specialists in his years at the police department to know Shaye was special. She had a gift with computers, able to pull from them things no one else could find. And that kind of talent rarely came without passion.

When she’d left the job last year, he’d understood. A tiny part of him had even been glad, because it kept her out of the line of fire while they chased down the dangerous gang nervy enough to stage a drive-by at a police station. But he’d missed seeing her every day, those few moments each morning when they’d walk in from the parking lot together before she veered off to the county’s forensics lab located behind the station. Those few moments each evening when she’d wait for him outside the station doors, and they’d stand and chat before going their separate ways.

Once he’d been confident they’d shut the gang down, he’d reached out a few times, tried to convince Shaye to return. He knew her director had, too. But each time she’d refused, seeming embarrassed by the fact that she was afraid to come under fire again. So he was shocked that she was standing her ground now.

“Are you sure?” he asked. Before she could argue, he continued. “Believe me—I want you to stay. I think this is where you belong. But we don’t know who came after you today—and although I don’t think you were the target, I want to be sure. Your safety is most important.”

“I—”

“Hopefully, we’ll catch him today and discover he’s acting alone and picked you at random. But until we’re certain, I think you should go into protective custody.”

When she looked ready to argue, he held up a hand. “Not WitSec. I’m not asking you to give up your life here. This is nothing like last year.”

He hoped that was true. Nothing about this situation resembled the other—the shooter hadn’t been wearing gang colors, and he’d gone after Shaye at a store, instead of attacking where the rest of the gang’s presumed targets would be, back at the station. All logic pointed to this being random.

But he couldn’t shake the fear that someone wanted Shaye dead. And he couldn’t let anything happen to her.

“Just temporary police protection,” he continued, trying to stop his morose thinking. “Then, once we’re sure you’re out of danger, you get back to work.” He reached out and took her hand, which felt cold and tiny on top of the too-warm blanket. “Deal?”

“No.”

He almost laughed at the stubborn tilt of her chin, the petulant look in her eyes. But this wasn’t a joking matter. “No?” he repeated, in his best “bad cop” voice.

Staring at her now, looking so vulnerable in that hospital bed, made all his protective instincts fire to life. She might have belonged in forensics, but she could have gotten a job doing that anywhere. He’d been the one who’d lured her back to this department after she’d helped with his brother’s case. So everything that was happening to her now was on him.

The idea that he’d had any part, no matter how small, in putting her back in danger left a sour taste in his mouth. He’d always been drawn to Shaye, from that first day she’d shown up at the station, looking nervous behind her determined posture.

She’d slammed into him, all lean muscle and surprisingly soft curves, and then her cheeks had gone such a deep red, he’d been immediately charmed. He’d sought out excuses to see her every day. But he’d never been able to bring himself to ask her out. She was shy and sweet and smart. She came from a close-knit family and he knew when she looked into her future, she saw someone solid and stable to share it with, someone with a normal job. She deserved far better than he’d ever be able to give her.

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