Prologue
The blustery winter air whipped around Shelly as she scampered down the alleyway between the two residential buildings. This part of the Bronx wasn’t the nicest, mostly filled with low-income families, but it was all she could afford as she finished earning her college degree.
As a taxi careened past her, barely offering a blaring honk of their horn as she stepped off the sidewalk to make it to her own building across the street, Shelly thought back to one of the last conversations she had with her mother. She had told Shelly that if she ever wanted out of their situation, she was going to have to study hard and work hard. She had wanted that for her daughter. It was what Shelly had been working toward for the last eight years too. She wanted out of the roach-infested apartment and a better life.
Not just for herself anymore. Her mind immediately went to the positive pregnancy test in the front pouch of her backpack slung over her shoulder. Shelly had always been careful, taking her birth control pills like clockwork every day and making sure her boyfriend was protected as well. She didn’t want to disappoint the memory of her mother that had worked hard to put food on the table. But apparently, fate had other plans. Now she just had to figure out how to spill the beans.
Opening the door to her apartment, she was surprised to find the place empty. Usually, her boyfriend, DeShaun, spent his days perched on her couch while she worked and went to school. He was a man with very little aspirations in life. DeShaun’s goals were to mooch off of whomever he could for as long as he could. She didn’t even know why she stayed in a relationship with him. There was no love between them, just mild chemistry that put them in the predicament they were now facing.
Despite not having a job or any life aspirations, DeShaun always seemed to have money to spend. And not just the small amount like Shelly’s small wages from the bar she worked that was just enough to cover rent, utilities, and food, with nothing left over for incidentals. Incidentals like a baby.
“DeShaun?” she called out, knowing that he was nowhere in the apartment.
Slipping her bag onto the broken kitchen table she inherited from her mother, Shelly opened the freezer door in hopes to heat a meal before she left for work, only to find the freezer and the fridge barren. She had left DeShaun fifty dollars this morning to grab food from the store. She should have known better and listened to her gut instead of trusting the man that had done very little to earn any trust from her.
Glancing down at her still flat stomach, she pondered her next move. She was given the gift of a child and she would do whatever she could to protect it from the cruelty of the world. That meant getting out of the area as soon as she could. Shelly only had one more semester left of college, but that left her the question of the baby’s father. He was dragging her down with him. Shelly wasn’t sure if it was drugs or weapons, but she wanted no part of those, especially with a baby on the way.
Sifting through the cabinets, Shelly settled on a can of soup that was most likely expired. Just as steam began to rise from the pot, the door to the apartment opened, and the heavy scent of DeShaun’s cologne wafted into the room, immediately causing Shelly’s stomach to roll.
“Shel, where you at?” he called out as he sauntered into the space, immediately slouching his large frame onto the couch. “What you cooking?”
“I’m making soup. Where are the groceries I gave you money for this morning?” she asked as she stirred the pot, knowing she wasn’t going to like his answer if he gave one at all.
“I needed something more important.”
Like the flip of a switch, her mood shifted and fury bubbled inside her. Stomping out of the kitchen, Shelly made her way to where her boyfriend sat with the remote control in his hands. Eyes red and glassy, she knew that drugs had been a better way to spend her money.
“Excuse me?” she shouted. “When I give you money for food, I expect you to get said food.”
Like the flick of a match, something exploded inside DeShaun and he launched himself off the couch to stand no more than a foot in front of her. Shelly gulped down a heavy breath as he leaned toward her, his breath reeking of cheap booze. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”
“DeShaun, I. . .” she began, only for her voice to die away as he reached a hand out, gripped her throat with all his might. Panic seized her as she clawed at his arm.
Shelly wasn’t sure how long she stood there listening to DeShaun verbally tear her down piece by piece, but enough time had passed that black and white dots flicked through her vision.
This was it, she thought. She had trusted the wrong man time and time again, just as her mother had and her mother before that. The Johnson family was notorious for making bad choices and this was just another to add to the list. Her only regret was that she wouldn’t get to meet her child.
Her body grew limp in his tight hold, leaving her with just enough strength to gently place her hand on her stomach as her tears dried up.
“Police!” a group of voices roared before men dressed in black from head to toe barged into her apartment with guns drawn. Behind a balaclava drawn over the face of the first man, Shelly met the bluest eyes she had ever seen. The last thought she had before the blackness took her over and she fell to the apartment floor was that this man was both her savior and her worst nightmare.
Chapter One
“Sheriff Savage, there is a call for you on line three,” his assistant, Jackie, called out from her desk just outside his office door. Signing the last paper at the bottom of the large stack he had been rummaging through all morning, Preston grabbed the phone on his desk, hoping that it wasn’t another call from the Lady Busy Bees hoping that he would participate in the town of Carson’s first bachelor auction. It’s not that he was opposed to helping the charitable group or thought the auction was a bad idea, but he figured he should leave the bids for the young guys who have moved into his town in the last few years.
Preston had watched the town grow by leaps and bounds since Jameson Connelly moved his software business to their ideal location and the tourists were drawn to the dozens of wineries and microbreweries that had grown like wildflowers in the valley. He was hoping that with the population boom, both the police and fire departments in Carson, North Carolina, could hire additional help because Preston’s two-person team was already stretched thin, and he knew Fire Chief Joseph Connelly felt the same.
“Savage,” he answered in a brusque tone.
“Sheriff, it’s Mayor Fitzgerald.”
While Preston was happy it wasn’t one of the Lady Busy Bees, he can’t say that he was overly thrilled for the mayor to be reaching out to him either. Calls like this usually meant he was going to be guilted into doing something he didn’t want to do or that the budget for the police department was going to be cut again. He was hoping it wasn’t the latter, not that the former seemed any better. But his deputy, Alexis, was trying to start a family with her new husband Cliff and Preston wanted to be sure he could provide paid maternity leave for her.
“Mayor, what can I do for you today?”
“Well, what makes you think that I need something when I call?” Fred Fitzgerald asked, causing a chuckle from Preston to bubble forth. They both knew that the only time the mayor reached out to him, he needed something.