Page 2 of Her Baby, Her Badge

“You can’t be here,” Grace told Ike. “This is a crime scene.”

Of course, that didn’t set well with Ike, who looked ready to implode, so Grace just hiked her thumb in the direction of the fence post. And the body.

That stopped Ike in his tracks, and when his attention landed on the dead woman, he cursed. “Another one,” he said on a groan.

Dutton cursed, too, but his profanity stayed under his breath. He looked at her, combing his intense brown eyes over her face, no doubt checking for any signs of injury. Or stress. The stress would be there. Nothing she could do about that. But there wasn’t a mark on her.

“I didn’t find the body,” she told him. “An anonymous call came in through Dispatch. The caller said we’d find the body tied to a fence post outside the west side of the ranch.”

And since a nearly identical call had come in with the first murder a month earlier, that’s how Grace had known it was almost certainly the real deal. Still, she had hoped for the best. Obviously, though, the best hadn’t happened.

“You haven’t done a good job of stopping this, have you?” Ike muttered, shaking his head in disgust.

“No, I haven’t,” Grace admitted, and that sickened her.

It didn’t matter that the killer hadn’t left any traceable forensic evidence and there’d been no witnesses to either the murder or the body dump. It was her job to keep the community safe, and she was failing at that, big-time.

She shoved aside the pity party that threatened, but this felt like a serious jab at her professionalism, while her private life had had its own jabs. Including the “jab” standing in front of her.

Dutton.

He was still staring at her with those intense eyes. Ironic, since the rest of Dutton was the opposite of intense. Everything else about him was normally laid-back. The easy stride of his lanky body. That quick smile that only made his face even hotter than usual. The smooth drawl that she was certain had worked in his favor too many times to count.

“No wonder you can’t solve this,” Ike went on. “You need better hired help.”

The venom in his voice went up a notch, and Grace didn’t have to guess why. She followed his narrowed gaze to his other son, Deputy Rory McClennan, who had just finished setting up one of the lights. Grace wasn’t the only one who had to deal with bad blood with Ike. Rory did as well, by basically turning his back on his dad and becoming a cop.

“Mr. McClennan,” Grace said, “as I’ve already informed you, this is a crime scene, and you should just go home.”

Of course, that earned her a huff from the man, but he finally moved away from her and back toward the truck. What he didn’tdo was get in. Despite the storm taking swipes at him, he leaned against the hood and stared out at the responders and cops.

Dutton didn’t leave, either. Nor did he go to the truck, as his father had done. He stayed right by Grace’s side, and Livvy must’ve decided to give them a moment, because she stepped away.

“This is the same as the other one,” Dutton said. Not a question, and he could certainly see the similarities for himself. “What kind of precautions are you going to take?” he asked. “And I know I’m making you plenty mad just by asking that, but I’d like to know.”

She sighed. “I’ll be as careful as I can be. But I’ll also do my job,” she said, certain that he’d known that was how she would respond.

Dutton didn’t say anything about that not being enough. And that had to be hard for him. Because he was just as invested in this baby as she was.

“If I can help, let me,” he muttered.

Not a pushy demand. Again, that had to be difficult for him since Dutton was a man used to being in charge. Not a growling-bear kind of in charge like his father, but the real deal. These days, Ike was just a figurehead on the ranch. Dutton owned it and ran it his way despite what seemed to be constant criticism and interference from Ike.

Grace made eye contact with him. A mistake. Whenever she was this close to Dutton, she was flooded with memories. And not all were bad, just unwanted. Of course, the heat she felt for him was unwanted, too, but she just couldn’t seem to make it go away.

That heat had made life a whole lot more difficult for both of them, and sometimes it felt as if the two of them were caught up in a feud, like the Hatfields and McCoys. Or rather, they wouldhave been caught up if they hadn’t decided years ago to keep their distance from each other. And that had worked.

Until five months ago.

That’s when things had gone south after what had essentially been a shootout at the ranch between the McClennans and thieves who’d tried to steal some champion horses. Grace and several of her deputies had been involved in the gunfight. Dutton, too. And after surviving a near-death experience, the adrenaline and heat had landed a double punch that had in turn landed them in bed.

Grace hadn’t looked up the stats of getting pregnant from what was essentially a one-night stand, but it had happened. And now here she was. Both she and her baby caught in the cross fire between the McClennans and pretty much everyone else in Renegade Canyon.

Dutton glanced over his shoulder and muttered some profanity under his breath. At first, she thought his father was heading back their way, but Ike was still by the truck. Still glaring. A new visitor had arrived in a county cruiser and had parked next to the McClennan truck.

County Sheriff Wilson Finney.

Grace knew the man better than she wanted to. Dutton likely could say the same. Wilson had been born and raised in Renegade Canyon, but when he’d lost the sheriff’s election to Grace six years earlier, he’d moved and had eventually become the county sheriff.

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