Page 1 of Maverick Detective Dad
Chapter One
The moment Everly Monroe pulled her SUV to a stop in front of her house, she spotted the bloodstained box sitting on her porch.
Her breath stalled in her throat.
Even though she was a good fifteen feet away from the box, she could see the smears of the rusty-colored blood on the side of it. Well, maybe that was what it was. It certainly looked like it anyway.
Forcing herself to breathe, Everly called 9-1-1. Since she lived in the small ranching town of Silver Creek, Texas, it wouldn’t take long for the sheriff, Grayson Ryland, to send out a deputy. Probably only a couple of minutes considering her house was less than a half mile from the Silver Creek Sheriff’s Office, but she figured those minutes were going to feel like an eternity.
What the heck was going on?
Who’d put that box there?
Everly kept the SUV’s engine running, and she glanced around to see if she could spot who’d left the box. She had neighbors on both sides of her and across the street, but no one was out and about. Most had no doubt already left for work. Her, included. And she likely wouldn’t have found the box for hours if she hadn’t forgotten her lunch. After she’d dropped her daughter Ainsley off at day care, she had decided to swing back by the house and pick it up before going into her law office on Main Street.
At the reminder of her two-year-old daughter, Everly’s heartbeat kicked up, and she quickly pressed in the number for the day care. The owner, Sara Cordova, answered on the second ring.
“It’s Everly,” she said, well aware that there was too much breath in her voice. “I, uh...” And Everly trailed off while she tried to figure out how to say this.
“Ainsley is fine,” Sara assured her. The woman had obviously picked up on the concern. “She’s in playgroup right now.”
“Good,” Everly muttered, and she repeated it while she tried to steady herself. “This could turn out to be nothing, but someone might have left me...” She trailed off again. “...a possible threat or something. It’s probably nothing,” she emphasized.
“Oh.” There was concern in Sara’s voice now, too. “Should I do a lockdown of the building?”
Everly hated to overreact, but she didn’t want to regret underreacting either. After all, she’d been a defense attorney for six years now. She was certain that she’d managed to rile certain people who’d been involved in some of her cases. People who might want to scare her.
Or worse.
The handful of threats she’d gotten over the years had never extended to her child or to anyone except her, but Everly didn’t want to take the risk that it was different this time.
“Yes, please,” Everly told the woman. “Do the lockdown, and as soon as I’ve talked to the sheriff, I’ll let you know what’s going on,” she added right before she ended the call.
It was only a couple of minutes later when Everly saw the Silver Creek cruiser turn into her driveway. Still clutching her phone, she got out of her SUV just as Grayson exited the cruiser. He was tall and lanky, and even though he was in his late fifties now, he still managed to look in charge merely by stepping onto the scene.
He also wasn’t alone.
Everly required a deep breath of a different sort when Detective Noah Ryland got out from the passenger’s side. Since Grayson was Noah’s uncle and they both lived in Silver Creek, it wasn’t unusual to see them together. But because Noah was a homicide detective in nearby San Antonio, she doubted it was customary for Grayson to bring his nephew to respond to a 9-1-1 call.
Especially this 9-1-1.
After all, Noah and she had spent more than a decade just avoiding each other. Wide berths were their norm. Him showing up at her house wasn’t something he’d ever done before.
Like his uncle, Noah was a Ryland through and through. Black hair, sizzling gray eyes and the handsome face that always sent a jolt of alarm, and heat, through her. She figured no man could actually be too good-looking, but Noah always seemed to put that theory to the test.
Thankfully today, it was easy for her to push aside his looks and the inevitable attraction he stirred inside her. A pull that she figured would always be there since he’d been her first lover, way back when they’d been sixteen. A lifetime ago.
And he hadn’t been her lover since.
Not after what’d happened that night.
Nothing to do with the actual sex. No. It was the aftermath that had led to a horrible nightmare that still haunted her. Always would. And she doubted Noah had been able to put it to rest either.
Since Noah had on well-worn jeans, a gray shirt and Stetson, she guessed that he wasn’t on his way to or from work. She’d caught glimpses of him in the homicide detective mode, and when he was on the job, he wore what would be called business casual. But even when he was in a suit jacket, Noah had always somehow managed to look just as much cowboy as cop.
Clearing her throat and attempting to do the same with her head, Everly motioned toward the porch. “That wasn’t there when I left to take Ainsley to day care about thirty minutes ago. I dropped her off, stopped at the café to get a to-go cup of coffee and then drove back here to pick up something I’d forgotten. That’s when I saw it on the porch. I didn’t touch it,” she added, well aware it’d be something they’d want to know.
Both Noah and Grayson looked at the white cardboard, bloodstained box that was the size of a container usually meant to store files. But neither man seemed surprised it was there. However, there was deep concern in both sets of those cowboy cops’ eyes.
