Behind the Badge Read online

  BEHIND THE

  Badge

  By: Renee Harless

  Love is dangerous. . . behind the badge.

  Former FBI agent Preston Savage could settle for a slowdown. Moving to Carson and joining the local police department is the change of pace he needed.

  Preston has made a lot of mistakes and he’s looking to make amends, not fall in love. . . especially with someone tied to his dangerous past working undercover.

  Single mother, Shelly Johnson, has one mission in life: protect her son from his father's sins. All it takes is one incredible kiss to turn her carefully constructed world upside down.

  Preston has never forgotten about Shelly, and now that she’s close enough to touch, he’s not letting her get away. If he can earn her trust, he can keep her safe. But the closer they get, the more complicated things become.

  What will happen when the truth surfaces and the past comes for both of them?

  Sale or distribution of this copy is not allowed.

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright ©2020 Renee Harless

  This work is one of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to persons, living or deceased, is purely coincidental. Names, places, and characters are figments of the author’s imagination. All trademarked items included in this novel have been recognized as so by the author. The author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

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  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  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.
<
br />   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.

  “Do you need me to give you a list?” Preston retorted, earning him a low laugh on the other line.

  “Fine, you got me. I wanted to make sure we were set with security for the Fourth of July parade next month.”

  “Yes, sir. Not that we’ve needed it in the last few years, but Alexis, Cliff, Dylan, and myself are prepared.”

  “You can never be too sure. With the riff-raff that keep trying to destroy our little town, we can’t let our guard down.”

  Preston knew Fred didn’t mean anything by his offhanded comment, but he was still struck speechless. As if the community as a whole keeping him at arm’s length, causing Preston to feel unaccepted by the town he would give his life for, he had to remind him of how he hadn’t stopped a mad man from kidnapping Alexis a few months back.

  “You don’t need to worry, Mayor. We will be diligent.”

  “I know you will, son.”

  The door to his office opened and Jackie walked in carrying another stack of paperwork with a sorrowful look on her face.

  Sighing, Preston said, “Is there anything else you need, Mayor?”

  “Any chance you’ve changed your mind about the bachelor auction?” he replied and Preston could hear that the old man was grinning wildly at the thought.

  “Not a chance in hell. Have a good day, Mayor.”

  Laughing, Fred ended the call just as Preston lifted the first page from the stack Jackie sat on his desk. More of his signature, more of his statements, more of his time wasted. He couldn’t help but think that there was more to life than sitting behind a desk in a small-town issuing tickets to speeders down Main Street or answering domestic calls when someone wanted to scare their teenagers.

  He thought the slower pace would give him a sense of home and ground him in the way he had been searching for since he left college. But something inside him was missing the heavy cases, the chase, the bullets. The adrenaline rush that came with his FBI undercover work was a high that no drug on the market could hit. Thank goodness he was still in contact with his agent in charge of the bureau. Every once in a while, he’d get to join in an investigation, but those opportunities were few and far between now.

  Preston sighed to himself as he raked a hand through his hair; the naturally dark strands had lightened in the summer sun. With the downtime he had acquired in the last couple of years, he took up fishing on the local lakes surrounding their valley. It was one of the only hobbies that kept the nightmares of his past at bay.

  His hand began to cramp by the time he made it through half of the stack; that was when Jackie walked back into his office with a grim look on her face. A manila folder dangled between her wiry fingers. The moment his eyes landed on the top corner, he knew immediately what she held in her grasp.

  The Harposia case.

  He wished the drug cartel would have ended its reign when its leader was put behind bars, but if anything, the group grew more vigorous. And now they not only meddled in drugs, but human trafficking, and weapons dealings. Even in solitary confinement, the woman in charge ran a tight ship. If she hadn’t been the person to change the course of his life, he would probably be impressed.

  Sifting out the sheets, Preston skimmed through a new affidavit noting Lev Dison as a right-hand man to Harposia. Lev had been the most recent man in charge, but he slipped up when he tried to kidnap his daughter Alexis, who just happened to be an FBI agent and Preston’s new deputy.

  Signing the sheet, he slipped it back into the folder before standing from his desk. It was a cool Thursday for June in Carson and he hoped that he could enjoy a nice stroll through town on his way to lunch.

  “Here you go, Jackie. I’m going to grab something at Angie’s. Can I get you anything?”

  “Aren’t you a dear? No, I brought leftovers today. I’ll handle the phone while you’re out.”

  “Thanks.”

  He dipped back into his office to grab his phone just as the phone rang from the local dispatch. Jackie spoke in hushed, muffled tones, but he immediately sensed that his lunch would be delayed.

  “Sorry, sir. Accident on the main highway just past the Carson exit. No injuries. Asheville police in route as well.”

  Instead of sighing at his lunch being delayed, Preston went back to his office to grab the keys for his cruiser. It wasn’t ideal, and he felt a bit bad at the driver’s misfortune, but at least this gave him something to do for the afternoon instead of pushing papers.

  The sticky summer air clung to his skin the moment he stepped out of the building. That was something he was still struggling to get used to. The hot North Carolina air in the summer could be unforgiving and steal the breath right from your lungs.

  His cruiser felt like a sauna as he slipped into the driver’s seat, but it was quickly remedied as the A/C pumped cool air into the cab. Taking a deep breath, Preston tried to rid himself of the melancholy feeling still swirling from the morning. Something was missing from his life, whether that be adventure or meaning, Preston wasn’t sure. But he knew he needed to keep his head on straight. Just because he was in a slower town didn’t mean that bad things couldn’t happen. His ex, and his reason for moving to the town, Sydney, could attest to that. Life could change at the drop of a hat and it didn’t care if you lived in a city of fifty or five million.

  As Preston traveled the freshly paved road leading to the main highway, he began to wonder if the job was really what had him feeling out of sorts or if it was something else. Preston just couldn’t be sure what.

  His mind flashed with the concept that maybe it was time for him to settle down, which only caused a burst of laughter to spew from his chest. He knew better than anyone that relationships were messy, but add in being married to your job and risking your life for others, and most women ran in the other direction.

  No, a relationship wasn’t in the cards for him, nor did he ever want more than a woman to warm his bed here or there.

  Arriving on the scene, Preston parked behind a mangled hunk of metal that had once resembled a silver sedan
wrapped around the post of an exit sign. Usually, accidents of this severity were fatal, but off in the thoroughfare ditch stood a man no older than twenty with a phone pressed to his ear. Even from his distance, Preston could see that the man was unharmed.

  Stepping from the car just as the fire department arrived, Preston shook his head as he took in the damage to the vehicle.

  It was a miracle the driver could extricate himself from the vehicle, let alone walk. But crazier things have happened, miracles that couldn’t be explained.

  Preston had seen it far too many times.

  The young man began to approach and Preston could easily see the shock and fear rippling from him.

  “Hi there, I’m Sheriff Savage,” he began. And for the next two hours, Preston’s lunch was long forgotten as he took statements and worked with the tow truck driver to remove the car from the highway.

  It wasn’t until Joseph Connelly and his team of volunteers left with the fire truck that Preston was alone. Watching the boy’s parents rush to his aid had left a small ache in his chest, but he was confident the pang had nothing to do with wanting more from a woman. And as he got back into his car, Preston sent a text to a woman from Asheville to see if she was free over the weekend. He may not want a relationship but was still a red-blooded man.

  Maneuvering his car back toward Carson, Preston had a bit more pep in his attitude, if only it didn’t wither away as he thought about the papers he needed to finish signing by the end of the day. And now, with the accident, he had even more work on his plate.

  With a groan, he pressed the gas. At least with the new plans for the weekend, he had something to look forward to because falling into the pit of despair disguised as paperwork was not how he planned to spend his days.

  ***

  Shelly folded the last box's flaps, and with a quick hand, she taped the box shut that read kitchen. Her Greenwich Village condo had been wonderful for the last few years. A huge step up from her apartment in the Bronx. If she never stepped foot in that rusted building again, Shelly would be happy.