Page 76 of Sheriff's City Girl

I groaned, running my hands down my face—of course, it was above our pay grade. Anything that wasn’t just small-town shit was above our pay grade. We could barely handle ranchers getting their cattle stolen, and now we had a missing woman…

My woman.

A lump threatened to form in my throat. I hadn’t called Lily or Drew yet. Jess had no idea. I would have to tell them all that this happened while she was with me—in my care. I was the sheriff. I shouldn’t have let anything happen to her…

And our baby.

“It’s gonna be fine,” Jackson said in a low voice beside me as Ron went off to guide officers to start interviewing the gala attendees. “If it is the Hudsons, I don’t see them killing her. I don’t know why they would wanna take her—other than to keep you from making the proposal tonight. For all you know, she’s gonna show up somewhere, and this was all just a ruse to make you look bad.”

“That’s not making me feel the slightest bit better,” I grunted, though that was partially a lie. It did make me feel better to think that whoever had taken her was just going to drop her off somewhere else, and that the whole thing was a distraction…

As for the other, I didn’t give a shit about what people thought of me.

But it still didn’t change the fact that it was all my fault—and that if we didn’t find her, I might never get to tell her how sorry I was…

And how excited I was to have a baby with her.

There hadn’t been anyone I had cared about since my ex-wife, and no one I’d been with since then had even had a pregnancy scare. I hadn’t thought about having another kid—and I hadn’t even thought that I wanted one…

But damn, the more I had thought about it at the edge of the clearing, the more I really started to like the idea of having a baby with Emma. Maybe it would be the perfect missing piece in our lives. I already knew I was serious about Emma—even if I was slow to admit it. That was my fear of heartbreak, not my lack of feelings…

And Jess? She would probably be elated to have a sibling. She’d always bugged me for one when she was little—even after her mom left us…

And all that made me feel so much worse about it all.

“You okay?” Jackson asked me, giving me a nudge as I had zoned out, staring at the floor between my shined up black boots.

“I don’t know,” I answered him honestly.

“You need your meds?” He kept his voice at a near whisper.

I let out a sigh. “You know, I probably do. The moment I took off to go look for her, my head started pounding. I don’t know why it does that.”

“It’s the anxiety,” Jackson said with a sigh. “And I’m worried it’s all only going to get worse from here.”

I didn’t understand him until my eyes drifted toward the two large front doors of the mansion, where two Texas Rangers were walking in. I took one long look at them, and the familiarity set in…

Shit.

“Why are they here?” I turned to Jackson, who let out a sigh—and then never got the chance to answer.

“Sheriff Hewitt,” Ranger Nick Matthews said to me, extending his large, heavy hand for me to shake.

I reluctantly took it, noting that his six-feet-three frame seemed a little wider and his dark hair a little grayer. “It’s good to see you, Nick.” My eyes bounced to the other, younger, man beside him. He was about the same height with bright blonde hair and blue eyes.

“This is Newman,” Nick said, letting out a sigh. “I was hoping that we would be here under better circumstances, but at least you’re not the one in trouble this time.” He laughed, though Jackson and I didn’t budge from our straight faces. Nothing about that past event was a pleasant memory…

And it had left me with nothing but a bad fucking headache.

“Anyway,” Jackson cleared his throat. “We don’t know much about the current situation. We assume she was taken, and that’s solely because of the phone call that Mason received. Officers found a purse with her phone and tire tracks out near the back door.”

Nick nodded, looking perplexed as he glanced around us. “Where the hell are we? What kind of place is this, anyway? Odd for out here.”

“It’s a gala for charity,” I choked out, though I was starting to wonder if it was all just some kind of front.

“Right,” Newman, the younger ranger, quipped, a weird look on his face.

“Well, I guess we have to get started on interviews. I’ve got a team searching for her, and the description has been released statewide. I don’t know what we can do beyond that. Phone tracing won’t work if her phone was left here. How long until the dog shows up?” Nick adjusted his cowboy hat, his voice sounding monotone like he’d given a similar spiel a million times…

---