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Prologue
Bearpaw Ridge, Idaho
Friday, August 6
Malia Jacobsen-Swanson, Bearpaw Ridge’s newest police officer, tried to ignore the knot of anxiety as her uncle approached.
Kenny Jacobsen came to a halt in front of her.
Unsmiling, he surveyed her from head to foot. He was a tall, sandy-haired man with tanned, sharply-chiseled features and bright blue eyes.
Malia had grown up knowing her uncle as a laid-back kind of guy. At the pack gatherings, he always had a quick grin and a stream of funny stories about some of the weirder calls he’d gone on as the department’s longtime animal control officer.
But that was off-duty. Kenny had made it abundantly clear from their first shift together that he took his Field Training Officer role very,veryseriously.
“Malia,” he began in a stern tone that matched his expression.
“Yes, Kenny?” She braced herself for a biting critique of the arrest she’d just made of two drunk-and-disorderly patrons of The Hair of the Dog nightclub.
I did everything by the book, she argued silently in anticipation of whatever criticism he was going to hand out.
She knew it wouldn’t matter. Kenny always seemed to find something she could have done better.
Is he going to tell Mom to extend my probationary period?
She’d never recover from the humiliation if he did.
Then, unexpectedly, he broke into a wide grin. His eyes crinkled with amusement. “Gotcha.”
As she gaped at him, he continued, “Good job handling the situation, Officer.”
“Oh.” She blinked at him, then hastily added, “Thank you.”
Still smiling, he nodded. “Since it’s almost the end of our shift, I wanted to congratulate you early on passing your probationary period with flying colors.” He stuck out his hand.
Malia gasped. Ignoring his outstretched hand—and on-duty etiquette—she flung herself at him and hugged him, repeating, “Thank you! Thank you!”
Chuckling, he returned the hug. “Don’t thank me. I know you think I’m a real hard-ass, but you did good, Malia.”
His unexpected praise made her want to cry with happiness.
“So, you feel ready to do tomorrow’s patrol shift on your own?” Uncle Kenny asked. “Annika and I are heading out first thing to that conference in Idaho Falls. You, Roy, and Aiden should be able to handle things here while we’re gone.”
“I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “Everything seems to be pretty quiet.”
Kenny’s sandy brows went up. “You know you’re jinxing us, right?”
Back at the station, they had just finished booking their arrestees and were clocking out when Mom, aka Chief Mary Jacobsen-Swanson, emerged from her office.
She looked tense, and the sharp tang of distress radiated from her.
“Malia, sweetie, your dad called. I need you to go to the medical center. Now,” she said in the calm, even tone that she only used when something really, really bad happened.
Ice arrowed down Malia’s spine.
Still speaking in that detached voice, Mom continued: “It’s—it’s your brother. He’s been shot.”
Chapter 1
