Read Online Saving the Sheriff: A Three River Ranch Novella (Entangled Bliss) by Roxanne Snopek - Free Book Online Page A

confessing!” Instantly she knew he’d been deliberately goading her and her face flamed. But the panic had abated. Perhaps he really was on her side.
    The elks’ side. She blinked and shook her head. The woodland caribous’ side.
    “Okay.” She took a breath, centering herself. “Conrad Toole came up on one of my humane society loops as running an unlicensed roadside ‘zoo’ each Christmas. I found him and got a job as an elf, so I could keep an eye on the animals and find out how he treated them.
    “Undercover work. Sounds exciting.”
    “Don’t mock me or I’ll poke your tender chest again.” Her fingers itched to touch him again, even with all the thick outdoor clothing between them. She gripped them together. “He had a little wooden shack with a thatched roof that he carted around on a flatbed. Apparently he owned a cow and a donkey. He paid some local kids a couple bucks to dress up in towels and robes, and had a doll in the manger. On one side of the shack, he had a handful of sheep and a kid as shepherd. On the other, a sleigh with bells and these pathetic-looking reindeer. And me.” She shuddered. “My job was to tell kids that Santa was on his way.”
    “A seasonal smorgasbord. He charged admission, I assume?”
    “Naturally.” At least she didn’t have to take the money. “He’d found the sweet spot—low enough that Mommy and Daddy couldn’t say no, high enough that he made a tidy profit.”
    “Did he abuse the animals?”
    “Aside from the dye and overall lack of principles? And his implications of reindeer stew for New Year? Not that I saw.” The nausea faded and now all Frankie wanted to do was cry.
    She swallowed hard and walked around him, tugging a heavy bale off the truck bed. “I just wanted to help, Red.”
    A heavy arm draped across her shoulder and squeezed gently, just for a moment. It felt good. Frighteningly good.
    Then it was gone.
    Red grabbed the other side of the bale she was fighting with and together they dropped it onto the sled.
    “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll get this feed distributed and get back to the fire. Once we’re thawed out, we’ll come up with a plan.”
    Heat prickled the back of her eyes. “Really?”
    “Really.” He smiled. “Now make yourself useful and open that gate, will you?”
    She tossed a handful of snow at his face, then shrieked as the wind whipped it back into her own.
    Red hooted. “Karma’s a boomerang, sweetheart. Don’t forget it.”
    Chapter Six
    They’d barely dumped the hay out for the caribou when the wind picked up in earnestand drove them back to the safety of the house. Frankie acted like she’d completely forgotten that episode in the barn.
    The terror that had almost incapacitated her. The kiss that almost incapacitated him.
    When they’d gazed into each other’s eyes, he’d unexpectedly accessed something hidden and protected and terribly private. Even though she’d been forced to trust him he felt like he’d been handed something precious and fragile.
    “Oh man, it feels good in here.” Frankie shed her wet outerwear and went straight for the fire.
    The dog went to her dish and sat, staring meaningfully at Red. He was grateful for the distraction.
    “It’s not fair,” he said, spooning food into the bowl. “I’m the provider, yet this dog shadows you like you’re the only thing between her and starvation. I thought they always loved the ones that fed them.”
    “Well.” She looked at the leashes hanging by the door. “Some invasions of privacy a lady doesn’t forgive. Want me to feed her?”
    Mistral quivered and cast an adoring look her way.
    “No,” he said, mixing the soft food in with the crunchy kibble. “She’s a smart dog. She should know I was only trying to keep her safe.”
    Frankie got up to join him at the counter. Backlit by the fire, all he could see clearly was her silhouette, the clean, smooth lines of her body, hugged by thermal underwear. And nothing else. Muscles