The Accidental Sheriff Read Online Free PDF

movies or the museum.
    “Okay. When we get home.”
    “No, now. Pretty please,” she added, her small china-doll face filled with excitement and anticipation. “It’s really important.”
    “I have to drive.” Her profound disappointment tugged at him while he buckled her into the passenger seat, walked around the car and climbed in behind the steering wheel. “Why don’t you tell me what it says,” he suggested and turned the key.
    Her blue eyes, so much like her mother’s, lit up. “They’re giving riding lessons. Every Saturday. Can I go?”
    “I need to know more before I say yes.” Cost wasn’t the issue. Neither was transporting Zoey, though it could be complicated while his schedule remained up in the air.
    His daughter’s safety was his biggest concern. The anonymous caller hadn’t mentioned Zoey but until Neil found out if the threat he’d received today was real or a prank, he wasn’t about to let her go anywhere except to school without him.
    “You promised,” Zoey complained. “You said when we moved here I could learn to ride a horse.”
    She was right. He had, in fact, made several promises in an effort to ease their relocation from New York to Arizona. Ones he’d since come to reconsider. She’d begged him for a pony. He had appeased her with an offer of riding lessons. But that was before he saw how big horses were and how tiny and vulnerable his daughter looked sitting on top of them.
    “I’ve taken you riding. Twice.” He joined the line of exiting vehicles loaded with their cargos of children.
    “A pony ride at the fair doesn’t count.”
    “What about that time at Carmen’s cousin’s house? You had fun.”
    “Which is why I want to go again.”
    She sounded too adult to be just five-going-on-six. Old enough, he supposed, to take riding lessons. The after-school program wouldn’t be offering them to students unless there was minimal risk, right?
    Why didn’t she want a kitten or to be a ballerina like other little girls?
    “I’ll go over the paperwork when we get home. See how much the lessons cost, what time they are and how long they last.” If they were only an hour, he would stay and watch Zoey. Closely. “Wintergreen Stables isn’t too far from home.”
    “That’s not where they’re having them.” Zoey studied the papers, her brow furrowed and her mouth pursed. Despite her efforts, Neil doubted she could read more than a couple dozen words. “Miss Meyers said Bear Creek Ranch.”
    “Huh. Really?”
    Well, that threw a whole new light on the subject. After the interview this morning, Neil wasn’t sure he wanted to cross paths with Carolina again. Not until Sheriff Herberger returned to work. She’d asked too many personal questions. Questions Neil hadn’t wanted to answer.
    On the other hand, what were the chances she’d be at the ranch when he was there with Zoey? Probably nil. Certainly not enough for him to break a promise he’d made to his daughter.
    “I’m not saying yes, mind you,” Neil told Zoey. “But if everything works out, you can take lessons. For a while, anyway. Then we’ll see how it goes.”
    “Thank you, Daddy.” She leaned across the seat as far as her seat belt would allow and hugged his arm. “I love you.”
    “Love you, too, kiddo.”
    Neil hoped he didn’t regret his decision. Carolina’s probing questions weren’t his main reason for avoiding her.
    It was the temptation she presented and what could happen if he gave in to it.
    The threatening call had served to remind him of the dangers associated with his job and his commitment to keep the people he cared about safe. Something he’d failed to do with his late wife.
    Protecting Zoey might prove difficult, but protecting Carolina was another story. He just had to stay the hell away from her.

Chapter Three
    Carolina stood at the foot of Sheriff Herberger’s hospital bed and listened to him answer Rowdy’s questions. An earbud attached to a tiny portable transmitter