The setup, p.20
The Setup, page 20
Smart enough to match wits with him. The idea intrigued him. He’d have to be careful to avoid this one. She was too tempting—and there was too much at stake.
* * *
AFTER THE PRESS conference ended, Faith Martin followed the commander and her fellow officers and Audra Trask into Ranger headquarters, shutting the door behind her and shutting out the crowd still milling around the dais outside. Charles Terrell was still out there, taking questions from the press and glad-handing the public, determined to personally rebuild TDC’s reputation, one person at a time. He would probably do it, too. He had that slick charisma that played well on television and in the papers. Some of it might even be sincere.
“I think that went well,” Audra Trask, who had her father’s chin and his dark hair and eyes but was much more slightly built, said. She smiled at Faith, though worry still haunted her eyes. “I hope Dad hears about it and shows up soon.”
“Maybe he will,” Faith said. She got that Dane Trask was Audra’s father, so of course she was going to be worried about the man, but Faith had lost patience with him weeks ago.
“Good job out there, Martin.” Faith automatically stood even straighter as Commander Grant Sanderlin approached. In the less than two months she had been with the Ranger Brigade, he’d proved himself to be both firm and fair. But he still intimidated her. He was FBI with years of experience and she was a deputy sheriff from a rural county. She’d been assigned as the liaison between the Rangers and local law enforcement, and though she was good at her job, no one was pretending she had as much experience as everyone else on the team. They still treated her like an equal, but she suspected they were mostly glad she was around to field inquiries from the press and handle paperwork.
“Thank you, sir,” she said.
“Had Terrell mentioned the increased reward to you?” Sanderlin asked.
“No, sir.” She frowned. “I’m not sure what he’s getting at with that offer. If Mitch Ruffino originally offered the reward in the hope that someone would find Dane Trask before he blew the whistle on what Ruffino was up to, why would TDC continue to offer the reward now?”
“A lot of local people support Trask,” Officer Mark “Hud” Hudson said from his position very close to Audra. The handsome blond officer and Dane’s daughter had become involved during the hunt for her father and the romance showed no sign of abating. “They see him as a hero, taking on TDC even though the company threatened his life. Maybe TDC is hoping to garner public goodwill by supporting that idea.”
As far as Faith was concerned, Dane Trask had run when he could have stood and fought, and instead of coming right out with what he knew about TDC, he’d left lots of cryptic clues that had made it impossible for local law enforcement to determine whose side he was on and what he was really up to. Not to mention, he’d stolen from campers and had killed at least one man. Granted, that man had been holding Trask’s former girlfriend hostage and might have killed her, but still. Dane Trask was clearly no saint.
“I don’t trust TDC,” Audra said. “I know they said all of this—bribing officials and falsifying reports and everything—was all Mitch Ruffino’s fault. But could Ruffino’s bosses really have had no idea at all about what he was up to?”
Faith agreed with Audra. Then again, she wasn’t in the habit of taking many people at face value.
“I think it’s safe to say that TDC is going to be under the microscope for quite a while to come,” Sanderlin said. “It may be that when Dane Trask does finally decide to come forward, he’ll be able to shed light on all of Ruffino’s—and possibly TDC’s—illegal activities.”
The commander returned to his office and the others went back to their desks, or to their assigned patrol areas for the day. The Ranger Brigade was responsible for law enforcement on the public lands in this part of Colorado—an expanse that included the national park, a national recreation area and a national conservation area. Their jurisdiction also included wildlife preserves, national forests, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation property—a big chunk of the state that was largely without roads, houses or people to notice who was up to no good. At various times the land had been utilized by criminals for everything from growing and processing illegal drugs, smuggling goods and people, stealing valuable artifacts or simply hiding from the law. The Rangers couldn’t begin to cover all of the territory, but they had a good track record of zeroing in on major crimes and reining in the worst abuses.
But Faith was involved in very little of that. As Public Information Officer, she spent most of her time at her desk, writing press releases and fielding media inquiries. Occasionally, she was the public face of the Ranger Brigade, giving interviews or hosting press conferences. She carried a weapon and wore a badge like every other member of the team, but she didn’t really feel like one of them.
“Who was the biker giving you the eye?”
She turned and Officer Carmen Redhorse moved in alongside her. Carmen, a member of the Ute tribe, was the only other woman with the Rangers. She had been with them from the very first, and was married to a Parks and Wildlife officer she had met on the job. Rumor had it she was a former beauty queen, and Faith could believe it. Carmen had long black hair and dark eyes with thick lashes, and the elegant profile of a model. And she was definitely a badass who could hold her own with anyone else on the force. She was a top marksman, and good at connecting the dots in tough cases. And she hadn’t missed the brief exchange between Faith and the biker.
“Never saw him before,” Faith said. “Just another jerk trying to get a rise out of a woman with a badge.”
“I haven’t seen him around before, either,” Carmen said. “He’s in better shape than most of the guys that ride through here—no beer gut on that one.”
At Faith’s raised eyebrow, Carmen grinned. “Hey, I’m married, not dead. I’m going to notice a built guy in black leather.”
Faith felt her cheeks heat again. Yeah, the biker was built, all right. And though those mirrored shades had hidden his eyes, there was no missing the arrogance in the leer he’d sent her way. She liked a confident man, but not one who was full of himself. “It takes more than a body to impress me,” she said. “The last thing I want is a gym rat who’s dumb as a box of rocks.”
“One thing about being a cop,” Carmen said, “you learn how to handle trouble.”
Right. Faith knew all about trouble. She had made a mistake exactly once, letting a man get the better of her. That was never going to happen again.
Copyright © 2021 by Cynthia Myers
Love Harlequin romance?
DISCOVER.
Be the first to find out about promotions, news and exclusive content!
Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
Instagram.com/HarlequinBooks
Pinterest.com/HarlequinBooks
ReaderService.com
EXPLORE.
Sign up for the Harlequin e-newsletter and download a free book from any series at
TryHarlequin.com
CONNECT.
Join our Harlequin community to share your thoughts and connect with other romance readers!
Facebook.com/groups/HarlequinConnection
ISBN-13: 9781488072741
The Setup
Copyright © 2021 by Carol Ericson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
For questions and comments about the quality of this book, please contact us at CustomerService@Harlequin.com.
Harlequin Enterprises ULC
22 Adelaide St. West, 40th Floor
Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada
www.Harlequin.com
Carol Ericson, The Setup
