Sunset Point: A Shelter Bay Novel Read Free Page A

him now, not for the first time. Feeling the pressure of time, she resisted just cutting him off rather than have this conversation they’d had too many times before. “I don’t remember much about what happened, but I do remember you and Dad breaking down the door and rescuing me, just like the prince chopping his way through those briars to rescue Sleeping Beauty.”
    Back in those days, Tess had believed in fairy tales. Life had taught her that happily-ever-afters were far more difficult to come by than in fiction.
    Jake’s cigarette-roughened laugh at her claim held more regret than humor. “Some prince I was, with my rusty armor. Your dad’s, on the other hand, has never been anything but blindingly bright.”
    “He’s a great man,” she agreed. “As are you.”
    “That second part’s a major exaggeration. Besides, you’re prejudiced.”
    “You bet I am.” If they hadn’t been in a public building, she would have kissed his cheek.
    His gray eyes held seeds of concern. “I worry about you, kid.”
    “I know.” Tess realized that although she’d grown up, a part of Jake would continue to think of her as eight years old. She’d also decided that continuing to put bad guys away was his way of trying to make up for not having found her that first day she’d disappeared. For letting the kidnapper escape. On a good day Tess could avoid thinking about that man out there somewhere, undoubtedly committing more crimes. Jake, she sensed, had not managed that.
    “I’ll be fine,” she assured him yet again. “Shelter Bay’s pretty much crime-free.”
    “So was Yamhill County once upon a time…I don’t suppose you’d call me when you get there?”
    “Sorry. That would be a no.” She shook her head and opened the door to the stairwell. Despite her refusal to allow anyone, including this man she loved, to treat her like a victim, lingering claustrophobia had her avoiding elevators whenever possible.
    “The apple sure as hell didn’t fall far from the damn tree,” he muttered with a swipe of his hand down his ruddy, haggard face. “You’re as stubborn as your old man.”
    She laughed in an attempt to ease his frustration. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.” She left him looking as frustrated as she’d ever seen him.
    As she walked out the stairwell into the building’s lobby, Tess knew that just as Jake was still trying to prove himself after not catching her kidnapper, she needed to make her father proud of her. Not that he’d ever been anything but totally supportive and encouraging, but she’d overheard stories of how Detective Sergeant Mike Brown had been tapped for commander. And how, when she’d been a freshman in high school, there’d even been talk of him being promoted to chief of police.
    Whenever she’d asked him about those lost opportunities, he’d always profess to be happy and satisfied where he was. Then claim that he wasn’t cut out for the politics and publicity that came with those higher rungs on the PPB ladder.
    Which might have been true. But Tess knew that Mike Brown would’ve been the best chief of police Portland would ever have. If he hadn’t taken on the responsibilities that came with being a single father.
    Her mother leaving had not just changed her life. It had also changed his. In so many ways that Tess had always believed that she’d gotten the better end of the deal.

3
    Once she was finally on her way down the Pacific Coast Highway to Shelter Bay, a quaint coastal community two hours southwest of Portland, Tess promised herself, yet again, that the moment the Schiff trial was over and that sleazy bigamist was finally behind bars, she was going to take an entire week and go somewhere.
    Mexico, perhaps. Or Hawaii, where most of the Pacific Northwest sun lovers escaped to.
    It didn’t really matter. Just as long as the tropical sun shone, the pristine beaches sparkled like diamonds, the sea was warm and inviting, and no one knew, or cared, what