Justice for Blyss Read online

  Justice for Blyss (Police and Fire: Operation Alpha)

  San Antonio First Responders Book 5

  Reina Torres

  Contents

  Foreword

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  About the Author

  Books by Reina Torres

  More Special Forces: Operation Alpha World Books

  Books by Susan Stoker

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  © 2020 ACES PRESS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this work may be used, stored, reproduced or transmitted without written permission from the publisher except for brief quotations for review purposes as permitted by law.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy.

  Dear Readers,

  Welcome to the Police and Fire: Operation Alpha Fan-Fiction world!

  If you are new to this amazing world, in a nutshell the author wrote a story using one or more of my characters in it. Sometimes that character has a major role in the story, and other times they are only mentioned briefly. This is perfectly legal and allowable because they are going through Aces Press to publish the story.

  This book is entirely the work of the author who wrote it. While I might have assisted with brainstorming and other ideas about which of my characters to use, I didn’t have any part in the process or writing or editing the story.

  I’m proud and excited that so many authors loved my characters enough that they wanted to write them into their own story. Thank you for supporting them, and me!

  READ ON!

  Xoxo

  Susan Stoker

  About the book

  Being a Texas Game Warden was always Blyss Hardee’s dream. She had her dolls just like most girls, but her dolls healed injured animals and went fishing. Real life was much more exciting and exhilarating, unless it involved Owen Mercier.

  When there was a gator that needed removing or a snake in someone’s house, the Game Wardens called Owen. He was as muscled as he was irritating, and that was a lot.

  Too handsome, too self-assured, too sexy. He was always telling her that she should give him a chance, but Owen had always been a magnet for women and Blyss found it hard to believe that he could be with one woman, her.

  At least that’s what she thought until he saved her life. She had different problems after that. How is she going to keep herself safe from a man who already had her heart? And what happens when the criminals who’d tried to kill her in the first place need to stop her from exposing them?

  Chapter 1

  The Nature Fest was a brand-new event on the outskirts of San Antonio. Designed to introduce families to the wonders of outdoors and nature in general. There were a number of non-profits involved and of course, assistance from the Texas Game Wardens. Games were the primary attractions where children and their parents could have fun and learn about the world around them, but there were food booths and other more thrilling attractions.

  One of those attractions was the reason Game Warden Blyss Hardy was struggling with her presence at the event. It would have been one thing if she was working the event as some of her friends were doing, but she hadn’t been assigned to it. And just when she’d talked herself into staying away, she got a call from friends. That was why she was walking through the festivities beside a largely pregnant Miranda Carson and her husband, Trace.

  Miranda loved nature, having been a Game Warden herself. She was currently running an animal rehabilitation center that also doubled as a temporary refuge if other places weren’t available, but at the festival, Miranda was on the lookout for something else.

  Blyss saw her friend draw up short and rub her hand over her rounded belly. “Hey,” she stepped up at Miranda’s side and looked down at her friend’s hand before looking up into her face, “you okay?”

  Miranda’s brown eyes winked with mischief. “Baby wants tacos.”

  Trace’s soft groan earned a laugh from his wife. “Woman, you’re going to be the death of me.”

  “Death,” she waggled her eyebrows at him, “by taco!”

  He looked to Blyss first. “You want me to get you some?”

  She waved him off. “Thanks, but I’m good. Knowing me, I’d spill something down the front of my dress and have everyone staring.”

  Trace shrugged and walked off toward the line of food trucks in the parking lot, leaving the women together.

  “He’s having the time of his life.”

  Miranda blushed a little and gave Blyss a side hug. “Me too. He’s always been great, first as a friend, then when we fell in love, but the instant he found out I was pregnant, he’s been all over this DAD thing.”

  Blyss listened to her friend and agreed. It sounded like heaven. Since both Miranda and Trace had worked with her before, she knew them both as fellow Game Wardens and as friends. The couple were quite literally perfect for each other. Trace had been the starched collar guy with a serious streak a mile wide, and in Texas everything was bigger.

  And Miranda. Well, she was just a great person all around. Caring for man and beast alike. She was also that softness that turned strait-laced Trace into a mushy romantic.

  It was really great to see her friends so happy.

  And it also felt horrible.

  She didn’t begrudge them a minute of happiness, the two had earned it and then some, but Blyss was just starting to believe that she’d never find that for herself.

  There wasn’t a Trace out there to fall in love with her and get her tacos when she was waddling like a stuffed duck, and no, she wasn’t going to tell Miranda that. Yes, the woman was largely pregnant, but she was also a crack shot.

  And had hormones coursing through her veins.

  Blyss couldn’t help the little smile that touched her lips at the thought of Miranda on a rampage, her gun belt hitched under her rounded belly.

  “Oh hey, girls!”

  “Hayden!”

  Miranda got a hug first from Hayden as the two tried to navigate the best way to accomplish it, Blyss stepped in and whispered. “Group hug.”

  With each putting an arm around the other two ladies they made a small, tight circle together.

  Miranda laughed, and the sound was full of joy. “Perfect way to do that! I’m going to have to tell Trace we need a threesome just for hugs.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” Hayden almost choked on the sip of tea she’d just had. “You’re going to tell Trace Carson that you want a threesome?”

  Miranda nodded. “For hugs.”

  Hayden managed to swallow the sip of tea without spitting it out over her blouse. “Can I watch?” She gave Miranda a knowing look and took another sip from her tea and flinched when an arm wrapped around her waist from behind. Her husband Boone Hatcher pressed a kiss to his wife’s cheek.

  “Can you watch what, honey?”

  All three women dissolved into laughter, but they had to cut it short when Miranda gasped a little and rubbed her belly. “Ow ow ow�
�”

  Blyss stepped in closer, rubbing her hand on Miranda’s back. “You okay?”

  Somehow, Miranda managed to smile and wince at the same time. “I think baby’s going to be like Daddy. He gets a little tense when I laugh.”

  “It’s probably all that moving around,” Boone chuckled. “Sounds like the baby’s doin’ a bit of rockin’ and rollin’ inside there.”

  Miranda gave him a thoughtful nod. “You know, I probably riled him up since he’s hungry.”

  On cue, her stomach growled loud enough for someone a few feet over to turn in their direction.

  Boone turned toward the gentleman and waved before he rubbed his own belly in an exaggerated circle. “Sorry, sir. I think I’m ready for another order of the barbeque.”

  It was magic.

  The older man gave him a knowing nod and gestured toward the parking lot. “Best get some of that barbeque from that truck with the crown on it. She’s got the best ribs I ever et.”

  The woman beside him turned and smacked his arm with her purse. “What did you just say?”

  The man’s face blanched in a heartbeat. “At the fair, Honey. They’re the best ribs I ever et at the fair.”

  When she shrugged and turned back to her friends, the older man looked like he’d had the wind knocked right out of him.

  Miranda touched Boone’s arm. “Wow, I thought for sure he was going to get in trouble.”

  Blyss agreed. “Looked like his woman was going to give him a good whoopin’ right here in public.”

  Hayden sighed. “And little does she know she has two women carrying badges right here to arrest her.”

  Blyss shared a smile with the deputy. “Although I left my cuffs in my SUV.”

  “Okay, what just happened here?” Trace came back up to the group carrying a tray of little parchment paper wrapped tacos. “I walk away to feed my family and suddenly you’re discussing cuffs?”

  Blyss was sure that Boone tried to give Trace a warning glance, but the man missed it since he was already offering his wife her first of many tacos.

  Miranda took the offering and folded the paper back so she could get a decent sized bite from the end. With her mouth half-full she looked up at her silver-fox of a husband and smiled. “Wouldn’t you like to know…”

  She didn’t say any more, just kept her gaze on her husband, but the man’s normally sun-tanned skin flushed red up and over his collar.

  “Uh,” Blyss suddenly felt like a very clunky fifth wheel, like the useless rudder of a boat on a trailer. “I’m going to go and check in at that fishing booth and see if they need help.”

  She didn’t walk away fast enough and saw the knowing look that passed between the two couples. Yes, she was alone, but she was okay with it.

  It was just hard when she was that odd number out.

  Most of her work time was spent alone anyhow. She was good at it. There were times when she had another warden with her, but most times Blyss enjoyed the long roads and stops at hunting grounds, fishing spots, and all kinds of other places in between.

  After all, she had chosen a job where being on her own for long periods was a requirement. There were more than two hundred and sixty thousand square miles in Texas, and just over five hundred game wardens. They were called to go everywhere from lakes to hills, rivers, and desert. It was all their territory and they made it work.

  When she was close enough to the fishing booth, Conor Paxton, another Game Warden, called out to her and she waved, moving closer to the table. There, lined up a few feet apart from each other were some very serious anglers. Each held tightly to a fishing pole and were dutifully trying to ‘hook’ a fish with a magnet at the end of the line.

  There were prizes for everyone based on what they caught, and the games always emphasized fun and learning about fishing, so everyone had a great time.

  “Hey, Blyss! I thought you were working today.”

  She grinned back at him. “Me too, but they called last night and told me someone else asked for the hours. I don’t mind wearing normal clothes for a few hours.”

  She really loved her uniform, but it was kind of nice not to have to carry around her gun, badge, and other bits she was required to carry. Blending in with the regular folks was kind of nice for a change. “But if someone calls out, I’ll be around.”

  “Whoo hoo!” A little girl lifted a fish from the makeshift pond. “Daddy, Daddy! I caughts a fish!”

  Leaning on the wall at the end of the booth, she watched as her father got down on his knees and helped her measure the fish. She called out the numbers and then matched the fish to its species by a colorful chart against the back wall.

  “See, baby?” Her father was beaming from ear to ear. “If you caught that in the water you could take it home and we could have it for dinner.”

  The look of shock and dismay on the girl’s face lasted for a minute before the tears started to fall in earnest.

  “Oh, baby,” he sighed and wrapped his daughter in his arms. “I’m sorry, we don’t have to eat him, okay?”

  Silently, Blyss lifted her hand to say goodbye to Conor and she tiptoed away. Her escape didn’t go as planned and she ended up walking into a wall.

  “Hey now.”

  She didn’t even have to look to know who it was that she’d smacked into. She certainly didn’t need to smell his cologne, or hear the dark purr of his voice to know that the man holding onto her upper arms was the last person she’d wanted to see, let alone touch.

  “You don’t look happy to see me.”

  She kept her gaze on the grass just past his shoulder. “I haven’t seen you yet.”

  His laugh was so loud, it startled her. She looked up to say something and ended up staring at his Adam’s apple as it bobbed along the column of his throat.

  The things that man did for scruff.

  And light-colored Henley shirts.

  And denim jeans.

  And well-worn cowboy boots.

  “My eyes are up here, Blyss.”

  O.M.G.

  She’d looked him over head to toe, right in front of him.

  Shoot me now.

  Locking her jaw in place, she straightened her spine and brought her eyes back in the reverse path to his. She saw the twinkle in his eyes and knew it was because of her. And that both galled her and gave her a kind of perverse satisfaction.

  After all, why shouldn’t she look her fill?

  Owen Mercier wasn’t shy about his looks, and he certainly didn’t lack for women to appreciate them.

  So, she met his merry eyes with a look that felt like she herself was about to burst into flames, angry at his ego.

  “I know where your eyes are, Mister Mercier. I was just… I was just…” Any sort of quip or easy brush off rushed out of her head, and she was left standing there, her mouth open and her brain blank.

  Why did Owen have to smell so damn good?

  “You were just trying to come up with a reason why you were looking me over like a steer you were about to bid on at auction?”

  Lifting her chin a little more, she wasn’t ready to give in yet.

  Ever.

  “Well, I always did think you were full of bull,” she shot back, “but more like a horse that needs gentling.”

  He licked his lip. Just the bottom one. And then his tongue disappeared back into his mouth and damn it, but that’s where her gaze went. Straight to his lips.

  Even if she had cotton balls stuffed in her ears, with her eyes focused on his lips, she easily read his words to her.

  “I can be plenty gentle, Blyss Hardy.” He took a breath and she couldn’t help but see the way it filled his chest and made him look even bigger. “But I also know how to be rough when the situation calls for it.”

  There was something very wrong with the way she reacted to Owen. He was a horndog. He was a player. He had a list of conquests so long that the notches in his bedposts had probably whittled the posts to matchsticks.

  Yes, she knew
exactly what women thought of him because she felt it too.

  But she had determined a long time ago that she wasn’t going to fall for his smooth talking and dark as sin looks.

  Nope, not even when he started school with her in Houston his senior year and he turned the charm on. She knew she was just a distraction. After all, Owen Mercier was hot enough to melt butter, and he had a line of girls and women who were happy to show him a good time.

  His flirtation with her was distracting enough, but she’d never be crazy to take him up on his blatant offers. Oh, it would be good, probably even great, but then he’d just move on to the next woman. Blyss was greedy enough to want to continue being able to look him in the eye when their paths crossed. And they crossed a lot.

  Okay, maybe not greedy, but she was holding onto her self-respect in a death grip with both hands.

  “Blyss?”

  His tone had changed.

  Gone was the cocksure purr that showed off his Cajun heritage, and in its place, a soft concern that touched her where she wasn’t used to feeling sensations when it came to him.

  How easy would it be to lean closer and see if he’d let go of her arms and pull her in close?

  Would he stroke her hair?

  Would he tell her he thought she was pretty?

  Would he know that she’d eat that up? Lean into it? Beg for more?

  Oh God. Oh God. She needed to get away from him before she did something stupid.

  Owen’s phone blared from his back pocket, and he let go of her to reach for it.

  That’s when she took a step back, as the jaunty music announced that Owen had a call.