Page 1 of Tack’s Bounty

Chapter One

Ryder “Tack” Lawson closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall. His SWAT captain had just run them through drills to keep their skills up. He was dragging today.

Once again, he couldn’t sleep. He kept going over what he’d done wrong with Macey. He’d thought they were moving toward something permanent. Sure, they hadn’t said they loved each other, but he’d thought the feelings were there. At least, he’d assumed. But instead of happily ever after, with his brother married to one twin and him married to the other, he was single again—at 43.

The fact that he’d been trying to have as much sex as possible with the Club’s Sirens to remind himself that it wasn’t his prowess that was the problem didn’t make him a loser—at least that was what he was telling himself.

“Let’s look alert, guys. Abduction reported, and most of the units on this side of town are dealing with a multiple-car pileup including a school bus. Let’s go,” Captain McKendrick directed.

Tack shook his head and ran out to their tactical vehicle—Gretchen. She was built to last and always got them there to help people.

The ride was short, only minutes away, when they pulled up to a house with an older woman, maybe in her seventies, standing out front in her bathrobe with curlers in her hair.

Tack clocked another woman in overalls coming out of a big farmhouse across the street carrying a bag of something.

“Lawson, Willis— talk to the woman across the street. Jennings, canvas. Phillips, you’re with me with the primary,” Captain McKendrick instructed.

Tack walked across the street to the woman in the overalls. As he got closer, he tried to see what was printed on them. It looked like little pictures of cats. When she spotted them, she finished filling the squirrel feeders and walked toward them.

The squirrels swarmed toward the feeders. Tack estimated there were over one hundred squirrels heading toward the feeders.

“Ma’am, can we ask you some questions?” Tack asked.

“Sure,” she offered, smiling as she walked toward them. She had a white T-shirt under the animal overalls and glasses with rims that resembled cat ears on top.

“We’re here with a call regarding an abduction across the street. Have you seen anything this morning?” Tack inquired.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” the woman challenged, shaking her head. She stepped to one side of Tack to see the woman across the street.

“They’re squirrels, Jolene. They haven’t been abducted,” she yelled. “They came of their own free will to eat, you toxic old biddy. How about I order you a battery-powered vibrator so you could get off in this century? Maybe then you could mind your own business!”

Tack fought a chuckle, as did his partner. If that woman across the street called the police on a squirrel abduction, she had a screw loose.

The quirky woman that Tack couldn’t take his eyes off turned back to him. Her brown hair was pulled up in a messy bun. Her chocolate eyes held laughter in them. She held out her hand.

“Dr. Sophia Woods. This is my home, my veterinary clinic, and animal rescue. Jolene across the street is my ex-mother-in-law. Needless to say, she’s not happy that I still live here and that I didn’t stay married to her son,” Sophia stated flatly.

“Nice to meet you, Sophia. I’m Officer Ryder Lawson. Has she done any other things besides calling us on this?” Tack asked.

“She comes over and yells sometimes. I considered an electric fence, but a) I have my practice here, and patients need to be able to drive in, and b) I don’t want to hurt the animals if they touch the fence. Now her, she could use a jolt of electricity to adjust her thinking,” Sophia said with a grin.

“You bitch, you need to take my son back,” Jolene yelled across the street.

Sophia turned back toward the street. “Maybe when you were letting him suck your tit into adulthood, you should have told him where to find a clit while you were at it,” Sophia yelled back.

Officer Willis was newer on the force and didn’t hold in his laughter at Sophia’s words. Tack had a little more discretion and kept his to a grin, barely.

“And where is the ex-husband?” Tack pressed.

“Rufus, you little pussy. Come out here and get your mother to go in. You know we’re never, ever getting back together,” Sophia yelled.

“So, in the house across the street?” Tack questioned, writing his notes down.

“Dr. Wood, where are…” Officer Willis started to ask.

“It’s Dr. Woods. Like, oh, let’s go in the woods and hope the biddy follows us and gets fucking lost,” Sophia interjected.

Officer Willis chuckled and slapped his leg. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”