Free The Stranger's Sin by Darlene Gardner Page B

men.
    “What do you mean you got it? It’s a bar fight!” Kelly called after him, but he didn’t turn back.
    She watched in horror as the gap between Chase and the two men narrowed. The bigger man cocked his right fist, looking able to mow down everything in his past. First his buddy with the goatee, then Chase. Just as the big man was about to let his fist fly, Chase pounced. He intercepted the big man and twisted his right arm behind his back.
    “Ow,” the big man cried. “That hurts.”
    The man with the goatee took a step forward, as though he meant to smack the other man while he was effectively immobilized.
    “Do it and you’ll spend the night in jail,” Chase told him in a gruff voice. He looked tough and in control, a startling contrast to the gentle man who’d pretended his oatmeal-filled spoon was a UFO that morning.
    The man with the goatee retreated, his palms raised in surrender. “We don’t want no trouble. Right, Frankie?”
    “Right,” Frankie parroted in a pain-filled, high-pitched voice, his arm still pinned behind his back. “No trouble.”
    “Then get out of here and get some black coffee into you.” Chase released Frankie, who stumbled backward, rubbing his arm. “Any more trouble from either of you, and I’ll arrest you for being drunk and disorderly.”
    “No. No. We’re going.” The instigator turned into the peacemaker. He took some bills from his wallet and threw them on the bar before grabbing his girlfriend’s hand and slinging an arm around his buddy’s shoulder. He set a quick pace to the exit.
    Chase returned to his seat, looking as though the miracle he’d just accomplished was all in a day’s work.
    “That was impressive,” Kelly said. “You really had them believing you could arrest them.”
    “I can arrest them.”
    She thought over their first meeting when he’d confirmed he wasn’t a cop. His badge still said he worked for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. “I thought you were a forest ranger.”
    “I’m also a law-enforcement officer,” he said. “I deal mostly with fish and wildlife regulations, but if I see the law being broken, it’s my job to enforce it.”
    Violating her bail after being arrested for kidnapping would constitute breaking the law.
    Kelly’s heart pounded so hard if felt as though her rib cage might splinter. Her first impression had been correct. Chase Bradford was a danger to her. If he discovered she was in violation of her bail, he’d be duty bound to turn her in. She felt sick when she thought about how close she’d come to sealing her own fate.
    But maybe she was overreacting. She was an innocent woman and by all accounts Chase was a decent man. She could possibly convince him she’d been wrongly accused and enlist his help in clearing her name. She just had to summon the courage to tell him and pray he wouldn’t go by the book.
    He always tries to do the right thing.
    Charlie Bradford’s words about his son resonated in her mind even as she thought about confessing. Could she really take the chance that Chase’s interpretation of the “right course of action” would coincide with hers?
    “Getting back to what we were talking about,” Chase said, “you were about to tell me why you’re really looking for Mandy.”
    She couldn’t tell him the truth. The realization hit her with enough force that she recoiled. The stakes were far too high to gamble away her freedom.
    “Well?” he prodded. “Why are you looking for her?”
    “She stole money from me.” Kelly forced herself not to squirm. Neither did she drop her gaze nor let guilt over her dishonesty creep into her consciousness. This was about survival. She couldn’t let him suspect she was about to tell another lie.
    “I thought you met her at a coffee shop.”
    “I did.” Kelly paused, trying to remember what she’d told him previously. “And she did ask if she could sit at my table. It wasn’t until later that I discovered it was because she