Lawfully Redeemed: Inspirational Christian Contemporary: (A K-9 Lawkeeper Romance) (The Lawkeepers) Read online

  Lawfully Redeemed

  A K-9 Lawkeeper book

  Lorana Hoopes

  Contents

  Introduction to The Lawkeepers Series

  Note from the Author

  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

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  It’s not quite the end!

  The Other Books in the Series

  About The Author

  Would you leave a review?

  Also By Author

  Copyright © 2018 by Lorana Hoopes

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  This book is dedicated to all the hardworking law enforcement officers out there. Our world would not be as safe without all of you.

  And to my family who lets me sacrifice time with them to write these stories in my head.

  Introduction to The Lawkeepers Series

  There’s just something fascinating about a man wearing an emblem of authority. The way the light gleams off that shiny star on his badge makes us stare with respect. Couple that with a uniform hugging his body in just the right way, confidence, and mission to save and protect, it’s no wonder we want to know what lies underneath.

  Yes, what echoes deep inside those beating hearts is inspiring. Certainly appealing. Definitely enticing. Although those ripped muscles and strong shoulders can make a woman’s heart skip a beat—or two—it takes a strong, confident person to choose to love someone who risks it all every day. Anyone willing to become part of a lawkeeper’s world might have a story of their own to tell.

  The undeniable charisma lawmen possess make all of us pause and take note. It’s probably why there are so many movies and TV shows themed around the justice system. We’re captivated by their ability to save babies, help strangers, and rescue damsels in distress. We’re captivated by their ability to protect and save, defend the innocent, risk their lives, and face danger without hesitation. Of course, we expect our heroes to stay solid when we’re in a mess. We count on them for safety, security, and peace of mind. From yesterday to today, that truth remains constant.

  Their valor inspires us, their integrity comforts, and their courage melts our hearts—irresistibly. But there’s far more to them than their courageous efforts. How do they deal with the difficulties they face? Can they balance work and life? And how do they find time for love outside their life of service?

  We want to invite you on a journey—come with us as we explore the complex lives of the men and women who serve and protect us every day. Join us in a fast-paced world of adventure. Walk into our tight-knit world of close friendships, extended family, and danger—as our super heroes navigate the most treacherous path of all—the road to love.

  The Lawkeepers. Historical and modern-day super heroes; men and women of bravery and valor, taking love and law seriously. A multi-author series, sure to lock up your attention and take your heart into custody.

  Visit The Lawkeepers on Facebook

  Note from the Author

  Thank you so much for picking up this book. I hope you enjoy the story and the characters as they are dear to my heart. If you do, please leave a review at your retailer. It really does make a difference because it lets people make an informed decision about books. Below are the other books in this series. I would love for you to check them out. I’d also like to offer you a sample of my newest book. This will sign you up for my newsletter which allows me to send you weekly emails with news and promotional information about my books, but you are welcome to cancel any time. Free Sample!

  Lawkeepers series:

  Lawfully Justified

  Lawfully Matched

  1

  Calvin stared at the computer screen and rubbed his eyes. While he loved his job, the monotony sometimes got to him. Day in and day out, just him and his computer. He could really use some company.

  A knock sounded at the door, and Calvin chuckled at the timing. His good mood faded, however, as he opened the door and tried to suppress his sigh. His brother Chris stood on the other side, and from the slight twitching of his body, Calvin could tell he was using again.

  “What is it, Chris?” Calvin hated the tone in his voice, but he had been bailing Chris out of trouble for the last few years.

  Chris hadn’t always been this way. During his Junior year of college, their father was diagnosed with cancer. After a tough yearlong battle, the cancer won. Two months after that, a car accident took their mother's life. It had been too much for twenty-two-year-old Chris to bear. Heck, it had been too much for Calvin to bear at twenty-six, but at least he’d had a job to fall back on. A solitary, retreat-from-everyone kind of job, but still a job. Chris, on the other hand, hadn't quite finished college, having taken time off when their father got sick, and therefore wasn’t sure where to go.

  Unfortunately, he turned to drugs. At first, it had just been smoking marijuana at parties, which was legal in their state. Then, it had transitioned into smoking pot every night. From there, Chris turned to harder drugs like ecstasy and Oxycodone. Now, Calvin believed Chris was dabbling in cocaine or heroin, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask. Ignorance wasn't really blissful, but it kept him from going completely crazy with guilt.

  Chris twitched and rubbed his nose. “I just need a couple hundred dollars, Calvin. Enough to get me through the month. The landlord raised the rent again.”

  Calvin knew this was a lie. Chris had already used this excuse, along with losing his job, having to repair his car, and getting robbed. No, this money was for drugs and Calvin was done supplying his habit. Last month when Chris asked for money, he promised to attend rehab. Either he had not fulfilled that promise, or it hadn’t worked for him.

  “I’m sorry, Chris, but I’m not giving you any more money.” As hard as it was to watch his little brother go down this path, he needed some tough love. Calvin reached for the door handle to shut the front door, but Chris managed to wiggle his toe in to keep it from closing.

  “Food then?” he asked with another slight twitch. “I haven’t eaten in a few days. Can I at least have some food?”

  Calvin knew he should say no, but this was his brother and he couldn’t watch him starve to death. “Fine,” he said, stepping back and allowing Chris to open the door. “Lunch, but that’s it. Then you leave.”

  “You got it. Thanks, Cal, you always were a great brother.”

  Calvin sighed. He wished he could just be a brother instead of his brother’s keeper. “Have a seat,” Calvin said, pointing to the living room couch. “I’ll make a sandwich and pack you an extra one for later.”

  Chris nodded and grabbed the remote as he plopped down on Calvin’s couch.

  Calvin continued to the kitchen and grabbed the bread, mea
t, and cheese from the fridge. The sound of some football game carried across the room as he prepared the sandwiches. With a sigh, he thought back to high school. Back to a simpler time when Chris played football and his biggest worry was getting a date on Friday night.

  What would it take to get Chris back on track? Calvin wasn’t sure he could handle any more loss. If he lost Chris, he’d be all alone, but though he’d been praying for the last two years, God hadn’t answered his prayer yet.

  He grabbed two bags of chips from the pantry and added them to the plates. Then he sealed the third sandwich in a bag and placed it on Chris’s plate.

  “You weren’t watching the game?” Chris asked when Calvin entered the living room. For a moment, his eyes shone bright and clear.

  “No, I was working,” Calvin said. As a developer for a software company, he often worked from home and his work time and personal time mixed together frequently. “But I’ll watch it with you now.” He handed Chris his plate and then sat beside him, placing his own plate on his lap.

  “Thanks, bro,” Chris said, opening the bag of chips and shoving three in his mouth. “They’re down by a touchdown, but they might be able to pull it out,” he said around his mouthful of food.

  Calvin bit back a smile. It was nice to see Chris as he remembered him even if it only lasted an hour or so. As he bit into his own sandwich, he sent another prayer heavenward. “Lord, please reach Chris. Help him get clean and see the error of his ways before he ends up dead.”

  Chris’s sandwich and chips were gone before the first commercial break. Calvin would have made more, but Chris didn’t ask. When the game ended, Chris tucked the extra sandwich in his jacket pocket as he stood up to leave.

  “Hey, Calvin,” he said, digging the toe of his shoe into the carpet. “If I needed help, not financial, but, you know, other help, would you be there for me?”

  The stress on the word other led Calvin to believe Chris was asking for help in hiding, making, or selling drugs. All things Calvin would never do. He sucked in a deep breath as he thought about his answer. “I love you Chris, I do, but I won't do anything illegal, not even for you.”

  Chris nodded, his shaggy brown hair swishing against his pale skin. “Yeah, I got it. Thanks for the food though.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  After one final awkward stare, Chris shuffled to the front door. As the door closed behind him, Calvin leaned against it and sighed. Giving tough love was not easy, and he hoped he was doing the right thing.

  2

  “What are you doing, DP?”

  Dani Higgins stopped her jiggling leg and sat up. “I’m just anxious, you know? I wish we had a case. Sydney here is ready to work.” She reached down and patted the head of the German Shepherd at her side.

  Danielle, or Dani as her fellow officers called her except for Aaron who insisted on using her initials, had recently transferred into the K-9 unit. Her dog, Sydney, had just graduated. Neither had showed off their skills yet, but both girls were ready.

  Aaron Jones, her training partner, shook his grey-streaked head. “When you’ve been at this job as long as I have, you’ll enjoy the time when nothing crazy is going on.”

  “Mount up, you two,” Lieutenant Craig said, entering their area.

  “What’s going on?” Aaron asked.

  “A drug deal gone bad left us with one body at an abandoned warehouse and one name, a Chris Phillips. We’re headed to his place and we want the dogs along to sniff for drugs,” Lieutenant Craig answered.

  Dani tried hard not to smile as she grabbed her gear and Sydney’s leash. “We’re on it, Lieutenant,” she said.

  “Try not to look too excited,” Aaron said to Dani as they climbed into the SUV.

  “Oh, come on, this will be an easy case,” Dani said as she strapped into her seatbelt. She had ridden with Aaron enough to determine a seatbelt was never optional. “Find some drugs, bust the perp, and call it a day.”

  Aaron shook his head. “They’re never as easy as they seem,” he said.

  They arrived at the house a few minutes later. A small rambler with peeling paint and a yard that looked like it hadn’t been touched in years, the house exuded a feeling of sadness. Two other police cars sat on the street in front of the house.

  “I guess drugs don’t always pay,” Dani said, unbuckling her seatbelt and tucking a strand of her blonde hair behind her ears. She opened the door and walked to the rear of the car to get Sydney and Aaron’s dog, Dexter, out of the back.

  “Follow my lead,” Aaron said, taking the leash from Dani. He led the way up the overgrown pathway and to the sagging porch which appeared in dire need of repair. Another officer stood just inside the open door.

  “Come on in,” he said, “but watch your step. The house hasn’t been well taken care of.”

  Dani and Aaron led the dogs carefully into the house. “Okay, girl,” Dani said, leaning down to Sydney. “We are looking for drugs. Go find them.”

  Sydney sniffed the floor. At the hall closet, she pawed and whined. “There might be drugs in here,” Dani shouted to her fellow officers. She opened the door slowly and Sydney nosed her way in, pushing piles of clothes around on the floor. After a few seconds, she backed out of the small space, a large brick of marijuana in her mouth. Much more than allowed for recreational use.

  “Good girl,” Dani said, patting the dog and rewarding her with a quick tug of war with her towel.

  The towel was actually how Sydney was trained to sniff drugs. Dani began with just the white towel, clean and devoid of scent. They would play tug of war until Sydney got tired. Then Dani would wrap the towel around some marijuana and they would play some more. Once Sydney learned to associate the smell of marijuana with her favorite toy, Dani was able to hide drugs and have Sydney sniff them out. Anytime she found them, she was rewarded with a game of tug of war.

  “Some over here too,” Aaron hollered from the kitchen.

  Dani ended the tug-of-war game, handed her brick to another officer, and sent Sydney off again. Another brick was stashed under the bed and a fourth under the bathroom sink.

  When the house was cleared, there was quite the stash accrued.

  “Do we know where the owner is?” Dani asked Lieutenant Craig when the search was complete.

  “On the run, we assume. We’ll have to return to the precinct and check the database to see if we can find family or friends who might have an idea of his whereabouts.”

  “It seems odd he would leave without the drugs, doesn’t it?” Dani pressed.

  “It does, but we don’t have the full picture of what happened at that warehouse. If Chris wasn’t killed, whoever killed the man we found might be after him. All we know is that he was there. Either way, we’ll keep looking.”

  3

  Calvin sighed with relief when the knock at the door sounded. He had been up all night worrying about Chris. Yes, his brother needed tough love, but Calvin couldn’t shake the feeling that Chris might be in real trouble this time. His brown eyes had held a sadness, but as Calvin thought more about it, he wondered if they also held fear.

  His relief was short lived though when he opened the door and found not Calvin but three police officers and two German shepherds.

  “Calvin Phillips?”

  “Yes, I’m Calvin.” What kind of trouble was Chris in?

  “I’m Lieutenant Craig, and this is officer Jones and Higgins. We’re looking for your brother, Chris Phillips.”

  “He’s not here,” Calvin said, but as he spoke the two German shepherds tugged on their leashes, straining to enter the room.

  “The dogs say otherwise. Do you mind if we look around?” Lieutenant Craig asked.

  Calvin would have allowed them in even if the man hadn’t resembled Arnold Schwarzenegger. He backed against the wall, allowing the officers and K-9 dogs into his apartment.

  The dogs made a beeline for his couch, and after a moment of sniffing, one pulled a mitten triumphantly from the couch cushio
ns.

  As the officer, a trim blonde turned her hazel eyes on him, Calvin spoke up. “Chris was here yesterday. He must have dropped the mitten when we were watching the game, but I swear to you he’s not here now.”

  “Do you know where he might be?” Lieutenant Craig asked. With his close-cut hair and steely gaze, Calvin wondered if he were ex-marine.

  “I thought he went home to his place when he left here.” He glanced around at the dogs and the other two officers searching the rest of his place. “Is he in trouble?”

  The lieutenant’s eyebrow arched. “He didn’t tell you?”

  Calvin shook his head. “I didn’t let him. He came here yesterday looking for money, but I didn’t give him any. We watched the game, and then he left.”

  “Your brother is a person of interest in a homicide case.”

  Calvin’s jaw dropped as his eyes widened. “Homicide? No way, not Chris. He’s made some mistakes, but he’s no killer.”

  “If he’s not responsible for the murder,” Lieutenant Craig said, “then it’s very likely some bad men are looking for him. We can definitely place your brother at the scene. It would be in his best interest for you to tell us of any place he might hide.”

  Calvin could think of only one place, but he couldn’t give the information to the police. He needed to check it out first and hear Chris’s side of the story. What kind of trouble had he gotten himself into now?