Dead By Midnight by Beverly Barton

In a few years, we could save up enough for a house and our first baby.”
    “I don’t want a baby! Not now. Not for years and years.”
    In the end, Mike had been forced to accept the fact that Lorie would never come back to him, that he had lost her forever.
    It had taken him years to get over her, to move on with his life, and he could thank Molly for that. She had been his salvation. All the dreams he’d once had that included Lorie, all the plans the two of them had made together, he had fulfilled with another woman, with Molly. Thinking about his children, he knew that was the way things were meant to be.
    He wasn’t the kind of man who wasted his time looking back and wondering what if? or wished for things that he couldn’t have.
    Yeah, sure, he could have Lorie, could have had her when she first came back to Dunmore, could have had her before and after Molly died. He could probably still have her. But the Lorie he had known and loved no longer existed. His Lorie was as dead to him as Molly was. The Lorie who had come to him a sixteen-year-old virgin, the girl who had been his and only his. The teenager who had planned her future around him and the family they would one day have.
    The Lorie Hammonds who had returned to Dunmore nine years ago was a bruised and battered, used and discarded whore. God only knew how many men she’d had sex with, not just in that sleazy porno movie she’d made, but during the years she had been trying to get her big break. Just about every man in Dunmore had seen her in that film. He had seen the movie once, and the sight of her and what she’d been doing had made him sick.
    Why she had ever thought when she returned to Dunmore, her reputation in tatters and her life worthless, that he would forgive her, that they could be friends again, he’d never know.
    Mike had been so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed Jack and Cathy’s driveway and had to slam on his brakes and back up a few yards. Lorie parked her SUV, got out, and opened the back hatch. He pulled his truck up behind her vehicle, killed the motor, and got out.
    He rushed over to her, grabbed her suitcase, and said, “Here, let me get that for you.”
    She released the suitcase without protest and started walking toward the porch. He kept in step alongside her. When they reached the front door, she rang the doorbell and they waited together.
    “I appreciate the escort, Sheriff,” she said in a soft, sexy voice that caressed every nerve in his body.
    “You’re welcome, Ms. Hammonds. Just doing my job.”
    When the door opened, Derek Lawrence stood in the doorway. “Hello, Lorie.” He reached out, grasped her hand, and pulled her over the threshold. He glanced around her and spotted Mike. “Hello, Sheriff. Nice of you to see Lorie here all safe and sound.” He held out his hand. “Here, let me take her suitcase.”
    Reluctantly, Mike handed over the suitcase. “Where’s Maleah?”
    “On the phone at the moment,” he said. “Seems the newlyweds called to check on Seth and on the old homestead.”
    “She isn’t going to tell them about me, is she? I don’t want them worrying while they’re on their honeymoon,” Lorie said.
    Derek put his arm around Lorie’s shoulders and ushered her inside the foyer. “I’m sure she won’t say a word. And there’s no reason for anyone to worry about your safety. You have two Powell Agency employees acting as your bodyguards. And may I say what a pleasure this job is for me.”
    Mike cleared his throat. Derek glanced over his shoulder. “Oh, are you staying for dinner? Perdue didn’t say. I set the table for three, but I can add another—”
    “No thanks.” Mike had the sudden urge to punch Derek Lawrence. “I’ve got other plans.” When Lorie looked at him, he said, “If you need me, I’m just a phone call away.”
    “I’m sure she won’t need you,” Derek told him.
    With that said, Mike nodded, turned and tromped off the porch. Cursing under his