Imperfect Justice by Olivia Jaymes

Possible break-in. Suspected drunk driver.” Knox scratched his chin. “Funny thing. None of them turned out to be true. Everyone was running all over the place like chickens with their heads cut off. All for nothing. In the meantime, real reports had to wait in line.”
    “Tell me about the real crime first.” Jared’s brain was already whirring with possibilities, although one seemed more likely than the others.
    “A house burglarized just east of town. Perp took the television, a laptop, a cell phone, and two hundred in cash.” Knox peered at another piece of paper on his desk. “And this one completely unrelated. A woman’s purse was snatched but not in town. It happened in her own driveway as she was getting out of the car. Weird.”
    Jared gulped at the hot coffee, angry that he’d missed so much. “Do we have deputies on those scenes now?”
    Knox nodded. “We do. They’ll be filing their report before they go off-duty.”
    Too antsy to stay still, Jared stood and paced the small area between the desks. “Are you sure the other reports were fake?”
    “Positive.” Knox smacked the top of his desk in obvious frustration. “I had deputies spread to every corner of our jurisdiction and nothing. When they got there…not a damn thing. Maybe a bunch of kids were playing pranks on us.”
    Shaking his head, Jared sank into the chair behind his desk. “I don’t think so. I think this might just be the first shot fired by Boyd Hicks. He’s telling us that he can scatter and control us. He likes to play games and this would be right up his alley. Get in touch with the 911 operator and get the originating phone numbers for those calls. Also, I’ll want to see the addresses the deputies were sent to. If it’s Boyd, he’ll want to make sure we know it’s him.”
    Knox handed Jared a stack of papers. “I’ll get those phone numbers right now.”
    “Good. I’ll see if there’s any connection between these addresses and Boyd Hicks. I have a feeling this was no kiddie prank.”
    Jared had caught Hicks once, and if he needed to he would do it again. No one was going to terrorize the town of Fielding while he was in charge.
    He couldn’t fix the situation with his dad or Royce or even Misty. But there was one thing he could do – keep his town safe.

    Misty grabbed the instructions, her tense fingers crumpling the paper. She couldn’t see straight and the room was spinning. This simply couldn’t be right.
    “Two blue lines,” Rayne pronounced, plucking the stick from Misty’s nerveless fingers. “Positive.”
    Somehow Misty managed to sit on her daybed, the lunch she’d had hours ago churning in her stomach. They’d used a condom. People didn’t get pregnant with condoms. Or did they? She had to admit she knew little about birth control. It had never been a factor in her life before.
    Until today, that is.
    “I can’t be.” Still in denial, Misty shook her head. “It must be a mistake.”
    Rayne sat down next to her and patted her knee. “Is there something you want to tell me? It appears that you are pregnant, Mist, and unless this is something miraculous I think you need to start talking.”
    Misty buried her head in her hands, panicked beyond rational thought. She’d made her plans so carefully. “We used a condom. I cannot be pregnant. This thing is wrong.”
    “Okay. Now we’re getting somewhere. You said we , which means there is a man, then. I don’t have to alert the media about a virgin birth or anything.”
    Groaning and falling back on the bed, Misty wrapped her arms around her torso as if in comfort. “I had a one night stand. I thought it would be okay. Just one night and then I’d be off to Seattle, just like you said. This has to be wrong,” she repeated, but she had an idea it wasn’t. She simply hadn’t been feeling like herself these last three weeks.
    “You had a one night stand. Maybe I should alert the media after all. I never thought that would happen.”
    Misty