MacKenzie's Pleasure by Linda Howard

Author:Linda Howard [Howard, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Kidnapping, Terrorists, Contemporary, General, Romance, Large Type Books, Fiction
ISBN: 9781597221641
Google: ZFs8AgAACAAJ
Publisher: Wheeler Pub.
Published: 1997-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 8

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Two months later, Sheriff Zane Mackenzie stood naked at the window of the pleasant two-bedroom Spanish-style house he had bought in southern Arizona. He was staring out over the moonlit desert, something wild and hot running through him at the sight. His SEAL training had taught him how to adapt to any environment, and the hot, dry climate didn’t bother him.

Once he’d made up his mind to resign his commission, things had rapidly fallen into place. Upon hearing that he was leaving the Navy, a former SEAL team member who was now on the governor’s staff in Phoenix had called and asked if he would be interested in serving the remaining two years of the term of a sheriff who had died in office.

At first Zane had been taken aback; he’d never considered going into law enforcement. Moreover, he didn’t know anything about Arizona state laws.

“Don’t worry about it,” his friend had said breezily. “Sheriff is a political position, and most of the time it’s more administrative than anything else. The situation you’d be going into is more hands-on, though. A couple of the deputies have quit, so you’d be shorthanded until some more can be hired, and the ones still there will resent the hell out of you because one of them wasn’t appointed to finish out the sheriff’s term.”

“Why not?” Zane asked bluntly. “What’s wrong with the chief deputy?”

“She’s one of the ones who quit. She left a couple of months before the sheriff died, took a job on the force in Prescott.”

“None of the others are qualified?”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“Then what would you say?”

“You gotta understand, there’s not a lot of selection here. A couple of the young deputies are good, real good, but they’re too young, not enough experience. The one twenty-year guy isn’t interested. A fifteen-year guy is a jerk, and the rest of the deputies hate his guts.”

Sheriff. Zane thought about it, growing more intrigued with the idea. He had no illusions about it being a Cakewalk. He would have difficulties with the fifteen-year veteran, at least, and likely all the other deputies would have some reservations and resistance about someone from the outside being brought in. Hell, he liked it better that way. Cakewalks didn’t interest him. He’d rather have a challenging job any day. “Okay, I’m interested. What does it involve?”

“A lot of headache, mostly. The pay’s decent, the hours are lousy. A reservation sits on part of the county, so you’ll have to deal with the BIA. There’s a big problem with illegal immigrants, but that’s for the INS to worry about. Generally, this isn’t a high crime area. Not enough people.”

So here he was, his strength back, the owner of a house and a hundred acres of land, newly sworn in as sheriff. He’d brought in a few of his horses from his parents’ place in Wyoming. It was a hell of a change from the Navy.

It was time to see about Barrie. He’d thought about her a lot over the past few months, but lately he couldn’t think about anything else.

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