Imminent Danger - Carla Cassidy

It got a 3 because I'm mostly burned out.

 

The girl on the cover does look pregnant. Apparently whoever matched covers with books was asleep at the wheel because the h is NOT.

 

The background is that she's hidden away by US Marshalls outside witless protection as her sister and BIL were cops investigating other cops who killed them while she was hiding in the closet. They figured there was too much risk of her being found going through their normal network. They called upon the H for some unknown reason.

Official story is that she's his fiancee' and nobody knew he was involved (small town). Brilliantly, he lets one of his deputies in on the secret.

 

In the meantime, they have a crimewave of sorts - someone has kidnapped two single women from their homes, taken them to the Kissing Tree (yes, this is a thing), and well, kissed them.

 

Over the course of what...a week or two (not sure there), the original bad guys are arrested, and the Casanova (the kidnapper) has apparently escalated to raping one.

The h gets spooked because she heard someone outside her window...which really should have made the H suspicious of who this person might be as she, while single, is supposedly engaged to HIM, and only one person in town knows otherwise.

 

Of course, an argument later, the stage is set so she can get grabbed and since she's (temporarily) blind and relying on other senses, she figures out who it is.

 

Thoughts - the guy is all kinds of stupid to grab a person he *knows* is being collected in less than a day by US Marshalls. Did the thought never cross his mind that by messing with her, he'd invite all sorts of government attention into his proclivities? And he was rather obvious - a large person, even if you don't notice the smell of mint from his soap, in a town where everyone knows everyone, how many people meeting that description are there? Even the H seemed to be mentally facepalming - everyone knew him, everyone trusted him, he could pick locks, etc.

 

Kicker - h's testimony wasn't needed for original purpose as one of the dirty cops did the canary impression once caught.