Legend Read online

  Legend is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A Loveswept Ebook Original

  Copyright © 2019 by Sawyer Bennett

  Excerpt from Dax by Sawyer Bennett copyright © 2019 by Sawyer Bennett

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Loveswept, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  LOVESWEPT is a registered trademark and the LOVESWEPT colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book Dax by Sawyer Bennett. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.

  Ebook ISBN 9781101969649

  Cover design: Makeready Designs

  Cover photograph: PeopleImages/iStock

  randomhousebooks.com

  v5.4

  ep

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1: Legend

  Chapter 2: Legend

  Chapter 3: Pepper

  Chapter 4: Legend

  Chapter 5: Legend

  Chapter 6: Legend

  Chapter 7: Legend

  Chapter 8: Pepper

  Chapter 9: Legend

  Chapter 10: Legend

  Chapter 11: Pepper

  Chapter 12: Legend

  Chapter 13: Legend

  Chapter 14: Pepper

  Chapter 15: Legend

  Chapter 16: Pepper

  Chapter 17: Legend

  Chapter 18: Legend

  Chapter 19: Legend

  Chapter 20: Legend

  Chapter 21: Pepper

  Chapter 22: Legend

  Chapter 23: Pepper

  Chapter 24: Legend

  Chapter 25: Legend

  Chapter 26: Legend

  Chapter 27: Legend

  Chapter 28: Pepper

  Chapter 29: Legend

  Chapter 30: Legend

  Chapter 31: Legend

  Chapter 32: Legend

  By Sawyer Bennett

  About the Author

  Excerpt from Dax

  Arizona Vengeance

  Author’s Note

  Dear Reader,

  If you’ve read the first two Arizona Vengeance novels, you may have noticed that I don’t provide an epilogue in this series. Traditionally, an epilogue is writen to give the reader a future glimpse of the couple’s happily ever after. As I was working on the first manuscript, Bishop, and building in my mind the future stories to come, it became clear to me that the Vengeance is so much more than just a hockey team. It’s a family and their lives are so intertwined that I realized with much excitement that the characters I’d already written about could not simply melt into history with just a quick story about an engagement or wedding. They had to keep going.

  As such, I decided to not do a traditional epilogue, but rather continue to show you the couples throughout the future books. It’s like a…neverending epilogue! I hope you enjoy this method as well as watching these couples’ love grow and flourish.

  Happy reading!

  Sawyer

  Chapter 1

  Legend

  The glow of Pepper’s house comes into view as soon as I turn onto our street. I wasn’t surprised when the day after Thanksgiving, her house was miraculously transformed into a psychedelic Christmas wonderland, complete with multicolored lights over every line and angle, a huge plastic Santa with reindeer on the roof, and speakers mounted in the trees that played Christmas carols. There’s even a massive spinning mechanical display of Frosty the Snowman that blows fake snow up into the air every few minutes.

  The pièce de résistance, though, is a life-size biblical manger in the middle of her front yard, complete with Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, a donkey, two sheep, a cow, and three camels with Wise Men riding them. The whole scene is lit up by floodlights planted into the ground in front of it.

  I grit my teeth as I pull into my driveway. I can’t say anything about it because Pepper beat my ass in pool on Thanksgiving. It means I had to put my complaint to the homeowners’ association on hold as well, and so this holiday I’m relegated to keeping all my blinds drawn so as not to be blinded by the lights from her house.

  Of course, that doesn’t mean she won’t do something else to irritate me. The woman seems to live for it, whether it be setting up a flock of pink, plastic flamingos in my yard or just driving me crazy with her beautiful face and slammin’ body. I shouldn’t think about her this much but I’ve never had someone fascinate me as much as annoy me before.

  I note that she has three cars in her driveway, which isn’t unusual. Pepper seems to have a myriad of people over at her house all the time. She’s quite the social butterfly. She’s even invited me over for her intimate little soirees but I’ve declined every time.

  The only other thing I’ve noticed of late is that Pepper and my teammate Dax haven’t been hanging out together. At least from what I can tell, and I’m not really sure how that makes me feel. There’s no way I’ll ever admit to slight stabs of jealousy when he was seeing her, because that would be ludicrous. I can’t stand the woman.

  Giving one last, disgusted look at the Griswold house next door, I bring my Tahoe to a stop in the driveway and jab at the button to open the garage. As it slowly rises, I glance over at my porch to my left.

  There’s what looks to be a package, although it’s hard to tell as I don’t have the porch light on. It’s something I’m bad about doing when I’m gone for the day and won’t be returning until evening, and I make a mental note to add to my unending list of projects to install some automated security lights.

  But wait…that doesn’t look like a package. I peer through the gloom that the lights from Pepper’s house don’t quite permeate, all the way over to my porch.

  It looks like maybe a pile of clothes.

  My brows knitting in consternation, I put my vehicle in park and climb out. I walk up to the porch hesitantly because the closer I get to it, the more my gut rolls with some internal sense of danger.

  When my foot hits the bottom of the three steps that lead up, my entire body tightens as I see it’s a blanket with something small wrapped inside.

  My neck twists and I look over to Pepper’s house. Maybe it’s some type of prank she’s pulling on me.

  I take the last steps to reach the porch and squat down by the bundle. Reaching out, I slowly peel back a corner of the fleece material and a baby starts crying.

  A tiny, pink baby with eyes scrunched shut and little mouth pursed in pathetic whimpers.

  I’m so stunned I straighten up and take a step back, catching the top step with my booted heel and stumbling the rest of the way back down into my front yard where I land on my ass.

  What the fuck?

  With my feet spread wide and my palms planted in the grass at my butt, I stare in horror up at my porch as if I’d just found a bloody body.

  The baby continues to cry and it causes me to move. I scramble up from the ground, then stare at the bundle for a moment before taking off toward Pepper’s house. I clear a low row of shrubs between our two yards and leap onto her porch in one single bound. My fist is at her door banging so hard that the huge tin multicolored gecko nailed there rattles and threatens to fall off.

  The front door swings open quickly and I almost stumble across the threshold. Pepper stands there with a smile on her face that slides right off as she takes me in. If my expression mirrors the confusion and panic rolling through me right now, she had good reason not to smile.

  I point a shaky finger back toward my house. “Baby. Front porch.”

  Pepper’s face morphs into confusion and someone behind her says, “Hey, Pepp…is that the hot hockey player that lives next door? Have him come in and play some Scrabble with us.”

  She ignores the person as do I. Instead, I merely lunge at her to grab her hand and I’m pulling her physically through her doorway. I turn and run down the porch, and Pepper follows me without question or complaint.

  I drag her right up onto the porch where my hand is shaking even more violently as I point down at the baby wrapped in the blanket. It’s still whimpering softly.

  “Oh my God,” Pepper exclaims as she jerks her hand out of mine and stoops to pick up the baby. She peels the blanket back further to stare at the little creature. She finds its hand and pushes her finger into its and I’m amazed as the baby grasps on tightly.

  Her head turns to me. “You just found this on your porch?”

  I can’t even speak so I just nod effusively.

  “Where did it come from?”

  I shake my head and shrug.

  Pepper takes a step back and looks down at where the baby was lying. We both see a note there which must have been underneath the bundle.

  I pick it up. My hands are still shaking as I open it, and immediately realize it’s too dark to see. I walk woodenly down my porch steps, the feeling of dread that’s lodged deep in the pit of my stomach making me want to puke.

  Moving to the front of my Tahoe where the headlights sufficiently illuminate the area, I open the note again. I’m vaguely aware that Pepper’s at my side, leaning in to read alongside me.

  Legend,

  I hate to spring this on you, but I find myself unable to care for our baby. She’s fourteen days old and I haven’t named her yet. I know this is coming as a surprise, but you’re in a better position to care for her than I am.

  Lida

  “You had a baby?” Pepper asks softly.

  “No,” I mutter. “I mean…if this is true, yes. But I had no clue. I saw this woman briefly while I was with the Spartans down in Florida. I had no idea she was pregnant.”

  “Wow,” Pepper murmurs as I twist my neck to look at her. Her eyes are soft and wondrous. “Talk about a surprise, huh?”

  My gaze cuts to what I now know is a little baby girl with no name cradled so naturally in Pepper’s arms. “Yeah…it’s a surprise, all right.”

  Chapter 2

  Legend

  This can’t be fucking happening.

  I glance over to the ambulance where a paramedic is checking the baby out. She’s crying and it’s freaking me out. I have no clue if this baby is mine as Lida claims in the letter, and it doesn’t matter. That tiny little thing was sitting alone and defenseless on my porch, probably cold and hungry and who knows what else. Christ, there are fucking coyotes around here. They could have dragged her off to—

  Nope. Can’t think about that.

  If Lida were to walk up my driveway right now, I’m pretty sure I’d strangle the life out of her.

  My eyes slide over to Pepper, standing just outside the door of the ambulance and observing the scene. Her Scrabble party broke up quickly when the ambulance arrived.

  She worries at her lip, biting into it with her teeth and there’s a deep frown on her face. Thank fuck she was at home because I don’t even know how to hold a baby. I never even thought to pick it up. I just ran for Pepper.

  “Mr. Bay,” the police officer says to get my attention, and I turn to face him. “About what time did you arrive home tonight?”

  The cop—Officer Brandis—is one of two that arrived after I called 9-1-1. He’s portly, with the buttons of his uniform stretching tight over his belly. I have to wonder how many babies-abandoned-on-doorstep calls he responds to in a given year.

  Not many I bet.

  “Around 8:45 P.M.,” I tell him with another brief glance at the ambulance. The baby is still crying and it’s fraying my nerves.

  “And how long had you been gone from your home?”

  My mind races and it takes me a moment to remember that would have been about three hours ago when I went to the arena to workout with Dax.

  Jesus…that baby could have been laying there for three fucking hours.

  “And you had no prior knowledge that this baby is yours?” he inquires, jotting notes on a pad.

  “No,” I reply in what I hope is a calm voice, but I want to scream at him that of course I had no fucking clue.

  “Do you have contact information for Miss Martin?”

  “I have her phone number and address,” I tell him brusquely, which I’d already given him. “When is the social worker going to get here?”

  “Soon,” he says crisply, and then continues with his questions.

  When is the last time you saw Miss Martin?

  Did you know she was pregnant?

  Could this be a prank someone’s playing on you?

  “A prank?” I growl. “Who fucking leaves a baby on a doorstep as a prank?”

  Officer Brandis blinks in surprise and has the grace to actually blush. He gives a slight cough. “I’m sorry. I’m just trying to think of all the questions I need to ask so I don’t miss anything. I’ve not run into this scenario before.”

  I blow out a long breath, running my fingers through my hair. “I’m sorry I snapped. This is just a little stressful as I think you can imagine.”

  “Absolutely,” he says with a grateful smile since I’m choosing not to be a dick about things.

  A car pulls up behind the patrol car, and a woman gets out. She walks straight up to me and the officer, giving only a cursory glance at the back of the ambulance.

  “Mr. Bay?” she inquires, sticking a hand in my direction while holding a notepad under her other arm.

  “Yes,” I say as we shake.

  “I’m Louise Mankle.” She gives me a quick pump and releases my hand. She’s probably in her late fifties if I had to guess, and her no-nonsense tone is actually reassuring to me. “I’m from the Department of Child Safety.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I say lamely.

  Louise looks to Officer Brandis. “If you don’t mind me stepping in, I need to get some basic information and then I want to follow the ambulance to the hospital. I’m the child’s advocate and will need to be there when he or she is examined.”

  “It’s a she,” Officer Brandis says proudly, as if he’s cracked the investigation wide open. He refers to his notes. “Mr. Bay found the baby on his doorstep at approximately 8:45 P.M. There was a note allegedly written by a Miss Lida Martin of Miami, Florida. Mr. Bay has confirmed it’s her handwriting.”

  Louise gives him a curt nod and looks back to me. “Mr. Bay…is there any reason to doubt the baby is yours?”

  I shrug, not in a careless way, but completely bewildered. “I don’t know. I had an intimate relationship with Lida. We had protected sex, but…”

  “That’s not foolproof, now is it?” she asks kindly.

  “No,” I mutter, and then my anger froths up and out. “I mean…what kind of person leaves a kid on a porch like that? Does she not understand that baby could have died there? Or been dragged off by coyotes? Or, how was she even sure I’d be home tonight?”

  Louise gives me an empathetic smile and pats my arm. “It’s terrible. But that baby will get great medical care and we’ll look out for her .”

  I nod, again dragging my hand through my hair. I look over at the ambulance and Pepper is watching me carefully, her eyes awash with concern.

  With a sigh, I turn back to Louise. “What happens next?”

  “I go with the baby to the hospital. She’ll get examined by a doctor and if she’s okay, I’ll place her with an emergency foster family until we can determine paternity. You’ll need to come in for a saliva swab.”

  Paternity?

  Jesus fuck…I could be a father?

  My gaze snaps back to Pepper and I have no clue what she sees registered in my expression but she leaves the ambulance and walks over to me. I’m stunned when she takes my hand in hers and gives it a squeeze.

  There’s no inclination to pull away from her and I squeeze back. “They’re going to take the baby to the hospital. I need to go in too and they’ll test for paternity.”

  She nods and releases my hand. “I’ll drive you, okay?”

  “Okay,” I murmur, incredibly grateful to have this thorn in my side woman with me right now.

  And then a thought hits me, and I turn back to Louise. “If she’s my daughter, shouldn’t she stay with me rather than a foster family?”

  I get another kind smile from Louise. “Mr. Bay…we have laws we have to follow and you’re not an approved foster parent. Our fosters go through extensive training and background checks. But I have a family on standby that I already called and they are wonderful. A retired couple here in Phoenix that have been fostering for many years. She’ll be in good hands.”

  I nod dumbly, also acknowledging that there’s no way in hell I could take a baby tonight. I don’t have a crib, diapers or anything to feed the child. Hell, again…I don’t even know how to hold a baby.