by Barb Han
She’s in a murderer’s sights…
But it’s not just her life in danger.
Deputy Courtney Foster’s brief fling with Texas ranch owner Jordan Kent was her time-out after getting shot in the line of duty. Only now she’s hunting a killer…and she’s just discovered she’s pregnant. Jordan will put everything on the line to work with Courtney and capture whoever has suddenly turned his sights on the mother-to-be. Before long, they’re in a race against the clock to stop a murderer from obliterating all their futures.
USA TODAY Bestselling Author
“You’re safe now.”
Jordan sat next to her and Courtney instantly felt the air charge around her. Attraction replaced fear. His arms opened to her and she embraced the invitation, burying her face in his masculine chest.
Memories flooded her as she breathed in his all-male, uniquely Jordan scent. It would be so easy to get lost in it and let him be her strength. There was a baby to think about now. She took in a breath meant to fortify her, but it only ushered in more of Jordan’s scent.
Pulling on all the strength she had left, she moved away from him and hugged her knees to her chest. “I’m sorry about that. I won’t make it a habit.”
“Promise me that anytime you need someone to lean on you’ll call me.” There was so much honesty and purity in the words that she almost gave in.
WHAT SHE SAW
USA TODAY Bestselling Author
Barb Han
USA TODAY bestselling author Barb Han lives in north Texas with her very own hero-worthy husband, three beautiful children, a spunky golden retriever/standard poodle mix and too many books in her to-read pile. In her downtime, she plays video games and spends much of her time on or around a basketball court. She loves interacting with readers and is grateful for their support. You can reach her at barbhan.com.
Books by Barb Han
Harlequin Intrigue
Rushing Creek Crime Spree
Cornered at Christmas
Ransom at Christmas
Ambushed at Christmas
What She Did
What She Knew
What She Saw
Crisis: Cattle Barge
Sudden Setup
Endangered Heiress
Texas Grit
Kidnapped at Christmas
Murder and Mistletoe
Bulletproof Christmas
Cattlemen Crime Club
Stockyard Snatching
Delivering Justice
One Tough Texan
Texas-Sized Trouble
Texas Witness
Texas Showdown
Harlequin Intrigue Noir
Atomic Beauty
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Deputy Courtney Foster—After being shot in the line of duty, can she return to Jacobstown to find a safe haven?
Jordan Kent—He came home to handle the family ranching business and found out he’s going to become a father, unless a serial killer has his way.
Gus Stanton—An accident cost him his livelihood and family, and gave him a lifelong limp. Is he angry enough to take his losses out on others?
Jason Millipede—Bullied as a kid, is he exacting revenge on a whole town?
Reggie Barstock—Reggie sightings are back. He’s definitely a criminal and a creep, but has he graduated to murder?
Zach McWilliams—He took a chance hiring Courtney. Will her homecoming be tainted by a serial killer?
All my love to Brandon, Jacob and Tori, the three great loves of my life.
To Babe, my hero, for being my greatest love and my place to call home.
And to book lovers like Amy McWilliams, who I also get to call my friend.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Excerpt from Isolated Threat by Nicole Helm
Chapter One
Deputy Courtney Foster sat at the oblong wooden conference table in the sheriff’s office, clicking a pen. The distraction helped her focus on work and not the sick feeling swirling in her stomach, building, threatening to send her racing to the trash can. She’d skipped her usual early-morning cup of coffee in favor of salted crackers.
“I just got a call from the Meyers,” her boss, Zach McWilliams, said on a frustrated-sounding sigh. “They’ve decided it’s not safe in Jacobstown anymore. Trip Meyer made a point of telling me that he’s afraid for his daughters to come home from the university over spring break.”
“I’m sorry,” Courtney offered.
Deputy Lopez shuffled into the room with coffee in hand and took a seat next her.
“Morning,” he practically grumbled.
“Does 5:00 a.m. count as morning? Or is it still the night before?” She tried to lighten the heavy mood.
“Technically, I think it’s still the night before,” Lopez agreed.
Everyone was up early and taking extra shifts in order to ensure the town’s safety.
“Do we know the exact timeline for when the small-animal killings began?” she asked Zach. He’d been working on the case with a volunteer. Lone Star Lonnie was also a close family friend and foreman of KR, Kent Ranch, one of the largest and wealthiest ranches in the state of Texas.
“We’ve been able to reach back as far as a year ago with the help of a forensic team out of Fort Worth,” Zach responded.
The twisted psycho who had been dubbed the Jacobstown Hacker had begun killing small animals a year ago? The man had moved onto a heifer, butchering its left hoof and then leaving the poor animal to bleed out and die near Rushing Creek on the Kent Ranch.
There’d been more heifer killings after that, spaced out over weeks. It appeared that the twisted jerk had begun on small animals like rabbits and squirrels before moving on to bigger game. All the animals he’d butchered had been females, which had been a warning sign to all the women in town. And he graduated to killing a person—Breanna Griswold.
An investigation revealed that the twenty-seven-year-old victim had been in and out of group homes in Austin for the seven years of her life leading up to her last. She’d grown up in Jacobstown but had moved away during high school. Courtney remembered her from years ago. Breanna had moved back to town a couple of months before her murder.
She was a loner, known to sleep in random places around town when she was on a bender. She was murdered with the same MO as the animals—a severed left foot.
With Breanna’s recent murder and the fact the killer was still on the loose, everyone seemed on edge. Courtney started working the clicker on the pen in double time.
“Do you mind?” Deputy Lopez motioned toward the noisemaker in her hand. Lopez was average height, in his mid-thirties and had dark hair and eyes. He was medium build and had a pronounced nose.
“Sorry.” Courtney released the pen, and it tumbled onto the desk. Her unsettled stomach made all kinds of embarrassing sounds. For the second time this morning, Courtney thought she might throw up on the deputy who was seated nex
t to her.
She was pretty certain that Lopez would not be amused. She’d been on the job a few weeks now and was still getting her bearings in the small, tight-knit sheriff’s office. Coming home to Jacobstown was supposed to be a safe haven from her stressful job working for Dallas Police Department as a beat cop...
An involuntarily shiver rocked her as she thought about the past, about what had happened in Dallas.
“We’re no closer to finding answers. Breanna deserves better from us.” Zach tapped his knuckles on the table. Everyone knew the victim and her circumstances. Her only family, a mother and a brother, had walked away from her and moved to Austin years ago. Breanna had tracked them down there, but rumor had it she became homeless shortly after.
Her mother had a reputation for drinking and using physical violence on her children. Even so, every mother—even the bad ones—deserved justice for a murdered daughter. Breanna had been a grown woman who made her own mistakes, but people cared that she was gone. The horrific murder had rocked the bedroom community.
Another bout of nausea struck, and Courtney’s breakfast threatened to make another appearance. She glanced up in time to see Zach staring at her.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“I’ll be fine.” She could only hope this would pass soon. “I’m sure I ate something bad at the potluck yesterday. I should know better by now, but I can’t resist beef and bean taco casserole.”
“You’re braver than I.” Lopez cracked a smile, breaking the tension. Courtney glanced at the scar on his neck. He’d taken a bullet trying to protect a mother and daughter a few months ago, when the quiet town had experienced its first crime wave since the Hacker began his work.
“I stick to vegetables and dessert. No one ever got sick from eating raw carrots,” Lopez touted.
“No one ever enjoyed them, either.” Courtney smiled, but it was weaker than she wanted it to be. She couldn’t force it right now through another wave. Acid burned her throat, and it was taking all her energy to keep from losing it.
“Tasted fine to me.” Lopez shrugged.
“We’re short on solid leads.” Zach steered the meeting back on track, and the mood immediately shifted to all business. Zach had mentioned that she’d be a good addition to his team when he hired her. The Jacobstown Hacker was all anyone could think about, he’d said. The town needed someone with big-city experience. People were getting anxious. Everyone was willing to pitch in to help, which created a whole different kind of chaos. A volunteer room had been set up in the office down the hallway, where folks volunteered to man the tip line.
The fact that people cared about each other was one of the many reasons Courtney had moved back to Jacobstown. She’d missed that small-town feel when she lived in a big city. The sheer volume of cases in Dallas caused law enforcement to focus most of its energy on high-priority cases. Whereas here at home, even the marginalized were cared for. People looked out for each other as best they could, and that included every resident. Even the ones who seemed intent on harming themselves.
Courtney had friends here. She’d been good friends with Zach’s younger sister, Amy. She’d also been close to Amy’s cousin Amber Kent at one time. But Courtney didn’t want to think about the Kents. Especially not Jordan, who’d been two years ahead of her in school when they were all kids. He’d also ignored her for most of her life and teased her as teenagers. And then there were those few days at the cabin six weeks ago.
That week, great as it had been, was over. He’d gone back to Idaho and the property his family owned there, and she’d moved on to start her new job as a deputy for his cousin.
“Is there no one besides Reggie Barstock on our suspect list?” Courtney asked.
Zach shook his head.
“There have to be others,” she continued.
“No one as strong as Reggie,” Deputy Lopez said.
“Because he has a criminal record?” She didn’t see how burglaries catapulted him into the category of serial killer. “How old is Reggie now?”
“Thirty-three.” Zach clasped his hands and rested them on the conference table.
“I didn’t know him very well growing up. He was quite a few years older than me, but I’m picturing someone with a higher IQ here. Am I alone?” From everything she knew about serial killers, they were intelligent, lacked a conscience but could be incredibly charming when it served them. At least, the ones who got away with their crimes were. And this perpetrator had the presence of mind to ensure he left no DNA behind. That took some calculating on his part.
The first heifer had been found near Rushing Creek, and the other animals had eventually been found near there. Breanna had been discovered two miles up the creek on the Kent family property. Courtney would have to speak to family members as part of the investigation. She figured it wouldn’t be too difficult to bypass Jordan, since he lived out of state. The last thing she wanted to do was run into him again while she still felt so vulnerable after their fling.
“Do you have any other ideas for suspects?” Lopez leaned toward her.
“No. But the Jacobstown Hacker is careful, calculating. He’s methodical,” she continued. “I’m not completely convinced that I’m seeing that in Reggie’s file.”
“I feel the same way about Gus Stanton.” Lopez snapped his fingers. “He’s been home on worker’s comp after an accident a few years ago unloading his rig. He lives on the outskirts of town on a couple of acres. Keeps to himself mostly.”
Having returned to town a month and a half ago, Courtney had to defer to Lopez and the sheriff for up-to-date information about residents. She hadn’t heard of Gus Stanton growing up, so he must’ve moved to the area after she’d left.
“Why don’t you go out and check on him? See if you can get a feel for his emotional state,” Zach said. “If he has a bad left foot from the accident, I want to know about it.”
“Does Gus have a family?” Courtney asked. The guy she was looking for was a loner.
“He’s divorced with two kids. I believe his ex moved the kids to New Braunfels to be with her folks a couple of years back,” Zach supplied.
“Sounds like we’ve doubled our list of suspects,” Courtney said. There were half a dozen names that had been submitted and cleared almost immediately. The pair of suspects they had didn’t exactly fit the loose profile they’d developed. It was impossible not to feel like they were letting the community down.
All the townsfolk were antsy, sitting on pins and needles in anticipation of another strike. People had taken to locking their doors and looking at their neighbors twice. Tips were coming in, but most people were on the wrong track. Every kid who’d ever thrown a rock in the wrong place at the wrong time had been named as a possible lead.
Zach leaned back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose as though to stem a headache. “Since Lopez is taking Gus, why don’t you interview Reggie’s former teachers, friends, neighbors. See what you can come up with about what kind of student he was. If he’s smarter than we’re giving him credit for, I want to know that, too.”
“Will do, Zach.” It was habit to call him by his first name after growing up friends with his sister, and yet it felt awkward after the formality of working in a big-city department.
Courtney picked up the pen and started clicking it again. She caught herself this time and set the pen down. She stretched her long, lean fingers over it.
“Go see what you can find out, and we’ll meet again tomorrow.” Zach glanced up at the whiteboard on the adjacent wall, where there were two names.
“Have there been any new Reggie sightings?” Courtney stood up, got hit with another wave and had to plant a hand on the table in order to steady herself.
“You sure you’re okay to work?” Zach’s brow creased with concern.
“I’m good,” she responded a little too quickly. “No more pot
luck for me.”
“To answer your question, yes. There’s a new sighting almost every day. Nothing has panned out so far,” Zach said.
Getting out of the stuffy office where she could grab some fresh air was her top priority. The department-issue SUV assigned to her was at the opposite end of the parking lot.
Taking in a lungful of crisp late-morning air, she was reminded how good it felt just to breathe. She’d taken a new job in a new city—not technically new, but she hadn’t lived in Jacobstown in almost a decade—and this was supposed to be a fresh start after what had happened in Dallas when a protest turned into civil unrest. Eight officers had been killed that day, three of whom she’d been very close to. One of whom she’d been intimate with.
Courtney had barely escaped with her life. She’d gone back to the job after a three-month recovery and counseling stint after being shot. But living in the city, doing that job had lost its appeal. Since law enforcement was all she knew and at one time had been her passion, she’d called Zach and asked if she could come work for him.
The rest, as they said, was history. Courtney climbed up and slid behind the wheel of her SUV. Her white-knuckle grip did little to calm her churning stomach. She already knew a few teachers she wanted to speak to, and Zach had said he’d have his secretary, Ellen Haiden, send over their home addresses. School was still in session, and only one of Reggie’s teachers had retired in the last decade.
But Courtney had something to do first.
The drive to the big-box store in Bexford took a solid forty-five minutes from the office. She could only pray she wouldn’t recognize anyone once she got inside.
Courtney parked her vehicle off to the side of the building and took the walk to the front door while fighting against the urge to vomit. She walked past the row of neatly stacked carts. She didn’t need one but didn’t exactly want to hold a pregnancy test out in the open, either. She picked up a handbasket instead, figuring she could load it with a few items.
Part of the reason she’d come to this store was the fact that it had self-checkout stands. That and the point that she didn’t want the whole town of Jacobstown to know she thought she might be pregnant. If she was, then, yes, she would have to have an awkward conversation with the baby’s father, but she’d rather not deal with the gossip if she turned out to be stressing over being late on her cycle for no reason.
