Identical Threat

by Tyler Anne Snell

  Desmond could have sworn it got so quiet in that house that you could hear a pin drop.

  Riley’s cheeks turned flame red just as Madi and his mother turned to stare at him behind her back. Madi’s eyes were as large as saucers. Her smile indicated she was damn near close to laughing.

  Once again, Desmond was immensely grateful that his brothers weren’t inside yet. First his lame Wheel of Fortune idea and now he was only upping his smooth game by asking if the woman he’d made out with that morning wanted a bunch of kids like he did.

  And he’d pushed one heck of a spotlight on Riley to boot.

  “What I meant to say was,” he hurriedly tacked on, trying to salvage his foot-in-mouth moment, “do large families bother you? Because, if so, you’re about to be really bothered.”

  The gods took pity on Desmond because, less than a second later, the front door flew open and in walked Caleb and his wife.

  “Your favorite child is here, Ma,” he yelled in greeting.

  His wife, Nina, laughed behind him and pushed him into the house so Declan and she could get through.

  Declan rolled his eyes.

  “Being the loudest one doesn’t a favorite child make,” he pointed out.

  Then Madi’s mountain of a man brought up the rear, shutting the door behind him with a thoughtful look.

  “Well, I’m the favorite son-in-law and I think that’s pretty cool,” he said.

  “You’ve got that right,” their mother piped in.

  “You’re her only son-in-law,” Madi said. Their mother pushed past her and Desmond and Riley. She patted Julian’s stomach.

  “It’s called son-in-love and he’ll always be number one in my book.”

  “You’re only feeding his ego, Ma,” Madi said around a snort of laughter.

  “Keep giving me grandbabies and I’ll feed him whatever he wants,” she responded.

  That got everyone laughing. Even Riley. The blush from her cheeks had gone away.

  “I don’t mind this in the least.”

  * * *

  THE FAMILY ONLY became more chaotic as they settled around the outdoor dining table on the back porch. The weather was still good enough that the chill was more pleasant than annoying. Riley sat between Desmond and Madi while Hartley floated between Riley’s lap and his. Desmond was glad that Hartley seemed to have become taken with him.

  Desmond wanted to spend more time with the boy’s aunt and had a feeling that included him and Jenna.

  A thought that surprised Desmond throughout the dinner.

  It wasn’t until Madi, Julian and Addison left and then his mother went inside to take a phone call that the conversation took a turn that led him away from any intriguing thoughts of the future.

  “I have to say, Riley, I really am sorry about earlier,” Declan dove in. His brow was creased and he looked every bit as sorry as Desmond had seen him.

  “It’s not your fault,” she said.

  “What’s not your fault?” Desmond asked.

  Declan shared a look with Riley.

  What had he missed?

  “I stopped by Mimi’s Boutique on the way over here and Davies showed up.” Desmond felt his blood pressure skyrocket. Riley touched the top of his hand. “He didn’t do anything. Just said a few words and then left. He thought I was Jenna so he didn’t stick around and bother me. I told Declan when I got here though, just so law enforcement knew he came back.”

  Desmond gave his older brother a look. Declan sighed.

  “Jazz saw him leave but it wasn’t like we were going to ask her to camp out there all day and night. He must’ve just driven back on in later when she was gone.”

  “He shouldn’t be just coming back on in,” Desmond said with heat in his words, even to his own ears.

  “If he does it again I can take him in on harassment,” he said to both of them. “If I grabbed him now his lawyer and that weird hair of hers would just do their dance again.”

  “Weird hair?” Riley asked.

  Declan nodded.

  “It was what I think is called platinum blond, but, good golly, it was so bright I could barely think when I first saw her.”

  “It’s probably a distraction tactic,” Caleb offered.

  Declan shrugged.

  “Whatever it is, it’s attached to a woman who’s very well connected and very well funded by the looks of the designer tags on everything she was wearing. I had to snap at a few of my deputies who were caught staring at her too long. You’d think they’d never seen a nice-looking lawyer the way they were gawking.”

  “Was she young?”

  The question made sense but the tone in which Riley asked it didn’t. Desmond faced her, knowing full well that the crinkle of concentration between his eyebrows that Madi always picked at him about was there.

  Something was off with the siren sitting at his shoulder.

  “Uh, yeah.” Declan heard it too. His eyebrow rose high. “I’d say maybe midtwenties, which is why I assumed she was well connected, with how easily she got him out.”

  Every part of Riley had gone rigid.

  Even Hartley sitting on her lap looked up at her face to try to puzzle out why the change had happened.

  “What was the lawyer’s name?”

  Declan didn’t have to think long.

  “Maria Wendell.”

  Riley pushed her chair back but didn’t stand. In turn all of the Nash men went on alert.

  “Where is she?” Riley said. “That’s what Davies kept asking.”

  Two large, dark and deeply worried eyes found Desmond’s.

  “What if Brett’s attack wasn’t just one of opportunity? What if he really did pick me on purpose? Or, really, Jenna,” she continued. “She was supposed to be at the gala, not me. Geordi thought I was Jenna when we were at the park. And Davies has always been so bad at telling us apart, I just assumed since he saw Hartley he thought he was talking to Jenna today... But I think he actually knew who he was talking to.”

  Desmond’s gut started yelling.

  “He was asking where Jenna was,” Desmond supplied.

  Riley turned her gaze to Declan.

  “The last time I saw Maria Wendell was at Macklin Tech right before I left the company,” she continued. “Jenna and I have suspected since then that she was having an affair with Ryan.” Riley shook her head, a more palpable look passing over her expression.

  Terror.

  “The man in the suit at Second Wind called you Ms. Stone, not Riley,” Declan added.

  “Oh, God,” Riley said in an almost whisper. She was back looking at Desmond.

  His adrenaline shot up as she said the conclusion they had all just come to.

  “What if everything that has happened to me hasn’t been bad luck or some coincidence? What if it was all just really meant for Jenna?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The Nash men took off so fast that Desmond could have believed they broke the sound barrier. He was hauling ass down Winding Road while Declan and Caleb made calls in the front and back seats.

  Desmond used the time to focus on the road ahead of him, and not the growing sense of dread that had flipped in his stomach at Riley’s last words to him. Jenna’s phone is going straight to voice mail. She never turns it off.

  Those had been the many, but absolutely effective, magic words.

  Now they were about to have all of the sheriff’s department on Willows Way.

  But only after Desmond got them there first.

  “We’re the closest,” Declan said after a few minutes. “There was a wreck out on County Road 11. It’s got most of my people there right now.”

  “Jazz should get there but the way you’re driving it’ll definitely be after,” Caleb added.

  Then the inside of the truck became quiet.

&
nbsp; They didn’t speak again until the house came into view. A light was on inside the house.

  “Let’s go around the perimeter before we bust up in there,” Caleb said, service weapon out. Declan followed suit. They exited the truck, careful to close the doors quietly, and fanned out. Caleb went around the house to the left. Declan went around the house to the right.

  Desmond went straight to the front door.

  He held his personal gun in one hand and unlocked the door with Riley’s keys in the other.

  He wasn’t going to wait.

  Not when Jenna might be in danger.

  Jenna was about to be very scared or really thankful.

  The house was mostly quiet. Something was making noise deeper within but he couldn’t make out what it was. Desmond checked his gun again and took a deep breath. He’d never shot a person but wasn’t above doing just that if necessary.

  Because, in his gut, he knew Riley was right.

  They’d spent too much time counting everything as coincidence and not enough of it stepping back to look at the entire picture. Not that Desmond could tell her exactly what the big picture was but now at least they were counting it as one series of events.

  It wasn’t just bad luck.

  It was a design.

  The sound of movement made Desmond stop in the doorway. He raised his gun, trying to place it.

  He heard a tink. Something fell.

  It was coming from the other side of the house, outside.

  Desmond spun around, went back outside, and then to the corner. Much like he had with Riley at the law offices, he peeked around the side.

  He could have sang in relief.

  A mass of red curls could be seen just inside the opened window. The screen from it was on the grass.

  Jenna was trying to go through the window.

  Desmond slid his gun into the back of his pants and hurried over. Jenna, who was in the process of turning around so she could control the almost-six-foot drop thanks to a raised foundation, had one bare leg out and was working on her backside.

  She must have heard him. Her movements became frantic. She was trying to get back inside.

  “Jenna,” Desmond whispered, reaching out.

  She tried to turn to see who it was but only lost her balance. With a strangled screech she slipped backward right out of the window. Desmond was glad he’d put his gun away as he caught the flailing woman like a child.

  Her eyes were wide with terror. Even after she recognized him.

  “Someone is in the house,” she whispered. “I—I heard glass break.”

  Desmond set her down, angled her behind him and pulled his gun back out. He could see through the opened window that the light they’d seen from the road was in the hallway.

  Jenna sucked in a breath as a shadow filled the doorway into the bedroom she’d just fallen out of.

  “Move and I’ll—”

  A shot rang out before Desmond could offer up the threat.

  Several things happened at once.

  Jenna screamed. So loud and pure that Desmond couldn’t help but think of Madi that day in the park. It sent fire into his veins.

  He had to protect her.

  But there was another heat happening. This one was physical and hurt like hell.

  There was also a new sound. Two gunshots.

  And it came from Desmond’s gun.

  The shadow in the doorway crumpled and groaned. The skewed vantage point of them being on the ground versus in the room sent the bullets into his leg.

  Desmond readied to make a more critical hit if needed when yelling consumed the house.

  Declan and Caleb converged on the man without an ounce of mercy. Desmond didn’t lower his gun until he saw the other one kicked across the room.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, spinning around to inspect Jenna. Even in the poor light she looked near fainting. “Jenna, are you okay?” he repeated. As if he’d physically shaken her awake she moved all at once.

  “Am I okay? Are you?” she shrieked, hands reaching out to him. “Desmond, you’ve been shot!”

  “What?” yelled Caleb from inside the house.

  Declan started talking fast but it wasn’t to them.

  Desmond looked to where the heat had blossomed on his arm. There was a tear in his flannel at the arm. He had been shot after all.

  “Well, look at that.”

  * * *

  THE TEMPERATURE TURNED COLD like it was sensing their moods.

  Riley was staring at the road that led to the main house with a ferocity that still felt as urgent as it had the moment she’d watched the Nash sons take off down it.

  Now, even though she knew Jenna was alright, Riley couldn’t loosen the worry that had put a vise over her heart. Because it wasn’t just her twin she was worried about, it was also Desmond and his family. Every time she got to know them a little better she fell a little more in love with them. Their kindness, compassion and loyalty to one another were heartwarming.

  Just what she and Jenna had needed after what happened in the world they’d left behind.

  So when that blue Ford appeared on the road that split the ranch, Riley let out a ragged breath. When Jenna and Desmond were both inside, she nearly cried.

  “Riley!”

  “Jenna!”

  In true Stone sister fashion they yelled for each other at the same time as Jenna got out. They embraced.

  “I’m fine,” Jenna assured her. “Desmond showed up just in time.”

  Riley pulled back to look her sister up and down. The pajama set she’d been wearing last time Riley had seen her had been replaced by pants and a hefty jacket. She also was shouldering a duffel bag. When she saw Riley look at it she gave a small smile of relief.

  “Desmond insisted we stay with him tonight,” she added. “I’ve decided we all are going to take him up on that offer. I packed you some clothes too.”

  Jenna’s eyes roamed to the main house behind them. She was looking for her son.

  “He’s asleep in the living room,” Riley said. “Dorothy read him a bedtime story that put him out flat.”

  Jenna grabbed and squeezed her hand in thanks and walked away.

  Riley turned to seek out the second person she’d been worried about. Desmond was slow getting out of his truck but he was smiling.

  “I hope you don’t mind bunking at my place ton—”

  Riley didn’t have long, long legs by any means but she somehow ate up the distance between them with surprising speed.

  Desmond was warm as she pressed against him. Just like the kiss she gave him.

  It was brief.

  Riley stepped back and said the one thought on her mind. It was also brief.

  “Thank you.”

  Desmond, bless him, didn’t make a big deal about the kiss or the praise. He took his hat off.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Headlights turned their attention to a truck coming up the road. The front door to the main house pushed open as Nina, Caleb’s wife, ran to her husband when he got out. Riley felt a blush starting to burn in her cheeks as Nina did the same thing she had just done by pressing against Caleb and laying a big one on him.

  When they parted Caleb caught their attention and nodded to the house.

  Desmond sighed.

  “Time to update everyone,” he said.

  * * *

  HARTLEY DIDN’T MOVE an inch when the adults sat down and started talking in the living room but Riley, Dorothy and Nina were all having a hard time not reacting in a big way to what they were hearing.

  “Do you really think Geordi Green broke into the house to take Jenna?” Riley asked after they said Geordi had busted out the back window. “I know y’all don’t like him but surely that’s out of character for him.”

 
A muscle in Desmond’s jaw twitched.

  Caleb handled the answer.

  “This would definitely be an escalation for him, that’s for sure. Writing garbage about us is one thing, breaking and entering and then—”

  Desmond cleared his throat. Jenna tensed.

  Caleb shook his head, seemingly changing what he had been about to say.

  “Well, I just honestly don’t know at this point what’s going on with him, but considering what he said to you at the park, we have a direction we’ll be going in first thing in the morning.”

  Riley raised her eyebrow and found her sister’s gaze. If it was possible, Jenna tensed more.

  “They think it could have something to do with Ryan, considering Davies and Maria have also shown up in town,” Jenna said, dropping into a whisper. “I don’t know why he would be after me now but out of everyone here I can say he probably hates me the most.”

  The question hung heavily in the air around them. Riley took her sister’s hand and kept it on top of the couch cushion.

  “Regardless of whatever is going on and who’s behind it, we’ll get to the bottom of it,” Caleb added. “As for Geordi, when he’s out of surgery, Jazz will be on him faster than a horsefly on Ax’s rump.”

  It was a colorful point. One that made Riley feel better.

  “Until then I think it’s high time everyone get some rest,” Desmond said. Then to Riley and Jenna, “And until we understand what’s going on, consider yourselves welcomed guests here on the Nash ranch.”

  Riley didn’t like the situation they were in but she couldn’t deny that Desmond’s invitation made her feel better.

  * * *

  THE NEXT HALF HOUR was spent saying goodbye to one another—even though no one in the house was actually leaving the ranch grounds—and transitioning to Desmond’s home. Dorothy insisted it was fine if the girls wanted to stay with her but Riley already knew where she wanted to be.

  And, by this point, everyone seemed to understand that the Stone sisters were a package deal, including one extremely sleepy Hartley.

  Desmond carried the little man with one arm protectively wrapped around him. The sight reminded her of their earlier conversation.