by Lisa Childs
He couldn’t risk that someone might talk to her. He had to get rid of her. Now.
He stared through the scope of the long gun, trying to center her in the middle of it. But that damn guy kept getting in the way...
Who the hell was he? And why was he following her?
Beyond some mild curiosity, it didn’t really matter to him who the guy was, though. If he got in the way of the shot, he was going to be dead—like the beautiful K9 cop. And soon her cute little kid would be dead, too.
He put his finger on the trigger.
Chapter 6
The rumble of Sasha’s low growl rose to a howl. And Juliette reached for the weapon she’d holstered—apparently too soon.
“Somebody already followed you here,” she said as she gazed around the shadows the greenhouses cast.
She’d seen a faint glow a while ago—other lights shining on the premises. It could have been a motion light clicking on, or a vehicle’s low beams from the other side of one of the greenhouses.
If someone had followed him here, there was no way she would let Blake anywhere close to Pandora’s safe house—she didn’t give a damn what her boss said about it. The little girl was not the chief’s kid. But she was his cousin...
Juliette sucked in a breath with that sudden realization. And now her boss knew—thanks to Blake going to him behind her back.
“They didn’t follow me,” he replied. “Finn has a patrol car on you.”
Members of her own team...
Juliette expelled the breath she’d sucked in—feeling like she’d been punched.
“And I hired that private security company like I told you I would,” he said.
But she hadn’t thought the chief would actually agree to Blake bringing in outsiders. And how had they gotten to Red Ridge so quickly?
“There are extra guards on both Pandora and you,” Blake said.
She flinched. Did nobody think she could take care of herself? Not even her own coworkers, who should know her best? Sure, all the male ones were big and muscular, and she was not. But they shouldn’t underestimate or think she was weak just because she was short and small-boned.
“You can come out!” she called to them. “I know you’re all there...”
Nobody rushed out of the shadows, though, as if they weren’t sure they were supposed to show themselves. What kind of orders had the chief given her fellow officers? And what had Blake told the bodyguards?
She could understand his hiring extra protection for their daughter. But why had he hired guards for her? And why the hell was he following her around himself?
He wasn’t a cop or even a bodyguard. He was going to get himself killed.
And just as she thought it, she glimpsed the flash of a gun blast in the dark. The bullet struck the metal of his rental car just as she knocked Blake to the ground. Another bullet struck the mirror, raining shards of glass down on them. More bullets followed, striking the side of the car right above where they crouched.
He rolled so that she was under him, so that he was protecting her. But she was the cop.
“Let me up,” she said.
Despite the situation, despite her frustration, she noted the heat and hardness of his muscular body. Maybe he was more capable of protecting her than she’d realized. He wasn’t some soft billionaire. He was strong.
But so was she...
She shoved him off and turned her gun toward the direction from which the shots had come. She knew none of her fellow officers had fired those shots. Nor would bodyguards who’d been hired to protect her.
The shots had to have come from the killer. Along with everyone else, he must have been following her. She fired into the darkness and heard glass breaking as she struck a greenhouse. He must have gotten inside one of them. Or maybe he’d been on top of it.
She needed to check. But when she tried to get to her feet, Blake grabbed her and held her down. “You can’t go after him,” he said.
“It’s my job,” she reminded him.
“You’re not going after him alone,” another voice chimed in as K9 cop Dean Landon rushed up around the rear bumper of Blake’s now bullet-ridden rental. He was the explosives expert, but since they didn’t often have to deal with bombs in Red Ridge, it wasn’t a surprise that the chief had tapped him for this secret assignment.
Tailing Juliette...
Like her, he must have left his dog in his vehicle. She would have released Sasha from her harness and taken her from the car if she thought the beagle could help locate the shooter. But she wasn’t sure Sasha had been close enough to him in the park to recognize his scent.
Dante Mancuso joined them near the rear bumper. Unfortunately, he hadn’t brought his dog, either. Flash, the bloodhound, was their evidence recovery dog. He’d been brought to the murder scene at the park. “I nearly just took out a couple private security guards,” Dante said. “What the hell is going on here?”
“He hired them,” Juliette said, gesturing at Blake.
“Well, they’re going after the shooter,” Dante said.
Juliette shook her head. “No, he’s mine.”
He’d threatened her and her daughter. She wanted to be the one to put the cuffs on him. She couldn’t take the time for Dante to get Flash or even for her to get Sasha. She had to find the killer before the bodyguards did.
“You stay with Colton here,” she told Dante. “Make sure he keeps his head down and doesn’t get it blown off...”
“Juliette!” Blake protested. “You can’t go out there! You’re the one he’s trying to kill.”
“Exactly,” she said.
When Blake reached for her again, Dante stepped forward and pushed him back onto the ground. She trusted that her coworker would protect the civilian. And as she headed out, crouching low and keeping to the shadows, Dean Landon crept along beside her. Like a bodyguard, he kept his body between hers and that greenhouse.
The shooting had stopped. The bodyguards must not have found him yet. Or he’d gotten away just like he had in the park even after she’d put a bullet in his shoulder.
Damn it...
Juliette couldn’t have come this close to capturing him and he had already slipped away because of Blake because he’d held her back. If Blake truly wanted to help her and their daughter, the best thing he could have done was stay the hell out of her way.
* * *
“You can’t let her go!” Blake yelled in protest as he strained against the hands holding him back. But this cop was a big guy. And he was armed.
“No,” the police officer replied. “I can’t let you go.”
Frustration and fear gripped Blake in equal force, threatening to tear apart his madly pounding heart. He’d never been shot at before. And the bullets had come close, breaking the side mirror that had been just above his head and piercing the metal of the rental vehicle.
Juliette had saved his life. But now she was putting her own in danger.
“She can’t go out there!” Blake protested. “He’s going to kill her!” Those bullets had been meant for her—not him.
“Walsh is a good cop,” the guy replied in her defense. “She knows what she’s doing. Unlike you...”
Blake flinched. He had never been more aware—when those shots had rung out—that he was out of his element. His element was business, making deals and making money. Not getting shot at...
“The chief warned us that you were probably going to get killed,” the guy continued.
Since the police officers backing her up had known about him, why hadn’t she? Before Blake could ask him why the chief would have kept such a secret from her, shots rang out again.
Blake jumped up, his every instinct compelling him to run in the direction Juliette had gone and make sure she was all right. But he’d made it only a few feet when the cop knocked him to
the ground. And when he tried to get up, a knee settled into his back.
“Stay the hell down,” the guy told him. “Or I will damn well cuff you to this car.”
That could have been just as dangerous as Blake going after Juliette. But the shots weren’t coming anywhere near him now. They were on the other side of the greenhouse—maybe even on the other side of the one next to that one—because they weren’t as close or as loud as they’d been when those bullets had nearly struck him.
He closed his eyes and hoped like hell those bullets weren’t striking anyone now. Unless that anyone was the killer who’d threatened Juliette and their daughter. Blake didn’t care what happened to that man as long as he was stopped.
But he was worried about Juliette and the others.
“Go,” he urged the police officer. “Go help them. I’ll stay here.”
The officer rolled him over and studied his face through narrowed eyes. “I don’t think I should trust you.”
“I won’t get in the way,” Blake promised. Not any more than he already had. If Juliette hadn’t noticed him following her, she never would have led him to this area—which had presented the killer with the perfect place to go after her.
More shots rang out. And the officer must have been more concerned about his coworkers than he was Blake, because he eased off him. Withdrawing his weapon from the holster on his belt, he headed toward the direction of all that gunfire.
Before Blake had left Red Ridge, he’d held a concealed weapons permit. He’d only applied for it so he would have something in common with his father. He’d thought that once he’d gotten it, his father might take him shooting like he did his business associates. But Fenwick had never invited him along to the range. No matter what Blake had done to get his attention, his father had never given it to him. When Blake had left Red Ridge, he had left the gun and the permit in the safe at his father’s house.
He needed them now. He needed to be armed so he could protect Juliette. He only hoped that it wasn’t already too late.
* * *
For the second night in a row, Finn’s sleep was interrupted. But it was his phone ringing, not his doorbell. He fumbled around the bedside table until he grabbed up his cell and accepted the call.
“Chief Colton,” he murmured groggily as Darby murmured in her sleep next to him. He slipped out of bed and walked into the hall so he wouldn’t wake her.
She worked so damn hard that she needed her rest.
What the hell time was it?
Who would be calling him now?
If it was Blake or, worse yet, Fenwick...
But the voice on the other end was the gruff one of Frank Lanelli, the Red Ridge dispatcher. “Chief, we’ve got an officer down...”
And Finn’s heart lurched in his chest. This was the call he’d never wanted to receive.
“How bad?” he asked, and his voice cracked slightly as concern overwhelmed him.
Lanelli’s voice was gruff, too. “I don’t know. It didn’t sound good when the call came in. I dispatched the closest ambulance to the scene.”
What scene? What the hell had happened? He wanted all the details, but most important, he wanted to know if his officer would survive.
“Do you have ETA?” Finn asked. Fortunately he’d left his clothes in the living room from when Darby had undressed him earlier. So he was able to pull them on without disturbing her.
“Hopefully they’re en route to the hospital now.”
And not the morgue...
He wanted to ask who the officer was, but he was afraid that he might already know.
Juliette...
She shouldn’t have insisted on staying on the job. She should have gone into the safe house with her daughter. Now she might not ever get the chance to see her little girl again.
Chapter 7
The minute the waiting room doors opened—everyone jumped up from their seats and rushed toward the chief, who had just arrived at the hospital. But Juliette was already on her feet since she’d been pacing back and forth across the tile floor. So she beat everyone else to Finn Colton.
His blue eyes widened in surprise at seeing her. “It’s not you...” he murmured. “The officer down...”
“Dean Landon,” she replied. But it should have been her. That was who the killer had been aiming for, but Dean had been in the way. Just like Blake had been when the first shots had rang out.
“How is he?” Finn asked anxiously, his face tight with concern.
Juliette shrugged, her shoulders aching with the weight of her guilt on them. “We don’t know yet. He’s still in surgery.”
“What about Mancuso?” the chief asked as he glanced around the waiting room. “Is he okay?”
“He stayed behind with Flash to process the scene and collect whatever evidence the shooter might have left behind.” She doubted he’d left any. He hadn’t at the park. They had nothing but her and Pandora’s description of him in order to identify him.
Because of the other officers gathered around, she lowered her voice and said, “You shouldn’t have put a patrol on me.” She glanced toward where Blake stood apart from everyone else, leaning against one of the brick exterior walls of the waiting room. “And you shouldn’t have let him follow me around, either...”
“There was no stopping him,” Finn replied. “Just like there was no stopping you. You need to be in that safe house with your daughter.”
“I would have been fine,” she insisted. “If I’d known I was being followed, I wouldn’t have stopped.”
Finn flinched, but he didn’t acknowledge that she was right—even though they both obviously knew she was.
“You didn’t know you were being followed,” he said.
She flinched as she realized what she’d admitted. But she had been distracted—thanks to Blake—not inept.
Her boss must have thought she was the latter, though, because he added, “That’s why you need backup.”
She glanced again at Blake. Despite the dark circles of exhaustion beneath his eyes, he was still so damn handsome that her heart skipped a beat with the attraction that had never died—despite all the years. “I don’t need him getting in my way. Why would you allow a civilian...”
Finn held up a hand to stop her protest. And he reminded her, “I’m the chief.”
He was also Blake’s cousin. Was he angry with her, like Blake was, for keeping Pandora a secret?
“I’m sorry,” she said. And she was—sorry about so many things. At the moment, she was sorriest about Dean getting hurt. “It’s my fault...”
“It’s the shooter’s fault,” Finn said. “We need to find him.”
“That’s why I want to stay on the job,” she said. “Why I don’t want to stay at the safe house.”
“You need to,” a deep voice said, close to her ear.
The man’s warm breath made her shiver. Then she tensed as she realized Blake had crossed the room without her noticing. He stood beside her now, so close that she could feel the tension in his body. The same tension that was in hers.
She shook her head. “And lead the killer right to...” my daughter... She couldn’t say that at the risk that he might correct her and say she was their daughter—right in front of most of the Red Ridge Police Department. “... Pandora.”
His handsome face was tense, as if it was killing him not to claim the child. But he had to be aware that everyone was watching them, already wondering what the hell he was doing there and what he was to Juliette.
“The bodyguards—they can make sure you get to her safely—with no one following you,” he assured her.
She knew they were good. Right before the shots had started, Dean had been telling her that while he and Dante had easily made Blake’s tail, they hadn’t noticed the bodyguards until the guys had started to approach them at the pla
nt nursery.
“She called you,” Blake reminded her. “She wants to see you.”
And her heart ached to see her little girl—especially after what had happened tonight. If Dean hadn’t taken that bullet, she might not have had the chance to be with her daughter again.
“Those guards are good,” the chief agreed. “They can take you to see her—if you want...” But he wasn’t talking just to Juliette now. He was looking at Blake, as well.
She felt a twinge of panic that Finn knew. Who else had he told? Anyone? Everyone?
She felt like a fool over that night—over ever thinking that billionaire Blake Colton could be her Prince Charming. Or that she was Cinderella.
She was no princess. She was a cop. “I’m not going to stay there,” she warned them both. “I have to find this killer...” Now more than ever, after one of her friends had been hurt because of him—because of her. “And I have to make sure Dean will be okay...”
Like everyone else, she was so worried about the fallen officer. Maybe that was why nobody asked her about Blake and what was going on between them. Or maybe some of them had already put it together—how long Blake had been gone and how old Pandora was...
It was inevitable that the little girl’s paternity was eventually revealed. Juliette had already had to tell the child that her daddy wasn’t dead—just that he lived very far away.
He wasn’t far away anymore, though.
In fact, he was much too close. So close that he could have been in surgery just like Dean Landon. If she hadn’t seen that muzzle flash in the dark...
If she hadn’t knocked him to the ground...
She shivered, and he slid his arm around her, as if to warm or comfort her. But conscious of everyone watching them, Juliette pulled away. While she didn’t want him dead, she was furious with him for putting himself in that position—for putting himself in danger.
* * *
The officer’s surgery had taken a long time—so long that the sun was already coming up as Blake and Juliette left the hospital. Not that they could see much more than a glimpse of it since they’d been zipped into black bags. They were rolled on stretchers out of the morgue and lifted into the cargo area of a long van. The minute the double doors closed, Blake jerked down the tab of the zipper and freed himself. Usually small spaces didn’t bother him, but being zipped alive into a body bag was something from his worst nightmares.
