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Lily stared into the darkness for a moment. Slowly she realized she was looking at the outline of a man. Her breath caught in her throat. The man wasn’t outside the window. He was in the house. In the living room. Standing right there in the corner.
Her first attempt to scream came out as a ragged exhalation. Terrified, she felt as if she was caught in a nightmare, unable to make a sound. The man took a step out of the shadows, toward her, and she could see he was one of the men from the Starlight Mart. The one in the hoodie.
He was pointing a pistol at her. He glanced upstairs toward the blare of the TV, then turned back to her. “Don’t make a sound.”
“What do you want?” she asked, finally finding her voice.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
He motioned with his gun toward the back of the house, where the door in the utility room led outside. That was probably how he got in. Lily and her mom often left a window open in that room when they ran the dryer. And they were both bad about remembering to close it.
“Move!” Hoodie shoved her.
“I didn’t hear anything that could get you in trouble,” Lily said, taking a couple of stumbling steps while her heart hammered in her chest. “I just heard voices. Nothing specific.”
“Get moving or we’ll take your mother along, too.”
He wanted to get her outside and into a car. Lily couldn’t let that happen. It would be the end of everything.
He shoved her again. Edging toward panic, she reached for a potted plant on a shelf. If she flung something heavy against the wall and made a loud noise, maybe the dogs would hear it and start barking. Her mom would hear the racket and call the police.
Hoodie twisted her arm, hard, and she dropped the potted plant with a dull thud. So much for that plan.
They reached the utility room and she saw the open window. She also saw a mop propped against the wall. Hoodie loosened his grip slightly as he reached for the handle on the door leading outside. Lily took her chance. She kicked his knee. While he was off balance she grabbed the mop, whirled around and smacked him on the side of the head with it.
He dropped his gun. It clattered to the floor and they both reached for it. He jabbed an elbow toward her face, clipping her cheek, and she was knocked back. She dropped the mop. Then he got the gun.
Lily quickly crawled to a bucket of dry laundry detergent and grabbed a handful. Hoodie turned to her and she flung it into his face.
Cursing, he clawed at his eyes with one hand.
Afraid he might squeeze the trigger if she tried to grab his gun, Lily reached for the mop and struck him again. This time Hoodie slumped to the ground. He was out cold.
Footsteps pounded up the back porch steps. Nate must have been watching the house. Relief washing over her, Lily got to her feet and yanked open the door.
It wasn’t Nate standing there. It was the man who’d held a gun on her at the Starlight Mart. Lily’s heart sank. He had her again.
* * *
Nate crouched down low and crept alongside the house.
Lily’s mom had called 911. She’d reported strange noises in her house and that her dogs were growling. She was afraid someone had come after her daughter.
Nate was afraid of that, too. Dispatch had let him know what was happening and that the responding deputies were a couple minutes out. Nate knew better than to rush in, but he couldn’t just wait in his truck.
Peering around the corner of the house, he saw the gunman from the gas station on the back steps. He was holding Lily by the upper arm and dragging her out of the house. The terrified expression on her face struck Nate like a punch to his chest. Enough. Lily Doyle had been through enough. And that idiot holding her was not going to get away with what he’d done.
Nate had the advantage and he intended to make the most of it. The gunman wasn’t looking around. He probably thought he was home free. He did, however, have that gun. Trying to take a shot at him was too risky. Nate could miss and hit Lily. Or the gunman could shoot her.
Calm, cool, steady. That’s how Nate had to handle this.
At ease working in the shadows, he pressed into the side of the house and took one quiet step and then another. He covered the final short distance in a burst of speed. The gunman turned in surprise just as Nate grabbed his gun hand and landed a cross punch to the side of his head. The gunman dropped like a sack of wet sand.
Eyes wide and filled with fear, Lily swung her fists wildly. Nate had to duck a couple of times before she realized he wasn’t another attacker.
“Are you all right?” Nate asked when she finally stopped swinging. He put his hands on her shoulders, holding her at arm’s length while scanning her body for injuries.
“Someone’s in the house,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “Utility room.”
Nate hesitated, reluctant to turn his back on the man he’d just knocked unconscious.
“My mom’s in the house, too,” Lily said, sounding panicky and tugging on his arm. “Hurry!”
Inside the house he found the man in the hoodie lying unconscious on the utility room floor.
“I hit him with the mop,” Lily said.
Nate felt the corners of his lips tug upward in an admiring grin. “Good work.” He picked up the man’s gun and tucked it into his back pocket. Lily got some twine out of a storage cabinet and Nate tied the man’s hands behind his back.
Two little dogs not much bigger than mosquitoes ran into the utility room from the living room. A uniformed deputy followed them. A woman wrapped in an afghan walked in behind the deputy.
“Honey, are you okay?” the woman asked Lily after a racking coughing fit.
“I’m okay, Mom.” Lily hugged her mom and then introduced her to Nate.
“Thank you for saving my daughter’s life,” Kate Doyle said. “I’d offer to shake your hand, but I’m fighting bronchitis.”
“I think your daughter saved her own life.” He turned to the deputy. “There’s another bad guy out back.”
“No, there isn’t.” A second deputy walked into the utility room through the back door. “Sorry, Nate. If you had somebody out there, he’s long gone. Probably jumped into the ravine and took off. We’ll start looking for him.” He walked off, speaking into his collar mic.
The man who’d held the gun on her at the store had gotten away. Again. Disgusted with himself, Nate shook his head.
One of the little mosquito dogs, the one with a tiny white blaze in the center of her chest, stepped up to sniff the hem of Nate’s jeans. Her bone-shaped metallic tag said her name was Abby. Nate reached down to give her a scratch on the head. When she rolled up her eyes to look at him, he was pretty sure she was disappointed in what she saw. Nate didn’t blame her.
The man in the hoodie started to stir. The uniformed deputy took off the twine and cuffed him, then patted him down. He found a folded switchblade in his back pocket and a keychain in the front pocket. That was it. No wallet. No ID. Not even a phone. He started to regain consciousness. Nate and the deputy pulled him to a sitting position.
“What’s your name?” Nate asked.
The deputy had already tugged back the man’s hood, revealing short curly brown hair, thick eyebrows and a soda can–sized bruise across the side of his face. He was maybe in his early thirties. Powdery white laundry detergent streaked his face and the front of his shirt. He squinted his red, watery eyes and frowned at Nate. “Who are you?” His gaze shifted nervously back and forth between Nate and the deputy. “You’re that guy who hit me with soda cans in the store.”
“Do you recognize this guy from anywhere?” Nate asked Lily. “Maybe you’ve seen him someplace other than work?” He turned to her and she shook her head. When he turned back to the thug, he saw him staring at Lily. The man’s confused scowl had morphed into a bold, predatory stare.
Lily visibly blanched and her eyes grew wide with fear.
“Hey!” Nate snapped at the thug, drawing the man’s attention back to himself. “Who are you? Who are you working for?”
The man cursed at him and then looked away, making it clear he wouldn’t answer any further questions.
The deputy placed him under arrest and read him his rights, then left with plans to take him to the hospital to get checked out before hauling him to the county jail.
Lily sat down in the living room with the second deputy, who’d returned to the house and was ready to take down her statement. Meanwhile Lily’s mom made a call and a few minutes later Kate’s cousin, Penny, showed up to offer the women comfort and support.
While his fellow deputy was wrapping things up, Nate mentally rehashed everything that had happened this evening. If those two thugs could find out where Lily lived that quickly and they were desperate enough to try to grab her at home, she was in even greater danger than he’d thought. She was going to need something more substantial than the hand-holding her mother and cousin could provide.
Lily’s mom had brought out a container of homemade cookies and brewed some coffee. By the time the remaining deputy had taken care of business and gone on his way, there was nothing left but coffee mugs stacked in the kitchen sink and a few butter-pecan cookie crumbs on the kitchen counter.
“Why don’t you two pack some clothes and spend the night at my place?” Penny asked Lily and Kate.
“You should go with your cousin,” Nate said to Lily’s mom. He turned to Lily. “And you should come with me to my aunt and uncle’s ranch. It’s just a few miles north of town.”
“Everybody in the county knows where the Blue Spruce is.” Lily glanced at her mother. “I think my mom and I should stick together.”
“No one’s after your mom,” Nate said. “She’d be safer away from you.”
“Oh.” Lily and her mom looked at each other. Kate was still walking around wrapped in her afghan. She was pale and looked as if she’d rather be lying down.
“The man we arrested might sing like a canary when he gets to booking,” Nate said. “Maybe he’ll tell us his real name and who he works for and everything will be wrapped up tomorrow.”
“That would be great,” Lily muttered.
He wanted to take the frightened look from her eyes. But in all practicality, it was too soon. For tonight, at least, he wanted her worried enough that she’d let him take care of her.
“It’s also possible he’ll keep his mouth shut. And that the gunman who escaped will find you again.”
Lily picked up one of the little mosquito dogs. “I have a couple of other part-time jobs here in town. I can’t stay all the way out there on that ranch.”
Her life was in danger and she was worried about some part-time jobs?
Nate knew she was an intelligent woman. But he could also see she was exhausted and not thinking straight.
“How about you go with me tonight. That way your mom can rest easier at Penny’s house.” He glanced at Kate, hoping she’d back him up. “You can rethink things tomorrow.”
After a slight coughing fit, Lily’s mom voiced her agreement.
Lily pursed her lips and blew out a sad, tired sigh while the dog she was holding sniffed her hair. “All right.”
FOUR (#ua111a83a-d5cf-5e3f-b866-3dbe28aed354)
Lily cracked open the window of Nate’s truck and let the cold, sharp air swirl in and nip at her skin. Late autumn would be turning into early winter sometime before morning, she could feel it.
She looked into the darkness as the truck rolled down the highway, her thoughts turning bleaker with every mile. Her plan to get back on her feet after returning to her hometown had already been built on shaky ground, and now this. Her bank account wasn’t going to get any healthier if she had to waste her time hiding out from criminals. It would take forever to pay down her bills and move out of her mother’s house.
She glanced at Nate, wondering what his life had been like the last few years. He hadn’t mentioned a wife, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t involved with someone. Not that it mattered. She just wondered.
He constantly checked the mirrors as he drove, watching to see if anyone was following them. Lily checked the mirrors, too. They still didn’t know how those thugs had found her at her mother’s house. They might have simply followed them from the Starlight Mart. But maybe they had access to her personal information through someone at work. She sat up straighter and put a little more energy into scanning for headlights behind them.
The narrow road they were traveling on was barely more than a line of crumbling asphalt, and they continued to climb to a higher elevation. Most of the time, tall pines lined the road, but every now and then there was a break and she could see the glittering lights of Copper Mesa down below.
“Can we turn on some music?” The tension and terror she’d felt over the last few hours had given her a pounding headache.
“Music’s not a good idea right now.”
“Why not?”
He didn’t really think he could hear someone following them over the rattling and squeaking sounds his old truck made, did he? “It might be nice,” she suggested again, attempting to sound polite even though she was speaking through gritted teeth. He didn’t deserve her wrath, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t deserve to get attacked—twice—and she wanted to punch somebody. “I think it would help me relax.”
“Well, then definitely no music. This isn’t a good time for you to relax. You need to stay sharp.”
She didn’t want to stay sharp. She wanted to go back to taking her life for granted.
“What kind of lawman are you?” she demanded. “Don’t you know it’s your job to make me feel safe?” She turned to glare at him. In the amber glow from the dashboard she saw the outline of his strong profile, despite the beard. The warm light softened the lines that time and Arizona sunlight had etched around his eyes and he didn’t look nearly as harsh as he had in the Starlight Mart.
“Are you absolutely certain you never saw either of those two thugs before? Hanging around work or maybe somewhere else?”
Lily looked out the window. How many times would he ask her that? Didn’t he believe her?
“You heard me tell my story to the authorities. Twice.” Lily turned toward him and tucked the hair that had fallen loose from her ponytail back behind her ear. He might be trying to help her, but she was tired of being interrogated. She hadn’t done anything wrong. “Why do you keep asking me?”
“Sometimes it takes people a while to remember things.” His tone was neutral, almost to the point of sounding cold. He’d started to feel like a friend as the evening wore on, but now he was slipping back into cop mode and she was stung by the realization he was still suspicious of her.
“How could you possibly think I’ve got some kind of connection with those two idiots?”
He glanced over at her. “People get dragged into situations and do things they didn’t mean to. Or they agree to do something just once, because they’re desperate, and before they know it they’re in over their head.”
“Yeah, well, some people are minding their own business when the next thing they know some jerk is trying to kill them.” If he kept up these calm insinuations she just might jump out of the truck and walk the rest of the way to the ranch.
He loosened his grip on the steering wheel and leaned back a little. “If you’re in some kind of trouble, I want you to know you can tell me. I’ll help you.”
“Oh, please. If you really believe I’m part of some criminal enterprise, why are you taking me to your aunt and uncle’s ranch?”
He hesitated a few seconds before answering. “They’re used to people with issues.”
People with issues? Okay, that was it. She turned so she was rigidly facing forward. “Take me back to town. I can find someplace safe to stay on my own.”
“Oh, lighten up. Everybody’s got issues.” He glanced over at her, this time with a slight smile that made her want to punch him. But he looked rock-solid and she’d probably just hurt her fist. “I’ve made some bad decisions in my life,” he added, sounding a little more serious. “Needed help getting straightened out.”
“Well, I don’t have time to make any bad decisions. I work three jobs and sleep, and that’s about it.”
“Sounds exhausting. How long have you been doing that?”
Was he asking as a friend, or was he still in cop mode and fishing for information he could pass along to Sheriff Wolfsinger? Oh, she might as well tell him everything. It would come out sooner or later.
The truck hit a rut and bounced, and the springs squeaked.
After the truck settled, Lily took a deep breath. “I went to college in Flagstaff.” She hesitated, trying to think of the moment when her life started to unravel.
