“Francine asked me to watch Addie while she went over there to check on her.”
Francine’s mom had dementia so it wasn’t unusual for the nanny to get calls about her. However, this was the first time she’d left Addie with Laney. Maybe, though, Francine had done that because she’d known Owen would soon be home.
An intruder who’d been watching the place would have known that, too.
“Who’s in the house?” he asked.
Another head shake from Laney. “A man.”
Not that he needed it, but Owen had more confirmation of the danger. He saw that Laney had a gun, a small snub-nosed .38. It didn’t belong to him, nor was it one that he’d ever seen in the guesthouse where Laney was staying. Later, he’d ask her about it, about why she hadn’t mentioned that she had a weapon, but for now they obviously had a much bigger problem.
Owen texted this brother again, to warn him about the intruder so that Kellan didn’t walk into a situation that could turn deadly. He also asked Kellan to call in more backup. If the person upstairs started shooting, Owen wanted all the help he could get.
“What happened?” Owen whispered to Laney.
She opened her mouth, paused and then closed it as if she’d changed her mind about what to say. “About ten minutes ago, I was in the kitchen with Addie when the power went off. A few seconds later, a man came in through the front door and I hid in the pantry with her until he went upstairs.”
Smart thinking on Laney’s part to hide instead of panicking or confronting the guy. But it gave Owen an uneasy feeling that Laney could think that fast under such pressure. And then there was the gun again. Where had she gotten it? The guesthouse was on the other side of the backyard, much farther away than the barn. If she’d gone to the guesthouse to get the gun, why hadn’t she just stayed there with Addie? It would have been safer than running across the yard with the baby.
“Did you get a good look at the man?” Owen prompted.
Laney again shook her head. “But I heard him. When he stepped into the house, I knew it wasn’t you, so I guessed it must be trouble.”
Again, quick thinking on her part. He wasn’t sure why, though, that gave him a very uneasy feeling.
“I didn’t hear or see a vehicle,” Laney added.
Owen hadn’t seen one, either, which meant the guy must have come on foot. Not impossible, but Owen’s ranch was a good half mile from the main road. If this was a thief, he wasn’t going to get away with much. Plus, it would be damn brazen of some idiot to break into a cop’s home just to commit a robbery.
So what was really going on?
Owen glanced around the barn, also keeping watch on the yard in case the intruder followed them out here. Part of him wanted that to happen so he could make the piece of dirt pay for putting Addie and Laney through this.
There were no ranch hands around that he could see. Not a surprise. He ran a small operation and only had three full-time hands and Laney, who managed the place. Other than Laney, none of the others lived on the grounds. Not even Francine, since she had her own house only a couple of miles away.
He glanced at the light switch and considered turning it off, but that might only make things worse. If the intruder saw it, he would know they were in the barn, and he might come out there with guns blazing.
Owen’s phone dinged with a text message from Kellan.
I’m here, parked just up the road from your truck. Where is he?
Owen texted back.
Still in the house, I think.
But the moment he fired off the message, Owen saw something in the back doorway of the house. The moonlight glinted off metal and he caught a glimpse of the gun. That confirmed his worst fears, though he couldn’t actually see the person holding the weapon. That was because he was likely dressed in all black and staying in the shadows.
Owen ducked back to avoid the barn light. That light probably helped Addie since she wasn’t fretting as she usually did in the dark, but it might seem like a beacon to some thug looking to start trouble.
“Stay down,” Owen instructed Laney. “I’ll see if I can draw this guy out into the open—”
“You could be shot,” she said before he even finished, her voice shaking.
Yeah, he could be, but if anyone was going to become a target, Owen wanted it to be him. He didn’t want any shots fired into the barn or anywhere near Addie.
He texted Kellan to let him know that he was about to head out the back of the barn. He could then use the corral fence and nearby shrubs for cover to circle around the house.
Keep watch of the front, Owen added to the text.
He didn’t intend to let this joker get away. He wanted to know who he was and why he’d broken in.
Owen eased the barn door shut and moved a saddle in front of it to block it. It wouldn’t stop anyone for long, which was why he had to hurry. He ran to the back of the barn and climbed out through the opening sometimes used to push hay into the corral. When his feet hit the ground, he took a quick look around him.
No one.
No sounds, either. If the intruder was coming their way, he was being quiet about it. Owen tried to do the same as he made his way to the front side of the barn to take a look at the back porch.
Owen cursed.
The guy with the gun was no longer in sight, but the door was still open. Maybe he’d stepped back into the shadows to look for them. But that didn’t make sense, either. By now, the intruder must have spotted Owen’s truck, which was rigged with a police siren, and would have known that he had called for backup. That meant he possibly could have already fled the scene.
His phone dinged again with a text message. Owen was about to look down at the screen when he heard a sound he didn’t want to hear.
A gunshot cracked through the air.
It didn’t go into the part of the barn where Laney and Addie were, thank God, but it did slam into the wood right next to where Owen was standing. That forced him to move back. And to wait. He didn’t have to wait long. However, this time it wasn’t another shot. It was a man’s voice.
“Elaine?” a man yelled. “I know you’re out there.”
Owen had no idea who this Elaine was, so maybe this was a case of the thug showing up at the wrong place.
Except, wasn’t Laney a nickname for Elaine?
Was this man someone from Laney’s past? Maybe an old boyfriend who’d come to settle a score?
If so, she’d never mentioned it and nothing had shown up about relationship issues in the background check he’d run on her, and he’d been pretty darn thorough since Laney would be living so close to Addie and him. While he continued to volley glances all around him, Owen checked his phone screen and saw the text from Kellan.
I’m
