there, just off the playroom. Maybe Kellan would be able to slip into the house and get a look at this guy. Or, better yet, arrest him.
“I’m Deputy Owen Slater,” Owen called out. “Put down your weapon and come out with your hands up.”
It was something that, as a cop, Owen needed to say. He had to identify himself in the hope it would cause the idiot to surrender. Of course, it was just as likely to cause him to fire more shots. If he did, Owen would be justified in using deadly force.
But no other shots. Just another shout.
“Elaine?” the man yelled again.
Owen used the sound of the man’s voice to try to pinpoint his location. He was definitely no longer by the back door. Nowhere near it. This guy was in the guesthouse, where Laney lived. How he’d gotten there, Owen didn’t know, but it was possible that he’d climbed through a window.
Since the intruder was now on the same side of the yard as Owen, it made him an easy target, and that was why he hurried back into the barn. He glanced at Laney. Or rather, where he’d last seen Addie and her, but Laney had moved a few feet. She had positioned herself behind the hay bales and was using one as support for her shooting hand.
“Where’s the baby?” Owen immediately asked.
“On the floor behind me. She’s playing with my necklace. I wanted to be between the door and her in case... Well, just in case,” Laney added.
Just in case wasn’t looking very good right now. But at least they were all still safe. He heard Addie then, and she wasn’t fussing. It was more of a cooing babble, so the necklace must have been holding her attention.
“Elaine?” the man called out. He had moved since his last shout, but Owen wasn’t sure to where. He also wasn’t sure of Laney’s reaction.
The color had blanched from her face and he didn’t think it was because of the danger. Owen didn’t have to be a cop to figure out what that meant.
“You know this guy,” he said.
She didn’t deny it, causing Owen to curse under his breath.
“What does he want with you?” Owen demanded.
She didn’t get a chance to answer him because the man shouted again. “Elaine, let’s do this the easy way. Come out now and leave with me, and no one will get hurt.”
Hell. There was a good bit of anger now mixed with fear for his daughter. Anger that this thug would try to bargain like this. No way was Owen going to let Laney leave with a man who’d just fired a shot at him.
“Watch out!” someone yelled. Not the thug this time. It was Kellan. “He’s coming right at you.”
That wasn’t the only thing that came, either. There was a gunshot, quickly followed by another one. From the sound of it, the second shot had come from a different weapon.
Maybe Kellan’s.
Owen hoped it had anyway. Because he didn’t like the odds if this intruder had brought his own version of backup with him.
He debated opening the barn door so he could help his brother, but since this guy was likely coming for them, Owen’s top priority was to make sure that Addie was protected. He hurried to Laney and Addie, standing guard in front of them and waiting for whatever was about to happen.
Owen didn’t have to wait long. Someone kicked the barn door hard, and bits of wood went flying. The saddle shifted, too, and Owen steeled himself to fire. He was about to do that when he got a glimpse of the person who’d just broken down the door. The man, dressed in black, took aim at them. However, before Owen could pull the trigger, shots blasted through the barn.
Laney had fired.
And she hadn’t missed.
The bullets, first one and then the other, slammed into the man’s chest and he dropped to the ground like a stone. If he wasn’t dead, he soon would be, because he was already bleeding out.
Addie started to cry so Owen hurried to her. The relief came flooding through him because his baby was okay. She hadn’t been hurt.
He didn’t scoop her up into his arms, something he desperately wanted to do. First, he had to wait for the all clear from Kellan, and that might take a couple of minutes. In the meantime, Owen would need to hold his position. However, that didn’t stop him from asking one critical question.
Owen’s eyes narrowed when he looked at Laney. “Start talking. Who the heck are you?”
From the moment this nightmare had started, Laney had known that question—and many more—would come from Owen.
Who the heck are you?
No way would Owen Slater just let something like this go. Of course, he probably thought her answer would help him understand this mess. It wouldn’t. In fact, it was going to make things even worse.
At least he and Addie hadn’t been hurt. And the toddler was so young that she hopefully wouldn’t remember anything about this attack. However, the assault would stay with Owen for the rest of his life, and Laney was never going to be able to forgive herself for allowing things to come to this.
Sweet heaven. She could have gotten them killed.
With his scalpel-sharp glare, Owen reminded her that he was well aware of that, too. In fact, the only reason he likely didn’t take Addie from Laney when she picked up the baby was that he needed to keep his shooting hand free in case someone else fired at them.
She glanced at the man she’d just shot. Who the heck was he? How had he known who she was? And why had he done this? He hadn’t given her any choice, but it still twisted away at her. A man was dying or already dead because of her. And worse, this wasn’t over. If she’d managed to somehow keep him alive, he might have been coerced into telling her who’d put him up to this, but she’d had no choice but to take that shot.
“Who are you?” Owen repeated.
Judging from the tone and his intense glare, he no longer trusted her. Good. Because Laney didn’t trust herself.
It crushed her to have it all come to this. She’d thought she was safe, that Addie and Owen would be safe, too. Obviously she’d brought her fight right to their doorstep.
“I was Elaine Pearce,” she said, speaking around the lump in her throat, “but I changed my name to Laney Martin.”
Of course, that explanation was just the tip of the iceberg. Owen would demand to know about not only the name change, but also how it connected to the dead man. And how it connected to this attack.
Owen sent a text to someone. Probably to one of his fellow deputies to do a quick background check on Elaine Pearce. It was what Laney would have done had their positions been reversed.
“I want you to put your gun on the hay bale,”
