And that meant she had to get out of there—fast.
But how? Lucas had all the doors locked, and she wasn’t nearly strong enough to break the windows.
“We might have a problem,” Grayson said when Lucas answered, and he put the call on speaker. “Dr. Parton called, and he said right after you left, a man showed up looking for Hailey. He claimed he was her brother.”
Oh, God. “I don’t have a brother,” she mouthed.
“Doc Parton got suspicious,” Grayson went on. “And he just sent me the surveillance footage of the guy coming in through the ER entrance. I put his photo into the facial recognition program and got an immediate hit.”
Lucas groaned, no doubt because he knew what that meant. If the guy was in the system, he had a record. “Who is he?” he asked the sheriff.
“Darrin Sandmire. A low-life thug.” He paused. “Sandmire often works as a hit man.”
Her heart slammed against her chest. It was happening. Her worst fears. The killer wasn’t just after her. He was here in Silver Creek.
“Sandmire left the hospital before the security guard could stop him, so he could be anywhere in town. Now, you want to tell me what this is all about?” Grayson demanded.
“Yeah. I’ll be at the sheriff’s office in a few minutes.” Lucas paused. “Hailey’s with me.”
The panic shot through her, and she tried the door handle even though Hailey knew she was trapped. If Lucas took her to the sheriff’s office, she might be putting not only herself in danger but also all of them. Lucas put the SUV in gear again, but something must have caught his eye, because his attention zoomed to the driver’s side window.
To the park.
Hailey saw it then, as well. The jogger she’d spotted earlier. But this time, he wasn’t on the trail. He was coming straight toward the SUV.
And he had a gun in his hand.
“Get down!” Lucas shouted to Hailey.
His first instinct was to draw his gun and take aim at the man running toward them. But Lucas didn’t want to get into a gunfight on Main Street where innocent bystanders—or Hailey—could be hurt.
Lucas wasn’t sure he believed everything she’d just told him, but it was obvious she had someone after her. Later he’d find out who that was, but for now he wanted to put some distance between this armed man and them. He hit the accelerator.
Just as the guy took aim.
And fired.
The bullet slammed into the side of the SUV, missing the window and Lucas by only a couple of inches.
“I need a gun,” Hailey said, climbing over the seat to get to the passenger side. She started to fumble around for the weapon that he’d knocked away from her.
“Stay down,” Lucas warned her, but her search took care of that. Hailey crawled onto the floor.
At least, it took care of it for a couple of seconds. Once she had the gun, she got back in the seat and took aim out the back side window.
She fired.
The sound blasted through the SUV, causing Lucas to curse. He hadn’t actually expected her to shoot. Too bad she missed, because the gunman sent another bullet their way.
Lucas sped off. The thug got off one more shot before Lucas took the first turn he reached. He wasn’t driving in the direction of the sheriff’s office, but he could double back.
Lucas tossed Hailey his phone. “Call Grayson and tell him there’s an armed man near the park at the intersection of Main and Everett Road.”
Hailey made the call, but she kept watch behind them, making sure that goon wasn’t in pursuit. The moment Grayson answered, she rattled off the information. Then she hit the end call button. No doubt because she didn’t want to answer Grayson’s questions. That was okay. For now.
But as soon as they reached the sheriff’s office, Hailey had better come clean about everything.
Lucas took another turn. Then another, meandering his way back to Main Street. That particular part of the park was only about seven blocks away from the sheriff’s office, so it wouldn’t take Grayson long to get a pair of deputies there to catch the guy.
“Do you know if that was Darrin Sandmire?” Lucas asked her.
“I have no idea. But I’m pretty sure that was the same man who came after me three months ago.”
Hell.
Lucas had to rein in the anger that sliced through him. That was the SOB who’d put Hailey—and therefore, Camden—in danger. Too bad Lucas hadn’t managed to shoot him. But then he rethought that. He didn’t want the guy dead, not until he had answers from him.
Like who hired him.
Thugs like Darrin Sandmire always worked for bigger thugs. Maybe DeSalvo’s son, Eric. Maybe that unidentified rogue agent. Soon, Lucas intended to find out who’d paid this killer to come after Hailey.
Lucas took another turn, the tires squealing against the asphalt. The moment he was on the side street, he saw something he didn’t like.
A truck.
It wasn’t right in the middle of the road, but the front end was jutting out from the parking space in front of a motorcycle repair shop.
Lucas hit his brakes.
“You think someone’s inside the truck?” Hailey asked. Her voice was shaking like the rest of her.
Lucas didn’t know, and it was next to impossible to see inside the truck’s cab. There was a streetlight and a lit sign for the motorcycle shop, but the tint was so dark on the windshield that he couldn’t tell. He pulled up a little farther though so he could get a better look at the front license plates.
“Out-of-state plates,” he mumbled under his breath.
Maybe that in itself meant nothing, but Lucas got that feeling in his gut. The feeling that told him to get the heck out of there.
He threw the SUV into Reverse.
But the second he did that, the truck door opened, and a man bolted out.
The guy had a rifle.
“Get down,” Lucas repeated to Hailey. “And this time, stay there.”
Whether she would or not was anyone’s guess, but he didn’t want to have to worry about her being shot. He hit the gas, the SUV speeding backward. But he didn’t get out of the path of that rifleman fast enough.
The bullet
