know that.
Best not to spell it out that she considered Grayson and only Grayson for a life partner. He was literally the only man she trusted, even if he had crushed her heart all those years ago. And now he’d managed to do it again.
Frustrated with herself and her situation, Eve threw open the back door of her car so she could dump her bag and equipment onto the seat. She hesitated for just a moment because she knew Grayson was right behind her. If she turned around, she’d have to face him once more.
“I’m sorry I bothered you,” Eve mumbled.
She turned and, still dodging his gaze, she tried to sidestep around Grayson.
He sidestepped, too, and blocked her path. She hadn’t thought it possible, but he looked more uncomfortable than she felt.
“I can call the Silver Creek Hospital,” Grayson suggested. “Doc Hancock might be able to pull some strings and speed up things with a sperm bank. Or I could talk to my brothers. They might know—”
“Don’t involve your brothers,” Eve interrupted.
Anything but that. Just talking about this would be hard enough for Grayson, especially telling them that he had turned her down. Eve didn’t want to be the subject of conversation at the Ryland dinner table.
“Best not to involve anyone from Silver Creek,” she added. “I’ll go to a hospital in San Antonio and, well, beg.” And she would. This pregnancy was going to happen, even if she didn’t have a clue how she would manage it.
She stepped around him and hurried to the driver’s side of the car. Since she wasn’t looking at Grayson, that was probably the reason she saw the movement.
In the cluster of trees about fifty yards from her car.
“What?” Grayson asked when she froze.
Eve looked around the trees, trying to figure out what had caught her attention.
There.
She saw the man.
Dressed in a dark shirt and pants, he had a black baseball cap sitting low on his head so that it obstructed his face. He quickly ducked out of sight, but from just that quick glimpse, Eve recognized him.
“That’s the same man I saw earlier, by the creek,” she told Grayson.
Grayson drew his gun from the shoulder holster beneath his jacket. The metal whispered against the leather, and he moved in front of her. “Any idea who he is?”
“No.” But she knew that he was hiding, and that couldn’t be good.
Did this have anything to do with the hang-up calls she’d been getting? Or could it be her imagination working overtime? Everything suddenly seemed to be going against her.
“I’m Sheriff Grayson Ryland,” Grayson called out. “Identify yourself.”
Eve stood there and held her breath, waiting. But the man said nothing.
“You think it’s a local kid playing a prank?” she whispered, praying that was all there was to this.
Grayson fastened his attention to those trees. “No. A local kid would have answered me.”
True. Grayson commanded, and got, respect in Silver Creek. And that caused her heart to pound against her chest. After all, there was a killer on the loose. Eve almost hoped this was connected to the hang-up calls. Better that than having a killer just yards away.
Grayson lifted his gun, and he took aim. “Well?” he prompted, his voice loud enough that the person hiding wouldn’t have any trouble hearing him. “Come out so I can see who you are.”
Still nothing.
“Get in your car,” Grayson instructed from over his shoulder. “I’ll get a closer look.”
Eve wanted to latch onto him, to stop him from walking toward those trees, but this was his job. Plus, Grayson wouldn’t stop. Not for her. Not for anyone.
“Just be careful,” she whispered, her voice cracking a little. Eve eased open her car door and ducked down to get inside.
The sound stopped her.
It was a loud blast, and it shook the ground beneath them. Her stomach went to her knees, and her breath stalled in her throat. For a split second she thought someone had shot at them.
But this was much louder than a gunshot.
“Get down!” Grayson shouted.
He didn’t give her a chance to do that on her own. He hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her behind her car door and to the ground.
Eve glanced behind her, at the cottage, and she saw what had caused that nightmarish sound.
An explosion.
Her grandmother’s cottage was on fire.
Chapter Three
What the hell was going on?
That was Grayson’s first thought, quickly followed by the realization that if Eve and he had stayed inside the house just a few more minutes, they would have both been blown to bits.
Behind them, the cottage had orangey flames shooting from it, and there was debris plunging to the ground. Maybe a propane tank had exploded or something, but Grayson wasn’t sure it was an accident.
After all, there was a guy hiding in the trees.
Grayson figured it was too much to hope that the two things weren’t related.
Had this person somehow rigged the explosion? If so, that meant the man would have had to have gotten close enough to the cottage to tamper with the tank that was just outside the kitchen window, but Grayson hadn’t heard him. Of course, he’d been so involved with Eve’s baby bombshell that he might not have noticed a tornado bearing down on them. He would berate himself for that later.
Now, he had to do something to protect Eve.
Grayson took cover in front of her and behind the car door, and he re-aimed his gun in the direction of the person he’d seen just moments before the explosion.
“Get out here!” he shouted to the person.
After hearing no response to his last demand, Grayson didn’t expect the guy to comply this time. And he didn’t.
No answer.
No sign of him.
Grayson kept watch behind them to make sure no one was coming at them from that direction. Other than the falling debris, the fire and black smoke smearing against the sky, there was nothing.
Except Eve, of course.
Her eyes were wide with fear, and he could feel her breath whipping against his back and
