am certifiable,” he muttered, shaking off the disturbing visions. If he hadn’t been forced into isolation, maybe his partner, Levi Allen, would still be alive and his former fiancée, Letty Montoya, wouldn’t be blaming him for Levi’s murder. Not that she hadn’t played a part in the mistaken-identity killing by inviting Levi to move in with her as soon as she’d had the opportunity.
Daniel made a face and set his shoulders. All he could do at the moment was continue to lie low and let his coworkers in the St. Louis Police Department sort out the facts, no matter how frustrated he became. Chief Broderhaven already believed that Daniel was suffering from PTSD after being the victim of a near-fatal kidnapping. If that wasn’t bad enough, he’d been put on leave and ordered into hiding after Levi’s murder. Okay. So maybe his reasoning wasn’t totally logical these days. That didn’t mean he’d make an easy target for assassins. Besides, the whole situation might be nothing more than a series of unfortunate coincidences.
“Yeah,” Daniel huffed. “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that somebody isn’t really out to get you.”
He glanced at his dwindling stack of firewood, decided to add to it and stepped off the porch. Complete silence suddenly enveloped him. No birds called. No insects chirped.
His pace slowed, his senses keen. His right palm reached for the grip of his sidearm. The holster was empty! He’d been cleaning the .38 when he’d decided to get some fresh Ozark mountain air. Stupid move. Careless. Foolish. The best defense available to him was, at that moment, lying in pieces on the kitchen table. A lot of good it would do him there.
But he did have a long-handled ax on the splitting block. Common sense insisted he did not need to be armed every second he spent in such a peaceful, pristine place. His overburdened mind argued otherwise and easily won, just as something tightened around his ankle and stopped his forward momentum.
He dropped like a rock. Caught himself with outstretched arms. Hit the ground rolling and came up next to the slab of log he’d been using as a chopping block. Heart pounding, he grabbed the ax handle.
Daniel peered into the fog. “If you’re out there, come on.” Shadowy oaks, sycamores and cedars near the old homestead still provided plenty of cover for would-be assailants, as did the fallow, brushy fields. Soon, when some of the trees had shed more leaves, he’d be able to spot interlopers better.
Breathing raggedly, he remained hunched behind the chunk of oak, waiting. Time slowed. He finally grimaced and accepted reality. “Get a grip, man. There’s no threat out there. Not even a hungry mosquito.” His cramped shoulders began to relax, his heart following. It was a good thing he was still in his early thirties, fit and healthy, because an older man might have had a coronary on the spot.
“The chief was right. I do need a shrink.” Only he couldn’t go back to the city for treatment. Not yet. Not until his cop buddies figured out who had killed his former partner and if that attack had been due to error, the way Letty had insisted.
Daniel stood and brushed off his jeans. Something glistened near the ground. A wire? That’s what had tripped him?
Astounded, he peered at it. If his enemies had gotten close enough to string that wire, why hadn’t they attached a bomb to it or kept coming and killed him while he slept?
Brandishing the ax, he braced himself. The air seemed choked with unseen threats, imagined dangers. In his mind he was once again tied hand and foot, lying helpless on a dirty concrete floor, gagged so tightly he could barely breathe, and waiting for his own death at the hands of the criminal gang he’d infiltrated.
He recalled breaking loose and running blindly through the old warehouse on the outskirts of Springfield, finally emerging onto Battlefield Blvd.
Every nerve in his body was screaming, Run again! He made a dash for the farmhouse, boots pounding up the porch steps.
Just as he jerked the dilapidated screen door toward himself he heard a bang and a whine. A bullet slammed into his thigh, spinning him around. The force felt like he’d been hit with an armload of baseball bats.
Daniel clambered to his feet and dove through the doorway, scrambling toward the table. Toward the disassembled .38.
All he had to do was stay conscious long enough to put it back together. Judging by the blood pulsing from his wound, that might not be easy.
* * *
“How much farther?” EMT Kaitlin North called to the ambulance driver and paramedic, Vince Babcock. He switched off the siren. “It’s just up ahead.”
“I think I see it.” A third member of their crew, Josh Metcalf, was pointing. “The place looks deserted but don’t let that fool you. Like I said, Vince and I were sent out here once before. This guy is a real nut case.”
“Terrific.” Kaitlin kept bracing herself. The narrow, ungraded dirt roads that had brought them into the back country of the Ozarks were so rough her muscles already ached.
Vince parked the ambulance with its rear doors facing the ramshackle house, then reported their arrival to dispatch. Josh grabbed his jump bag and went for the gurney. Kaitlin was right on his heels, her blond ponytail swinging.
A sharp, loud noise stopped everything. Josh put on the brakes so fast Kaitlin crashed into him and almost took them both down. She keyed the mic clipped to her shoulder. “On scene. Shots fired. Repeat, shots fired.”
“Copy that,” Belinda replied from the station. “You all okay out there?”
“Affirmative.”
“Okay. Hold short. Deputies are on the way.”
Her partners seemed perfectly willing to wait. Kaitlin would have been, too, if she hadn’t spotted so much blood on the porch. Unfortunately, the front door was closed and plywood was nailed over the windows. “I’ll check around back,” she announced, racing for the side of the house.
Vince was adamant. “No way, rookie. You heard our orders.”
She had. But what good was loitering by their ambulance when somebody might be bleeding to death?
“All I’m gonna do is look,” she called back.
Rounding the second corner of the small, clapboard building, she was so startled to see someone coming toward her from the opposite side that she faltered, her blue eyes wide, her pulse racing. “Vince! You scared the daylights out of me.”
“That was the idea,” he said harshly. “What if I’d been a guy with a gun?”
Kaitlin flushed crimson. “Sorry. I never thought of that.”
“Yeah, well, I did.” He hooked a thumb. “I found a window with a gap at the top of the boards back there. It’s too high off the ground for me to see in. Come on. I’ll give you a boost.”
Following, she managed a wry smile. “How mad at me are you? We know the guy inside is armed. We heard him shoot.”
“I don’t mean for you to stick your head through the hole.” He clasped his hands together to make a step for her. “Just take a quick look then back off.”
Shaking from excitement as well as trepidation, Kaitlin put her boot in
