had backup.
She hadn’t answered him. Had she noticed the glow of lights, too? Maybe those were from her car, though. He still couldn’t see where she’d parked it. But it must have been close because he heard the low growl of her dog.
She must have, too, because she cocked her head and listened. And in the moonlight her brow furrowed.
“You aren’t meeting someone out here, are you?” he persisted. “I thought your shift ended hours ago.”
“It did,” she said. “But I didn’t want to go home...”
To an empty house. He could hear the pain in her voice, the ache of missing her daughter.
He felt both a twinge of sympathy and one of resentment. She knew their daughter enough to miss her. He didn’t even know the child.
“And Elle called me for Pandora,” she continued. “She wants to see me.”
“Finn thinks it’s too dangerous,” Blake said, “that someone could follow you.”
She sighed. “I guess he’s right. You followed me.”
“But you noticed me,” he pointed out.
Her lips curved into a slight smile as the moonlight bathed her face with a golden glow. “You’re not a professional,” she said. “You shouldn’t be trying to protect me. You’re only going to get hurt.”
“Too late,” he murmured. He already was—hurt over all the years he’d missed with his daughter.
The smile slipped away, and she closed her eyes. “I’m sorry...”
She knew what he was talking about—what he would probably never get over—because no matter what, he couldn’t get back those years he’d lost. He just had to make sure he didn’t lose any more with her.
“Do you think Finn would let me see her?” Blake asked.
Juliette gasped. “The chief knows? You told him?”
That twinge of resentment spread to an ache. “I’m not keeping a secret that never should have been one in the first place.”
Juliette’s teeth sank into her bottom lip as if she was physically holding back a protest.
“What are you worried about?” he asked. “What people will think of you?”
She shook her head. “I don’t care what people think. I didn’t grow up like you. I grew up in the poor area of Red Ridge. People always thought I was trash. So they can’t think any worse of me than that.”
Trash? He could not reconcile that impression with the one he’d carried of her the past nearly five years—of her in that glittery gown with those high heels and dangling earrings. She’d looked like a movie star. Or a princess...
Cinderella. That was who she’d been. His Cinderella...
But he hadn’t been able to find her. Until now...
“I’m worried about Pandora,” she said. “I don’t want her in any more danger than she already is.”
“So you want to keep me away from my daughter even longer?” he asked.
“I want to keep the killer away from her,” Juliette said. “If he learns that you’re her father—and once word gets out it will be all over the news—then he could follow you to her if you try to see her.”
And he couldn’t deny that he could probably be easily followed. But Juliette wasn’t the only one missing their daughter. She was missing her after just one day. He was missing five years.
But could he take the risk that he might put her in more danger than she already was? No.
* * *
This was a hell of a risk. But he had to take it; he had no choice. The longer the K9 cop and her little kid lived, the greater the chance they would identify him. He needed to get rid of her now.
She wasn’t alone, though.
He wasn’t the only one who’d followed her to the plant nursery. She’d led a damn parade here. So he had to be very careful when he took the shot. He had to make sure it counted—that it killed her—and that he had time to get away before anyone saw him.
Like those other guys, he’d been following her the whole damn day from the time she’d left the Red Ridge Police Department that morning. She’d spent the day shaking things up—talking to informants, visiting drug houses.
He knew why.
She was trying to find him, or at least someone who would tell her who he was. Hopefully all those people were too scared, not just of him but of the people who’d hired him, to talk. But they were drug users, and so they were unpredictable.
He couldn’t risk that someone might talk to her. He had to get rid of her. Now.
He stared through the scope of the long gun, trying to center her in the middle of it. But that damn guy kept getting in the way...
Who the hell was he? And why was he following her?
Beyond some mild curiosity, it didn’t really matter to him who the guy was, though. If he got in the way of the shot, he was going to be dead—like the beautiful K9 cop. And soon her cute little kid would be dead, too.
He put his finger on the trigger.
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