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  “Bailey, get down!” Parker called out to her.

  Parker was only a few steps away from the kitchen, and even though the lights were already off, he spotted her immediately. She was crouched down by the sink.

  “I saw a man standing behind the tree with the wind chime,” she detailed. Her voice was a tangle of nerves and adrenaline.

  “Crawl away from the window,” Parker instructed.

  If this guy tried to break in, he’d probably use either the window or the back door, both of which had panes, and Parker didn’t want to risk Bailey being hit with broken glass.

  Parker considered calling 9-1-1. Sheriff Hale or one of his deputies could be out in less than ten minutes, but he wanted to know what they were up against first.

  He could see part of the yard from where he was standing but not the tree in question. Parker waited until Bailey had moved against the snack bar before he approached the window. He kept his gun ready but prayed he didn’t have to use it.

  Parker had only lived in this particular house a few weeks, and he didn’t know all of his neighbors’ habits. Maybe this was just someone out for a nighttime stroll or a smoke. However, Parker had to be ready for the worst.

  Chester Herman’s note slammed through Parker’s head. This isn’t over. Hope you enjoy what I have planned for you.

  Had Chester planned a visit to scare Bailey? Well, if so, it was working. He could tell from her heavy breathing that she was scared.

  Parker inched closer, his attention nailed to the backyard. He saw the tree, the wind chimes, but he couldn’t see a man.

  “He’s not there,” Parker mumbled.

  “I saw someone,” Bailey pled. “I swear, I did.”

  “I believe you. He might be behind the tree now.” Or he could have moved, perhaps even closer to the house. There were a lot of shrubs where a person could hide. He made a mental note to cut them down.

  Parker moved to the other side of the window, so that he’d have a different angle. Still no sign of this mystery man. So, he reached over and turned on the back-porch lights. They were bright, positioned on both ends of the porch, and they illuminated most of the grounds, including the area by the tree.

  At first, the extra light didn’t help, but Parker waited and finally saw something move. Not by the tree itself but just beyond it where there was a greenbelt of thick shrubs and foliage that separated the houses on his street from a dry creek bed.

  Yeah. It was definitely a man.

  “I see him,” Parker relayed to Bailey, causing her to gasp. “He’s dressed head to toe in black.” Not exactly the attire of someone out for a neighborly walk.

  Parker reached for his phone to call the sheriff, but the man in black moved. He evaporated into the shadows. For a moment, Parker thought the guy would just leave and this would end. Well, end for Bailey. It would mean Parker would keep watch all night. But then the saw it.

  The glint of metal.

  It was just a little flash, but it was a huge warning for Parker. “Get flat down on the floor!” he shouted to Bailey, and he jumped to the side.

  The shot slammed into the back of the house.

  It hit one of the limestone posts that supported the porch roof. But something was off with the sound. That wasn’t the sound a normal bullet would make, but Parker had seen the flash associated with the shot.

  The gunman was using a silencer.

  “Dad?” Zach called out.

  Oh, hell. He hadn’t forgotten for one second that his son was in the house, but the terror in Zach’s voice cut Parker to the core. How dare this SOB threaten Bailey and his son this way.

  “Get under your bed,” Parker told Zach. “And don’t come out until I tell you it’s safe.” He tried to keep his voice level and calm, and while he kept watch out the window he called 9-1-1 and requested assistance.

  Parker didn’t know what kind of firepower their attacker had so while he eyed the door, he unlocked the cupboard so he could take out a SIG SAUER. It was a more powerful weapon than the gun he carried in his ankle holster, and he might need greater firepower before this was over.

  “I’ll go to Zach,” Bailey insisted, and she started crawling across the floor to the hall.

  “Don’t get near the windows,” Parker warned. “You know how to shoot?”

  Bailey gave a shaky nod. “My dad taught me.”

  Parker handed her the smaller gun. Her fingers were trembling, and Parker hoped like hell that she didn’t have to use it.

  She crawled away, and Parker heard when she knocked on Zach’s door. He didn’t look in their direction, but he listened as his son let Bailey into the room. Maybe they could keep each other calm while he took care of this latest situation.

  He waited, his attention on the shadows where he’d last seen the gunman. There was another glint of metal, and Parker braced himself.

  The second shot smacked into the same limestone porch post. It had the same sound as the first. More of a swish than a blast.

  The stone porch was a blessing; the house’s best defense. It wouldn’t be long before the sheriff arrived. Parker didn’t know if Sheriff Hale would make a silent approach without the use of his sirens, but it didn’t matter. The gunman could no doubt see the street, and he would notice an approaching cruiser.

  And then he’d try to run away.

  Parker didn’t want to let that happen.

  The moment the sheriff or his deputy arrived, Parker intended to go after this SOB. It was the only way to stop the threats against Bailey and now his son.

  A third shot slammed into the porch post. Nowhere near the glass or the door. Nowhere near Parker or Zach’s bedrooms.

  Hell.

  It hit Parker then. Chester Herman was a former militia member and no doubt had tons of experience with firearms. He wouldn’t have missed the most vulnerable points of entry. No. If he’d wanted to get to Bailey, then the attack would have started on the side of the house where the bedrooms were located.

  This was a diversion.

  “Someone’s trying to break in!” Bailey yelled.

  Parker’s heart went to his knees, and he raced out of the kitchen and into the hall. Zach’s door was locked so he kicked it down. He already had his left hand bracketing his wrist, and his gun was ready. The moment the door was out of his way, he took aim.

  He couldn’t fire unless the gunman actually came through the window because he couldn’t risk shooting one of his neighbors or having the bullet ricochet and hit Bailey or Zach.

  Parker got just a glimpse of the man dressed in black before he darted away. It appeared to be the same man he’d seen earlier. The man who’d just fired shots at the porch posts.

  How could this guy be in two places at once?

  Maybe this was an accomplice? Chester had been alone in the car earlier, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t brought someone along to terrorize Bailey. Besides, Parker wasn’t even sure this was Chester. He hadn’t been able to make out the guy’s face in the darkness.

  Outside, he heard the police siren, but Parker kept his attention focused on his son’s bedroom window and the other possible entry points in the house. The gunman might make a last-ditch effort to break in and start shooting before the cruiser arrived at the house.

  Bailey and Zach were on the floor, and she had her body covering his. Protecting him. She had a death grip on the gun Parker had given her, and while she looked terrified, she also looked determined. She wasn’t going to let this goon get anywhere near Zach.

  The blue swirls of lights from the cruiser slashed through the house, and Parker’s phone rang. He answered it but kept watch.

  “Where is he?” Sheriff Hale asked.

  “The west side of the house. He’s armed, has fired shots, and he just tried to break in through the window.”

  “Stay inside with Bailey and your boy,” the sheriff told him. “We’ll take care of this.”

  Parker’s first instinct was to be out there in the middle of the fight, bu
t his son and Bailey were the only things that were important now. He had to stay with them, to protect them if the gunman made it into the house, because maybe this was just another phase of the diversion.

  The seconds crawled by, each of them marked with a heavy thud of Parker’s heartbeat. Neither Bailey nor Zach said a thing, but he could hear them breathing. He could also taste their fear, and Parker hated that he hadn’t been able to stop this from happening. This was a nightmare that Zach would remember for the rest of his life, and his already had too many nightmares as it was.

  “Told you Dad was like a superhero,” Parker heard Zach whisper to Bailey.

  “Yes, you did,” she whispered back.

  Parker tried to shut them out, tried not to hear what might have been pride in his son’s voice. He would remember those words for the rest of his life, but for now Parker pushed them aside.

  And waited.

  Parker’s phone rang again, the sounds shooting through the nearly silent room, and when he saw the caller was Sheriff Hale, he answered it immediately.

  “Did you find him?” Parker asked the sheriff.

  “No.” The sheriff cursed, and it wasn’t mild profanity, either. “But we found something else. You need to get out here and see this.”

  Chapter Nine

  Bailey couldn’t get the images out of her head. The man dressed all in black hiding next to the tree. The bullets he’d fired into Parker’s house.

  The gun he had left in the yard.

  Even now with her eyes closed, Bailey could see it. Parker had called it an assault weapon rigged with a silencer, and it had been mounted on a pedestal, aimed right at the house. And according to Parker, the gunman had used a remote control to fire it. Three times.

  Straight into Parker’s house.

  Sheriff Hale and Parker had agreed that the gun hadn’t been aimed in such a way for the bullets to hit anyone inside. Just to scare them and allow time for someone like Chester Herman to break in and scare them some more.

  Or rather scare her.

  It had worked. She was scared, not just for herself but for Parker and especially Zach. Just because the bullets hadn’t been aimed to kill them, it didn’t mean the gunman couldn’t have adjusted the gun to fire into another part of the house where Parker, Zach and she were.

  Plus, the man had then tried to break into Zach’s room. Did that mean he knew she was there?

  Maybe.

  The blinds were open. He could have seen her when she ran inside Zach’s room. Bailey had done that to try to protect the boy, but she’d ended up putting him in immediate danger just by getting near him.

  Knowing that she wouldn’t fall back asleep, Bailey opened her eyes and glanced around the unfamiliar room. It was morning, already past eight, and she wasn’t just in Parker’s room, she was in his bed. She gave a hollow smile at the invitation he’d issued the night before.

  Come to my bed tonight.

  Well, she had ended up doing that, all right, after midnight when the sheriff and his deputies were certain that Chester Herman or whomever it was that had set up that gun was long gone.

  But Parker hadn’t been in his bed when she’d climbed into it, so exhausted that she hadn’t even bothered to change her clothes.

  Parker had eventually joined her in his bedroom after locking down everything in the house that he could lock and after arming the security system. Only then had Bailey managed to get some sleep.

  She looked at Parker now. He was napping on a padded weight bench that looked absurdly small beneath his body.

  Zach was on the floor asleep on an air mattress. Next to the bed were a treadmill and a set of weights that went with the bench. The exercise equipment explained how Parker managed to keep all those muscles toned and in perfect shape.

  Her gaze went to Parker again, and she wasn’t surprised to see him staring at her. Heck, it was possible he hadn’t even slept at all, that the closed eyes she’d seen earlier was a ruse to make her think he was getting some rest.

  Bailey eased off the bed, grabbed her phone from the nightstand and motioned for him to go into the hall. They really needed to talk before Zach woke up.

  On the way to the kitchen, she glanced in the open door of the bathroom and saw herself in the mirror. She groaned. No, it wasn’t a time for vanity, but she looked a wreck.

  Bailey followed Parker into the kitchen where he immediately started a pot of coffee. “Hungry?” he asked. He didn’t wait for her answer. “You should eat something anyway.”

  He was right. She had no appetite, but with the search for Chester Herman still going on, this could turn out to be a long day. And another long night. Bailey grabbed a banana and the milk from the fridge. Parker handed her a glass that he took from the cupboard, and she sat on one of the bar stools at the counter.

  “I guess there’s no good news on the search for Chester?” she asked.

  Parker shook his head and grabbed the bread, a jar of peanut butter, a knife and a saucer. “When I was at your house, I noticed that’s what you had for breakfast.”

  It was her favorite. “You’re observant.”

  “Not observant enough.” Parker huffed and finished making the coffee as if he’d declared war on it. “I thought I was careful enough by making sure no one followed us here last night, but that gunman figured out you were here.”

  Yes. He had.

  “But he could have learned that without following us. People talk in this town, and I’m sure everyone with email or a phone knows that I’ve closed Cradles to Crayons. They also know you’re my bodyguard. It isn’t much of a stretch to guess that if I’m not at home, I’d be here or the ranch.”

  So, did that mean this idiot had gone to her house, as well?

  If so, hopefully he hadn’t vandalized it or disturbed her neighbors. But she rethought that. If he had gone to either place, she would have already heard about it by now. People in Freedom didn’t keep things to themselves.

  Bailey forced herself to eat some of the peanut butter and bread, but it tasted like dust. Anything would at this point. Plus, there was a hard knot in her stomach that just wouldn’t go away.

  “What are we going to do, Parker?” And she was almost afraid to hear the answer.

  “I made some calls last night.” He paused long enough to pour them cups of the freshly made coffee. “Zach is going to stay with his friend Josh Bracken. Josh’s dad is a deputy, and Bart is sending someone from Corps to keep an eye on the place. Zach will be safe.”

  “Yes,” Bailey mumbled. “He’ll be safe because he’s not around me.” The timing sucked. Parker and Zach would be apart just when they were starting to make some headway in their relationship.

  “None of this is your fault.”

  She shrugged. “That doesn’t change things. You should distance yourself, too.”

  “Right,” he said in a harsh no-way tone. “I’m your bodyguard, Bailey. It’s my job to protect you, and I never walk away from the job. Never.”

  “I’m just a job, huh?” That stung far more than she thought it would.

  He scowled. “That’s not what I meant. You’re the job and you’re Bailey—and don’t ask me what the hell that means because I don’t know. I don’t know where these kissing and bed invitations are headed, but I do know I’m not going anywhere.” He paused. “But maybe you should. I thought about having us go to the ranch to stay with your mother.”

  Bailey was shaking her head before he even finished. “Right.” She mimicked his no-way tone. “I’d just bring the danger to my mother’s doorstep. Plus, Tim is there. Remember, he ordered a ring with my name engraved inside? I sure don’t trust him.”

  Parker gulped down some of the coffee. “I called about that, too. I spoke to Tim last night.”

  That brought her off the seat. “You called him?”

  “I decided the direct approach was the best. He wasn’t happy that I was asking the questions, but he did provide the answers. He denied telling any friends that y
ou two were dating. And as for the ring, he said he ordered it as a gift for your mother. Her birthday’s coming up, and the ring was supposed to be engraved with all her kids’ names. Tim claims the jeweler just screwed up the order, that’s all.”

  Bailey gave that some thought and sank back down onto the bar stool. That knot in her stomach was worse now. “Well, that’s a tidy explanation. You believe him?”

  Parker shook his head. “I don’t know, but I do know that right now we have someone out there who’s potentially a lot more dangerous.”

  “Chester Herman,” she provided.

  “And Sidney Burrell,” Parker added. “I got an email report last night. Chester and Sidney went to the same high school, and from all accounts, they knew each other well.”

  Bailey didn’t like the connection. “You think they’re working together? Chester has the cause—he was furious with my mother’s hard-nosed policies against militia groups—but maybe he hired Sidney to help him?”

  “Could be. But we have no proof that Chester’s actually done anything wrong. It might not have been him who fired those shots.”

  True, but after the threatening note he’d thrown into the parking lot of the day care, he was their number one suspect. But was Chester being set up by Sidney or someone else with a different motive?

  Parker checked his watch, and with his coffee mug still in his hand, he headed for the hall. “I need to wake Zach. Josh’s father will be here soon to pick him up.”

  “And I need to take a shower,” she noted. She grabbed her phone from the counter and followed him, not to his bedroom, but the guest room.

  Bailey collected her things from her suitcase and went into the hall bathroom. She put her hair in a ponytail so it wouldn’t get wet and took a short shower. Afterward, she dressed in a calf-length crinkled white skirt and a pink sleeveless top. Despite her less-than-ideal situation, she took the time to put on some makeup.

  Even though she’d hurried, by the time Bailey made it out of the bathroom, Zach had packed and was on his way to the front door.

  “Josh’s father is here already?” Bailey asked, following Parker and Zach. Parker disarmed the security system and opened the door.