Her Holiday Protector. Lenora Worth

and ransacked and some jewelry scattered on a dresser in what looked like the master bedroom. A purse dumped in the guest room.

      After clearing the place, he came back outside. “I didn’t find anyone else inside,” he said to the woman.

      He studied the scene while he explained things to the dispatcher. The woman had been shot in the back. Running away? Then he noticed where her right hand lay out from her body. The blood spatter there looked smeared with a pattern that looked like some sort of letter—a K with a line next to it. Interesting. He took a picture with his cell phone.

      When he heard a soft moan, he turned to find Rikki standing by the porch railing, her gaze caught on the dead woman.

      She pivoted, a hand to her mouth. He could see her shoulders moving. He heard soft sobs. While he explained his location and the situation, he also noticed something else about the woman lying there on the cold brick.

      She looked a lot like the woman standing there sobbing.

      * * *

      Rikki sat in a chair in the den while several police officers moved all around her. The Millbrook Police Department wasn’t that big. Maybe three or four full-time officers and one very good-looking detective. She knew this because her family made it their business to keep up with the locals. But she’d been gone a few years and this new detective was different from the good ole boys she remembered.

      He looked too intense and moody to bow down to anyone.

      She took another gulp of air and closed her eyes to the scene she’d come home and found an hour ago. The house quiet, her cat gone, and the patio door open. Lights blinking away on the Christmas tree by the fireplace. Tessa? She’d called out, thinking her friend had gone out back, maybe had taken Pebble with her since the big, fluffy cat liked to lie across the patio floor bricks, warm from the setting sun. And then she’d looked up and heard a gun firing.

      But when she’d hurried outside, the last rays of the sunset had shown with a bright clarity on Tessa lying there. Still. So still. Rikki had screamed and then she’d hurried to find her phone. But when she’d heard footsteps running away and saw a man in her yard, she’d bolted away. Ran like a coward, to what? Where had she been heading?

      Away. She needed to get away. If anyone knew who she really was...

      “Rikki?”

      She whirled on her chair, her heartbeat drumming against her temples. “Yes?”

      Blain Kent knelt in front of her, one hand on the arm of the high-backed floral chair, a notebook and ink pen in his other hand. “Is there anyone you can call? Can you stay someplace else tonight?”

      Rikki wanted to laugh but she couldn’t muster up the strength. She did straighten in the chair, her gaze grabbing onto his face. If she weren’t so numb with fear and shock, she’d flirt with him. But she didn’t want to flirt. She wanted to go back and walk in the door and see Tessa standing in the kitchen, waiting for their night out on the town in Pensacola. Dinner and conversation and maybe a little flirting. Just a little.

      “Rikki? Miss Allen?”

      “I’ll be okay here.”

      “It might not be safe.” He rocked back on his heels, his sweatpants stretching to accommodate his solid leg muscles. “Do you know of anyone who might want to harm Tessa Jones or you?”

      “No.” She closed her eyes and prayed for strength. “I...I left Tallahassee to get away for a while. I just broke up with my boyfriend.”

      The detective’s eyes lit up at that statement. “How bad was the breakup?”

      “Bad enough. But he doesn’t know where I am.”

      “Right.”

      “Did you get a good look at the person?”

      She tried to remember. “No. Just from behind. He had on dark clothes, like sweats and a cap. Tall. He was tall. With black running shoes.”

      “Okay, that’s something to go on.”

      “I left her lying there. I was so scared.”

      He let that go but Rikki felt sure he’d ask her more on that subject later. Could Chad have done this? Was he that vicious, that cruel?

      “Tell me more about Tessa Jones,” the detective said.

      Rikki swallowed the heaviness in her throat. “Tessa grew up in Georgia but she lives in Tallahassee. We went to college together.”

      “We’ll be investigating her background but if you can think of anything that might help us, tell me now.”

      His words had gone into what sounded like a firm command. He’d probably investigate Rikki’s background, too. “Do you suspect me, Detective?”

      His expression was as fluid and unreadable as a midnight ocean. “I’m just trying to put the pieces together.” He studied his notes. “It looks like she tried to write something. I can’t be sure, but...some of the blood pattern looks like the letter K with a line slashed through it.”

      Rikki’s stomach roiled and almost revolted at that image. “I don’t know. She calls me KK sometimes. Her nickname for me.”

      She lowered her head, hoping to stop the nausea.

      “You need anything?”

      She glanced up at his face, the five o’clock shadow making him look mysterious. “I’m fine.”

      “So why was Tessa here alone?”

      “We were meeting here for the weekend to catch up. I travel a lot so I don’t get up here very often.” She glanced around, wondering how she’d ever feel safe here again. “I have clients in the area. Orders coming in for art and furnishings. I was on my way home. She knew where to find the key.”

      He studied her with an intense inky gaze that left her rattled. “So you’re here for work and to get away from Tallahassee and your ex-boyfriend.”

      “Yes.”

      “What’s his name?”

      “Chad Presley.”

      She looked out toward where the medical examiner was about to take away Tessa’s cold body. Should she tell him the truth? Should she admit the things that would cause him to suspect her of all kinds of crimes? Or should she sit here like a lump and pretend her life wasn’t falling apart?

      “Miss Allen? You said you came here to get away from him?”

      Rikki lifted her head, her gaze slamming into his. Did he already have her figured out? “Yes, and to take care of some clients in the area and mostly, for a visit with my mother.”

      No, she’d covered all of her bases on that a long time ago. No one could figure her out. She should be safe.

      But here she was, back in the one town she’d sworn she’d never return to again. For oh, so many reasons.

      “Why did you need to get away from your ex?”

      She didn’t want to talk about Chad. “We’ve been apart for a while but he’s having a hard time letting go. I just wanted some time away, to think about things.”

      “So you came here. Not that far away.”

      She bobbed her head. “My mother is sick,” she said, sincerity her only hope. “I came to visit her during the holidays. I don’t get back here too often.”

      “And who’s your mother? Maybe you could go and stay with her?”

      Rikki knew she’d said the wrong thing by the way he analyzed her with that deep blue-eyed stare.

      She tried to fix it. “Can I just stay here? I’ll lock up.”

      She didn’t really want to stay here but she couldn’t let him see how scared she felt right now. He already