Safety Breach. Delores Fossen

but why hadn’t Eric just stayed and waited for her? Had he found out Kellan was coming, and Eric hadn’t wanted to deal with a lawman? Especially one who wanted him dead.

      Still, that didn’t feel right.

      Of course, she’d learned the hard way that it was a mistake to trust her feelings when it came to Eric.

      “There’s Owen,” Kellan said, his voice shattering the silence.

      Owen, as in his brother Deputy Owen Slater. And he was yet someone else who would want to face down Eric.

      “Owen’s been working with Austin PD to set up spotters on the road,” Kellan added. “Don’t worry, Owen didn’t tell the local cops who you really are. He said you’re a witness in an upcoming trial and that we need to get you back to Longview Ridge.”

      Her legs suddenly felt like glass, but she forced herself to stand. Gemma also glanced out the window. Owen was indeed out there, sitting behind the wheel of a black car.

      “Are you really taking me to Longview Ridge?” she asked.

      “Best not to say where we’re going in case Eric bugged the place.”

      Oh, mercy. She hadn’t even thought of that. But she should have. Eric had succeeded in rattling her, and he had likely figured that was the first step in getting to her.

      “Don’t bring anything with you,” Kellan instructed when she reached for her purse.

      Yes, because Eric could have planted tracking devices on clothes or anything else in the house. She’d had her purse with her when she’d gotten groceries, but maybe Eric had managed to put a tracker on it before that quick shopping trip. Or even while she was at the store. She couldn’t take her phone either because he could use it to pinpoint her location. Then, he could follow wherever Kellan was taking her.

      Kellan motioned toward his brother, and Owen got out of the car. Like Kellan, he already had his weapon drawn, which meant any of her neighbors could see that and become alarmed. Maybe alarmed enough to come outside and try to figure out what was going on. No one had shown much interest in her in the nine months she’d been there, and now wouldn’t be a good time to start.

      “Move fast,” Kellan said, and that was the only warning she got before he took hold of her, positioning her right next to him. He opened the door and got them moving.

      “Aww, don’t be that way,” someone said.

      Eric.

      The voice came from behind them, from inside the house, and Kellan must have recognized it, too, because he dragged her to the ground next to the concrete steps.

      “Don’t leave before we have time to play,” Eric joked.

      And the killer laughed just as the shot blasted through the air.

       Chapter Two

      Hell. Kellan wanted to kick himself for not getting to Gemma sooner so this wouldn’t happen.

      But he hadn’t been sure who he could trust, hadn’t known how the info about Gemma’s location had been breached. His brother Jack was a marshal and would have been his normal contact for something like this, but Jack was in Arizona escorting a prisoner. That’s why Kellan had tried to handle this himself.

      Now none of that mattered because they could both be gunned down by a serial killer.

      Kellan scrambled over Gemma, pushing her all the way to the ground so he could cover her with his body. It wasn’t an ideal position, nothing about this was. They were literally out in the open with only the steps for cover. That wouldn’t do squat to protect them if Eric came around the side of the house and through a back door. Of course, if he did that, then Owen would see him.

      “Were either of you hit?” Owen called out.

      Kellan shook his head and hoped that was true. Beneath him, Gemma was trembling. No doubt reliving a boatload of memories, too. But he couldn’t tell if she’d been injured, and Kellan didn’t want to risk moving off her to find out.

      While Owen made a call, no doubt to get them backup, his brother had taken up cover behind the door of the unmarked cruiser. It was bullet resistant, which meant if Kellan could get Gemma to it, she’d be a whole lot safer than she was here. But there was a good twenty feet of space between them and Owen. That was twenty feet that Eric could use to gun them down.

      Well, maybe.

      When Kellan had searched Gemma’s house, Eric hadn’t been inside. And Kellan had shut and relocked the open window along with checking to make sure no other locks had been tampered with. So, how had Eric gotten in?

      Or had he?

      There was something else off about this. The angle of the shot seemed to have been all wrong. It was hard to tell, but instead of coming from inside the house, the bullet had been fired more to the left side of it. If that’s indeed where the shooter was, then he and Gemma wouldn’t have been able to see him. Neither would Owen—which could be the exact reason the shot had been fired from there.

      And that led him to something else that didn’t fit.

      Eric himself.

      There was no reason for Eric to put himself in the middle of what could turn out to be a gunfight. Way too risky. No, he was more the lay-in-wait type, and if he’d truly wanted Gemma dead, he would have just waited inside and shot her when she’d opened the door. That would have given him a minute or two to flee before Kellan had even arrived.

      So, who’d fired the shot? And where the hell was Eric?

      “I think the voice we heard could have been a recording,” Kellan whispered to Gemma.

      She went still, obviously giving that some thought, then nodding. A recorder wouldn’t have been that hard to hide if Eric had indeed managed to come in earlier through the window. Also, it would give Eric an advantage if they thought he was inside the house. That’s where they would be pinpointing their focus when the real danger could be at the side of the house. Or even across the street from them.

      That sent Kellan snapping in that direction. “Get down!” he yelled to Owen. Kellan hadn’t actually seen anything, but a year of chasing Eric had told him to expect the unexpected when dealing with the snake.

      Owen did drop down, putting his body behind the door. Just as another shot came. And just as Kellan had thought, this one came from a house directly across the street. This time, he got a glimpse of the shooter who’d fired out the second-story window. A bulky guy dressed all in black, and he was using a rifle with a scope. If Owen hadn’t ducked when he had, he’d be dead.

      Which might have been Eric’s intent all along.

      In addition to being a snake, Eric also liked to torment his victims, and killing Owen would have definitely accomplished that. Along with adding another huge layer of guilt and grief they were already feeling because of his father’s murder.

      “Hold your position,” Kellan instructed Owen. “How long before the local cops get here?”

      “About five minutes,” Owen answered. “I’ve texted them to let them know about the gunfire.”

      That meant Austin PD wouldn’t come in with guns blazing. They’d stay back, evaluating the situation while trying to figure how to get Gemma safely out of there. Kellan and Owen would be doing the same thing. Because Kellan didn’t want anyone dying today. Eric had already claimed enough lives.

      Another shot came—again from the second floor of the neighbor’s house. The bullet blasted into the stone steps just inches from where he and Gemma were. Owen pivoted and returned fire. It worked because the gunman ducked out of sight. That didn’t mean he was leaving, but the guy might think twice before appearing in the window again.

      “I need