Targeted. Lori L. Harris

of any sort, so she was put off by it. Which was really ridiculous, considering what had happened tonight. When his warm fingers closed over her frigid ones, she realized that even that small contact made her feel safer.

      Once she was standing, he kept a hand locked around her arm as if he didn’t trust her to stay on her feet. And maybe he was right to, because she felt woozy.

      “You out riding patrols tonight?” Alec asked his brother.

      “No. Just in the area when the call came in.” Chief Blade looked at Katie. “Do you want a ride to the hospital?”

      “No. I’m fine.” She touched the side of her face, testing the soreness. Well, maybe not fine, but the hospital was still out. She hated anything to do with them.

      The chief nudged the closest officer—a young kid who looked as if he should still be in high school. “Take the front door. I don’t want anyone coming in until Martinez is done processing the scene.” His glance skipped to the second officer. “Fitz, get some more manpower over here to check the neighborhood. I want everyone who’s available.” As the man walked away, he added, “And get the pizza box and flowers off the front porch. Throw them both on my floorboard.”

      The police chief swung his attention back to his brother. “I’m assuming you brought both?”

      Alec ignored his brother’s question. “I’m not sure how he got in, but he went out through that door.” He nodded toward the still open back one. “I went after him, so you’ll find my shoeprints out there, too.”

      The police chief frowned. “Did you check the other rooms?”

      “No. I figured you’d be showing up soon enough. That the fewer people walking through the house, possibly disturbing evidence, the better. You’ll find a couple of bullets meant for me near the dining room entrance and my fingerprints from the front door on through to the kitchen.”

      “Martinez will need comparison prints.”

      “Whenever he wants them.” Alec lifted Katie’s right hand. “He’ll probably want to check out her fingernails just in case some of that blood belongs to the suspect.” He let her hand go. She wished he hadn’t.

      Chief Blade gave a sharp nod. “Helpful, as always, Alec.” There was an edge to his voice that Katie didn’t understand. But then she didn’t know him. Maybe it was the situation. Situation? Now there was a euphemism for what had happened to her.

      Once she was seated on the sofa, Alec brought her a glass of water. Glancing down, she caught sight of her black and blue left knee and felt the first hard throb of pain.

      It was as if her body was a computer that had been shut down, but now booted up, each program reporting its status at regular intervals. Now the face. Now the neck. And now the knee. She suspected the worst was yet to come.

      And not just physically. There would be questions. Ones that she would find difficult to answer.

      Jack pulled up a chair opposite while Alec chose to stand at the foyer door. As irrational as it sounded, she would have liked to have Alec sitting next to her while his brother asked his questions, but didn’t know how to make the request without appearing needy.

      Who was she trying to kid? She was needy. But she could handle her own neediness.

      The police chief waited until she swung her gaze back to him. Jack Blade was younger than Alec by a few years, and with his blond hair, he looked more like a lifeguard than a lawman. She had heard rumors that he’d worked undercover in a big city before he’d come to Deep Water. But Deep Water’s rumor mill was wrong more often than right. She only had to look at what they said about her to know that.

      “Katie, I need you to start at the beginning and tell me everything you can remember.”

      She nodded, but swallowed roughly. Her neck and throat hurt from the choke hold.

      “Any possibility that you know your attacker? Have you ever seen him before?”

      She shook her head. “No. At least I don’t think so.”

      “When you came home, was he already in the house?”

      “Yes. But I don’t know where. Maybe in my bedroom. Or in the hall closet.” She ducked her head. Not meeting his eyes made it easier to talk about. “He…he came up behind me while I was at the kitchen sink and…. and—” She couldn’t seem to go on. When the police chief reached out to touch her in a comforting gesture, she moved her hand just beyond his reach.

      He acted as if he hadn’t noticed the movement, but she knew he had. “Take your time. There’s no hurry.”

      She nodded her understanding. Instead of easier, she was finding it more difficult to control her emotions. Maybe it was due to the adrenaline. But she didn’t like the way she was right now. She didn’t want to be this person.

      “He wanted…” He wanted to kill her. She still couldn’t believe it, but it had to be true. There was no other explanation. “I got away. Made it to the back door. But he’d taken the key.”

      After taking a small sip of water, just enough to moisten her tongue, she managed to continue. “I used a chair to break the glass. He…he got to me before…I could get out. He dragged me into the hall.”

      She turned to Alec. “That’s when you showed up.”

      “Any chance you might recognize him if you saw him again?” the police chief asked.

      “Maybe.” She heard the doubt in her own voice, and realized that she was shaking her head slowly. “I’m not sure, it…was dark. He didn’t really allow me to see his face.”

      “I understand. Was he tall? Big?”

      “Both,” she said, thinking about the hard mass of his body.

      Alec straightened in the doorway, but kept his arms folded. “He was six-one or two, probably went two-twenty or more.”

      “You got a look at him?” Chief Blade asked his brother.

      “Not a very long one, and, as Katie said, it was dark.”

      Chief Blade turned his attention back to her. “Caucasian?”

      She nodded. “I think so.”

      “But you’re not sure?”

      “No. Maybe if he hadn’t been wearing gloves.”

      “Tell me about the gloves.”

      “They were latex. The kind doctors wear.” She hugged her arms across her middle and tried not to think about how his gloved hand had closed over her throat.

      “How about his voice? Did he say anything?”

      “He called me—” She broke off to take a deep breath. God. She didn’t want to think about what that meant.

      “What did he call you?” Jack prompted.

      “Katydid,” she answered softly. As she waited for his next question, she studied the glass of water she held. She was okay. She was in control. She was a big fat liar.

      “Katydid? Is that a nickname?”

      “Yes.” She nodded. “Karen, my twin sister, gave it to me.”

      “Is she the only one who uses it?”

      “My father did sometimes.”

      “Anyone else?”

      She didn’t want to say his name. Even inside her head, she’d been avoiding it. Because saying the name aloud would make it too real.

      “Katie, did anyone else call you by that name?” Chief Blade asked again, his voice still kind, but slightly louder this time. As if he thought the reason she’d failed to answer him was because she hadn’t heard the question.

      She nodded again. “Carlos