Always A Lawman. Delores Fossen

smell and the dust. An instant punch of the memories, too.

      He hated this place.

      Hated that it still felt like an open, raw wound. A cut so deep that it would never heal. It was no doubt the same for Jodi. Even though she hadn’t lost her parents that day, it had been just as costly for her.

      In plenty of ways, she’d lost herself.

      For just a moment he got a flash of another memory. Of the smiling nineteen-year-old who’d shown up at his house that night. She’d been wearing cutoff denim shorts, a snug red top and had looked far better than a girl had a right to look.

      He pushed that memory aside, too. He’d lost himself that night, as well. Because he hadn’t protected her. He hadn’t saved his parents, and while Jodi had lived, he darn sure hadn’t saved her, either.

      Gabriel didn’t see anyone in either of the two rooms just off the entry. Nor did he hear anyone. He ducked under the crisscross of boards, his back scraping against the rough wood. He moved just far enough inside for Jodi to step in behind him. Even though she didn’t say anything, he could hear her breathing. Which was too fast.

      There were no signs of an intruder here. No footprints in the dust on the hardwood floors.

      The furniture in the living and dining rooms was still draped with the sheets that his sisters had put on them years earlier. It hadn’t felt right to move anything after the CSIs had finished with it, so they’d covered everything, locked and boarded it up. Now, it was like some kind of sick time capsule.

      “Anyone up there?” Gabriel called out.

      He didn’t expect a response and didn’t get one. But what he did hear was something he didn’t want to hear.

      A footstep.

      Yeah, someone was definitely upstairs. And judging from the weight of the step, it wasn’t a raccoon or some other animal.

      Jodi moved as if ready to barge right up there, but Gabriel leaned in front of her and shot her a scowl. “We’ll wait here for Jameson. Once he arrives, I’ll go upstairs. Alone.”

      She huffed, clearly not pleased about that. Maybe because she wanted to confront the person who’d left the knife. Of course, she thought it was the same person who had attacked her, but Gabriel was sticking to his guns that her father had been responsible for that.

      “We should at least check the back door,” she suggested. “That might be how he got in.”

      Yes, either that or a window. The place wasn’t exactly a fortress, though the doors and windows should have at least all been locked. That wouldn’t have stopped someone from breaking one of the panes and getting inside, though.

      Gabriel went to the center of the foyer, and he volleyed his attention around the rooms and the stairs. He still didn’t see anyone or anything out of place. Definitely no more blood to go along with what was on that knife, and if he had seen so much as a drop, he would have stopped and gotten out of there since this could potentially be a crime scene.

      Again.

      But thankfully there was nothing other than the bad feeling that continued to snake down his spine.

      “Stay here,” he warned Jodi.

      Whether she would or not was anyone’s guess, but Gabriel went into the adjacent family room so he could peer through to the kitchen. No one was there, but the rear door was open. The wind was causing it to sway just enough to make this whole ordeal even creepier than it already was.

      Gabriel was about to lose patience with himself and whoever the hell had broken in, and he probably would have just charged upstairs if he hadn’t heard a sound that he actually wanted to hear.

      “What the hell?” someone asked and then added a string of profanity.

      Jameson.

      He’d probably seen the knife. Or maybe the cussing was for Jodi. Not that Jameson had anything in particular against Jodi, but he would have known it wasn’t a good idea for her to be here.

      “Someone’s upstairs,” Jodi said to his brother.

      With his gun already drawn, Jameson came into the house, stepping around her, and his attention went straight to Gabriel. “Did the intruder leave the knife?”

      “I’m not sure.” But Gabriel was about to find out. “Stay here with Jodi.”

      “The CSIs are on the way,” Jameson told him as Gabriel started up the stairs. “I called Cameron, too.”

      Cameron Doran. A deputy and family friend. Cameron would have been at his own house on the ranch grounds, and while Gabriel appreciated the double backup, he hoped it wouldn’t be necessary.

      With his gun aimed, Gabriel went up the stairs, pausing after each step to listen for any footsteps or movement. He didn’t hear anything other than that damn creaky door downstairs.

      At first anyway.

      Then, there were definitely footsteps, and they appeared to be coming from his parents’ bedroom. No more pausing for him. Gabriel hurried up the stairs and to the landing so he could pivot in that direction.

      No one was in the hall, so he went toward the bedroom, passing several others along the way. He kept watch around him. The doors were all closed, but that didn’t mean someone wouldn’t open one of them and start shooting. Or running anyway. He was still hoping this would turn out to be nothing.

      By the time Gabriel made it the forty or so feet to his parents’ room, he’d worked up a sweat. And it wasn’t helping his temper. This was not how he wanted to spend his afternoon.

      He kicked open the door, and he nearly fired when he saw the movement. But it was just the white gauzy curtains fluttering in the breeze.

      “He’s out back, and he’s getting away!” Jodi shouted.

      Hell.

      Gabriel hurried to the window to look out, and the first thing he spotted was the ladder propped up against the back of the house. But there were no signs of the person who’d put it there.

      However, there were signs of Jodi and Jameson.

      He saw them run into the yard, such that it was. Once it’d been a manicured lawn, but now it was overgrown with weeds and underbrush.

      “Stop or I’ll shoot,” Jameson called out.

      Gabriel saw the guy then. He was dressed all in black, like some kind of ninja, and he was running into the woods. There were plenty of places to hide there and even some old ranch trails where the guy could have stashed a vehicle. Gabriel wanted to stop him because he had some answering to do about that knife.

      Jameson and Jodi went after him, and that sent Gabriel hurrying, as well. He didn’t go down the ladder because that would have made him an easy target in case the intruder was armed. Instead, he barreled down the hall and stairs and hurried out the back door.

      Jameson and Jodi had gotten way ahead of him by now and had disappeared into the woods. With any luck, they were on the intruder’s heels. Well, hopefully Jameson was. Gabriel didn’t like it that a civilian was in the mix of things. Especially this civilian. Despite Jodi’s attempt at trying to keep her composure when she saw the knife, Gabriel knew it caused her to have a slam of bad memories.

      Once he was in the backyard, he had to hurdle over some of the underbrush, and it took him several long moments of hard running before he spotted Jameson and Jodi again. He’d hardly gotten a glimpse of them before Gabriel heard something else that caused his heart to jump into overdrive.

      A cracking sound.

      A shot being fired through a silencer.

      Gabriel cursed again because neither Jodi’s nor Jameson’s guns were rigged that way. That meant the shot had come from the intruder. Well, that blew his theory that this was all some kind of sick prank. If the idiot had come here armed, then