“Who else would shoot at you, us?”
Jacy shrugged. “A random idiot with a gun? A gang initiation?”
“No, babe. Jenkins said witnesses saw the shooter waiting. For us. Carter just wants to keep you off guard.”
“Maybe.” Jacy rested her brow on my chest. “Then we should go to a beach someplace. Get off his radar. Let the cops bust him, then he’ll be out of our hair for good.”
***
“Night, little man.”
Jacy and I both kissed Declan as we tucked him into bed. His cats busily took their evening baths beside him, assuming yoga positions to wash their butts. Yawning, Declan rolled onto his side, his hand tucked beneath his head. “Night, Dad. Night, Mom.”
Hand in hand, we returned downstairs to watch TV for a while. Jacy, again, seemed preoccupied and said little as I poured wine for us both. Still, she relaxed against me as I put my arm around her.
“Where should we go?” I asked.
“Mexico,” she answered. “Beautiful beaches, not that expensive.”
“You worry about money too much.”
“Comes from never having any.”
“We’ll be fine. I promise.”
“You can take the time off work?”
“Have computer, will travel.” I kissed her brow. “I can work on a beach. Can’t wait to see you in a bikini.”
Jacy laughed. “You’ve seen me naked.”
“Yeah, but a bikini on the beach is oh so sexy.”
“If you say so.”
“I do.”
***
I don’t know how long I’d been asleep when the sound of my garage door rattling closed woke me. Sitting straight up in bed, I listened, tense, expecting to hear Carter sneaking in through the kitchen door, a gun in his hand.
Yet, Max, the ever-watchful guard dog, stayed silent.
“Wait here,” I began, climbing from the bed.
Even as I spoke, I saw Jacy’s side of the bed was empty.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jacy
I rolled the big SUV onto a wide verge at the designated intersection and cut the lights. The night was clear and very cold. This far from any town and its bright lights, the stars gleamed down brilliantly, like diamonds in a black velvet bed. I closed the door quietly, looking around for Carter or his vehicle.
I saw nothing.
A rustling in the brush just beyond the SUV almost had me shifting, ready to incinerate whatever it was moving out there. Then I realized that whatever shuffled through the brush was far too small to be a threat.A skunk maybe.
I calmed my racing heart, cursing my jangled nerves. If I didn’t think I could handle Carter, then why the hell did I make the challenge? I certainly felt much safer as a dragon. Carter could easily find me through a sniper’s scope and take me out while I stood by the car dithering.
