Weed and/or coke, most likely.Mike hadn’t been able to go a single day without either, or scotch.Shit, and now this guy was complicating things further.
“Mikey?”
He could just picture the guy trying to peer through the front windows.His pulse accelerated, beads of sweat popping out on his back and upper lip.Why wasn’t the guy leaving?
The seconds ticked past slowly as he stood there, unmoving.Crawling out the bathroom window was too risky.He’d just have to wait it out, until this guy left.And then hope whoever it was didn’t come back before he got the hell out of here.
Four, maybe five minutes passed while the mail carrier went around back and tried that door.
He swore silently, every muscle tensed, ready to pull his weapon again if necessary.But thankfully the back door didn’t open.
Footsteps sounded on the gravel around the side of the house.“Guess I’ll come back when I finish the street,” the guy muttered to himself in annoyance, then his footsteps began to fade as he moved down the driveway.A few moments after that, an engine started.
Peeking through the edge of the blind again, he saw the truck drive away and let out a long breath, his muscles relaxing.
Now where the hell was Mikey’s damned phone?He took one last cursory glance around the place.Mike was now dead on the living room floor, his half-open eyes staring at the wall.
A wave of rage rolled through him that he’d been forced to kill someone else.If he got caught for either murder after what he’d already done, he’d die in prison.
“Christ what a mess,” he muttered to himself in disgust.Short of turning the place upside down, he wasn’t going to find the phone.And he’d stayed here too long as it was.
He left using the front door, careful not to leave prints.The place was so filthy inside, he didn’t worry that forensics would be able to isolate his shoe prints from all the others.And the gun he’d used was a ghost weapon he’d put together using a 3D printer.Impossible to track and easily disposed of.
For the time being, he needed to go to ground and figure out his next move.Cassie had somehow evaded the intended fallout from the ambush, but not for long.
That righteous bitch wasn’t getting away with what she’d done to him.Not in this lifetime.
****
Ryder snapped awakewhen his phone rang on the bedside table.He let go of Danae and rolled over to grab it, squinting against the glare of the screen in the darkness of their bedroom.Holy shit, it was almost ten a.m.And if Noah Buchanan was calling him on a weekend, it definitely wasn’t good news.
“Sheriff,” he answered.Well, outgoing sheriff.Because he was passing the torch and coming to work for them at CPS soon.
“Morning.I’m on scene at a place just south of town.You got time to meet me and talk a minute?It’s potentially related to Cassie Edwards.”
That woke him up completely.“Yeah, send me the address, and I’ll head out in a few minutes.”
Beside him, Danae yawned and stretched her arms over her head.Rain pattered gently on the roof and against their bedroom window.“Time is it?”she murmured.
“After ten.”
“What?”she said in shock.
“Yeah.”They’d been up all night waiting for a call from Finn in Syria to say he was okay.Because there’d been a rocket attack on his base in the middle of their scheduled call, and Danae had understandably been beside herself when the line had suddenly gone dead.
Finn had finally called back at just after four to tell them he was fine.Ryder was proud of his stepson for becoming a Marine and serving his country, but he had to admit it was a hell of a lot harder being on this end of the line during a combat deployment and even tougher on Danae as Finn’s mama.
“Who was that?”she asked.
“Noah.He didn’t say what happened, but he wants to talk to me about Cassie.”He leaned over, kissed her gently.“I’m gonna head straight into the office after I’m done there.”
“Okay.You working late again tonight?”
“Not sure yet.I’ll call you as soon as I know.”He would much rather spend a lazy Sunday in bed with his sleepy, sexy wife, but running a big security firm like CPS meant he was almost always on the clock, and this thing with Cassie meant he had to put in more overtime.She was a solid agent, a great employee, and an even better person.
He would do everything in his power to help get to the bottom of this shit.“Love you.”
“Love you too.”She caught his arm before he could straighten.“Hey.Thanks for being there for me last night.I don’t know what I would have done without you here to talk me off the ledge before he called back.”
