He stepped around Livvy, walking straight to Addie. He gave the twins a long look over before his gaze met hers. “We should talk. Are Lily and Rose ready for bedtime?”
Addie silently groaned. She didn’t want to hear more bad news, but she also didn’t want Judson keeping anything from her, either.
“Yes, they’re ready for bed,” Addie muttered.
And they were. Despite everything, or maybe because of it, Etta Jean and Addie had already gotten them bathed and fed.They were wearing their footed pj’s with Lily in her usual pink and Rose in yellow.
Judson eased Rose from her left arm, taking her to her bassinet while Addie did the same to Lily.
“I’ll stay with them while you talk,” Etta Jean said, making the same offer she had earlier that day.
That day, Addie mentally repeated. Had it only been that morning when the babies had gone missing? It felt like a couple of lifetimes ago. And while the day was technically over, the night certainly wasn’t. With the gunman still at large, that wouldn’t make for restful sleep.
Addie thanked Etta Jean and added a hug that lingered for several moments when she felt the tension in the woman’s muscles. It was going to take them all a while to get past the trauma of what had happened.
“Call me if you need anything,” Livvy offered as Judson and Addie went to the door.
“I will,” Addie assured her and gave Livvy a hug, too. “And thank you for everything.”
“Anytime,” Livvy replied, and she walked away.
Judson took hold of Addie’s hand and led her in the opposite direction. Not toward the front of the house, where there was so much chatter and activity still going on. He took her to the kitchen. When they found Bennie and one of the ranch hands there, Judson made a detour to the small sewing room that had once been the maid’s quarters when the house was first built, over a hundred years ago.
The moment they were inside, he shut the door. And Judson pulled her into his arms.
Addie welcomed it. Mercy, did she. She needed this, and even though it brought on the inevitable heat, she didn’t care. She just held on and let his arms ease some of the tight tension in herbody. Only after she’d steadied herself did she say what had been flashing like neon lights in her head.
“You could have been killed,” she blurted. “You put yourself between a shooter and me, and you could have died.”
Judson had an odd reaction. The corner of his mouth lifted into a smile. It only added character to that amazing face that had way more character than a man had a right to have.
“I would tap my badge to remind you I’m a cop,” he drawled. “But if I move my hand between us now, I might end up touching something of yours that I shouldn’t.”
For some stupid reason, that made her smile, too. It didn’t last. But the old attraction came, and parts of her were certain she would enjoy Judson touching her. Well, if it weren’t for the fact they’d nearly died and were in the middle of hunting for a killer.
“You wanted to talk,” she managed to say, hoping it would get her mind back on track.
But she was instantly sorry for the change in subject. His smile vanished, and she saw the cop standing in front of her. A cop who eased back from her.
“Here’s the bottom line,” he started. “We don’t know squat about who fired those shots. There are no visible tracks and so far none of the recovered shell casings have had fingerprints on them.”
Her heart sank. She had been hoping that the CSIs or deputies would find something.
“You got a look at the shooter,” she reminded. “Could it have been one of our suspects?”
“I got a couple of glimpses,” Judson corrected. “And, yes, it could have been Elijah, Shane, Trevor or, hell, even Yvette. The only person it couldn’t have been is Jennifer. She was at the police station at the time of the attack.”
True. Jennifer had an airtight alibi, but that didn’t mean Elijah hadn’t been acting on her behalf.
“Elijah was furious when he left the station,” she pointed out. “He could have fired those shots to get back at us for not letting him see Jennifer. Or he could have done this to try to make it seem as if she’s innocent, that we’re looking at the wrong person for Courtney’s murder.”
“Yes, he could have done it for either of those reasons, and trust me, Grace will be talking to him about that. To Shane and Trevor, too, when they come in for interviews in the morning.” He paused. “You’ll hear this soon enough, but all of our suspects have had firearms training.”
Sweet heaven. It twisted at her to think of how easy it would be for one of them to try to come after them again.
“I don’t want to leave the ranch,” Addie said. “I want to be with the babies, but I want them to be safe.”
Judson sighed and moved closer to her again. Not hugging her, but he did take her hand. “This all started with someone abducting the twins. The shooting today could have been another attempt to do that.”
