Harlan turned, eyes narrowing, the protest already in his expression. “No. You should stay here.”
She shook her head, her voice sharp with resolve. “I’m not sitting inside while he’s out there. I need to hear what he has to say.”
The silence between them stretched, thick with the risk that she was demanding to take.
Finally Garrett broke it. “I’ll stay here with Evie and Carol. They won’t be left unprotected.”
Laney nodded. Her heart was racing, but her mind was set. She wouldn’t be sidelined. Billy was a good thirty yards away, but she didn’t want him even that close to the house.
To Evie.
She and Harlan vested up, both of them drawing their weapons as they headed out. Laney heard Garrett lock up behind them, and they hurried to the SUV with Harlan getting behind the wheel. He fired up the engine and got them moving toward, well, whatever the heck this was.
A meeting? A confrontation? An attack?
She was ready for whatever Billy was about to try to dole out to them.
Her pulse was thundering in her ears by the time the SUV rolled to a stop at the end of the driveway. The beams of the headlights cut across Billy, throwing his shadow long and thin across the gravel. He had lowered his hands, though he still stood perfectly still, as if waiting for them to make the first move.
She forced herself to study him, every detail. His stance. His breathing. The set of his shoulders. He didn’t look like a man about to rush them, but appearances could be lies.
Laney’s gaze flicked to the dark stretch of road beyond. The sensors would have tripped if he’d brought anyone else, like a gunman, onto the property with him. Or if he’d tried to plant another explosive in the drive. That much she was certain of. Yet certainty didn’t ease the knot in her stomach. He could still have a weapon hidden at his side.
This could be it. A sick, desperate gamble to end things in one final act of violence.
Her hand rested against the butt of her gun, her fingers tightening. If Billy made even the slightest wrong move, she would see it, and she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot.
“We stay put,” Harlan insisted. “We have this conversation from inside the SUV.” Low. Steady. Ready for whatever was about to come.
Laney drew in a breath and braced herself. Billy had brought the fight to their doorstep. Now they had to find out why.
Harlan lowered the window a fraction and leaned forward in the driver’s seat, his voice cutting through the still night. “Why are you here, Billy?”
Billy lifted his hands again, shaking his head hard. “I swear, I’m not planting a bomb. I don’t have anything on me, not even a gun. I just came to talk, that’s all. I stopped when I saw the sensor and the camera. I knew you’d be watching so I waited for you to come out.”
Laney narrowed her eyes, her gut twisting with suspicion. His words might have sounded harmless, but nothing about this felt right.
“You just wanted to talk?” she snapped. “Then where’s your vehicle? It’s nowhere in sight.”
Billy’s jaw tightened. He didn’t answer right away, and that silence was answer enough.
“That tells me you parked somewhere else and walked up,” Harlan threw out there. “Or maybe someone dropped you off. Either way, if you’d truly wanted to talk, you could have called. You could have come straight to the front door. You didn’t.”
Laney’s hand flexed on her weapon, the weight of her suspicion settling deep. “So tell me the truth, Billy. What are you really doing here?”
Billy shifted uneasily, glancing toward the dark stretch of road as if expecting headlights to crest the rise. “I didn’t want to be seen,” he said finally, his voice rough. “Not by anybody. Especially not your cop neighbor.”
Laney’s pulse quickened. “Sherry can’t see my house from here. You know that as well as I do.”
Billy wet his lips, his gaze darting back to them. “I didn’t mean like that. I meant if she happened to drive by. I didn’t want her spotting me out here, didn’t want her asking questions.”
Laney’s suspicion deepened. “Why Sherry?” she pressed.
He hesitated, hands flexing at his sides, then let out a sharp breath. “Because I’m sure she’s tangled up in something dirty. I don’t know what exactly, but she is. And I don’t want her knowing I came to talk to you.”
The night seemed to close in tighter around them, every shadow at the edge of the headlights pressing in. Laney felt her skin prickle, torn between fear and the sharp edge of possibility. If Billy was lying, it was another trap. If he was telling the truth, then Sherry was more dangerous than she had imagined.
Laney huffed, shivering against the chill that had nothing to do with the October night. Billy’s words felt too slick, too convenient, like a half-truth meant to bait them.
