enough, whoever was after her could have recognized her from old photos she was certain were still out there on the web. But a hired gun would have wanted some kind of proof to give to his boss and DNA would have done it.
That didn’t feel right, though.
She fought through the whirlwind of thoughts and spiked adrenaline, and remembered that one of the intruders had called her by her real name. Elaine. And the one she’d killed had come into the barn to either take her with him or gun her down. So maybe they hadn’t been looking for someone to prove who she was. Maybe they’d been after something else in the guesthouse and the man she’d shot had been just a distraction for his partner.
“My laptop,” she added on a rise of breath. Though everything on it was password protected or stored on a cloud with several layers of security, a good hacker would be able to find what she had there.
“Keep talking,” Owen ordered her while he continued volleying glances between the front door and the window at the back. “Why’d you lie to me about who you were?”
Again, this would only lead to more questions, but she doubted that she could stall Owen, especially since the sense of danger was still so thick around them.
“I lied because I didn’t want anyone, including you, to know my real identity.” Laney paused when her breath suddenly became very thin. “I’m working on an investigation, and the clues led me here to Longview Ridge.”
Owen pulled back his shoulders. “Are you a cop?”
“A private investigator.”
Owen growled out some profanity under his breath and looked as if he wanted to do more than growl it. He’d kept it quiet, no doubt because his daughter was right there, but thankfully Addie was falling asleep, her head now resting on Laney’s shoulder.
“So, you’re a PI and a liar,” Owen rumbled. Obviously he didn’t think much of either. “I obviously missed way too much about you when I did your background check. And now you’ve put my little girl, me and now Gunner and my brother in danger.”
Yes. She’d done all of those things and more. “I’m investigating Emerson Keaton.”
She saw the brief moment of surprise, followed by a new round of silent profanity that went through his eyes. “My brother-in-law. Addie’s uncle.”
Laney could add another mental yes to that. Emerson was indeed both of those things, along with being the town’s district attorney. She was also convinced that he had a fourth label.
Killer.
Of course, there was no way Owen would believe that, and she wasn’t going to be able to convince him of it now. Laney couldn’t blame him for his doubts. Nearly everything she’d told him had been a lie, including the résumé and references she’d manufactured to get this job.
Owen’s intense stare demanded that she continue even though they obviously still had to keep watch.
“Seven months ago, my half sister was murdered. Hadley Odom.” Laney had said Hadley’s name around the thick lump in her throat. “We were close.”
Not a lie. They had been, despite the different ways they’d chosen to live their lives.
“What the heck does your half sister’s murder have to do with Emerson?” Owen snapped.
“Everything,” Laney managed to say, and she repeated it to give herself some extra time to gather her words and her breath. “Hadley and Emerson had an affair.”
“Emerson?” Owen challenged when she paused. There was a bucket of skepticism in his tone. With good reason. Emerson was the golden boy of Longview Ridge. He had a beautiful wife, two young kids and a spotless reputation. “I’ve known Emerson my whole life, and there’s never been a hint of him having an affair.”
“He and Hadley kept it secret. Not just for Emerson’s sake but for Hadley’s. Hadley and I had the same mother, but her father, my stepfather, wouldn’t have approved.” Actually, Laney hadn’t approved, either, but it was impossible to sway Hadley once she’d had her mind set on something.
Owen stayed quiet for a moment, his expression hard, ice-cold. “You have proof of this?”
“I heard Hadley talking to him on the phone, and I saw them together once when they were at a restaurant.”
Of course, that wasn’t proof she thought Owen was just going to accept. And she was right. Owen’s scowl only worsened.
“Hadley told me they were having an affair.” She spelled it out for him. “She also told me that she got very upset when he broke things off with her. In anger, Hadley threatened to tell his wife and, less than twelve hours later, she was dead.”
“And you think Emerson killed her.” It wasn’t a question.
Owen wasn’t believing any of this. Neither had anyone else she’d told, but Laney had plenty of proof that she was pushing the wrong buttons with her investigation.
She tipped her head to the dead man. “He came here after me. Why else would he do that if I weren’t getting close to proving what Emerson did?”
Owen didn’t roll his eyes, but it was close. Then he huffed, “If you’re really a PI as you say you are, then I suspect you’ve riled some people. You’ve certainly done that to me.”
“Yes, but you don’t want me dead. Emerson does.”
However, she had to mentally shake her head. Someone wanted to kill her and the most obvious suspect was the one she was investigating. But there was someone else and her expression must have let Owen know that.
“Remembering something else?” Owen snapped.
No way did she want to lie to him again, but before Laney could even begin to answer him, she heard footsteps outside the barn. That gave her another shot of adrenaline and she crouched again with Addie.
“It’s me,” someone said.
Kellan.
Not the threat her body had been geared up to face. However, like Owen, Kellan was scowling when he came into the barn. He glanced at his brother and niece. Then at the dead man. Then at Laney. She didn’t think it was her imagination that she got the brunt of the scowl he was doling out.
“We got the second intruder,” Kellan explained. “He’s alive.”
Laney released the breath she hadn’t even known she’d been holding. “Who is he?” she blurted. “Has he said anything?”
“Oh, he’s talking a lot,” Kellan grumbled. “He’s demanding to see you. He says he’s a friend of yours, that you’re the one who hired him.”
“No.” Laney couldn’t deny that fast enough. “He’s lying.”
Judging from the flat look Kellan gave her, he wasn’t buying it. Apparently, neither was Owen because he walked closer and took Addie from her. He immediately moved next to his brother.
“There’s more,” Kellan added a moment later. “The intruder says that you hired him to kill Owen.”
Owen hadn’t wanted to spend half the night in the sheriff’s office, where he spent most of his days, but he hadn’t had a choice. This was not just a simple B and E, and with the shooting death of one of the intruders, it was a tangled mess.
One not likely to be resolved before morning.
That was because Laney had denied hiring the intruder, and the intruder was insisting he was telling the truth. That put them at a temporary stalemate. Or at least it would have if Owen had any faith in the intruder. Hard to trust someone who’d