bullets, first one and then the other, slammed into the man’s chest and he dropped to the ground like a stone. If he wasn’t dead, he soon would be, because he was already bleeding out.
Addie started to cry so Owen hurried to her. The relief came flooding through him because his baby was okay. She hadn’t been hurt.
He didn’t scoop her up into his arms, something he desperately wanted to do. First, he had to wait for the all clear from Kellan, and that might take a couple of minutes. In the meantime, Owen would need to hold his position. However, that didn’t stop him from asking one critical question.
Owen’s eyes narrowed when he looked at Laney. “Start talking. Who the heck are you?”
From the moment this nightmare had started, Laney had known that question—and many more—would come from Owen.
Who the heck are you?
No way would Owen Slater just let something like this go. Of course, he probably thought her answer would help him understand this mess. It wouldn’t. In fact, it was going to make things even worse.
At least he and Addie hadn’t been hurt. And the toddler was so young that she hopefully wouldn’t remember anything about this attack. However, the assault would stay with Owen for the rest of his life, and Laney was never going to be able to forgive herself for allowing things to come to this.
Sweet heaven. She could have gotten them killed.
With his scalpel-sharp glare, Owen reminded her that he was well aware of that, too. In fact, the only reason he likely didn’t take Addie from Laney when she picked up the baby was that he needed to keep his shooting hand free in case someone else fired at them.
She glanced at the man she’d just shot. Who the heck was he? How had he known who she was? And why had he done this? He hadn’t given her any choice, but it still twisted away at her. A man was dying or already dead because of her. And worse, this wasn’t over. If she’d managed to somehow keep him alive, he might have been coerced into telling her who’d put him up to this, but she’d had no choice but to take that shot.
“Who are you?” Owen repeated.
Judging from the tone and his intense glare, he no longer trusted her. Good. Because Laney didn’t trust herself.
It crushed her to have it all come to this. She’d thought she was safe, that Addie and Owen would be safe, too. Obviously she’d brought her fight right to their doorstep.
“I was Elaine Pearce,” she said, speaking around the lump in her throat, “but I changed my name to Laney Martin.”
Of course, that explanation was just the tip of the iceberg. Owen would demand to know about not only the name change, but also how it connected to the dead man. And how it connected to this attack.
Owen sent a text to someone. Probably to one of his fellow deputies to do a quick background check on Elaine Pearce. It was what Laney would have done had their positions been reversed.
“I want you to put your gun on the hay bale,” he instructed. He sounded like a cop now, and he looked at her as if she were a criminal.
Laney did exactly as he said, knowing the gun would be taken as part as of the evidence in what was now a crime scene. An investigation would quickly follow, which meant she’d be questioned and requestioned. Soon, everyone in town would know who she was, and she’d be in more danger than she already was. That was why she had to figure a way out of here—fast.
“Elaine Pearce,” he repeated. “And you didn’t think that was something I should know?” Owen grumbled. “You didn’t bother to mention that you weren’t who you were claiming to be?”
“No.” Laney took another deep breath. “I thought I’d find the info that I needed and be out of here before anything could happen.”
“You were obviously wrong about that.” He gave a disapproving grunt and went to the man, kicking his gun farther away from where it had fallen from the shooter’s hand. Owen then touched his fingers to the guy’s neck.
“Dead,” Owen relayed as he did a quick search of the guy’s pockets. Nothing. Of course, he hadn’t expected a hired gun to bring an actual ID with him.
“You recognize him?” Owen asked.
Laney somehow managed to stand upright, though every part of her was trembling. She also moved closer to Owen and then made another quick check on Addie. The little girl’s cries were already starting to taper off, but she’d obviously been frightened by the noise of the gunshots.
A muscle tightened in Owen’s jaw and, though Laney hadn’t thought it possible, his steel-gray eyes narrowed even more when he glared at her. He made a circling motion with his index finger for her to continue, but before Laney even had the chance to do that, his phone rang. She saw his brother’s name on the screen. In the months that she’d been working for Owen, she’d met Kellan several times and knew he lived close by. She had figured Owen had called him or their other brothers for backup.
“This conversation isn’t over,” Owen assured her as he hit the answer button on his phone. He didn’t put the call on speaker, but Laney was close enough to hear Kellan’s voice.
“There’s a second intruder,” Kellan blurted out, causing a chill to ripple through her.
Laney hurried back to Addie and pulled the little girl into her arms. Because of her position, she could no longer hear what Kellan was saying. But judging from the way Owen’s gaze fired around, he, too, was bracing himself for another attack. He didn’t stay on the phone long and, once he was finished with his conversation, maneuvered himself in front of them.
“The second guy was in the guesthouse,” Owen told her. “He ran into the woods across the road. Kellan and Gunnar are searching for him now and they’ve called Dispatch for more backup.”
Gunnar was Deputy Gunnar Pullam, someone else that Laney had seen around town. Like Owen, he was an experienced lawman. Something they needed right now. Maybe they’d find the second man and stop him from circling back to try to kill them again. The thought didn’t help with her heartbeat, which was already thudding out of control. Addie must have picked up on that, too, because she started to whimper again. Laney began to rock her.
“Kellan said the second man had something with him when he ran out of the guesthouse,” Owen went on. “A bag, maybe.” His back was to her now, but she didn’t need to see his face to know he was still glaring. “Any idea what he took?”
Laney’s thoughts were all over the place as she tried to fight off the panic, but it didn’t take her long to come up with an answer. “Maybe my toothbrush or something else with my DNA on it. Something to prove who I am.”
Other than changing her hair and wearing colored contacts, she hadn’t altered her appearance that much. If they’d looked closely 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