see who you are.”
Still nothing.
“Get in your car,” Grayson instructed from over his shoulder. “I’ll get a closer look.”
Eve wanted to latch onto him, to stop him from walking toward those trees, but this was his job. Plus, Grayson wouldn’t stop. Not for her. Not for anyone.
“Just be careful,” she whispered, her voice cracking a little. Eve eased open her car door and ducked down to get inside.
The sound stopped her.
It was a loud blast, and it shook the ground beneath them. Her stomach went to her knees, and her breath stalled in her throat. For a split second she thought someone had shot at them.
But this was much louder than a gunshot.
“Get down!” Grayson shouted.
He didn’t give her a chance to do that on her own. He hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her behind her car door and to the ground.
Eve glanced behind her, at the cottage, and she saw what had caused that nightmarish sound.
An explosion.
Her grandmother’s cottage was on fire.
Chapter Three
What the hell was going on?
That was Grayson’s first thought, quickly followed by the realization that if Eve and he had stayed inside the house just a few more minutes, they would have both been blown to bits.
Behind them, the cottage had orangey flames shooting from it, and there was debris plunging to the ground. Maybe a propane tank had exploded or something, but Grayson wasn’t sure it was an accident.
After all, there was a guy hiding in the trees.
Grayson figured it was too much to hope that the two things weren’t related.
Had this person somehow rigged the explosion? If so, that meant the man would have had to have gotten close enough to the cottage to tamper with the tank that was just outside the kitchen window, but Grayson hadn’t heard him. Of course, he’d been so involved with Eve’s baby bombshell that he might not have noticed a tornado bearing down on them. He would berate himself for that later.
Now, he had to do something to protect Eve.
Grayson took cover in front of her and behind the car door, and he re-aimed his gun in the direction of the person he’d seen just moments before the explosion.
“Get out here!” he shouted to the person.
After hearing no response to his last demand, Grayson didn’t expect the guy to comply this time. And he didn’t.
No answer.
No sign of him.
Grayson kept watch behind them to make sure no one was coming at them from that direction. Other than the falling debris, the fire and black smoke smearing against the sky, there was nothing.
Except Eve, of course.
Her eyes were wide with fear, and he could feel her breath whipping against his back and neck. “We could have died,” she mumbled.
Yeah. They’d been damn lucky. A few minutes wasn’t much of a window between life and death, and her storming out had literally saved them.
Because she looked to be on the verge of panicking, Grayson wanted to reassure her that all would be fine, but he had no idea if that was true. The one thing he did know was that it wasn’t a good idea for them to be in the open like this. There could be a secondary explosion, and he needed to get Eve someplace safe so he could try to figure out what had just happened.
He glanced at his truck, but it was a good thirty feet away. Too far. He didn’t want Eve to be out in the open that long. There wasn’t just the worry of a second explosion but of their tree-hiding friend and what he might try to do.
“Get inside your car,” he told Eve, “and slide into the passenger’s seat so I can drive.”
“Oh, God,” he heard her say.
And Grayson silently repeated it. He didn’t know just how bad this situation could get, and he didn’t want to find out with Eve in tow.
“Put the keys in the ignition,” Grayson added when he felt her scramble to get into the car. “And stay down. Get on the floor.”
No Oh, God this time, but he heard her breath shiver as it rushed past her lips. He wasn’t exactly an old pro at facing potentially lethal situations, but he had the training and some experience during his time as sheriff. This had to be a first for Eve.
Not too many people had ever come this close to dying.
Grayson glanced behind him to make sure she had followed his orders. She had. Eve had squeezed herself in between the passenger’s seat and the dashboard. It was safer than sitting upright, but Grayson knew a car wouldn’t be much protection if anything was about to happen. A secondary explosion could send fiery debris slamming right into them.
He tried to keep watch all around them while he eased into the driver’s seat and adjusted it so he’d fit. He needed to put some distance between the cottage, woods and them, and then he would call for assistance. Someone could take Eve to the sheriff’s office, and Grayson could figure out why all of this didn’t feel like an accident.
While keeping a firm grip on his gun, he shut the car door and started the engine. He took out his phone and handed it to Eve. “Call the fire department.”
She did but without taking her stunned gaze off the flames that were eating their way through what was left of the cottage. It had to break her heart to see the damage, and later the full loss would hit her.
As if she hadn’t had enough to deal with for one day.
Even now, with the chaos of the moment, he still had her request going through his head.
I need you to get me pregnant.
He’d made it clear that wasn’t going to happen, so the situation was over for him. But not for Eve. He had seen that determination in her eyes, and one way or another, she was going to get this dream baby. Hell, this near-death experience might even make her more determined.
“Hang on,” Grayson warned her as he drove away—fast. He didn’t exactly gun the engine, but he didn’t dawdle, either.
The narrow road was dirt, gravel and mud since it had rained hard just that morning. With the sinkholes poxing the surface, it was impossible to have a smooth ride. But a smooth ride was an insignificant concern. Right now, he just wanted Eve out of there so he could deal with this situation on his own terms.
In other words, alone.
“The gas was turned off,” Eve murmured. “It’s been turned off for months. So, what caused the explosion?”
“Maybe a leak in the gas line.” And if so, that would be easy to prove.
“Call the first number on my contact list,” Grayson instructed. It was for the emergency dispatcher in the sheriff’s building. “I want at least one deputy out here with the fire department. Have them meet me at the end of the road.”
Once help arrived, he could hand off Eve to whichever deputy responded, and Grayson could escort the fire department and others to the scene. He didn’t want anyone walking into a potential ambush.
Eve made the call, and he heard her relay his instructions to the emergency dispatcher. Just ahead, Grayson spotted the first curve of the snaky road. He touched the brakes.
And nothing happened.
Nothing!
The car continued to barrel toward the curve. So, Grayson cursed and tried again, but this time he added a lot more pressure.