Surrendering to the Sheriff (15 page)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Kendall nearly jumped when she opened her eyes. It was dark, everything unfamiliar around her. Well, everything except for the man next to her.

Aiden.

She was in his bed, in his house, and hours earlier they’d had incredible sex. This time without having been the least bit drunk. He’d regret it, of course. Heck, she might, too, but for now she just settled down and enjoyed the moment and the view.

And what a view it was.

Aiden was on his stomach. Completely naked. And the moonlight was streaming in through the window, spilling like a spotlight over his perfect body. He’d always been hot, even when they were teenagers, and now he was many steps past the hot stage.

Of course, looking at him only reminded her of how much she wanted him all over again. And how much that want for him complicated their lives. A custody arrangement would be difficult enough without them lusting after each other, and she figured this attraction wasn’t going to end just because it made things harder.

She slid her hand over her stomach and let her mind wander. Would the baby look like Aiden?

Probably.

And her imagination was good enough for her to see the sandy-haired toddler trailing along after his father. Aiden had said he would protect their baby from his family, and he no doubt would. But while her son might have a near-perfect father, he’d be born into a very imperfect situation.

“You should be resting,” Aiden said without even opening his eyes.

She wasn’t sure how he even knew she was awake, but he reached for her and eased her back down next to him. Kendall lost the great view of his body, but the snuggling wasn’t a bad consolation prize.

“We’ll work this all out,” he added. “For now, just rest.”

Kendall was certain that wouldn’t happen, but it didn’t take long for her muscles to go slack. She could probably thank the amazing sex for that. And the fatigue that was gnawing away at her. However, she’d barely had time to close her eyes when she felt something she didn’t want to feel.

The muscles in Aiden’s arm tensed.

He didn’t jackknife to a sitting position, but he did ease away from her, lifting his head. Obviously listening for something.

But what?

She hadn’t heard anything, but Kendall certainly listened now. There were no sounds of Sarah moving around downstairs. Nothing outside, either, even though there was a breeze stirring the oaks just outside the bedroom windows.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, her heart already in her throat.

Aiden listened some more and finally shook his head. “I thought I heard the horses.”

Kendall hadn’t heard them at all through the night, but then the barn, corral and pasture were a good twenty yards from the house.

Aiden eased his head back onto the pillow just as Kendall heard a sound. He heard it, too, because it got him not just off the pillow but out of bed.

It was indeed one of the horses, maybe more, making a whinnying sound.

Aiden pulled on his jeans as he made his way to the window. Kendall got up as well, but he motioned for her to stay back. She did, but when Aiden stood there for several long seconds, she decided to get dressed.

Just in case.

Sadly, their
just in case
could turn out to be something bad.

“Do you see anyone?” she asked.

Another wait before he shook his head, but he kept his attention pinned to whatever was going on outside the window. “Something spooked the horses.”

Because she’d spent a lot of time on a ranch, Kendall knew there were plenty of things that could do that. The area had coyotes who sometimes ventured closer to the animals, but with the awful things that had happened to Aiden and her, Kendall automatically thought the worst.

Another kidnapper could be out there, ready to come for her.

She finished putting on her clothes, and even though she stayed back, Kendall went closer to see if she could get a glimpse of anything. The moon was full and bright, casting shadows on the ground.

One of those shadows moved, causing her heart to slam against her chest.

She made a strangled sound and stepped back just as Aiden cursed and grabbed his shirt.

“It could be a kid pulling a prank,” he said. But Aiden didn’t sound as if he believed that any more than she did.

He threw on his clothes, grabbed his gun and headed for the door. Kendall hadn’t thought her anxiety could go any higher, but that did it.

“You’re not going out there,” she insisted.

Aiden dropped a kiss on her mouth as if that were the cure for everything, and he opened the bedroom door. “You’re waiting inside with Sarah.”

So he was indeed going out there. Alone. And with the moving shadow that could be an armed thug.

Kendall hurried down the stairs behind him, but before Aiden could even knock on Sarah’s door, the deputy had already opened it. “I heard your footsteps on the stairs,” Sarah said. She was already dressed. Armed, too. But maybe she’d slept that way.

“Keep an eye on Kendall,” he said, giving Kendall another kiss. Probably because he figured it would stop her from arguing with him.

It didn’t.

“You should wait until you call for backup,” Kendall suggested.

But she was talking to herself, because Aiden was already heading for the front door so he could disengage the security system.

“Reset this when I’m out,” Aiden said to Sarah. He grabbed a flashlight from a table in the entry. “The security code’s one-eight-six-three. And call Leland to let him know I might have a problem.”

Sarah nodded, and as soon as Aiden was outside, the deputy punched in the code to reset it. She also motioned for Kendall to follow her back into the hall and took out her phone. To call Leland, no doubt.

Kendall wished they could at least go into the living room so she might be able to catch a glimpse of Aiden outside the window, but before she could suggest that to Sarah, the deputy mumbled, “What the heck?”

“What’s wrong?” Kendall asked.

“My cell phone’s not working.” She hurried to the kitchen and picked up the landline that was mounted on the wall. Kendall knew from the way the deputy’s face dropped that it wasn’t good news. “It’s not working, either.”

Oh, mercy.

That couldn’t be good, and Kendall doubted that it was a coincidence. Someone had likely jammed the lines, and that someone was out there.

With Aiden.

“We have to tell Aiden,” Kendall insisted. “He could be attacked.”

Sarah nodded, then glanced around as if trying to figure out what to do. “If I open the living room window to shout out to him, the security alarm will go off. So I’ll have you disarm it just long enough for me to tell him what’s going on.”

Now it was Kendall’s turn to nod, and she hurried to the keypad on the wall next to the front door. Thankfully, unlike in her own house, there were no sidelight windows, and the door was solid wood.

“Now,” Sarah said, reaching for the window.

However, reaching for it was as far as she got. Because before Kendall had even touched the keypad, she heard the beeps. Sounds coming from the security system.

“What happened?” Sarah asked. “I haven’t opened the window yet.”

The entry was dark, and it was hard to see, but Kendall pulled down the flap on the keypad and saw the lights. Indications of where the sensors had been armed on all the doors and windows. They were green.

Except for one.

It was red and blinking, causing the sound that was pulsing through the house.

“Someone’s breaking in,” Sarah said on a rise of breath.

Yes, and according to the red light, that someone was coming in through the back door.

*

T
HE
HORSES
WERE
definitely spooked. Aiden had three mares, two fillies and a stallion in the corrals and pasture, and all were prancing and snorting. Someone had invaded their territory.

But who, and where the heck was the intruder?

Aiden had seen that shadow from his bedroom window, but he darn sure didn’t see anything now. Once Leland got out here, they could divide up the area and have a look around, but not now. He didn’t want to leave Kendall and Sarah alone until he was sure they weren’t about to be attacked again.

He turned, intending to head back to the house, but something on the ground caught his eye.

Footprints.

He fanned the flashlight over them. They looked fresh. Too fresh, since this was a spot where the horses usually went back and forth to the water trough.

Somebody had been out here.

Aiden turned, hurrying back to the house and trying to keep watch at the same time. He still didn’t see anyone, but he heard something.

The beeps from the security system.

Someone had tripped it. Maybe Sarah hadn’t reset it properly after he left. Maybe.

But that seemed way too much to hope for.

He was almost back to the front porch when he heard something else. No more beeps. The security system started to blare. His gun was already drawn, and he wasn’t exactly strolling, but that got him moving even faster.

The front door was still locked, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. “Open up,” he called out to Sarah.

Nothing.

Not only didn’t she answer, but he also didn’t hear anyone coming to open the door. Definitely not good. While he kept watch around him, Aiden fished out his keys, unlocked the door and cautiously stepped inside. He spotted Sarah and Kendall almost immediately in the hall.

Thank God.

They were all right, though Sarah was standing in front of Kendall. The deputy, too, had pulled her gun, and she motioned toward the kitchen. Aiden didn’t see anyone in that general direction, but he didn’t have a full view of the kitchen, either. Someone could be in there. Someone responsible for tripping the security system.

While he kept watch, Aiden punched in the code to turn off the blaring alarm so he could listen for anyone inside the house. Hard to hear, though, over the sound of his own heartbeat crashing in his ears.

This couldn’t be happening again. Kendall and the baby couldn’t be in danger. Maybe this was literally a false alarm.

But Aiden had to ditch that hope fast.

The front door was open just a fraction. Enough for him to hear a strange sound out in the front yard. Since this could be some kind of diversion, he motioned for Sarah to keep watch of the kitchen, and he glanced behind him. The sound turned to more of a crackle, and while he watched, both his truck and Sarah’s cruiser burst into flames.

Hell.

Not just little fires, either. These were full light-ups. As he didn’t smell any accelerants, that meant someone had likely put some kind of incendiary devices on them. It also meant Aiden couldn’t use the vehicles to get Sarah and Kendall out of there.

Time to do something other than just stand around and wait for something bad to happen, because the
bad
had already started.

“I’m Sheriff Braddock,” he called out to whoever might be in the house. He eased the front door shut so that he wouldn’t be ambushed from behind. “If you have a weapon, put it down and come out so I can see you.”

He didn’t expect that order to work. And it didn’t.

Certainly no one surrendered a weapon or stepped out. But he did hear someone moving around in the direction of the back door. Aiden figured that with the breakin and the fires, the intruder wasn’t leaving.

Aiden hurried across the entry, fully expecting someone to fire a shot at him. He thanked his lucky stars that it didn’t happen, and he joined Sarah and Kendall in the narrow hall. Both were unharmed as far as he could tell, but Kendall had her hand over her stomach and was looking many steps past the terrified stage.

“He set the vehicles on fire?” Kendall asked in a whisper.

Aiden nodded.

“And I tried to call for backup, but the phone lines are jammed,” Sarah added. “I can’t get in touch with Leland.”

That was
not
what Aiden wanted to hear. It wasn’t hard to jam lines, but along with the fires, it meant whoever was behind this was serious about kidnapping Kendall again. If the person had simply wanted them dead, he could have set fire to the house and then shot them when they ran outside. Heck, he could have gunned down Aiden, too, when he went to check on the horses.

But he hadn’t.

Why?

If the goal was just to get Kendall or kill them all, then why hadn’t this idiot already struck?

“Are you waiting for your boss to arrive?” Aiden called out.

Yeah, taunting this guy probably wasn’t smart, but he wanted to hear something, anything, to pinpoint his location.

And to make sure he wasn’t outside setting fire to the house.

Again, there was no answer. Well, no verbal one anyway, but again Aiden heard somebody moving around in there.

“Take Kendall into the bathroom,” Aiden whispered to the deputy. “I’ll see what this guy is up to.”

Kendall frantically shook her head. “You don’t have backup.”

True, and he might not get it. But at least he had Sarah to protect Kendall. Now he needed to eliminate any possible danger so he could get Kendall the heck out of there and to a safe house.

Aiden was about to insist that Sarah and she get going to the bathroom. Not ideal, but the tiles would better protect them if bullets started flying. However, the moment he opened his mouth, he heard something else. And this time it wasn’t coming from the kitchen.

But rather the guest room. The same area where he’d been about to send Kendall and Sarah.

It sounded as if someone was coming through the window.

“Change of plans,” Aiden whispered. “The three of us are getting out of here now.”

The question was—which way? There were fires in the front of the house. Someone was in the kitchen by the back door. Someone else was about to come at them from the hall. That didn’t exactly leave many options, and none of them was a sure thing when it came to keeping Kendall out of harm’s way.

He looked around, his attention landing on the side window. Away from the fires, away from the back door. And that probably meant the brains behind this had already figured out that it was the escape route Aiden would take.