Naughty Stranger (Dangerous Love 1)

Rhett shook his head with a deep frown. “Nothing new to report.”

Boone cursed and rubbed his hands over his face. “What about video surveillance on the SUV? Anything from a gas station? A location on the road of the accident?”

“We’ve got one recording of the SUV passing a gas station,” Asher explained, “but the only thing you can make out is a male in the driver’s seat. His face isn’t clearly shown.”

One step forward. Ten steps back. “This is too clean. Too organized. Too smart.” Boone contemplated all this, making sure he missed nothing. “I know you said her past is clean, but what about Justin Blake?”

“Last night, he was at Whiskey Blues at the time of the accident,” Rhett reported, his gaze following a pretty nurse that strode by. “This morning, he flew to Boston.” He focused back on Boone. “Again, though, I couldn’t find a damn thing on him. He’s rich and well known in Seattle. Good reputation.” His cell phone beeped, and he looked at the screen before adding, “He’s not our attacker.”

Boone turned to Asher. “Anything from Peyton’s house?”

“We’ve got the blood samples,” Asher said. “No hits on that so far.”

Boone scrubbed his face again, trying to get his thoughts together. “So, we’ve got a man who broke into Peyton’s house. Drugged Kinsley to knock her out, likely because she was not the target. And he intended to finish the job with Peyton but she almost bled him out, so he retreated. We’ve got an obviously trained killer. Maybe military?”

Asher nodded. “It’s a possibility. This guy isn’t sloppy.” He rubbed at his neck muscles, then added, “He got into Peyton’s house easily, without either of them noticing.”

Yeah, Boone didn’t like that one bit. “Any word from the doctors here?” Boone asked. “With that injury, he’d need help.”

“Nothing from the doctors here at the hospital,” Asher said. “Or doctors’ offices. Hell, I even have calls out to the vet clinics. If he’s getting help, we’ll know about it.”

“I put out some calls to our informants,” Rhett reported. “There’s been no word on the street about anyone needing medical attention. There’s a good chance this guy’s dead.”

“He’s not,” Boone said, without a doubt in his mind.

Neither Rhett nor Asher questioned him. Boone’s instincts were usually spot on—they all trusted in that. Still, Boone felt it in his gut. The guy would come back, which was why Boone had units outside every entrance at the hospital. “This guy, whoever he is, is determined to see this through,” Boone said, speaking his frustration. “Why the fuck is he hunting her?”

Both Asher and Rhett frowned as their answer.

Boone exhaled a long, deep breath. “We need to stop him. And we need to do it soon. He’s going to get desperate.”

“Boone.”

His head jerked sideways to find Kinsley standing at the doorway. She wore a T-shirt and yoga pants that their dad had obviously brought for her, and her hair was wet from her shower and she had stitches on the side of her head. “Kinsley,” he said, emotion tightening his throat.

Her chin quivered and he didn’t wait. He lurched to his feet and grabbed her, hugging her as she burst into tears.

He held her for many, many minutes…until she leaned away. “The fucker drugged me,” she snapped. “I felt the needle in my neck, but by the time I reached for the gun, I must have fallen.”

Before Boone could respond, Rhett said, “You went for your gun. You did damn good, Kinsley.”

His baby sister smiled at Rhett. “Thanks.”

Boone turned to his friend and raised an eyebrow at maybe the first compliment Rhett had ever given anyone.

“What?” Rhett asked gruffly. “I’m feeling generous today.”

Laughter filled the hallway. Good laughter. The kind that reminded Boone of something his father said. There were always good times in the dark moments. Boone smiled and kissed the top of Kinsley’s head. No matter what, he always needed to find them.

Chapter 15

Late into that night, Peyton slowly opened her eyes, finding the room quiet, and Boone gone from the chair he’d been sitting in. Outside her door, she saw the uniformed officer waiting there, and felt a whole lot safer knowing he had a weapon holstered to his waist. God, she hurt, from her toes right up to her head.

In the silence of the room, she remembered the fear when she spotted the man in her house, thinking she would die. And in that moment, she realized how much she wanted to live. She wanted to grow old, have children, and see those children have children. She wanted to sit on the porch of her lake house, holding the hand of the man she loved, looking back on her life.

For the first time in a year, she didn’t want to feel bad about wanting those dreams. She knew she only had this one life. That was it. She had loved Adam. But her heart was big enough to love two men in her lifetime.

A soft cough caught Peyton’s attention, and her gaze found Kinsley sitting cross-legged on the end of the bed, a handful of stitches on the side of her forehead.