Guardian Ranger (Shadow Agents 2)

Her steps were slow as she eased off the porch and came toward him. He was positioned with his truck in front of him and the house behind him. Good cover, for the moment. She advanced until less than a foot separated them. “You think...you think this was just about finding something I have?”

Yeah, he did.

“But m-my clothes...” Her lips trembled. “All of the things in my room. There was so much fury in there. So much hate.” She raked a hand through her hair. “How’d he get in? How’d he get past my alarm?”

“If you know what you’re doing, it’s easy enough to bypass most alarms.” With the right tools. Unless, of course, the intruder had already known the code for her system. Then all he would have needed to do was type in the digits. Didn’t get simpler than that.

“You told Wyatt a few minutes ago...” Her gaze darted to the stables. “You said someone was watching me?”

Jasper nodded.

She crept even closer. The wind blew the scent of honeysuckles toward him. He stiffened, aware that this wasn’t the time to get turned on by her.

But then, he seemed to get turned on every time he looked at her.

“I’ve felt like someone was watching me for a while now.” Her confession was stark.

The breath hissed between his teeth. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I told the sheriff.” Her shoulders rolled. “He came out and checked a few times, but didn’t see anything. I thought...I thought I was just being paranoid.”

Paranoid, his as—

“It started about two months ago. I don’t even know what made me nervous at first.” Her gaze was on the stable. “The horses...I think it was them...they seemed agitated one day. I heard them neighing and pushing at their stalls. I went out to check, but nothing was wrong.”

Or the watcher had just slipped away before she’d gotten to the stables.

Because he needed to know just how often the watcher could have been around, Jasper asked, “Do you just feel like you’re being watched at the ranch?”

She shook her head, glanced back at him. “I felt that way in town once or twice. I’d hear footsteps, look over my shoulder, but no one would be there.” Her shoulders hunched. “You really think that someone’s been watching me this long? I haven’t just been imagining it?”

He knew his eyes said that, yes, he thought that.

“Why?”

“Because maybe you aren’t the only one looking for Cale.” Not even close. “Maybe the others think you’re their key to finding him.” That was what the EOD had thought. That Cale would never completely leave his sister. He’d come back for her, sooner rather than later. “You are his only living relative.”

“They want to...use me against him?”

He nodded. “Looks that way.” The words were stilted. I’m using you.

“Cale’s done something...bad.”

Serious understatement. She sounded almost like a lost child, but maybe that was the point. She saw Cale as the big, protective older brother. Perfect. Strong.

Now she was starting to wonder about his flaws.

“Think about this,” he urged her. “What would someone want to find in that house? Did Cale keep anything special there? You said you went through his computer before.”

“His computer wasn’t touched.”

How was she so sure?

“I, um, put a special security system on it. Trust me on this, no one will be getting past that.”

If not the computer, then what would Cale have? Why suddenly get so desperate to find it? If the watcher had been eyeing the house for months, then the guy could have broken in anytime.

But he’d chosen that specific day. Chosen a time hours after Reed Montgomery was killed.