ed to come home, did you?”
She waited for the sound of Kane’s SUV and the flash of headlights. After nothing happened, she lifted onto one elbow and peered through her open bedroom door to the windows at the front of the house. The green light on the house alarm glowed but no vehicle’s lights bobbed up her driveway. Perhaps an elk had wandered on her property, or some other creature looking for a warm place for the night. She turned over in bed and dozed.
Sometime later, a sound had her jerking awake. Not moving a muscle, she flicked her gaze around the room. The air was hot rather than cool, and she had kicked off the blankets during her fitful sleep. The noise came again, soft footfalls on the stoop and a slight rattle as if someone was moving from window to window looking for a way inside.
Three flashes lit up the room.
Frozen with terror she slid her gaze toward the window. A figure loomed in the darkness. Holy shit, someone was taking photographs of her in bed. Her sleep-drugged mind fought past the paralyzing fear and she forced her body to relax. As the man crept away, she heard the familiar creaking of the floorboards and sucked in a deep breath, readying her limbs into action. Heart threatening to burst through her ribs, she slid her gaze down the hallway and made out the shadowy figure of a tall man with broad shoulders. Someone is at my front door.
She slid one hand to her ear. One press on her earring would summon Kane; her fingers slid over empty lobes. Damn! She had left them on the bathroom vanity. At least she had honed her hand-to-hand combat skills with Kane and could use them as a backup. Grabbing her weapon from the nightstand, she dove for the floor. The handle of the front door turned with a whine.
Oh my God, he is trying to get inside the house.
Had she locked the door? Lying flat on the floor, she aimed around the bed, waiting for the intruder to enter the house. The door held, but the house alarm failed to send out a piercing scream. Like a car alarm, any tampering with her front door should have triggered the system. Holy shit! The footsteps came again as the shadowy form moved along the porch. Pulse running like a freight train, she rolled across the floor and closed the door then slid the heavy bolt into place. The carpenter had laughed at the reinforcing on her bedroom door the day he came to the house to install similar locks on all the internal rooms. She needed safe rooms, and the heavy doors would give her a few moments’ valuable time to deal with an intruder. As the floorboards creaked under the man’s steps, she forced her mind into combat calm. She would never be surprised again, and if this lunatic thought he had the jump on her this time, he would learn the hard way.
Oh my God! He is coming back. Keeping one eye on the bedroom window, she scrambled for her cellphone and hit Kane’s number. His message to call back later made her chest tighten in panic. You pick now to stay out all damn night when I only have Walters to help me?
She punched in Walters’ number and he replied with a yawn.
“Anything wrong, Sheriff?”
Jenna whispered into the mouthpiece. “Yeah, I have an intruder and Kane has turned off his cellphone. Can you come at once? No lights or sirens, I want to catch this creep.”
“I’m on my way.”
When the footsteps paused outside her window, she rolled onto her knees, grabbed the Glock in two hands and aimed at the shadowy figure. Walters would take about ten minutes if he left at once and drove fast. Long enough to murder me. If the intruder made one more move to get inside her home, she would shoot and damn the consequences. A tremble went through her and she tightened her grip on the weapon, not moving her gaze from the dark figure outside. The outline of a hand wearing black gloves appeared in the glass, then the outline of a face.
Pushing down fear, Jenna rested both elbows on the bed and her finger slid to the trigger. She raised her voice as loud as possible. “This is the sheriff. Put your hands on top of your head—now!”
A flash of light dazzled her. The man was taking more photographs. Jenna aimed and squeezed the trigger. A loud bang and the window shattered, flinging shards of glass in all directions. Moments later, the man fell with a thump on the porch and made a low moan. Ice-cold wind blasted into the room but she jumped to her feet. With one hand on the pistol and aiming at the window, she reached for the bedside lamp and flooded the room with light. Picking her way around the shattered glass, she moved toward the window.
Outside, Josh Rockford rolled in a ball of pain, clutching his left shoulder. He gave her a puppy-dog stare.
“You shot me.”
“I might have guessed it was you. Don’t move a muscle, you piece of shit. I should have blown off your damn head.”
“I need the paramedics.” Rockford rolled into a sitting position and leaned against the porch railing. “Or are you gonna let me bleed to death?”
The adrenalin pumping through her started to ebb and her teeth chattered. Keeping the Glock aimed at him, she reached one hand toward the chest of drawers and picked up the handcuffs she kept there. She tossed them at him. “Handcuff your injured arm to the railing, unless you want me to place a bullet in your kneecap.”
“Jesus Christ, woman. I’m hurting here.” Rockford gave her a baleful look. “I thought you liked me and now you’ve shot me. Get me a doctor.”
“Do as you are told or bleed to death. I don’t give a rat’s ass either way.”
When he complied, moaning like a wounded animal, she made her way around the room to her cupboard and dragged out some clothes. Shivering, she dressed swiftly, then called Daniels and asked him to take a cab to meet Walters at the hospital. Anger raged through her but she followed procedure and collected latex gloves and an evidence bag then went outside to toss a blanket over Rockford. She could see a bullet had lodged in the wood behind him. The wound was a straight through and not bleeding excessively. There would be no way on earth she would risk going near the pervert, and kept her distance. “Slide your cellphone toward me, and the moment Walters arrives, I’ll attend to your wound, but for now you’ll just have to wait.”
“Can you call my daddy?”
“Nope. I will call Mr. Stone if you like. You are sure going to need a lawyer. There is no way you are getting away with stalking me. Did you think I didn’t know it was you behind the Cattleman’s Hotel?” She picked up his cellphone and dropped it into an evidence bag.
“The what?” Rockford dropped his head. “I haven’t been stalking you. I had a bet with the guys. Which of us was game enough to get some compromising shots of you to put on the net.” He gave her a half-hearted grin. “I don’t need to stalk women, they flock to me.” His dark gaze drifted over her. “I was being nice before; you’re too old for my taste.”
She took the insult by giving him her best sarcastic smile. “I can see the headlines now: ‘Old lady takes down Josh Rockford,’ or perhaps, ‘Josh Rockford the pervert banned for life from the Larks.’ I think the second one rings true.”
“Go to hell.”
* * *