Cross My Heart (Ty & Hunter 1)

Loud knocks and thuds sounded outside the door. Whoever had shot her uncle was looking for her. Shaking, Lacey hugged her legs tighter. She brought her hand up to the locket around her neck, thought about the man who’d given it to her, and she prayed the guy outside wouldn’t think to look for her in here.

As she sat huddled in a ball, once again she was reminded of old times. This time she recalled her first real apartment in New York . The one with the broken lock. She’d drag her dresser in front of the door to keep the drunk next door from making good on his promise to join her at night. She’d sit huddled in bed, listening to him banging around his apartment. Only when he’d pass out and it grew silent, would she catch a few hours of sleep each night.

The same fear and nausea filled her now, only worse because instead of a drunk who made rude suggestions, outside was a man with a gun who wanted her dead. And she didn’t know why.

Footsteps sounded louder. He’d obviously left the kitchen and she realized he’d walked toward the couch that blocked her hiding spot.

Shaking, she held her breath as the footsteps grew closer.

Closer.

She waited for the door to creak open before she shut her eyes, kicked her feet out, hoping to come in painful contact with any part of his body, and let out a scream.

THE KICK to his shin took Ty off guard. He sucked in a sharp breath. “Lilly!” He called her name loudly.

She didn’t acknowledge him in any way. Her eyes were wide and unfocused, and she looked ready to barrel out of the closet and tackle him to the floor. His leg throbbed where she’d nailed him with her boot and he wasn’t about to take a hit to the stomach or the groin next.

“Lilly!” he said again, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her until she opened her eyes and focused. On him.

“Ty? Ty. Oh my God.” She threw herself into his arms, shaking and sobbing hysterically. “I thought you were him. When you opened the door, I thought you were him.”

“Shh.” He ran his hand down the back of her hair, his body trembling as badly as hers.

“Uncle Marc!” She pushed herself away from him and ran for the front door.

Ty grabbed her hand, yanking her back. “He’s alive. I checked him when I got here and the police and ambulance are on their way.”

“What about him?  Where’d he go? The guy who shot Uncle Marc?” She visibly gagged at the recollection before steadying herself.

Ty exhaled a long breath. “Derek pulled up at the same time I did. The guy had just run out the back door. He probably heard us pull up, panicked and ran.”

“I don’t understand how you knew to come back.” She wiped the moisture off her face with her hands.

“Derek reached me on my cell phone at the hospital. Dumont called the police and reported a stalker. Obviously it was a ruse to get Derek waylaid so your uncle could come here to find you.”

Ty still recalled the panic he’d felt getting the call, but that was nothing compared to the gut-wrenching fear he’d experienced when he’d pulled up here and seen Dumont lying in a pool of blood, the front door wide open and Lilly nowhere to be found.

“He got away.” Derek walked in from the entry off the kitchen, breathing heavily. Frustration was etched all over his face. “The bastard went through the back bushes before I even got outside.”

“Where’s Digger?” Lilly asked, panic-stricken. “Where’s my dog?”

“Safely in the kitchen,” Derek promised her.

She slumped against Ty in relief.

“Did you get a look at the guy or his car?” Ty asked her.

She shook her head. “I never saw him at all. I think the car was a tan sedan of some sort. That’s all I saw before he shot Uncle Marc.”

Ty nodded. “I noticed the same color car parked in front of the neighbors’, but nothing more.

Derek?”

“Same here.”

Ty’s frustration grew since they’d lost their last link to finding out who the guy was.

Lilly grabbed Ty’s hand suddenly and pulled him toward the front door.

Derek followed close behind.

She bent down beside her uncle who lay facedown with a bullet in his back. He didn’t move.

Ty checked the pulse in his neck once more. “Faint but he’s alive.”

Sirens blared, sounding closer by the second.

“Uncle Marc?” Lilly asked, leaning her face close to his.

Ty put his hand on her back which was damp from sweat and fear. “He’s unconscious.”

“Who shot you?” Lilly asked the old man. “Who wants you dead? Were you telling me the truth when you said you weren’t behind the attempts on my life? Were you?” She couldn’t help demanding answers to the questions that haunted her.

Ty lifted her away from the man just as the paramedics ran up the front lawn, cleared them away from the area and got to work.

Seconds later, the police followed. The paramedics moved Dumont into the ambulance and transported him to the same hospital where Ty’s mother had been admitted. Though he was anxious to get back to her, they sat through an hour of questioning in his mother’s family room.

Lilly answered everything she could while Ty and Derek did their part to help. Finally, the officer ran out of things to ask, at least for the moment.

“We need to get back to the hospital,” Lilly finally said, still trembling.

The cop who’d been taking notes snapped his pad shut. “I’ll need you to come by and give official statements, but you can go now.”

“Those statements might not have been necessary if one of your men hadn’t stalled me, giving Dumont the chance to get to Lilly and get himself shot,” Derek muttered. “I’m licensed and he knew it the second I showed him my badge. He should have just let me go.”

The cop, a guy who knew both Ty and Derek, nodded in understanding. “We’ll look into what happened. I promise. In the meantime, I suggest you stick close to Lilly until we follow up any leads that come from the investigating team.” He gestured to the rest of the house, indicating the forensics team who were checking footprints, interviewing neighbors and checking on other possible leads.

Guilt rushed through Ty for leaving Lilly alone in the first place. But with his mother in the hospital and Derek on his way, the decision had seemed like a safe one at the time.

“She’s not leaving my sight again,” he said, reaching for her hand and pulling it tight against his side. “Right now I’m getting her out of here.” She didn’t need any more time in the house with the frightening memories.