LITMIR.BIZ

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suddenly as sirens filled the air. Blue-and-red strobe lights splashed across her eggshell-colored walls. The police had arrived. Fury flickered on his face. “I’ll be back. I’ll find it. And Michael. And then you’re going to pay for what you’ve cost me.”

      Running, he headed for the back of the house. She heard the back door crash open.

      She should move. Get up and tell the police...

      Her thoughts were hazy, and she couldn’t keep them together. She attempted to lift her head. It was too heavy. She lay there among the glass, knowing it was digging into her but unable to move.

      Her eyes drifted shut.

      A hand touched her neck.

      Her pulse stuttered. Had he come back? She should fight. She forced her eyes open and met concerned eyes the color of melted chocolate. She blinked slowly. Short, medium brown hair. Strong jaw. And a dark blue LaMar Pond Police Department uniform came into view.

      She was safe. For now. Her eyes drifted shut again.

      * * *

      Sergeant Ryan Parker stared down at the woman lying on the glass-covered area rug. It was hard to tell how badly she was wounded. Her jaw was bruised and starting to swell. She was bleeding from a half-dozen small cuts. He could clearly see shards of broken glass threaded in her golden-brown curls. He pressed two fingers to her pale throat again. Through his latex gloves, he could still feel a steady pulse.

      “Hey, I know her. That’s Elise St. Clair, the head dispatcher. Is she alive?”

      Ryan looked up into the wide eyes and concerned face of his friend and colleague, Gavin Jackson. Ryan had recognized her, too, having seen her in town a few times. If she’d spoken, he knew her voice would have been instantly familiar since he’d spoken with her on the radio plenty of times. But she wasn’t speaking now. Instead, she was lying frighteningly still.

      He’d never actually been close enough to see the spatter of freckles on her nose before. She had never exactly encouraged personal interactions. She’d always been polite but somewhat detached, whether they spoke on the radio during work or in passing when they saw each other in town. In fact, he’d always gotten the distinct impression that she was somewhat antisocial. “Yeah, she’s alive. Her pulse feels strong.”

      “That’s good. The woman behind the table is dead.” Jackson’s voice was calm, but Ryan knew him well enough to see the rage brewing in his eyes. He hated when they arrived too late to protect someone in danger. They both did. “Looks like she was hit with the bat over against the wall. Are the paramedics here yet?”

      As if summoned by his words, the paramedics walked through the door. Ryan and Jackson backed up, letting them do their job. The two officers started to leave the room, intending to search the rest of the house. Ryan let Jackson go ahead of him. He felt bad for his colleague, had seen the tight set of his eyes. He was taking this case personally.

      Ryan wondered if Jackson had ever flirted with the young dispatcher. It wouldn’t have surprised him to find out that he had. Oh, not that he suspected there was anything serious between them. There never was. For all his flirting and charm, Jackson didn’t date. Ryan had a suspicion that he’d been burned badly before, but it wasn’t his place to ask. If his friend wanted to talk about it, he would. When he was ready.

      What was he doing, wasting time? He shook his head, dismayed at his lack of focus. He should be recording the scene. He had turned on his body camera before entering the house. The department had only received the cameras in the past month, so he was still getting used to using them. Finished in his current room, he carefully backed out of the scene. There were other rooms to check out, and he was only in the paramedics’ way in here. He had started toward the stairs when a sudden thrashing made him halt. The woman cried out.

      Ryan hurried back to where Elise was struggling against the paramedics.

      “Ma’am, you need to calm down...”

      She paid them no heed. In fact, her struggling increased. Ryan could see the wild panic in her smoky hazel eyes. He insinuated himself next to the first paramedic, Seth Travis. He had no plan, no idea of how he could help, but he had to try.

      Those beautiful eyes fastened on him. She lurched forward slightly, grabbing his hand in both of hers and holding on to it tightly. Even injured, her grip was strong. Glancing down at their joined hands, he noted hers were scratched up, no doubt from the glass on the floor. Returning his gaze to Elise, he noted that some of the panic seemed to leach from her as she focused on him.

      “Please.” Her voice was husky, strained. “You need to find them. She has Mikey, but they’re not safe. He won’t stop looking for them. My nephew’s missing. Babysitter’s dead. You need to find my baby.”

      Them? Who else was missing? Her words weren’t making sense. Farther into the room, he was aware of the coroner arriving. The crime scene was now officially a contaminated mess, but that couldn’t be helped. Not when there was an injured woman on the premises and a child missing. And possibly someone else.

      Before he could ask her about it, her gaze flashed to the wall. He tracked it. “Oh, no!”

      A dark wooden picture frame was placed centrally on the wall, clearly in a place of honor. Unlike all the other picture frames in the room, this one was undamaged. It was also empty. Whatever picture had been inside it was gone.

      “He’s got Mikey’s picture. He’ll know what he looks like. She needs to hide,” Elise murmured. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped, her hands relaxing and sliding off his. Just in time to miss the coroner and the paramedics hefting the covered stretcher and removing the other woman’s body from the crime scene. As much as he hated having Elise fall unconscious, that was a sight he wouldn’t want anyone to witness.

      Within moments, the paramedics reentered the room and moved to his side to start loading Elise on a stretcher to transport her to the hospital. He saw both of them shooting him worried glances. He knew what they were thinking because his thoughts were there, too.

      Oh, man. Did they have a kidnapping on their hands? Or was there an injured child on the premises? And what did her last statement mean?

      “Jackson!” he shouted over his shoulder. Almost immediately, running footsteps answered him.

      “Parker, got something?” Jackson halted in the doorway, his eyes sweeping around the room, looking for whatever had prompted the shout.

      Ryan looked back at the woman on the stretcher. She was still out.

      “She said something about needing to find her nephew. And maybe there was another person—female, I think—who needed to hide and who might have the child.”

      Jackson’s eyes narrowed. “Sounds like she knew the person who attacked her.”

      “Yeah. That’s my gut feeling, too. Whatever the case, we have at least one, maybe two, people at risk here, including a child.”

      Jackson was already turning. “On it.”

      “Seth,” Ryan addressed the paramedic next to him. “I’m going to help search for the kid.”

      “Right.” Seth kept his focus on the unconscious woman. “We’re going to load her up in the ambulance. We’ll hang out for a few minutes while you see if there’s a child we need to transport.”

      Ryan acknowledged the comment with a wave, then he took off on his search of the house. He walked from room to room, keeping his service weapon out just in case he ran into their mysterious intruder. Jackson met him at the stairs.

      “No baby up here, Parker. Toddler bed in the room at the end. Looks as if it’s been searched, but nothing appears damaged. Toys and clothes suggest a child of about two or three. But there’s no sign of him here.”

      Ryan frowned. “I don’t know, Jackson. This whole scenario is just plain weird. It definitely wasn’t a simple robbery. Plus, Elise seems to know something about the intruder.

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