LITMIR.BIZ

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she was staring at the floor, Dade ducked down a little to make eye contact. “Try.”

      She lifted her shoulder, stepped away from him. “I wanted to do the right thing.” Kayla paused. “This morning, I got a threatening email from my ex-father-in-law.”

      Dade and Grayson exchanged another glance. “You told the D.A. about this?” Grayson asked.

      “No, what would have been the point? Charles’s threats are nothing new and never specific enough to bring charges against him. But this time, something inside me … snapped.” She paused. “Or maybe for the first time things got crystal clear.” Her gaze came to Dade’s again, and she blinked back tears. “After reading that email, I knew the only way I could get this to stop was to testify and make sure Charles is put away for the rest of his life.”

      Oh, hell. There it was again. Sympathy. It was burning as hot as the gash on his arm. Grayson obviously wasn’t immune either because he gave a heavy sigh.

      “And that’s the reason I need you in protective custody,” Grayson concluded. “I want to take you and your baby to a safe house so that Brennan can’t get to either of you. Brennan is out of jail on bond, and we’re trying to keep an eye on him. But you know better than anyone, he can hire guns to do his dirty work.”

      Kayla stared at Grayson. Then stared at Dade, too. “After what happened tonight, how can you possibly keep my baby safe?” she asked. Her voice broke on the last word.

      Dade was about to assure her that he would do his best, but Grayson’s phone rang. He glanced at the screen and mumbled some profanity before he stepped away to take the call.

      “I still don’t trust you,” Kayla whispered to Dade.

      He nodded. “Yeah, I get that.” He pointed to the blood on the floor. “But you’ve got a very short list of people you can trust right now.”

      She must have known that was true, but she still didn’t agree.

      “That was one of the medics,” Grayson relayed, putting his phone back in his pocket. He walked back across the foyer toward them, his attention nailed to Kayla. “Your bodyguard died on the way to the hospital.”

      That was all he said. Grayson didn’t offer any details or reiterate that she could have been the one in that ambulance.

      Kayla pulled in her breath, and what little color she had drained from her face. She gave one crisp nod and turned toward the stairs. “I’ll let the nanny know that we’re moving to a safe house tonight with Dade—Deputy Ryland,” she corrected, her voice now chilled with that ice-queen tone.

      Dade didn’t exactly celebrate because it had taken way too long to convince her to do the right thing. Now, he only hoped it was the right thing. After all, she’d just put her son’s and her lives right in his hands.

      “I think we might have found our leak,” Mason said, stepping into the doorway.

      That got everyone’s attention. Kayla stopped on the bottom step and turned to face him.

      “I checked the dead gunman’s phone.” Mason held up the bagged cell for them to see. “About a half hour before this guy started shooting, he made three calls.” He aimed his usual surly expression at Kayla. “First one was to some guy named Danny Flynn, a lowlife who likely works for your ex-father-in-law, Charles Brennan.”

      “He does,” Kayla admitted. “I remember that name.”

      Well, that wasn’t exactly a bombshell. Everyone knew how much Brennan wanted to stop Kayla. Of course, Brennan would deny any association with the employee who’d gotten the call, but the cops might be able to break the employee and get him to confess.

      “You said you’d found the leak?” Dade prompted.

      Mason glanced at the screen on the dead man’s cell. “We got two possibilities. The next call the gunman made was to Misty Wallace.”

      The breath seemed to swoosh right out of Kayla. “My sister?”

      “Your sister,” Mason confirmed.

      Kayla frantically shook her head. “But Misty wouldn’t tell Charles or anyone else where I was going.”

      “Right,” Mason grumbled. “That call to her says otherwise.” He went to Grayson and handed him the phone so that his brother could also check out the screen.

      From his angle Dade couldn’t see what caused both his brothers’ eyes to narrow.

      Kayla had a white-knuckled grip on the stair railing. “Who’s the third person he called?”

      “What kind of game are you playing, Ms. Brennan?” Grayson demanded.

      “What do you mean?” And her shock sure as heck sounded sincere.

      But Dade didn’t take her sincerity of the head shaking at face value. He leaned in so he could see the name of the last person the gunman had called.

      Hell.

      What was going on?

       Chapter Four

      Kayla was trembling, but that didn’t stop her from marching across the foyer to see what had caused the Rylands to turn those accusing stares on her. And then she saw the cell phone screen.

      No, it couldn’t be. But it was.

      It was her name and number.

      “Why did the gunman call you?” Dade demanded.

      “He didn’t,” Kayla answered as quickly as she could get out the words.

      “The phone says otherwise,” Mason Ryland growl.

      “Then it was faked somehow.” She hated the quiver in her voice. Hated even more that she cared one iota what these Rylands thought of her, but by God she’d had no part in this attack. “I wouldn’t have hired someone to shoot into a house where my son was staying.”

      The trio exchanged glances. A united brotherly front against her. They didn’t just look alike—they had the same scowls. And they were also waiting for more of an explanation. However, Kayla didn’t have one.

      “Where’s your phone?” Dade asked after first giving an impatient huff.

      She glanced around but didn’t see it and remembered she hadn’t seen it upstairs, either. Just moments before Dade’s arrival, she’d been searching through her purse for it. “I must have left it in my car.” She pointed to the side of the estate where she’d parked.

      Even though none of the lawmen came right out and accused her of lying, it was clear from their deepening scowls they didn’t believe her.

      “I’ll look for it,” Mason insisted, and he strolled out, leaving her to face the remaining two.

      “I didn’t speak to the gunman,” Kayla tried again. “And if he called me, it was to set me up.”

      “Why would he do that?” Grayson asked.

      Kayla didn’t have to think too hard to come up with an answer. “Maybe to try to discredit my testimony. Charles could have hired the gunman to do that because if he could prove I had an association with a killer, then it might make a jury less likely to believe anything I say.”

      Another exchange of glances before Grayson spoke again. “Or you could have hired the gunman to make Brennan look guilty of attempted murder. A crime that could put him away for life and not just the twenty years he’d get for the other charges.”

      Oh, mercy. As theories went, it wasn’t a bad one, and Kayla had no idea how she would convince the Rylands that she was innocent.

      “Maybe your sister is the one who did the hiring.” Dade tossed that out there, not tentatively, but it wasn’t a roaring declaration of Kayla’s innocence, either.

      But

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