Justice is Coming

“Why would a hired gun have a note addressed to your father?” she asked at the same time Declan asked, “What did the note say?”

Wyatt pulled in a long breath. “It didn’t make sense. It said something like, ‘This is just the beginning. You can’t save him.’”

Declan shook his head. “Who’s him?”

Wyatt met his gaze. “You, Declan.”

Chapter Five

Declan slipped on the latex gloves that he’d taken from his equipment bag at his house, stooped down and pulled the note from the dead man’s pocket. Yeah, it was addressed to Kirby all right.

“Is it really a death threat?” Eden asked. She was right behind him, peering over his shoulder. And she was shaking. Not just her voice, her whole body was trembling.

He figured Wyatt hadn’t gotten the contents of the message wrong, but Declan had to see it for himself. There wasn’t much to read.

This is just the beginning, Kirby Granger. You can’t save him. O’Malley’s a dead man.

It’d been handwritten almost in a childish scrawl with green crayon. Maybe as an attempt to disguise any handwriting characteristics. But Declan would have it analyzed anyway. He slipped it into a plastic evidence bag.

“Why does someone want you dead?” Eden asked.

She’d only been around him for the past couple of hours, and she’d already asked him that several times. Too bad it was a question he didn’t have an answer for.

He stood and started back toward his house, where the chaos was in full swing. A different kind of chaos from the attack. The crime-scene folks had arrived. Two of his brothers, Dallas and Slade. Sheriff Rico Geary and his deputies, too. It wasn’t exactly a local case what with the attempted murder of two federal marshals, but Geary had people in place to preserve the crime scene. Plus, the sheriff wouldn’t do anything to keep Declan and his brothers out of any part of this investigation.

Not that he could have anyway.

Declan wasn’t sure what’d happened here, but he would find out, one way or another. Apparently, Eden had the same idea, because she’d been on and off her phone since the attack. All of this was just for starters. Declan wanted to question Eden a lot more so he could try to pinpoint the person who’d set all of this in motion.

Maybe she knew.

Maybe she didn’t.

He was leaning toward didn’t since she’d nearly been killed. Most people didn’t protect a person who wanted them dead. And besides, she was genuinely worried about her two sisters, since most of her calls had centered on arranging extra protection for them. Declan would add his own layer of protection soon by calling the marshals in that area.

“This is connected to your foster father,” Eden said, falling into step beside him. “The note proves that.”

“No. The note proves nothing. Someone could have written it to muddy the waters.”

She made a slight sound of surprise, then frustration. Maybe because she hadn’t thought of that angle first. Still, Declan couldn’t take his muddy-water theory as gospel, and that meant talking to Kirby. Maybe there was something that connected all three of them—Eden, Kirby and him. Something linked to the photo of him and his family back in Germany. And Declan had a sickening feeling that it was a connection he wasn’t going to like.

“Thank you,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “For saving my life.”

Declan just gave a noncommittal grunt. He couldn’t issue a standard “you’re welcome” without choking on it, because he’d told her to stay put and she hadn’t.

Yeah, she was hardheaded all right. And up to her pretty neck in danger. A real bad combination. She had just enough guts and skills to get herself killed. Him, too, since his stupid body had decided to protect her. But then, protecting her was the only way to get those answers.

When they reached the front of his house, he saw the medical examiner’s crew loading the dead gunman into their van. The guy had the two gunshot wounds to the legs that Wyatt and he had given him. But it was the gaping hole in the back of his head that’d done him in.

“Not an amateur’s shot,” Declan mumbled.

Wyatt nodded in agreement and pointed to the woods directly ahead. They were thick and dark despite the lack of leaves. “Dallas and Slade are down there having a look around.”

Because it was probably where a rifleman had positioned himself to kill the gunman.

A hit man for the hit man.

Sometimes, karma worked. But in this case, it hadn’t worked in Declan’s favor.

“Any sign of the shooter?” Eden asked.

“None.” Wyatt clearly wasn’t happy about that, either. Neither was Declan. But they’d gotten someone out to the area as fast as possible and had simply missed the guy. Of course, if he was a pro, and Declan was pretty sure he was, then he would have had his escape route well planned out.

“There are some tire tracks,” Wyatt went on. “We’ll do castings of those.”

It was all standard procedure, but standard didn’t seem like nearly enough.

“Maybe we’re dealing with two factions here,” Eden said. “Someone’s trying to kill Declan and someone else is trying to protect him.”

“Or someone didn’t want the gunman to talk,” Wyatt supplied.

Declan was leaning toward that theory. And it meant the person behind this really didn’t want his or her identity revealed and wasn’t willing to risk a hired gun running his mouth.

“I’ll do mop-up,” Wyatt assured him, and the sheriff added his nod to that. Wyatt motioned for Declan to hand him the evidence bag with the note inside.

Declan hated to leave his brothers with the chore of processing a crime scene this big, and this personal, but there were other things that needed to be done. Plus, Eden’s trembling was getting worse with every passing second, and soon the adrenaline crash would hit her hard. Him, too. But at least he had some experience dealing with it. He was betting she didn’t.

“Come on,” Declan insisted.

But Eden held her ground when he tried to help her into the truck. “My car’s on the back trail, and I need to leave to check on my sisters.”

He looked her straight in the eye. “And what happens if the gunman comes after you when you’re with them, huh?”

She flinched, then quickly recovered. “The gunman will more likely come after you.”

“After us,” he corrected. “For whatever reason, someone involved you in this, and you’re not leaving my sight until I find out why. There’s also the part about you coming here to pretend to kill me.”

She budged, but after he practically pushed her into the cab of his truck. “You think I’m lying about being blackmailed into doing this?”

Declan shrugged, got in and drove away. “Not lying exactly, but maybe not telling me the whole truth.”

“I don’t know the whole truth,” she practically shouted. She groaned, a sound of pure frustration, and she yanked on her seat belt. “I just know I don’t want to be involved with this. Or with you.”

She stumbled over the last word, causing Declan to glance at her. There was just another of those disturbing split-second glances where he saw the unguarded expression in those baby blues. There was fear in her eyes. But something else.

Great.

It was the kind of look a woman gave a man. Not one she was hired to kill, either. It was a look that smacked of attraction, and it made Declan curse.