Finger On The Trigger

“Who the hell is he?” Griff demanded.

He wanted to hear every word she said, but he also didn’t want anything they were saying to cause him to lose focus. He had to keep watch, and listen, for that shooter.

Rachel shook her head. “It’s just some guy who works at the inn where I’m staying. The first week I was there, I saw him and his girlfriend get into a serious argument. I intervened when I thought he was about to hit her, and after the girlfriend and I talked, she broke things off with Marlon and moved out of town. Marlon blames me for that.”

Griff was slammed with emotions. Anger that some clown wouldn’t leave Rachel alone.

“It’s probably not him, though.” Rachel gave her head another shake. “I don’t think he was mad enough, or crazy enough, to want to kill me.”

Griff would soon find out if that was true. Once he had Rachel safe, he would make it a top priority to find out everything he could about this guy. Rachel had been through entirely too much to have to deal with a hothead.

“It’s more likely that this is connected to my father and those new threats,” Rachel added a moment later.

Griff didn’t voice his agreement. Didn’t ask her to elaborate, either. That’s because he knew what she meant. This could go back to her father’s mistress. Or maybe to someone else Warren had ticked off when he’d carried on a three-decades-long affair.

The rain started coming down harder, and Griff felt Rachel shiver. He didn’t think it was solely from fear this time. It was May, which meant the temps were already high, but the rain was cold, and their clothes were past the damp stage. The water was starting to stream down their bodies.

His phone dinged again with another text message. “The sheriff says he doesn’t see a shooter anywhere near your truck. His deputy is still pursuing the bomber on foot.”

Good. Maybe that meant the bomber wouldn’t double back. But even if he was trying to do that, it was too dangerous for them to wait around and find out. If the guy had managed to plant one explosive, he could have others on him.

“Let’s go,” Griff told her.

She nodded, shoved his phone in her pocket and got moving. While they made their way back to the front of the alley, Griff tried to keep watch all around them, and Rachel was doing the same. He prayed it would be enough.

“Stay down,” he muttered, when they reached Main Street.

There wasn’t much left of her car, but still plenty of flames and smoke. Both could conceal a shooter, but could hopefully give Rachel and him some cover, too.

As he’d done at the back end of the alley, Griff leaned out from the building and looked around. There were plenty of places a shooter could hide. Too many. And Griff didn’t see either the sheriff or a deputy. Still, he couldn’t wait any longer.

“Keep low and watch where you’re stepping,” Griff warned her.

In addition to the limited visibility from the smoke, there were bits of car parts, metal and glass all over the sidewalk. He didn’t want Rachel getting tripped up once they started to move.

Griff took out his truck keys, said a quick prayer and stayed in front of Rachel when they stepped out from cover. He didn’t have to tell her to move fast because she did it automatically. She also started to cough.

The smoke quickly began to burn his eyes, so Griff picked up the pace as much as he could. He also continued to keep watch. Especially behind them. He didn’t want that shooter coming out of the alley and gunning them down.

It seemed to take way too long to get to his truck, and the moment he reached it, he unlocked the driver’s-side door and threw it open. He was about to push Rachel inside when he heard a sound. Not on the street.

But from above.

Griff glanced up just in time to spot the man on the roof of the one-story building. Even though he didn’t have a good view of the guy’s face, he had no trouble seeing his gun. A gun the man fired.

The bullet ripped through the rear window on his truck and exited the windshield. The only reason it missed Rachel was because she moved a split second before the guy pulled the trigger. She dived across the seat, and in the same motion caught Griff’s arm to pull him in, as well.

He shook off her grip, turned and took aim, firing two shots at the man on the roof.

That sent the guy ducking for cover, and Griff took advantage of that. While he would have liked to go after this moron and arrest him, he couldn’t put Rachel at risk like that. He had to get her out of here. And not just off Main Street and out of the line of sight of this shooter. He needed to get her away from Silver Creek and whatever the heck was going on here. He had to take her to McCall Canyon so they could regroup and catch these SOBs.

Griff jumped behind the wheel, got the engine started and hit the accelerator.

“Get down!” he warned Rachel.

She did.

Just as bullets slammed into the back window.

Chapter Three (#uf810f83e-bb69-5a7e-9dfa-4dca5ed3d3c6)

Griff and she had managed to get away from a killer.

She kept reminding herself of that. Kept reminding herself, too, that they were alive. But it might be a long time before that all sank in. Especially since the would-be killer had managed to escape. He was still out there. Maybe regrouping. Perhaps planning another attack. And maybe next time, Griff and she wouldn’t be so lucky.

With that terrifying possibility going through her mind, Rachel looked out at the McCall Canyon sheriff’s office when Griff pulled to a stop in front of it. She took a deep breath, trying to steel herself.

It didn’t work.

Of course, there wasn’t much that would help steady her right now. She was going to have to face her family, and there probably wasn’t enough steel in her backbone to get her through that. Because she was already close to the breaking point.

If Griff hadn’t pulled her into that alley when he did, she would have died in the car explosion. Ditto for him getting her to his truck so they could get away. While she was very glad to be alive, she couldn’t forget that in those blink-of-an-eye moments, the outcome could have been a whole lot different. Griff and she could both be dead.

“Thank you,” she told him.

He’d already reached to open the door of his truck, but he stopped and looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. That’s when she realized he’d misinterpreted what she’d said.

“I’m not thanking you for bringing me here,” Rachel corrected. “But for saving my life.”

Griff just sat there, perhaps waiting for something else. Maybe for her to blast him for finding her when she’d made it so clear that she hadn’t wanted to be found. She hadn’t wanted him in her life, either. However, that was an argument that could wait. For now, she had two other items on the agenda.

Her brothers.

Both Court and Egan were right there in the squad room when Griff and she went in. Anyone who saw her brothers together like this had no doubt they were related. They had the same dark brown hair and intense gray eyes. Rachel had obviously gotten their mother’s genes, since her hair was blond and her eyes blue. Still, there was enough family resemblance for people to tell she was a McCall, too.

Thankfully, there were no other lawmen around, not even a dispatcher. And she was especially thankful that her father wasn’t here. Since this probably wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation, Rachel preferred that as few people as possible were present.

Griff’s phone dinged with a text message—something that had been happening during most of the drive from Silver Creek. He’d had Rachel read those to him so he could focus on the drive, but he didn’t make that offer now. He stepped to the side, probably not only to read the text but to give her some time with Egan and Court.

As Griff had done in the truck, her brothers just stared at her for a moment. They looked her over from head to toe, their gazes lingering on the jacket she was wearing.

It was Griff’s.

He’d given it to her in the truck when she’d started shaking. Not just because she was wet from the rain, but because the adrenaline had still been slamming into her. She’d gladly accepted the jacket. And had tried not to notice that it carried Griff’s scent.

Rachel failed at that, too. She noticed.

Court was the first to budge. He cursed—the profanity definitely meant for her—and then he pulled her into his arms. “Leaving town like that was a really stupid thing to do,” he whispered to her, while he brushed a kiss on her cheek.