Lucas

“Someone in a blue pickup is shooting at us. We’re on Bluebonnet Street, coming up near the Corral Bar.” It was a risk since there’d be customers still inside, but Lucas didn’t plan on stopping or even slowing down. “I’ll turn back on Main Street and head in your direction. Please tell me you found the first shooter.”

“Not yet. But I’ll send Dade and Josh your way to help,” Grayson said, and he ended the call.

Good. Dade and Josh were both cousins, both deputy sheriffs, and maybe having backup would cause these thugs to quit firing.

The parking lot of the Corral Bar was lit up better than the rest of the street, and Lucas glanced in his side mirror at the truck. Definitely two men. And the one on the passenger side was doing the shooting.

“I can return fire,” Hailey insisted, already climbing into the seat and lowering the window. “Please don’t stop me. This is all my fault, and I have to do something to stop them.”

“No way.” And he meant it. It might indeed be partially her fault for not coming to him sooner, but she wasn’t sticking her neck out to fire any shots.

Hailey didn’t get a chance to argue with him. That’s because the sound of sirens stopped anything she was about to say. In the distance, behind the truck, Lucas saw the flashing blue lights of a police cruiser.

Dade and Josh, no doubt.

The driver stopped following Lucas and took a very quick turn off a side street. A street that would lead them straight to the highway.

No, hell, no.

Lucas didn’t want these clowns getting away, but it wasn’t smart to go in pursuit with Hailey in the vehicle. Besides, Dade and Josh went after them, and Lucas could only hope they’d catch them.

“Keep watch for the other shooter,” Lucas told Hailey.

He hated to rely on her for help, but with the glass in the front, back and side windows cracked and webbed, they had reduced visibility. That would make it hard for them to see the guy hiding between one of the buildings where he could shoot at them as they drove by.

Lucas held his breath, going as fast as he could, and he didn’t release that breath until he made it back onto Main Street. Definitely no sign of the shooter, so he headed for the sheriff’s office.

“Can you run?” he asked her.

“I’ll try,” she assured him. Which meant she couldn’t. “I had to use a cane to walk to your SUV.”

Definitely couldn’t.

The SUV squealed to a stop directly in front of the door to the sheriff’s office, but he didn’t get out. Lucas waited until Grayson hurried to the door and threw it open.

“I’m carrying you in,” Lucas insisted, and he didn’t leave any room for argument.

He scooped her up in his arms and rushed her inside the building, with Grayson locking the door behind them. But Lucas didn’t stop there. He hurried her past the squad room to the hall that led to Grayson’s office and the break room. That way, if someone did come in with guns blazing, she’d have some protection.

“Dade and Josh are in pursuit,” Lucas told Grayson. “Arizona plates, but there was something covering the numbers. Mud, I think.” Probably not an accident.

“Arizona?” Hailey repeated.

Lucas knew the reason for her concern. DeSalvo had been from Arizona, which meant his son, Eric, likely was, too. So, had Eric sent those goons after Hailey?

Now that they weren’t in the SUV, Lucas got a better look at her. Especially a better look at the fear in her eyes. And the fact that she was having to grip the door to steady herself.

“As soon as it’s safe, I’ll have the doctor come over to see you,” Lucas told her.

But she was shaking her head before he even finished. “I can’t trust Dr. Parton. Or anyone in the hospital. Someone planted that bug on the table next to my bed.”

Lucas certainly hadn’t forgotten about that. The device needed to be checked, but that would have to wait, because Grayson no doubt had every available deputy on this manhunt for the shooters.

“When there’s time, Hailey will need to give you a statement,” Lucas told Grayson.

Grayson nodded. He still had his gun drawn, was still keeping watch on the area just outside the building. “Is she in WITSEC?”

“Yes,” Hailey answered. “But I don’t want the marshals to know I’m here.”

Grayson mumbled something Lucas didn’t catch, but he didn’t need to hear the words to know that Grayson wasn’t pleased about all this going on right under his nose.

“Hell, you worked for me,” Grayson added.

She nodded. “I figured it was a way to keep an eye on what was happening in town, just in case something went wrong.” Hailey paused. “And something did go wrong.”

Yeah. And Lucas wondered if sleeping with him was in that something-gone-wrong category.

“I’ll call Mason and give him an update,” Grayson said after he shot Hailey a glare.

Hailey dropped back a step, holding onto Grayson’s desk. Lucas was volleying his attention between her and the outside. However, she got his complete attention when she made a soft gasp.

Lucas hurried to her, following her gaze to the computer on the desk. It was obviously the security feed that the doctor had sent Grayson. In the shot, the tall, lanky man was coming through the glass doors of the ER. Grayson had paused it and zoomed in on the man’s face.

Darrin Sandmire, no doubt.

Lucas had no trouble seeing the renewed fear in Hailey’s eyes. “That’s definitely the man who came to my house three months ago. And the man who ran me off the road that night.”

Lucas hadn’t needed to hear anything else about the guy to know that he wanted him caught, questioned and punished.

Hailey touched the screen to get the security feed moving again. Darrin disappeared from view when he walked past the camera and to the hall. Since it would have taken him several minutes to get to her room, Lucas sped up the footage, watching for Darrin to reemerge.

He did.

But the man wasn’t alone.

There was a woman with him, walking right by his side, and it was obvious they were talking. The woman was a blonde, and she kept her head down. Right until she was close to the camera.

Now Hailey’s gasp wasn’t so soft.

“I know her. That’s Colleen Jeffrey.”

The name meant nothing to Lucas, and he didn’t recognize her, either. “Who is she?”

There were tears shimmering in Hailey’s eyes when she looked up at him. “My half sister.”

Damn.

Lucas was about to assure her that maybe this was a coincidence. But it didn’t look like that to him. He needed to get this woman in for questioning right away.