Sheltered

This guy was good. He knew exactly how to keep on the offensive. She didn’t think she could find him more attractive, but in that moment she did.

“Stay here.” He held out a hand as if to keep her in place even though he never touched her. “Shoot anyone who is not me. Aim for the leg to make him hobble or the hand to make him drop the gun.”

That bordered on insulting. “I’m a better shot than that.”

“It’s a risk to keep the guy breathing, but I need him alive for questioning.” Holt delivered his comment and then slipped away from her.

For a big man, he moved without making a sound. Even the floorboards that usually creaked didn’t. He shifted and stalked around her furniture and through the room until he disappeared.

She had two choices—sit and wait or track and help. She’d made a vow to step in and not remain silent years ago. She followed it now.

As she reached her kitchen, then the back door of the cottage, she visually searched for him. He’d have to be running to be gone, but she couldn’t see him.

He’d congratulated her on her security system, then set up additional sensor lights that afternoon, insisting she had blind spots he needed to fix. One of those popped on behind the shed where she kept the lawn mower and other yard equipment.

She squinted, thinking she’d see movement. She could make out one dark blob...then another. They were nearly on top of each other.

She was halfway outside with the door banging behind her before she remembered Holt’s words: stay here.

Chapter Five (#ulink_4304ba2c-3e2b-5cdc-83dd-e1f793ae5a47)

Holt heard the door slam a second before the sound of footsteps echoed around him. He focused, trying to pull the sounds apart. He had not one but two people out there with him in the dark. The only good news was that Lindsey was likely one of those people. He liked the odds of him against one attacker, but he hated the idea of her wandering into danger.

He ignored the sound of sneakers slipping against the wet grass and concentrated on what he could handle. Not her, but the man who had been lingering in the yard, hiding behind trees and leaning against the shed, while Holt watched him.

The guy had waited before moving in, but now he hid in that small building. The same one Lindsey said they used for storage. Holt would blow it up or drag him out. Whatever strategy would keep the guy from venturing near Lindsey worked for Holt.

But he had to move because even now she flew across the yard. She moved in a soundless blur. Once she got near him, whatever advantage he now held would be gone because she’d become his priority.

He signaled for her to stop but had no idea if she saw him. He didn’t wait.

Weapon up, he slunk around the outside of the building, crouching low and placing careful quiet footsteps. If the attacker shot through the wall, he should miss. Most people shot at standing height. Holt hovered well below that.

By the time he got to the door, Lindsey stood fewer than fifteen feet away. He motioned for her to stop, and this time her forward momentum slammed to a halt. She stood there, frozen.

He didn’t suffer from the same problem. He hit the watch alarm to bring Shane and Cam running. They’d come in stealth mode and assess the situation before doing anything that would derail the mission. They’d also make sure nothing happened to Lindsey if something did happen to him.

Then the silent countdown started. After one last glance at Lindsey to reassure himself she hadn’t moved, Holt took off. Rounded the corner and hit the doorway with his shoulder. A huge splintering crack ripped through the air around them. Wood shredded and what was left of the door bounced against the inside wall.

Holt caught the bounce with his hip and went in shouting. In two steps he bulldozed over the figure looming on the other side of the door. Momentum kept them moving. Holt didn’t stop until he had the man—and by the sheer size this was definitely a man—pinned against the riding lawn mower.

Holt had the guy’s back resting on the seat and his feet scraping against the ground as he tried to get his footing. But Holt didn’t give him the chance. He had wads of the guy’s shirt in his fists as he leaned in.

The guy’s fear hit Holt first. Panic and anger all wrapped up in one ball.

He flailed and called out, “Stop!”

The voice registered first. Holt recognized it as one of the attackers from last night. Holt could tie the guy back to the threats he’d overheard, then to the run on Lindsey’s house and now to her yard. The repeated shots took guts. It suggested a dangerous level of desperation.

“Grant?” Holt called up the name out of nowhere. Grant was the sidekick type. The guy who led with his fists because he lacked the intuition and skills to be at the top.

Lindsey’s foot hit the threshold. Then she rushed inside. “What’s going on?”

Time to play the role of disgruntled and concerned boyfriend. Holt didn’t have much experience with this, but he was just frustrated enough over Lindsey following him and walking straight into danger that he thought he could fake it. “Go inside.”

Grant tried to hold up one of his hands. “I can explain.”

Holt used his knee to pin one of Grant’s arms down. The steering wheel took care of the other. “Do it now.”

“I came looking for you.” The words rushed out of Grant as he stumbled to get them out.

“Why?” Holt angled his body so he stayed between Grant and Lindsey.

Grant might be shaking and stuttering now, but that all could be an act. The guy possessed one of those huge lurking frames, as if he could get into uniform and walk onto the front line of any professional football team and fit in. That didn’t mean he couldn’t fake it all.

“You’re supposed to be at the bunkhouse,” he said.

This was a new rule. Holt wondered who added it and why. “No one told me about any curfew.”

“There isn’t...” Grant exhaled as his head dropped back against the metal. “Can you let me up?”

“No.” That was just about the last thing Holt planned to do this evening.

Lindsey reached over, coming far too close, and snatched the gun out of the large pocket of Grant’s jacket. “I agree. You stay pinned down until you tell us why you’re hanging out on my property.”

Something about seeing her there, amid the chaos and fighting, snapped Holt back into perspective. He didn’t need an arrest tonight. He needed an explanation.

“One more time.” Holt eased up on the grip around Grant’s neck.

“I can’t breathe.” He coughed, nearly doubling over.

Holt waited for Grant to stop with the theatrics.

“Again.” Never one for an overabundance of words, Holt stuck with that.

“When you’re new, the expectation is you’ll stay around the bunkhouse. You’ve been going out and I was asked to make sure you were okay.” The guy managed to shrug from his awkward position.

Holt wasn’t impressed. From the way Lindsey frowned it didn’t look as if she believed the line either.

“How did you know I was here?” Holt asked.

Grant smiled. “The leader sees all.”

Now was not the time for enlightenment nonsense. “Try again.”

“There are rumors about you and Ms. Pike.”

It all sounded rational except that it wasn’t. Holt didn’t see how there could be gossip about anything, since the whole fake boyfriend thing had only come up last night. “Why not tell me today when we were up at camp?”