Lakeside Peril

She wasn’t going to, she decided. She would go and find Hunter. With the old wooden bat held in a defensive mode in front of her, she had just started around the storage room when she heard footsteps approaching. She jumped back and pressed against the wall, her breath stopping. The footsteps kept coming.

Afraid to peek or to call out, Chloe held the bat up and waited. She heard a thump and then someone coming her way.

Bracing herself, she took a deep breath and held a death grip on the bat. Then she rushed around the corner of the storage room and made ready for battle.

The man took the bat right out of her hands.

“Hunter!”

He held the bat in one hand and her in the other. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Chloe yanked away and straightened her clothes. “I was coming to look for you.”

“With this?” He threw the bat down on the concrete floor and sent it rolling into a corner. “I see you’re okay. That’s good, at least.”

“I’m fine. What happened?”

“He did,” Hunter said, pointing to a skinny man with long stringy hair sitting with his hands caught up in a tight plastic ring of some sort. “He was looking for you.”

Chloe walked over to the man and stared down at him. “Sonny?”

“You know this scumbag?” Hunter asked, his gaze swinging from her to the man.

“Yes,” she said, sick to her stomach. “His name is Sonny Bolton. He works for my father.”

Hunter walked over to where the man sat with downcast eyes. “Is that true?”

Sonny finally looked up, nodding to Chloe. “Hey, Miss Chloe.” Then he gave Hunter a look that bordered on fearful before he cast his gaze back on Chloe. “Mr. Conrad sent me to bring you home.”

“Bring me home?” Shock filled Chloe’s system. “Bring me home? What am I, a sack of potatoes?”

Sonny shrugged. “I don’t know. I just follow orders.”

Hunter leaned down eye-to-eye with Sonny. “Would those orders include trying to kill her? You were armed, remember?”

Sonny’s head came up. “What? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was told to find her, throw her in the truck and take off. Nobody said anything about killing anybody. I always travel with a weapon, and this place looked like I might need one.”

Hunter got down on one knee and grabbed Sonny by the collar of his frayed button-up shirt. “Are you sure you didn’t come here to hurt Miss Conrad?”

Sonny bobbed his head, his long neck stretching like a turkey’s. “I’m not a killer. And why would I want to hurt Miss Chloe? She’s always been good to me.”

Chloe put a hand on Hunter’s shoulder to rein him in. “Sonny, what are you doing here?”

“I told you, I came to get you. Your daddy don’t want you down here. He needs you to come home.”

“Why didn’t he just call and tell me that?” Chloe asked, thinking none of this made sense. Why would her father send Sonny down here when he could have sent a jet and any number of bodyguards?

Sonny shrugged again, his eyes downshifting. “I don’t know.”

“What do you know?” Hunter asked, lifting Sonny up and pushing him against the round wooden piling. “And don’t even think about lying to me.”

Sonny glanced at Chloe, appeal in his brown eyes. “Your daddy’s been mighty worried about you. He gave me a wad of cash and told me to drive down here and locate you.”

“And how did you find me?” Chloe asked.

Sonny’s gaze shifted down the left. “I saw you on a motorcycle with him.” He nodded toward Hunter. “Followed y’all to the Bay Road, saw where you turned in.” He shrugged. “Plus, your daddy has a GPS on your phone, Miss Chloe. Led me right to you.”

“Unbelievable,” Chloe said. “Does he think I’m five years old or something?”

“Or something,” Sonny mumbled, looking sheepish.

“What a stroke of luck,” Hunter said, running a hand over his hair. “I think I’ll just put you on a boat and take you out a few miles to sea. And dump you. Shark bait.”

Sonny swallowed and shook his head. “I’m just following orders.”

Chloe glared at both of them. “Hunter, you can’t hurt Sonny. He’s been living on our land all his life. His family works for my daddy.”

“What’s that got to do with me dumping him in the bay?” Hunter asked, anger flaring in his eyes.

Sonny stood up straight. “I ain’t never hurt nobody in my life and I’m not about to start now. I just want to get her home safe. Her daddy’s stewing about something big and he’s worried she’s gonna get herself hurt.”

Chloe pushed Hunter aside and put a hand on Sonny’s arm. “Tell me why my father is so worried, Sonny.”

Sonny gave her a beseeching look. “I can’t say—”

And then they heard a pop and Sonny’s eyes went wide. He slumped forward toward Chloe, one of his hands grabbing for her.

But Hunter caught him, realization registering on his face. He held his fingers to Sonny’s neck.

“Chloe, he’s dead.”

“What?” Chloe reached for Sonny, a silent scream forming in her throat. “No.” She tried to grab at the still man, but when she looked at his face she knew. As she looked down at Hunter’s hand, she saw the blood seeping through Sonny’s lightweight jacket and running over Hunter’s fingers.

Sonny had been shot in the chest.

FOUR (#ulink_100ead7f-cf83-5660-9cb4-97b0addca37d)

Blain Kent scribbled on his pocket pad while the medical examiner and several uniformed officers moved around him.

Hunter rubbed his eyes and wished he hadn’t brought Chloe here. This place was private and off-limits, but he’d been wrong to think it would be safe. He should have taken her somewhere way out from town. But where? He barely had a place to call his own. Just a small one-bedroom cottage near the marina. No way could he take her there.

Blain kept glancing up, questions hovering in his onyx eyes. The kind of questions he wouldn’t want to answer in his official report.

Hunter would never hear the end of this.

Blain finished his notes and gave Hunter a long, puzzled stare. “What’s next?”

Hunter didn’t have the answer yet on that one. Well, he knew the answer and he didn’t like it. “Miss Conrad has hired me as her bodyguard,” he said, his eyes clashing with Chloe’s.