The Horseman's Son (16 page)

D
YLAN LAY THERE
, trying to level his breathing. He didn’t even try to pretend he had regrets about what had just happened. The main thing he was thinking was that he had a sated body and the taste of Collena still in his mouth. He wouldn’t regret it.

But he was afraid she would.

She’d been through a horrible ordeal and had nearly been killed. Having sex was probably the last thing she’d planned. Still, it had happened. There was no turning back. All that was left were the consequences.

“That wasn’t good,” she mumbled.

It took Dylan a moment to process what Collena had said. “Excuse me?”

“That wasn’t good. It was phenomenal. And that’s a problem.”

Yeah. He knew exactly what she meant. Where did they go from here?

“Let’s just not analyze it,” Collena insisted, snuggling against him. “In fact, let’s have sex again tomorrow and not analyze it then, either.”

He bunched up his forehead, but he wasn’t about to veto the plan. In fact, he wanted her again tonight. “So, we just…float?”

She nodded. “It’s better than the alternative.”

It would probably be nice for a while, especially since they had a mountain of other problems to deal with.

Still, they couldn’t
float
forever.

“Will you want a divorce?” she asked.

Stunned, Dylan looked down at her. It was definitely an odd thing to ask a man while she was still naked in his arms. “What?”

“A divorce,” she said as if that clarified everything. He just kept staring at her until she continued. “Because with Curtis dead, there won’t be a custody battle. At least not between him and us.”

“There won’t be one between us, either,” he assured her. But he wasn’t the only one driving that, now was he? Collena had a huge say in it, and he wondered if that’s what she was trying to tell him now. “Do you want a divorce?”

Collena didn’t answer.

Because the lights went out.

There was the slight beeping sound that came from the security monitor. The entire system had a backup generator so the monitor stayed on, and its milky-blue screen practically lit up the room.

Dylan got up and, in the same motion, he reached for his jeans. The monitor beeped again. It was soft. Hardly alarming. But he had a bad feeling that those two little beeps meant big trouble.

“What is it?” Collena asked. She got up, as well, and reached for her clothes.

Dylan hurried to the monitor and switched it to the main panel so he could see which alarm had been triggered. It was the back door that led from outside into the kitchen.

According to the monitor, the door was open.

He pushed the intercom button into Ina’s room. “Did you leave the back door open?” he asked softly so that he wouldn’t wake Adam.

“No,” Ina answered immediately. Her voice was soft, too, but not so soft that Dylan didn’t hear the concern in it. “And I hear footsteps in the kitchen. Dylan, I think we might have an intruder in the house.”

“Lock the door, take Adam and go in your bathroom. Lock that door, too,” Collena heard Dylan tell Ina. “And call the sheriff. Call me immediately if anyone tries to break into the room. I’ll be there as soon as I’ve checked things out.”

Collena’s heart went to her knees. No, no, no! This couldn’t be happening. They’d already been through so much.

“It’s probably nothing,” Dylan told her. He pulled on his boots and grabbed his gun. “Some of the ranch hands might have come back from the Thanksgiving break. They’re probably looking for a late-night snack.”

“Would they have known the code to disarm the security system?” she asked.

“One or two of them do.”

She latched on to that hope. But Collena knew it could be something sinister. After all, there’d been violence in Dylan’s life before she’d come into it. Violence associated with his personal relationships. It hadn’t surfaced in years, but then, he hadn’t been in a relationship in years, either.

Until now.

It was all over town that they were a couple. The wrong person could have heard that information and decided it was time to kill again.

While he shoved his cell phone into his pocket, Dylan scanned through the various camera angles of the house. Collena stood by him and watched, as well, hoping she would see something to help soothe their concerns. He went through each area, including the kitchen, but because the electricity was off, it was impossible to see if anyone was hiding in the shadows.

“Wait here.” Dylan reached for the doorknob, but Collena stopped him.

“You need backup in case that’s not a ranch hand out there.” A ranch hand would have called out to let Dylan or Ina know that he was in the house.

An intruder, or a killer, wouldn’t do that.

For a moment, she thought Dylan might argue with her and insist that she wait there, but then he nodded, probably because he knew that he did indeed need backup. “Stay behind me, and don’t you dare take any unnecessary risks.”

Collena returned the nod. “We’ll do what it takes to protect Adam.”

That was all she had to say to get him moving.

The kitchen was on the other side of the house, but it was much closer to the nursery. Too close. “Does Ina have a gun?” she whispered to Dylan.

“She does. And she knows how to use it. But I don’t know if she has it with her or not.”

Collena prayed that she did but that the woman wouldn’t have to defend Adam and herself. They had to make sure that didn’t happen.

Moving quietly and staying close to the wall, they started down the pitch-black hall. Unfortunately, the corridor was open on both ends, and both ends had L-shapes that opened into other halls or rooms. That meant the intruder could come at them from either direction. Collena turned and walked backward so she could cover one end of the area and Dylan could cover the other.

Outside, the wind was battering against the row of windows that lined the corridor. Shrubs rustled. Even her own breath contributed to the sounds. It was uneven and came out in rough gusts. She could even hear the swish of the pendulum of the grandfather clock in the foyer.

What Collena couldn’t hear were footsteps other than their own.

That wasn’t necessarily a good sign. If the intruder knew the layout of the house—and he or she likely did—then there were many ways to ambush them without being heard.

But who would do this?

Jonah, maybe. Or Ruth, Millie or Hank? Of course, there was another possibility—a killer that had already struck twice with Dylan’s fiancée and sister. A killer whose identity they didn’t even know.

The moonlight bled through the bare vein-shaped limbs of the shrubs outside the windows and cast eerie shadows on the walls like a skeleton’s fingers. The shadows moved and slashed with each new gust of wind.

Dylan stopped and lifted his hand so that she would stop, as well. Collena looked and listened, trying to pick through all those other shadows and sounds to see what had alarmed him.

And then she heard it.

Footsteps.

They were coming from the end of the hall that she was facing. Dylan whirled around in that direction and aimed his gun.

But just like that, the footsteps stopped.

They stood there waiting. Collena tried to figure out the best way to neutralize this person. The simple approach might work, especially if this was some ranch hand who’d come into the house and then gotten spooked by the electrical failure.

“Call out to the person,” Collena whispered.

Because Dylan’s arm was touching hers, she felt his muscles stiffen. But he obviously agreed with her idea because he stepped in front of her.

Get down,
he mouthed.

She did. Collena crouched and then steadied her shooting wrist with her left hand. She didn’t want her aim to be off in case things turned ugly.

“Who’s there?” Dylan said. It wasn’t a shout, but his voice practically echoed through the corridor.

Silence.

There were no footsteps to indicate the person was running away. Nor was there any acknowledgment. So, they had their answer.

This wasn’t a ranch hand.

And whoever it was waited just around the corner, less than thirty feet away. But what did this person want?

For Collena, the answer was simple: the killer wanted her because she’d gotten involved with Dylan.

But so far, the other attacks hadn’t involved Dylan. So, if this was his blast-from-the-past killer, then why try to do this here at the house?

Unless the person fully intended to kill Dylan, as well.

“If you’re after me,” Collena called out, “then leave Dylan out of this.”

That earned her a nasty glare from Dylan.

It also earned her some movement from the intruder. There was a shuffling sound. Followed by a slight bump against the wall. And someone mumbled something. Collena’s comment had definitely caused a reaction.

Hopefully, it was the right reaction.

Collena saw the shadow then. The person didn’t step out from cover, but she saw the hand.

And the gun.

Just as the person fired at them.

T
HE NIGHTMARE HAD RETURNED
.

But this wasn’t a dream, and the bullet that’d slammed into the wall just over their heads wasn’t some unconfirmed fear over what had happened in the past.

That bullet was real.

And it’d come damn close to hitting them.

Dylan shoved Collena to the floor, and he maneuvered himself so that he was in front of her. That way, if the intruder shot at them again, he’d be in a better position to protect her and return fire.

Judging from Collena’s muffled protest, she didn’t like that idea. But Dylan wasn’t giving her a choice. He’d already lost two women in his life, and he wasn’t about to lose another.

While he was there, crouched over Collena, he went through the other possibilities, none of them good. He might have a killer in his home. Or maybe a kidnapper who’d come for Adam. After all, he was a wealthy man, and anyone who’d heard about the recent shooting in the woods might have thought this was the perfect time to commit another crime.

But that didn’t make sense.

If this was a kidnapping, why hadn’t the person just gone after Adam? And why try to kill him, the person who would be paying the ransom for the child?

Part of Dylan was elated that this might not be connected to Adam. But he couldn’t be that happy, because Collena’s life was on the line, and they almost certainly had a killer in the house.

He saw the gloved hand jut out again. The shooter didn’t aim or peer out from around the corner to determine their position before firing.

This shot smashed into the window a good ten feet away from them, and the wind howled through the now gaping hole left in the glass. But that shot told Dylan exactly what he needed to know.

That Collena could escape.

Because the shooter wasn’t aiming. That would have required the person to leave cover and be exposed to gunfire.

“Crawl to the opposite end of the hall,” he whispered to Collena. “And get into the family room. I’ll be right behind you.”

Until he’d added that last part, Collena had been shaking her head. But that stopped her, and after a few moments of hesitation, she started inching her way backward.

Dylan did, as well.

However, he kept watch to make sure the shooter didn’t jump out with guns blazing. He also listened for the sound of footsteps in case this SOB decided to backtrack and sneak up behind them. Of course, that would mean the person knew the layout of the house.

Collena and he crawled back. Inch by inch. Dylan’s adrenaline level was sky-high, and with each passing second, it got even higher. It didn’t help that the wind was screaming now. Muffling sounds that shouldn’t be muffled.

He cursed himself, for not doing more to prevent this. Collena wouldn’t blame him. She wasn’t the sort to do that. But he was. And it would take him a lifetime or more to get over the fact that he’d endangered her and Adam.

They made it to the end of the corridor. Just as another shot came at them. It tore off a piece of the ceiling, and the plaster came raining down on them. Dylan used the diversion to get to his feet. He dragged Collena around the corner and out of the line of fire, just in the nick of time.

The next shot splintered the wood floor where they’d been seconds earlier.

“We can double back around,” Collena whispered. “That way, we can make sure Adam and Ina are okay.”

Yes, and while he was at it, he could leave Collena with them. That would serve two purposes. It would get her out of the immediate path of this killer, and it would give Ina some much needed backup if this shooter got past Dylan.

He didn’t intend to let that happen. But he could use the backup plan to convince Collena to stay where she stood the best chance of surviving his.

Dylan took off his boots, so that they wouldn’t be heard on the hardwood and tiled floor. Collena did the same with her shoes. Once they were done, they started to move again, quickly, so they could get to the nursery.

Just in case the shooter had the same idea they did.

Dylan kept his ears and eyes open for any movement or sound.

Unfortunately, he heard one, even over the winter wind.

Someone was running down the corridor that Collena and he had just left. The shooter was coming after them, and once he or she rounded the corner, the bullets would likely start flying again.

Collena grasped their situation, as well. With Dylan right behind her, she began to run for the nearest cover—the dining room. Dylan calculated that they had just enough time to dive inside before they became targets.

But he miscalculated.

He saw the figure at the end of the hall. Just a shadow, camouflaged by other shadows that the moonlight and the shrubs had created.

And he realized it was too late for Collena and him to take cover.

The figure stepped out, a bulky, awkward movement that seemed to involve some kind of struggle. He had a split-second realization that there might be not one shooter but two. However, that realization came a little too late.

Someone fired.

And fired.

And fired.

That’s when Dylan got a better look at the person who was trying to kill them.