Crouching down, Hannah listened, trying to hear over the pounding of her heart and promising herself, swearing, once this was over she was stripping a piece of hide off his ass for leaving her like this, for not taking her with him. As though she were helpless. How many damned times did she have to remind him? That she had three brothers. Older brothers. Marine-trained brothers. She was not a helpless little debutante that didn’t know how to shoot a gun.
Hannah might not know how to deal with stalkers while her brothers were away on a mission, but she did know how to shoot one when he showed his ugly little face.
She’d wanted an excuse to see Rick. A reason to come to him. The attempted break-in had served that purpose. But now, he thought she was as helpless as a child.
Biting her lip she listened intently, sure the pounding of her heart was loud enough for a deaf stalker to hear.
She couldn’t hear a damned thing. Not the creak of a floorboard, a breath, or a struggle. Hannah was in the dark in more ways than one and her nerves were ready to jump out of her skin.
God help her if she lost him. If Rick thought it would hurt him to lose her, then he had no idea what it would do to her, to lose him.
* * *
RICK MOVED THROUGH the dark house, his weapon held steady at the side of his head as he searched for the intruder that had managed
to get in.
He could feel the cell phone in his pocket, a series of silent vibrations assuring him that help was on its way. He’d expected this for two years now, lived in fear of it happening while Kent was home, and now his heart was in his throat because Hannah was here, in the middle of the danger he was responsible for bringing to her doorstep.
A few people might have been capable of getting into his home without setting off the main alarm. But no one could have suspected the silent backup alarm. Its installation was so precise, so well hidden behind the main system, that it would have taken someone who was aware of it to trip it.
And only Rick and the Elite Ops were aware of that system.
His chest ached with the knowledge that only a few people he knew could have gotten past the unique code word he used for that main system. Only one other person knew it. And it was the person he had suspected, the one he had prayed he was wrong about.
He had prayed that Hershel, his former deputy, and Sienna had been the only ones close to him who had betrayed him. He had tried to convince himself during the past two years that the lack of action was proof that they were the only ones.
But now, he knew he was wrong.
At least Kent wasn’t here, he told himself, grieving at the betrayal. His son would have been terrified.
Slipping silently into the living room, he caught the slight shift of movement at the doorway into the kitchen. Tall, lean. The intruder slipped out of the room, heading for the bedroom as Rick followed quickly, silently.
He was almost on the intruder. He could see the slope of the profile, the dark mask that covered the face to hide it from the camera that activated when the alarm went off.
He didn’t have to see the face. He knew who it was.
CHAPTER 8
STEPPING INTO the bedroom just behind the intruder, Rick flipped the lights on, jumping to the side as the pop of a silenced gun went off.
He moved just in time. His own weapon came up but, before he could fire, the figure jumped for the bathroom and horror sliced through his soul.
He raced to the doorway, fear tearing through him as he heard Hannah’s enraged little cry. Rather than fear it sounded like horrified fury as she cursed viciously.
The light flipped on, and he was met with the sight of her being used as a shield for the intruder behind her, her beautiful green eyes glaring at him angrily.
“I told you to leave me a gun!” She struggled against the hand wrapped in the strands of her wet hair until the muzzle of the silencer was jammed beneath her neck in warning, and he stared behind her into Mae’s triumphant gray eyes.
“You almost had me,” she drawled as she drew the mask off and tossed it to the floor of the tub. “How did you know I was here?”
“Because he’s smarter than you are?” Hannah cracked out sarcastically.
“She’s a bitch, Rick.” Mae laughed before jerking viciously at Hannah’s hair and drawing a surprised cry from her lips as she jammed the gun tighter into her neck.
“Why?” he asked her, keeping his gun carefully along his thigh as she stared into his eyes. “Why, Mae? I trusted you.”
She laughed at that. It was no more than he had expected of her.