AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But Tyler deserved a woman like Kara. And even Kara agreed with him—Tyler came first. He’d be good to her, he promised himself. He’d treat her like gold, give her everything she could ever want.
Except love,a little voice inside whispered.
Hell, love wasn’t all that important anyway. He’d loved Angela. If that wasn’t proof that love didn’t matter, he didn’t know what was. Tyler mattered. Tyler was theonlything that mattered.
CHAPTEREIGHT
Jim was prepared to spend the night sitting up, watching the house. It wasn’t like he was going to be able to sleep anyway, with Ang in town up to God only knew what and that slimebag Vinnie more than likely with her. And Colby missing. Damn, he wished he knew where his friend was. He’d tried calling his cell phone again, just as he’d tried every hour or so since Colby had left. But it was no good.
He should be out there. He should be searching for Colby himself. But dammit, he couldn’t leave Tyler and he couldn’t drag his son along. Not while there was any risk at all. So he had to settle for phoning the chief for an update.
“Stay put, Corona,” Chief Wilcox told him. “We’ve got officers combing three counties for Benton. His photo and a the tag number and description of the Blazer are with every law-enforcement agency in the area, and tonight they made TV news, as well.”
“Still—”
“Still nothing. We’ve circulated photos and information on Vinnie and Ang as well. Not for the press, though. We don’t want to tip them off too fast. But trust me, Corona, we’ve got this covered. We’re gonna find Benton one way or another. And you leaving your kid alone and putting yourself at risk isn’t going to change the outcome anyway. So sit tight.”
He nodded, hating that his chief was right. “Okay.”
“You secure there?”
Yeah, as long as I don’t sleep,he thought. Aloud he said, “Yeah, we’re good.” He would see about getting some better locks on this place tomorrow. For now he had every door and window closed and locked. The bedroom where Tyler slept had only one window, and he’d moved a two-hundred-pound hardwood armoire in front of it for added security.
He’d left Tyler’s light on, the bedroom door open. He never moved far enough away to break his line of sight to his son. They’d be all right.
“I’ll talk to you in the morning then,” the chief said.
Jim said good-night and disconnected. Then he kept his lonely vigil over his son for another hour and a half without incident, sitting in a hard-back chair he’d dragged in from the kitchen so he wouldn’t get too comfortable and nod off. The chair was tipped back on two legs, propped by his feet on a coffee table. His side-arm was in his lap. He thought he probably looked like an over-reactive drama king, but he’d rather look like an idiot than risk an unexpected visit from Vinnie Stefano.
Around ten a knock on the door startled him into sitting up straight, feet and chair legs hitting the floor at once. A key scraped in the lock. He came to his feet, gun in his hand, barrel down. His forefinger moved without conscious command, nudging the safety off.
The door swung open and Kara Brand stepped inside. She stopped and eyed him, then his gun, then him again. She’d changed clothes, was dressed more casually now in jeans and a sweater, a warm coat. She nodded at him as she dropped her house keys back into her coat pocket. “Good,” she said, eyeing the gun in his hand. “I was afraid you’d think I was overreacting.” Then she reached outside the door, retrieving a shotgun from where she’d leaned it.
He felt his eyes widen but said nothing as she hefted a satchel in her other hand and dropped it just inside the door. Then she closed the door and locked it
“I didn’t expect to see you again until tomorrow,” he told her, not quite sure what to say. This was not a side of Kara Brand he’d seen or even suspected might lurk underneath her tender surface.
She shrugged and brought the shotgun across the room, took a seat on the sofa and leaned it nearby. “You probably aren’t going to like this any better than Mom did, but I’m here to stay.”
He tilted his head to one side. “So what’s not to like?” He crossed the room and picked up the satchel she’d dropped, then carried it up the stairs and put it in the second bedroom. Colby’s stuff was still in the first one, and Colby was coming back.
He paused to look into Colby’s room, bit his lip, then forced the worry away and headed down the stairs again.
“I take it you didn’t bring the shotgun to keep me in line.”
She smiled just a little. “Not likely.”
He met her eyes, and a spark passed between them. She was frisky tonight. He liked that. But then she broke the contact, hefted the gun and tossed it to him. He caught it easily, knowing even before he checked that it wasn’t loaded. Kara was too intelligent to toss a loaded shotgun.
It was a nice old gun, a classic twenty-gauge Ithaca, pump action. Held five shells. Black barrel, rich glossy hardwood stock. It had been freshly cleaned, still smelled of gun oil. He nodded his approval and tossed it back to her. “What did you bring for ammo?”
“Slugs. Hollow-points. Someone comes sniffing around you or Tyler, I don’t plan to play games with birdshot.”
There was a hint of ferocity in her eyes that he had never seen before. “You’re full of surprises, you know that?”
“You didn’t think I had a mean bone in my body, did you?” She shrugged. “Most people don’t.”
“You know how to use that thing?”
