Page 35 of Unlikely Guardian

“I’ve called for backup,” one of the officers advised.

Good. It shouldn’t take long for them to arrive, either, since they were only about three miles from headquarters. It was too bad, though, that the shooter could be long gone by then, as well.

“Keep a visual on the perimeter of that other building,” Jason ordered the officers.

Because what went up had to come down, eventually. That wouldn’t necessarily happen, though, at the front of the building. A more likely escape route would be the back. He considered going there, but he immediately ruled it out. The gunman was after Lilly. That didn’t mean he or she wouldn’t kill others to get to her, but if Jason left, Lilly would be unprotected. He could be playing right into the gunman’s hands. Still, he had to do something to try to nail this guy.

While keeping a vigilant watch, Jason used his cell phone to contact one of the officers. This definitely wasn’t something he wanted to shout out for the shooter to hear. “Take your partner and proceed to the back of that building where the shots originated. Try to cut off any potential escape route.”

“Will do,” the officer said, hanging up.

It was a huge undertaking. And probably a futile one. The building spread across nearly a third of the city block, and it would take a dozen or more cops to secure it properly. Still, it was better than nothing, and with backup on the way, they might get lucky.

Might.

“If this is about revenge,” Lilly whispered, “then we’re back to Wayne Sandling and Raymond Klein.”

He heard a “but” at the end of Lilly’s comment, and he understood it. Maybe it wasn’t about revenge at all but something that Lilly knew. Or something she could learn. Possibly from those files. Or possibly something that’d been on that disk she’d planned to give to the police.

Of course, that left Jason with a huge question. If the person responsible for these latest attempts on Lilly’s life had also been the one to run her off the road and steal the disk, then wasn’t it finished?

Why had the attempts to kill her continued?

Either the perpetrator believed there was other incriminating information than just the one disk—info that was trapped inside Lilly’s head—or, as Lilly said, it could be for revenge.

Or…

Jason almost hated to finish that thought, but he did. This could be related to none of that. But if so, then who would stand to gain something, anything, if Lilly were out of the way?

He didn’t like the first thought that came to mind, but it came anyway.

Erica, maybe?

He was about to go through all the reasons why it wasn’t possible for his nanny to be guilty when his phone rang.

“Detective Lawrence,” Jason answered.

“We made it to the back of the building.” It was one of the officers. “But it’s not good news. We saw someone speed away in a dark-colored car. The license plate was covered with mud or something.”

Jason cursed. “How about a description? Were you able to get that?”

“Negative.”

Not that it helped, but he cursed some more. “Find Wayne Sandling and Raymond Klein and bring them in to headquarters. Now. I’ve got questions to ask, and by God, they’d better have the answers.”

LILLY COULDN’T STOP shaking.

It was as if her body had decided it’d had all it could take and it was going to punish her for the trauma. So she trembled from head to toe while she stood there, behind the interrogation mirror where the detectives had left Wayne Sandling.

Sandling certainly wasn’t trembling. With his hands tucked behind his head and his legs stretched out in front of him, he practically lounged at the austere metal table, waiting for the detectives to return so they could continue the questioning. Not that the questioning was actually leading anywhere: Sandling had denied any involvement in the shooting.

Despite being called out in the middle of the night to be interrogated by police for an attempted homicide, Sandling appeared well-rested and was dressed to perfection in a flawlessly tailored business suit. He was calm and collected.

Unlike her.

“I feel like a genuine wuss,” Lilly muttered.

Jason glanced at her and frowned. “Why?”

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