Page 11 of Lone Star Secrets

When he finished his order to the AI app, he aimed a glare at RJ while he ripped the crowbar from his hand and tossed it aside. It made a clanging noise as it hit the asphalt.

“And you’d better not be in on this,” Angel warned RJ, “or I will make you pay. Understand?”

RJ gave a long, shaky nod. “I swear, I’m not in on it. What is this?” he tacked onto that. “What’s happening?”

“A shooter’s at my one o’clock.” Angel tipped his head to the woods. “He’s using a rifle, probably with a scope, and you can bet he can see us just fine. So, stay the hell down.”

Angel didn’t have a chance to add more because at that second another shot came their way, and Mia thought the bullet skipped off the van’s hood. Way too close to Angel, and she wanted to latch onto him and drag him down to the ground with RJ and her. She didn’t only because she was afraid it would distract him and get him killed.

A third shot came.

Then, a fourth.

And they just kept coming.

They were loud, thick blasts that slammed into the van. Clearly, the shooter had a decent aim, and since he was using a rifle, Angel’s handgun probably didn’t have the range for him to return fire.

Her heart was pounding now, the sound crashing in her ears and making everything feel loud and out of control. Her chest was too tight. Her breathing was way too fast, and Mia had to force herself not to give in to the panic that was spiking through her.

God.

Why was this happening?

It had to be connected to Kenton’s death. Had to be. But why did someone want Angel and her dead?

Or was the target RJ?

That question flashed in her mind. After all, if he was telling the truth, and she believed that he was, someone had lured him here with that note. Did that someone want to kill him because he might be able to identify Kenton’s killer?

Maybe.

But the same could be said of all three of them. Heck, of Melanie, Presley, and Birdie, too. And for that matter, anyone else connected to Kenton, such as his father, Dwight.

“We need to warn the others,” Mia muttered. “Someone could go after them like this.”

“Warn them?” RJ questioned, and then several seconds later, when it no doubt sank in, his eyes went wide again. “Melanie. Oh my God, Melanie.” He yanked out his phone, no doubt to call her.

“Danno, put the drone feed on my phone,” Angel said, and he finally lowered himself so he could look at his screen.

Since Mia was right there next to him, she looked at the feed as well. But she saw nothing. Just those blasted trees. Dozens of them, all jammed together just on the other side of her fence.

Those trees were the reason she’d fallen in love with the property. They’d made the place look so quiet and peaceful. Well, they sure as heck didn’t seem peaceful right now since they were hiding a would-be killer.

Three more shots came, each of them hitting the van, and it seemed to Mia as if they cut through the air directly above their heads.

And she still didn’t see the shooter, not even when the drone panned over the entire length of the woods.

“There he is,” Angel muttered, pointing to a large oak. “He’s perched on that limb.”

She shook her head, but then the drone made another adjustment, and Mia saw the late afternoon sun glint off some kind of metal. The rifle, no doubt. The one he was using to try to kill them.

Mia tried to imagine someone she knew doing this. And she couldn’t. But then, she couldn’t have known everyone who’d crossed paths with Kenton since she had only been in the foster home with him for a couple of months. With his personality, he had no doubt made plenty of enemies, and one of those enemies could have murdered him and disposed of his body.

But then why come after RJ, Angel, and her now?

Why not try to cover his tracks twenty years ago?

“I need to get a rifle out of the back of the van,” Angel said, and he passed her his phone. “Stay down and keep watching the drone feed. Let me know if this asshole moves or if you get a look at his face.”

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