Page 4 of The Sheriff's Baby

Joelle did. She strapped on her seat belt and sank down as low as she could. She also kept her gun ready in case she had to return fire.

Duncan threw the car into reverse and hit the accelerator, bolting out of the garage. Because of the way she was positioned, Joelle couldn’t see the person responsible for the fire, but she had no doubts that Duncan was keeping watch.

The sirens got louder, and she saw the whirl of the blue lights slashing through the darkness. That would almost certainly get their attacker running. Or so she thought.

But she was wrong.

The bullet slammed into her windshield, crashing through the safety glass on the driver’s side. For a heart-stopping second, she thought that Duncan had been hit, but he pressed even harder on the accelerator and got the car out of her driveway and onto the country road that fronted her house. He stopped just as the cruiser pulled in next to them.

“It’s Luca,” Duncan told her, referring to Deputy Luca Vanetti. “Text him and tell him to stay put until the others arrive. We have an active shooter. Tell him to let the other deputies know.”

Joelle fired off a quick text, then braced herself for another shot. Or an explosion. Her house was burning, she was sure of that, but she couldn’t deal with the sickening dread of losing her home and everything she owned. For now, she just had to focus on staying alive, and then she could figure out who was doing this.

And why.

She especially wanted to know the why in case that led her to her father’s killer.

There was the sound of another siren. More whirling lights. Two more vehicles arriving on scene. What didn’t happen was another round of gunfire, which meant the shooter was likely already on the run. Joelle prayed, though, that someone would spot the person.

Because she was so focused on listening for their attacker, Joelle gasped when the sound shot through the car. But it wasn’t a bullet. It was her phone, and Joelle saw a familiar name on the screen. Molly Radel, a former deputy who’d transferred to working as a dispatcher after she got pregnant. Even though Molly was on leave, awaiting the birth of her baby, it was possible she’d been called in to assist in some way.

“Molly,” Joelle answered, and she was about to give the woman a quick explanation as to what was going on, but Molly spoke before Joelle could do that.

“You have to help me,” Molly said, her voice trembling and frantic. “Someone’s breaking into my house.”

The words had no sooner left Molly’s mouth when Joelle heard the woman scream.

Chapter Two

Even though Joelle hadn’t put the call on speaker, Duncan heard the woman’s scream loud and clear. Since Joelle had greeted Molly by name, he also had no trouble figuring out that something was seriously wrong.

“Put the phone on speaker,” Duncan told Joelle, and the moment she’d done that, he tried to figure out what the heck was going on. “Molly?” he asked.

He could hear what he thought were the sounds of a struggle, but the dispatcher didn’t answer. And that caused Duncan to curse. He had every available lawman responding to the situation here at Joelle’s. A situation that might escalate even more if the attacker continued to shoot at them. But Duncan knew he had to go to Molly, and he had to do that now.

“Use my phone to let the deputies know that I’m heading to Molly’s place,” Duncan relayed to Joelle. “I want Luca to follow us as backup.”

Of course, that meant he’d be taking Joelle with him since there wasn’t time for him to get her safely into a cruiser. He got confirmation of that when he heard Molly scream again. The woman was obviously fighting for her life, and there wasn’t a second to lose.

Duncan gunned the engine to get them out of there, and he kept watch around them as he headed for the road. Thankfully, no shots came their way. That was the good news. The bad news was that could mean the shooter had stopped firing so he could go in pursuit of them.

Joelle finished a quick call to Luca to request backup and then went back to her own phone. “Molly?” she tried again.

The sounds of the struggle had stopped. No more screams. Nothing. And that tightened every muscle in Duncan’s body. Hell. The sounds of her screams had been terrifying, but the silence was even worse. Because the screams meant she’d at least been alive.

He thought back to the petite, young brunette who’d been a dispatcher for about six months now. She was pregnant, and she wasn’t married but had instead opted for artificial insemination to have a child. Molly’s parents were dead, and since she had no siblings, she would almost certainly be alone. It was info that everyone in town knew, and it was possible that someone had used that particular info to go after her.

But why?

“This can’t be a coincidence,” Joelle muttered, taking the words right out of Duncan’s mouth.

Yeah, Duncan was leaning that direction as well. Two pregnant women attacked on the same night in the same small town. That would, indeed, be one hell of a coincidence if the incidents weren’t related. Still, it was possible that there were two forces at work here. Duncan just didn’t know exactly what those two forces were right now, but he’d need to find out and fast.

When there was an attack or kidnapping involving a pregnant woman, it was usually connected to some kind of domestic dispute. In fact, the number one threat to a pregnant woman was being murdered or seriously injured by the woman’s partner. But there were also those crimes that involved kidnapping or killing a pregnant woman so the baby could be taken. With Molly so close to giving birth, that was definitely a motive at the top of Duncan’s list.

But that didn’t explain the attack on Joelle.

She was in her fifth month of pregnancy. Still a long way from delivering their child. A kidnapper would have to hold her for months. Not exactly a comforting thought, but then none of this was anywhere near comfortable.

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