Page 43 of The Sheriff's Baby

It wasn’t far to Duncan’s house, only about two miles, but travel anywhere wasn’t exactly a breeze because of the attacks. All three of them knew any time out in the open could lead to another one. Added to that, it was dark now so someone could be lying in wait.

While Luca drove and they kept watch, Joelle tried to recall if Duncan had more than one guest room. Even though Duncan had owned the small ranch for five years now, she hadn’t been to his place that often. Mainly because they’d spent a good chunk of those five years keeping their distance from each other.

Clearly, they’d ultimately failed since she was carrying his baby.

From the handful of visits she had made to his ranch, she recalled the house being fairly large, but even without guest rooms, she figured they’d all end up getting some sleep somewhere in the house since they had all been going at this for way too many hours.

Duncan’s phone dinged with a text. A sound that instantly put Joelle on alert in case it was a message about an attack being imminent. She tried to hold onto the hope, though, that it was good news.

“It’s from Slater,” Duncan relayed to them. “SAPD uncovered something interesting on Kate. About three months ago, she accused Brad and Shanda of drugging her. She talked to a detective about it, and he investigated, but nothing came of it since there were no drugs in her system when Kate came in to report it.”

Joelle worked that through in her mind. “I can see this playing out two ways. Either Brad and/or Shanda did, indeed, drug the woman. Or else Kate was laying the groundwork to set them up for the attacks she was planning on Molly and me.”

Duncan made a sound of agreement. “And that takes us back to Kate’s motive. If the attacks are to set someone up, why not do that to Hamlin? That would get him off her back.”

“True,” Joelle admitted. “But maybe her motive is about getting revenge for what happened to Shanda. I know she hated Shanda,” she quickly added, “but the arrest and miscarriage ultimately caused a rift between Kate and her son. Kate would want to get back at Molly and me for that, and in the process she could end up with two babies to sell.”

The thought of that sickened Joelle. Kate could possibly want to use her baby and Molly’s to settle an old score.

It didn’t take long, less than five minutes, before Luca took the turn into Duncan’s driveway, and Duncan used his phone to open his garage door. He also turned on some security lights. Lots of them at both the front and sides of the house.

Unlike her place, Duncan had neighbors—a small-time rancher directly across the road from him and another about two hundred yards to his right. Not exactly right next door but close enough that the lights from those two places also provided some illumination as well.

Luca pulled into the garage, and they all stayed inside the cruiser until Duncan had shut the garage door behind them. “I have a security system,” he said, checking his phone. “And I would have gotten an alert had someone gone into the house. Still, I want to do a sweep of the place just in case someone hacked into the system.”

That wasn’t exactly a comforting thought, but Joelle was glad Duncan had even considered it. The problem with being so tired was that it could cause a loss of focus on something critical like this.

Duncan got out, and he searched the garage first before he went into the house. Luca and she sat in the cruiser, waiting and hoping that all was well. They’d already been through way too much. Ditto for Molly, but Joelle had talked to the woman about an hour ago, and the baby and the new mother seemed to be doing well.

“Have you heard from Bree?” Luca asked, drawing Joelle’s attention back to him.

“Yes. She’s planning on coming home soon.” Though now that she’d given that some thought, Joelle would try to talk her sister out of it. Saddle Ridge just wasn’t a safe place to be right now.

Luca made a sound that could have meant anything, but Joelle thought she detected some kind of undercurrent. And she knew why. At best, Bree usually managed to come home three or four times a year and then for only a week or two.

The exception to that “coming home” pattern had been five months ago when their father had been murdered and their mother had disappeared. Bree had then stayed in Saddle Ridge for just over five weeks. Joelle knew that Bree and Luca had seen each other then, but there seemed to be some kind of rift between them and then Bree left. Luca might be wondering if he could fix that rift and go back to the way things had been.

That was a reminder for Joelle that she needed to have a conversation with Bree. Maybe soon if the fourth gunman wasn’t caught and his boss arrested. Willie Jay could speed up the possibility of that if he’d just start talking. Arlo Dennison might be able to do that as well if the cops managed to find him. So far, that hadn’t happened, which led Joelle to believe that he, too, might be dead.

Duncan finally appeared in the doorway that led into the house and motioned for them to come in. That helped ease some of the tension in Joelle’s body. So did Duncan rearming the security system the moment they were inside.

“All the doors and windows have sensors,” Duncan explained. “Normally, I keep the alarms at a soft beep since I’m a light sleeper, but I’ll change that to a full sound. If someone tries to get in, we’ll hear it.”

Good. That was one less thing to worry about, especially since Molly’s kidnappers had broken into her place despite her having a security system.

“This way,” Duncan instructed. He led them through a kitchen with stainless appliances and white stone countertops. “Help yourself to anything in the fridge. Sorry that it isn’t better stocked, but I hadn’t counted on... Well, I hadn’t counted on this.”

Since Duncan had been steadily feeding her throughout the day, Joelle wasn’t hungry, but she figured she would be by morning.

Duncan continued to lead them through the living and dining rooms and toward the hall. He stopped outside the first door. “It’s my office, but there’s a sofa sleeper,” he said to Luca. “Bathroom is there.” He tipped his head to the room directly across from the office.

Luca muttered a thanks, one weary with fatigue, and went in while Duncan continued with her to the next room. “Guest room,” he explained, walking in with her. The walls and the comforter on the queen-size bed were both pale blue. “I’ll be right next door. The walls are thin enough that I’ll hear you if you call out.”

Joelle sighed, hoping there’d be no need for her to call out, that nothing else would go wrong tonight.

Duncan stayed put, studying her for several moments. “This is probably going to sound wrong, but we can sleep together if that’ll help with the tension that I can practically see coming off you in waves.Sleep,” he emphasized.

Even though it was the worst reaction, Joelle smiled. She should have instead given him a firm look to let him know she’d be fine in here alone. But she was out of firm looks for the night. She sighed again, then shook her head.

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