Page 56 of Crosshairs

“Don’t. It’s like you said—this is Nate Rawlings’s investigation. Let him do his job.”

“He’s assigning a deputy to follow us home,” Ainsley said.

“Good.” The news would have made him happy if it hadn’t underscored his inability to protect her.

The cab of his SUV was quiet as they drove down the sand road from the Hanover place. True to Rawlings’s word, a deputy was close behind them. Linc had just turned onto another county road when Ainsley’s phone rang. She glanced at the screen. The phone rang twice more before she answered. “Hello.” She listened for a few seconds. “How did you—”

Quiet ensued.

“No. I’m fine. No need to worry about me. Thank you for calling.” She hung up and blew out a breath. “My dad. It appears I was the lead story on WTMC tonight. How did Sarah get the story turned in so quickly?”

“Modern technology.”

She shook her head. “I should have turned this assignment down.”

“Why? You’re a good investigator.”

“I don’t know about that right now. I do know Natchez is the last place I want to be.”

“I for one am glad you’re here.” He focused on the road. “But is it time to let someone else investigate Hannah’s death?”

“No. We don’t know who the target was tonight.” She was quiet a moment. “I knew when I took this job it would be dangerous. You knew the same thing when you became an FBI agent. Did you quit every time you ran into a threatening situation?”

Danger had not been the reason he’d walked away from the FBI. “This feels different. Someone is targeting you—”

“We don’t know that for sure. We don’t even know how the attack at the church figures into this. It could’ve been an isolated incident.”

“And it could very well be Troy Maddox,” he said grimly.

“You never had someone come after you on a case?”

There’d been a couple of times before he joined the FBI SWATteam that drug dealers he’d arrested had put out a contract on him. “Yeah.”

“What’d you do about it?”

“Wore my body armor and took whatever precautions I needed to and caught the bad guys.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

He didn’t have a response to that.

She rested her head against the back of the seat. “Thanks for being here for me today.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Yes you did.” She was quiet a minute, then turned toward him. “Why don’t you wear a gun?”

His chest tightened, and for a few seconds, he didn’t breathe. “It’s a long story.” He felt her gaze on him and glanced toward her. “It’s not one I want to get into while I’m driving.”

Ainsley dipped her head slightly. “I understand.”

She wouldn’t once he told her.

When they arrived at Cora’s, he pulled around to the back. At the hospital Rose had given Ainsley her key to Cora’s house so they didn’t have to fish one out of the frog. “Wait until I come around before you get out.”

For once she didn’t argue with him. Linc hopped out and took a minute to scan the backyard that backed up to a wooded area. Night vision goggles would be nice, but nothing moved that he could see. He turned to the back of the house. A floodlight left no shadows where anyone could hide.

Linc jogged around to her side of the Tahoe and hurried Ainsley inside, using his body as a shield.

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