Page 43 of The Unknown Colton
She’d locked herself inside with whatever danger she faced.
* * *
“I just want to shake him,” Hetty said, frustration overwhelming her.
Her mother chuckled. “You used to say that all the time about Spence Colton.”
Now Hetty wanted to do more than shake Spence Colton. She smiled but then remembered why she was frustrated and frowned. “I’m talking about my idiot brother.”
Her mother sighed. “He’s more stubborn than your father.”
“He’s trying to be Dad,” Hetty said. “Sacrificing everything to take care of everyone else. He’s going to lose Lakin if he doesn’t realize he doesn’t have to be her hero. He just has to be her partner.” Like she and Spence were partners. Equals. Both independent and strong separately but even stronger together. They’d had to be, or they wouldn’t have survived when a professional assassin had tried to kill them.
“Why would he feel like he has to be her hero?” Mom asked. “Is something going on with Lakin?”
Hetty tensed. Was there something going on with Lakin? Was there a reason her brother felt as if hehad to protect the woman he loved? From what? How could Lakin, who didn’t have an enemy in the world, be in danger?
Then Hetty remembered how she and Spence had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and nearly lost their lives because of it. And those women…
The poor women who’d become victims of a serial killer. Had they even realized they were in danger before it was too late? Was that who Troy thought he needed to protect Lakin from? A serial killer?
Or was there another threat against her?
If there was, Hetty had no doubt that Troy would do whatever he could to protect her from it, like putting himself in danger to save her.
CHAPTER 13
Lakin’s throat burned from the scream. She’d uttered it as much to scare off whoever was in the hotel with her as to call for help. She just wasn’t sure if anyone was close enough to hear her.
The front door behind her burst open with such force it slammed against the wall. Troy ran inside and put his hands on her shoulders.
“What is it?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Someone’s in here,” she whispered.
He let go of her and rushed off, intent on rescuing her as usual. Just like he’d chased the intruder from her cabin into the woods that first day back in Shelby.
But he wasn’t limping today.
Lakin struggled to keep up with him as he ran through the lounge and down a wide hall. He opened each door off the hallway. Finally he stopped outside one, and Lakin caught up with him, peering over his shoulder into the room, she saw shattered glass sparkle in the sunlight pouring through an open window.
“Someone took the boards off from the outside,” she said, keeping her voice low.
“They didn’t get inside,” he said, pointing to a small hole in the glass. Someone had hit it with some kind of tool, probably whatever they’d used to pry off the boards. But they hadn’t gotten through the window.
Maybe her scream had scared them off. She released a shaky breath of relief.
Troy spun away from the window as if to head outside.
She grasped his arm. “Stop.” She didn’t want him getting hurt because of whatever was going on with her. “I’ll call the police.”
“Whoever it is will be gone by the time Officer Reynolds gets here.”
“Whoever it was is probably already gone,” she pointed out.
Troy tugged his arm from her grasp and hurried from the room, as if trying to prove her wrong. Or catch the would-be intruder.
She hoped she was right and that the person was long gone. Or Troy could be running into danger.
