Page 64 of Colton First Responder (Coltons of Mustang Valley)

“Damn!” Grayson muttered softly. “Could the alarm have gone off after all?”

“Zane might have modified it,” Savannah said nervously. He had talked about hiring a security company to improve the system someday, but he hadn’t done that while she was living here.

“Anywhere we can hide?” Grayson whispered.

She felt her face light up, if only a little. “Yes. Zane was always secretive.” She, too, kept her voice low. Raising a finger, she beckoned Grayson to follow her. She hurried as quietly as she could back to the same dresser, where she pulled open the wooden door on the bottom left. The open area there was surprisingly vast and even extended into the wall. Savannah had wondered what Zane planned to hide there someday. Cash stolen from his job? She wouldn’t have been surprised—but if he had, he’d fortunately taken the money with him. That left an area large enough to hide both Grayson and her.

They both got down on the floor and crawled inside, and Grayson, holding the recorder, pulled the door closed behind them.

They waited. Savannah felt terrified, but it helped that Grayson snuggled against her as they both sat on the base of the cabinet and bent forward at the waist. He even put an arm around her. He was warm and comforting—and Savannah hoped that the cops didn’t find them here and now.

It apparently took a while for the police to conduct their search of the place, and eventually Savannah heard footsteps in the hallway, then voices as the cops came inside Zane’s bedroom. She glanced at Grayson, who was hardly visible in the darkness of the cabinet. He hugged her slightly harder as if in reassurance, then eased up. And stared at the cabinet door as if ready to leap out and attack the intruders.

But it didn’t sound as if they would remain there long. They seemed to be grumbling about being there, talking about how the damned wind might have blown a door open and set off the alarm at the security company, which had notified the police station. From what Savannah could tell, they just walked through Zane’s bedroom, circling it for maybe a minute as they talked, then started out again—or so she hoped.

Savannah was a bit startled when Grayson pushed the door open just a little and looked out.

And appeared a bit startled, too. He closed it quietly and quickly, then held Savannah’s arm to keep her motionless for a short while that felt like forever.

He seemed to be listening. Concentrating.

And in a while he whispered to her, “Let’s go.”

Chapter 19

Grayson extracted himself from the bottom of the cabinet first and stood. He stretched, listening, and heard nothing. No one.

Not even his cousin Spencer.

Grayson had thought he recognized Spencer’s voice when the cops were in the room talking. That was why he had carefully peeked out. And confirmed who it was. And fortunately hadn’t been noticed.

If the other cops hadn’t been there too, would Grayson have let Spencer know of his presence and Savannah’s?

No. He couldn’t do that to either Sava

nnah or Spencer. Spencer would have had to arrest fugitive Savannah, even if Grayson made a good case for her innocence.

Which he certainly believed he could.

Even so, to do his job right, Spencer would probably have felt compelled to take Grayson into custody for abetting her.

Maybe even Grayson’s brother Rafe’s fiancée, Detective Kerry Wilder, would feel the same way.

Grayson hadn’t thought he would have to hide anything from his family members, but that was before Savannah.

Grayson waited another few minutes in case he heard more from the cops, then said quietly to Savannah, “Okay, I think they’ve left. Time for us to get out of here.”

He helped her to her feet, noticing the pinkness to her face beneath her makeup. That jacket had to be making her feel awfully warm. But it did help in her disguise, so he didn’t suggest she take it off, at least not yet.

In fact, in case someone saw them, he handed her the recorder and its wires, and asked her to hide them beneath the jacket, since it wouldn’t fit in her small purse nor in his pockets. The base of the jacket was secured by a cord belt, so the recorder should easily remain there.

“Okay,” she said. “Do you think it’s all right for us to go out the same way we came in?”

“Better than the front,” Grayson responded. “And I gathered that the neighbors at that side don’t use that entrance to their place, or so I figured from the amount of cactus around their gate. They probably won’t notice us. So, yes.”

Grayson insisted on preceding Savannah slowly along the hallway and down the stairs to the kitchen, continuing to remain alert the entire way. But fortunately, he still believed he was correct in assuming the police had left.

Finally, they reached the door they had come in. Again, he insisted on going first and opened the door just a little to ensure he didn’t see or hear anyone outside before they exited.

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