Page 57 of Targeted in Silver Creek

“Not a chance,” Jesse responded. “Are you alone?” he repeated.

The woman didn’t make that hard gasp this time, but she also didn’t respond to Jesse’s question. However, because Jesse was listening carefully, he heard more of those footsteps. Maybe two sets, indicating that someone was indeed with her, but he couldn’t be sure.

He glanced back at Hanna and Evan, the light from her phone casting an eerie shadow on her face. He saw the worry. And the fear. But he also saw something else. Her determination to keep their son safe. She shifted in the tub, lying Evan down so she could hover over him.

Shield him with her body.

Putting herself in a position in case she had to fight.

Jesse hated she had to take a risk like that, but it was necessary. They were parents, and their child came first. He hadn’t needed a reminder like that to know just how much he loved Evan.

Hanna, too.

Maybe, just maybe he’d get the chance to tell both of them that. But for that to happen, he had to put an end to the threat.

His gaze slashed back to the door when he heard the sound of the knob moving. Possibly Isabel, but it was more likely a gunman. Someone who’d be ready to start firing at first chance.

Jesse turned off his flashlight, slipped his phone back in his pocket, and took aim. Waiting, while every nerve and muscle in his body went on full alert.

“Isabel?” Jesse called out when the door opened just a fraction.

“Yes—” Again, the woman was cut off or merely stopped to make it sound that way. There were a couple of heart-stopping seconds before she finally added, “Don’t shoot me.”

“Don’t give me a reason to shoot you,” Jesse countered.

Isabel made a strangled sound, one that might have been terror, and the door opened even wider. Jesse cursed the darkness because his eyes were still adjusting, and he could only see the outline of a person. He wasn’t sure if it was Isabel or someone else. But what he didn’t spot was a weapon.

“I’m sorry,” Isabel said.

Like her coughs and other sounds, it seemed genuine.Seemed. “For what?” Jesse demanded. He adjusted his aim as the door fully opened and the woman stepped closer. Not actually into the room though. Isabel stayed in the doorway.

And she wasn’t alone.

There was someone standing behind her. And this time when he looked, Jesse did see a weapon.

It was aimed at Isabel’s head.

Jesse braced for the gut-slam of adrenaline, and it came. He did a quick assessment of the situation and realized that even if Isabel was truly in danger, he didn’t have a clean shot to take out the person who could be holding her at gunpoint.

A person who could be a man or woman.

Whoever it was, they weren’t that much taller than Isabel, which didn’t rule out either Shaw or Marlene. Of course, the person could also be stooping down to try to disguise his or her height, and he or she was wearing what appeared to be a gas mask.

“I’m supposed to tell you that you need to come with me,” Isabel said, her voice shaking.

She was shaking, too. Jesse could see that now that his eyes had finally adjusted, and he thought she was still feeling the effects of whatever drug she’d taken or been given.

“You and Hanna are supposed to come out,” Isabel added when her captor dug the gun harder into the side of her head. She made another sob. “The baby can stay here where he’ll be safe.”

“Safe,” Jesse snapped. “With armed men shooting bullets and tear gas. He woke up crying when the security alarm went off. Terrified and crying.” In the grand scheme of things, that probably wouldn’t seem like a big deal to some people.

Including a would-be killer.

But Jesse’s comment seemed to hit the mark with Isabel. Evan’s grandmother. She let out a hoarse sob. She swung as if to punch the person holding her, but that didn’t work. Her captor merely tightened the grip around Isabel’s neck.

Jesse got the motherlode of flashbacks. To the night Hanna had been shot. It’d been dark then, too, and Arnie had held her in an almost identical pose with the gun to her head. He hadn’t had a clear shot then. Hadn’t been able to do anything while Arnie had dragged Hanna into the trees and shot her.

Hanna was no doubt hearing all of this, and he prayed she wasn’t on the verge of a panic attack. Prayed that they could do enough to get through this. But it had to cut her to the bone to know that her mother was in danger. Or that Isabel was the cause of all of this.

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