Midnight Exposure (Midnight #1)(71)
Reed didn’t reply as Doug stomped out the front door.
Doug didn’t even want to give Jayne’s case five minutes, let alone enough time to uncover any leads. Plus, the cop was determined to ignore any link between the crimes. In Reed’s experience, coincidences weren’t all that common. The kid’s death, Jayne’s abduction, and the fire were all related. Reed just didn’t know how or why. But Doug was right. Occult cases were disturbing.
“Reed,” Jayne called from the kitchen.
“Did you get it to work?”
“No. I’m going to e-mail it to a friend of mine and see if she can do something with it. She’s a whiz with editing photos and has all the latest software.” Jayne tapped the keys much harder than necessary.
Reed stopped next to her chair. He itched to lean down and rest his forehead against her temple. But he didn’t. Space was what he needed. And a clear head. Besides, it was going to be hard enough when she walked out his door later that day. If he let her get any more entrenched in his heart, it would crack in two the moment she left. “You OK?”
“Yeah.” She breathed out a long sigh. “I don’t want to go home without knowing who is after me. It’ll never be over.”
Reed inhaled the scent of her. He didn’t want her to go home period. But, putting his selfishness aside, she’d be safer at home. Even if she could stay, her family ties to Philadelphia were strong. He doubted she’d leave her brothers to live out in the middle of nowhere with him. She’d be miserable. Jayne was a city girl. She’d miss her family, and he couldn’t ask that kind of sacrifice from someone he’d known for a weekend.
No matter how much his chest ached at the thought of never seeing her again.
The least he could do was ensure she was safe. Doug could kiss his ass. Reed would continue to work on Jayne’s case after she left. With Doug determined to wait on official reports, the case was going stale fast.
Careful not to touch her, Reed reached over and Googled the occult store in Greenville. “Wiccan Ways is about forty minutes away. If we leave now, we can be there when the store opens and get back here well before your brothers arrive.”
“OK. Pat said he’d call my cell when they were a couple hours away.” Jayne stood and stretched her long, lean body. Reed’s hand twitched to stroke her torso, but he resisted. He could make love to her every day and never be sated. Better to make a clean break.
She was leaving in a matter of hours.
A few minutes later Jayne stepped out onto the salt-dusted stoop. The sky was a clear winter blue, the air thin and brisk as it chilled her nose and cheeks. Reed followed a few feet behind her as they walked on the path to the truck.
As Jayne reached for the car door, Reed slipped on a patch of ice. The loud crack of a rifle shot snapped through the air. Splinters of wood exploded from the cedar siding behind him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Jayne’s heart vaulted into her throat. Before the shot’s echo faded into the woods, Reed launched his body at her. The air hissed out of her lungs as his shoulder slammed into her midsection. Her martial arts training kicked in and she executed a sloppy forward fall, slapping the frozen ground and spreading the impact evenly from her hands to her elbows. The move saved her from broken wrists, but her forearms still stung.
Reed crawled up her body and pressed her down next to the driveway.
“What was that?” she breathed over her shoulder. His breath warmed her ear as cold seeped into her body from underneath.
“Rifle shot.” Reed’s weight on her back shifted.
Black metal flashed in Jayne’s peripheral vision. Reed is armed.
He whispered in her ear. “We’re in a bad spot here. I can’t see anything over those banks. We’re going to move forward so we’re between the truck and the house. Stay low.” Reed lifted himself into a crouch. “Get behind the engine block.”
Jayne crawled to the paved drive. Reed followed closely, his back pressed to hers, obviously using his own body as a human shield. Annoyance warred with gratitude at the gesture. Jayne knelt behind the front end of the Yukon. Reed rose on his knees and peered over the hood.
Another shot rang out. The bullet hit the house behind his head with a spray of cedar chips.
Reed ducked. “Son of a bitch!”
He leveled his gun over the hood and squeezed off two rounds into the woods. Though she knew it was coming, the quick pop pop, loud as firecrackers, still made Jayne flinch.
“See how the bastard likes return fire.”
They listened for several long minutes. No sound came from the woods except the occasional plop of melting snow dropping from sun-warmed tree limbs. Then the distant whir of an engine turning over broke the silence. The rumbling faded fast.
“Sounds like he doesn’t like it very much.” Reed scanned the trees. “I’m pretty sure he’s gone, but just in case, stay in front of me. We’ll run up to the house. Don’t run in a straight line.”
Jayne hoped he was gone, too. She estimated the distance from the truck to the house as approximately twenty feet, a flipping marathon if someone was pointing a rifle at you.
“Let’s go.” Reed shoved her in a jagged line toward the front door, keeping his body between Jayne and the threat in the woods. “Move.”
The few seconds it took them to run up the front walk seemed to pass in slow motion. Reed pinned her against the house and then behind the storm door until he unlocked the door, and they both stumbled across the threshold. He reached back and clicked the dead bolt into place.