Page 40 of Final Inning

Hell yes, he would. He was surprised she didn’t realize that by now. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for this woman. That was one of the things that made her so damned dangerous. “I think you can handle yourself just fine. You don’t need me to save you.”

“But you would if you had to. It is one thing that makes you tolerable.” She was watching him. Knight just drove. He was not going to fall for one of her little thought traps right now. That way lay danger. He had learned his lesson with this woman long before. “I am afraid of what will happen to Hagan. She doesn’t exactly have a lot of resources in this situation.”

“All we can do is give her what help we can.” And he hated that fact. There were too many bastards like Ted Johnson out there, preying on those in positions where they couldn’t fight back. “Men like that…know who to target.”

“They do. But sometimes…people fight back.”

“Yes. And they win.” And Knight was going to make Johnson a personal project of his own now.

Chapter 29

Hagan stayed at her window, watching the night longer than she probably should have. She wiped her cheeks—she had done enough crying because of Ted Johnson. She needed to get some sleep. Tomorrow would come early—they were tracking down every name on the list they’d come up with. There were eighteen men who fit the general profile Dr. Talley had given her. All eighteen were going to have to be interviewed.

They didn’t exactly have probable cause—but no one was being arrested yet. They were just looking for information.

Johnson was…never going to get better. She had spent two hours tonight going over job postings in Oklahoma and in Texas. Weighing her options. She’d have to do more job training if she went to Texas. But there had also been a private security firm associated with Barratt-Handley looking for people with law enforcement experience.

It paid a lot better than the TSP.

She watched the few cars going by. The road in front of her townhouse was narrow—but it was the main road through the county. These were the only places to rent in the entire Buckbert area now. Rental properties just weren’t that plentiful in an area where people either stayed forever or left forever and never looked back.

Dr. Talley had suggested she leave. Move. That was what Hagan really wanted. She just hadn’t done it yet.

Maybe she was just…too afraid to step off the ledge?

She really didn’t have a reason to stay where she was. If she died tomorrow—no one in Buckbert would even remember her five years from now. She had no one here.

She really didn’t. It was time she just did it.

Tomorrow, she was sending in her resume to that company in Texas. The worst that could happen was they said no, right?

Movement outside caught her attention.

An SUV circled the parking lot while she watched. It was too dark to tell if it was one she recognized. She didn’t think it belonged to the other five buildings. She didn’t think she’d seen it before—she tried to keep up with her neighbors. And something about the way it was cruising by…so slow…right in front of her unit.

She watched for a long moment. Until it turned, and left the parking lot behind.

They hadn’t stopped. They hadn’t gotten out.

Something had the hair raising on the back of her neck. They were looking for someone.

And they’d been focused on the unit on the very end. She was sure of it.

It was where she was standing right now.

Hagan grabbed the camera she kept pointed on her living room—she liked to check on her cat throughout the day. Her cat was getting older, and Hagan worried about her sometimes. She pointed the camera out her front window. If that car came back tonight, she wanted video. To see if she could grab a plate number.

And if anything happened to her…

Johnson had been very, very angry with her today. Angrier than she had ever seen him.

Hagan was sleeping with her Glock tonight.

Just to be on the safe side.

Something didn’t feel right now.

It just didn’t.