Page 46 of Maverick Detective Dad
Everly locked on to that image of her precious child, and it gave her a dose of resolve that she needed. The killer might have his own motive for what he was doing, but keeping her baby safe was a powerful incentive to make sure Noah and she succeeded at catching and stopping this monster.
“If Bobby’s the killer, and he stops,” she said as they pulled into her driveway, “you’ll continue to look for evidence to put him away.” It wasn’t a question, but she wanted to hear Noah spell it out.
“I will,” he assured her. “The killer isn’t going to get away with what he’s done.”
No, he couldn’t because as long as he was out there, he was a threat. He might not be out to seek justice, but he could want them or someone eliminated to make sure he was never ID’d.
Noah drove past the reserve deputy’s dark blue SUV, and he pulled to a stop in front of her house and checked the next text he got. “Grayson put an APB out on Bobby,” he said, reading the message. “No sign though of him or River. Jared’s not at his apartment either.”
“Is SAPD still searching the place?” Everly wanted to know.
He shook his head. “They finished and found nothing. They called Jared and told him he could return home, but he hasn’t shown up yet.”
Maybe that meant he was here in Silver Creek, trying to figure out the best way to get to Noah and her. A couple of hours ago, Everly would have thought the killer coming after them was a certainty. But maybe Helen had changed all of that. Well, it would change things if Bobby was the killer. His motive for seeking justice would be gone, and...she stopped as something occurred to her.
“Do you think Bobby might try to hurt Helen?” she asked.
“It’s possible.” Noah didn’t hesitate, which meant this had already occurred to him. “Grayson called the inn and told them to make sure everything was locked up. Helen refused police protection,” he added.
Everly hadn’t known about that, but then Grayson had made some calls after he’d returned from his search, and he’d also sent several text updates to Noah.
Noah turned to her, and even though the only illumination came from dash lights and her porch, she had no trouble seeing the worry on his face. “You can change your mind about this,” he reminded her. “We can stay in the break room at the sheriff’s office.”
The debate she’d been having with herself came again. “I want to stop the killer, but I don’t want to do something to put you in danger.”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a quick smile. “I could say something cocky like danger’s my middle name, but I’m not worried about me. It’s you.”
Their gazes met, and even though she knew what he meant, it sounded like what he would have told her way back when.It’s you, as in we were meant to be together. Years ago, before Helen and before that night, he’d said things like that to her, and she had believed them. That’s why she’d given herself to him, why she had thought they’d be together for a lifetime.
Oh, yes. She definitely had some rethinking to do.
“We can’t go back and erase the pain of the last fourteen years,” she muttered.
“No,” he quickly agreed.
His gaze stayed locked with hers for several more moments before he cursed under his breath. She thought he might say more, about them moving beyond the past to see where the future would take them, but he glanced away, looking at her house instead. Everly saw the shift. Saw the cop now instead of just the man, and she knew this was the way it had to be until the killer was caught.
“You’ll unlock the door with the app on your phone,” he instructed, gathering up the computer bag he’d brought with them. She knew he’d put two laptops in there and had covered it with a plastic garbage bag to protect the computers from the rain. “We’ll run inside the house. Run,” he emphasized. “Don’t turn on the overhead lights and stay away from the windows. If the killer is out there, I don’t want to make this easy for him. Besides, he might not use a tranquilizer dart the next time. He might decide to go for a straight kill.”
That gave her a jolt of just how bad things could get. And they could get bad. Somehow though, what seemed worse than an attack was not having this resolved. Until it was, she’d never be able to get back to her life with Ainsley.
“Hudson sent me a text about the updates he was able to make before the storm got so bad,” Noah went on. He showed her the new app on his phone. “The exterior cameras will now trigger an alarm so I’m going to have to pause them so we can get inside.”
She was glad Hudson had managed to add that much, and it would hopefully work with what she already had. That way, they didn’t get blindsided by someone sneaking in.
Everly did as Noah had instructed and unlocked the door while he hit the pause button on the cameras. She didn’t even consider using an umbrella because with the howling wind, it would just slow them down and wouldn’t stop them from getting wet. Instead, Noah and she focused on moving as fast as possible from the cruiser and onto the porch.
Once they were inside the house, she shut the door, locked it and used her phone to set the security system. It wasn’t easy to do because her hands were wet, but it was a necessity. Since all the windows and doors were part of the system, an alarm would sound if someone tried to break in.
The AC wasn’t running at the moment, but the air in the house was cool because of the storm. Her hair and clothes were dripping wet so she felt the chill slide over her, causing her to shiver. Her nerves didn’t help with that. They were right at the surface, and every muscle in her body was knotted.
It wasn’t exactly pitch-dark inside, but it was close enough, and it took her eyes a couple of seconds to adjust. Everly glanced around, looking for any and everything out of place. She didn’t see anyone lurking in the shadows, but her attention landed on the piece of paper on the table in the foyer.
With his hand positioned over the hilt of his gun, Noah set the computer bag aside and rearmed the security cameras. He, too, was soaked through and through, but he didn’t stop to dry off. He started looking around as well while Everly used the flashlight on her phone to read the paper.
“It’s from Hudson,” she relayed to Noah. “He apologized for not being able to finish doing the security updates, but he wanted us to know that he added dead bolts to the doors.”
Everly immediately used the dead bolt on the front door and heard Noah do the same to the one just off the kitchen. “Because someone could jam the security system,” she muttered under her breath.
