Chapter Eleven
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Laney’s breath stalled as she leaned closer to the glow of Harlan’s phone. God, what was happening now?
The screen showed the live feed, grainy in the dark but clear enough. Not a vehicle but rather someone on foot. Someone ducking in and out of the trees and making their way toward the house.
“Can’t tell who it is,” Harlan muttered.
Neither could she, but her pulse pounded in her ears as she braced for the unknown face that might appear out of the trees. Every second felt stretched thin, heavy with the question of whether this was danger walking straight to their doorstep.
Then the camera caught movement. A figure stepped into view, and the light from the sensor flared.
Billy.
He stopped on the side of the driveway leading to the house. His face was set, his eyes flicking toward the lens as if he knew exactly where it was, knew they were watching him.
Billy raised his hands, palms out in surrender. Maybe because he wanted them to believe he was no threat. But he was too close, far too close, and her instincts screamed otherwise.
What the heck was he doing here?
On the screen, Billy stayed frozen in place, hands still lifted, staring directly at the camera. Almost like he wanted an audience. Almost like this was a performance meant for them.
“Garrett?” Harlan called out.
Almost immediately boots thudded against the hall floor, and a second later Garrett filled the doorway. His gaze landed on the phone in Harlan’s hand, and he lifted his own phone to show them he was watching the same thing.
“Any idea what he wants?” Garrett asked.
Harlan shook his head. “Not yet, but I’ll find out.”
Laney stepped forward before he could move. “I’m going with you.”
Harlan turned, eyes narrowing, the protest already in his expression. “No. You should stay here.”
She shook her head, her voice sharp with resolve. “I’m not sitting inside while he’s out there. I need to hear what he has to say.”
The silence between them stretched, thick with the risk that she was demanding to take.
Finally Garrett broke it. “I’ll stay here with Evie and Carol. They won’t be left unprotected.”
Laney nodded. Her heart was racing, but her mind was set. She wouldn’t be sidelined. Billy was a good thirty yards away, but she didn’t want him even that close to the house.
To Evie.
She and Harlan vested up, both of them drawing their weapons as they headed out. Laney heard Garrett lock up behind them, and they hurried to the SUV with Harlan getting behind the wheel. He fired up the engine and got them moving toward, well, whatever the heck this was.
A meeting? A confrontation? An attack?
She was ready for whatever Billy was about to try to dole out to them.
Her pulse was thundering in her ears by the time the SUV rolled to a stop at the end of the driveway.
The beams of the headlights cut across Billy, throwing his shadow long and thin across the gravel.
He had lowered his hands, though he still stood perfectly still, as if waiting for them to make the first move.
She forced herself to study him, every detail. His stance. His breathing. The set of his shoulders. He didn’t look like a man about to rush them, but appearances could be lies.
Laney’s gaze flicked to the dark stretch of road beyond.
The sensors would have tripped if he’d brought anyone else, like a gunman, onto the property with him.
Or if he’d tried to plant another explosive in the drive.
That much she was certain of. Yet certainty didn’t ease the knot in her stomach.
He could still have a weapon hidden at his side.
This could be it. A sick, desperate gamble to end things in one final act of violence.
Her hand rested against the butt of her gun, her fingers tightening. If Billy made even the slightest wrong move, she would see it, and she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot.
“We stay put,” Harlan insisted. “We have this conversation from inside the SUV.” Low. Steady. Ready for whatever was about to come.
Laney drew in a breath and braced herself. Billy had brought the fight to their doorstep. Now they had to find out why.
Harlan lowered the window a fraction and leaned forward in the driver’s seat, his voice cutting through the still night. “Why are you here, Billy?”
Billy lifted his hands again, shaking his head hard. “I swear, I’m not planting a bomb. I don’t have anything on me, not even a gun. I just came to talk, that’s all. I stopped when I saw the sensor and the camera. I knew you’d be watching so I waited for you to come out.”
Laney narrowed her eyes, her gut twisting with suspicion. His words might have sounded harmless, but nothing about this felt right.
“You just wanted to talk?” she snapped. “Then where’s your vehicle? It’s nowhere in sight.”
Billy’s jaw tightened. He didn’t answer right away, and that silence was answer enough.
“That tells me you parked somewhere else and walked up,” Harlan threw out there. “Or maybe someone dropped you off. Either way, if you’d truly wanted to talk, you could have called. You could have come straight to the front door. You didn’t.”
Laney’s hand flexed on her weapon, the weight of her suspicion settling deep. “So tell me the truth, Billy. What are you really doing here?”
Billy shifted uneasily, glancing toward the dark stretch of road as if expecting headlights to crest the rise. “I didn’t want to be seen,” he said finally, his voice rough. “Not by anybody. Especially not your cop neighbor.”
Laney’s pulse quickened. “Sherry can’t see my house from here. You know that as well as I do.”
Billy wet his lips, his gaze darting back to them. “I didn’t mean like that. I meant if she happened to drive by. I didn’t want her spotting me out here, didn’t want her asking questions.”
Laney’s suspicion deepened. “Why Sherry?” she pressed.
He hesitated, hands flexing at his sides, then let out a sharp breath. “Because I’m sure she’s tangled up in something dirty. I don’t know what exactly, but she is. And I don’t want her knowing I came to talk to you.”
The night seemed to close in tighter around them, every shadow at the edge of the headlights pressing in.
Laney felt her skin prickle, torn between fear and the sharp edge of possibility.
If Billy was lying, it was another trap.
If he was telling the truth, then Sherry was more dangerous than she had imagined.
Laney huffed, shivering against the chill that had nothing to do with the October night. Billy’s words felt too slick, too convenient, like a half-truth meant to bait them.
Beside her, Harlan shifted his weight and his tone cut sharp. “Why didn’t you tell the sheriff that during your interview?”
Billy scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Tell a cop about a dirty cop? Yeah, that would go real well.” His mouth twisted into a bitter grin.
Laney shot him a hard look. “You’re telling a cop now.”
Billy leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice as though the shadows themselves might be listening. “This is different. You’re not just a badge. You’re David’s widow. And it’s my guess you don’t exactly have warm, fuzzy feelings about your former co-worker, Sherry Dalton.”
His words landed with a sting, and Laney felt her jaw tighten. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of a reaction, but her heart thumped harder. Billy had just put his finger on the exact fracture line she was trying to hold steady.
Billy’s eyes gleamed with a mix of arrogance and satisfaction, as if he had finally put a card on the table that could not be ignored.
“When she was on the job, she was dipping into the evidence locker,” he said, his tone low, like he was savoring the reveal. “Guns, ammo, even a little coke and meth. Moving it to smugglers out of town, keeping it quiet so no one looks too close.”
Laney’s stomach turned. “That’s a serious accusation. Do you have any proof?”
Billy gave a humorless laugh. “Proof? No. But I’d bet everything I’ve got the Rangers could dig it up if they wanted. She’s careful, but she isn’t clean. That’s why she’s nervous, why she’s lashing out. She thinks someone’s finally coming for her.”
Harlan’s jaw flexed as he listened, his silence weighing heavy, but Laney couldn’t stop herself. “And you think that’s why she’s trying to kill us? Why the explosive was planted?”
Billy spread his hands, palms up, almost mocking in his surrender. “Makes sense, doesn’t it? She’s spooked. David might have known something. Maybe he was getting too close, and now she’s making sure nobody else gets the chance to drag her down with him.”
Laney’s pulse throbbed in her ears. It was all hearsay, nothing but smoke and bitterness. Yet the note flashed in her mind again, sharp and cruel: David tried to destroy me. Now I’m going to destroy what’s his.
If Billy was lying, it was another attempt to shove suspicion onto someone else. But if he was telling the truth, Sherry Dalton might be far more dangerous than Laney had ever allowed herself to believe.
Laney kept her grip firm on the gun, the weight of it steady in her hands as she watched Billy. Her pulse was a hammer in her ears, but she didn’t lower the weapon.
“How do you know all this?” she snarled.
Billy gave a half-smile, the kind that made her want to squeeze the trigger. “I’ve got sources. People talk. Especially when they think nobody’s listening.”
The way he said it twisted her gut. She forced herself to stay steady, finger close to the trigger guard. “Do your sources know anything about payments? There was a note in David’s book. Just one word. ‘Payment.’”
Something flickered across Billy’s face before he leaned forward a fraction. “Your husband was suspicious. He was digging into Sherry’s side dealings before he died. I was close enough once to hear her tell him she could make it worth his while if he backed off.”
Laney’s stomach knotted. “She tried to bribe him?”
Billy nodded quickly. “That’s how it sounded. But David refused. Said he wasn’t for sale. That’s the man you married. I figure that note in his book, that ‘payment?’ was him trying to make sense of it. Maybe wondering who else she’d paid before.”
Laney’s grip on the gun tightened. If Billy was lying, every word was meant to slice deeper into her doubts. If he was telling the truth, then David had stumbled into something darker than she realized.
She glanced at Harlan, searching his face for some read on Billy’s words, but she already knew. Whether true or false, they had just been handed another thread. One that could either unravel everything or strangle them in knots.
“Laney and I heard Brannigan and Sherry arguing,” Harlan said, his voice cutting through the silence. “What was that about?”
Billy opened his mouth, the beginnings of a reply twitching across his face, but then he froze. His head snapped to the side, eyes narrowing into the dark tree line. Slowly, he stooped, one hand braced on his knee, the other lifted like he was listening for something.
“Wait. Did you hear that?” Billy asked.
Laney tensed, pulse racing. She strained, ears open, but all she caught was the night. The insects, the faint rustle of leaves. Nothing else. Harlan shook his head.
“No,” Harlan answered.
Laney wanted to agree, but a sharp whisper of instinct kept her silent. She wasn’t standing out there like Billy, wasn’t exposed to the night air and its shifting sounds. Maybe he heard something they couldn’t.
Her gaze scanned the trees, the shadows stretching long across the field. She saw nothing. No movement. No shape breaking the dark.
“There,” Billy hissed. He straightened, but his body had gone taut, ready. “I heard it again. Someone’s coming.”
Before either she or Harlan could demand details, Billy bolted. His body cut through the shadows, disappearing into the dense cover of trees in a matter of heartbeats.
The night had swallowed him whole.
Laney’s pulse hammered in her throat as she scanned the trees where Billy had vanished. The shadows were thick and restless, every branch moving like it might be hiding someone.
She swallowed hard and whispered to Harlan, “Should we go after him?”
Harlan kept his eyes locked on the tree line, his jaw tight. “No. Too risky. That could be exactly what he wants, to draw us in blind.”
Laney gripped her gun tighter, her chest rising and falling fast. The night pressed against them, heavy with silence. For a moment, she thought maybe Billy had run for good. Then the crack of a rifle shattered the stillness.
The windshield of the SUV exploded in front of her, a bullet slamming into the glass.
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