Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Autumn felt the impact of Jordan’s kiss all the way down to her toes. She didn’t want their embrace to end, but Bear came over to nudge her, no doubt tired of Cutie’s constant playing.
She ended their kiss with regret, clearing her throat to give herself time to pull herself together. What had started as him offering a shoulder to lean on had morphed into something so much more. Fat raindrops began falling from the sky. She took that as a sign. “Ah, we should go inside.”
“Yeah.” Jordan’s low, husky voice made it even more difficult to walk toward the house.
She didn’t have to tell Bear to come—he stayed at her side the whole way. Cutie ran back and forth, as if to entice Bear to chase her.
That was so not happening, Autumn thought with a smile. She opened the door and let Bear go in first. He quickly sought refuge under the table.
She glanced at Jordan, who’d followed her inside as she shrugged out of her coat.
There was a hint of awkwardness between them after their kiss.
As she tried to think of something to say, a bolt of lightning brightened the sky, followed by rolling thunder.
She gestured toward the window. “Maybe the storm will keep our guy from trying again.”
“Maybe.” Jordan didn’t look convinced as he avoided her gaze. Was the awkwardness only on her side? Or was he trying to figure out the impact of their embrace the way she was?
Time to get to work. She gestured to her computer. “I think I need to go back to identifying perps with a dagger tattoo. At least we know for sure this guy has one. Better than chasing a car that may or may not belong to him.”
“Good idea.” Jordan sighed and scooped Cutie into his arms. “Leave poor Bear alone for a while, huh, girl?”
Cutie licked his chin.
Autumm looked away. The image of Jordan’s soft expression as he cuddled his puppy only made him more attractive.
And this wasn’t the time to become distracted.
The shooter could show up again at any time despite the change in weather, and she really needed to figure out who was behind these attacks.
Before someone got hurt.
She had started going through her list of suspects by checking the police database to see if any of them had tattoos. Those who did, she’d dug deeper to see what type. She hadn’t gotten around to looking at those people her mother had put behind bars.
Deciding to finish with her suspect list first, Autumn diligently checked every name on her list. Most of them had tattoos, which forced her to dig into each person’s record before she was able to rule them out.
She had only just started on her mother’s list of suspects when the power winked out.
The screen of her laptop glowed as it had a battery, but she swallowed a groan when she realized she hadn’t plugged in her laptop recently. The battery was only at 20 percent.
She turned to look at Jordan. “I don’t suppose you have a generator backup.”
“I’ve considered getting one but haven’t done that yet.” He shrugged. “A generator that would power the house and barn would cost me close to eight grand. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been in my budget.”
“I understand.” Her lack of foresight wasn’t his fault. “I should have had my laptop plugged in all this time. I didn’t realize storms were in the forecast.”
“You can borrow my laptop,” he offered. “Although the trail cameras are connected to that device.”
“Thanks for the offer, but that’s really not an option. There’s specific security on mine that yours doesn’t have.” She sighed and bent to plug in the computer so that it would begin charging the minute their power was restored. “I’ll work until this one dies.”
“You know, we should get some sleep while we can.” Jordan waved a hand toward the window. “I don’t see this guy running around outside in this deluge.”
He had a point, and her lack of sleep over the past two nights was catching up with her. She yawned, then looked down at Bear. He was snoring softly, and she wished she could fall asleep anywhere the way he could.
As much as she wanted to keep working, her computer battery wouldn’t last much longer. And she couldn’t access the police database with Jordan’s laptop. The Canyon Creek Police Department had installed special security software on her computer so that she could use it away from the station.
“Okay, you’re right. We may as well get some rest.” She knew it was smart to take advantage of the storm.
She closed her laptop, preserving the last bit of battery power left on the device in case of an emergency.
Then she rose and Bear stirred, lifting his head to look at her.
“Come, Bear. Good night, Jordan. Good night, Cutie,” she added when the puppy lifted her head.
“Good night.” He didn’t move from the sofa, keeping Cutie close—making her wonder if he intended to sleep out there again, the way he had last night.
Despite the toe-curling kiss she’d shared with Jordan, Autumn managed to fall asleep without difficulty.
It was the sudden absence of the storm that woke her.
She peered at her phone to see that it was almost four in the morning.
She slipped out of bed, opened the door and peered down the hallway. Bear ignored her.
There wasn’t a single light on in the house, indicating the power was still out. There was a definite chill in the air, and she shivered when she tiptoed into the living room.
Jordan was stretched out on the sofa with Cutie snuggled in beside him. Glancing outside, she noticed the storm had passed. A light drizzle still fell, but she suspected that would end soon enough.
She glanced back at Jordan, frowning when she realized his laptop computer screen was dark. The device had run out of battery power, too, leaving them without any camera surveillance to help identify an intruder.
With a grimace, she turned and went to peer out each window, searching for a sign of something amiss. When she finished without seeing anything alarming, she made her way back to the guest room. She shook her head wryly to find Bear hadn’t moved from his position.
Would her assailant show up now that the worst of the storm was over?
Hopefully, this guy was sleeping the night away. After all, he’d gotten even less rest than she and Jordan had. It made her angry at how many attempts he’d made to harm her, especially since he didn’t seem to care if he hurt or even killed Jordan along the way.
And it was equally frustrating that she couldn’t work on the case until the power was restored.
She crawled in beside Bear. Her K-9 radiated warmth, yet sleep eluded her.
Her thoughts jumped from the work the task force was doing to find the missing Mia to the assailant that had relentlessly targeted her.
After about thirty minutes of tossing and turning, Autumm gave up and rose to her feet.
She had slept in her clothes, which were hopelessly wrinkled.
Shoving her feet into her shoes, she wasn’t surprised when Bear jumped down from the bed, stretched and looked up at her expectantly.
“Gotta go out, huh, boy?” she whispered, reaching for her service weapon. She quietly opened the door, only to be greeted by Cutie.
Thankfully, Jordan was still sleeping. The poor guy had gotten less rest than she had, so she tried to be extra quiet as she drew on her coat and headed for the door.
Both dogs pressed against her legs, anxious to go outside.
Realizing they’d both be wet by the time they’d finished getting busy, she took a moment to grab some towels from her bathroom to leave inside the doorway. Hopefully, Jordan wouldn’t mind.
As she anticipated, the air was heavy with moisture and the ground was soaked, her feet making squishing noises when she walked. Whatever snow had been left was long gone.
Resting her hand on the butt of her gun, she walked the length of the ranch house, scanning the area. There were many places to hide, though, and she couldn’t see much of anything beyond the house itself with the clouds covering the sky, obscuring the moonlight.
Still, she was certain Bear would alert her if he caught the assailant’s scent. Which gave her an idea.
“Come, Cutie.” The puppy ignored her, determined to share a stick with Bear. With a sigh, she scooped the wet, soggy puppy into her arms. “Stay here, Bear.” She carried the puppy inside, used the towel to dry her off, then set her on her feet. “Be good,” she whispered before closing the door.
Bear stood sniffing the air with interest. She didn’t have water to offer, but there was enough moisture in the air she wasn’t too worried. “Search, Bear. Search for the bad guy.”
Her K-9 seemed to know just what she wanted as he lowered his nose to the ground and began to move in a zigzag pattern. The wind from the storm had died down, but there was enough of a breeze to carry the assailant’s scent.
If he was out here.
This could be nothing more than a futile effort on her part, but she didn’t care. She’d feel better to know the shooter wasn’t lurking nearby.
Bear abruptly picked up his pace, moving quickly toward the wooded area where she knew the intruder had stood firing at them last night. Had Bear locked onto his old scent? Or was the guy hiding out there again?
She pulled her weapon from her holster, just in case. Holding the Glock in a two-handed grip while keeping the muzzle pointed at the ground, she followed her K-9 toward the trees.
Bear didn’t alert, but he was clearly working the scent. Would he take her all the way back to the road where this guy had parked in the past? As the thought crossed her mind, the dog turned and headed in the opposite direction.
It took her a moment to realize Bear was heading for the wooded area directly behind the barn.