A woman’s whimper of fear made its way out of the room. Poor Miss Stiles. The intruder shouted into the quiet, his voice more high-pitched than before. He was starting to panic. “I told you to put that damn gun down. You know you’re not gonna shoot her.”
“Are you planning to shoot me?” Griffen asked mildly as if they were chatting over a beer and pizza.
“Damn straight, I’m gonna shoot you. Missed you in your office. Fuckin’ bad luck you leaning down. I almost had you. And the car flipping. Shoulda killed you. This time, I’m gonna blast off your mother-fucking face.”
“Like you shot my father?” Griffen asked, sounding curious as if he hadn’t even registered the threat.
“I wish I’d killed that bastard. Give whoever did it a medal. A goddamned medal. No one deserved killing like your daddy.”
“Not sure I disagree with you on that,” Griffen said in that same maddeningly-relaxed tone. “But why did you want my father dead? What did he do to you?”
Chapter Forty-Five
Hope
I peeked into the room, staying out of the light. The intruder’s hand trembled with rage, his eyes burning, his arm a bar across Miss Stiles’ throat.
“That bastard fired me. Said I was unreliable. One time I was drinking on the job. One goddamn time. I lost my job. I lost my wife. She moved away with my boy. Couldn’t get another job in town when everybody found out why Sawyer let me go. Whole fucking life ruined because o’ your holier-than-thou daddy. And now you’re gonna be dead, too. You and all the rest of them.”
His eyes flared with a kind of joyous intent, his arm steadied as he took aim on Griffen.
Griffen was stuck. He could fire, but Miss Stiles was not slightly built and her body made a great shield.
I knew Griffen. He wouldn’t risk her life.
I would.
I did.
Crouched in the corner of the doorway, mostly out of sight, I rolled the medicine ball into the kitchen, straight at Miss Stiles’ feet. I ducked into the shadows, betting the intruder would look up. He did, his arm loosening on Miss Stiles’ neck as he turned to see where the ball had come from.
The gun he had pointed at Griffen slid to the side. The second the barrel wasn’t pointed straight at Griffen, I palmed the smaller ball in my left hand and pitched it straight at the arm around Miss Stiles’ neck. My aim wasn’t great. I caught more of Miss Stiles than I’d meant to, but I figured a bruised jaw was better than dead.
The man with the gun yelped in surprise, his arm loosening even more, body turning to the side as he looked for whoever had thrown the ball. I let him see me before diving out of the doorway and flattening my back against the stone wall. He could shoot at me, but a bullet wasn’t getting through that stone.
I heard feet scuffle, a shout. A gunshot. My heart froze, but I didn’t dare look. I should run, take off for safety. I could be up the stairs and on the main level in less than two minutes. There wasn’t anything else I could do to help.
My feet refused to move. I wasn’t leaving Griffen.
A woman’s sobs leaked into the hall. Griffen’s voice, swearing. “Stop moving, you fucking asshole.”
I slid closer to the open doorway and risked a look. Miss Stiles was crumpled in the corner weeping into her apron, but I didn’t see any blood. Griffen knelt on the intruder’s back, both of their guns out of reach on the floor, the intruder’s hands wrenched behind his back.
I stepped into the room. “I called Savannah. Hawk and West are on their way.”
Griffen glared at me. “Get the fuck out of here, Hope. Are you insane? Did you call Savannah and then come back here?”
Relief flooded through me at the strength in his voice. He was okay. I ignored his questions. “Are you all right? Did anyone get hurt?”
“I’m fine. Everyone’s fine. Answer my question. Did you call Savannah and then come back here?”
“Obviously,” was my not so brilliant response. Griffen glared at me. I tried to look contrite. Griffen wasn’t having it.
“Why would you do such a goddamn stupid thing?”
“I wasn’t leaving you. You can yell at me all you want, but I wasn’t leaving you.”
He shook his head but didn’t say anything else. Hawk came in the room from behind me, his eyes like ice. “Hope. Someone gets in the house, you hide in your fucking room until you get the all-clear from me, West, or Griffen. Got it? You do not—”
Hawk looked around the room, trying to figure out what had happened.
Griffen helpfully supplied, “Roll a medicine ball at him.”
Hawk rolled his eyes. “You threw a medicine ball at an intruder with a weapon?”