TREVOR GLANCED AT HIS phone, but there was still no new message from Kate. Or Iris. He wasn’t sure what to call her. She’d never made her preference known, so he’d avoided using either.

There were so many holes in her story, things she hadn’t yet shared with him. He couldn’t shake the feeling they were dealing with a limited amount of time. Either he got through to her and she trusted him enough to share her past with him or she was going to disappear.

“Earth to Trevor.” Jenna stopped in front of him. Her helmet sat a little askew on her head, mashing her bangs down so they were in her eyes.

“What?” He slid his phone into his pocket. It was time to focus on tonight. He’d worry about his lady problems later.

“What’s up with you?” Jenna tilted her head.

“Nothing.”

“Oh, please.”

Trevor grit his teeth and stared at the BearCat armored transport waiting to take them to the location for tonight’s op. They didn’t normally use heavily armored vehicles, but tonight had the potential of being dangerous to everyone involved.

Maybe he needed another woman’s input? Would Jenna have more insight than he did?

“We ever going to get this show on the road?” Casey Smith ambled past them to the curb a couple feet away and sat down.

Neither Jenna nor Trevor responded.

She wasn’t going to let this go.

Jenna was the sister he’d never asked for. If he was going to get anyone’s perspective it would be her’s.

“I found her,” he said.

“Her?” Jenna blinked a few times. “Long Legs?”

“Iris,” he said. Of the two names she’d given him, that one fit her better.

“Holy shit.”

“She lives less than a mile from me across the greenbelt.”

“How’d you find her?”

“I’ve known where she lived for a couple months now.”

“Wait, and you’re just now telling me about this? Spill.” Jenna jabbed him in the side, right in the tender spot.

“Stop.”

“You have some explaining to do.”

“Okay.” He batted away her hand. “I ran into her at the grocery store. She got spooked and went home. I felt bad, so I brought her groceries to her. She’s hiding from something. I know it.”

“You know that from delivering her groceries?” Jenna arched a brow.

“We’ve been talking. I gave her my number.”

“She’s setting off your damsel in distress radar, isn’t she?”

“Yeah.” Trevor glanced away. He couldn’t help getting sucked in even if he knew how this played out. He’d help her, she’d either cling to him or run away from him, but it always ended the same. With her leaving and him picking up the pieces.

“I thought you weren’t going to do this anymore. Trevor.”

“Yeah, well...” He shrugged.

“Romeo, Romeo,” Casey said in a sing-song voice from where he sat on the curb.

“Fuck you.” Trevor presented his middle finger to the other guy.

“Doc, guys, come on,” Neil barked at them. “Time to load up.”

“We will discuss this later.” Jenna hefted her first aid kit up higher on her hip then proceeded toward the truck. As their team’s tactical medic, she accompanied SWAT on all ops, running headlong into danger with them to treat the wounded.

Trevor needed to get his head in the game. If they were lucky and caught the suspect, Charles Ray, alone in the house this would be a fast op. But if Charles Ray had a couple of his buddies holed up with him things would go very bad. The old biker gang might have disbanded, but like attracts like and Charles Ray had found himself similar guys to run with.

Trevor had arrested a few of Charles Ray’s buddies during his patrol days. He knew they were potentially headed into a firestorm.

They loaded into the back of the truck, one seat noticeably empty.

Given how badly they all wanted to bag Charles Ray, Liam had opted to get into position two hours ago, using a neighbor’s tree house for his sniper perch.

“Jones has not reported any movement in the house.” Liam stood holding onto bars running along the roof of the truck as it rolled forward. “To our knowledge, Charles Ray is the only person in the house. We’ll do this just like we practiced. Quiet approach. Gas goes in, then us. Our goal is to apprehend Charles Ray without harm and deliver him to the FBI. I think we’ll all agree this is a win for everyone.”

Trevor should be excited about this. He remembered when the Peacocks were killed, how it had begun a period of several weeks with the biker gang and police going rounds. But all he could think about was a woman with dark hair and eyes.

He had to find out her secrets before time ran out and something happened to her.

PHILLIP DROVE SLOWLY down the lane while Little Tony craned his neck to get a look at Dina’s house.

“Neighbor’s still out there?” Phillip asked.

“Yes.”

“God damn, what’s wrong with them? It’s hot as hell and they want to be out in this?” Phillip continued to grumble as he pulled the car around the block and down another side street.

They didn’t dare park on the street with so many people out jogging and the neighbors carrying on outside. Every twenty minutes they did another drive by to check how things were.

Dina knew how to pick her hidey hole.

With the busy neighbors it made her place harder to get to. Phillip had seen a dozen dogs out being walked, most of which weren’t little either.

He hated dogs. All of them.

He found a shade tree to park under and kicked the cool air up. It was creeping past eight. The sun would fully set soon and then they could make a move so long as the damn neighbors went to bed.

Phillip leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

They hadn’t heard from Dominick yet and Phillip wasn’t in a hurry to talk to him. With any luck the cop would be old news by the time they got back. Phillip was out a car, but at least he’d escape the blame on this one.

When Little Tony had gone to town on the cop, Phillip just stood there too shocked to do anything about it. Then there was the kid, Rudy. His brains were splattered across a whole room. What had gotten into Little Tony? Where had this come from?

Phillip could still remember being kids. He’d lived a few houses down from Little Tony. They’d been five or six when they met Dominick. He’d been a prick then, and he was still kind of an asshole, but he was loyal to those who stuck by him. That was what mattered.

Dina had been there the same day they met Dominick. Little Tony had tried to tell her she was too young to play with them, at which point she’d pointed out she was two minutes older than her twin brother. Phillip had liked Dina better than her brother in those days. She’d had fire. She did things. When they were all too scared to climb to the top of the jungle gym, she tied her hair up and went for it.

It was a pit it had come to this.

Phillip hoped she wasn’t in the house that she was long gone.

“I always wanted to date Dina,” Little Tony said.

“You and every guy on the block.” Phillip snorted. “Her daddy wasn’t going to let that happen.”

“When we get in there, I’ll do it.”

Do it.

Kill her.

Phillip turned his head toward Little Tony. Was he looking forward to this? Did he get off on killing people now?

“With what piece?” Phillip had disposed of last night’s gun. They couldn’t have a string of deaths linked together that led back to them.

“Give me yours.”

“No.”

“You won’t pull the trigger.”

Phillip stared at LT. What was he trying to say?

“You think I can’t do it?” he asked slowly.

“I think you liked Dina too much.”

“And she snitched. Doesn’t matter that we used to be kids on the same playground.” Phillip shook his head.

“Let’s take a walk. See if we can’t get to the house.” Little Tony climbed out of the car.

Phillip sat in the driver’s seat for another moment longer.

He was going to have to kill Dina now. That fate was sealed. Her death would be on his hands. He’d have to live knowing he’d killed sweet little Dina, but that was the way of things.

Phillip got out of the car and locked it. Together he and Little Tony took the sidewalk back toward her house. The final rays of sunlight were fading. The joggers were gone and so were their dogs.

They rounded the corner of Dina’s street and strolled closer.

“Neighbors went in,” Little Tony said.

“But did they take their damn dogs with them?”

“I can handle that.”

Phillip shivered. He didn’t want to know how LT thought he’d handle a couple dogs. When they got home Phillip was going to have a chat with Dominick about Little Tony. He was becoming a problem.

They slowed their pace as they reached Dina’s house.

“No dogs.” Phillip almost pumped his fist. “It’s going to be impossible to get in without being seen. No trees, no privacy fences.”

“Then we go through the front.” Little Tony turned right and strode up the walk to Dina’s front door.

Fuck.

What the hell was he doing?

Phillip glanced up and down the street, paying attention to houses with lights on inside.

There was risky and then there was stupid. Phillip wasn’t going to take the fall for Little Tony anymore.

“Come on,” LT said over his shoulder.

“Fucking hell,” Phillip muttered.

For once the street was quiet. There was no one watching as Little Tony jimmied the door open. The wood around the deadbolt cracked and creaked, but they were in.

“You better hope this is the house,” Phillip muttered.

Little Tony stepped in first and crept into the living room of the small home. Phillip swung the door shut as best he could. By the looks of it, Little Tony had forced the lock open by brute force.

Phillip followed Little Tony into the living room. A single lamp was on. A blanket lay on the sofa as though someone had lain there recently. A half drank glass of water was next to an open laptop.

He drew his revolver and crossed to the kitchen and peered out into the back yard.

Nothing for fifty or so yards. Just a rolling green field.

“No one’s here,” Little Tony called out from deeper into the house.

Phillip turned and frowned at the space.

He went back to the coffee table and picked up the bottle.

It was cold. Not cool or room temperature, but cold. As if someone had just opened it and downed half the contents.

“Look again. I’ll check the garage.”

Dina had been here. Recently. She still might be under their nose.

DINA DRAGGED HERSELF off the sofa and into the kitchen. She wanted wine, something to silence her nerves, but instead she got herself some cold water. After her bottle a night habit earlier in the week she had to focus on water. The Texas heat got more intense right before fall. The seasonal change was rather anticlimactic. No trees changing color or anything like that. The already dead grass got browner. That was it really.

She paced to the front windows.

The neighbors had just gone inside. Their music was off and she could think without the accompaniment of country western tunes.

It was a clear night. Nothing out of the ordinary.

What was Trevor doing? Some kind of secret cop business?

She hoped he was okay.

Two figures walked down the sidewalk. One dwarfed the other, almost comically. She watched the pair come closer, their stride slowing.

The hair on the back of her neck rose.

Two guys. Disproportionate height. Always worked in a team. They had good reason to want her dead.

She stood there frozen in the window as they stopped at the path to her front door.

The lights were off.

They couldn’t see her. She knew that, and yet it felt as though they were looking right at her.

The bigger one took a long stride toward her.

Dina backed up.

They were here.

The guys she’d grown up with, played with, they were here for her brother to bring her home.

She wasn’t going.

Dina whirled and almost tripped over the coffee table. She slammed the glass down and braced her hands.

She needed shoes, the gun and to get out of here as quickly and quietly as possible. There might be more of them positioned on the street. She didn’t dare go that way, which meant her car was of no use to her.

Trevor lived across the greenbelt, over the creek and around the corner.

Dina darted down the hall. The sound of someone rattling her doorknob chased her into her bedroom. She shoved her feet in a pair of slip-on shoes and snatched the gun case from under the bed.

A loud crack and a long creak confirmed her suspicion that the door frame was suffering from dry rot. The landlord hadn’t listened to her, the ass.

Dina released the locks on her bedroom window and slid it open. She’d spent time greasing and working with the window so that it opened without a sound. She crawled out, taking her phone and the gun with her. Her life might depend on being able to protect herself.

She managed to close the window most of the way before a shadow fell across the doorway.

If they looked out the bedroom window, they’d see her.

The only thing to hide behind was the air conditioner unit.

She crouched and scurried toward it, squeezing between the unit and the house.

If someone came out the back door, they’d see her.

If someone leaned out of a window, they’d see her.

Dina could call for help. The cops. Her neighbors. But what if there were more guys out there? What if these two were only part of the men sent after her?

They wouldn’t hesitate to murder anyone who got in their way.

No, she had to get out of here on her own.

“No one’s here,” a familiar voice drifted to her from the bedroom window.

Tony.

She covered her mouth with her hand.

The other boys had made fun of him because he was slow. He’d been mean, but only because that was how he was raised.

Another voice, more muffled, answered from almost right over her head, “Look again. I’ll check the garage.”

Phillip.

Oh, God. Not Phillip.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

Phillip was one of those guys, the nice ones, she wished could get out. But his loyalty to her brother was too strong.

Dominick had sent his best friends after her. The boys she knew growing up. The ones who’d know her anywhere.

Dina swallowed and set the case down and opened it. She kept the case unlocked, and the gun loaded. Tonight she was glad she had.

Eventually they were coming outside. She had to go before they found her.

She straightened and peered through the kitchen window. The garage door was open and two figures moved around inside.

This was it

She sprinted for the fence between her and her noisy neighbors. Their two rambunctious dogs were nowhere to be seen. She scaled the fence and stuck close to the house, sparing precious moments to pat both dogs, thanking them for their silence.

Dina made it through two more yards, to the place where the greenbelt was narrowest between the houses and the creek. With next to no light she hoped to become just another shadow moving in the night.

She tossed the gun case over the taller back fence then scaled it herself while watching the lights in her house flip on, one by one. She’d had no idea her brother was this close to finding her. There’d been no sign, nothing like the last time or three when he’d hunted her down.

Dina landed on the grass, gun in hand and scooped up the case containing the rest of her bullets.

This chapter of her life was over. Katherine Johansson was dead. Dina didn’t know where she could go that Dominick wouldn’t find her. No matter what she did, he was always right there. It was like the bond that tied them together as twins always led him back to her.

Dina sucked down breath, sobbing, her chest aching as her feet pounded the uneven ground. She stumbled a few times, but kept going, putting more distance between her and the two men she used to call friend.

DOMINICK’S BALLS WERE sweating, but he couldn’t let anyone know.

“You sent a dead pig to me? What the hell were you thinking?” Joe Saietta threw his hands up in the air.

“I took out the garbage. That’s what I do.” Dominick spread his hands and shrugged.

“Your guys fucked up, that’s what they did.” Joe leaned back in his chair. “Cops come looking?”

“They did. I handled it.”

“If your father knew the shit you were pulling, he’d have your ass nailed to the wall.” Joe wagged his cigar at Dominick.

“By all accounts they don’t know if the guy disappeared on his own or what happened. We’re good. Not our problem.” So long as the cops didn’t have the body, and the car was lost, everything would be fine.

“Get out of my sight. I can’t look at you right now.”

Dominick grit his teeth and pushed to his feet.

These old timers needed him. He was new money, making bank in ways the old guys couldn’t understand. That didn’t mean he was untouchable. He was still a low man in the scheme of things.

“Nice to see you, Uncle Joe.” Dominick pushed to his feet.

Joe didn’t say another word.

Dominick let himself out of the study. His aunt wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and he wasn’t keen on making nice with her so he let himself out.

Uncle Joe lived behind a gate in a house that could fit three of Dominick’s parent’s place.

Someday he’d have a house like this. For now, he had to keep shoveling shit.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket.

Three missed calls.

He jabbed Phillip’s contact and pressed his phone to his ear as he got behind the wheel of his car.

“D, hey.” Phillip’s tone was off. Weird.

“You find her?” Dominick started the car and eased up to the gate.

“We’re at the house. She’s not here, but she was. Either she’s coming back, or she got wind we were here and ran.”

“Fuck. She was there. How can she keep getting away like this? Makes us look like idiots.”

“Are we sure this was her place? There're no pictures, nothing we recognize.”

“Katherine Johansson is Dina. I saw her license. Got a guy who can look that stuff up. It’s her. She was there. You stay your ass there until you find her, understand?”

Dominick was going to find Dina and make her pay.

TREVOR SHOULD HAVE gone to The Hole with everyone else. The post-op buzz was still in his veins. They couldn’t have asked for a smoother go of it. All that practice for the worst-case scenario and they’d gone in to find Charles Ray sleeping off a bender in his underwear.

This was a win. It might be the FBI getting their hands on Charles Ray, but at least someone was making him pay. He’d been free for twenty years, never having to do the time for his part in the murder of the Peacocks. He couldn’t imagine the relief that Val and Victoria were feeling right now knowing that the last person responsible was locked up at last.

Trevor eased his SUV into the driveway and killed the engine. Usually he’d park in the garage, but he’d wash and lay his gear out to dry inside where he could lock it up and leave it. He reached up to flip the headlights off but his gaze caught on the gate leading to the back yard. The whole thing was new after the bad windstorm knocked the old fence down. The hinges needed oiling. He had to be careful that when he shut it, it was latched.

The gate wasn’t latched. It was open maybe a foot.

He’d made sure to shut it after taking the garbage cans around back.

Someone had been in his yard.

He pulled out his phone and opened the home security app, but there were no reports on open windows or doors. The system was showing as armed and on. No disturbances.

Either the interloper had seen the security and left, or whatever they wanted was in the back yard. Like his grill.

“Damn it,” he muttered.

This was Ransom. He shouldn’t have to worry about his patio shit going missing. That was a city problem, not an issue for small towns.

He turned off the headlights and got out of the SUV, making sure to lock it. With all of his SWAT gear in there it was a mini-arsenal.

Trevor pulled his Glock out of his holster. He crossed to the side of the house and approached the gate listening for any sound that might indicate there was someone back there. Chances were if there had been someone trespassing they were long gone. He’d lived in Ransom long enough to make a few enemies though, and then there were Dad’s hand-me-down enemies.

He peered through the gate, but without entering the yard there was no way to see what was out back. He slid through, gun at the ready, and stopped.

The grill sat under the roof overhang, the moonlight reflecting off the stainless steel.

The sectional made of old pallets was where he’d left it. The new, navy blue cushions seemed almost black at this hour.

Maybe some kids kicked a ball over the fence. Maybe someone was just scoping out his place. Maybe a dozen different things.

He should still have a look.

Trevor lowered his weapon and strode to the back patio.

A figure came into view. The dark pants and top helped blend into the shadows, but she wasn’t trying to hide.

“Iris?” He stopped and stared at the last person he expected to see making a house call. She’d been cagey the few times he’d mentioned getting together. This was a one-eighty.

She didn’t budge or move. Man, she really had to be exhausted to pass out in this heat.

Trevor holstered his weapon.

Why was she here?

There was no message, no warning, no asking him where he was on his phone.

So why drop by like this?

Her arm twitched in her sleep.

“Iris? Kate?” He stepped around the end of the sectional and onto the patio.

She sat up, sucking in a breath and lifted her arm—pointing a compact Glock 26 9mm at center mass. He froze. A chill swept through him and all the warmth he felt for this woman cooled. At this range if she pulled that trigger there was no hope for him.

“Hey, let’s talk about this, Iris. Okay?”

“T-Trevor?” Her voice wavered. He could hear the tears.

“Yeah, you’re at my place. I’m here.” He spread his hands, keeping them up and visible.

“Oh, my God.” She dropped the gun into her lap and covered her face with her hands. Her sob shook her whole body.

Trevor leaned forward and snatched the weapon away from her, moving it to the end of the sofa. He sat between her and it, removing the threat to himself first. Just because he wanted to help Iris didn’t mean he could be stupid. She’d pointed a gun at him. He wanted answers.