Scout was about to give up when a red alarm icon appeared on the screen. The security camera outside her window detected movement. Propping herself up with her elbows, she opened the app and stared at the screen. The yard leading to LeVar’s house appeared empty. But she didn’t trust the shadows spilling across the grass. It was probably nothing. The alarm triggered whenever a deer ran through the picture, or a raccoon scurried past. She zoomed in and studied the pools of darkness cast by the trees, the sharp moonlight reflecting off LeVar’s windows.
For five minutes she studied the screen. Had Raven and Darren received the same alert? The lights were off inside the guest house. Scout hadn’t seen LeVar since the interview, so he must have received bad news. Scout didn’t understand Chelsey. LeVar was the obvious choice to fill the vacant investigator position, and Wolf Lake Consulting had fallen behind on their cases.
A silhouette darted out of the trees. Scout swallowed and moved the phone closer to her face. Someone approached LeVar’s door, staying close to the wall. She urged LeVar to wake up. Watching the real-life horror movie play out on the screen froze her with indecision.
Minimizing the app, she called LeVar’s phone and got his voice-mail. Dammit. She fired him a text.
Someone is outside the guest house. Stay away from the windows.
LeVar didn’t respond.
Scout dragged herself off the bed, cursing her useless legs. It took too long to struggle into the chair. Even if she reached LeVar in time, she was no match for the prowler. Pulling open the bedroom door, she pushed the wheelchair through the kitchen to the deck door. She spied the stranger in the night, testing the windows as he moved around the guest house.
Scout jolted when the phone rang, dropping it into her lap as the shadow crossed behind the house, searching for a way inside. Raising the phone to her ear, she answered.
“I see him,” LeVar said.
“Why didn’t you answer?”
“’Cause I didn’t want him to know I was awake. Don’t come out here, Scout.” She imagined LeVar peeking through the window, spying her beyond the glass deck door. “Get away from the glass and call Thomas.”
“What will you do?”
He answered Scout by ending the call.
“LeVar?”
Her mouth went dry. The prowler moved to the door again, crouching below the window as he tested the knob. The pane exploded as LeVar punched through the glass with a T-shirt wrapped around his fist. Stunned, the stranger fell back on his palms and crab-walked backward. The door flew open as the unknown man fished a gun from his pocket.
“No!” Scout screamed.
The gunshot split the night.
* * *
LeVar ducked and dove for the ground, anticipating the shot. The bullet whistled past his ear and tore into the black sky as his assailant scrambled away. LeVar leaped to his feet and threw a punch, striking the hooded figure’s face. Blood spurted from the man’s nose, the stranger pinwheeling his arms as he stumbled backward with the gun still in his hand.
“That you, Anthony? Come back to finish the job?”
Floodlights flicked on behind the A-Frame. The hooded man took off running as LeVar tumbled to the ground. Whoever it was, the man was fast. Kilo or Lawson? Rev or Anthony?
LeVar righted himself and sprinted after the figure, the night swallowing his assailant. The man’s sneakers pounded the trail as he fled toward the state park. LeVar hoped Darren had seen the security camera alert. If the park ranger cut the stranger off, he’d have no escape.
Barely breaking a sweat in the warm and humid night, LeVar kicked into another gear, pumping his arms and legs, gaining ground on the fleeing suspect. Fear whispered in his ear. If the man turned back with the gun, he’d have a free shot at LeVar. But if he missed his shot, he’d never escape LeVar’s wrath.
The fleeing man vanished when he ran beneath a tree grove. LeVar searched the night, blinded by darkness. Footsteps squished over soggy terrain, telling LeVar his intruder had cut toward the lake shore. LeVar burst through a tangle of branches and leaped debris, pulling up amid the trees when he couldn’t find the man. As fast as he was, the man in the hooded sweatshirt ran like the wind.
LeVar spun in a circle. Darkness converged from all sides.
He’d lost the suspect.
The snap of a branch gave LeVar no warning before the next gunshot exploded.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Saturday, August 14th
10:05 p.m.
Across the lake, Raven heard the gunfire. After pleading with her mother to stay calm, promising nothing bad had happened to LeVar, Raven jumped into her SUV and raced toward the gunshots, sickness eating away at her stomach. The Kings had come to settle the score.
In the deep gloom behind the sheriff’s property, she placed a hand to her forehead and prayed her brother was all right, that he wasn’t shot and dying in the forest.
“Don’t worry,” Naomi said. “I’m sure LeVar is fine.”
“He just ran into the night?”
Raven paced a groove into the lawn. She peered toward the lake, the trail, the cloaking forest leading to the state park. Naomi stood beside Scout and Thomas in the backyard as the sheriff spoke into his radio. The flashing lights of the cruiser whirled across the grass as Deputy Lambert arrived.
Raven dialed LeVar’s phone, and it rang inside the guest house. He’d left it behind. Now she had no way to track her brother.
The words rang hollow. How ironic it would be, if LeVar became a victim of gang violence after leaving the Harmon Kings and moving to Wolf Lake. Safety was an illusion. Raven turned to Scout.
“Did you see who broke into the house?”
The girl shook her head.
“It was too dark. LeVar kept the lights in the house off because he’d received the security alert too.”
Raven kicked herself.
