Chapter One

      Someone was watching him. Deputy Cameron Doran was certain of it.

      He slid his hand over the gun in his waist holster and hoped he was wrong about the bad feeling that was snaking down his spine. Hoped he was wrong about the being watched part, too.

      But he knew he wasn’t.

      He’d worn a badge for eleven years, and paying attention to that bad feeling had saved him a time or two.

      With his gun ready to draw, Cameron glanced around his backyard. Such that it was. Since his house was on the backside of the sprawling Blue River Ranch, his yard was just a smear of grass with the thick woods only about fifteen feet away. There were plenty of trees and underbrush. The edge of the river, as well. However, there were also trails that someone could use to make their way to his house.

      Someone like a killer.

      You’ll all die soon.

      That was what the latest threatening letter had said. The one that Cameron had gotten just two days ago. Not exactly words anyone wanted to read when they opened their mail, but he’d gotten so many now that they no longer held the emotional punch of the first one he’d gotten a couple of months ago. Still, he wasn’t about to dismiss it.

      Cameron had another look around, trying to pick through the thick clusters of trees, but when he didn’t see anyone, he finished off his morning coffee and went inside. Normally, he would have made a beeline to the nursery so he could say goodbye to his nephew, Isaac, before heading off to work at the Blue River Sheriff’s Office, but this morning he went to the window over the sink and kept watch.

      From the other side of the house, he could hear Isaac fussing, probably because the nanny, Merilee, was changing his diaper. Isaac was only a year old, but he got up raring to go. He objected to the couple of minutes delay that the diapering caused.

      Just when Cameron was about to decide that the bad feeling had been wrong after all, he saw it. Someone moving around. Since those particular trees butted right up against an old ranch trail, the movement got his complete attention.

      “Merilee,” he called out to the nanny. “Keep Isaac in the nursery a little while longer. And stay away from the windows.”

      Cameron knew it would alarm the woman, but there was nothing he could do about that now. If this turned out to be a false alarm, then he could smooth things over with her. But for now, Isaac’s and her safety had to come first.

      He drew his gun, and as soon as he opened the door a couple of inches, Cameron spotted more movement. And the person who was doing the moving.

      A woman peered out from one of the trees, and even though she was still pretty far from him, he caught a good enough glimpse of her face.

      Lauren Beckett.

      She stepped out in full view of him so he got an even better look. Yeah, it was Lauren, all right. She still had the same brunette hair that she’d pulled back into a ponytail. The same willowy build. The last time he’d seen her she’d been a teenager, barely eighteen, but the years hadn’t changed her much.

      If he’d ventured a guess of who might have been lurking around his place, he would have never figured it would be her. Especially since he’d built his house on Beckett land. Her family’s land. Of course, Lauren hadn’t considered her siblings actually family—or him a friend—in nearly a decade.

      Cameron felt the punch of old emotions. Ones he didn’t want to feel. He and Lauren had parted ways long ago, and he hated that the tug in his body was still there for her.

      He looked at her hands. At her wedding ring. She was still wearing it though he knew her husband had died from cancer a year and a half ago when Lauren had been pregnant. Of course, she might still be wearing the ring because she and her late husband had a child together. A son, if he remembered correctly.

      Who was he kidding? He remembered, all right. Little details about Lauren just stuck in his head whether he wanted them there or not.

      “What are you doing back there?” he asked.

      He started to reholster his gun but then stopped when she fired glances all around her. Lauren had her teeth clamped over her bottom lip, and she motioned for him to come to her.

      Hell.

      He’d been right about that bad feeling. Something was wrong.

      “What happened?” he demanded, but she just kept motioning.

      Cursing under his breath, Cameron stepped out and locked the door behind him. Judging from Lauren’s nervous gestures, someone else could be out there, and he didn’t want that person getting into the house. Keeping watch around him, Cameron gripped his gun with two hands and started toward her.

      More memories and emotions came. It’d been ten years since he had seen her. Since he’d kissed her. Ten years since their worlds had turned on a dime. Her mother and father had been murdered. Butchered, really, and even though their killer had been convicted and was behind bars, Lauren hadn’t thought justice had been fully served.

      Because she also blamed Cameron for not doing enough to save her folks.

      That was okay because Cameron blamed himself, too.

      All of those thoughts vanished for a moment, though, when he made it to her and stopped about two feet away. Still close enough to catch her scent and see those intense blue eyes. She didn’t say anything. Lauren just stood there, staring at him, but he could tell from the tight muscles in her face that this wasn’t a social visit.

      Not that he thought it would be.

      No. Lauren had said her final goodbye to him a decade ago, so it must have taken something pretty bad to come to him this way. Unless...maybe she wasn’t here for him.

      “Your brothers probably haven’t left for work yet and are still home,” he told her. They didn’t live far, either. “Gabriel lives in his old place, and Jameson has a cabin about a half mile from here.”

      She didn’t seem the least bit surprised about that, which meant maybe Lauren had kept up with her family, after all. Good. Because Cameron wasn’t the only one who thought of Lauren often. So did her brothers and her sister, Ivy.

      “I can’t go to them.” Her voice was raw and strained.

      “Because you broke off ties with them,” Cameron commented. “Don’t worry about that. You’re still their sister, and they’ll help you. They love you,” he added, hoping that would ease the tension he could practically feel radiating off her.

      Lauren blinked, shook her head. “No. Because their houses are on the main road and someone might see me.” She turned, glancing around again, and that was when Cameron spotted the gun tucked in the back waist of her jeans.

      He cursed again. “What’s wrong?”

      A weary sigh left her mouth. The kind of reaction a person had when there was so much wrong that she didn’t know where to start. But Cameron figured he knew what this was about.

      “We’ve all been getting threatening letters and emails,” he volunteered. “I’m guessing you got one, too?”

      She nodded and dismissed it with a shake of her head. “You’re raising your sister’s child?”

      Again, she’d managed to stun him. First with her arrival and now with the question. It didn’t seem the right thing to ask since this wasn’t a “catching up” kind of conversation.

      “Gilly’s son, Isaac,” Cameron clarified. It had been a year since his kid sister’s death, and he still couldn’t say her name without it feeling as if someone had put a meaty