Chapter One

      Sheriff Aiden Braddock shut the door behind him, tossed his truck keys on the kitchen counter.

      And stopped cold.

      He didn’t hear anything unusual. The whir of the A/C and fridge. The April breeze rattling the oaks outside the window over the sink. All the sounds he should be hearing, but he still got the gut feeling that something wasn’t right.

      Since that gut feeling had saved his butt a time or two during his time as county sheriff, Aiden listened to it.

      He drew his Glock from his holster.

      Aiden didn’t move yet. He just stood there a few more moments. Listening. And then he heard the thing that didn’t belong. A whisper, maybe. Or somebody breathing. Because he lived alone, there darn sure shouldn’t be anyone else whispering or breathing in his house.

      “Mom?” Aiden called out just to make sure. Though it’d been longer than a blue moon since she came out to his place. Too far in the sticks, she had always complained.

      “Laine? Shelby?” Aiden added in case it was one of his sisters. Again, a serious long shot, since they rarely visited, either.

      No answer. But he hadn’t expected one.

      Whatever was going on, this likely wasn’t a social visit and could even involve some attempted bodily harm. After all, he was the county sheriff and had riled more than a person or two over the past decade. One of those riled people had perhaps come to settle an old score.

      Aiden huffed. He was so not in the mood to bash some heads, but he might have to do just that.

      “Let’s make this easy for you,” Aiden called out. “I’m a damn good shot. Plus, I’m hungry, tired and not feeling up to any idiot who’s stupid enough to break into a lawman’s house.”

      “Aiden,” someone said in a hoarse whisper.

      Even though the person hardly made any sound when she spoke, Aiden thought he recognized the voice.

       Kendall.

      But that didn’t make any sense. This was the last place on earth she’d come.

      Especially after...well, just after.

      Aiden didn’t lower his gun, but he inched his way toward the sound of her whisper—in his living room. It was just a few yards away past a half wall, but he kept watch all around him. Kept listening, too. Until he could move into the arched opening that divided the rooms, and he snapped his gun in the direction where he’d pinpointed Kendall’s voice.

      His heart slammed against his chest.

      Because it was Kendall O’Neal all right, but this definitely