Page 39 of Her Delta Force Protector

“Take this.”

“Oh, I can’t.” She wouldn’t be coming back. Would Skylar take her to a bus station? Wouldn’t she be happy to have Harper gone and the family safe? Harper couldn’t forget the vision of Everly coming out to the deck when someone was shooting at them. Her stomach rolled at the thought of something happening to that precious little girl.

“Sure you can. You can return it when all this is over.”

“I’m not coming back.” She zipped up the duffel. “Will you take me to the bus station?”

“No.” Skylar opened the suitcase and started putting the clothes in it that Harper had set aside. “Kade would kill me if I sent you off on your own.” She laughed. “And believe me, he knows how to hide a body. You’re not in this alone, Harper, and that man has talents we can only guess at.”

“I could have gotten Everly killed today.” She hated that her voice trembled.

“Were you the one pulling the trigger?”

“It doesn’t matter. Those men are here because of me, Skylar. Or who knows, maybe just one of them came. And that’s the problem, we don’t know anything. Where will they show up next? In the middle of town where other people could get hurt?”

“You’re not going to be hanging out in the middle of town, so not a problem. Kade’s taking you to a cabin he owns in the middle of nowhere.”

“He owns a cabin?”

“Yes, it’s where he keeps his boat. Nothing fancy, but it’s his place to go when he needs to be alone, to decompress. Usually for a day or two when he has leave, before coming home. You might as well give in. Even if you managed to sneak away, he’d just follow you.”

Of course he would, and as much as she tried to convince herself that leaving was the right thing to do, relief poured through her that she wasn’t going to be facing this alone.

“Do you like to fish?” Skylar asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve never done it.”

“Well, Kade loves to, but mostly he likes to take the boat out and then nap. He says on the lake is the one place he can really sleep. Get him to take you out on the boat.”

“Okay.” It almost sounded like they were going on vacation, and wouldn’t that be great? But she’d landed herself in the middle of a deadly game, as evidenced by someone shooting at her. So a lazy day out on a boat wasn’t in the cards.

“All packed. Let’s go downstairs,” Skylar said.

When they reached the kitchen, Parker was staring out the window, and Everly was sitting at the island eating a pickle. An iPad was in front of her, her attention on the screen.

“They still out there?” Skylar asked him.

Parker turned and leaned back against the counter. “Yeah. They’ve got Fuzz and Duke with them, hoping the dogs can pick up a trail. I’m guessing the bas...” He glanced at Everly. “The person had a car parked on the street behind us. Tristan sent two of your deputies to canvass the houses on that street, see who has a doorbell camera. Maybe we can find out what the man was driving.”

“Good. Hopefully, we can also learn if he was alone or not.” She went to the pantry, then glanced at Harper. “Kade wants to take Duke with you guys, so we need to pack up his food and stuff.”

It had only been her and her father for as long as Harper could remember, and spending time with this family made her wish she’d had a bigger family, one as close as these people were. She longed to call her dad, but they’d agreed that she would only check in on Sundays at nine in the evening. Even though she had a burner phone, she didn’t want to turn it on more than necessary.

She went over to Parker. “I’m really sorry that I brought trouble to your door. I would die before seeing Everly get hurt.” Or worse, but she couldn’t bring herself to say that.

He smiled, but she could see the tension in his eyes. “No one’s going to die, Harper. I won’t say that I wish you and Kade were staying here, not after today, but that’s only because of my daughter. She’s the one life I won’t risk, and I know you agree. But know this. This family has your back, and you can count on help when needed from all of us, and that goes double for Kade. He’ll keep you safe, and he’ll send these people straight to hell if that’s what it takes for this to be over.”

“Thank you.” Those two words didn’t seem adequate considering what they were doing for her, but she didn’t know how to tell him how much their actions meant to her.

“Do you want a pickle, Miss Harper?”

It seemed surreal that after getting shot at she was being offered a pickle. “I sure do.” As she accepted the pickle Everly handed her, tears burned in Harper’s eyes. This was the last time she’d ever get to share pickle time with this precious little girl. When she left today, it would be the last time she’d step foot in this house, a home and a family she was really going to miss.

And sooner than she’d be ready for, she would walk away from Kade, too. When she did, it would be with a broken heart.

Chapter Twenty

“He sat up there,” Kade said. He pulled himself up to the lower limb of the tree. A small piece of gray fabric stuck to the rough bark caught his attention. “Hand me a rubber glove.” They probably wouldn’t be able to get fingerprints off a strip of material, but it might have some DNA on it. Tristan held up a glove and a baggie. Kade slipped the glove on, dropped the fabric in the baggie, then dropped it down to his brother.

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