Page 2 of Valor

Maybe even Domingo Hernandez himself?

Frustrated, Owen slowly backed away from the dead man. He hit the key fob and followed the sound of the chirping alarm to the source. After a minute, he spotted the SUV several yards behind their designated meeting spot. Jogging toward it, he quickly searched the vehicle but didn’t find anything of interest inside.

He sighed and slid in behind the wheel. The green truck he’d stolen was of no use to him now. Not with all the bullet holes in the thing. Besides, the dead man had shown up here with the sole intent to eliminate him.

Why? Because he’d survived and was considered a threat? There were only a handful of people who knew he was alive. Juan Sanchez, Will Minor, and Colin Granger. Well, and anyone else they talked to about him. Owen frowned, started the engine of the SUV, and backed out of the scrub brush where the gunman had parked it. Heading to the road, he reluctantly decided to drive back to Cody.

Owen did not have a good feeling about this. The meeting with Juan Sanchez had been a setup. Someone wanted him dead.

And he had a bad feeling that whoever it was might know more about his past than he liked. Not just the reasons he’d set about this mission.

But those who had helped him along the way. Like Emily.

Was it possible one of the guys from his original crew talked to someone within Hernandez’s organization? He’d assumed Emily’s brother, Doug, had arrested them all, but maybe one had managed to get a message out to the rest.

Or there was yet another inside leak within law enforcement working with Hernandez. Owen smacked his hand on the steering wheel and stomped hard on the accelerator. He’d purposefully stayed away from Emily for her sake more than anything. But that was no longer an option.

First and foremost, he needed to make sure she was okay. From there, he’d have to come up with a plan.

Too bad, he had no idea whom he could trust.

* * *

Emily Sanders yawnedas she walked home from her night shift at the hospital. It was Thursday morning, and she had the next four days off in a row. But rather than making plans to do something fun, the only thing she cared about was getting caught up on sleep.

Working twelve-hour night shifts was wearing on her. And while she loved her job as a registered nurse in the busy emergency department, she couldn’t wait to be switched over to the day shift.

Three months and counting. By late August, she’d be on a normal regular schedule like the rest of the world.

She yawned again and blinked to keep focused on her surroundings. This was part of the reason she walked home in the spring and summer months. She only lived ten blocks from the hospital. Being outside in the fresh air provided a badly needed sense of peace after dealing with the onslaught of patients.

People were up and about, heading off to work. Two of her neighbors waved as they drove past. She returned the gesture with a smile of acknowledgment. Thanks to the kidnapping incident this past January, she’d become somewhat of a local celebrity.

Although in truth, she’d spent the past five months trying to forget about Owen. Not just because he was part of a drug-dealing operation, but because she suspected he was dead. Now that the snow had mostly melted in the warm May sunshine, she scoured the online local newspaper every day searching for information on any dead bodies that may have been found in the woods.

She’d even considered asking her half brother Doug Bridges’s in-laws to help search the area where she’d last seen Owen alive. Doug was happily married to Maya Sullivan, of the infamous Sullivan K9 Search and Rescue Ranch. Maya and her younger siblings had trained search and rescue K9 dogs that were used to find lost people, dead bodies, drugs, and anything else she could think of. If there was a way to find Owen’s body, she was certain the Sullivans could make that happen.

But Doug had made it clear he wanted her to move on from those hours she’d spent with Owen. He got upset if she so much as asked about how the investigation into Owen was going. So much so that she’d stopped asking.

Accepting that her brother was right about one thing—being obsessed with an outlaw wasn’t healthy.

She’d tried to take her brother’s advice to heart. To get back out in the dating world. To meet new people. But she hadn’t gotten very far.

Sure, she’d dated a few guys, but she hadn’t experienced that spark of attraction. Her fault, she knew. She needed to get the mysterious Owen out of her head once and for all. Because even if he wasn’t dead, which she felt sure he must be, he was still a criminal. And if found, he’d be arrested and tossed in jail.

Doug would make sure of that.

Pushing the ridiculous thoughts away, she turned up her driveway. Thanks to Doug replacing her front door, she had a brand-new keypad entry that was electronically connected to her camera doorbell. Unbeknownst to her brother, she’d turned off the alerts for the doorbell camera because the stupid thing would go off every single time a car drove by. Or a neighbor walked their dog. Or even when the occasional white-tailed deer or elk would mosey past.

Talk about annoying! Especially when she was trying to sleep during the daytime hours.

It wasn’t like Cody, Wyoming, was a hotbed of crime. Her experience of being kidnapped to take care of Owen’s gunshot wound was a rare exception. Trudging to the kitchen, she opened the fridge and grabbed a Greek yogurt and a container of blueberries. Before she could peel away the top of the yogurt container, she heard a voice and froze.

“Hi, Emily.”

She whirled, squeezing the yogurt so hard she was surprised it didn’t burst in her hand. When she saw Owen sitting in her living room chair, she had the crazy idea that thinking of him had conjured his ghost.

But then he rose and took a few steps toward her. Not a ghost. A flesh and blood man. She instinctively backed away. “H-how did you get in here?”

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