Read Online Her Stolen Past by Lynette Eason - Free Book Online Page A

unsnapped the safety strap. She walked up the front porch and unlocked the door. He slipped around her. “Stay back.”
    She stayed back. Slightly.
    He made his way into the foyer, senses alert to anything that didn’t belong. The house smelled of a mixture of lavender and chamomile. Like her.
    He moved into the kitchen, feeling her presence right behind him. He didn’t hit the light switch, not wanting to be blinded by the sudden brightness. Instead, he let the moon filtering through the kitchen blinds guide his way.
    The front door slammed shut.
    Sonya let out a yelp and spun to face the noise.
    Brandon raced to the door, stood to the side and flipped on the porch light. He looked out, blinking, letting his eyes adjust while he stayed out of the line of fire.
    With the door cracked, he listened. Heard a scrape.
    He peered around the edge of the doorway, the porch light illuminating all the way to the driveway. Sonya stayed behind him. Good—he wanted to know where she was at all times. His adrenaline pulsed, keeping his senses sharp. Acutely in tune with everything around him, he probed the darkness beyond the reach of the light.
    Movement at the back of his car, the trunk area. He lifted his weapon. “Police! Freeze!” The figure obeyed but stayed bent over. “Show me your hands!” The intruder hesitated. “Hands, hands! Show them to me!”
    Two gloved hands reached up from behind the trunk. No weapon in sight. Brandon started toward him, his gun held ready, adrenaline pumping through him. Finally, he was going to get the person who didn’t want Heather Bradley found.
    As he got closer, the intruder darted across the street and into the neighbor’s yard. Brandon took three steps to follow then stopped. Sonya raced past him. “Hey!” He shook off his shock and followed her. “What are you doing?”
    She didn’t answer, just kept up the pursuit. He trailed hard and fast on her heels, as determined to protect her as she seemed to be to put herself in danger. They were going to have to have a serious talk when he caught up with her.
    And then she stopped. Spun in a circle and slapped both palms against her thighs in frustration. “Where’d he go?” He noticed she was barely out of breath. Even after everything she’d been through that evening.
    “Are you crazy?” he asked. He drew in a lungful of air and scanned the area. The intruder was gone. At least out of sight. Who knew if he was still watching them? Taking aim?
    “I want to know who keeps threatening me. I want to catch him.” Frustration filled her voice and she kept clenching and unclenching her fingers.
    He gripped her hand and pulled her back toward her house. “Come on. No sense in giving someone a perfect target.” Once in the safety of her house, he called it in. Officers were on the way, although what he hoped they’d find, he couldn’t say. The person had been dressed in black and wore gloves. If the front porch light hadn’t been on, Brandon never would have seen him.
    Back inside the house, he looked at Sonya. “What in the world were you thinking, taking off after him like that?”
    She ran a hand through her tangled hair. “I knew you wouldn’t chase him if it meant leaving me behind.”
    He blinked. And stared. She was absolutely right. “So you decided to run after him.”
    She shrugged and touched her throat with a wince. “I knew you’d be right behind me.”
    “You’re fast.”
    “I run a lot.”
    He lifted a brow. “I can tell.”
    “I wasn’t fast enough, though, was I?” she murmured.
    “That might not be a bad thing. Don’t do that again, okay?” He shuddered to think what might have happened had she actually caught up with the guy. “How’s your throat?”
    She lifted a hand and touched her throat with a grimace. “It hurts.”
    Two police cars pulled up, lights flashing. Sonya winced. “Could they at least turn their lights off? All of my neighbors are going to be over here within