WHEN DEV ENTERED her apartment, she instantly had a bad feeling. Bella also came in and walked casually into the living room. Maybe she was just being ridiculous? Perhaps the interview with Deputy Sheriff Garner had shaken her up, made her imagination take off. Turning, Dev made sure the door was shut. The noontime sunlight was indirect because her apartment sat on the west side of the complex. She had a beautiful picture window where she could see the Tetons rising off to her right. The sky was a pale blue and the July temperature was in the mideighties. Placing her purse on the foyer desk, she felt her neck hairs rise. That was her first line of defense when in Afghanistan. If her neck hairs stood up, it meant danger. Immediate danger.
Looking around, she saw Bella lie down on her doggy bed in the corner of the living room. If someone were in here, a stranger, her dog would have heard him and gone after him, barking loudly. Instead, Bella was lying down to go to sleep.
Shaking her head, Dev felt that same oily, sticky energy around the apartment. It happened every time Gordon was nearby. Was she making this up? Dev sighed and wandered into the kitchen, torn.
Something was out of place. She sensed it.
Her throat tightening with fear, Dev looked at the five cookbooks she had between two polished agate bookends sitting on the granite counter in the corner of the kitchen. She walked over to them and frowned. She had always placed them in a certain order.
Now, they were out of order. The dessert cookbook was first, not last.
Rubbing her brow, Dev hesitated, unsure. Had she done this herself? She gazed around her small kitchen. Nothing else was out of place. She walked into her dimly lit bedroom and turned on the light. Nothing was disturbed in there, either. Going next to the bathroom, she peered in and flipped on the light.
Nothing was amiss.
It had to be her.
Feeling depressed by all the pressure building within her, Dev figured she might have misfiled her cookbook herself and let it go at that. That oily, dreadful sensation that always enveloped her when Gordon was around was now just shock over the fact he was missing and no one knew where he was.
But she knew he was here, in Jackson Hole. Or was he?
Her imagination was working overtime.
How could she trust herself anymore? She hadn’t picked up on Gordon coming up into the barn and sneaking up behind her to attack her. Tears burned in Dev’s eyes as she turned off the light. She made a muffled sound and turned, going back to the kitchen. Even though it was around noon, her stomach was tight and she had no appetite. But she had to eat.
As she made herself some tuna for sandwiches at the counter, Dev’s heart turned to Sloan. If he wasn’t in her life right now, she didn’t know what she’d do. She wanted so much more from him, but there were so many other obstacles staring her in the face. Gordon was missing. He was somewhere. Was it fair to Sloan that she was leaning so heavily on him right now? He didn’t seem to mind, but Dev was afraid to say how much she was attracted to him. She refused to call it love. It was just too soon to know that. And even if it was love, meeting Sloan right now was bad timing, especially now that she was threatened by Gordon. Dev couldn’t focus on Sloan or what was building slowly between them. But whatever it was, it was good. Wonderful.
As she added pickle relish to the bowl of tuna, Dev stirred it with a fork. Feeling naked and vulnerable with Gordon on the loose and no one knowing where he was, she focused on making herself a tuna sandwich.
There was a quiet knock at the apartment door.
Bella barked and galloped to the door, hackles up, growling.
Dev’s heart jumped in her chest. She jerked in a breath, turning as Bella kept barking. At least she was a very good alarm system.
Peeking out the peephole in the door, she saw it was Sloan.
Confused, she opened the door. Bella leaped out, licked his offered hand and wagged her tail, thumping it against the jamb.
“Sorry to knock,” he said, gesturing to his open door. Mouse was sitting in the entrance, alertly watching them. Sloan had told him to sit and stay.
“What’s wrong?”
Sloan grimaced. “Well, something happened and you need to know about it. Do you have a moment to come over and I’ll show it to you?”
Bewildered, Dev wiped her hands on a small towel. “Sure.” Making a gesture to her dog, she said, “Sit, Bella. Stay.”
The yellow Lab whined and sat down in the entrance.
Mouse thumped his tail as she followed Sloan into his apartment. He gestured for her to walk down the hall. He gave Mouse an order, and the dog followed her.
“Turn around,” Sloan told her after shutting the door.
Dev’s eyes widened. The inside of his apartment door held deep claw scratches. “Oh, my God. What happened?” she whispered, pointing at it. She saw how grim Sloan had become.
“Mouse was leaping at the door, trying to get through it, is what happened.”
Blinking, Dev looked down at Mouse and then over at Sloan. “I don’t understand.”
Sloan came up to her. “Did you see anything in your apartment that was out of place? Is anything missing?”
Her heart dropped and she gasped, her hand flying to her chest. “Oh, God... Why do you ask?”
“When Mouse feels a threat, he’s been trained to go through a window or whatever is in the way in order to reach the enemy. He apparently felt or heard a threat out in the hall sometime while we were gone. Maybe a stranger was in our hall? Maybe he or she turned or twisted the knob on my front door. Mouse wouldn’t have attacked the door like that if it was you or me. He knows the sound of our footsteps. He can smell us through a door because no door is fully leakproof.”
Dev’s mouth went dry. “I—I... Oh, God, Sloan. When I got home, I felt this oily, slimy feeling that I always associate with Gordon, inside my apartment.” Immediately, Sloan’s eyes narrowed and became intense. “I thought it was me. Bella went to lie down in the living room, like there was nothing wrong. I went into the other rooms looking for anything out of place, and I found nothing.” She gulped. “Then in the kitchen I saw my cookbooks were out of order. I always make sure I put them back in a certain order, where they belong. I thought it was me. I thought maybe I’d made a mistake and didn’t put them back in the same way after using them.” She touched her brow, her heart galloping in her chest. Gordon had been in her apartment. Terror shot through Dev as she looked pleadingly up at Sloan.
“C-could Gordon have been up here on our floor? Could he have by mistake twisted the doorknob on your door instead of mine?”
“I don’t know.” Sloan moved his hand across her shoulder, giving her a squeeze, hoping to make her feel a little safer than she looked right now. “What I am going to do is put Mouse in harness and I’m going to have him smell the doorknob and then see where he tracks the scent. Do you want to come with me? Put Bella on a leash?”
“Yes...” The fear ate away at her. “What if Gordon was here? What if he was in my apartment while we were gone? How did he get in?” Her voice thinned with terror. Sloan pulled her more tightly against him and she savored his closeness.
“Let’s take this a step at a time,” Sloan urged her, holding her anxious stare. “Go get Bella? What I want to do is use Mouse to track the scent. Let’s see if he tracks it from my door into your apartment or not. I’ll meet you out in the hall in a few minutes. I want to get my pistol and holster.”
That brought it all home for Dev. She had one, too, but hadn’t even thought of reaching for it. Reminding herself that Sloan had a combat-assault dog, that he was used to being in the fray of combat, unlike her, Dev gave a brief nod and slipped out from beneath his arm.
* * *
SLOAN TRIED NOT to relay his worry. He wore his pistol on his right hip and he had Mouse in his working harness. The Belgian Malinois knew what that harness meant and was all business as he walked expectantly out into the hall. Sloan allowed the apartment door to shut and then pointed to the knob.
Instantly, Mouse was sniffing it.
“Seek,” he told the dog, giving him plenty of room on the leash to go wherever the scent led him.
Mouse had his long black nose down on the carpet, following it to Dev’s closed door. He smelled it, sitting down in front of it.
“That means he’s linked the odor on my door to your door,” Sloan told Dev, glancing up toward her pale features. Bella sat at her side, alert. Fear leaped to Dev’s eyes. Sloan took a handkerchief, not wanting to disturb any prints that might be left on the knob. They were all probably destroyed earlier when Dev opened it with her bare hand. But the scent was still on it. Opening it, Sloan pushed the door open.
Instantly, Mouse was following the scent down the hall. He turned sharply into the bedroom.
Dev followed them.
Turning on the light in the bedroom, Sloan watched his dog work, following the scent around the bed, then to the dresser and then to the other side of the bed. Dev came and stood next to Sloan. Her hand was pressed against her throat, her eyes huge with fear.
“He was in here,” Sloan gritted out.
And then Mouse quickly whipped out of the bedroom, moving to the bathroom.
Sloan watched his dog working around the toilet, and then the bathtub. Then Mouse turned, thrusting his snout upward, sniffing strongly up above the lights over the basin counter. Mouse lifted his front legs, paws resting on the counter, whining and looking pointedly up at the light array.
“What is it?” Dev asked hoarsely.
Moving forward, Sloan, who was taller, craned his neck, carefully checking out the light fixtures all bound together. “Something...” He peered intently at it. He told Mouse to sit. Dropping the leash, Sloan eased his bulk up on the granite counter so he could get eyes fully on the fixture. “There appears to be a small camera assembly up here.”
“No...” Dev breathed, eyes widening.
“I’m not touching it.” Sloan got down. He turned to her, his hand on her shoulder. “I’m calling Cade right now. They need to get a forensics team out here to go through your apartment, looking for fingerprints. Someone has been in here and—” his voice lowered to a growl “—they put that camera in here to see you naked while you took a shower or bath.”
Dev made a small, desperate sound, wrapping her hands around herself.
“Look,” Sloan told her quietly, guiding her out of the bathroom, “I want you and Bella to stay in my apartment until Cade can get out here with a forensics team. The less you move around in your apartment, the fewer things you touch, the better the chances of finding fingerprints that were left behind. Okay?”
“Y-yes, that sounds good.”
“Let me finish up checking the apartment?”
“I want to stay and watch.”
Nodding, Sloan picked up the leash. “Mouse. Seek.”
The dog instantly stood up and bolted out of the bathroom and down the wooden hall, his nails clacking noisily on the surface. Sloan watched him go into the kitchen. There, Mouse instantly stood up on his hind legs, whining and trying to get to the five cookbooks in the corner. Sloan praised him and told him to get down and continue his investigation. The dog went next to the refrigerator, which he started pawing at.
“Did you open the fridge?” Sloan asked.
“Yes, to get the pickle relish.”
“Okay, but the handle might have a print on it.”
“I just blew that, didn’t I?”
“You didn’t know. It’s all right.”
Mouse bounded out of the kitchen and went into the living room next. He sniffed the couch, around the coffee table and then went to the large flat-screen TV across the room, against the wall. The dog once more got up on his hind legs, whining, trying to get between the TV and the wall. Sloan told him to get down and peered behind the TV.
“Something’s back there,” he murmured, lifting his head and looking at Dev. “Did you touch this TV? Anywhere around it?”
“No.”
“Good.” Sloan let Mouse continue his hunt and the dog strained against his leash, heading to the door.
“Now,” Sloan said, picking up his cell phone from his pocket, “he’s going to follow the scent of the intruder outside your apartment. I’m calling Cade right now. Stick close to me?”
Dev nodded.
Mouse followed the scent down the carpeted hall to the emergency exit stairwell door. Sloan was careful to use the handkerchief to open it. He then pulled his pistol as he and the dog slowly started down the concrete stairs to the narrow exit area. Dev was behind him. Watching his combat dog, Sloan knew if Mouse heard anything, he’d go into full attack mode, and the bristling hairs on his shoulders and all the way down his back to his tail would instantly rise. As he slowly took the stairs, watching and listening, Sloan sensed the intruder was gone.
They reached the door to the entrance leading out into the parking lot. Sloan pushed it open with the handkerchief once again. The sunlight was bright and Sloan blinked, giving his eyes time to adjust from the dim light of the stairwell area to the outdoor light. He made sure that Dev remained close to him. She was almost paralyzed with terror. There was no mistaking the fright in her green eyes. Giving her a gentle look, he said, “Follow me. But don’t get in front of or beside us.”
“Right.”
Mouse went from the cars parked along the sidewalk of the second apartment building and scrambled, wanting to run, hauling Sloan along as he moved across the huge black asphalt parking lot to the corner of the first building of the complex. He went into thick brush and shrubs on the corner, sniffing loudly. Sloan saw footprints around the edge of one bush and called Mouse back. He took out his cell phone and took photos of the prints, sending them to Cade. He ordered Mouse to sit. Sloan thought it was a perfect hiding place for someone who wanted to observe Dev’s movements. Was it Gordon? He thought so, but he wasn’t going to tell Dev that.
Dev was so frightened right now and Sloan didn’t want to add to her stress. The haunted look in her expression ripped at his heart. A fierce sense of protection rose in him and he had to do everything not to grab her, hold her hard and tight against him, to let her know he’d never allow her to be harmed again. But he couldn’t. Sloan had to remain focused, find out all he could about her stalker, the man who had broken into her apartment. Worse, he realized the person knew how to jimmy open a door and could do it again. That meant her intruder could enter the apartment when Dev was asleep. While it was true she had Bella as a watchdog, the intruder could very easily kill the dog. And still get to Dev. Dammit!
Carefully searching the area and keeping it free of their own paw and footprints, Sloan had Mouse seek once more. The Belgian Malinois leaped ahead, straining mightily at the leash once more, on a scent. His dog got excited when the scent was powerful, or the enemy was nearby. Sloan kept an alert lookout as the dog lunged repeatedly toward the nearby forest. The area had been clear-cut around the apartments. In a crescent-shaped circle behind the complex, there was a mix of deciduous trees and pine trees. The area was thick with grass and weeds, untrodden by humans—a perfect place to hide. Sloan slowed his dog and Mouse tugged hard, wanting to follow the trail into the darkening woods.
“Is someone in there, you think?” Dev asked in a low, unsteady voice.
“I’m not sure,” Sloan said. “But I’m going to wait until Cade arrives with some deputy reinforcements. There’s no sense in us going in there alone right now. No Kevlar vests, no protective vest on Mouse, either. It’s not worth the risk if the intruder is still in there.” Sloan called Mouse back and the dog reluctantly obeyed the order, twisting his head toward the forest, not wanting to give up the scent.
Sloan positioned himself in front of Dev in case the intruder was still hidden in the forest and watching them. If he took a shot, he wouldn’t strike her. Sloan was in combat mode, just like his dog. Glancing up, he could see that the window of Dev’s apartment was in complete alignment with the forest behind the building. The intruder could have a Wi-Fi device that was looking through that small camera he’d tried to hide in the bathroom lamps, right now. A huge part of him wanted to send Dev back to his apartment, return to the forest with Mouse and hunt the bastard down. But that wouldn’t guarantee he would find the stalker, however. He could have gone back to her apartment and could be hiding in it right now. Waiting for Dev.
Every protective gene in Sloan was screaming for him to shield her. He cared deeply for Dev even though they’d never had a chance to fully explore their feelings with one another. God knew Sloan wanted to, but Dev was in free fall with this stalker situation exploding around her once again. What he could do was give her a sense of safety by being around her, supporting her the best he knew how, right now.
* * *
DEV GNAWED ON her lower lip as she watched the sheriff’s forensics team come down the hall. Two women in white one-piece suits carried their equipment, their expressions serious. Dev had the door open to her apartment. They said hello to her and went to work on the outside of the door. She remained in Sloan’s apartment, sitting on the couch, with Bella at her feet. Cade Garner had come in to take her statement. Then he took Sloan’s. Two more deputies showed up later in black Chevy Tahoes. Sloan left with Mouse in harness, returning to the wooded area with the deputies. Dev couldn’t even watch the activity from her apartment. Anxious and worried, she paced in Sloan’s large living room. Sloan and Cade would not allow her and Bella to go with them. What would the forensics team find in her apartment? A second forensics team focused on the corner of the first complex building, going over it thoroughly for fingerprints and making plaster casts of the boot prints discovered in the mud.
She was more anxious about Sloan, Mouse, Cade and his two deputies going into the woods. That was the great unknown. Some of her worry had been reduced when Cade handed Sloan a Kevlar vest to wear—just in case. Only Mouse had no protection. The sheriff’s department didn’t have a K-9 unit, so there was no bulletproof vest that Mouse could borrow.
Pushing her fingers through her hair, Dev hated what was happening. Even now, she wore her holster on her hip, and the pistol had a bullet in the chamber with the safety on. Sloan didn’t want her helpless or unable to defend herself in case the intruder was still around. She felt it would be stupid for Gordon or whoever it was to try coming back into the apartment complex. There were four Teton Country deputies with SUV cruisers in the parking lot. Still, Dev didn’t fight Sloan on his request for her to remain armed until they returned from the forest investigation.
Bella slept for nearly an hour while Dev paced. When Sloan and Cade reentered the apartment, she stood tensely, waiting for one of them to say something. Mouse was panting heavily, his cinnamon eyes glinting with the look of the apex predator and hunter that he was.
“We found more boot prints,” Sloan told her, leaning down to remove the work harness from Mouse.
“There was also a couple of cans of soda and food wrappers,” Cade added, holding up the paper bag that held the contents. “We’ll take these back to our lab and run them for prints and DNA.”
“But you saw no one?”
Sloan shook his head, ordering Mouse over to his bed in the corner of the living room after he took a long drink of water. Straightening, he said, “No. But it looks like the guy was either watching you from the corner of apartment one or changed positions and watched you from the woods. Both were well-concealed areas and you probably would not have seen him.”
“But he could see you,” Cade said.
“What should I do?” Dev asked the deputy.
“If it’s not too uncomfortable for you, I’d prefer you stay with Sloan for now.”
“I’ll sleep out on the couch,” Sloan told her. “You get the bedroom.”
Cade gestured to the door. “My forensics team has removed the camera put into that lamp fixture in your bathroom. And another unit behind your flat-screen TV was removed, as well. They are both Wi-Fi gadgets with lithium batteries. All the suspect would have to do is have a receiver strong enough to pick up on the signal and he’d see you in the bathroom and living room.”
“I wonder how long they’ve been in there?” Dev asked them, her voice bleak.
“Mouse picked up on everything today,” Sloan soothed her. “He must have gotten into your apartment while we were gone.”
“I think the same thing,” Cade told her. “We’re going to set a trap for this suspect in your apartment. What I’d like you to do now is go get your clothes, any food or anything else you need, and bring it over here to Sloan’s apartment.”
“I’ll help you,” Sloan said, setting the harness on a small table near Mouse’s round bed.
“Because once we set the trap, Dev, you can’t go back in there,” Cade warned. “We’ve got motion-sensor cameras being mounted in there right now. They’ll record anyone coming into your apartment. And we have a silent alarm that will trip when someone opens that door to alert us of an intruder. We’ll send two cruisers over here immediately as well as alerting the two of you.”
“But so far, we don’t know if it’s Gordon?”
“No,” Cade said, “but I’m hoping these items will prove what we all think.” He held up the sack. “If I get any kind of confirmation it’s Gordon, you’ll be called immediately. I can’t afford you twenty-four-hour police protection, but Sloan is good backup. You’re both rangers and I’m calling your supervisor, Hastings, to let her know what’s going on. I’m going to ask her to keep you two paired because you need the protection right now, Dev, until we can capture the suspect.”
Dev felt comforted. “I really appreciate all you’re doing, Cade.” She gave Sloan a warm look. “Are you okay with a roommate for a while?”
Sloan nodded. “I’m okay with it, Dev. Anything that will make you feel safer, until Cade and his deputies can find this guy and put him behind bars, is fine with me.”
Never mind the attraction she felt for Sloan. Dev wasn’t sure she could keep herself together under Sloan’s roof. He was so masculine, the way he cosseted her, that one, galvanizing kiss that had melted her soul... Taking a ragged breath, Dev nodded and said nothing. Her whole world was crumbling around her once again.